[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
Phi is in his usual Friday slot
Some of the entries looked like names so I thought there might be a theme. A bit of research showed that there is a theme of detectives and possibly also some words associated with crime fiction.
I counted the surnames of nine (or ten) detectives, as follows
Phryne FISHER – author Kerry Greenwood;
Father BROWN – G K Chesterton;
Gideon FELL – John Dickson Carr;
Mike HAMMER – Mickey Spillane;
Albert CAMPION – Margery Allingham;
Jonathan CREEK – David Renwick;
Sam SPADE – Dashiell Hammett;
Nick & Nora CHARLES – also Dashiell Hammett; and
Endeavour MORSE – Colin Dexter
Other entries that could be loosely associated with crime fiction are ICE PICKS [murder weapons], AMEN [in memory of the victim], ELABORATED [explained the thinking behind identifying the criminal], MISTAKEN [identity], ANALYSIS [of evidence and the crime scene] and BLUNT [instrument; murder weapon]
I suppose HAMMER and SPADE could do double duty as murder weapons as well as detectives.
It was not necessary to be aware of the theme to solve the puzzle. Indeed, I didn’t notice the theme until I had finished the puzzle. Some of the books or television series featuring the detectives I have read or seen, but not all.
All in all a theme packed grid.
Often with themed crossword, there are other entries that are obscure to fit with the letters crossing from the theme words, but that wasn’t the case here. Perhaps PUNCTILIO, BIRETTA and THRUM are not everyday words, but neither are they totally obscure. It’s also often the case that theme words are confined to the just the across entries or just the downs. Again that wasn’t the case here.
Phi had to resort to an American spelling to fit it SUN PARLOR, but the form of the spelling was clearly indicated in the clue.
I enjoyed this puzzle by Phi at the end of an interesting set of Independent weekday crosswords
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 1 | Timeless moments about big film showing requirements for climbers (3,5) |
IC (E PIC) KS |
ICE PICKS (tools used by climbers) |
| 6 |
It’s a rare angler to seek compliments with hesitation (6) |
FISH (seek compliments) + ER (expressing hesitation) FISH ER |
FISHER (rarely used term for fisherman or angler) |
| 9 | Conclude university has been missed off a list (4) |
A + MEN A MEN |
AMEN (to conclude) |
| 10 | Newsman covering US workers worried in greater detail (10) |
ED (editor; newsman) containing (covering) (LABOR [American [US] term for workers] + ATE [worried]) E (LABOR ATE) D |
ELABORATED (set out in greater detail) |
| 11 | Amount pledged about minimum? On the contrary and quite wrong (8) |
MIN (minimum) containing (about) STAKE (amount pledged as a wager) i.e. the exact opposite (on the contrary) of the first part of the clue MI (STAKE) N |
MISTAKEN (quite wrong) |
| 13 | Spain you once granted a small opening (7) |
E (International Vehicle Registration) + YE (old [once] form of you) + LET (granted) E YE LET |
EYELET (small hole to receive a lace or cord) |
| 14 | Variable computer network returned, without modification externally, in investigation (8) |
AS IS (without modification) containing (externally) (Y [letter frequently used to denote an unknown or variable value in mathematics] + LAN [local area network]) reversed (returned) A (NAL Y)< S IS |
ANALYSIS (investigation) |
| 16 | Forthright and mostly sad, not heartless (5) |
BLU BLU NT |
BLUNT (forthright) |
| 18 | Top name – or should that be Smith? (5) |
BROW (summit; top) + N (name) BROW N |
BROWN (a fairly common surname, listed sixth in an Independent article dated November 2016 at just under 200,000 in Great Britain. Smith was listed at number 1 with nearly 550,000 occurrences.) |
| 19 | Roundabout charge that’s round about (8) |
INDICT (charge) containing (around) RE (with reference to; about) INDI (RE) CT |
INDIRECT (not straight; roundabout) |
| 21 | Some work held over before insect repelled in Scottish village (6) |
ERG (CGS [centimetre-gram-second] unit of work) reversed (held over) + ANT (type of insect) also reversed (repelled) GRE< NTA< |
GRETNA (technically it is GRETNA Green that is historically the first village in Scotland travelling north from England on the old coaching routes. GRETNA nowadays is a small town, hosting an outlet village just off the M74) |
| 23 | One’s not quit a cheat – sneakily manages to secure First in maths (8) |
Anagram of (sneakily) MANAGES containing (to secure) M (first letter of [First in] MATHS) GA (M) ESMAN* Either M could be the one contained |
GAMESMAN (one who has mastered the art of winning games or defeating opponents by clever or cunning practices without actually cheating) Given as a noun in Collins and the Oxford Dictionary of English. Chambers only lists GAMESMANSHIP |
| 25 | Circulation of air, tireless, not requiring a purifier? (10) |
Anagram of (circulation of) STERILISER* |
STERILISER (something that removes bacteria; purifier) |
| 27 | Dangerous hillside collapsed (4) |
FELL (cruel; dangerous) FELL (hillside) |
FELL (collapsed) triple definition |
| 28 |
Completely outclass film studio (6) |
HAMMER (trounce; completely outclass) HAMMER |
HAMMER (reference HAMMER Film Productions Ltd, a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of gothic horror films made in the 1960s and 1970s) |
| 29 | Annoys son without good reason (8) |
NEEDLES (annoys) + S (son) NEEDLES S |
NEEDLESS (without good reason) |
| Down | |||
| 2 | Wild flower? Willing to go after one after scouting event (7) |
CAMP (reference a scout CAMP) + I (Roman numeral for one) + ON (willing to participate in) CAMP I ON |
CAMPION (any plant of the genera Lychnis and Silene having usually pink or white star- or salver-shaped flowers with notched petals; wild flower) |
| 3 | Point of order? That could be unpolitic (9) |
Anagram of (that could be) UNPOLITIC PUNCTILIO* |
PUNCTILIO (A petty formality or fine point of etiquette; point of order) |
| 4 | Waterway is source of chemical smell (5) |
C (first letter of [source of] CHEMICAL) + REEK (smell) C REEK |
CREEK (small river or brook; waterway) |
| 5 / 26 | Kent area, with unity of purpose, mostly in time (6) |
SE (South East; Kent is a county in the South East of England) + AS ON SE AS ON |
SEA[SON] (time of year) |
| 6 | Less elevated book brought in supplied plot (6-3) |
(LOWER [less elevated] + B [book]) contained in (brought in) FED (supplied with food) F (LOWER B) ED |
FLOWER BED (garden plot) |
| 7 | Wad of material in confines of sleeve? One contributes to suit (5) |
PAD (wad of material) contained in (in) SE (first and last letters of [confines of] SLEEVE) S (PAD) E |
SPADE (reference the suit of SPADEs in a deck of cards) |
| 8 | I, for instance, may be allowed to retain workers after end of strike (7) |
E (final letter of [end of] STRIKE) + (LET [allowed] containing [to retain] MEN [workers]) E LE (MEN) T |
ELEMENT (I is the chemical symbol for iodine, which is an ELEMENT) |
| 12 | Information about idiots raised in a cosy home? (7) |
(GEN [information] containing [about] NITS [idiots]) all reversed (raised; down clue) (NE (STIN) G)< |
NESTING ([living] in a cosy home) |
| 15 | Bright spot at Princeton – students lifting standard – crikey! (3,6) |
NUS (National Union of Students) reversed (lifting; down clue) + PAR (normal; standard) + LOR’ (informal term expressing surprise; blimey)) SUN< PAR LOR |
SUN PARLOR (American [Princeton] spelling for a room that attracts the SUN; bright spot) |
| 17 | Malicious fun with result not producing calm (9) |
Anagram of (malicious) FUN and RESULT UNRESTFUL* |
UNRESTFUL (not producing calm) |
| 18 | Cover for church leader in matter I brought up (7) |
BIRETTA (hidden word reversed [up; down clue] in [in] MATTER I BROUGHT) BIRETTA< |
BIRETTA (square cap with three or four projections on the crown worn by Roman Catholic clergy, black for priests, purple for bishops, and red for cardinals) |
| 20 | Cleaners seen around the French King? Not at present (7) |
CHARS (cleaners) containing (seen around) LE (one of the French forms of ‘the’) CHAR (LE) S |
CHARLES (name of a King of England in the past. Google tells me that Charles I and II were also Kings of Scotland and Ireland. Currently there is not a Charles III although a potential one waits in the wings) |
| 22 | Workforce organisers in corporation making monotonous sound (5) |
HR (Human Resources; department in an office that manages the workforce in respect of terms and conditions of employment) contained in (in) TUM (stomach; corporation) T (HR) UM |
THRUM (hum, drone or repeat monotonously) |
| 24 | US inventor increasingly impeded by sun (5) |
MORE (increasingly) containing (impeded by) S (sun) MOR (S) E |
MORSE (reference Samuel MORSE [1791 – 1872], American painter and inventor who contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer of MORSE code and helped to develop the commercial use of telegraphy). |
| 26 | See 5 | See wordplay at 5 down | [SEA]SON |
For once, I actually spotted a Phi theme. Googled to extend my initial list and got the exact same nine (or ten) as in the blog. There is also Encyclopedia Brown. GAMESMAN was new to me. Thanks to Phi and Duncan.
I didn’t know all of the sleuths, but it was good to have a Phi theme that wasn’t too hard to spot. I’m afraid the FISHER I thought of was Freddie Fisher from “Pie in the Sky” but that’s clearly not who was meant!
CAMPION as a ‘Wild flower’ was new and I haven’t heard the term SUN PARLOR (with or without the U) very often. Otherwise everything went in without too much trouble and seeing the theme appear added to the enjoyment.
Thanks to Phi and Duncan
Didn’t spot the theme, sorry to say, but then I’m not a great fan of detective stories. Strangely, after drawing a blank on the first five acrosses, I got ‘Eyelet’ then everything fell into place clockwise and LOI was 1A! Thanks Phi and Duncan.
I endeavoured to complete this puzzle but I morsed out on all the themers
thanks for blog duncansheil and the puzzle from Phi
Expecting a theme, as always with a Phi puzzle, we spotted a few names but it wasn’t till we’d finished that we managed to connect some of them as fictional detectives and even then we didn’t get them all. Still that was better than some Fridays.
Lots of other things to enjoy as well, such as EYELET and BIRETTA.
Thanks, Phi and Duncan
The bottom left corner held out the longest. I kept on thinking of Sun Valley for 15dn (possibly remembering a film with Glenn Miller).
I did spot the theme, however, although I didn’t identify all the detectives. I should have spotted Miss Fisher, being a great fan of the the TV series.