Phi never fails to produce, apparently every Friday, a thoroughly satisfactory workout. Today there is the odd query, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if my misgivings were easily enough explained.
Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
Phi often has Ninas but I’ve looked as usual and can see nothing.
By the way have you ever seen Phi depart from at least 50% checking? Unlike some setters, he doesn’t use the necessity of fitting in strange words as an excuse.
| Across | ||
| 8 | APOSTOLIC | East German gripped by a force mostly related to preaching the gospel (9) |
| a p(ost)olic{e} — ost is German for east — whenever an East German appears in a crossword, as one often does, ost being in many English words, you can be pretty sure that it isn’t really an East German | ||
| 9 | SPACE | Special speed in astronomical region (5) |
| s pace | ||
| 10 | AIMLESS | Poor at planning, having very good line in confusion (7) |
| A1 m(l)ess | ||
| 11 | TROLLEY | Carriage still in reverse, about to turn (7) |
| t(roll)ey, the tey being (yet)rev. | ||
| 12 | CONCORDAT | Study cable leading to a tense agreement (9) |
| con cord a t | ||
| 14 | SMALL | Clothing size initially supplied by shops (5) |
| s{upplied} mall | ||
| 16 | IDIOTIC | Foolish response in marriage, a sudden movement belting one (7) |
| (I do tic) round [= belting] 1 | ||
| 19 | CHIMERA | Fancy that fellow will be captured by this French artist (7) |
| c(him)e RA — this in French is ce — I was trying for ages to get either Courbet or Cezanne to work | ||
| 20 | ORBIT | Men used teeth (part of skull) (5) |
| OR bit [= used teeth] — the orbit is the cavity in the skull where the eye is | ||
| 21 | MERPEOPLE | Pope, agitated, left to be among simple marine folk (9) |
| ((Pope)*l) in mere — not a word I knew, but fairly likely in view of mermaids — it’s in Chambers but not in Collins and is apparently equivalent to merfolk | ||
| 24 | BLERIOT | Early aviator down, avoiding onset of unfavourable storm (7) |
| bl{u{nfavourable}}e riot | ||
| 25 | COLLAGE | Place for student, American not English, to produce artwork (7) |
| college with A not E — but in the word college e appears twice, so which one? Sometimes we are told. Should we be? | ||
| 27 | RIDES | Bumpy areas not good for journeys (5) |
| rid{g}es | ||
| 28 | STRINGENT | Tight rope finishing off chap (9) |
| I’m not sure about this: it seems to be strin{g} gent but my suspicion is that there’s a better explanation which avoids the clumsy (?) appearance of the g in both string and gent | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MARASCHINO | The fruit of playing harmonicas? (10) |
| *(harmonicas) | ||
| 2 | COMMON | Usual uproar after Spanish uncle decamps (6) |
| commo{tio}n — tio for uncle in Spanish — it doesn’t seem to be a pukka word like tia (for aunt) but more a sort of coinage to go alongside tia | ||
| 3 | STYE | Heartless student Yale finds a source of pain (4) |
| s{tuden}t Y{al}e | ||
| 4 | CLOSED | Fail to block recording, admitting nothing more (6) |
| C(lose)D | ||
| 5 | ECSTATIC | Joyful quote picked up about cast in play (8) |
| (cit(atsc)e)rev., the atsc being (cast)* | ||
| 6 | FAIL-SAFE | Fellow does badly with a heavy metal protection component (4-4) |
| F ails a Fe — this took a while, for two reasons: the definition wasn’t obvious, and the fact that iron is a heavy metal didn’t really occur to me — the heavy metal is usually lead or Pb | ||
| 7 | BEVY | Drink? Remain very empty (4) |
| be [= remain] v{er}y | ||
| 9 | SHOESHINE | He’s on his dribble, finally exercising some fancy footwork? (9) |
| (He’s on his)* {som}e [As Hovis @1 suggests, and I think he’s right, this is probably (He’s on his {dribbl}e)*, with exercising as the anagrind and the definition increased by one word.] | ||
| 13 | OUTSTRIPS | Produces more garments the team declines? (9) |
| Not absolutely comfortable here, but my guess is that it’s a sort of exclamation by the team: “out [out damned spot] [ye] strips” | ||
| 15 | LEADERETTE | A lot of correspondence about each article in Die Welt prompts editorial (10) |
| l(ea. der)etter{s} — the article in Die Welt is an article in German, or der | ||
| 17 | INBREEDS | I note some woodwind develops from related material (8) |
| 1 NB reeds | ||
| 18 | COMATOSE | Out to sea, drifting behind Commodore (8) |
| Com. (to sea)* — the abbreviation for Commodore is Com. (as opposed to Commander, which is Cdr) | ||
| 22 | RECORD | Register I am surprised, having debts? (6) |
| cor [= I am surprised] is in the red | ||
| 23 | PLANET | Mercury perhaps showing level temperature (6) |
| plane T | ||
| 24 | BORN | Originated in border of Benin? (4) |
| The border of Benin is either B or n | ||
| 26 | LONG | Extended note in 22 (4) |
| 22 being RECORD [= log] this is lo(n)g | ||
*anagram
I have no issue with STRIN(G)+GENT. I parsed 9d as an anagram of HE’S ON HIS (DRIBBL)E with ‘exercising’ as the anagrind. Never heard of LEADERETTE but simple to guess. As for OUTSTRIPS – I took this as meaning they aren’t the in-strips.
Thanks to Phi and John.
All pretty straightforward. There’s probably a hidden theme but we’ve not spotted one. We agree with Hovis about STRINGENT, SHOESHINE and OUTSTRIPS. We hadn’t come across LEADERETTE before, either, but found it in Chambers.
Difficult to nominate a CoD but we’ll go for BLÉRIOT.
Thanks, Phi and John.
Thanks Hovis@1, blog amended.
A nice middle-of-the-road difficulty puzzle. A couple of question marks on my copy. Having thought SP for special at 9a I couldn’t see how ACE could be speed – doh. TIO the spanish uncle was unknown so 2d was a mystery. I wasn’t convinced by RIDGE for bumpy areas, but it had to be, or how OUTSTRIPS is supposed to work…. and I still don’t understand it. Otherwise all very entertaining. IDIOTIC my favourite. Thanks Phi and John.
Overall very satisfying, though also don’t get the “declines” in OUTSTRIPS.
Minor typo in 15D, should be just lette{r}, no “s”.
Thanks to Phi and John.