Phi is occupying his customary Friday slot this week.
I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle and made steady progress through it. The grid had space for more than the usual number of medium-to-long entries and offered a good few first letters to the solver, both of which doubtless made for a quicker solve.
I am fairly confident of my parsing, but I would appreciate confirmation (or not) of 4 and 13, where I am not sure what to make of “expected” and “in this” respectively. My favourite clues today were 2 and 25, both for surface; and the semi-& lit. at 15D/12.
I haven’t spotted a theme today, but perhaps others have? I wondered if we were in for a pangram this time, but the completed grid lacked a “w” and a “z”.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | INSIGHTFUL | Astute in flushing it out
*(FLUSHING IT); “out” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | JAVA | A verb in Germany certainly indicates a modern language
[A + V (=verb)] in JA (=in Germany certainly, i.e. the German word for yes); Java is a computer programming language, hence “a modern language”! |
| 09 | NATIONALLY | New court case not about to get support all over the country
N (=new) + A<c>TION (=court case; “not about (=c, for circa)” means letter “c” is dropped) + ALLY (=support) |
| 10 | BETA | Take a chance with article under test
BET (=take a chance) + A (=article, in grammar); a beta test is a product test under normal working conditions |
| 13 | SATURDAY | No source for dairy product in peanut-based dish in this period of time
[<c>URD (=dairy product); “no source” means first letter is dropped)] in SATAY (=peanut-based dish) |
| 15 | BICONCAVE | Firm blocking most of binoculars with warning regarding type of lens
[CO (=firm, i.e. company) in BIN<s> (=binoculars, informally; “most of” means last letter is dropped)] + CAVE (=warning, i.e. beware) |
| 16 | SISAL | Article from Spain is reversible fibre
LAS (=article from Spain, i.e. a Spanish word for the) + IS; “reversible” indicates reversal |
| 17 | EMMET | Those people, in short, encountered a tourist in Cornwall
‘EM (=those people, i.e. them; “in short” indicates abbreviation) + MET (=encountered) |
| 19 | EYEPIECES | They focus here, finally, certainly taking in church after confusion
[PIE (=confusion) + CE (=church, i.e. Church of England)] in [<her>E (“finally” means last letter only) + YES (=certainly)] |
| 21 | KEROSENE | Increased in range of knowledge applied to energy and fuel
[ROSE (=increased) in KEN (=range of knowledge)] + E (=energy) |
| 22 | UNKNOT | Release Cockney dish? That gets a negative response
<h>UNK (=dish, i.e. physically attractive person; “Cockney” means initial “h” is dropped) + NOT (=negative response) |
| 25 | AXIS | Alliance backing boundary area
SIX (=boundary, i.e. six runs in cricket) + A (=area); “backing” indicates reversal |
| 26 | SCRAMBLERS | Some motorcyclists are leaving to frighten walkers
SC<are> (=to frighten; “are leaving” means letters “are” are dropped) + RAMBLERS (=walkers) |
| 27 | TOGA | Outer garment, note, discarded in Pacific islands
TO<n>GA (=Pacific islands); “note (=N)” discarded” means letter “n” is dropped |
| 28 | VEHEMENTLY | Forcefully appearing in my eleventh game
*(MY ELEVENTH); “game” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 01 | IONIC | Regarding charge? One’s postponed endlessly
I (=one) + ON IC<e> (=postponed); “endlessly” means last letter is dropped; an ion is an electrically-charged particle |
| 02 | SATYRIC | It’s racy, perverted and lecherous
*(IT’S RACY); “perverted” is anagram indicator; a satyr is a lecherous man |
| 03 | GEOMAGNETISM | Gang sometime ploughed up field of earth
*(GANG SOMETIME); “ploughed up” is anagram indicator; geomagnetism is the earth’s magnetic field |
| 04 | TOAD | Ugly creature little expected to receive love
O (=love, i.e. zero score) in TAD (=little, small amount) |
| 05 | UNLEAVENED | Unlikely to rise, being avoided, having ignored request for silence about holidays
LEAVE (=holidays) in <sh>UNNED (=avoided; “ignored request for silence (=sh)” means letters “sh” are dropped; unleavened bread, i.e. that made without yeast, is “unlikely to rise” |
| 07 | AGENDAS | Aim to interrupt a lot of discussion in items for meetings
END (=aim, goal) in [A + GAS (=lot of discussion, i.e. garrulous talk)] |
| 08 | AMARYLLIS | Flower a stupid sheep turned over
A + MARYLLIS (SILLY=stupid + RAM (=sheep); “turned over” indicates reversal) |
| 11 | QUESTIONABLE | Dicky is eloquent about a book of dubious merit
[A + B (=book)] in *(IS ELOQUENT); “dicky” is anagram indicator |
| 14 | TABERNACLE | Upset cleaner chasing bill for place of worship
TAB (=bill, in shop) + *(CLEANER) |
| 15/12 | BREAKFAST CEREAL | British are excited with flakes etc, one tucking in – this?
BR (=British) + [A (=one) in *(ARE + FLAKES ETC)]; “excited” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | MORNING | Dark clothing not universal early in the day
MO<u>RNING (=dark clothing, i.e. that worn by those grieving); “not universal (=U)” means letter “u” is dropped |
| 20 | CONTENT | Satisfied with // material in book, say
Double definition |
| 23 | TESTY | Irritated about exam?
Cryptically, “test-y” could mean “about exam” |
| 24 | CAKE | Perhaps Brownie cameras aren’t key equipment initially
C<ameras> A<ren’t> K<ey> E<quipment>; “initially” means first letters only are used |
We found this fairly straightforward and solved everything without help. We puzzled over ‘expected’ in 4 and can only think it’s there for the surface reading. In 13 we think ‘this’ is part of the definition, meaning Saturday rather than any other day/period of time. And we slowed down towards the end looking for opportunities to complete a pangram. No theme that we can see (although we did wonder if JAVA and BETA were part of a theme based on IT), but Phi’s themes are usually ghost themes – perhaps based on a book which unless you’re familiar with it yourself doesn’t stand out.
We liked BICONCAVE, GEOMAGNETISM and QUESTIONABLE.
Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku
Another who expected a pangram. It would be a trivial matter to alter 4d and 24d to make a pangram (e.g. twat & daze) so I feel there is something more going on. Of course, it is also possible Phi didn’t realise he was that close and usually goes for subtler themes.
Thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku.
A most enjoyable puzzle with the intersecting SATURDAY and AMARYLLIS outstanding. Put in Asia for 25A having found an acronym for an organisation that would satisfy the cluing, AIS. Also liked KEROSENE and UNKNOT, which it had to be, though did not immediately twig the parsing of [H]unk.
1D in blog is missing the initial “I”.
Thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku.
Pretty much perfect quality daily cryptic, in which AMARYLLIS was the stand out clue, because it made me laugh.
I reckoned the ‘expected’ in 4ac to be taking the clue to an extended definition type. Toads, like Neanderthals, get an unnecessarily bad press. Beauty is a social construct.
Thanks to RR and Phi and good weekend to all.
I too was setting myself up for a pangram, only to be disappointed. I thought there might be an optical theme developing, with ‘insightful’, ‘biconcave’ (lens) and ‘eyepieces’, but no joy there either. Despite which, most enjoyable, so thanks Phi and RR.
Thanks to gwep for spotting the omission at 1D, now corrected.
I have a few favourite online cartoon series to recommend including QUESTIONABLE CONTENT, SATURDAY MORNING BREAKFAST CEREAL and XKCD. Sadly English has not yet evolved a word containing that particular sequence but the letters are scattered around the grid, simultaneously pushing me close to a pangram.
Not sure I would ever use ‘twat’ in a puzzle. ‘Twatt’, on the other hand, is a village in Orkney less often photographed than the signs pointing towards it.
Thanks. Emmet a new word for me but seems like everyone else knows it. Thanks phi for the puzzle though I couldn’t make heads or tails out of what you wrote at 7.
Eric, if it helps you to remember it for next time (and it does come up a bit in crosswords) EMMET is a Cornish dialect word for ‘ant’, with the concept being, I suppose, that tourists come crawling all over Cornwall in the summer.
Very late to the party here, enjoyable but missed many parsings. Can anyone enlighten me why warning = cave, and why confusion = pie? Thanks.
@10El_Gwero. “Cave” (generally pronounced karvay) is Latin imperative for “beware” (often found in public schoolboy fiction when boys see a teacher approaching).
Also think of caveat emptor – let the buyer beware.
On further reflection, although if one were studying Latin academically one would pronounce it karvay, I believe public schoolboys pronounced it kayvee (accent is on the first syllable in both cases).
El_Gwero @10 As gwep says for “cave”. “Pie” is a term in typing for confused lettering and does crop up now and then in cryptics.
To expand on Hovis’s explanation @13, the term originated in printing with moveable type – individual letters set in a frame. If a frame or a case of type was dropped, so that all the letters got mixed up, the result was a “printer’s pie”.
gwep, Hovis, allan_c thanks for sharing your knowledge. Two more twigs for my cryptic woodpile