It’s Phi-day again and this week, we found his puzzle rather trickier than usual.
This was not helped by failing totally at 1ac – a word we had never come across before, and by the four fifteen letter entries.
We can’t see a theme or Nina this week – although that doesn’t mean there isn’t one – we think Phi’s challenge was to work around the fifteen letter entries with a grid having no entries shorter than five letters.
We’ll be on our way home today from Fort William after completing the West Highland Way on Wednesday in glorious weather. It was 26C as we walked down into Glen Nevis. Too hot for walking but what a fabulous experience – highly recommended to any keen walkers out there!
Across
1 Sky successfully offloading one line to family (6)
WELKIN
WELl (successfully) without or ‘offloading’ one ‘l’ (line) + KIN (family) – a new word for us and our last one in
4 Thanks Air Corps securing room for runways (6)
TARMAC
TA (thanks) AC (Air Corps) round or ‘securing’ RM (room)
10/23 But it doesn’t mean we’d love never having to see you again! (7,5,3,5,4,6)
ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER
Cryptic definition
11 Something that remains at the end of several months (5)
EMBER
Ending of SeptEMBER, NovEMBER and DecEMBER
12 Appeal for help to attempt to limit setter’s deceptive approach (9)
SOPHISTRY
SOS (‘appeal for help’) TRY (attempt) round or ‘limiting’ PHI (setter)
13 Broad description of things for sale? (6)
STOCKY
‘Things for sale’ are ‘stock’, so a description of them could fancifully be STOCKY
15 Fish was circling river and most of ocean (6)
WRASSE
WAS round or ‘circling’ R (river) + SEa (ocean) without the last letter or ‘most of’
16 Chunk cut down in study article (6)
COLUMN
LUMp (chunk) without the last letter or ‘cut down’ in CON (study)
18 Position university maintained in figures (6)
STATUS
U (university) ‘maintained’ in STATS (statistics – ‘figures’)
21 Educate, arranging the learning without a staple of education? (9)
ENLIGHTEN
An anagram of THE LEarNING without ‘a’ and ‘r’ (one of the ‘three r s’ or ’a staple of education’) – anagrind is ‘arranging’
22 Lover in fine shiny fabric (5)
FLAME
F (fine) LAME (shiny fabric)
23 See 10
24 Intelligence of that woman will make you fade (6)
WITHER
WIT (intelligence) HER (of that woman)
25 Artwork mostly recent (one-quarter coloured) (6)
FRESCO
FRESh (recent) without the last letter or ‘mostly’ + CO (a quarter of ‘coloured’)
Down
1 Mammal, a second seen in small lake (6)
WEASEL
A S (second) ‘seen’ in WEE (small) L (lake)
2 Bottle stunt, alas, going wrong – still worth a mention? (4,3,3,5)
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
An anagram of BOTTLE STUNT ALAS – anagrind is ‘going wrong’
3 Concealed malefactor bumping off leader (5)
INNER
sINNER (malefactor) without or ‘bumping off’ the first letter or ‘leader’
5 A version of Cinerama – Hollywood stuff, inter alia (9)
AMERICANA
A + an anagram of CINERAMA – anagrind is ‘version of’
6 Admits autumn is wild, involving trees initially undergoing necessary changes (7,8)
MUTATIS MUTANDIS
An anagram of ADMITS AUTUMN IS (anagrind is ‘wild’) round or ‘involving’ T (first or ‘initial’ letter of ‘trees’)
7 Girl in church picked up stringed instrument (6)
CHERYL
CH (church) + LYRE (stringed instrument) reversed or ‘picked up’
8 Setter: one with art on the meagre side (6)
MEASLY
ME (setter) A (one) SLY (with art)
9 Father nursing wife with fruit (6)
PAWPAW
PAPA (father) round or ‘nursing’ W (wife) + W (with)
14 Legal personnel about to procure English vegetable (9)
COURGETTE
COURT (‘legal personnel’) round GET (procure) + E (English)
17 Unknown figure to betray rising official (6)
NOTARY
Y (‘unknown figure’) RAT ON (betray) all reversed or ‘rising’
18 Second year will involve one getting different and strong (6)
SINEWY
S (second) Y (year) round or ‘involving’ I (one) NEW (different)
19 Relative turning up in unpleasant spot, without hope, lacking love (6)
NEPHEW
WEN (unpleasant spot) round or ‘without‘ HoPE missing or ‘lacking’ ‘o’ (love) all reversed or ‘turning up’
20 Party at dam displaying strange character (6)
WEIRDO
WEIR (dam) DO (party)
22 Delivery from miller left in square (5)
FLOUR
L (left) in FOUR (square, as in two times two)
I agree with B&J, this was a tough nut to crack. 1a was a new word for me too. I enjoyed the challenge apart from 13a which I think is a poor clue.
Thanks to Phi and to B&J.
Definitely on the tricky side. I did know 1a but didn’t know 6d which offered far more opportunities to go astray!
Took far too long to satisfactorily parse 19d and, like RD, I wasn’t keen on 13a.
20d made me laugh.
Thanks to Phi and to B&J – glad you enjoyed your walking holiday.
Well, we found this quite accessible and got off to a flying start. We knew WELKIN from the Christmas carol ‘Hark how all the welkin rings …’ and 10/23 was a write-in from the enumeration, with 2 and 6 write-ins from crossing letters. No real problems elsewhere, either, although ENLIGHTEN and NOTARY took a bit of teasing out. But we can’t see any theme or nina.
All in all a pleasant and not too taxing solve. Favurite was SOPHISTRY.
Thanks, Phi and B&J
Isn’t it amusing how one person’s tough nut is another person’s walk in the park. There have been a few puzzles recently that many here seem to have enjoyed and have totally defeated me. In contrast, this one went in quite smoothly and quickly. 1ac wasn’t quite my first one in, but I knew the word but couldn’t parse it, so I waited till I got some crossing letters.
Actually, the main problem I had today is that it seems to be getting more and more difficult to load a printable version of the puzzle on both my computers and to compound matters, the Independent online edition was down this lunchtime and I couldn’t get the puzzle there, either.
Agree with Dormouse. Nothing terribly difficult I thought, until FRESCO. Couldn’t parse this at all. The ‘one-quarter coloured’ was I thought S [one quarter (although I know that is not exactly the same as one-quarter)] and co. for coloured [yes, very odd, but The Times had at. for atmosphere this morning so goodness knows] and fre_ was ‘mostly recent’ — again goodness knows why free = recent. All a big mess.
I also didn’t know that a wen was an unpleasant spot. I thought it was a connurbation, as in the great wen.
Wil@5: ‘wen’ for a conurbation derives from its meaning as an unpleasant spot. In the days before modern sanitation towns were often unpleasant (or worse) spots and London in particular came to be known as ‘the great wen’.