‘Tis the day before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse;
The children are nestled all snug in their beds;
but the adults have a Phi to solve to challenge their heads!
Thanks Phi for today’s puzzle as well as all the other cryptic and IQs we have enjoyed solving throughout 2021.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Well – what a scorcher to start with. There are 3 different anagrams (‘moved’) of the three different pairs of entries – VASTER CHIMES / CRAVES THEISM / VICARS THEMES. Whilst ‘chimes’ is connected to hearing we think that ‘hearing’, ‘one who’ and ‘takes in’ are there for the surface reading only.
CA (about) ROLl (cake) missing last letter or a ‘lot of’
POLE (staff) and an anagram (‘changes’) of CLAIM
R (river) inside or ‘passing through’ CAVES (grottoes). Joyce checked CRAVES = REQUIRES. She was under the impression that you may crave something without actually needing or requiring it. However, it’s there in Chambers.
A reversal (‘backtracking’) of E (English) ARE SET (ready) around or ‘impounding’ S (small)
RINSE (washer programme) with E (energy) moving
CES (French for ‘those’) around or ‘imprisoning’ HIM (that man)
V (volume) fASTER (more rapid) without F (loud)
DEpTH (profundity) missing P (power) and replacing it with A (one) ‘instead’
O (zero) PENCE (money) around or ‘restricting’ U (university) L (lecturer)
IS inside or ‘held by’ THEM (the ‘opposition’ as in them and us)
A N (new) CH (church) inside A VALE (valley)
IS around or ‘keeping’ ON (working) after R (first letter or ‘bit of’ resting) – a reference to Jeremy Irons, the actor
WELLED (came up) around or ‘about’ AD (promotion) JUST (simply)
CAR (vehicle) I’D around TAY (river) reversed or ‘upset’
KATE (woman) after or ‘pursuing’ ROLLERS (Rolls Royces – expensive cars)
SlIPS (errors) missing or ‘avoiding’ L (student)
An anagram (‘ruin’) of FILMIER OIL
MUSh (rubbish) missing last letter or ‘a lot of’ and reversed or ‘picked up’
VICe (sin) missing last letter or ‘endless’ AS (in that degree) around or ‘engaging’ R (rector)
ICE (reserve) R (right) in CO (company)
LEEdS (city) with ‘d’ (day) missing or ‘out’
SPENT (tired out) H (husband) about D (daughter) followed by RIFT (split)
ACE (excellent) AC (account) ID (documentation) round TIC (movement)
MD (doctor) around or ‘keeping’ an anagram (‘under treatment’) of GLORIA
ME (the writer) inside or ‘engaged’ in THESe (the current ones) missing last letter or ‘most of’. Regular solvers will be aware that Phi often has themes in his puzzles. Sometimes these are combinations of words that mean something to Phi so he can fill the grid but which are unknown to everyone else. The fun however is trying to determine whether there is a theme or not!
SO FAr (up to now) missing last letter or ‘reduced’
U (initial letter of up) inside or ‘aboard’ CRATE (old plane). Joyce wasn’t aware that a sky pilot was a clergyman or military chaplain. Neither of us are quite sure why ‘junior’ is there.
MEN (players) over or ‘supported by’ U (united)
ALLy (supporter) without or ‘disregarding’ Y (unknown, as used in mathematics)
Well that was fun! We suspected that CHRISTMAS EVE was the answer to 1a on first reading, but it was quite awe-inspiring to get to the end and see how Phi had done it.
Thanks to Phi and to Bertandjoyce for all the entertainment, and Merry Christmas to all at Fifteensquared Towers!
Sky pilot as clergyman was new to me too. A curate is only an assistant to a clergyman so “junior” works for me.
I suspected Phi would be tempted into a theme on this particular Friday and what an unusual one. Most inventive. I wondered if there was something going on with VICARS, CURATE and THEISM but concluded that was a red herring. A very satisfying solve – pretty much like all the others so very many thanks to Phi and to B&J for their (hopefully pleasurable) labours.
Most enjoyable – like DavidO@1 we gambled on ‘now’ being the definition in 1ac and bunged in CHRISTMAS EVE. We soon twigged what was going on with the anagram pairs but couldn’t quite make out what the words in parentheses signified. Too many great clues to nominate a favourite but we liked TESSERAE, ROLLER-SKATE and SPENDTHRIFT among others.
Thanks, Phi and B&J – and Christmas Greetings to all the Fifteensquared community.
Thanks Phi and BnJ
CRAVES = REQUIRES is in the sense of “His Majesty craves your attendance” doesn’t imply desperation on his part, it’s “Be there or else!”.
CHRISTMAS EVE sort of fell into place as soon as I started this, but to work in those three anagrams of it is just brilliant! Great stuff – which is what I shall be doing tomorrow! Thanks Phi and B&J. And a Merry Christmas to all.
A fun and (of course) positively masterful crossword. Thanks to Phi, to Bertandjoyce and to SimonS @5 – the perfect example. And merry Christmas to all.
Lots of fun! We enjoyed the aha moment when we got 1a, about halfway through. Unfortunately the philosopher’s song from Monty python didn’t help us with 7d but we got there with the crosses. We got 9d at first but discarded it! 4d was a bit of continental guessing once we had some crosses.
Thanks and merry Christmas to Phi and B&J!
Merry Christmas everyone from where it’s already Christmas Day!
Only nine comments, and one of those by the setter, what a shame. Enjoyed it a lot, a couple of new words and couldn’t parse 5d, always thought of “picked up” as a homophone indicator.
Top three for me were 8a (great word),15a and 2d.
Thanks and Merry Christmas to all.
A crossword of halves. Racer along at first and then struggled a fair bit. Defeated by Curate. Guessed at Pupate as maybe being junior, which had up in it, but couldn’t parse it. Thought of curate, looked it up in the dictionary and saw no reference to a pilot and dismissed it. Thanks as always, Phi and Bert and Joyce. Happy Christmas and all that!