It’s Phi-day again and another good puzzle to end the week
We weren’t too happy with the cross-definitions at 1 and 6 down, but the wordplay was very straightforward, so they didn’t hold us up for too long.
We were also a bit doubtful about the definition at 10ac, but we suppose that references to the ‘home straight’ and ‘back straight’ etc in racing events are reasonable justification.
We’ve searched for a theme or nina, assuming that if there is one it is most likely to be based around 11across, but our electronic searches have drawn a blank – as far as we can establish, he was not a 7ac. Once again, we hope that someone out there will solve the conundrum.
Across
7 European unexpectedly lenient with heretics (15)
LIECHTENSTEINER
An anagram of LENIENT and HERETICS – anagrind is ‘unexpectedly’
9 Line in intelligence fails under inspection? (5)
WILTS
L (line) in WITS (intelligence)
10 Difficulties voiced in these parts of the course? (9)
STRAIGHTS
A homophone (‘voiced’) of STRAITS (difficulties)
11 Obvious I will get behind painting? No, music (11)
FRESCOBALDI
Cryptic definition: BALD (obvious) I behind FRESCO (painting) – a new name for us, but apparently Girolamo Frescobaldi was a musician and composer (not an artist!) in 17th century Italy
13 Man getting time out of prison (3)
SIR
StIR (prison) without the ‘t’ (time)
14 Very sudden attack of shivering left you initially without clear sensation (7)
VAGUELY
V (very) AGUE (sudden attack of shivering) L (left) Y (first or ‘initial’ letter of ‘you’)
16 Herb, golden, that’s returned on time (7)
OREGANO
OR (golden) + ON AGE (time) reversed or ‘returned’
17 Homer repeatedly involves this Greek character (3)
RHO
Hidden or ‘involved’ in HomeR HOmer (repeated)
18 Second eleven, perhaps, facing defeat – it delivers a powerful blow (5,6)
STEAM HAMMER
S (second) TEAM (eleven, perhaps) HAMMER (defeat)
21 Wind surrounds bloke in street – shade for flame needed (3,6)
GAS MANTLE
GALE (wind) surrounding MAN in ST (street)
22 Soup in cup overturned – dreadful smell (5)
GUMBO
MUG (cup) reversed or ‘overturned’ + BO (body odour – ‘dreadful smell’)
24 CNN show? Listened out for show tune (4,2,3,6)
SEND IN THE CLOWNS
An anagram of CNN SHOW LISTENED – anagrind is ‘out’. We did not realise that this song, which we associate with Judy Collins, was written by Stephen Sondheim for the musical ‘A Little Night Music’
Down
1 6 covered by haze, alas (4)
ZEAL
Hidden in or ‘covered by’ haZE ALas – the definition is ‘enthusiasm’ (6 down)
2 Science not offering latest medicine (6)
PHYSIC
PHYSICs (science) without the last letter or ‘not offering latest’
3 Certainly upset about relation in Netherlands, with good reason (8)
SENSIBLY
YES (certainly) reversed or ‘upset’ round SIB (relation) in NL (Netherlands)
4 A second court case will release one of the stars (6)
ASTRAL
A S (second) TRiAL (court case) without or ‘releasing’ the ‘i’ (one)
5 Taking out King, Queen, say, will have one drink, mostly (8)
REGICIDE
R (regina – queen) EG (‘say’) I (one) CIDEr (drink) without the last letter or ‘mostly’
6 1 has minuets arranged (10)
ENTHUSIASM
An anagram of HAS MINUETS – anagrind is ‘arranged’ – the definition is ‘zeal’ (1 down)
7 Misunderstood statistical concept sadly gave source of annoyance for Wales (3,2,8)
LAW OF AVERAGES
An anagram of GAVE, A (first letter or ‘source’ of ‘annoyance’) and FOR WALES – anagrind is ‘sadly’
8 Apparently canine film in which you might see Rover dig roses (9,4)
RESERVOIR DOGS
An anagram of ROVER DIG ROSES – anagrind is ‘in which you might see’
12 Disgusting, filling grand square up, holding the attention (10)
ENGROSSING
GROSS (disgusting) in or ‘filling’ G (grand) NINE (‘square’ – 3×3) reversed or ‘up’
15 Joyful noise supporting City (8)
ECSTATIC
STATIC (noise, as on a radio) ‘supporting’ (in a down clue) EC (city)
16 See them more active, providing measure of resistance (8)
OHMMETER
An anagram of THEM MORE – anagrind is ‘active’
19 Being out of place, substantial number will have to accept it (6)
ENTITY
plENTY (substantial number) without or ‘out of’ ‘pl’ (place) round or ‘accepting’ IT
20 Energy in an American city represents the country (6)
ANGOLA
GO (energy) in AN LA (American city)
23 Earlier opening for latest row of converted houses? (4)
MEWS
nEWS (‘latest’) with the ‘n’ (first or ‘opening’ letter) replaced by M (one letter ‘earlier’ in the alphabet)
*anagram
A bit trickier than some Phi puzzles, but we completed it almost without help (we consulted a thesaurus for synonyms of ‘difficulties’ in 10ac) as we did know the composer. Several parsings took a while to see after getting the answers, for example RHO, ENGROSSING and ENTITY.
And we don’t see the need for “that’s” in the clue for OREGANO; in fact it rather implies that the answer is a reversal of something meaning ‘golden’ following (on) something meaning ‘time’ – not what is needed at all.
As usual we failed to spot any theme or nina.
Thanks, though, to Phi – and of course to B&J.
Went in fairly smoothly with no read hold-ups. I had heard of FRESCOBALDI, but mainly because the last movement of Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata is a homage to him.
Music does not equate to composer
@gsolphotog @3: This is one of those slightly quirky clues which you have to read as something said by the person whose name is the answer. I’ll leave it to others to decide if it’s Ximenean or libertarian but I’d say it’s the latter.
Only popped in late to boost the poor blog response! Thoroughly enjoyed this and rather proud of myself for solving the 15-letter answers quite quickly, which helped a lot of corse. Thanks Phi and BandJ.
I can’t see anything wrong with 11ac, @gsolphotog@3. What sort of music do you like? Pop? Jazz? Classical? But you could equally ask Beatles? Bechet? Beethoven? Or Frescobaldi?