When is a Phi crossword anything but workmanlike and pleasantly sound? At my iu3a group the other day I gave everyone a Phi to do and it was much appreciated.
Who knows about a Nina? Of course I can see nothing, something that is usually the case anyway and particularly so with Phi, whose Ninas are often impossibly dense. The crossword I gave to the iu3a group contained one but I didn’t really understand it so said nothing and nobody else saw anything.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SCULPTRESS | Artist having great worry about trophy requiring line engraved (10) |
| s(cu(l)p)tress | ||
| 6 | OTIC | Senior officer keeping it back for hearing? (4) |
| o(ti)c, the ti being (it)rev. — or is the definition just ‘hearing’? Neither ‘for hearing’ nor ‘hearing’ seem quite right for ‘otic’, which seems to me to be more ‘to do with hearing’ | ||
| 9 | GREENFINCH | Inexperienced fielder’s beginning to move slowly, getting the bird (10) |
| green f{ielder} inch | ||
| 10 | PAIR | Poor performance with the bat? I put in standard performance (4) |
| pa(I)r — in cricket a pair is a duck in each of a two-innings match | ||
| 12 | LAKE DISTRICT | Kendal sadly overlooking new firm behind one tourist area (4,8) |
| (Kendal – n)* 1 strict | ||
| 15 | IMPLICATE | Involve mischief-maker with story about jazz fan (9) |
| imp li(cat)e | ||
| 17 | AVOWS | Declares Bible arguments should have Rector dismissed (5) |
| AV {R}ows — R = rector is in both Chambers and Collins | ||
| 18 | LINGO | Language traditional in Government, to some extent (5) |
| Hidden in traditionaL IN GOvernment | ||
| 19 | FLEDGLING | Young bird escaped to rear of waving heather (9) |
| fled {wavin}g ling | ||
| 20 | THE FULL MONTY | What Field-Marshal’s biography should deliver? (3,4,5) |
| Apart from the normal meaning of the full monty, this is a reference to Field Marshal Montgomery of Alamein, who was known as Monty (both Chambers and Collins have field marshal, not Field Marshal, and not Field-Marshal) | ||
| 24 | GRAB | Claim runs in game, after reverse (4) |
| g(r)ab, the gab being (bag)rev. — I was a bit unsure how bag could = game, but presumably it’s in the sense of a bag when shooting consisting of shot birds, or game | ||
| 25 | EARTHSHINE | Attention of old solvers absorbing quiet lunar phenomenon (10) |
| ear th(sh)ine | ||
| 26 | WHEY | Question about English dairy product (4) |
| wh(E)y? | ||
| 27 | BETWS-Y-COED | Welsh town to gamble with opening of some unknown school (5-1-4) |
| bet w s{ome} y co-ed — I was all prepared to point out Phi’s spelling mistake, but it’s my Pears Cyclopaedia which has it wrong and spells it with a double t | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SAGE | Wise attitude missing in early historical period (4) |
| s{tone} age | ||
| 2 | USED | Old thought, to avoid getting married (4) |
| {m}used | ||
| 3 | PONS ASINORUM | Mourn with passion, distraught – something many can’t get over (4,8) |
| (Mourn passion)* — this is the Pons Asinorum | ||
| 4 | RAISE | Pay increase? Beams, we hear (5) |
| “rays” | ||
| 5 | SACRILEGE | Bag about to wrap around one support, showing disrespect (9) |
| sac r(1 leg)e | ||
| 7 | TRAGI-COMIC | Banter I see interrupting guy in charge – that’s not entirely funny (5-5) |
| T(rag I c)om i/c — it may seem hard to equate rag and banter, which both have so many meanings, but I think that rag as a noun is some sort of amiable practical joke, which at a stretch is banter | ||
| 8 | CURATES EGG | Copper assesses, say, head of gang: “One’s not entirely bad” (7,3) |
| cu rates eg g{ang} — the curate’s egg, which was ‘good in parts’ | ||
| 11 | STRANGE TO SAY | Unexpectedly erratic about moving onstage (7,2,3) |
| str(angetos)ay, the angetos being (onstage)* | ||
| 13 | LINLITHGOW | Scottish community willing tho’ disturbed (10) |
| (willing tho’)* | ||
| 14 | SPONGE CAKE | Hanger-on to get hard sugary item (6,4) |
| sponge [= hanger-on] cake [= to get hard] | ||
| 16 | AFFILIATE | Tumbling, I fail, after missing right branch (9) |
| (I fail afte{r})* — affiliate as a noun | ||
| 21 | ON TOW | Source of tension apparent in nothing currently being drawn (2,3) |
| 0 n(t{ension})ow — I’m not quite sure of the place of ‘apparent’, which is evidently unnecessary both for the definition and in the wordplay; perhaps it just marginally improves the surface, but it looks like padding to me | ||
| 22 | SILO | Paints switching ends in storage facility (4) |
| oils with the o and the s switched | ||
| 23 | LEND | Given guidance about new grant (4) |
| le(n)d | ||
*anagram
Phi is always enjoyable, and having both Pons Asinorum and the Curate’s Egg turn up made me smile. I had a few moments wondering why on earth I’ve heard of Betws-y-Coed (still can’t remember) though.
I had rag and banter as synonyms as verbs — ragging on someone is bantering with them.
Thanks Phi for a fun solve, and thanks John for an excellent blog.
Not done this one yet (saving it as a post luncheon treat), but having seen John’s opening preamble in the site’s main page I got all excited and had to skip to the comments to say something.
What a brilliant idea John! If every Indy solver got one of their fave setters or an Indy crossie they thought fab and passed it on like you did it would be a wonderful thing for the series. Brilliant stuff and I do hope others will follow your lead and make more folks aware of how good the Indy is.
Well, I won’t pop on later to say how I found the puzzle seeing as I’ve already rambled enough. But I will say apologies to Phi and John for a slight derail and thanks to both for puzzle and blog respectively.
I look forward to Phi on Fri.
Pain vanilla Phi (i.e. no theme or nina) as far as we can see, but none the worse for that. This was a delight to solve with several smiles along the way. The only one we couldn’t parse was SAGE.
No CoD today, they were all good, but we particularly liked EARTHSHINE and CURATE’S EGG.
Thanks, Phi and John
Did most of this on a train journey this afternoon and in the end there were two I hadn’t filled in. I had guessed 16dn correctly but couldn’t see why, and I couldn’t work out the last bit of 27ac from the word play and had to look it up.
I’m pleased to say that 3dn was a write-in just from the definition and the enumeration.
PS After doing this crossword, I was reading an article in New Scientist on consciousness and quantum mechanics. Apparently, neuroscientist Giulio Tononi has proposed a mathematical measure of consciousness, why he calls Phi.
John The present-day spelling of 27 across is with a single t, but the double t isn’t actually wrong, and was the official spelling until early in the twentieth century. Many people still use it – as I recall the local garage still spells its name with the double t.
This is another return to the days of 30 or so fixed grids to see what it was like. No other Nina.
Thank you for considering one of my puzzles to be a good example for spreading the word.
We were another pair of solvers who wondered about bag = game but there it was in Chambers Thesaurus.
All good fun, we couldn’t see a nina so thanks Phi for confirming that we hadn’t missed anything.
Thanks John.