Phi has provided today’s cruciverbal challenge from his usual Friday home.
I found this to be the toughest Phi crossword that I have solved in many a month. I think that I have managed to complete the grid and parse the solutions successfully, but this was not without googling the names of the two Zimbabwean politicians. Perhaps it was Robert Mugabe’s departure that prompted Phi to devote a couple of clues to Zimbabwean politics? In any case, he has laid bare yet another gap in my general knowledge.
There is even more unusual vocabulary at 14, 21 and in the wordplay at 22 (“talk at table”). I have spotted no other theme in this puzzle than the fact that six rows of the completed grid contain the words ON and OFF, which surely could not have happened by chance.
My favourite clues today were 15, for ingenuity, and 25, for smoothness of surface.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | COFFER | Source of cash in company’s first bid
C<ompany> (“first” means first letter only) + OFFER (=bid) |
| 05 | HEDONISM | Arrangement of Sondheim being purely for pleasure
*(SONDHEIM); “arrangement of” is anagram indicator |
| 09 | ICON | Influential figure I note controlling senior officer
CO (=senior officer, i.e. Commanding Officer) in [I + N (=note, as in nota bene)] |
| 10 | ACT OF FAITH | Religious observance: 20 accepted it in a church
[TOFF (=entry at 20) + A (=accepted) + IT] in [A + CH (=church)] |
| 11 | BULLY OFF | Expert not entirely accepting representation of folly in how game starts
*(FOLLY) in BUF<f> (=expert; “not entirely” means last letter dropped); “representation” is anagram indicator |
| 12 | RECKON | Believe Welsh town will accommodate king after ditching baron
K (=king, in cards) in <b>RECON (=Welsh town; “after ditching baron (=B)” means letter “b” is dropped) |
| 13 | MERC | Car – recalled the best sort after one disembarks
CRE<a>M (=the best sort); “after one (=A) disembarks” means letter “a” is dropped; “recalled” indicates reversal |
| 15 | ILL-NATURED | Red tuna apparently like a crab
“red tuna” is an anagram (“ill”) of “natured”; to be crabby (“like a crab”) is to be irritable, ill-natured |
| 17 | STRONGHOLD | Strain hard to encircle outside of tower (historic fortress)
{T<owe>R (“outside of” means first and last letters only) in [SONG (=strain, air) + H (=hard, as in HB pencils)} + OLD (=historic) |
| 20 | TOFF | Noble part of family (but only part)
Hidden (“only part”) in “parT OF Family” |
| 22 | BANANA | Contemporary of 8 to sanction talk at table
BAN (=sanction) + ANA (=talk at table, i.e. literary anecdotes); the reference is to Canaan Banana (1936-2003), the first President of Zimbabwe from 1980-87 who was a contemporary of Ndabaningi Sithole (=entry at 8) |
| 24 | TARRAGON | Plant in river in the past blocking lake
[R (=river) + AGO (=in the past)] in TARN (=lake) |
| 26 | PHONOGRAPH | One showcased recordings of gas circulating in pubs
[O’ (=of) + NOGRA (ARGON=gas; “circulating” indicates reversal)] in [PH + PH (=pubs, i.e. 2 x PH (=public house)] |
| 27 | OFFA | Meat product more than enough for this old ruler
OFFA<l> (=meat product; “more than enough” means the last letter can be dropped); the reference is to Offa, the Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia from AD757 to AD796, famous for Offa’s Dyke |
| 28 | IRONCLAD | It’s a ship // guaranteed
Double definition: an IRONCLAD is a ship covered with iron plates AND an e.g. iron-clad contract or case against someone is extremely secure, hence “guaranteed” |
| 29 | TOFFEE | Half-heartedly fund, returning charge? That’s sweet
TOF (FO<o>T=fund, as in to foot the bill; “half-heartedly” means one of the two central o’s is dropped; “returning” indicates reversal) + FEE (=charge) |
| Down | ||
| 02 | OCCLUDE | Block rise of company with hint about Director
OC (CO=company; “rise of” indicates vertical reversal) + [D (=director) in CLUE (=hint)] |
| 03 | FINAL | Force – considering everything – to be curtailed as a last resort
F (=force, in physics) + IN AL<l> (=considering everything; “to be curtailed” means last letter is dropped) |
| 04 | REASONING | Ignore half of answer, showing error in deduction
*(IGNORE + ANS<wer>); “half of” means 3 of 6 letters only are used; “showing error” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | HATEFUL | Detestable expression of surprise applied to flute playing
HA (=expression of surprise) + *(FLUTE); “playing” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | DEFER | Put off fellow stabbing game animals
F (=fellow) in DEER (=game animals) |
| 07 | NO-ACCOUNT | Negligible reason not to honour cheque?
Cryptically, someone having “no (bank) account” would be a reason not to honour a cheque; in US slang, no-account” means insignificant, trifling |
| 08 | SITHOLE | Former African politician having difficulty supporting position
SIT (=position, as verb, place) + HOLE (=difficulty, scrape); the reference is to Ndabaningi Sithole (1920-2000), a Zimbabwean politician and founder of ZANU |
| 14 | CRO-MAGNON | Conservative city-dweller receiving Government refusal as “from the Stone Age”
C (=Conservative) + {[G (=government) + NO (=refusal)] in ROMAN (=city-dweller)}; Cro-Magnon is an early type of homo sapiens of late Palaeolithic times |
| 16 | ALDERSHOT | Mistakenly heading off that soldier I ignored in military town
*(<t>HAT SOLD<i>ER); “heading off” means first letter dropped; “I ignored” means letter “i” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “mistakenly” |
| 18 | TEACHER | Worker associated with whisky (drink much loved in France)
TEA (=drink) + CHER (=much loved in French, i.e. the French word for dear); the reference is to Teacher’s whisky, which owes its name to its first seller William Teacher, not to any schoolteacher! |
| 19 | OUTWARD | Superficial American author not popular in our day
TWA<in> (=American author, i.e. Mark Twain; “not popular (=in)” means letters “in” are dropped) in [OUR + D (=day, on calendar)] |
| 21 | FEOFFEE | Landholder‘s female rival put up charge
F (=female) + EOF (FOE=rival; “put up” indicates vertical reversal) + FEE (=charge); in the feudal system, a feoffee is a trustee who holds a fief |
| 23 | ANGEL | Article set to deliver financial sponsor
AN (=article, in grammar) + GEL (=set, i.e. harden) |
| 25 | ALOOF | Remote facilities – in a field, initially
LOO (=facilities) in [A + F<ield> (“initially” means first letter only)] |
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