It’s Phiday again.
We completed the top half and thought we were on for a record time. How wrong we were. In the end, we found this a bit tougher than usual for a Phi, but no less enjoyable.
Phi invariably has a theme hidden in the grid, but, if there is one, we can’t see it – but that’s not unusual.
Perhaps Phi will come on later and give a clue, or maybe someone out there will spot it?
SPELL (some time) CHECKER (‘counter in New York’ – the American word for a draught as in the board game)
NO 1 (first) SEt (group) without the ‘t’ (time) – we’d not come across noise as a synonym for ‘rumour’ – it’s described as ‘obsolete’ in Chambers
A clue-as-definition: OUT (blossoming) in SPRING (the growing season)
Hidden (‘some’) in farE AT Supper
LOTS (a good deal) ‘consumed’ in SIP (drink) all reversed or ‘tumbling over’ + HOT (angry)
An anagram (‘wobbly’) of OUR PILE’S
More than half (‘mostly’) of ELECt or ELECted (picked) reversed or ‘over’ + RY (railway)
LA (city in USA) GO ON (really?)
COO (expression of wonder) round N (note) CERT (a sure thing)
An anagram (‘unusually’) of GET PHI CALM – We used our Chambers app to search for an anagram here – we had no idea that PHLEGMATIC meant CALM.
IN CA (Central America)
HE (that chap) HOBBy (interest) without the last letter or ‘reduced’ in TIT (bird)
fAIRER (increasingly just) without or ‘overlooking’ the first letter
Cryptic definition – the OLYMPIC FLAME could be described as a ‘blazer’ for the sports in the games
osPREY (‘avian predator’) without or ‘ignoring’ ‘os’ (outsize – ‘unusually large’)
L (left) US US (‘pair of Americans’) round CIO (Chief Information Officer – ‘IT chief’ – not a term we have come across before – and it’s not in Chambers!)
U (first letter or ‘heading’ for Uruguay) in or ‘aboard’ CRATE (plane – a decrepit one)
BULLIEs (cows – the verb) in or ‘going through’ fENCE (border of field) without the first letter or ‘heading’
K (king) NIGHT (late in the day) ERR (slip up) ANT (soldier) ReadY without the middle letters or ‘losing heart’. We’d come across KNIGHT ERRANT before but not ERRANTRY.
bRIGHT (clever) without or ‘not needing’ ‘b’ (book)
INTERn (trainee) without the last letter or ‘not quite’ + POLe (staff) without the last letter or ‘reduced’
C (college) ‘held’ in IT ‘surrounded’ by PURE (modest) + an anagram (‘decorated’) of LARGELY
An anagram (‘ailing’) of GUy POORLy BODy without or ‘neglecting’ the three ‘y’s (variable)
An anagram (‘redeployed’) of E (English) MANOR in Y Y (yards)
An anagram (‘representation’) of COASTLInE without or ‘abandoning’ the ‘n’ (note)
MC (Master of Ceremonies – ‘host’) round or ‘bringing in’ ALE (beer) and B (British)
OP (work) ‘surrounding’ IT A (area) all reversed or ‘elevated’ (in a down clue)
FA (nothing) RM (Royal Marine). This was our LOI.
Another top class offering from Phi. No real problems apart from initially entering OLYMPIC TORCH for 27a but this was quickly altered. Had to google CIO since it wasn’t in Chambers. PISTOL SHOT took a bit of working out.
Very nice as usual-I wondered about CRATE for plane but then I’ve been on quite a few somewhat dodgy flights-mostly with US airlines.The word after Olympic really had to wait for a crosser.
Thanks Phi and B&J
This should have more comments!!!
I needed a good night’s sleep before I was able to get my last two in, the crossing PICTURE GALLERY (not too difficult but parsing needing a bit of working out) and NOISE (not a common synonym for ‘Rumour’ as you say). I did a bit of lazy entering from the def and missed the parsing of SPROUTING and EBULLIENCE. Same as commenters above, I had to wait for the crossers before being sure that 27a was OLYMPIC FLAME rather than “torch”.
I’ll nominate INCA as my favourite. With the last letter in place and the misdirection of the surface, I was itching to put in “Maya”
Thanks to Phi and B&J
It’s strange how “bullies” means the same as “cows” and even more so that it should lead to EBULLIENCE so that was my favourite today. I am always boasting about how pure I am, so I wasn’t so sure about 9dn. Thanks to Phi and BandJ
Can’t find the theme, alas, if there is one. EBULLIENCE and SPROUTING were my last pair. Totally fell for the misdirection in the former.
Enjoyable evening solve with a glass of wine (two if I’m honest).
Couldn’t parse ebullience the fENCE was clear but somehow forgot cow was also a verb. (I’ll blame the vino).
Shame the Inca were southern not central as that would have made a perfect &lit.
Thanks Phi and BertandJoyce.
Now off to do the grauniad – good excuse for a third 😉
No theme this time. One of those puzzles where I just slotted in a few words I had accumulated as ‘potentially interesting to clue’ (they rarely live up to that potential, I find…)
Having spotted the cryptic definition for OLYMPIC FLAME, I never considered the possibility of TORCH. I could claim that, at this stage of the competition, the torch is a distant memory, while the flame is an ongoing representation. But that would suggest I set the puzzle knowing it would appear during the Games, and that never occurred to me!
The concept of noising things abroad makes me think NOISE = rumour may not be so archaic.
I had the opposite experience to Bertandjoyce, starting slowly then speeding up. Liked EBULLIENCE, which fitted so had to be right, but didn’t twig the parsing of bullies = cows until came here.. Thought LAGOON and KNIGHT ERRANTRY very smart clues.
A minor point in the blog, is not 21D B in ALE inside MC? The parsing is I think, MC including ALE, which itself includes B(ritish)
Whoops – and thanks to Phi and Betandjoyce. Distracted by my name, instead of gwep, being displayed.