It’s the end of the week and as expected, we have a Phi puzzle to entertain us (and blog).
We rattled away and completed the top half in almost record time. I (Joyce) often resort to looking at the last down clues (as they are short) if stuck. That wasn’t the case today. However, we then ground to a halt. As we steadily chipped away at the clues, a few needed checking. We kept looking for a theme or nina to help us but couldn’t find one.
Thanks Phi – sorry you won’t be able to join us in Nottingham tomorrow!
WELL (water source) OFF (no longer fresh)
U C (first letters or ‘origins’ of Unique and Celtic) CELLO (instrument) – a new artist for us
HE’S (chap’s) inside or ‘put in’ LIT (illuminated) OMEn (sign) except for last letter
Double definition
O (over) and a reversal or ‘backing’ of A GEM (highly regarded person)
T (time) ASK FOR (request) CE (church)
NUT (enthusiast) + R (runs) inside TEE (part of golf course)
LESS (not so much) around or ‘carrying’ LN (natural logarithm – ‘log’) after I (one). We had to check the abbreviation for logarithms.
cROSSINg (‘zebra’ missing first and last letters or ‘skinned’) and I (first letter or ‘source’ of indignation)
E E (Early English) ‘appearing’ in PRESS (newspapers)
A homophone (‘in speech’) of I (the writer) BALD (very blunt). When writing up the blog, we wondered whether it was BOLD but that’s not a homophone. A quick check in Chambers Thesaurus confirmed that it was BALD as we first thought.
O (love) AS IS (in the current scenario)
fOLLIEs (foolish ideas) missing first and last letters or ‘uncovered’. We’d never heard of this manoeuvre but guessed it when we had the crossing letters.
W (weak) EIGHT (crew) around or ‘holding’ IN + O (first letter of oars)
FR (French) and a reversal or ‘turning’ of WASTE (make no use of)
A reversal (‘for return’) of NEEd (requirement) missing last letter or ‘reduced’ after COLL (college)
A reversal (‘upset’) of LAW (regulation) + LOON (eccentric)
Hidden (‘in’) halL AT HEreforfd
N (new) A1 (mark of excellence) in OPERa (‘Glyndebourne speciality’) missing last letter or ‘mostly’
THE (article) ‘coming between’ FOOT and BILL (extreme parts of chicken)
refUSE (deny) without or ‘rejecting’ REF (official)
CARFUL (group of travellers) ‘going around’ E (Spain)
An anagram (‘unfortunately’) of NEVER LEAD – a new word for us. Another one that we guessed when we had some crossers.
OP (work) PRESS (iron)
SIPPED (drunk) + IS ‘in’ DC (Washington area) around or ‘swallowing’ L (litres)
A reversal (‘overturned’) of SET (group) + an anagram (‘wobbly’) of EASEL around L (large)
R (river) EEL (fish) OF (originating in) F (France)
I’M AGES (I take a long time) around or ‘acquiring’ R (right)
EP (recording) + a reversal (‘uplifted’) of CO (company) + HALe (sound) missing last letter or ‘most of’
SOON (readily) around or ‘suppressing’ ASS (‘source of folly’)
SyrINGE (jabber) without or ‘not mentioning’ ‘yr’ (your)
Initial letters or ‘at the outset’ of Walk On Water
I had to check ‘Ollie’ as I was never into skateboarding. I barely managed to stay upright when moving in a straight line. And I suspect the terms used may have been different in the late 70s/early 80s.
Faves: LITHESOME, ILLNESS, ROSSINI, FOOT THE BILL and SINGE.
Thanks Phi and B&J.
Have fun in Nottingham – looking forward to seeing the puzzles here in due course.
12 entries have something in common with a 13th half as good again.
How did we miss the pairs of double letters? Some were craftily hidden and I missed a couple on the first count. Thanks Phi.
Aha! 12 answers with double double letters and one with triple doubles. Peerless indeed
Lots of great clues. I would add SLIPPED DISC to KVa’s list. As usual, I hunted for the theme and missed it. I did a search on NUT TREE, but nothing did it bear. Thanks all. Enjoy Nottingham.
Another good production from Phi, ‘though I ummed and I arred over some.
I suppose that “weak” = W, 26(ac), is one of those things that everyone else gets, but I don’t.
14(ac), NUT-TREE: oh….an obstacle beside the fairway. I may be missing something clever here.
Lots of the old, “France/French” references, yawn. WALLOON, to me, (1d) is a Belgian dialect language; yes, a la Francais, but distinct.
16(ac), “log” = LN. OK, must be correct, but, not up my street.
Why ASS, 21(d), is “a source of folly”, is beyond me. Too clever for me. More like one of the extreme parts of chicken.
Lots of excellent clues, but still not a winning puzzle, as I see it.
Apologies, but thanks, Phi.
Thanks Phi and BnJ
Ian @ 7: W = WEAK is from particle physics.
Sadly I saw the zebra as a stripy horse, so ‘EBR’ wasn’t a good fit for ROSSINI. I knew OLLIE but had to come here for the parsing, as I couldn’t find another L from ‘foolish ideas’, which came as no surprise. I could have looked at JABBER till the next millennium, n never come up with ‘syringe’, despite using 1 every day of my working life, fortunately the crossers gave SINGE away… aptly that’s a monkey in French.. not a quick solve but ok in the end.
Thanks Phi n Bertandjoyce
Simon@8
Thanks.My particle physics is lacking!
And my logarithms.
But, come on….Phi has pushed the envelope with this one.
Anyone who thinks NUT-TREE, is a clever clue , must be paying money to Phi’s agent.
Christ, Simon, you’re not his agent, are you?
@10 Colonial Country Club in Texas is known for its pecan trees.
Surely that’s general knowledge??
OK, I agree, it’s a bit random.
Thanks both. Plenty to admire, but I genuinely question the NUT-TREE definition, and have never referred to the pedestrian crossing as just a zebra, so that parsing was a footbridge too far.
I entered ROLL OFF for 17dn without thinking, which flummoxed 22ac.
I had heard of OLLIE from somewhere.
A day late, but wanted to mention that OLLIE was my first one in! I’ve never been on a skateboard, but that word pops up in US crosswords a LOT, so the definition is an absolute gimme for anyone who does those.
Also wanted to mention that Washington and the District of Columbia are coterminous, so the “area” in “Washington area” is technically redundant.