It’s Phiday again
Another enjoyable Friday offering from Phi.
We always expect that there is something going on in Phi puzzles, but although it looks as though there is a Nina of a Japanese author (of whom we have never heard before) in the top row, we can’t find any significant entries that relate to him. He was apparently (according to Wikipedia) awarded the Franz 11ac prize, and he wrote a book called ‘11ac on the Shore’ – but that is the only reference we can find in the grid to anything connected to Haruki Murakami. Perhaps we’re barking up the wrong tree? Maybe someone out there can enlighten us?
We have a minor quibble with 26ac, where we can’t find a situation where ‘sat’ = ‘fixed’. Otherwise, it was all good fun and a good end to the week.
AB (sailor) SeCOND (support) without or ‘eliminating’ ‘E’ (Spain)
E (English) iN TRAIN (currently working) without or ‘unseating’ ‘I’ (one)
K (king) A (ace) F (following) K (king) A (ace)
TINE (point) after or ‘pursuing’ ERNES (seabirds)
ROLL (revolution) round E (energy) MODE (style)
ROAd (highway) without the last letter or ‘curtailed’ + ST (street – another highway)
A clue-as-definition: An anagram of ANTHEM FOR ALYS, D and F (first or ‘primary’ letters of Dafydd and Fiona) – anagrind is ‘possibly’ – ‘Land of My Fathers’ is a Welsh anthem
C (college) OWES (has to pay)
SH (quiet) DOWN (unhappy) round OUT (unwanted)
Double definition
I N (note) ‘investing’ in CHA (tea)
A clue-as-definition: OR (golden) ONE in CT (court)
We’re not sure about this one: we think it must be SAT (fixed- but we can’t find any examples of this as a synonym) A NICk (name for the devil) without the last letter or ‘mostly’
MAKER (builder) round or ‘installing’ C (first letter of city) + EL (elevated railway) – a reference to the beautiful effect of a ‘mackerel sky’
US (American) FUEL (gas, say) with the ‘E’ (energy) moved up or ‘promoted’
RiOT (comedian – a hilarious person) without or ‘overlooking’ the ‘I’ + A
A DD (‘deo dedit’ – gave to god – ‘divine’) END (conclusion) UM (I’m not sure)
RN (Royal Navy – ‘sailors’) in or ‘entering’ KEEL (part of ship)
A TASTe (small amount) without the last letter or ‘mostly’ RETCH (vomit)
RATE (charge) round or ‘securing’ IN (home) with MA (mother) in front or ‘on to it’
A homophone (‘on the radio’) of IN JEST (amusingly)
An anagram of GETS AMOUNT – anagrind is ‘reassessed’
WEN (city) reversed or ‘keeping up’ + L (large) RIGS (lorries) reversed or ‘rising’
F (strong) + an anagram of SOUR ETC – anagrind is ‘after modifying’
DANCE (ball) after SUN (Sunday)
CAL (California) CO (company) round or ‘importing’ I (first or ‘foremost’ letter of India)
COT (bed) in STY (mess)
O (nothing) + I in RENT (regular payment)
CAsTS (groups of performers) without or ‘overlooking’ the middle letter or ‘core’
A highly enjoyable solve with good wordplay. I don’t know the author either and solved it just after midnight and decided not to go down that rabbit hole. Thanks to Phi and bertandjoyce
Thanks, both, for blogging.
I did see MURAKAMI across the top row, which helped with the last few in the top half. I only spotted it because it came up as a solution in last Sunday’s Everyman. Since it’s a Phi puzzle, it must have links elsewhere in the grid, but I’m not your man to tease them out.
I couldn’t see where DD came from in ADDENDUM, and am with you in trying to find a correspondence between SAT and FIXED, but I can’t.
Fine cryptic from Phi – thanks to him and good weekend to all.
I have recently acquired a book about famous writers and their pets, so there may be some more examples forthcoming. Murakami is very fond of cats and fortunately poor at naming them, landing on commonplace words such as SCOTTY, CALICO, MACKEREL or KAFKA.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve been sat in this position typing one-fingered on my iPad for so long, I’ve got cramp…
Sat = fixed seems fine to me, e.g “the house sat on the former pub site” means it was fixed there. I suspect today’s female newsreaders may harrumph at ‘newsgirls’! I was in too much of a rush to look for ninas or themes and couldn’t parse 10A and didn’t know rigs = large lorries so thanks B&J for the elucidation and blog. Thanks Phi too of course.
I’d never heard of a MACKEREL sky, so that one went in from wordplay, ADDENDUM went in from the def as I didn’t know what DD was doing either, and I’d forgotten about WEN for ‘city’ at 17d, which therefore went in unparsed. So all in all the usual good challenge from Phi with the not uncommon enigmatic Nina – I had no idea who MURAKAMI was.
Thanks to B&J for the blog and their explanation of the Nina, and to Phi for the puzzle and for dropping in to explain a few more of the Nina related answers (and what may be in store for the next few weeks).
Clearly the Nina and 24D are thematic.
We can add Sundance to the list of Mackerel, Scotty, Calico etc
hw7
I always thought that a DD was a Doctor of Divinity (and sure enough there it is in Collins), and it’s divine as a noun. Isn’t it? I’ve never heard of ‘deo dedit’.
We made it with some unparsed. Can someone explain wen as city please? Can’t find it in a dictionary.
Ericw@8: Wen is in Chambers – An enormous congested city. The Great Wen was an old name for London.
It also means a cyst, especially on the scalp, I assume that it was thought London was as ugly on the landscape as a wen on someone’s scalp.