Phi makes his regular Friday appearance
As usual, Phi eases us into the weekend with a good puzzle.
I don’t think there is a theme, but there is an additional symmetry beyond the normal 180 degree grid patter. Both the first and last columns are similar showing RENTHES. Update: Thanks to NeilW at comment 1 for pointing out, that I didn’t look widely enough. The full word on each side is PARENTHESIS forming braqckets round the grid.
I initially said that you can form lots of two word anagrams out of RENTHES but none of them seem to have any special relevance to the 1st of May or Mayday, but Neil has made it all clear now.
I liked the clue for ATLANTIS
There was a little for eacg of arts, sports and science fans in the grid today. GREEN FLASH was a new term for me.
| No |
Clue |
Wordplay |
Entry |
| Across | |||
| 8 | Libertine accepting dessert and cold snack item (4,4) |
RAKE(libertine) containing (accepting) (ICE [example of a dessert] + C) R (ICE C) AKE |
RICE CAKE (light, usually round cake made from puffed rice grains, eaten alone or spread with other foods |
| 9 | Lord’s debutant role? Old member of Lords welcoming new (6) |
O (old) +PEER [member of the House of Lords] containing [welcoming] N [new]) O PE (N) ER |
OPENER (the first [debutant] player to the crease at Lords Cricket Ground will be an OPENER) |
| 10 | Engineer brought back fabrication having received slimmed-down offer (6) |
LIE(falsehood; fabrication) reversed (brought back) containing(having received) FFE (letters remaining in EI (FFE) L< |
EIFFEL (reference Gustave EIFFEL [1832 – 1923], French engineer who designed the Parisian tower that bears his name) |
| 11 | Month’s one’s invested in energy framework? Try another place (8) |
(M [month] + I [Roman numeral for one]) contained in (invested in) (E[energy] + GRATE [framework of bars]) E (M I) GRATE |
EMIGRATE(move to another country to settle permanently; try another place) |
| 12 | Beneficial hours in working in government (10) |
Anagram of (working) HOURS IN + IN + G (government) NOURISH* IN G |
NOURISHING (beneficial) |
| 13 | Nothing recalled about English legal right (4) |
NIL(nothing) reversed (recalled) E (English) LI (E)N< |
LIEN (legal right to retain possession of another’s property until the owner pays a debt or fulfils a contract) |
| 14 | Unexciting cinematography only partly rejected (4) |
TAME (hidden word (partly) reversed (rejected) in CINEMATOGRAPHY) TAME< |
TAME(unexciting) |
| 16 | Praise work I abandoned, taken on by former partner (5) |
EX (former partner) + TO EX TOL |
EXTOL (praise) |
| 18 | Support only half the letters? (4) |
ABET (four of the eight [half] letters of the word ALPHABET [letters]) ABET |
ABET(support) |
| 19 | Whole of one’s foot or half of one’s foot, initially (4) |
HOOF (first letters of [initially] each of HALF, OF, ONE’S and FOOT) HOOF |
HOOF (whole of certain animal’s feet) |
| 21 | Solar phenomenon given fresh angle possibly (5,5) |
Anagram of (possibly) FRESH ANGLE GREEN FLASH* |
GREEN FLASH (FLASH of GREEN light sometimes seen at the moment of sunrise or sunset; solar phenomenon) |
| 23 | Alien forest worker, say, is someone from outside France (8) |
ET(extraterrestrial) + RANGER (forest officer) ET RANGER |
ETRANGER(French word for foreigner; someone from outside France) |
| 24 | A lot of excellent beer is the last thing you want? (6) |
FIN FIN ALE |
FINALE (the end or climax; the last thing you want) |
| 25 | Number getting cold aboard fixed Arctic vehicle? (3-3) |
(NO [number] + C [cold]) contained in (aboard) SAT (positioned; located; fixed) S (NO C) AT |
SNO-CAT (a type of motorized, tracked vehicle for use on snow; Arctic vehicle) |
| 26 | Film composer one morning seen amongst leaves (8) |
(I [Roman numeral for one] + AM [ante meridiem; morning]) contained in (seen amongst) WILLS (leaves) WILL (I AM) S |
WILLIAMS (reference John WILLIAMS [born 1932], American composer and conductor, best known for film scores such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, Superman and many others) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | One child in a ring displaying martial art (6) |
(I [Roman numeral for one] + KID[child]) contained in (in) (A + O [ring shaped letter]) A (I KID) O |
AIKIDO (Japanese martial art using locks and pressure against joints) |
| 2 | Exercises aviators, requiring no indication of excellence necessarily (8) |
PE (physical education; exercise) + PE RFORCE |
PERFORCE (of necessity) |
| 3 | English city councillor with yarn about American (8) |
(CR [councillor] + LISLE [long-stapled, hard-twisted cotton yarn]) containing (about) A (American) C (A)R LISLE |
CARLISLE (city in the North West of England) |
| 4 | Second Star of Africa or India? (5,2,3,5) |
JEWEL IN THE CROWN (this is a reference to the second largest stone cut from the Cullinan Diamond , the largest rough diamond ever found. Cullinan II is known as the Second Star of JEWEL IN THE CROWN |
JEWEL IN THE CROWN (India was often referred to as the JEWEL IN THE CROWN of the British Empire) double definition |
| 5 | Fighting identified with crater ? (6) |
BOXING (a crater [someone who packs items into crates or boxes] would be boxing things) BOXING |
BOXING (fighting) double definition |
| 6 | Fuel favoured a lot of motion on wheels (6) |
PET (favoured) + ROL PET ROL |
PETROL (fuel, often used by engines that create motion on wheels) |
| 7 | Article in the main elevated tense European art lover? (8) |
THE (definite article) contained in (in) (SEA [the main] reversed [elevated; down clue] + T [tense] + E [European]) AES< (THE) T E |
AESTHETE (person who affects an extravagant love of art) |
| 15 | Italian motorcyclist qualified, covering section in main road (8) |
(GOT IN [qualified for] containing [covering] S [section]) all contained in (in) A1 (main road from London to Edinburgh or Edinburgh to London if you want the different nationalist views) A (GO (S) T IN) I |
AGOSTINI (reference Giacomo AGOSTINI [born 1942], Italian motor cycle world champion) |
| 17 | Approach to harbour and nothing more expressed in three lines (8) |
(AND + FA [reference ‘sweet Fanny Adams’ {nothing at all}; other expansions of FA apply as well]) contained in (expressed in) L [line] + L [line] + L [line] giving three lines) L (AND FA) L L |
LANDFALL (approach to land after a journey by sea or air) |
| 18 | ________ isn’t represented on a lot of maps! (8) |
ATLA ATLA NTIS* |
ATLANTIS (legendary vanished island in the Atlantic Ocean that, not surprisingly, doesn’t appear on a lot of maps) |
| 20 | Old money I extracted from the Pope? (6) |
FRANC FRANCS |
FRANCS (former currency of France before the Euro; old money) |
| 21 | Performances seen around old time joints (6) |
GIGS (performances) containing (seen around) (O [old] + T [time]) GIG (O T) S |
GIGOTS (leg of mutton; joint |
| 22 | Sausage? Setter’s looking up after reduction in vegetarian fare (6) |
SALA SALA MI |
SALAMI (highly seasoned Italian sausage) |
Thanks, Duncan. The NINA is bracket-shaped PARENTHESIS on both sides of the grid.
Beat me to it, Neil. Another nice nina fro Phi.
Really enjoyed this and learned a few things along the way. Didn’t know GREEN FLASH or the first definition for 4d. Amazed that I somehow knew AGOSTINI. SNOCAT & GIGOTS were guesses but I felt I knew them both at some time.
Thanks both.
NeilW @ 1 (and Hovis @ 2)
Thanks for spottinbg what I should have seen. I’ve updated the blog now.
Another good peripheral Nina from a Phi after last week’s “boundary” one. This took me a while, with a few like SNO-CAT having to go in uncertainly and I just remembered GIGOTS and GREEN FLASH, the latter from the title of a ?70’s French film.
Giacomo AGOSTINI was a welcome surprise and normally would have been my favourite but it’s impossible to go past the excellent ATLANTIS today, one of the best clues for the week.
Thanks to Phi and Duncan
Quite a toughie from Phi especially when the nina was not spotted but that was OK as the other puzzles today were simple.
Thanks dunc and Phi
Very good, especially Atlantis. I did spot the []. I pencilled in unparsed Florin at 20D but soon realised it wasn’t. Many thanks Phi and Duncan.
Once again, the best of today’s free offerings. Failed to spot the nina, which is par for the course for me. Never heard of GREEN FLASH, or a film composer.
Nothing too difficult, we thought, although we took a while to get ABET, our LOI. AGOSTINI was half guess, half something vaguely remembered. We wondered why 23ac should be ÉTRANGER rather than ‘stranger’ which the ‘alien’ suggested, but all was made clear when we spotted the nina.
Thanks, Phi and Duncan.