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It’s Friday and it’s Phi-day. No complaints here.
A pleasant way to end the week. Nothing too taxing but plenty to enjoy with lots of smooth surfaces throughout the clues. Thanks Phi.
SPLIT (Croatian city) A PART (role to play)
S (small) iTEM (object) missing first letter or ‘losing its front’
B (bass) LUtES (stringed instruments) without ‘t’ (first or ‘initial’ letter in tried)
An anagram (‘unfortunately’) of COUNT IS ON
plEDGE (commitment) without (‘having no’) ‘pl’ (place)
EU (a quarter of European – 2 of 8 letters) LOGISTICs (supply systems) missing last letter or ‘not entirely’
SH (quiet) ROUnD (few drinks) without (‘not given’) ‘n’ (number)
FOUNDER (benefactor) around or ‘adopting’ L (student)
D (dead) and an anagram (‘revitalised’) of BREWERY
U (united) and a reversal (‘backed’) of AI (excellent) POT (source of funding)
An anagram (‘blasted’) of TUNNEL and AMMO
CRU (vintage) X (times – in arithmetic)
L (left) after or ‘in pursuit of’ ONE sANDAL (half a pair of footwear) missing or ‘having lost’ S (second)
AWE (dread) around or ‘keeping’ A K (king)
S (son) inside or ‘overwhelmed by’ LOT (fate)
An anagram (‘represented’) of ADMEN CYNIC
SUB (regular payment) LETS (allows)
U (last or ‘final’ letter of you) inside or ‘invested in’ LONGER (more extended)
T (last or ‘final’ letter of defendant) SET (fixed) all reversed or ‘up’
Double definition
An anagram ‘(interacting’) of MANY and LORD
A play on the fact that an EDition of Oliver TWIST (Dickens classic) may be fancifully described as a TWIST ED
A reversal (‘going uphill’) of I’M + a reversal (‘climbing’) of RACINg (in contest) without last letter or ‘mostly’
I QUIT (comment from frustrated employee) in U (university) BY (through)
SUN (star) around or ‘welcoming’ PER (for each) MA (old woman)
FR (French) ONE (individual) around or ‘about’ TAG (to graffiti)
M and F (both sexes) O (love) inside or ‘getting stuck into’ a reversal (‘rising’) of LOAD (amount of work)
WIN (secure) TERmS (conditions) without or ‘saving’ M (money)
PIN (point) round an anagram (‘revised’) of RATE
A (area) + I ‘observed’ inside an anagram (‘review’) of NEXT + Y (year)
BAD (something wrong) about A and LL (couple of lines)
Hidden (‘a quantity of’) in bruTAL Chilli
My copy of this puzzle has no notes reminding me of a Nina, but also nothing saying there’s no Nina. I’m generally quite scrupulous about putting one or the other. It’s not a wonderful grid in terms of connections (it’s almost in two halves) so I’m wondering whether there is a theme of some sort that I have forgotten.
Any ideas?
Nice gentle puzzle – that has revealed no nina or theme to my eyes but then I am pretty poor at spotting them, even when I think to look. BLUES, EULOGISTIC, MONUMENTAL, FRONTAGE and DAMFOOL were my faves today.
Thanks Phi and B&J
Thanks for the confession Phi. We will wait and see…….
Thanks Phi and B&J!
A friendly puzzle but very enjoyable. A neat and lovely blog.
Liked ONE AND ALL, UBIQUITY and FRONTAGE.
MINICAR
in contest with (I think the ‘with’ is a hindrance otherwise)=RACINg
Theme? Wrong number, please!
Totally agree with blog. Enjoyable and not too taxing. Top clue is SHROUD (for a few drinks). Thanks B&J and Phi.
KVa@4 unless the setter’s intention is that ‘in contest with’ is synonymous with racing?
Hmm. Perhaps for Einstein and his friends there is a Cru-Vintage continuum, but for the rest of us they are two different things. The fact that they are both terms that apply to wine hardly makes them interchangeable.
Q: “On which cru of the vineyard were the grapes grown?”
A: “1982.”
I think not.
A gentle start to Friday, balanced by my first Wordle failure! I thought there might be a theme involving Superman, Utopia and Ballad, but probably not. Thanks Phi and B&J.
Tatrasman – I am glad that I wasn’t the only one to fail at Wordle!
Sofamore@6
MINICAR
‘RACING’
Chambers has this under ‘race’ (among other meanings)
to contend in speed or in a race with
Collins…
to engage in a contest of speed with (another)
Accordingly, RACING=in contest with.
If we leave out the ‘with’, the cryptic reading becomes: ‘RACIN with climbing’
Tatrasman@8, Bertandjoyce@9 – I had 3 green on my first guess, and made no more progress in my next 5! Glad to find some company for my misery.
I came here to identify any Nina or theme that I might have missed, only to discover that the setter is equally in the dark – ah well. Probably my fastest solve of a Phi puzzle, so no surprise that others found it fairly gentle. I particularly enjoyed BLUES, EULOGISTIC, FRONTAGE, DAMFOOL and LOI UBIQUITY.
Thanks Phi and Bertandjoyce
I’m not usually one to strain too hard in search of a theme, but if Phi himself is lost, then… With BLUES and BALLAD there, can we see other musical references? Johnny WINTER[s]? Todd Rundgren’s UTOPIA? TWISTED sister? The EDGE? Laurie Anderson’s [O] SUPERMAN? I seem to be FLOUNDERing around, so I’ll stop.
Favourites were the bottom row. Thx S&B!
I momentarily congratulated myself on identifying SPLIT APART as the theme, as all the clues seemed to involve splitting or parts, but then, I suppose, all crossword clues do. BLUES was my favourite. Thanks all.
CONTUSION is another song by Stevie Wonder… … No, that was Tramp’s theme, yesterday in The Guardian.
I can see POET going diagonally from the P in SPLIT, followed by EP, then FYUYCTKT, which, if you take alternate letters, spells… …YYTT.
Really enjoyed this puzzle. Couldn’t see a Nina but then that is no surprise for me.