Phi brings yet another set of mid-week puzzles to a close.
I found this to be a medium-to-hard puzzle by Phi standards, and in the end, I needed to search Chambers to sort out the interlocking entries at 14 and 26.
I haven’t spotted any particular theme or Nina here, but perhaps others have and will let us know via comments in due course.
My favourite clues today were 9 and 13, both for smoothness of surface. I found the wordplay hard to crack at 3 and 14, but I got there in the end, I think.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | FANFARES | They announce food to be eaten by supporters
FARE (=food, as in Christmas fare) in FANS (=supporters) |
| 06 | FIDDLE | Report about direct debit scam
DD (=direct debit) in FILE (=report, dossier) |
| 09 | MAGNETISED | Made attractive media gents look dishevelled
*(MEDIA GENTS); “look dishevelled” is anagram indicator |
| 10 | NUMB | Not feeling central point should involve money
M (=money) in NUB (=central point, of argument) |
| 11 | LYCHEE | Fruit lolly’s wrapper – endless happiness displayed
L<oll>Y (“wrapper” means first and last letters only) + CHEE<r> (=happiness; “endless” means last letter is dropped) |
| 12 | IMPRESTS | Journalist’s statement when covering tense loan arrangements
T (=tense, in grammar) in I’M PRESS (=journalist’s statement!); an imprest is a loan or advance of money, especially from government funds for some public purpose |
| 13 | GANGLION | Quantity of nerve shown by hero to the Mob?
GANG (=Mob) + LION (=hero); a ganglion is a collection of nerve cells, hence “quantity of nerve” |
| 15 | BROKER | Finance expert out of funds, right?
BROKE (=out of funds) + R (=right) |
| 17 | REFORM | Official getting high honour after suppressing resistance to change
REF (=official, i.e. referee) + [R (=resistance, in electronics) in OM (=high honour, i.e. Order of Merit)] |
| 18 | FEARSOME | Awe-inspiring exploit almost succeeded in European city
FEA<t> (=exploit; “almost” means last letter is dropped) + [S (=succeeded) in ROME (=European city)] |
| 19 | GAMBLING | Putting at stake leg jewellery?
GAM (=leg, especially a female one) + BLING (=jewellery) |
| 22 | COWARD | Playwright not sincere about conflict
WAR (=conflict) in COD (=not sincere, mock, sham); the reference is to English playwright Noël Coward (1899-1973) |
| 24 | DOZE | The sound of deer in sleep
Homophone (“the sound of”) of “does (=deer)” |
| 25 | ACTIONABLE | A wire carrying a great deal, including current, leading to lawsuit?
[I (=current, in electronics) in TON (=a great deal)] in [A + CABLE (=wire, telegram)]; an actionable case is one giving ground for a lawsuit |
| 26 | MARKET | Purchasers rating classic film
MARK (=rating, score) + E.T. (=classic film, by Steven Spielberg) |
| 27 | ROTHESAY | Common soldiers backed the speech in Scottish town
RO (OR=common soldiers, i.e. other ranks; “backed” indicates reversal) + THE + SAY (=speech, as in to have one’s say); Rothesay is the main town on the Scottish island of Bute |
| Down | ||
| 02 | AT ANY RATE | Indication of desperation for a loan whatever happens?
Cryptically, someone desperate for a loan would accept it “at any (interest) rate”! |
| 03 | FINCH | Bird with Harry avoiding Nick?
<hal>F-INCH (=(to) nick, pinch); “Harry (=Hal) avoiding” means letters “hal” are dropped |
| 04 | RUTHENIUM | One supporting uranium subsequently probing strange metallic element
[U (=uranium) + THEN (=subsequently) + I (=one)] in RUM (=strange) |
| 05 | SESSION | Rackets knocked over around end of tennis period
<tenni>S (“end of” means last letter only) in NOISES (=rackets, dins); “knocked over” indicates reversal |
| 06 | FED UP | Bored to deliver trendy description of excellence?
DEF (=excellent, from hip-hop culture); “fed up”, i.e. vertically reversed, gives “def” |
| 07 | DANGEROUS | Ground and sea in motion? Not safe
*(GROUND + SEA); “in motion” is anagram indicator |
| 08 | LIMIT | The writer’s breaching literary boundary
I’M (=the writer’s, i.e. Phi’s) in LIT. (=literary) |
| 14 | GAOLBREAK | Escape and leave to receive a sort of delivery for one overlooked
[A in GO (=leave)] + L<eg> BREAK (=sort of delivery, i.e. in cricket; “for one (=e.g.) overlooked” means letters “eg” are dropped) |
| 15 | BRANCH OUT | Struggle to retain farm? Try something different
RANCH (=farm) in BOUT (=struggle, fight) |
| 16 | ESMERALDA | Real dame’s trounced heroine of French novel
*(REAL DAME’S); “trounced” is anagram indicator; the reference is to Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame |
| 18 | FIGHTER | Figure someone ill-disposed must take out a contender
FIG. (=figure) + H<a>TER (=someone ill-disposed; “must take out a” means letter “a” is dropped) |
| 20 | AROMA | A lesson finishing early after rising stink?
A + MORA<l> (=lesson, of story; “finishing early” means last letter is dropped); “after rising” indicates vertical reversal |
| 21 | INAPT | Greek god turning up in it is not appropriate
NAP (PAN=Greek god; “turning up” indicates vertical reversal) in IT |
| 23 | WHALE | Mammal, initially weak, getting healthy
W<eak> (“initially” means first letter only) + HALE (=healthy) |
Thanks, Phi and RR!
3 and 14: I parsed them the same way and I don’t see any issue there. They are quite interesting.
Other good ones are IMPRESTS, DOZE, AT ANY RATE and FED UP.
Not many easy ones and no surprise that I was a DNF. I missed ROTHESAY, having forgotten the ‘Scottish town’ which I must have seen on at least one of those “Scotland Islands and Highlands” TV programs and had no hope of parsing FINCH.
Favourite was working out the parsing for GAOLBREAK.
Thanks to Phi and RR
Thanks both. Couldn’t parse FINCH either but it’s clever. I also misspelt ESMERALDA by reversing the middle vowels and went with ‘at any cost’ instead of ‘rate’ for a while
…meant to add that in FED UP I see an irony that the clue includes the word ‘trendy’ which in itself is far from trendy these days….perhaps ‘trending’ would be a workable substitute?
Thanks for parsing FINCH which was beyond me. I liked DANGEROUS and GAOLBREAK, which I found hard because I would spell it JAILBREAK.
We couldn’t parse FINCH – we thought it might be a case of changing the L in ‘filch’ (pinch) to N but we were obviously barking up the wrong tree – or GAOLBREAK; another wrong tree there as we thought ‘break’ might come from ‘leave’ (as in holiday). But the rest was fine; we liked FANFARES, GAMBLING and RUTHENIUM.
Thanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku.
We found the bottom left corner impenetrable. Strange spelling of gaolbreak never seen before, and def a complete unknown.
I thought this one might be a bit more obvious, just from looking at the grid (middle row, anyone?) from which you can move on to find seven thematic entries.
I’ve read articles claiming that GAOL is the British spelling and JAIL the American – and vice versa. However it seems reasonable that once you accept both then JAILBREAK/GAOLBREAK follows.
Like Ericw, we found the bottom left corner a sticking point. Bert sorted out FINCH at which point he noted that Phi seemed to be pretty devious today!
We did finish with no cheating but failed to spot TAURUS across the middle despite looking for any hidden words.
However Phi, we are really stuck and have not been able to sort out the linked entries. Perhaps it is late and we are tired after being with our young grandchildren today….
Some more help would be most appreciated.
Thanks to S&B
Thanks Phi and RR
I spotted TAURUS but couldn’t see anything related – probably it’s me.
Surprised at the queries over the spelling of JAILBREAK, it was the title of Thin Lizzy’s breakthrough album and their biggest(?) hit The Boys Are Back In Town.
I suddenly decided to explore zodiacal signs (so be warned, there are eleven more…): yes, starting a month late, so I’ll have to think of something special for Aries to make up.
Taurus the Bull is the current sign: and you have FIDDLE, DOZE, MARKET, FINCH, SESSION, FIGHTER and WHALE as possible words to follow BULL.
Thanks Phi. We would not have been able to pick out all of those without a search. Thanks for the ‘heads up’ for later puzzles!
Couldn’t parse gaolbreak even if we got it. Surprised people haven’t hard of that spelling though. Also couldn’t parse finch. Didn’t know Hal was short for Harry, which will surprise people. 😉
Much harder than last week’s Phi which we polished off in under half an hour!