Happy Phiday to everyone.
Our regular Friday setter is here again, with a typically enjoyable puzzle. Some clever anagrams, among which the neat clue-as-definition in 5d gets my vote for clue of the day.
It’s Phi, so there’s probably a ghost theme but not necessarily an obvious one. I think I’ve cracked it today, though. Robert Frost’s poem “STOPPING by WOODS on a SNOWY EVENING” gives us an image of a traveller pausing to look at a scene of falling snow, before resolving to go on: ” . . But I have promises to keep, and MILES to go BEFORE I SLEEP”. Frost was born in CALIFORNIA, although he wrote the poem in Vermont. Thanks Phi for the fun, as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PROSPERO |
Do well with old theatrical magician (8)
|
| PROSPER (do well) + O (abbreviation for old).
Sorcerer in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. |
||
| 6 | WICKET |
Target of deliveries? Welsh strike supporter barring opening (6)
|
| W (abbreviation for Welsh) + [p]ICKET (someone publicly standing in support of striking workers) without the opening letter.
Deliveries, in cricket = balls bowled at the wicket. |
||
| 9 | DOME |
I want to be worked on next in cathedral? (4)
|
| DO ME! (a request for someone to deal with me = I want to be worked on next).
I’m not convinced by the definition: a cathedral doesn’t necessarily contain a dome, and a dome isn’t necessarily part of a cathedral. |
||
| 10 | AUDIOMETER |
Mute roadie, wandering round – one’s assessing what can be heard (10)
|
| Anagram (wandering round) of MUTE ROADIE.
A device for measuring the acuity of someone’s hearing. |
||
| 11 | STOPPING |
Concluding premiere of show’s excellent (8)
|
| First letter (premiere) of S[how] + TOPPING (a rather old-fashioned way of saying “excellent!”). | ||
| 12 | SIN BIN |
Punishment area – I particularly note – is filling function (3,3)
|
| I + NB (abbreviation for Latin nota bene = note well = particulaly note), inserted into (filling) SIN (abbreviation for sine, a mathematical function).
Holding area for sports players temporarily removed from the field of play as a punishment. |
||
| 13 | DREDGE UP |
Unearth source of real acerbity in political party (6,2)
|
| First letter (source) of R[eal] + EDGE (acerbity = bitterness or harshness in speech), all inserted into DUP (abbreviation for the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland politics). | ||
| 15 | MR BIG |
Baron in male gear – VIP? (2,3)
|
| B (abbreviation for baron), inserted into M (abbreviation for male) + RIG (gear = equipment).
Slang for an influential man, especially the head of a criminal organization; VIP = abbreviation for very important person. |
||
| 16 | SNOWY |
Cartoon dog currently in heartless story (5)
|
| NOW (currently) in S[tor]Y (heartless = inner letters removed).
Name of the dog in the Tintin cartoon stories. |
||
| 17 | NERVE-END |
Keep on pushing King forward? A sensitive point (5-3)
|
| NEVER END (keep on), with the R (abbreviation for Latin Rex = King, as in Charles R) pushed a couple of places forward. | ||
| 19 | FRIEND |
Supporter, one coming in following split (6)
|
| I (one in Roman numerals), inserted into F (abbreviation for following) + REND (split). | ||
| 21 | INHUMANE |
Pointless accepting stench – horrible (8)
|
| INANE (pointless) containing HUM (slang for a bad smell = stench). | ||
| 23 | CALIFORNIA |
State in Africa confused with next answer (10)
|
| Anagram (confused) of AFRICA + LOIN (the answer to the next clue, 24a). Does that count as an indirect anagram? | ||
| 24 | LOIN |
Cut of meat – African animal has change of heart (4)
|
| LION (African animal) with the “heart” (inner letters) changing places. | ||
| 25 | BEFORE |
Favouring interrupting worker, but not now (6)
|
| FOR (favouring) inserted into BEE (which could be a worker bee). | ||
| 26 | REDESIGN |
Provide new look for warning symbol appearing electronically? (8)
|
| Warning symbols (signs) are conventionally red, and e- is a common prefix meaning electronic, so we’re looking for a RED E-SIGN. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ROOSTER |
Chicken schedule involving extra egg? (7)
|
| ROSTER (schedule, especially for shift workers) containing an extra O (egg = slang for zero).
An adult male chicken. |
||
| 3 | SLEEP |
Small sheltered area, quiet – ideal for this? (5)
|
| S (abbreviation for small) + LEE (the side of a structure that’s sheltered from the wind) + P (musical abbreviation for Italian piano = quiet).
Extended definition: you’d probably want somewhere sheltered and quiet to sleep. |
||
| 4 | EVASIVELY |
Ivy leaves strewn around, offering little explanation (9)
|
| Anagram (strewn around) of IVY LEAVES.
To respond evasively is to talk a lot without actually answering the question. |
||
| 5 | OLD-AGE PENSIONER |
After working, one ideal person to receive a little something from Government? (3-3,9)
|
| Anagram (after working) of ONE IDEAL PERSON + first letter (a little something) from G[overnment].
Clue-as-definition (&lit): someone who receives a state pension after retiring from work. |
||
| 6 | WOODS |
Golf clubs Director brought into courts (5)
|
| D (abbreviation for Director) inserted into WOOS (woo, as a verb = court = make romantic approaches to). | ||
| 7 | CLEANABLE |
With low profits, invested in hawser that needn’t stay dirty (9)
|
| LEAN (with low profits) inserted into CABLE (hawser = a large heavy rope). | ||
| 8 | EVENING |
No time for equestrian sport – later in the day? (7)
|
| EVEN[t]ING (equestrian sport usually involving a combination of dressage, cross-country and showjumping) without the T (abbreviation for time). | ||
| 14 | DUODECIMO |
Italian 9, around start of Christmas month, depicted in book of twelve leaves (9)
|
| DUOMO (Italian word for 9a DOME) around DEC I (abbreviation for December 1 = start of the Christmas month).
A book whose page size is derived from folding a standard printer’s sheet of paper into 12. (From duodecim, Latin for twelve.) |
||
| 15 | MARSHLAND |
Worker supporting planet adopting line for fen country (9)
|
| HAND (worker, as in farmhand) after (below, in a down clue = supporting) MARS (a planet), containing L (abbreviation for line).
Fen = marsh = low-lying wetland. |
||
| 16 | SURFACE |
Look at various sites to get expert coverage (7)
|
| SURF (look at various websites) + ACE (expert). | ||
| 18 | NANJING |
Note a new Judge in Government in Chinese city (7)
|
| N (abbreviation for note) + A + N (abbreviation for new) + J (abbreviation for judge) + IN + G (abbreviation for government). | ||
| 20 | DRONE |
Heads for Dundee relishing individual sound of bagpipe (5)
|
| First letters (heads) of D[undee] R[elishing], then ONE (individual).
Part of the sound of a bagpipe: the long-held low notes over which a melody is played. |
||
| 22 | MILES |
Happy looks having covered initial distance (5)
|
| [s]MILES (happy looks) with the initial letter hidden (covered). |
DOME
Some additional layers are seen. Only Phi can say whether they were intended.
DOME is a slang term for head and cathedral means a ‘seat/chair'(?).
In a hairdresser’s, the whole clue could mean DO ME (with I=DOME).
Chambers says DOME=cathedral (obsolete). Phi wouldn’t have used DOME/cathedral in this sense, I think.
If we see DOME as a part of a cathedral, the whole clue could work as an extended def (Again I=DOME).
And Duomo in Italian means cathedral?
STOPPING
My take
‘s excellent=TOPPING
Liked SLEEP, REDESIGN and OLD-AGE PENSIONER a lot. Some great surfaces as usual.
Thanks Phi and Quirister.
I hadn’t known Frost was from California, so that was fortuitous.
Nor did it register as I wrote 5d that the puzzle would appear 10 days after I became one!
Thanks for the blog and for spotting the theme. There’s a lovely setting by Donald Swann, written outside his partnership with Michael Flanders.
Cathedral in German is Dom. Comparatively easy, which is sometimes an indication of a theme, but there usually is one in Phi puzzles anyway, though I didn’t spot it as usual. Congratulations to the blogger for doing so. Seeing the reference to ‘judge’ in Nanking reminded me of the wonderful novels of the 18th century Chinese detective Judge Dee by Robert van Gulik. Thanks Phi and Quirister.
Thanks Phi – and congratulations on your promotion (?) to 5d.
[Re settings of the poem, choral singers probably know that there was nearly one by Eric Whitacre. He wrote it as a commission, then when he tried to publish it he found that the poem was still in copyright and Frost’s estate wouldn’t give him permission. So he asked a poet friend to write a new text to fit the music, and it became his lovely choral song Sleep. Whitacre has since said that he prefers the new text and doesn’t plan to revert to the original.]
“Here’s one I prepared earlier” (…than Phi’s post @2)
Last June, Phi had a theme of The Beatles’ When I’m Sixty-Four, so I reckon he’s 65 this year, and what used to be an OAP in the UK. (It was 67 for me.)
Missed the theme, but did notice MILES (David Hemmings) making a reappearance from last Phiday. Also couldn’t find a LEG to go BEFORE WICKET.
Thanks Φ (🎂) & Q
Donald Swann & Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods
Eric Whitacre & Charles Anthony Silvestri’s Sleep
24a LOIN – There was similarly-afflicted LION in yesterday’s FT by Solomon: ‘3d Lion with tummy trouble pursued by idiot husband in Tarzan outfit (9)’
Great minds…
Thank heavens for Phiday. I did a once through on the Grauniad, gave up and haven’t even bothered looking at the solutions.
14d is the sort of thing I like. A word I’ve not encountered, but very clearly clued.
Like the reverse segue from 24a to 23a.
[Do you remember Mr Big FrankieG? I saw them support Queen at the legendary Christmas Eve gig in 1975. First time I’d seen a band with two drummers.]
Thanks Phi and Quirister.
Thanks for the blog Quirister. We missed the theme totally but that’s nothing unusual.
Thanks Phi for the Phiday puzzle and congratulations on joining us retirees.
Enjoyable crossword today, didn’t spot the theme, a lovely poem,
Thanks Phi and for a great blog Quirister,
Pete HA3@9 – I’d forgotten all about Mr Big, one hit wonders in 1977, when ‘Step back inside me Romeo, she said’ got to No. 4, despite being banned by the BBC.