Phi brings yet another suite of mid-week puzzles to an end.
I found this to be towards the more challenging end of the Phi spectrum of difficulty. In the end, I needed to cheat at 4 to complete the puzzle.
I don’t know about a theme as such, but I can see that all the letters in the top and bottom rows of the grid are Roman numerals, which cannot have happened by chance. This has meant that we have some unusual first letters for down entries starting along that top row, but whether there is any deeper significance to this, I have no idea.
I would be grateful if fellow solvers could confirm my parsing at 12, 17 and 22.
My favourite clues today were 7, for the clever repetition of “red” in definition and wordplay alike; 13A, for ingenuity; and 25, for overall construction.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 08 | MARASCHINO | Spoils trouser fabric, introducing drop of antique liqueur
A<ntique> (“drop of” means first letter only) in [MARS (=spoils) + CHINO (=trouser fabric)]; maraschino is a cherry-based liqueur |
| 09 | Man’s sound? It must be the armour
Homophone (“sound”) of “male (=man)” |
|
| 10 | PATIENCE | Change brings in tenor in excellent piece by Gilbert and Sullivan
[T (=tenor) in A1 (=excellent)] in PENCE (=change, i.e. small coins); the reference is to the 1881 comic opera Patience |
| 11 | EXITED | Left it in care of former editor
IT in [EX (=former) + ED (=editor)] |
| 12 | TURN | Sudden attack has one leaving Italian city
TUR<i>N (=Italian city); “one (=I) leaving” means letter “i” is dropped; cf. to have a funny turn |
| 13 | SLEEPYHEAD | Delay with sheep jumping? One doesn’t need jumping sheep
*(DELAY + SHEEP); “jumping” is anagram indicator; a sleepyhead doesn’t need to count (jumping) sheep! |
| 14 | BRECHT | British attracted to authentic German playwright
B (=British) + RECHT (=authentic German, i.e. the German word for authentic, right); the reference is to German playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) |
| 15 | VISCID | Police appearing after travel document trimmed? That’s sticky
VIS<a> (=travel document; “trimmed” means last letter is dropped) + CID (=police, i.e. Criminal Investigation Department) |
| 18 | CONSULTANT | Expert on Muslim leader brought into court
[ON + SULTAN (=Muslim leader)] in CT (=court, in street addresses) |
| 20 | NOAH | No expression of contentment from boat-builder
NO + AH (=expression of contentment); the reference is to Noah and his ark in the OT |
| 22 | DWARFS | White companions deserted force in conflicts
D (=deserted) + [F (=force, in physics) in WARS (=conflicts)]; the “companions” of the definition are to be understood as “companion stars” |
| 23 | SOUVENIR | It helps one remember being churlish about Caesars’s opening comment
VENI (=Caesar’s opening comment, i.e. I came (I saw, I conquered)) in SOUR (=churlish) |
| 25 | TREE | End of forest area stripped by fire ultimately – ash?
<fores>T (“end of” means last letter only) + <a>RE<a> (“stripped” means first and last letters are dropped) + <fir>E (“ultimately” means last letter only) |
| 26 | INITIATION | I will participate in request, not against making a start
I in IN<v>ITATION (=request; “not against (=v, for versus)” means letter “v” is dropped) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | XANADU | Middle of exam, and confused over capital of Uruguay – an exotic place
<e>XA<m> (“middle of” means middle letters only) + *(AND) + U<ruguay> (“capital of” means first letter only) |
| 02 | VARIANCE | Discrepancy, note, in serving of caviar
N (=note) in *(CAVIAR); “serving of” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | ICON | Significant figure seen in piece of currency I promoted
COIN (=piece of currency); “I promoted” means letter “i” is moved to front of word |
| 04 | XIMENES | Soccer team players are in Paris? I questioned commitment
XI (=soccer team, i.e. 11) + MEN (=players) + ES (=are in Paris, i.e. the French word for (you) are); Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, aka Ximenes, was a Spanish cardinal and a key figure in the Spanish Inquisition in the sixteenth century |
| 05 | COVER POINT | Cricketer initially cross about beer, having received nothing
C<ross> (“initially” means first letter only) + OVER (=about) + [O (=nothing) in PINT (=beer)] |
| 06 | IMPISH | I’m a derogatory comment as intended by a prankster?
I’M + PISH (=a derogatory comment) |
| 07 | VINEYARD | Source of red and white? Red and navy, I fancy
*(RED + NAVY I); “fancy” is anagram indicator; the “red” and “white” of the definition are wines, of course! |
| 13 | SCHOLASTIC | Regarding education, second option (dropping English) will receive stick
S (=second) + [LAST (=stick, endure) in CHOIC<e> (=option; “dropping English (=E)” means letter “e” is dropped)] |
| 14 | BOOKWORM | Intellectual work degraded during economic success
*(WORK) in BOOM (=economic success); “degraded” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | CONFETTI | Notice FT is torn up, producing bits of paper
*(NOTICE FT); “torn up” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | WASSAIL | Was a number of ships required? Try ‘I saw three ships’, perhaps
WAS + SAIL (=number of ships, in Chambers) |
| 19 | SCREED | Long document beginning to support belief system
S<upport> (“beginning to” means first letter only) + CREED (=belief system) |
| 21 | ASIMOV | American writer revealing name of apostle forgotten in Bible
SIMO<n> (=apostle; “name (=N) forgotten” means letter “n” is dropped) in AV (=Bible, i.e. Authorised Version); the reference is to US writer Isaac Asimov (1920-92) |
| 24 | UNIX | University to veto operating system
U (=university, as in OUP) + NIX (=to veto, reject) |
Roman numerals read 16 x 104 (=) 1664. No idea why!
Have BR + ECHT for 14a. Did initially think of stars at 22a but clearly a reference to Snow White. Bottom row equates to 1664 and, as Hungrysimon mentions, taking the X as times, so does the top row. Haven’t googled to see why though.
Well worked out Hungrysimon @1! We didn’t spot that the X in the top row is a multiplication symbol!
In the blog, we differed slightly on a couple of the parsings: in 14ac, we had BR = British and ECHT as the German word for authentic; in 22ac, I was trying to make your parsing work, but my co-solver pointed out that it’s probably referring to Snow White! We agreed with your parsings for 12ac and 17dn.
Thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku
Typing too slow ….
Having now google, I would guess, given the current Covid-19 situation, perhaps 1664 is a reference to the start of the great plague?
I fiddled around for a while to find 3-letter Roman numeral x 3-letter Roman numeral = 7-letter Roman numeral and this was all I landed on. MDCLXIV does of course use all the Roman numerals once each – can’t recall now but maybe 1666 wouldn’t yield a helpful pair of factors!
Thanks Phi and RR
According to Chambers, all the perimeter letters are Roman numerals. Of the lesser-known ones, P = 400, T = 160, H = 200, R = 80 & N = 90.
Maybe Phi is complaining of a (one oh four) sore head after drinking 16 pints of Kronenbourg?
I agree with RR’s parsing at 12 and 17 (though I struggled to understand WASSAIL) but at 22 I had the same as Hovis @2. I assumed the reference to 1664 was the Great Plague but didn’t understand the top row, so well done Hungrysimon @1 for that. I expect the apparent unusual Roman numerals in the vertical borders are coincidental – perhaps Phi could drop in again to confirm or deny. Very enjoyable as usual from Phi, so thanks to him and RatkojaRiku.
Slow but enjoyable.. slightly confused by DWARFS.. does that not mean to make stuff look smaller..? The Companions were DWARVES? As HungrySimon@8 … I did immediately think of the brewery …
Thanks Phi n RatkojaRiku
? June 2021 is the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the crossword setter Ximenes (D.S. Macnutt), but that would be June 29, not June 4 according to Wikipedia.
The top row could at a stretch be read as 16 94 (XVI, XCIV).
I couldn’t work out what those Roman numbers at the top and bottom were doing – well done to Hungrysimon @1 for working it out. The ‘White companions’ were slow to come but were my favourites for the day. I was interested to see that in Chambers the “dwarves” plural is given as “rare”, whereas I thought it was the more common.
Last in was WASSAIL (admittedly with a bit of finger crossing) to complete a satisfying solve.
Thanks to Phi and RR
Very satisfying to solve, although the nina puzzled us for a bit. We thought at first that the bottom row was going to be MDCCXIV or 1714 – the year of Queen Anne’s death – she was famous for being dead according to 1066 And All That. But 1664 will do nicely – reminded us of an occasion at a small hotel in France when one of us ordered the said beverage and managed to pronounce the name in full without a stumble, to the delight of the proprietress. And turning from grain to grape, our favourite was VINEYARD.
Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku.
I think it was Tolkien who popularised the, until then, archaic spelling DWARVES. I think he mentions this in the introduction to one of his books.
4dn defeated me.
2D is N in {CAVIARE}*, the variant spelling used by Phi.
SLEEPYHEAD particularly good.
Thanks to Phi and RatkojaRiku.
Got cion for 3dn. My dictionary says it’s an alternative spelling of scion which is an heir to a throne, so that really borked things for me!
Cover point took ages despite me loving cricket. The wording of the clue doesn’t suggest a fielding position to me, but am actual cricketer.
A rare non-finish for a Phi puzzle!