It’s Phiday again.
What can we say about Phi’s puzzles – consistently fair clueing, good surfaces, only one unusual word (for us) and a sprinkling of Proper Nouns.
One thing we did notice about this puzzle when compiling the blog though, was the number of occasions (7) where the wordplay involved words with the last letter missing – we’re surprised Phi didn’t run out of synonyms for ‘shortened’.
As has become the norm for us with Phi’s puzzles, we can’t see a theme here, but we’re sure that if there is one, someone out there (or Phi) will let us know.
BACH (associate in Welsh) round E (English)
EVE (first lady) L (left) in ROOST (bed)
ALMs (charity) without the last letter or ‘endless’ round U (university) + NUS (National Union of Students -‘student group’)
RE (about) ‘held’ in A CAGE (restricted zone)
MALI (African country) reversed or ‘rejected’ round or ‘adopting’ S (second)
END (stop) + TWO (couple) reversed or ‘over’ round or ‘imprisoning’ MEN (blokes)
An anagram (‘rocks’) of MAIN CANAL and ACTUAL
FRI (Friday – ‘end of working week’) CASh (ready) without the last letter or ‘almost’ + SEE (behold)
N (note) A CHOp (bit of meat) without the last letter or ‘cut’
A MALe GAMe (sport for men) with the two ‘e’s (energy) omitted or ‘released repeatedly’)
HER (girl’s) + CITE (quote) reversed or ‘recalled’
COMERS (arrivals) round or ‘bearing’ POSt (mail) without the last letter or ‘a lot of’
GRIM (forbidding) E (last letter or ‘end’ of obscene)
A BRA (supporter) + IS reversed or ‘upset’ + ON (about)
AUS (Australian) reversed or ‘turning up’ in CAL (California – US state)
CHINk (opening) without the last letter or ‘truncated’
An anagram (‘translated’) of TRIO and EASE – we hadn’t heard of this trilogy
HOARD (amassed wealth) round or ‘drawing in’ W (Welsh) – this could be a reference to Howard Hawks, the American film director form the classic Hollywood er of the 1930s to 1950s, or to Ron Howard, a Hollywood director of the current era
WEIRd (unnatural) without the last letter or ‘trimmed’
T (time) ACE (expert) in oCEAN (sea) without the ‘o’ (nothing)
fATTEST (most substantial) without or ‘ignoring’ the ‘f’ (fine)
I in or ’embraced by’ MORAl (virtuous) without the last letter or ‘not entirely’
WON (succeeded) round or ‘bracketing’ MA (old lady)
The entry is: U (university) ARMS (insignia) round PIN (point) – the wordplay suggests that PIN should be round U ARMS, but this is corrected by ‘Quite the reverse’
nAME THY (old word for ‘your’) ST (stone) without or ‘expressing’ the ‘n’ (name)
CROCHET (working in wool) round or ‘absorbing’ T (time)
FReelANCE (contractor) without or ‘avoiding’ eel (fish)
U (first letter of Uriah) in SAME (identical) L (line)
CA (circa – roughly) + PINT (quantity of milk) reversed or ‘rising’
GO (energy) + DO (party) reversed or ‘picked up’
AGRA (Indian city) with the ‘r’ (right’) moved to the front
Found this tricky in places, particularly the NE, but got there in the end with one cheat to get ORESTEIA. I initially went for an EROS start then had to resort to an anagram finder. Loved the challenge.
I had exactly the same experience as Hovis, had to cheat once. Also can’t identify a theme but as for B&J, that’s nothing new.
I thought the long anagram for sailor’s aid was superb!
Thanks Phi and B&J
As usual, an excellent puzzle from Phi. I couldn’t see the parsing for FRANCE, thanks to B&J for that.
Could there be a mini-theme of WOMAN COMPOSERS? Amy BEACH is one and so is Judith WEIR. A few clues contain the word “note” plus there’s CROTCHET. Perhaps just a coincidence.
Good fun as usual. Thanks to Phi and B&J.
That’s a great thought Alliacol @3. Google tells me that there’s also an Emily HOWARD and a Helen GRIME, at least (I haven’t actually Googled every answer).
I really thought this theme might be one to pass you by, so bravo to Alliacol and DavidO. I also included Rhian SAMUEL and Unsuk CHIN.
A while back there was a composer-themed puzzle where the editor noted the absence of female representation, so here they are. Fortunately quite a few of them can readily be found in the standard dictionary as well.
Damn, I should have spotted that. I have several recording of Beach and Weir. Amusingly, Beach signed her compositions with her married name, Mrs H H A Beach, and that was how she was at least once listed in the Radio Times about 40 years ago.
Not only did I know the Oresteia, I saw the famous Peter Hall production at the National Theatre in the eighties. (Tony “Baldrick” Robinson was in it, wearing a mask.) And my book club did it just a few months ago.
Phi is far too kind. My insight only went as far as thinking “Howard and Grime sound like surnames – I’ll look them up. Cetacean and Amethyst don’t, so I won’t.” All credit to Alliacol.