Phi ends the working week with his regular Friday offering
Phi often gives us a theme, but if there is one today, it has passed me by. The best I can offer is that the grid has two works by Damien Hirst – ANDROMEDA (27 across) and VERITY (5 down). MATERNITY (13 across) also features in some of Hirst’s works, but I’m probably clutching at straws to make this a theme.
I made fairly steady progress through this puzzle.
It took me a while to understand how HINDU worked with the wordplay but I saw it whilst writing the blog.
There were a couple of biblical references with NAHUM (12 across) and SAINT PAUL (14 down)
There were an average number of anagrams in today’s clues, but the three in a row at 14, 16 and 17 down made it seem there more than usual.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Covering report (4) |
BARK (the rind or covering of the trunk and branches of a tree) BARK |
BARK (report of a gun) double definition |
| 3 | Foresight of French when invading local territory (10) |
DE (French for ‘of’) contained in (invading) PROVINCE (portion of an empire or a state marked off for purposes of government or in some way historically distinct; local territory) PROVI (DE) NCE |
PROVIDENCE (foresight) |
| 10 | Unison passage? Annoyed comment before it’s played back (5) |
TUT (expression of annoyance) + IT reversed (played back) TUT TI< |
TUTTI (musical term indicating the following passage is played by everyone; unison passage) |
| 11 | Camel-rider, perhaps, caught by a pair of Arabs carrying blade (9) |
C (caught) + ([AR {Arab} + AR {Arab]}giving a pair of Arabs] containing [carrying] VANE [blade of a windmill]) C AR A (VANE) R |
CARAVANER ( member of company travelling together for security, especially in crossing the desert, possibly on camels) |
| 12 | Prophet repelled an intrusive smell (5) |
AN reversed (repelled) + HUM (offensive smell) NA< HUM |
NAHUM (NAHUM was a minor prophet whose prophecy is recorded in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament) |
| 13 | Obstetric study? Degree takes a long time, though not at first (9) |
MA (Master of Arts; educational degree) + ETERNITY (a long time) excluding the first letter (not at first) E) MA TERNITY |
MATERNITY (relating to obstetrics [the branch of medicine concerned with childbirth and the treatment of women before and after childbirth]; obstetric study) |
| 14 | America backing computer pioneer for surgical procedure (8) |
US (United States; American) reversed (backing) + TURING (reference Alan TURING [1912 – 1954], English mathematician and pioneering computer scientist) SU< TURING |
SUTURING (stitching of a wound or incision; surgical procedure) |
| 15 | English discernible in handwriting leading to a celebration (6) |
(E [English] contained in [discernible in] FIST [handwriting]) + A FI (E) ST A |
FIESTA (celebration) |
| 18 | Wrote mostly about expression of gratitude for new pupils (6) |
INKED (wrote in INK) excluding the final letter (mostly) D containing (about) TA (thank you; expression of gratitude) IN (TA) KE |
INTAKE (new pupils at a school) |
| 20 | Tries US lawyers, bringing in hired staff member? (8) |
ATTS (attorneys; American lawyers) containing (bringing in) TEMP (temporary staff member; hired staff member) AT (TEMP) TS |
ATTEMPTS (tries) |
| 23 | Strengthened support? Same burst in earthquake (5,4) |
Anagram of (in earthquake) SAME BURST TRUSS BEAM* |
TRUSS BEAM (wooden BEAM strengthened by a steel tie rod; strengthened support)
|
| 25 | Love a story not involving rugby? (5) |
A + RUMOUR (story) excluding (not involving) RU (Rugby Union) A MOUR |
AMOUR (love) |
| 27 | Classical princess and classic city advertisement recalled (9) |
AND + ROME (classical city) + AD (advertisement) reversed (recalled) AND ROME DA< |
ANDROMEDA (In Greek mythology, ANDROMEDA is the daughter of the Aethiopian king Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia; classical princess [daughter of a King]) |
| 28 | Only one component of skean-dhu will do for Indian? (5) |
H IN DU (a cryptic clue to the second component of the word SKEAN-DHU, i.e. using only one component of the word) H IN DU |
HINDU (a follower of the HINDU religion, very likely to be an Indian) |
| 29 | Lacks ready cooked sweet treats (5,5) |
Anagram of (cooked) LACKS READY LARDY CAKES* |
LARDY CAKES (rich sweet cakes made of bread dough, with lard, dried fruit etc) |
| 30 | Car part cut after length installed (4) |
L (length) contained in (installed in) AXE (cut) AX (L) E |
AXLE (the pin or rod in the nave of a wheel on or by means of which the wheel turns; part of a car) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Keep playing or stick? (5) |
BAT ON (continue the innings at cricket; play on) BAT ON |
BATON (short stick) |
| 2 | Progressively move heart of British comic writer (7) |
RATCHET (central letters of [heart of] PRATCHETT [reference Terry PRATCHETT [1948 – 2015], a British humorist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works) RATCHET |
RATCHET (move by steady, progressive degrees) |
| 4 | Wealthy doctor keeping on in part of London (8) |
RICH (wealthy) + (MD [Doctor of Medicine] containing [keeping] ON) RICH M (ON) D |
RICHMOND (district of London) |
| 5 | Harshness deposing pair of leaders, it’s true (6) |
SEVERITY (harshness) excluding (deposing) the first two letters (pair of leaders) SE VERITY |
VERITY (truth) |
| 6 |
Duke finished port (5) |
D (duke) + OVER (finished) D OVER |
DOVER (port in Kent) |
| 7 | Irishman around pub picked up on nurses (7) |
(SEAN [Irish name] containing [around] INN [public house]) all reversed (picked up; down clue) (NA (NNI) ES)< |
NANNIES (children’s nurses) |
| 8 | Lady’s year ruined – back in January, it would seem? (5,4) |
Anagram of (ruined) LADYS YEAR EARLY DAYS* |
EARLY DAYS (January is at the beginning of the year, so the DAYS then are EARLY in the current year) |
| 9 | German leader’s encouragement to repeat company’s initial investing in German currency (8) |
BIS (musical direction indicating that a section is to be repeated) + (C [first letter of {initial} COMPANY] contained in [investing in] MARK [former currency of Germany]) BIS MAR (C) K |
BISMARCK (reference Otto von BISMARCK [1815 – 1898], one time Chancellor of the German Empire) |
| 14 | Dreadful input, alas, for letter writer (5,4) |
Anagram of (dreadful) INPUT ALAS SAINT PAUL* |
SAINT PAUL (writer of epistles and letters in the New Testament) |
| 16 | Each city developed winter sports racer? (3,5) |
Anagram of (developed) EACH CITY ICE YACHT* |
ICE YACHT (a craft mounted on runners for moving over ICE) |
| 17 | Wet smear spoiled glasses (8) |
Anagram of (spoiled) WET SMEAR STEMWARE* |
STEMWARE (glasses and other stemmed vessels) |
| 19 | Oath’s half covered by loud noise (7) |
TH (2 of the 4 [half] letters of OATH) + UNDER (beneath; covered by) TH UNDER |
THUNDER (deep rumbling sound after a flash of lightning; loud noise) |
| 21 | Setter’s cross about one peculiar bird (7) |
(PHI [setter of this crossword] + X [cross sign]) containing (about) an anagram of (peculiar) ONE PH (OEN*) I X |
PHOENIX (legendary Arabian bird, worshipped in ancient Egypt, the only individual of its kind, that burned itself every 500 years or so and rose rejuvenated from its ashes) |
| 22 | Midsummer lover, he left one from Scotland upset (6) |
HE + L (left) + ANE (word for ‘one’ on Scotland) reversed (upset) HE L ENA< |
HELENA (HELENA is a fictional character and one of the four young lovers – Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and HELENA – featured in William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. |
| 24 | Pitiless on being confined in pen (5) |
ON contained in (being confined in) STY (pen for pigs) ST (ON) Y |
STONY (hard; pitiless) |
| 26 | Scoundrel’s good shifting cosmetic (5) |
ROGUE (scoundrel) with the G (good) moving towards the end of the word (shifting) to form ROUGE ROUGE |
ROUGE (example of a cosmetic) |
Thanks Phi and duncandshiell
I found this a struggle with a few unknowns (LARDY CAKES and HELENA) and unparsed (HINDU (very good) and AMOUR).
I wondered about a US cities theme – SAINT PAUL, PROVIDENCE, RICHMOND, BISMARCK, PHOENIX, HELENA and BATON ROUGE. Without looking it up, I think they’re all state capitals.
Thanks to Phi and Duncan.
And Dover, not that I spotted the Nina until i’d finished.
Thanks Duncan and Phi.
We didn’t spot the theme, either, till we’d finished; we didn’t know HELENA as a city, and had to look up BISMARCK which we suspected was one. DOVER occurs in at least three states, Delaware, New Hampshire and New Jersey.
1ac held us up for a while – we thought of ‘bang’ at first (a bang is a fringe of hair and possibly the hairstyle that includes it) and had to check in Chambers for the ‘report’ meaning of BARK after we got RATCHET.
Some great clues: the aforesaid RATCHET for one, as well as PHOENIX, but our CoD was HINDU – very neat!
Thanks, Phi and Duncan.