This was one of Phi’s hardest, I thought, not helped by several words …
… or phrases (steganography, natatoria, churl (in this sense), absit omen) that were either completely unknown or only a bit familiar. The expected good crossword from Phi, but as usual nothing fell very fast, the route to the answer seldom being obvious.
Definitions underlined in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
Every answer contains a vowel. That’s the limit of what I can see.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HORNPIPE | Sailors very good in ambition to produce marine dance (8) |
| ho(RN pi)pe | ||
| 5 | HEIFER | Cow that chap provided to ruler (6) |
| he if ER | ||
| 9 | MALINGER | Attempt to look bad, having lithium in source of food (8) |
| ma(Li)nger | ||
| 10 | ICONIC | Couple about to embrace study of major significance (6) |
| (I(con)I c) — the couple is the Roman number II = 2 and ‘Couple about’ = ‘II c’ | ||
| 11 | READY | Like loaves, but needing no initial dough (5) |
| {b}ready — the word ‘bready’ is in Collins, to my surprise — I had incorrectly thought a question mark was needed — ready and dough are two of the 1001 words for money | ||
| 12 | CAMEL HAIR | Turned up with study about source of heavy-duty fabric (5,4) |
| came l(h{eavy-duty})air | ||
| 14 | STEGANOGRAPHY | Computer image manipulation represented by gray heptagons (13) |
| (gray heptagons)* — not a word I knew | ||
| 17 | DISILLUSIONED | Daughter is poorly treated, keeping one subject to being let-down (13) |
| d is ill-us(1 on)ed — on = subject to (not sure exactly how, but I really can’t bring myself to wade through the dictionary to find out) | ||
| 20 | NATATORIA | Cheers filling atmosphere about swirling swimming pools (9) |
| (air o(tata)n)rev. — this time on = about, a far more straightforward connection; the reversal is indicated by ‘swirling’ | ||
| 21 | CHURL | Countryman having quantity of milk, say, not quite litre (5) |
| chur{n} l | ||
| 22 | MIASMA | Recalled morning target to limit source of some smell (6) |
| (a.m. (s{ome}) aim)rev. | ||
| 23 | DISBURSE | Pay to stop being interrupted by Society’s foremost problems after reflection (8) |
| di(sbur s{ociety})e, the (sbur s{ociety}) being (s{ociety} rubs)rev. | ||
| 24 | CANINE | Dog? Stopped cutting tail after one intervenes (6) |
| can(1)ne{d} | ||
| 25 | UNGAINLY | Not very coordinated in an ugly upset (8) |
| (in an ugly)* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HUMORIST | Who could give us mirth, nothing more? (8) |
| (us mirth 0)*, &lit. | ||
| 2 | RELEASE | Relative simplicity producing new album, say (7) |
| rel. ease | ||
| 3 | PANSY | Criticises company’s latest Viola (5) |
| pans {compan}y — according to Google, all pansies are violas but not all violas are pansies; which is as it should be for the clue, despite my original scepticism | ||
| 4 | PRESCHOOLER | Help score or otherwise? One’s probably not above five (11) |
| (Help score or)* | ||
| 6 | EUCALYPTI | International group replanted typical trees (9) |
| EU (typical)* | ||
| 7 | FANTASY | Groupie, rather attractive, missing out on repeat dream (7) |
| fan tas{t}y — the repeat is the second t in the word | ||
| 8 | RECORD | Make note of work escaping rope and more rope (6) |
| r{op}e cord | ||
| 13 | MURMURATION | Greek character engaged in lifting drink supply leads to sotto voce comments (11) |
| mu in ((rum)rev. ration) | ||
| 15 | ABSIT OMEN | Bison tame after training, touch wood (5,4) |
| (Bison tame)* — even with all the checkers and knowing how it was an anagram I couldn’t see this, never having heard the expression | ||
| 16 | ADULTERY | Be very keen on dumping a railway affair? (8) |
| adul{a}te ry | ||
| 17 | DETRAIN | Stop holding edge of door and get on the platform (7) |
| det({doo}r)ain | ||
| 18 | NEUTRON | Unreactive material producing temperature in brain cell (7) |
| neu(t.)ron | ||
| 19 | GNOMIC | Setter’s in deceitful activity, finally offering up cryptic (6) |
| (c(I’m)on {offerin}g)rev. | ||
| 21 | COBRA | Emergency committee giving support to military officer (5) |
| CO bra — this explains COBRA | ||
*anagram
John, you have revealed a number of the answers in the bit of your preamble that is visible to everyone.
I did enjoy this challenge. Wasn’t sure of the parsing for FANTASY. Thought it must come from FAN + TAStY but didn’t think of the T as the repeat. Feel I must have seen STEGANOGRAPHY before but don’t recall it. I also have not come across ABSIT OMEN or NATATORIA. Fortunately all 3 were clued so that they were ‘easy’ to guess and check. Not convinced by NEUTRON defined as ‘Unreactive material’. Unreactive for uncharged and material for particle both seem a stretch too far. Always willing to be convinced otherwise.
Thanks to Phi and John.
K’s D @1
Thanks for the heads-up, now rectified.
Unlike last week where I was lulled into a false sense of security, I realised that the battle was on from the off.Did my best to tune into Phi’s wavelength and found it an enjoyable struggle.Yeah it was tough but nothing amiss. Top cluing methinks.I wonder how many anagrind scramblers manage 15d.
many thanks to Phi and John.
I also found this quite tricky, but I’ve struggled with other Phis more than this one. It helped that I managed to recall STEGANOGRAPHY. ABSIT OMEN was a guess though, and I failed at NATATORIA and CHURL.
Enjoyable (near-)solve. Thanks to Phi and John, and a Happy Easter weekend to you all.
Thanks Phi and John
Phi is always tricky, but I didn’t think this was any different from his normal standard. Probably helped by knowing ABSIT OMEN, which was clearly an anagram, recalling STEGANOGRAPHY from the dark recesses, NATATORIUM having been in a Maskarade last year (and possibly somewhere else relatively recently), and CHURL in the rustic sense appearing in a recent Vlad. For some reason I’m better at remembering clues/solutions than I am at remembering what I’m supposed to be doing today or tomorrow. There’s probably a name for it.
FOI was HORNPIPE from the definition and we then saw the parsing. HEIFER followed similarly. After that, apart from COBRA, it was an uphill struggle all the way, but we got there with occasional reference to Chambers to confirm our guesses/deductions. We agree with Hovis about NEUTRON. No real stand-out clue but we liked READY.
Thanks, Phi and John.
Found this on the hard side, but in the end discussion about degrees of difficulty is not that interesting, since it comes down to experience, knowledge areas, what kind of mood you’re in, and so on. More important is that it was fun to solve, and this was.
NEUTRON? Hmm, I agree with Hovis and Allan, but Phi’s got a degree in physics, so I’ll say no more. NATATORIUM/A I got through French, la natation, for swimming.
Well done, Phi, and thanks to John for blogging. Good weekend to all.
Well noticed K’s D and thanks for sorting things out Gaufrid. I am aware that one mustn’t give away the Nina in the top bit, but forgot about giving away any of the answers.