Our regular Phiday challenge.
I’m not sure what our overseas solvers will make of the long entry at 4/11/26; if you’ve heard of the phrase it’s fairly easy to guess from the enumeration, but if you haven’t you’ll never work it out. I enjoyed 17a (for the surface and the unexpected meaning of “surprise reception”), 20a (trying to make geometry sexy perhaps?), 27a (ingenious reversal), and 13d (a delightfully whimsical surface). Thanks Phi as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SECURITY |
Certainly taken aback about dog – it’s a guard-dog? (8)
|
| YES (certainly), reversed (taken aback), around CUR (dog) + IT.
Definition by example, indicated by the question mark. |
||
| 5 | BIASED |
With particular points of view grounded around Independent (6)
|
| BASED (grounded) around I (abbreviation for Independent). | ||
| 9 | FLOUNDER |
Establishment figure limiting student struggle (8)
|
| FOUNDER (the person who established an organisation) containing (limiting) L (learner, as in L-plate = student). | ||
| 10 | UNFAIR |
Fraudulent amusement centre ignoring first fine (6)
|
| [f]UNFAIR (amusement centre), without the first F (abbreviation for fine).
A rather loose definition: “fraudulent” suggests some sort of deception to gain an advantage, whereas something can be blatantly unfair without any attempt to deceive. |
||
| 12 | RADICAL CHIC |
A reduction in childcare sadly, I see, indicating superficial interest in new ideas (7,4)
|
| Anagram (sadly) of A + CHILDCAR[e] (reduction = last letter dropped), then I + C (letter sometimes written as “see”, or text-speak as in “c u later”).
Radical chic = the tendency of celebrities and socialites to support left-wing political causes in order to appear fashionable or enhance their social standing, rather than from any real conviction. I suppose the term could be applied to supporting “new ideas” generally for the sake of appearance. |
||
| 15 | GLEAM |
In jungle, a match gives little light (5)
|
| Hidden answer, indicated by “in”: [jun]GLE A M[atch]. | ||
| 17 | LIE IN WAIT |
Provide surprise reception, literary, involving mulled wine – excellent (3,2,4)
|
| LIT (short for literary), containing (involving) an anagram (mulled) of WINE and AI (A1 = excellent).
Probably a less welcoming reception than the surface would suggest. |
||
| 18 | SERENADED |
Provided songs and dances in dry edition (9)
|
| Anagram (dances) of AND, in SERE (dry: an archaic word for dried-up or withered) + ED (short for edition). | ||
| 19 | SNAFU |
United supporters recalled chaos on US tour? (5)
|
| U (abbreviation for United in the names of football teams, especially Manchester) + FANS (supporters), all reversed (recalled).
US military slang (so an expression used on a military “tour of duty”) for chaos or a major error: the polite expansion is Situation Normal All Fouled Up, but the F may be interpreted differently. |
||
| 20 | GEOMETRICAL |
Erotic 15 kinkily covering points and surfaces? (11)
|
| Anagram (kinkily) of EROTIC GLEAM, where GLEAM comes from 15a. | ||
| 24 | GOVERN |
German in charge of new control (6)
|
| G (abbreviation for German) + OVER (in charge of) + N (new). | ||
| 25 | ADDITIVE |
Food preserver, say, like a drug (not cocaine) (8)
|
| ADDI[c]TIVE (like a drug), without the C (slang abbreviation for cocaine).
Definition by example (indicated by “say”): some food additives are preservatives, others are used for flavour or colour. |
||
| 26 |
See 4 Down
|
|
| 27 | TELEPORT |
Figure of speech allowed to reflect travel in SF? (8)
|
| TROPE (a figure of speech or frequently-used literary device) + LET (allowed), all reversed (to reflect).
The science-fiction concept of instant re-location over great distances. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SUFFRAGIST |
Very loud newspaper is taking time to support rise of American advocate for voting rights (10)
|
| FF (musical notation for fortissimo = very loud) + RAG (slang for newspaper) + IS + T (time), all after (below, in a down clue = supporting) a reversal (rise) of US (American).
An advocate for women’s voting rights, preferring peaceful and legal methods of protest (as distinct from suffragettes, who often resorted to law-breaking and violence to make their point). |
||
| 2 | CLOUDBERRY |
Fruit company initially readily heard over mistake in Times (10)
|
| Initial letter of C[ompany] + LOUD (readily heard), before (over, in a down clue) ERR (mistake, as a verb) in BY (times = multiplied by).
Fruit like a small orange raspberry, growing in Scandinavia and similar cold northern climates. |
||
| 3 | RUNIC |
Number of performances I caught, featuring ancient characters (5)
|
| RUN (repeated performances of a play, opera or similar production at the same venue) + I + C (caught, in cricket scoring). | ||
| 4/11/26 | THE OLD LADY OF THREADNEEDLE STREET |
Funding source associated with London sewers? (3,3,4,2,12,6)
|
| Cryptic definition, but nothing to do with public plumbing: the “sewers” are people who sew. The Bank of England is sometimes known as “The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” (where it has its headquarters), as depicted in a satirical cartoon published in the 18th century; the street may have been named after the tailors or needle-makers who once worked there, though as usual the precise origin is lost in the mists of time. | ||
| 6 | INNOCENTS |
Children, perhaps, in pub: zero change for Americans (9)
|
| INN (pub = drinking establishment) + O (zero) + CENTS (American small coins = change). | ||
| 7/23 | STAY OVER |
Spend the night – a lot of corsets dispensed with (4,4)
|
| STAY[s] (corsets; a lot of = all but the last letter) + OVER (finished = dispensed with). | ||
| 8/22 | DARK AGES |
King with silver engaged in risks in unenlightened times (4,4)
|
| K (king, in chess or card game notation) + AG (Ag = chemical symbol for silver, from Latin argentum), inserted into (engaged in) DARES (risks).
Term for the early Middle Ages (between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance), or metaphorically for any similar period considered to be uncivilised. |
||
| 11 |
See 4
|
|
| 13 | MARASCHINO |
Liqueur distilled from harmonicas? (10)
|
| Anagram (distilled) of HARMONICAS.
A liqueur distilled from sour cherries. |
||
| 14 | AT FULL PELT |
How the fastest tanner moves? (2,4,4)
|
| Cryptic definition (at full pelt = as fast as possible). A tanner makes leather from animal skins; the pelt is the coat of hair over the skin, which may be kept (for example in tanning sheepskin) or more generally removed. | ||
| 16 | MENAGERIE |
Workers get on with rook that is in a zoo (9)
|
| MEN (now a generally deprecated term for workers, who don’t have to be male) + AGE (get on = become older) + R (rook, in chess notation) + IE (i.e. = that is). | ||
| 21 | RAISE |
Elevated attention about one’s extra money (5)
|
UPDATE: it’s EAR (attention) reversed (elevated = upwards, in a down clue), around I’S (one’s). Thanks to Andrew @1 for the correction. Raise = salary increase = extra money. |
||
| 22 |
See 8
|
|
| 23 |
See 7
|
|
21 is I’S in reversed EAR (attention)
I parsed RAISE as Andrew. Thrown right at the beginning by thinking Cerberus for 1A (dog, SURE reversed, ‘cer’ from certainly: it looked as if there was potential). Once that was sorted, fairly accessible for Phi with the long one holding out until mid way through.
Fewer leap out clues for me today – the aforementioned RAISE is neat, I liked SUFFRAGIST and SERENADED is very clever. I agree with Quirister that TELEPORT is top notch as a reversal and it shares COTD with FLOUNDER which I loved for ‘establishment figure’.
As an off topic aside, CLOUDBERRY always brings to mind The Little Grey Men by ‘BB’ – a recollection from childhood. Amazing how evocative a word can be.
Thanks Phi and Quirister
Thanks Andrew @1 – it’s obvious now you mention it! I’ll correct the blog.
PostMark @2: yes, I was thinking of Cerberus for a while too.
The usual enjoyable Phi Friday puzzle. For no good reason, I’d always thought SNAFU was a British military term so I was thrown by the ‘US’ reference at 19a. Otherwise everything made sense and admittedly with the help of crossers, I was able to remember the term for the Bank of England, my favourite for the day.
Thanks for explaining the difference between a SUFFRAGIST and “suffragette” which I didn’t know about. Cryptic crossword + erudite blogger – yet again a valuable education resource.
Thanks to Phi and Quirister
Minor correction needed for 12a. The initial A of the clue is also part of the anagram fodder.
Thanks Hovis @5 – sorry for the carelessness, blog corrected.
Super puzzle with some lovely clues. SUFFRAGIST was new to me but Mr G supplied the answer when I checked for an alternative spelling of suffragette & learnt the difference between the two. TELEPORT & THE OLD LADY were my picks of a fine bunch. An enjoyable solve.
Thanks Phi & Quirister
TELEPORT and MARASCHINO were good for different reasons as Quirister said. I am not sure 14 dn quite works, but once I had stopped thinking about filthy lucre and money laundering, I enjoyed this.
Thanks Quirister fora comprehensive write up and Andrew for explaining that d in clue for RAISE. This might be my first Phi but not the last, can’t decide between TELEPORT and GEOMETRICAL for my favourite of many very good clues, thanks Phi
An enjoyable solve but not without some head-scratching. In 1ac we thought at once of ‘securely’ (roughly synonymous with ‘certainly’) simply beause of the ‘cur’ sequence but of course couldn’t parse it. Then 4.11/26 meant it had to be SECURITY but it took us ages to see the parsing. We too liked the idea of making geometry sexy. Others we liked included SERENADED and MARASCHINO.
Thanks, Phi and Quirister.
Didn’t want to miss a Phi even though I didn’t have time yesterday, but unfortunately the app just kept freezing on the multipart clues and couldn’t move at all, so I’ve had to abandon mid way in complete frustration. Most annoying.
One of Phi’s easier ones for us, especially once we’d got the old lady! Especially liked 14 and 27.