An enjoyably satisfactory crossword from Wiglaf today. It seemed to me that it was on the hard side, but everything (except for the doubt mentioned below) is solid and convincing.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
Apparently the fact that Phi is now not regularly on Fridays doesn’t mean that there is some special anniversary or something that a particular Friday is needed for, but rather that Phi is now appearing at various times during the week, like all the other setters. This may be quite wrong and perhaps there is some Nina staring me in the face, but I can see nothing.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ANTIFA | Militant left-wing movement opposed to loud American (6) |
| anti f A — this is the American version | ||
| 4 | POPPER | Dad’s a philosopher (6) |
| Pop per [a, as in ‘take one a/per day’] — the philosopher Karl Popper | ||
| 8 | MARIMBA | Male setter’s inside playing Arab instrument (7) |
| m ar(I’m)ba, the arba being *(Arab) | ||
| 9 | WANT ADS | Worker having gone through loadsamoney gets the classifieds (4,3) |
| w(ant)ads — but I thought loadsamoney, or rather Loadsamoney, was the Harry Enfield character — does the coinage also refer just to a lot of money? | ||
| 11 | FORTINBRAS | Hamlet’s oppo battled, some say, wearing women’s underwear (10) |
| “fought” in bras | ||
| 12 | DOOM | Inevitable annihilation has war department circling round in a spin (4) |
| (MO(O)D)rev. — Ministry of Defence | ||
| 13 | PANIC | Wolves cut across province creating overwhelming terror (5) |
| pa(NI)c{k} | ||
| 14 | STRUMPET | A tart prepared to straddle world leader! (8) |
| s(Trump)et | ||
| 16 | LORRAINE | Golden shower secreted by the French woman (8) |
| l(or rain)e | ||
| 18 | CAGED | Composer died behind bars (5) |
| Cage d. | ||
| 20 | ERGO | So Vera’s content to work (4) |
| {V}er{a} go | ||
| 21 | BROCATELLE | Cellar to be tarted up? Heavy fabric is required (10) |
| (Cellar to be)* | ||
| 23 | LACTOSE | Doctor locates possible cause of problem for IBS sufferers (7) |
| *(locates) | ||
| 24 | IGNEOUS | Fiery gas insufficient to stop inauguration of Imperator Augustus (7) |
| (I{mperator} G(neo{n})us) | ||
| 25 | EMPSON | 20th-century poet abandoned new poems (6) |
| *(n poems) — this poet | ||
| 26 | LESSEE | Tenant is short of pills? (6) |
| less E E | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ALAMO | Mission from Alaska shows up (5) |
| Hidden reversed in frOM ALAska | ||
| 2 | TRISTAN | Rumour of secret rendezvous with a knight? This one (7) |
| “tryst” a N — the knight of Tristan and Isolde | ||
| 3 | FIBONACCI | Story about case facing Italy’s top mathematician (9) |
| fib on acc. [accusative, case] I — acc = accusative is I think correct, although my first idea was account, which seems hard to justify | ||
| 5 | ORALS | Tests circuit while controlling inductance (5) |
| 6 | POTSDAM | Nuts stage uprising in German city (7) |
| (mad spot)rev. | ||
| 7 | RADIOHEAD | Group leader set to go first (9) |
| head [leader] with radio [set] first — the pop group | ||
| 10 | ARMS DEPOT | Does tramp shower in the powder room? (4,5) |
| (Does tramp)* — powder room in that it is a store of gunpowder | ||
| 13 | PROCREATE | Screwed a receptor to make babies (9) |
| *(a receptor) | ||
| 15 | RECTANGLE | Treacle – no good for reshaping figure (9) |
| (Treacle NG)* | ||
| 17 | ROOFTOP | Men turned up frequently to work in part of house (7) |
| (OR)rev. oft op. | ||
| 19 | GEEZERS | Ezra’s in Georgia with the Queen’s men (7) |
| (Ge (Ez) ER’s) | ||
| 21 | BASSO | He sings some of Abba’s songs (5) |
| Hidden in AbBA’S SOngs | ||
| 22 | LOUSE | Miss cuddling upper-class cad? (5) |
| lo(U)se | ||
*anagram
Thanks, John. The Harry Enfield song: “Oi You!! Shut your mouth and Look at my wad! LOADSAMONEY!!!”
From Chambers: OR: “a logic circuit…” (Not something I knew either!)
Very nice.
I found this hard. I’d never heard of the term WANT ADS, didn’t know the ‘Heavy fabric’ or the ’20th-century poet’ and had no hope parsing ORALS. IGNEOUS for ‘Fiery’ was also tough. To cap it all off, although I had the correct answer, I didn’t spot the ALAMO reverse hidden!
A struggle, but with some excellent clues including ‘Dad’s a philosopher’ and the er… somewhat racy 14a.
Thanks to Wiglaf and to John (and NeilW @1) for working it all out.
A little help required from wordfinder and Google before we got there in the end but without understanding all the wordplay.
Favourite was 11ac – it had us giggling for ages before we could continue solving.
Thanks, Wiglaf and John.
Got stuck on the right hand side until I remembered Karl Popper and then things fell into place. I was another who didn’t spot the hidden Alamo in spite of guessing the answer. Liked Fortinbras. Thanks to both.
Good crossword with a few unknowns – ANTIFA, WANT ADS, BROCATELLE, EMPSON.
I particularly liked FORTINBRAS, STRUMPET and ARMS DEPOT.
Thanks Wiglaf and John.
I smiled when I saw FORTINBRAS, as it was clued in a similar way by Picaroon in the Guardian way back in Jan 2013. Some things just stick in the mind!
I think Loadsamoney was a comic character, not just a song. But I’m grateful for being reminded of him.
11 across was clued differently in the printed version (in an indian newspaper) : hamlet’s oppo takes castle wearing women’s underwear