In time-honoured fashion, Phi brings this latest string of mid-week puzzles to an end.
I found this to be quite a challenge and struggled to complete the NE quadrant, not least because of the entries at 6 and 9, which were both unfamiliar to me. The entries at 24A and 22D were both new to me, as was the word for smoked salmon in the wordplay at 22D. My favourite clue overall was 13, for overall construction.
I suspected that with a grid such as this that there might be a Nina going around the perimeter and having done some digging on the internet, I think that I have established that the Nina starts in the bottom left-hand corner and refers to a young Canadian composer (ANDREW STANILAND) and to the three movements (REX – STYX – EDEN) of a composition which, quite coincidentally, is called PHI, inspired not by our compiler but by the golden ratio in maths, identified by the Greek letter phi. If I have got that wrong or have missed any other references, I am sure that our Phi will enlighten us during the course of the day.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 08 | WARHORSE | Declining to accept overtures of Auber, Rossini and Haydn – something too often played
[A<uber> R<ossini> H<aydn] in WORSE (=declining, e.g. of quality); “overtures of” means first letter of each word only; a warhorse is e.g. a much performed piece of music |
| 09 | CRUDEN | Poorly-formed note from religious scholar
CRUDE (=poorly-formed) + N (=note); the reference is to Alexander Cruden (1699-1770), the Scottish author of an early concordance to the Bible |
| 10 | EARN | Get close, but start to move back
NEAR (=close); “start to move back” means the first letter – “n” – moves to the end of the word |
| 11 | ACCESS ROAD | A bit of countryside crossed with a twisting minor road
A + C<ountryside> (“bit of” means first letter only) + *(CROSSED + A); “twisting” is anagram indicator |
| 12 | RIFFLE | Weapon with extra force producing stir
F (=force, in physics) in RIFLE (=weapon); to riffle is to turn or stir lightly, e.g. the pages of a book |
| 14 | SEARCHER | Hunter almost ready: man with weapon follows
SE<t> (=ready; “almost” means last letter drop) + ARCHER (=man with weapon) |
| 15 | GAMBOL | Dance publication backed return of fling
GAM (MAG=publication; “backed” indicates reversal) + BOL (LOB=fling; “return of” indicates reversal); to gambol is to skip around, hence “dance” |
| 17 | REFORM | Change official order after intervention by Queen
REF. (=official, i.e. referee) + [R (=queen, i.e. regina) in OM (=order, i.e. Order of Merit)] |
| 20 | DARLINGS | Line in unconventional small pets
[L (=line) in DARING (=unconventional, bold)] + S (=small, of sizes) |
| 22 | LUSTRE | Stone in trap showing effect of reflected light
ST (=stone) in LURE (=trap) |
| 23 | NASTURTIUM | I must turn a failing flowering plant
*(I MUST TURN); “failing” is anagram indicator |
| 24 | COAX | One who steers round a cable
A in COX (=one who steers e.g. the crew of a boat); a coax or co-ax is a coaxial cable |
| 25 | AEGEAN | Article, say, to intend missing source of sea
A (=article) + E.G. (=say, i.e. for example) + <m>EAN (=intend; “missing source” means first letter is dropped) |
| 26 | BIOPSIES | Book is about hospital activities – that is, diagnostic interventions
[OPS (=hospital activities) + I.E. (=that is)] in [B (=book) + IS] |
| Down | ||
| 01 | SAVAGING | Severe criticism, but mostly getting on
SAV<e> (=but, except; “mostly” means last letter is dropped) + AGING (=getting on) |
| 02 | THIN | Meagre item, without an end
THIN<g> (=item, article); “without an end” means last letter is dropped |
| 03 | ARCADE | Exist to bring in hi-tech design in area of gaming
CAD (=hi-tech design, i.e. computer-aided design) in ARE (=exist) |
| 04 | NET COST | Trawling item? Heartless shore, ultimate damage
NET (=trawling item, i.e. in fishing) + CO<a>ST (=shore; “heartless” means middle letter is dropped); the “damage” of the definition refers to cost, as in the expression What’s the damage? |
| 05 | ICE-SKATE | Girl pursuing crimes heading off to travel in winter
<v>ICES (=crimes; “heading off” means first letter is dropped) + KATE (=girl, i.e. a female forename) |
| 06 | LUBRICIOUS | Lewd line, improper rub, depraved (but not very)
L (=line) + *(RUB) + <v>ICIOUS (=depraved; “but not very (=V)” means letter “v” is dropped); “improper” is anagram indicated |
| 07 | AERATE | Add fizz to region, picking up sources of true enthusiasm
AERA (AREA=region; “picking up” indicates vertical reversal) + T<rue> E<nthusiasm> (“sources of” means first letter of each only) |
| 13 | FAMILY TREE | Personal history: renown curtailed, entirely ruined, name lost
FAM<e> (=renown; “curtailed” means last letter is dropped) + *(E<n>TIRELY); “name (=N) lost” means letter “n” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “ruined” |
| 16 | OWN-BRAND | Admit daughter consumes cereal from a particular store
BRAN (=cereal) in [OWN (=admit) + D (=daughter)] |
| 18 | MARGARET | Thatcher, perhaps, to damage rooftop room, dropping one reed, initially
MAR (=damage) + GAR<r>ET (=rooftop room; “dropping one reed initially” means one letter “r” is deleted); the reference is to former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) |
| 19 | ASTILBE | Flowering plant: it’s able to run wild
*(IT’S ABLE); ” to run wild” is anagram indicator; the astilbe is a perennial plant of the family Saxifragaceae |
| 21 | AWAKEN | A late party: night’s beginning, stir yourself
A + WAKE (=late party, i.e. in honour of the deceased) + N<ight> (“beginning” means first letter only) |
| 22 | LUMMOX | Oaf uncovered tummy when tucking into smoked salmon
<t>UMM<y> (“uncovered” means first and last letters are dropped) in LOX (=smoked salmon) |
| 24 | COSY | Diffident accepting Special in snug
S (=special) in COY (=diffident) |
I found this very tough and cheated on a couple. Didn’t get CRUDEN. Thought it must be CRUDE? but several letters can denote ‘note’.
Saw ANDREW reversed in column 1 but didn’t get any further with the Nina, so thanks for the elucidation.
Also didn’t know LOX or LUBRICIOUS. Nice word, up there with LUCUBRATE which may well have been in a Phi puzzle as well not so long ago.
Thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku.
Parts of this were quite tough but I did enjoy most of it.
9a is a Giovanni style obscurity and I needed the assistance of Google to unravel it. There was repetition of the use of L for “line” in 20a & 6d, and I thought the definitions in 5d & 7d were rather dodgy.
22d gets my vote as favourite because it is such a great word.
Thanks to Phi & RR, with many congratulations to the latter on discovering the NINA.
LUBRICIOUS/AERATE took a while and I gave up on 25A, though of course it seemed clear when I saw the answer in the blog. Good workout.
23A “a” is also part of the anagram fodder.
@2Rabbit Dave’s quibbles about 5D and 7D are not likely to be endorsed by others – except perhaps his four telephone callers from yesterday.
Thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku.
gwep @3. I withdraw my concerns on 5d & 7d. I guess ICE-SKATE could reasonably be considered as a possible method of “travel in winter”; and I had assumed that AERATE only meant passing air or oxygen through something but, now I’ve looked in Chambers, I see it can also be used for carbon dioxide, so “fizz” is fine.
Well, we had quite a bit of headscratching over this but got there in the end without assistance apart from checking a few tentative answers in Chambers (and finding we were right). It also helped that we knew of CRUDEN. We saw there was a nina and it helped us get 20ac and 25ac; it didn’t mean anything to us, though, so we googled it a few minutes ago – and the first reference was to fifteensquared!
First one in was WARHORSE and it was our favourite.
Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku.
The hi-tech design was a guess based on the checkers and definition and I did phone a friend for assistance with 9a – seemed so unlikely!
Thanks to Phi and to RR for the blog – hadn’t considered a Nina and am fairly sure I wouldn’t have recognised it.
I found this very tough. I did spot there appeared to be a Nina, but I couldn’t quite work it out. It did help me get 20ac, but 9ac totally defeated me.
When I was a lad and you talked reference books, up came Brewer, up came Whittaker and up came Cruden, but Mr C doesn’t seem to have stood the test of time. And I guess these days of searchable text aren’t going to bring concordances back any time soon.