As usual for a Friday Independent cryptic crossword, we have a puzzle from Phi
Phi often has themes or messages in his puzzles, but I can’t see anything today. Feel free to tell me that I have missed something.
This was a sound puzzle filled with common words. perhaps ULTRA VIRES is the least well known phrase in the grid.
I was a bit surprised to find 6 clues in a row where a component part had an excluded letter (11 across to 19 across)
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 7 | I will enter church or part of cathedral (5)
CHOIR (the part of a church, cathedral, etc in front of the altar, often separated from the nave by a rail or screen) I contained in (will enter) (CH [church] + OR) CH O (I) R |
| 8 | Defeat in debate with no opening for amused response (8)
LAUGHTER (amused response) sLAUGHTER (demolish in argument; defeat in debate) excluding (with no) S (the first letter [opening]) S LAUGHTER |
| 10 | Sleep over but appearing upset for sure (2,5)
NO DOUBT (certainly; surely; for sure) NOD (nap; sleep) + O (over) + an anagram of (appearing upset) BUT NO D O UBT* |
| 11 | Somewhat unpleasant time dodging criticism is hard (7)
SICKISH (somewhat disgusting or unpleasant) StICK (criticism) excluding (dodging) T (time) + IS + H (hard, as in the description of pencil lead) SICK IS H |
| 12 | American praise curtailed and retracted? That’s normal (5)
USUAL (normal) US ([of the] United States; American) + LAUd (praise) excluding the final letter (curtailed) D and reversed (retracted) US UAL< |
| 14 | Wet weather? Sheep getting mostly lined up inside (9)
RAINSTORM (example of wet weather) RAM (male sheep) containing (getting … inside) IN STORe (forthcoming; imminent; lined up) excluding the final letter (mostly) E RA (IN STOR) M |
| 15 | Quantity of vegetation, there being no energy in what veggies decline (3)
MAT (a closely-interwoven or tangled mass, especially of hair or vegetation) MeAT (a foodstuff declined by vegetarians) excluding (there being no) E (energy) MAT |
| 16 | Investments – Henry to avoid small amounts (7)
SAVINGS (investments in a bank or building society) ShAVINGS (small pieces [amounts], especially of wood, thinly sliced [shaved] from a bigger piece) excluding (to avoid) H (henry; SI unit of electrical inductance) SAVINGS |
| 19 | Obligation to work hard? Not right (3)
TIE (obligation) TIrE (to work hard) excluding (not) R (right) TIE |
| 20 | Characteristic features offering pitfalls around IT test (9)
TRAPPINGS (characteristic features) TRAPS (pitfalls) containing (around) PING (a system for testing whether internet systems are responding and how long in milliseconds it takes them to respond; IT test) TRAP (PING) S |
| 23 | City in which I may broach accepted standards (5)
PARIS (French city) I contained in (may broatch) PARS (accepted standards) PAR (I) S |
| 24 | Greek character no Catholic, in my opinion, backsliding (7)
OMICRON (letter [character] of the Greek alphabet) (NO + RC [Roman Catholic] + IMO [in my opinion, abbreviation in text messaging]) all reversed (backsliding) (OMI CR ON)< |
| 25 | Favouring air a lot in life (7)
FORTUNE (person’s lot or destiny; one’s lot in life) FOR (favouring) + TUNE ([musical] air) FOR TUNE |
| 27 | Information challenge, implicating male police officer (8)
GENDARME (French policeman) GEN (information) + (DARE [challenge] containing [implicating] M [male]) GEN DAR (M) E |
| 28 | Rest and shelter, accommodated by South Pole initially (5)
SLEEP (rest) LEE (shelter) contained in (accommodated by) (S [South] + P [first letter of {initially} Pole]) S (LEE) P |
| Down | |
| 1 | Navy amongst school of whales in body of water (4)
POND (body of water) (N [navy] contained in [amongst] POD [small group or school of whales]) PO (N) D |
| 2 | Problems: town’s foremost functions involving bar where power’s off (8)
TROUBLES (problems) T (first letter of [foremost] Town) + (ROLES [functions] containing [involving] pUB [public house; bar] excluding [off] P [power]) T RO (UB) LES |
| 3 | Roofworker heading for skyscraper subsequently (6)
SLATER (roofworker) S (first letter of [heading for] Skyscraper) + LATER (subsequently) S LATER |
| 4 | Topic: Queen has deductive flair about it, on reflection (8)
QUESTION (issue; topic) QU + (NOSE [deductive flair] containing [about] IT) reversed (on reflection) QU (ES (TI) ON)< |
| 5 | Surprises husband wearing footwear (6)
SHOCKS (surprises) H (husband) contained in (wearing) SOCKS (footwear) S (H) OCKS |
| 6 | I get aboard front part of fairground ride, something taking to the skies (10)
HELICOPTER (aircraft capable of hover, vertical flight and horizontal flight; something that takes to the skies) (I + COP [sieze or catch; get]) contained in (aboard) HELTER (first [front] part of HELTER Skelter [a fairground ride]) HEL (I COP) TER |
| 7 | Accomplishment regarding something local I observed in study (12)
CONSUMMATION (accomplishment) (ON [regarding] + SUMMAT [dialect {local term} for ‘something’] + I) contained in [observed in] CON (study) C (ON SUMMAT I) ON |
| 9 | Why specimen gets corrupted with last of grime? I was often dirty from work (7,5)
CHIMNEY SWEEP (a person who was often dirty following work cleaning chimneys) Anagram of (gets corrupted) WHY SPECIMEN and E (final letter of [last of] grimE) CHIMNEY SWEEP |
| 13 |
Scrapping virus alert? Beyond one‘s authority (5,5) ULTRA VIRES (beyond one’s powers or authority) Anagram of (scrapping) VIRUS ALERT ULTRA VIRES* |
| 17 | A lot of poetry about international name in drink suppliers (8)
VINTNERS (wine sellers; drinks suppliers) VERSe (poetry) excluding the final letter (a lot of) E, containing (about) (INT [INTernational + N [name]) V (INT N) ERS |
| 18 | Hold back drink over equipment familiar to 17 (8)
SUPPRESS (hold back) SUP (drink) + PRESS (reference a winePRESS, something that will be famiiiar to VINTNERS [entry at 17 down]) SUP PRESS |
| 21 | Poor imitation of wages that will secure staff (6)
PARODY (an imitation so poor as to seem a deliberate mockery of the original) PAY (wages) containing (will secure) ROD (staff) PA (ROD) Y |
| 22 | Taxidermist with no time for bear (6)
SUFFER (tolerate; bear) StUFFER (a term descriptive of a taxidermist) excluding (with no) T (time) SUFFER |
| 26 | Stopped, without father getting wornout (4)
USED (worn out) paUSED (stopped) excluding (without) PA (father) USED |
Well this was a definite change from the Enigmatist in the G which has roundly beaten me this morning. A relief and a reassurance that I am still able to solve and parse a clue! Faves inc RAINSTORM, SAVINGS, FORTUNE, GENDARME, HELICOPTER, CHIMNEY SWEEP, PARODY and SUFFER.
Thanks Phi and duncan
I would add HELICOPTER to PostMark’s list. Very pleasant. I can’t see a theme, but it feels like there is one lurking .Thanks to Phi and Duncan.
That gets it in twice, Petert, but then it is a very good clue so deserves it 🤣
🙂
Top faves:
CHOIR, SICKISH, RAINSTORM, SAVINGS, HELICOPTER, CHIMNEY SWEEP and SUFFER.
Thanks Phi and duncan.
I’m afraid it’s Phi-lite, with no Hi-lite, for me.
Too many solutions are telegraphed by obvious and direct one word (or two) definitions, that the wordplay is virtually otiose.
I also felt that Phi’s customary precision was a ?, in some places: BAR=PUB, LINED UP= IN STORE, POOR (imitation), for PARODY; not wrong per se, just not pleasing. The 3 letter clues, least said, soonest forgotten. WORK HARD = TIRE. Hmm.
8(ac) LAUGHTER, what’s “in debate” doing? Is it a phonetic reference, on the divergence of “slorter” vs. “lafter”?
GENDARME 27(ac) made me smile, because the “male” was there for the M insertion, but I still remember when the female of the species was a GENDARMETTE. You’d get un baton on your tete for using that, these days. Quite right too!
It’s a solid puzzle, but not a classic.
Salut, Phi & Duncan
E.N.Boll& @ 6
One definition for slaughter in Chambers Dictionary is ‘demolish in argument‘, so ‘defeat in debate’ seems reasonable
I took 26a as FUSED (in terms of electrical appliances) without the F
I echo PM@1: this was a perfect reset after the shellacking from Enigmatist.
I hadn’t seen ULTRA VIRES since studying for the bar–I have never practiced corporate law–but I do remember the concept and the term. Nice to see it trotted out.
Thanks both. I only knew CONSUMMATION in the marital sense – but certainly an accomplishment. Reference TIE I’d be interested to see a context for tire meaning ‘work hard’ – I toyed with ‘dure’ becoming ‘due’ for a while.
TFO: you may have seen (or heard) CONSUMMATION in Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy: ” ‘Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished.”
Your hint for today was to have been (13, 6 words), but Andrew @11 offers a good hint as well.
Oh yes. But I never knew there were helicopters in Shakespeare. 😀
To echo earlier comments, thanks for something solvable after I gave up completely on the Grauniad.