Friday, Phi, Independent crossword puzzle – they all go together.
I’ll start with my standard introduction to a Phi blog – ‘Phi often has themes in his puzzles. Most of the time I don’t see them. I don’t see one today, but long experience tells me that doesn’t mean there isn’t one’. I did notice DEATH, WHODUNNITS and HOSIERY and found a book ,listed in a mystery series on Amazon, entitled ‘Death by Pantyhose’ but I doubt if that is a theme that Phi would employ.
There were a couple of new words for me today, one in the entries and one in the clues. AFFRICATE (2 down) is not a word I have used before and ‘huff’ for removal of a drauights piece from the board in the clue at 1 down is also new to me.
I liked the clue for OBTUSE involving a bit of geometry.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Court opening rarely unfilled (8)
CHANCERY (formerly, the highest court of justice next to the House of Lords, presided over by the Lord High Chancellor, now a division of the High Court of Justice) CHANCE (opportunity; opening) + RY (RarelY excluding the central letters arel [unfilled]) CHANCE RY |
| 5 | Suspicion about entering sauna? (6)
BREATH (a slight suspicion) RE (with reference to; about) contained in (entering) BATH (reference a sauna BATH) B (RE) ATH |
| 10 | Regrettable crumbling of nature holding fruit back (11)
UNFORTUNATE (regrettable) Anagram of (crumbling) OF NATURE containing (holding) NUT (fruit) reversed (back) UNFOR (TUN<) ATE* |
| 11 | Time to abandon historic ballet move (3)
PAS (a step or dance, especially in ballet) PAST (historic) excluding (to abandon) T (time) PAS |
| 12 | Fine attitude is not quite the greatest? (4)
FAIR (pretty good; passable; not quite the greatest) F (fine) + AIR (attitude – Bradford’s dictionary gives the two words as synonyms) F AIR |
| 13 | Person making unusual contact greeting radio transmission (6,4)
MEDIUM WAVE (radio wave with a wavelength between 100 [or 200] and 1000 metres depending on which dictionary you look at. The Oxford Dictionary of English gives another definition based on frequency) MEDIUM (in spiritualism, the person through whom spirits are said to communicate with the material world; person making unusual contact) + WAVE (a greeting) MEDIUM WAVE |
| 15 | Final thing fitted into facade at home (5)
DEATH (the final event) DEATH (hidden word in [fitted into] faceDE AT Home) DEATH |
| 16 | Very happy with line in Times after the event (9)
BELATEDLY (later than should have been the case; after the event) (ELATED [very happy] + L [line]) contained in (in) BY (times, as in 5 by 9=45) B (ELATED L) Y |
| 18 | Furtive, engaging creditor on the slightest basis (9)
SLENDERLY (barely sufficiently; on the slightest basis) SLY (furtive) containing (engaging) LENDER (creditor) S (LENDER) LY |
| 19 | American aboard vessel refusing soft Japanese food (5)
SUSHI (example of Japanese food) US (United States; American) contained in (abroad) SHIp (vessel) excluding (refusing) P (piano; soft) S (US) HI |
| 21 | Inexperienced legislators giving description of some climate impacts? (10)
GREENHOUSE (a word used to describe the impacts of climate change, e.g. GREENHOUSE effect) GREEN (inexperienced) + HOUSE (legislators, such as the US HOUSE of Representatives) GREEN HOUSE |
| 24 | Speculation linked to a test (4)
BETA (reference a BETA test [a test, in normal working conditions of a product before it is marketed]) BET (speculation) + A BET A |
| 26 | Fear our group is lagging Australia (3)
AWE (reverential wonder or fear) A (Australia) + WE (our group) A WE |
| 27 | Annoying permutation to be reordered (11)
IMPORTUNATE (annoying) Anagram of (to be reordered) PERMUTATION IMPORTUNATE* |
| 28 | Dull-witted but more than right (6)
OBTUSE (dull-witted) An OBTUSE angle is greater than a right angle and less than 180° [more than right] – double definition OBTUSE |
| 29 | Incline in good time to exclude America, showing concern (8)
TENDERLY (showing concern) TEND (incline in some direction) + EaRLY (in good time) excluding (to exclude) A (American) TEND ERLY |
| Down | |
| 1 | Very pleased: first of checkers removed from board (7)
CHUFFED (delighted; very pleased) C (initial letter of [first of] Checkers) + HUFFED (technical term in the game of draughts meaning an opponent’s draught has been removed from the board for failure to make a capture) C HUFFED |
| 2 | Female entering continent starts to try every consonantal sound (9)
AFFRICATE (a consonant sound beginning as a plosive and passing into the corresponding fricative) (F [female] contained in [entering] AFRICA [continent]) + TE (first letter of [starts to] each of TRY and EVERY) A (F) FRICA TE – either F could be the one contained |
| 3 | Fifth vehicle in queue perhaps is giving concern (4)
CARE (anxiety; concern) CAR (vehicle) + E (fifth letter of the alphabet) so CAR E could be the designation for the fifth vehicle in a queue CAR E |
| 4 | Road almost completely overwhelmed (5)
ROUTE (road) ROUTED (completely overwhelmed) excluding the final letter (almost) D ROUTE |
| 6 | Male beset by his mature failing: joint pain (10)
RHEUMATISM (joint pain) M (male) contained in (beset by) an anagram of (failing) HIS MATURE RHEU (M) ATISM* |
| 7 | Beginning greeting in Hawaii, but with slight shift of character? (5)
ALPHA (the beginning) ALOHA (Hawaiian greeting) with the O changed by one place in the alphabet (slight shift) to P to form ALPHA – there are not many words in English with four consectutive vowels, but Hawaiian is one of them. ALPHA |
| 8 | Legwear is set up amongst garden lines (7)
HOSIERY (legwear) (IS reversed [set up; down entry] contained in [amongst] HOE [to garden]) + RY ([railway] lines) H O (SI<) E RY |
| 9 | Notice I will participate in race, moving from the centre (8)
RADIALLY (from the centre) (AD [ADvert; notice] + I) contained in (will participate in] RALLY (motor race, e.g. the Monte Carlo RALLY) R (AD I) ALLY |
| 14 | Mysterious texts involved in shutdown (10)
WHODUNNITS (stories or plays concerned with the elucidation of a crime mystery; mystery texts) Anagram of (involved) IN SHUTDOWN WHODUNNITS* |
| 16 | Shakespeare’s expression of surprise about recording one of Falstaff’s crew (8)
BARDOLPH (BARDOLPH is a fictional character who appears in four plays by William Shakespeare. He is a thief who forms part of the entourage of Sir John Falstaff; one of Falstaff’s crew) BARD (Shakespeare is sometimes referred to as the BARD of Avon) + (OH [expression of surprise] containing [about] LP [long-playing record; recording]) BARD O (LP) H |
| 17 | Terrible couple, keeping son in poor condition (9)
DISREPAIR (poor condition) (DIRE [terrible] + PAIR [couple]) containing (keeping … in] S (son) DI (S) RE PAIR |
| 18 | South America reduced protection applied to old cactus (7)
SAGUARO (a giant cactus) SA (South America) + GUARD (protection) excluding the final letter (reduced) D + O (old) SA GUAR O |
| 20 | Pictures aim to change European country after bloke departs (7)
IMAGERY (pictures) Anagram of (to change) AIM + GERMANY (European country) excluding (departs) MAN (bloke) IMA* GERY |
| 22 | Employ specialist? No pressure (5)
EXERT (bring into active operation; employ) EXPERT (specialist) excluding (no) P (pressure) EXERT |
| 23 | No place for sudden expenditure increase (5)
SURGE (increase) SPLURGE (spending of a lot of money; sudden expenditure) excluding (no) PL (place) SURGE |
| 25 | Question on papers is something to be chewed over (4)
QUID (something chewed or kept in the mouth, especially a piece of tobacco) QU (question) + ID ([identity] papers) QU ID |
The Bridge Of Sighs by Thomas Hood: ”
One more Unfortunate, | Weary of breath, | Rashly importunate, | Gone to her death!
Take her up tenderly, | Lift her with care; | Fashion’d so slenderly, | Young, and so fair! “
FrankieG @ 1
Thanks for identifying the theme. The chances of my spotting a poetic theme are fairly low.
An accomplished piece of compiling, I fell foul of a few misdirections, and as usual, the last few solutions evaded me for too long.
WHODUNNITS, 14(d), the major culprit, the anagrind just didn’t click. Great clue.
7(d), ALPHA, has a crafty letter switch, new to me.
I’m still a bit unsure of 3(d), CARE; easy to solve, but I’m not convinced by my parsing.
Great theme spot by Mr G@1, totally over my head. I would have put money on whodunnits, in some shape or form.
Good stuff from setter & blogger, salute, Phi and duncan
Frankie G: I don’t have that poem off by heart. Is it the one that later mentions a South American cactus?
AFFRICATE was new to me too. I was pleased to remember ‘huffing’ though it’s not a word I have ever used.
Thanks both
Love the randomness of Phi’s themes. Good spot FrankieG@1
FrankieG@1
The Bridge of Sighs
It really is a rather beautiful poem, though overwhelmingly sad, and I thank both Phi and you for steering me to it.
( I had never known it).
I could only think, Ophelia, and there is a resonance between the two.
Hood’s poem in 1844, inspired many artworks, and having looked at them, I feel that they may have influenced Millais, in his iconic 1851 painting of Ophelia. I may be wrong.
Such a sad theme, but how wonderful for a cryptic crossword and the setter to inspire us solvers to delve deeper.
Sort of puts things into perspective.
Thank you , Phi, and Frankie
Thanks both. Yes, no harm in a theme appearing random or niche, and Phi tends to look to something very specific in the world of the arts, which so far has ruled me out of contention; at least I knew the sighting of ALPHA and BETA was unlikely to lead us anywhere. If I rate something FAIR it’s a long way from the greatest, but persuading myself to go with it offset my embarrassing attempt to invent the word ‘anunsiate’ in place of AFFRICATE
Have seen the original and the Oxbridge repros, and know of the poem, but still wouldn’t have picked the theme in a fit, so well done Mr G. Otherwise, a nice solve, the cactus being the only nho, so no bilabial fricatives. Thanks Phi and duncan.
Quid was also new to us.
Phi’s themes as always lost on us, even when revealed.
One of those interesting points about knowing things and knowing the names of things: if I asked you to draw a cactus you’d almost certainly draw a saguaro – all those arms.
The Hood poem is a fascinating one – stands out in collections because of the way it snakes down the middle of the page. There are one or two moments where Hood’s comic verse skills intrude, but it is remarkably sustained. Lots more verses to plunder…
Appearing on another day next week…