What is there to say about a Phi crossword that is new? As usual it is well-constructed with many nice clues and my guess is that my questions all have simple and convincing answers.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
As always with Phi I can’t see anything special going on. But there usually is and no doubt we’ll learn what.
| Across | ||
| 1 | RHOMBUS | Lozenge from doctor in right building (no end of disease) (7) |
| r ho(MB)us{{diseas}e} | ||
| 5 | PODCAST | Item on website about current article or internet feature (7) |
| po(DC a)st — it took me a while to parse this since the definition isn’t obvious — the current is DC as in AC/DC | ||
| 9 | SAINT GEORGE | I’m excited by e.g. dragon site, carrying off dragon’s head (5,6) |
| *(e.g. dragon site – d{ragon}) — certainly there is much &littery going on here, but is the whole clue the definition or is it simply I? I think more likely the second. Pity about the ‘by’, which to my mind doesn’t actually make it unsound but it would make the wordplay rather bettter if it wasn’t there | ||
| 10 | RHO | Something like 25 occupying another hotel (3) |
| Hidden in anotheR HOtel — if you look at 25ac you see a clue of the same form — all very odd, until you see that in fact they’re very simple constructions and they’re both Greek letters, so ‘something like’ each other | ||
| 11 | HORSE | Animal runs into pipe (5) |
| ho(R)se | ||
| 12 | WITHDRAWN | Quiet humour getting hearts tense (9) |
| wit H drawn | ||
| 13 | PRINCESS | Knight engaged in charges and jousts ultimately – for her token? (8) |
| pri(N)ces {joust}s | ||
| 15 | BRIDE | Book trip – presumably honeymoon for me? (5) |
| b ride | ||
| 17 | SET-UP | Name excluded from ridiculed organisation (3-2) |
| se{N}t up | ||
| 18 | DOORSTEP | Party poster arranged? Try some canvassing (8) |
| do (poster)* — I’m not quite sure of the definition: yes, if you canvass you may well doorstep people, but what is ‘Try’ doing? | ||
| 21 | BRIMSTONE | Border’s attitude? It’s something fiery (9) |
| brim’s tone — fire and brimstone | ||
| 23 | EXIST | Be initially slow in departure (5) |
| exi(s{low}t | ||
| 25 | ETA | Something like 10 occupying same tavern (3) |
| Explanation as for 10ac — Hidden this time in samE TAvern | ||
| 26 | HAMMERSMITH | London district blasts story with change of character (11) |
| hammers myth with the character y made into an i — this kind of thing seems vague to me, since any of the characters could be changed into any other character and there are lots of possibilities — or perhaps there’s something tighter going on of which I’m unaware | ||
| 27 | TOENAIL | Digital coverage – electronic in fashion – to look bad (7) |
| to(e)n ail — ton is a word for fashion or the fashionable world that only in my experience ever appears in crosswords | ||
| 28 | TANDOOR | Show signs of burning with opening Indian oven (7) |
| tan [show signs of burning] door | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ROSEHIP | Part of plant came up with it (7) |
| rose [came up] hip (cool, in, …] | ||
| 2 | OSIER | Wetland willow, small, that is circled by old river (5) |
| o(s ie)r | ||
| 3 | BUTTERCUP | Plant in bar picked up, having received pure cold water? (9) |
| (pub)rev. round (utter C) | ||
| 4 | STEPWISE | Informed after grumpy behaviour’s kept up following a flight? (8) |
| (pets)rev. wise — following a flight of stairs | ||
| 5 | PIRATE | Illegal talk about Independent (6) |
| p(I)rate | ||
| 6 | DREAD | Doctor first to dismiss initial fear (5) |
| Dr {h}ead — head = first, and its initial is being dismissed | ||
| 7 | AERIALIST | A passion to go high – shown by most celebrated trapeze artist (9) |
| a (ire)rev. A-list — the reversal indicated by ‘to go high’ — doesn’t really convince me I’m afraid since ‘to go high’ suggests being translated to a higher place, not being turned upside-down | ||
| 8 | TROUNCE | Beat counter revolutionary (7) |
| (Counter)* | ||
| 14 | INTRICATE | Complex article initially taken in in an instant (9) |
| in tric(a t{aken})e | ||
| 15 | BARPERSON | I supply drinks (except for each youngster) (9) |
| bar per [for each] son | ||
| 16 | LOVE SEAT | Worry after solve goes wrong? You should get your mate in here! (4,4) |
| (solve)* eat | ||
| 17 | SUBVERT | Confound expectations of money paid to old soldier? That’s about right (7) |
| sub ve(R)t | ||
| 19 | PITCHER | Someone promoting source of drink? (7) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 20 | FORMAL | Like court dress, perhaps, appropriate to a man? Not entirely (6) |
| for mal{e} | ||
| 22 | SCHWA | Indistinct sound from school was curtailed (5) |
| sch wa{s} — a schwa, about which I never learnt in grammar at school, is a sort of neutral vowel sound as in the first syllable of ‘about’ | ||
| 24 | INIGO | Man intent on entry? (5) |
| It sounds as if he’s saying “in I go” | ||
*anagram
Phi reliable as ever.
However at the end of this week I cant help chanting the manor “STRONG AND STABLE”
Thanks, John. Across the centre is PRINCESS BRIDE, which rang a bell. A quick search found a number of entries linked to the book/film, including BUTTERCUP, DREAD PIRATE (Roberts) and INIGO. No doubt there are others but I’m no expert on the genre!
I missed the theme of course and found this a bit harder than the ‘usual’ Phi. I couldn’t parse BUTTERCUP and there were a few other difficult ones such as INIGO, my last in. Maybe ‘try’ is meant to indicate that DOORSTEP(ping) may not be a successful form of ‘canvassing’.
I didn’t learn about SCHWA at school either, but only from my other major learning resource, the cryptic crossword.
Thanks to Phi and to John
William Goldman, the author of The Princess Bride, died a little while ago, leading me to reread the book. Buttercup, who has a horse called HORSE, is, in fact, Princess of HAMMERSMITH. I don’t think there’s anything else – but it’s not inconceivable.
Thanks Phi and John
In 26, I saw ‘change of character’ as referring to people: textspeak Y(ou) changing to I.
Yes this would make good sense, Simon, but in textspeak it would surely be U.
Spotted Princess Bride but couldn’t take it further.
In 7d, I think using “to go high” as a phrase for “to go up” indicating reversal in a down clue is ok.
Thanks to Phi and John.
Having just finished wtching the Princess Bride, I still missed the theme!
Phi, that word may not mean what you think it does.
Very annoyed with myself for missing the theme. I’ve just finished writing my father of the bride speech and I’m incorporating the ‘mawidge’ speech from Peter Cook ( the Impressive Clergyman).
Good puzzle, but SCHWA? Really? Not at my grammar school.
18 across DOORSTEP : you can get as far as the doorstep, and knock on the door, and have the door opened – and then have it slammed in your face without any canvassing occurring – I know, I used to do it once on behalf of my MP employer.
A bit trickier than some offerings from Phi, we thought, particularly the NE corner where we needed wordfinder help. We did work out that 7dn was AERIALIST though we couldn’t fully parse it, but were hung up on the idea that ‘current article’ in 5ac meant it was a word ening in ‘iant’, so PODCAST was our LOI after we got PIRATE. We liked the cross-referenced clues for RHO and ETA.
Copmus@1: Did you mean ‘mantra’ for ‘manor’? – I blame predictive text.
Thanks, Phi and John
Thanks to John and Phi
9a doesn’t work
18a TRY is there because otherwise the suggested entry would be DOORSTEPPING. DO may have been better.
4d The ? is there because one is not really following a flight of stairs, but a stepped procedure.
17d I don’t see what EXPECTATIONS brings to the clue.
It may sound like I didn’t enjoy this, but I did.
Dansar@12: Re 18ac, I guess ‘try’ was used as ‘do’ (=party) is part of the answer.
allan_c @13
You’re quite right of course -it’s also part of the wordplay!
Perform, carry out, or some such perhaps but I see why the setter had to avoid DO.