Phi drops in with an early offering for Sankt Nikolaustag.
Preamble: Entries are real words, with some being the result of modifying clue answers (numbers in brackets reflect the space available in the grid). Across entries reflect Phase 1, Down entries reflect Phase 2. Solvers must highlight the protagonist, thereby filling the grid.
I didn’t get on at all well with this setter’s previous puzzle, as some might remember – let’s see about this one; at least there are bars in the grid and entry lengths for the clues. A quick once through the acrosses yielded little: EROS at 25a and SERRATE at 34a, the latter being too long. Not in the mood. Put the puzzle away until tomorrow.
The down clues seemed more amenable … a couple in the top right quadrant, more down below, with SPRINGTIME at 17d also too long; also by 3 letters. Revisiting across clues where I had intersecting entries brought first TITRATE at 26a (too long) – at which pointed I started to smell a … – and then SPIRATED at 31a. OK, if we remove the RATs then we are left with words that fit. And the only adjustment to SPRINGTIME to make a real word that fitted was to remove TIM.
So, the RATs go in Phase 1, and small children, TIM for example, go in Phase 2, and that can mean only one thing: the protagonist is the PIED PIPER. (The piper’s clothing was pied – variegated – when he was leading the rats away, but he wore hunter’s green on returning for the children.)
And now it’s time to tackle the remaining 60% of the clues! The across clues were easier, in some cases deduce the entry, add RAT somewhere along its length, and check that that did indeed solve the clue, MO[RAT]ORY at 11a for example. But with the downs, we were looking for names of boys or girls (each 3 letters as it transpired) – not so easy. I got there in the end, with 1d TE[LEO]ST being my last.
Thanks Phi – see you in the New Year. And did you all notice the confused RATS nestling at 1a?
Season’s greetings. Jingle bells, and all that.
| No. | Clue | Answer | Wordplay |
| Across | |||
| 1 | Troubles gutted half of area authority (4) | TSAR | T(rouble)S AR(ea) |
| 4 | Activity in city yard or country areas (7) | MEADOWS | ADO (activity) in MEWS (city yard) |
| 9 | Indication of choice that is kept back yonder (though not entirely) (6) | EITHER | IE< (that is) THER(e) (yonder) |
| 11 | Tending to defer climb in part of Scotland (5) | MO[RAT]ORY | TOR (climb) in MORAY (part of Scotland) |
| 12 | Region in Britain, I note, is very handy (8) | BRIAREAN | AREA (region) in BR(itain) I N(ote) |
| 13 | Hurried to cuddle tenor with shirt in rough fabric (4) | [RAT]TEEN | RAN (hurried) around T(enor) TEE (shirt) |
| 14 | Explosive speed of images? (4) | PIC[RAT]E | PIC RATE (speed of images?) |
| 15 | No longer expressing bafflement, dimwit reflected (4) | ANAN | NANA< (dimwit) |
| 16 | Source of sob stories recalled in local strains (5) | SEILS | S(ob) LIES (stories) all< |
| 18 | Contralto engaged in backing extensive audio system (5) | NICAM | C(ontralto) in MAIN< (extensive) |
| 19 | Middle Eastern leader? Very good crossword setter (5) | SOPHI | SO (very good) PHI (who he?) |
| 22 | Finish power after cut in supply (5, 2 words) | END UP | P(ower) after ENDU(e) (supply) |
| 25 | Minor deity took to the skies, rear end first (4) | EROS | ROSE (took to the skies) with last letter first |
| 26 | Work with solutions, having obligation to secure restaurant (4) | TIT[RAT]E | TIE (obligation) around TRAT (restaurant) |
| 28 | Publication dismissing energy provided by carbon and metal (4) | ZINC | ZINE (publication) ¬ E(nergy) C(arbon) |
| 30 | A calm that’s mostly behind factors in India (8) | AMILDARS | A MILD (calm) ARS(e) (behind) |
| 31 | Small stole with a twisted shape (5) | SPI[RAT]ED | S(mall) PIRATED (stole) |
| 32 | Revolver is spun by Kiwi expert (6) | SIX-GUN | IS< X (by) GUN (expert, NZ) |
| 33 | Tried for example couched in English spoken in Milton’s time (7) | ESSAYED | SAY (for example) in E(nglish) SED (spoken, Milton) |
| 34 | Mistake getting stuck into barbecued meat with teeth (4) | SER[RAT]E | ERR (mistake) in SATE (barbecued meat) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Sole at sea included amongst offensive fish (4) | TE[LEO]ST | [SOLE]* in TET (offensive launched during Vietnamese lunar new year festival) |
| 2 | Old gods? Mum’s dismissing last one (6) | SILENI | SILEN(t) (mum) I (one) |
| 3 | Quiet exercises occurring in a silence (7, 2 words) | AT PEACE | PE (exercises) in A TACE (silence) |
| 4 | Fellows keeping fellow upset after fellow’s way of behaviour (6) | M[ANN]ERISM | MEN (fellows) around SIR (fellow) both< after MAN (fellow) {unnecessarily convoluted} |
| 5 | Instrument seen in a church service (not New Style) (5) | AMATI | A MATINS (church service) ¬ NS (New Style) |
| 6 | Small town affair has priest upset (4) | DORP | DO (affair) PR< (priest) |
| 7 | American oddball brought about river’s destruction (5) | WRACK | WACK (oddball, US sl) around R(iver) |
| 8 | End of class certainly is covering new grammatical structure (7) | SYNESIS | (clas)S YES (certainly) IS around N(ew) |
| 10 | Rapacity sees Arctic feature overwhelmed by a lot of change (4) | [AVA]RICE | ICE (Arctic feature) after A VAR(y) (change) |
| 15 | Nick turning up in each inverted mineral (7) | ANATASE | SATAN< (Nick) in EA< (each) |
| 17 | After dash round front of garden, I’m beginning to enjoy period of growth (7) | SPRING[TIM]E | SPRINT (dash) around G(arden) I’M E(njoy) |
| 19 | Place known for water and free fish (6) | SPARID | SPA (place known for water) RID (free) |
| 20 | Mark height on stream after pressure goes off (6) | HONOUR | H(eight) ON POUR (stream) ¬P(ressure) |
| 21 | Yarns showing I’m investing in travel aid (5) | GIMPS | I’M in GPS (travel aid) |
| 23 | Old man at first digs repeatedly in area above mine (5) | DADDY | 2×D(ig) in DAY (area above mine) |
| 24 | Toxic plant completely superior to arsenic (4) | UPAS | UP (completely) AS (arsenic) |
| 27 | European to incline to ditch Nationalist in Greek colony (4) | ELEA | E(uropean) LEAN (incline) ¬ N(ationalist) |
| 29 | Prisoner released, say, making excuse (4) | CON[DON]E | CON DONE (prisoner released, say) |
I was very pleased at the end to have cracked the theme of this puzzle, having failed to do so in two of this setter’s three puzzles so far this year.
I often dislike the use of ‘some’ (instead of a number) in preambles – also the phrase ‘numbers in brackets reflect the space available’ (instead of indicating the word-lengths). With this puzzle, though, from my very positive experience of it, I thought the decisions on what information to give and not give in the preamble were well judged. The clues were excellent, and it was an enjoyable exercise of the mind to identify and solve the special clues.
Despite getting all those RATs from the Across clues and a collection of short names from the Downs, I failed to guess the Pied Piper, but it wasn’t long before I saw PIED ?IPER going across and up the grid, explaining not only the rats in Phase 1 but also the children’s names in Phase 2.
Thanks to Phi, and to HolyGhost for the blog.
An enjoyable puzzle with the clues just about right. For some reason, the penny did not drop immediately so when I saw CAM-S across the centre, I went on a wild and fruitless goose-chase to find what Albert Camus had to say about rats although I was doubtful that he had written a famous-five-ish tale. Then I spotted the diagonal and kicked myself hard!
Thanks to Phi and HG.
A really good puzzle even if I found all the KIDs before the first RAT, so needed the PIEDPIPER to put me on the right track as googling TIM DON ANN unsurprisingly did not prove very fruitful – although I did discover the triathlete Tim Don.
Only minor surprise was the unequal number of each items to be removed – given the high standards of ‘nerdiness’ of the Inquisitor I thought there was no way it could be 6 of one and 5 of the other so I kept looking and looking for the 6th KID until I accepted that I must have the right number and my dreams were shattered 🙂
Thanks Phi and HG
PS: Thought 4d had just the right amount of convolution.
Funnily enough TELEOST was my first solve and immediately told me names were to be removed.
The setter’s blog is here: https://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/phases/. A little late to the party but I’m beginning to wish I’d had my flu jab earlier in the year.
Some setters take the trouble to comment on the remarks that solvers have made; some don’t …
Thanks Phi, an enjoyable challenge with a satisfying PDM. I was another that wondered about CAMUS and also AESOP at an earlier point.
Straightforward (well, for an IQ) and great fun! All thanks to Phi and HolyGhost.
At first I did better on the Down clues and guessed that short names were to be dropped (beginning with LEO in TELEOST — me too, @4). It was a while before I found my first missing RAT, and by then the resulting PIED PIPER guess had a likely home on the diagonal.
Another me-too at @3: I got quite fretful about the asymmetry of there being only five missing kids, but eventually decided it was indeed so.
Browning’s poem certainly implies there were more rats than children. London’s current rat population is 19,846,504 (apparently; not my spurious accuracy…) so you could argue it’s the kids who are over-represented.
Though (since a comment on the matter appears to be obligatory) it never occurred to me (nor, it seems, any of the editorial team) that there were six of one and not quite half-a-dozen of the other.
Phi@9 made me smile. A nice, not too difficult, challenge; thanks to Phil and HolyGhost.
@HolyGhost – if the spikiness of the above comment is anything to go by it may be a good thing this one didn’t
By which I mean the setter’s not yours!