As always with Phi everything is pretty obvious once it’s done, but to begin with things were often difficult: he writes clues that are open to a number of different promising approaches. I was delayed for a long time by 21dn; I think my parsing is correct, but in this and one or two other cases no doubt I shall be corrected.
After such a long solve I could do little more than look unsuccessfully at the unches. There’s probably more, invisible to me however long the search.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PASTICHES | Former longings out of time – collections of odds and ends to suffice here (9) |
| past i{t}ches | ||
| 6 | BRUIN | Bear onset of business collapse (5) |
| b{usiness} ruin | ||
| 9 | TRAFFIC | One loudly boarding vehicle turned to see all the other vehicles (7) |
| (c(1 ff)art)rev. | ||
| 10 | ROSSINI | Italian composer angry after contralto decamps in Italy (7) |
| {c}ross in I | ||
| 11 | GLADNESS | Returned to finish tucking into some wine, expressing joy (8) |
| gla(dne)ss. the dne being (end)rev. | ||
| 12 | CHEESE | Head of kitchen not fine, about to imagine backing dairy product (6) |
| ch(ees)e{f}, the ees being (see)rev. | ||
| 14 | ROTATIONAL | Going in circles on a trail to Barking (10) |
| (on a trail to)*, the anagram indicated by Barking (barking, or barking mad) | ||
| 15 | LADY | Male companion with unknown inamorata (4) |
| lad y — lad = male companion? Looked odd, but there it is in the dictionaries | ||
| 18 | LOCK | Forward and upward process for boats (4) |
| CD I think, referring to the fact that if a boat goes through a lock then it is enabled to go forward and it goes up (might just as well be down, though). I don’t like this because quite apart from being a dreaded CD it says that a lock is a process, which it isn’t. But I may have it all wrong and will be enlightened by people I hope. As Grant Baynham @1 says, a lock is a forward in rugby, so at least we no longer have a CD | ||
| 19 | MUSKETEERS | Soldiers an inspiration guarding King, terse in action (10) |
| mus(K)e (terse)* | ||
| 22 | SISTER | Hospital employee is coming in the back, mostly (6) |
| s(is)ter{n} | ||
| 24 | GANGLION | Hero of group in nerve centre (8) |
| gang lion — a fanciful way of describing someone who is hero of a group | ||
| 26 | GLOBULE | Attempt to catch large blue bouncing blob (7) |
| g(l)o (blue)* | ||
| 27 | TEACAKE | Important viewpoint mangled by Spooner as food item (7) |
| “key take” | ||
| 28 | ANKLE | Bug taking out first joint (5) |
| {r}ankle | ||
| 29 | MARMALADE | Preserve horse, keeping a lot of illness suppressed (9) |
| mar(malad{y})e | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | POTAGER | Great rocks appearing after work turning over kitchen garden (7) |
| (op)rev. (great)* | ||
| 2 | STALACTIC | Holy man dealing with the heavens, not good regarding columns (9) |
| St {g}alactic | ||
| 3 | INFINITE | Ultimately accepting it on the largest scale (8) |
| in fin(it)e — not used a lot perhaps, in fine is a pukka expression | ||
| 4 | HOCUS-POCUS | Point of control initially installed in home, mostly inexplicable stuff (5-5) |
| ho(cusp o{f} c{ontrol})us{e} | ||
| 5 | SIRE | Son with passion to become a gentleman (4) |
| s ire | ||
| 6 | BYSSHE | Lads expressing love over that woman offering poetic name (6) |
| b{o}ys she — Percy Bysshe Shelley, making it necessary to use the wordplay and hope for the best if you don’t actually know that | ||
| 7 | UNITE | Nice article about sex for couple (5) |
| un(it)e — the Nice article is the article used in Nice, France — old hands (dreadful expression suggesting that they are in some way superior, but in this case referring simply to the fact that they have done a few crosswords) will recognise this trick immediately | ||
| 8 | NAIVETY | One old soldier put in negative vote, displaying simple response (7) |
| na(1 vet)y | ||
| 13 | TASKMASTER | Knight having staff restrained by electronic weapon is a harsh overseer (10) |
| tas(k mast)er | ||
| 16 | AMERICANA | Cinema area sadly missing a trace of England – Hollywood stuff, say (9) |
| (Cinema area – (E{ngland}))* | ||
| 17 | STIGMATA | A wally’s upset about carpet marks (8) |
| (git’s)rev. (a mat)rev. | ||
| 18 | LASAGNA | Network about to go down? That requires advanced course (7) |
| LA(sag)N A | ||
| 20 | SINCERE | Church about to support venal behaviour for real (7) |
| sin CE re | ||
| 21 | REPUTE | Name entered in roll, omitting last letter (6) |
| (re(put)e{l} — this one took me a long time even with the checkers because there are so many ways of parsing the clue, and roll = reel doesn’t immediately come to mind; not to my mind, anyway | ||
| 23 | STOCK | Standard component of rifle (5) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 25 | TEAM | Satisfied with elevation, securing a group of players (4) |
| (met)rev. round a | ||
*anagram
I think in 18 ‘Lock’ is a forward in rugby. I’m sure you’re right about ‘reel’ though. Tough stuff this morning,I thought, and haven’t spotted a theme yet…
Thanks to both.
Thanks Grant, of course it is and I’ve added to the blog.
Thanks.
A Google search does give reel, roll and spool as synonyms as in a “roll of film”.
The Independent crossword website is proving even more than usually frustrating at the moment: the crossword won’t even load for me. In fact I don’t even get the irritating advert.
Anyone else having the same problem? Any suggestions for fixing?
Rog @4
I’ve just tried and had no problems loading the puzzle using IE11, in fact the site seemed to be faster than usual.
Thanks, Gaufrid. Just tried again, to no avail. It must be a problem at my end then. Forgive my ignorance, but what is IE11? Too cryptic for me!
Oh, Internet Explorer of course! Stayed up too late last night finishing Vlad.
Couldn’t get it on Safari. Fine on Google Chrome. Thanks again, Gaufrid.
Rog@8 ditto. Note the parsing for 17d has gone slightly astray. It is AGIT’S< around MAT (not reversed). Failed on LADY, having entered NAÏVETÉ For 8d. Also failed to think of LOCK as a forward. REPUTE was also my LOI. Thanks to all.
All proceeded smoothly until our LOI, 21dn, which with all vowels for its 50% checking eluded us till we resorted to a wordfinder. POTAGER was a new word for us but we worked it out from the clue and confirmed it in Chambers. We liked ROSSINI, GANGLION and HOCUS POCUS, but our favourite was GLOBULE. No nina or theme that we can see but we won’t be surprised if someone does spot one.
Thanks, Phi and John
All happily completed bar 15a. Hovis you are not alone. I too entered naïveté at 8d. Prepared to accept that some dictionaries give lad as equivalent to male companion but lady for inamorata ? It is possible to be a lady and not an inamorata. Indeed them what’s prim and proper would say that an inamorata is no lady.
Not sure the rugby connection is needed for 18 across. If you are in a boat using a lock you are usually travelling forward. However thinking back to long distant canal barge holidays one did occasionally meet other like travellers who seemed confused re their direction of travel.
Thanks Phi and John.
All happily completed bar 15a. Hovis you are not alone. I too entered naïveté at 8d. Prepared to accept that some dictionaries give lad as equivalent to male companion but lady for inamorata ? It is possible to be a lady and not an inamorata. Indeed them what’s prim and proper would say that an inamorata is no lady.
Is the rugby connection needed for 18a ? Usually if you are in a boat in a lock you are intending to go forward. However memories of long distant canal barge holidays do include occasionally meeting like travellers who seemed confused re their direction of travel.
Thanks to Phi and John
This puzzle was one where I rifled a list of words to give me a few starting entries around which to build the grid. In this case it was the brochure for our local food festival, Wellington On A Plate. Participating restaurants produce a new burger each year giving the result a sometimes exotic name.
We didn’t get round many of them this year (there are over 100), so I can’t confirm whether there were three used in CHEESE MUSKETEERS, or what INFINITE GLADNESS involved. LOCK, STOCK AND MARMALADE didn’t appeal, and we missed both of the ones named after Rossini as well.
A theme, therefore, which helps me get under way, but which shouldn’t impede you, which seems to have been the case.
Well, music was my first love and it will be last.
True, not really Phi territory (apart from 10ac’s ROSSINI) but I did spot a few pop references.
Lady Marmalade, Traffic, Hocus Pocus, Americana.
Did not understand LOCK (18ac) so many thanks to Grant for that.
Nor had I heard of IN FINE (in 3d).
As for others, REPUTE (21d) was my last one in.
I do not comment on Phi’s crosswords very often, hardly ever actually, but I consider him to be a setter one can rely on, so to speak.
However, I do find that the level of difficulty can vary significantly.
Just seeing the name Phi isn’t telling you “it will be hard today” or the opposite.
What it usually does tell you is that it is Friday … 🙂
Enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks John!
Enjoyable crossword
I romped my way through this until I was left with 21d and then had to use Reveal on 2 of the remaining letters before it clicked. I still failed to get a completion notice and further investigation showed I’d messed up 3d by putting INFINITY. A careless case of not reading the clue properly. The rest of the puzzle was most enjoyable, with the sound of pennies dropping all over the place. Thank Phi and John.