Phi gives us a good challenge to end the working week (if there is such a standard thing these days)
The English language is fascinating with the variety of different meanings for the same word used in different contexts. PREVALENCE can relate to popularity for instance as cited at 1 down. However, there is a prevalence of Covid-19 at the moment and I doubt if anyone uses some derivative of popular in the same context.
I liked the allusion to CIRCUS in the wordplay of 1 across as a ‘top show’. It took a little while for the penny to drop at 3 down where players was clued as CAST in the wordplay I have seen the association before, but it didn’t hit me straight away.
I can’t see a theme even though there are a couple of ladies names and one possible surname in the grid. I looked for a FREDA MARGARET CASTLE on the web but I couldn’t find a famous one.
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 8 | Top show almost missing its slot for broadcast (9) |
CIRCU CIRCU LATE |
CIRCULATE (spread about; broadcast) |
| 9 | Nothing about revolutionary woman (5) |
FA (reference the phrase [Sweet] Fanny Adams, slang term meaning nothing at all, or alternatively another two word phrase also meaning nothing at all) containing (about) RED (communist; revolutionary) F (RED) A |
FREDA (woman’s name) |
| 10 | Contestant’s appearance ignoring a rule (5) |
RIVAL |
RIVAL (person pursuing an object in competition with another; contestant) |
| 11 | Material on roof: that feature’s beginning to grate (9) |
THAT + CHIN (facial feature. One definition of feature in Chambers is ‘any part of the face’) + G (first letter of [beginning to] GRATE) THAT CHIN G |
THATCHING (material on some roofs) |
| 12 | Bits of film presented in middle of week showing astronomical phenomenon (7) |
CLIPS (pieces of film taken for separate showing) contained in (presented in) EE (central letters of [middle of] WEEK) E (CLIPS) E |
ECLIPSE (total or partial disappearance of a heavenly body by the interposition of another between it and the spectator, or by passing into its shadow; astronomical phenomenon) |
| 14 | Someone who tries things is tense when cornered by a drug user (7) |
T (tense) contained in (cornered by) (A + DOPER [drug user]) A DOP (T) ER |
ADOPTER (someone who chooses and follows theories, ideas, policies, strategies or plans; someone who tries things) |
| 16 | No sarky comments about bridge team offering some security (3-4) |
(NO + LIP [insolence; sarcastic comments]) containing (about) NS (North and South play together as a team in the game of Bridge against the team of East and West) NO (NS) LIP |
NONSLIP (a surface designed to reduce chance of sliding or falling to a minimum) |
| 18 | Absolutely certain woman is to reject first soldier (7) |
ADAM ANT |
ADAMANT (unyielding; Impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, reason; absolutely certain of a particular viewpoint or statement) |
| 19 | Conductor confused situation, over looking line and metre (7) |
MAE MAESTRO |
MAESTRO (musical conductor) |
| 20 | Farmers gutted about cow plants (7) |
FS (letters remaining in FARMERS when all he central letters ARMER are removed [gutted]) containing (about) LOWER (a cow makes a LOWing sound when it moos) F (LOWER) S |
FLOWERS (plants) |
| 22 | Not for many to know with respect to changing (3-6) |
Anagram of (changing) RESPECT TO TOP SECRET* |
TOP SECRET (known only to very few important people) |
| 24 | Return of academics keeping year for religious meeting (5) |
(DONS [academics] containing [keeping] Y [year]) all reversed (return of) (S (Y) NOD)< |
SYNOD (ecclesiastical council; religious meeting) |
| 25 | Doctor, say, drawn to singular contents of used bottle? (5) |
DR (doctor) + EG (for example; say) + S (singular) DR EG S |
DREGS (impurities in liquid that fall to the bottom when the bottle is empty) |
| 26 | Legally required to stop imprisoning teacher (9) |
STAY (stop) containing (imprisoning) TUTOR (teacher) STA (TUTOR) Y |
STATUTORY (enacted or recognised by law; legally required) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Place never represented in measure of popularity? (10) |
Anagram of (represented) PLACE NEVER PREVALENCE* |
PREVALENCE (Chambers Thesaurus includes ‘popularity’ among its definitions of prevalence) |
| 2 | Scheduled League clash? (4) |
DUE (scheduled) + L (league) DUE L |
DUEL (fight; clash) |
| 3 | Move at chess? Players initially look edgy (6) |
CAST (actors; players) + LE (first letters [initially] of each of LOOK and EDGY) CAST L E |
CASTLE (in chess, to move the king two squares along the row towards a rook and then place the rook on the square the king has passed over) |
| 4 | Explanatory material little encountered in essential stuff given to Academy (8) |
(TAD [small amount] contained in [encountered in] MEAT [substance; essential stuff]) + A (academy) ME (TAD) AT A |
METADATA (information about information already supplied, eg details about a site on the Internet) |
| 5 | A timeless story supported by song and dance connoisseur (10) |
A + FIC A FICION ADO |
AFICIONADO (ardent follower; fan; connoisseur) |
| 6 | Malevolent spirit turning up in fireplace (4) |
PERI (reversed [turning up; down entry] hidden word [in] FIREPLACE) PERI< |
PERI (beautiful but malevolent being with supernatural powers) |
| 7 | Woman about to enter English resort, spurning European (8) |
RE (with reference to) contained in (to enter) MARGAT MARGA (RE) T |
MARGARET (woman’s name) |
| 8 | Swear nothing is omitted from part of meal (5) |
C CURSE |
CURSE (swear) |
| 13 | Holy times reanimated after priest offers Hindu belief? (10) |
P (priest) + an anagram of (reanimated) HOLY TIMES P OLYTHEISM* |
POLYTHEISM (the doctrine of a pluralism of Gods, a doctrine that relates to Hinduism) |
| 15 | Traffic merging, say – it requires a lot of workers (5,5) |
TRADE (traffic) + UNION (merging) TRADE UNION |
TRADE UNION (a body representing many workers) |
| 16 | Unexpectedly tamed one parasitic worm (8) |
Anagram of (unexpectedly) TAMED ONE NEMATODE* |
NEMATODE (parasitic worm) |
| 17 | Prince taking on monster to get further (8) |
PR (prince) + OGRESS (monster) PR OGRESS |
PROGRESS (forward movement, to get further) |
| 20 | Soccer group’s discretion upset rich businessman? (3,3) |
FA (Football Association; soccer group) + TACT (discretion) reversed (upset) FA T CAT< |
FAT CAT (wealthy, prosperous person, especially one who is thought to have gained excessive rewards; a rich businessman perhaps) |
| 21 | Speak about Democrat and Liberal with regret (5) |
SAY (speak) containing (about) (D [Democrat] + L [Liberal]) SA (D L) Y |
SADLY (with regret) |
| 23 | Look – alloy has no little weight (4) |
PE PEER |
PEER (look) |
| 24 | 15’s upset about hospital offering no openings (4) |
TU’S (TRADE UNION’S [entry at 15 down’s]) reversed (upset) containing (about) H (hospital) S (H) UT< |
SHUT (offering no openings) |
Very nice start to the day/
I thought that today was Saturday..? so slightly off-balanced to find a Phi offering.. managed to recover but still struggled a little with 8ac, 14ac,4d, 13d… wrong end of sticks mostly.. nice misdirections
thanks Phi n Duncansheill
I thought there might be a Margaret Thatch(ing)er theme but couldn’t see anything else. Maybe Phil will drop by later to tell us what it is. I struggled at 23D, where peek, peep and peer were all possibilities but eventually realised it had to be peer. Thanks Phi and Duncan.
Thanks both. Like undrell@2 failed on 4dn where I wonder whether it is a misdirection or unhappy coincidence as we have ‘encountered’ in the clue and ‘met’ in the answer, but the two are not related
Failed to parse MAESTRO, although in hindsight it was rather obvious.
Also didn’t spot MEAT for essential stuff, I just saw MET A TAD for little encountered, so I carried on.
Nice end to the week, although every day seems to be the same at the moment. The only time I’ve been out of the house lately is to shovel snow off the pavement or put out and take back in the buckets.
A steady straightforward solve for us with no real problems apart from thinking ‘someone who tries things’ a bit of a stretch for ADOPTER. No theme or nina that we can see, but Phi’s themes are often well hidden and not necessary for solving the puzzle.
We liked CIRCULATE and MAELSTROM.
Thanks, Phi and Duncan.
CASTLE ADAMANT, The STATUTORY DUEL, The FLOWERS of PROGRESS and The PEER and the PERI are all subtitles of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. CURSE snuck in as well, but there was no way I was going to get the possessive WITCH’S in.
clever stuff. I’m another one who was lazy parsing METADATA.
D’oh! When we got PERI we thought “as in The Peer and the Peri” but never thought to look further. Oh well …
Just like yesterday I failed in the top right corner, although I did get PERI. I’m not a G&S fan and am more familiar with The Peri and Paradise by Schumann.