As I’m pretty sure I’ve said before, week after week we go on getting crosswords of a high standard from Phi. I can’t find anything here that is at all controversial, and my guess is that there will be very few posts (not blogs, which is perhaps the only controversial thing in the crossword). Remember how few comments Dac use to get, and that was because he was so good.
Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
Can’t see anything special in the grid, but with Phi you never know. [And I never noticed it. What a dreadful miss, because I regularly read P.G. Wodehouse’s books. They are quite magnificent, and anyone wanting to hone their prose style could do worse than follow the master. A year or two ago I was on a tube train reading one of them and laughed so much that people must have thought I was very odd. The only thing is, what is Phi saying when he says that I did really see it?]
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CROSSBRED | Mongrel, angry, runs into couch (9) |
| cross b(r)ed — mongrel an adjective | ||
| 6 | BELOW | Energy limited by assault further down (5) |
| b(E)low | ||
| 9 | AFFRONT | Soccer organisation retreated, facing insult (7) |
| (FA)rev. front — facing = front as in a building’s facing/a building’s front | ||
| 10 | MARIMBA | Successful students will retain edge in percussion instrument (7) |
| MA(rim)BA — if students have earned MAs and BAs they have been successful | ||
| 11 | SOMETHING | Very good month, say, to import fine item of account (9) |
| so m e(thin)g — so = very good in crosswordland — I can’t really think of an equivalence in real language: perhaps when ‘so’ is used as a filler it sort of means ‘Very good’ | ||
| 12 | FRESH | Frank, not entirely quiet, becoming cheeky (5) |
| fre{?} sh! — what goes in the curly bracket? — I think it’s an e, and frank = free, which in a sense it does | ||
| 13 | SYLLABLE | After setback, golfer suppressing old expletive – or part of one? (8) |
| (El(bally)s)rev. — Ernie Els will always be useful to setters, but his glory days seem to be in the past: he is currently 611th in the World Rankings | ||
| 15 | SUMMER | One lowering themselves socially has not left for the season (6) |
| s{l}ummer | ||
| 17 | PIGSTY | It’s unfortunate about Grammar School being a complete mess (6) |
| pi(GS)ty | ||
| 18 | BUMP INTO | Encounter inferior bit of beer, nothing more (4,4) |
| bum pint 0 | ||
| 21 | LATER | Subsequent amusement concealing expression of disgust (5) |
| la{ugh}ter | ||
| 22 | ALLIS SHAD | Everyone is deceived about small item in fisherman’s catch (5,4) |
| all is (s) had — the allis shad is not perhaps the first fish one thinks of, but the wordplay led me to something far away in the recesses of my mind | ||
| 24 | CHIMERA | Artist is chasing harmony, the strange creature (7) |
| chime RA — I should have thought that harmony was a noun and chime a verb, but chime (meaning agreement or concord) is there in Collins as a noun | ||
| 26 | OVERAWE | Dismay complete, beginning to affect our side (7) |
| over a{ffect} we — the football supporters’ word for their own club side | ||
| 27 | NIGHT | Man on board heading off in the dark (5) |
| {k}night — the man on board is a chessman, as he is in the next clue | ||
| 28 | KINGS LYNN | Man on board, cunning, notes English seaport (5,4) |
| king sly n n — the man on board is again on the chessboard — when I came to the second man on board, I though that Phi would clue it differently, as a sailor or something, but no — he tricked me | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CHASSIS | Charles takes the throne, dismissing leader of traditional framework (7) |
| Chas si{t}s — takes the throne = sits down on the lavatory; the t comes from t{raditional} | ||
| 2 | OXFAM | Times probing old family charity (5) |
| o (x) fam — fam = family was new to me but it’s there in Collins | ||
| 3 | SCOUTMASTER | Cream stouts drunk? What an example to the boys (11) |
| (Cream stouts)* | ||
| 4 | RETRIALS | Such cases will be arranged later, sir (8) |
| *(later sir) | ||
| 5 | DAMAGE | Harm poster, overturning iconic shot, removing head (6) |
| (ad)rev, {i}mage | ||
| 6 | BAR | Lawyers without cover missing conclusion of case (3) |
| bar{e}, the e being cas{e} | ||
| 7 | LUMBERMAN | Forestry worker to burden a lot of people? Not entirely (9) |
| lumber man{y} | ||
| 8 | WEATHER | Evidence of erosion around article to show impact of wind? (7) |
| wea(the)r | ||
| 12 | FOUR-POSTERS | There’s a few bloggers in Beds? (4-7) |
| ‘four posters’ is a few bloggers — Beds has to be read as beds — is a blogger a poster? I am today’s blogger, and posters will possibly reply. But perhaps a blogger does = a poster in some sense. Some would say that it should be ‘There are a few bloggers in Beds’. | ||
| 14 | LIGHTNING | Striker having a harmful effect, ignoring leader about Nationalist (9) |
| {b}light(N)ing — lightning is a striker in that it strikes | ||
| 16 | FULL MOON | Pleasure to entertain learners with low light at night? (4,4) |
| fu(L L moo)n | ||
| 17 | PELICAN | Water-bird, lake one, tucking into nut (7) |
| pe(L 1)can | ||
| 19 | OLD BEAN | Love English in curiously bland style associated with Wodehouse? (3,4) |
| 0, then E in *(bland) — ‘old bean’ is the sort of thing said in P.G. Wodehouse’s stories | ||
| 20 | DAMASK | Material question: cracked up over that (6) |
| (mad)rev. ask | ||
| 23 | HEAVY | Surprised cry about a very strong form of Scottish beer (5) |
| he(a v)y! — something I learnt: some strong beer is called ‘heavy’ in the north of England and in Scotland | ||
| 25 | EAT | Eradicated origin of constituency trouble (3) |
| {s}eat — trouble as in it’s eating me/it’s troubling me | ||
Maybe not too controversial, but enough here to make you earn your money. I’d never heard of the poisson du jour at 22a or the ‘strong form of Scottish beer’ at 23d, though for both the wordplay was helpful, if not making the clues a giveaway; I almost entered ‘heafy’ for 23d for example. I didn’t have a problem with FOUR-POSTERS – to me a blogger is a poster, albeit a superior form of the species, but a poster nonetheless.
SOMETHING isn’t exactly an exciting word but I liked the def, as well as the surface for SCOUTMASTER and for SYLLABLE. (Even if you are at 611 (!) on the world rankings, good luck on the Seniors Tour Ernie.)
Thanks to Phi and John
John claims not to have spotted the theme.
But he has, you know….
I love it when setters pop in – but almost wish Phi hadn’t! As I had taken John’s side in concluding there is no theme and now I’m blasted if I can find one. Short of entering all the solutions into Google in the hope that a common denominator will be found, I have no idea.
Didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the puzzle or my ability to solve all bar two: SYLLABLE beat me as I couldn’t identify the ‘bally’ – and I was trying to insert an O into the solution, and I simply couldn’t see why EAT would be the answer to LOI 25d. Thanks John. I was delighted to discover there really is an ALLIS SHAD as I typed the letters – more in hope than optimism – into Google, having done precisely what the setter instructed me to do. Very satisfying. Funny to encounter BUMP INTO fairly swiftly after another recent appearance (where the clueing used a different separation of BUM PINTO – or poor horse if I recall correctly).
Particular favourites include LATER for the device, OVERAWE for its assembly of parts, CHASSIS for the image (though I think one can be a sitting monarch so not sure it has to be on a toilet), FULL MOON for the surface and PELICAN which made me smile – though I do think I’ve seen it before. LIGHTNING is my COTD – very cunning. Interesting point about bloggers and posters. I think we have a distinction in mind on this site, where bloggers produce the solutions/explanations/commentary and posters respond, that might not apply universally. I suspect that elsewhere bloggers post their blogs and the distinction is either less clear or indeed non existent.
Finally, I would take issue with the assertion (unless it’s John being mischievous and something to do with the theme I can’t spot) that a good setter attracts few(er) comments. I comment on both good and bad but much prefer to be posting my appreciation of an excellent setter and puzzle as I am today. And I hope both Phi and John attract further positive feedback. Many thanks to both.
PostMark @3. Perhaps a visit to Blandings might help.
Dicho @4: aha! It all makes sense now I’ve looked at the Wodehouse entry on Wikipedia. I’m ashamed to admit I’m one of those whose knowledge is limited to a couple of the Jeeves books and that knowledge is a few decades old. I’m not familiar with the wider oeuvre but the titles leap out at me now. Many thanks for putting me out of my misery.
On reading the posts about the apparent lack of interest in the independent and FT xwords i thought i’d pitch in early in the day. I go to the commentaries when Something is troubling me to get it cleared up in my head which necessarily involves going through the replies only so far. I run the risk of missing some crucial discussion but somewhere along the line I decided not to let it bother me along with intrusive ads, indifferent formatting , those grumps getting on your case etc. and not clog the blog with repetition hesitation deviation . . . I always appreciate the crossword artform and regard it as meditiation with content. I find it interesting to study how the mind/my mind works and it’s both galling and reassuring to see how similar and dissimilar to others it can be. Defiinitely fun when the compilers pop in and today i am mystified regarding the theme nina; nothing new in that
Just right for my Friday so thanks to all. I note the setters’ Union view regarding ‘so’ as very good in 11, but it slowed me down as I was looking for something else (no pun intended)
Enjoyable and challenging one for us today. We really can’t see how ‘so’ can mean ‘very good’. Alex says ‘just because they can both be used as a filler doesn’t make them synonyms!’. But it can be stored in the ever growing crossword brain, along with all the fish. No, we hadn’t heard of Allis Shad either, though Hannah parsed it correctly.
Thanks to Phi. A lovely steady solve with some great clues. The same couple of unknown words for me – the fish and the beer – but the clues led me there anyway. Obviously I didn’t spot the theme.
Thanks to John for the blog.
Missed the theme but not surprising as between us we couldn’t really name any PG Wodehouse titles. Not a worry though as we didn’t need them to finish the puzzle.
We did think there must be something going on as there were a couple of unknowns which were gettable from the wordplay.
Thanks for dropping by Phi – hope all is well in NZ.
Thanks to John for the blog.
I’m happy with ‘so’ as very but not as very good.
Can’t see how it does or has come to mean that.
Had a bit of trouble in the bottom right, mainly because I must learn, as PostMark says, to do exactly what the setter tells me, and never mind my pre-existing knowledge or, in this case, lack of it. Particularly enjoyed the bum pint and the cream stouts. For what it’s worth, I think a blogger is a specialised know be of poster, so ok by me. Thanks to Phi and John.
I found this quite difficult in parts. LUMBERMAN was not a word I’ve ever come across, and CROSSBRED for the adjectival mongrel was slow to appear (BED is not what I think of when I see couch, though I’m not arguing about it).
I agree with others that very good=SO is not something that I would accept without a better explanation than “that’s what it means in crosswords”. Same applies to trouble=EAT. Our blogger suggests “it’s eating me/it’s troubling me”, but that’s not eat, it’s eating. How about “He tried not to let it eat him?” But why would anyone write that, when they can just use trouble or worry? I’ve had this argument a couple of times on the Guardian blogs, and no one has yet come up with a convincing sentence where eat has the meaning of trouble/worry/distress. I guess it’s just another case of “that’s what it means in crosswords”!
Thanks to Phi for the accuracy of the word play that enabled me to write in ALLIS SHAD. If I knew any PG Wodehouse titles I would offer my congratulations on fitting so many into the grid, too, but I don’t so I won’t.
Some years ago I remember a friend of mine, after we had got our drinks and were sitting down together, syaing “So…” It meant ‘”What’s new?” or “I’m expecting you to say something”. He might have said “Very good” instead, meaning “I’m sitting here comfortably and am expecting something”. A bit of a strained connection perhaps. No doubt there is a simpler explanation.
And as for the eat-trouble link, I think it’s fine: would sh@17 have preferred the example “it eats me/it troubles me”?
[coming in very late and responding to your question of why Phi said you spotted the theme. Your solution to 19d was
0, then E in *(bland) — ‘old bean’ is the sort of thing said in P.G. Wodehouse’s stories. Those last few words were the giveaway. What a Plum!]
Well we are happy with SO=VERY. You could say that something was so expensive instead of very expensive. Also Chambers has to eat as to upset, irritate or worry.
John @14. Thanks for joining the discussion. Examples with eating or eats don’t convince me, I’m afraid! I suppose my problem with this use of eat is that I simply can’t see it being used in a sentence, and this makes it difficult, when trouble appears in the clue as a noun, to switch it to a verb and then think of eat as a replacement. (Hmm. Three letter word, E something T. Definition: trouble. It can’t be EAT, obviously.) Hope that makes sense. I suppose that the more often I see trouble/worry/distress in a clue, the more likely I am to be able to bring eat to mind, but then that just brings us back to what I think is the unsatisfactory “that’s what it means in crosswords”!
As for so…
Well…
SH @17: late to this debate and not a lot to add as it’s bedtime soon! I wasn’t too impressed with EAT either – but it strikes me that the past tense – worried/troubled/ate does appear quite often. I recall someone on the Guardian site said worried/ate is a pet hate but it’s become fairly conventional – in crosswords.
Bertandjoyce @16. I think everyone here would agree, and very expensive is a good example. The query about SO, as redddevil says @11, was that the clue says very good, not simply very. If you are saying that very=SO, then what function does good have in the clue?
PostMark – yes, that might well have been me too! And as B&J say, it’s in Chambers, so it’s not really a serious grouse, it just frustrates me that no one can give an example of this usage in a convincing sentence, and it must have been used quite frequently for it to be in the dictionary. (I have the same problem with cat=to vomit, but that’s not at all relevent to this discussion!)
sheffield hatter @ 19 – thank you, couldn’t have put it better myself!
Macmillan dictionary has this:
Just so
used for saying that everything is arranged in a tidy way
eg: When Betty comes to stay, everything has to be just so.
I suppose, at a push, you could say that if if everything is tidy and neat it must be very good.
Or perhaps it’s just a story