It’s the end of the week and once again we are in Phi’s safe hands.
Regular solvers will be aware that there is usually a theme in Phi’s puzzles, but if there is one, it can sometimes be somewhat obscure. As usual, we’ve looked at the completed grid for a theme, but, as seems to happen more and more these days, we can’t see one. Perhaps someone out there will spot something?
WhICh without or ‘crushing’ the Hs (hearts) and C A (first letters or ‘leads’ to Complete Anarchy)
PAPER (item from print) CLIP (item from film)
NOEL (‘Coward possibly’ as in Noel Coward) around or ‘concealing’ V (first letter or ‘start’ to Violent)
An anagram (‘fools about’) of RICH around or ‘suppressing’ A RIVAl (competitor) missing last letter or ‘mostly’. Not a word you come across everyday but Bert had heard of it but was not sure of its meaning – it’s a cacophony of sound originally for newly weds using pan lids etc. It reminded us of the noises along our street when we clapped for the NHS during the pandemic.
BANK (side) with P (little power) in RUT (routine)
V (version) and an anagram (‘converted’) of LATER
GUY (chap) around or ‘hugging’ ST (stone)
CARP (complaint) ENTER (register)
BRASS (impertinence) IRE (passion) around or ‘grabbing’ E (last letter or ‘latest’ in cutie)
PE (exercises) DAiL (Irish Parliament – Ireland is part of Europe) with I (one) missing or ‘knocked out’
TOP (tent) DOG (track)
JA (German for yes or ‘certainly’) LOUSE (ragbag) around or ‘keeping I (one) hidden’
An anagram (‘constructed’) of ARCH DULY and I (last letter or ‘termination’ in Pompeii)
I (one) and rUNNEr (missing first and last letter or ‘naked’) reversed or ‘returning’
RED (ruddy) PEPPER (shower)
BASE (support) around or ‘restricting’ L (Liberal)
WIND (to meander) and GAB (chatter) reversed or ‘climbing’
COVE (fellow) N (name)
GALLERY (art venue) with G (the opening letter) moving towards the end or ‘much later’
POCK (‘damage indication’) in PICKET (fence)
P (pressure) LAN (computer network)
GATE (crowd) with REIn (control without last letter or ‘running short’) in front or ‘at first’
LET (rental property) inside or ‘shielded by’ FE (iron) all inside LEAD (another metal)
Double definition
FANCiER (more imaginative) without or ‘ignoring’ I (institute) around REEL (piece of film)
STAMPED (authorised) ED (edition)
Double definition
SAGE (wise person) around or ‘keeping’ TOR (a feature of Glastonbury)
PROVE (demonstrate) and B (British) R (rule) reversed or ‘upturned’
LEES (the worst) IDEa (plan) without or ‘denying’ A (Australian)
SATAN (evil figure) with TA (cheers) moving to the end or ‘later’
F (fighter plane) LOP (to take off)
I found this a much harder than Phi than recent ones for some reason. A couple of nho in CHARIVARI and JALOUSIE. I did end up revealing the first which enabled me to get last two- PICKPOCKET and BANKRUPT. I can’t spot a theme but then I rarely pick up on Phi’s.
As always, all was good. Favourites include LEE SIDE for the novel synonym – worst, WICCA for the hearts trick, STAMPEDED for the misdirecting surface, ALLERGY for the movement.
Thanks Phi and B&J
We do have BUTCHER, PAINTER, FREELANCER-but even if pickpocketing is a trade, maybe we need more. JALOUSIE new to me (in English anyway)
Some fine surfaces
Thanks M&J and Phi
Thanks both. A few unknowns here which I will regard as education. I puzzled longest over the second definition of PAINTER – I assume now it refers to a rope from a boat, where the suggestion is it would extend from a river bank? ….. my understanding was a painter rope is intended to float and secure to another vessel for towing?
Defeated by the SE corner. I put in “bland” instead of BLASE for 28a and therefore couldn’t get LEE SIDE which I was having trouble with anyway. A few uncommon words; I’d forgotten JALOUSIE, had never heard of VARLET, but did remember CHARIVARI from the alternative term for “Punch” magazine. Trying to parse FLOP also ended in failure.
A likely coincidence for such a common letter, but there are a few EE words/terms in the horizontal unches; probably nothing.
Thanks to Phi and B&J
I wondered if there was an Alain Robbe-Grillet theme with jalousie or a Sherlock Holmes with Reigate, but couldn’t get either to stick. Nice puzzle, though.
We found this trickier than some of Phi’s puzzles and ended up using a wordfinder for the two long down entries – PICKPOCKET and FREELANCER; once we got them we saw the parsing of the former but not the latter. We couldn’t parse REIGATE properly, either, as we took GATE to be ‘crowd control’ rather than just ‘crowd’. But we did know CHARIVARI, VARLET and JALOUSIE; we wondered if they might be Phi’s “theme” – he does sometimes simply put in a few less common words that are interesting to clue.
Thanks, Phi and B&J.
Hard work today, but enjoyable as always. Thanks Phi and B&J
Surprised that nobody’s pointed out that the RED PEPPER is a fruit, not a vegetable. (Like the tomato)
I absentmindedly clued PAINTER instead of PRINTER. Also NOVEL instead of HOVEL, which was just misreading the map. Humph! Though I suppose that doesn’t clarify things.
The source material for this one is in Wes Anderson’s latest film, set in ENNUI-sur-BLASÉ, a city which has areas named HOVEL, CARPENTER, PICKPOCKET, PRINTER, BUTCHER and FLOP. I never can resist a list of words like that. Copmus definitely on the right track.
Thanks Phi. That was tough; I failed with CHARIVARI and REIGATE and couldn’t parse PAINTER or LEE SIDE but most else came into focus. My top choices were NOVEL, BRASSERIE, STORAGE, and HYDRAULIC, the latter for its surface. Thanks B&J for the blog.
Thank you to Phi for explaining the niche theme. Perhaps one day I will spot one of you more oblique references but certainly not this time or, I suspect, any time soon.
I only know JALOUSIE from crosswords and didn’t think I had ever heard of CHARIVARI but the word popped into my head so it must be another one lodged in the brain from past puzzles…only this time it snuck in without me noticing.
I am a bit late in saying ‘fab crossword’ but it was indeed another Friday cracker. Thanks also to B&J for the blog.