We find Phi in his usual Friday Independent cryptic slot
There are some geographical entries in today’s puzzle – CONNACHT, BRUNEI, IRAQ, HAWAII and JAVA , but I can’t see anything that they have in common beyond being places in the world.
The grid is one letter short of a pangram. I can’t see a Z.
I liked the surfaces of the clues ACHE (with its use of hospital), STACCATO (using CAT and CATS), TELEGRAM (with its use of capital letters as used in old-fashioned communications), and ARITHMETIC MEAN (with its use of MATHEMATICIAN).
I wonder how many of us have used FLUSTERY in everyday conversation?
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Study dark period in Germany’s western province (8)
CONNACHT (the western province on the island of Ireland, situated north of Munster and south-west of Ulster) CON (study attentively) + NACHT (German for night [period of darkness]) CON NACHT |
| 5 | Uncomfortable feeling one gets around hospital (4)
ACHE (an uncomfortable feeling) ACE (one) containing (gets around) H (hospital) AC (H) E |
| 9 | Ancient character I attached to British monarchy (6)
BRUNEI (BRUNEI is an independent country on the island of Borneo, wholly surrounded on land by the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. The government of BRUNEI is an absolute monarchy ruled by the Sultan) B (British) + RUNE (ancient character) + I B RUNE I |
| 10 | Musical recalled one of its contributors with old way of playing (8)
STACCATO (a way of playing music where the notes are short, clipped and separate) CATS (a musical based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot [1888 – 1965], with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber [born 1948]) reversed (recalled) + CAT (one of the contributors to CATS) + O (old) STAC< CAT O |
| 11 | Troops behaving impartially (10)
DETACHMENT (a small military unit of troops separated from its main body) DETACHMENT (neutrality; impartiality) double definition DETACHMENT |
| 12 | Native of Arab state expressing cheers, backing Arab state (4)
IRAQ (an Arab country [State]) QAtaRI (native of the Arab State of Qatar) excluding (expressing; forcing out) TA (thanks; cheers) and then reversed (backing) IRAQ< |
| 13 | Confused body of men heading off into race (8)
FLUSTERY (confused) mUSTER (an assembly of military personnel; a body of men) excluding the first letter M (heading off) and contained in (into) FLY (run fast; race) FL (USTER) Y |
| 15 | Stops state troubles with withdrawal of currency (6)
AVERTS (prevents; stops) AVER (state) + TroubleS excluding (with withdrawal) rouble (standard monetary unit of Russia and Belarus; currency) AVER TS |
| 16 | Henry II touring most of far state (6)
HAWAII (State of the USA) (H [henry; unit of inductance) + II) containing (touring) AWAy (far) excluding the final letter Y (most of) H (AWA) II |
| 18 | Expression of gratitude not so much found in Times – almost forbidden (5,3)
BLESS YOU (an expression of gratitude) (LESS [not so much] contained in [found in] BY (multiplied by; times) + OUt (not allowed; forbidden) excluding the final letter T (almost) B (LESS) Y OU |
| 20 | Luther’s agreement to bring in version of Bible for Asian island (4)
JAVA (Indonesian [Asian] island) JA (German [Martin Luther] word for yes [agreement]) containing (to bring in) AV (the Authorised Version of the Bible) J (AV) A |
| 21 | Reasonably intellectual Bishop occupying spot halfway down the stalls? (10)
MIDDLEBROW (a person with conventional tastes and limited cultural appreciation; a reasonably intellectual person) B (bishop, in chess) contained in (occupying) MIDDLE ROW (a location halfway down the stall section of a theatre) MIDDLE (B) ROW |
| 23 | Quantity of American wine at one gathering of readers? (8)
LITERATI (men and women of letters; a gathering of readers) LITER (American spelling of a quantity of liquid (e.g. wine], litre) + AT + I (Roman numeral for one) LITER AT I |
| 24 | Unduly fussy to snoop around orbiting vehicle (6)
PRISSY (unduly fussy) PRY (snoop) containing (around) ISS (International Space Station; an orbiting vehicle) PR (ISS) Y |
| 25 | Muddy border turned over before end of day (4)
MIRY (muddy) RIM (border) reversed (turned over) + Y (last letter of [end of]daY) MIR< Y |
| 26 | Message from overseas: ROUTE’S LAST STAGE ABOARD PUBLIC TRANSPORT (8)
TELEGRAM (a message sent by telegraph and usually presented in printed form [in UK since 1981 only available for international messages]; message from overseas) (E [last letter of {last} routE] + LEG [stage of a relay, for instance]) contained in (aboard) TRAM (a form of public transport) – TELEGRAMs are traditionally printed in BLOCK CAPITALS) T (E LEG) RAM |
| Down | |
| 1 | Note disease’s culmination in pink colour of part of the eye (7)
CORNEAL (relating to the CORNEA, a transparent membrane that forms the front covering of the eye; of part of the eye) (N [note]+ E [last letter of {culmination} diseasE) contained in (in) CORAL (a pink colour) COR (N E) AL |
| 2 | Assassin popular in New Jersey area (5)
NINJA [one of a body of trained assassins and spies in feudal Japan) (IN [popular] contained in [in] NJ [New Jersey) + A (area) N (IN) J A |
| 3 | An article put out by perturbed mathematician re: statistical concept (10,4)
ARITHMETIC MEAN (the sum of a number of quantities divided by their number; statistical concept) Anagram of (perturbed) MaTHEMATICIAN RE excluding (putting out) A (indefinite article) ARITHMETIC MEAN* |
| 4 | Is upset, putting on gardener’s unknown stockings? (7)
HOSIERY (stockings) (IS reversed [upset] contained in [putting on] HOER [gardener]) + Y (a letter frequently used to denote an unknown value in mathematics) HO (SI<) ER Y |
| 6 | Nice socks, fancy, producing overconfidence (9)
COCKINESS (overconfidence) Anagram of (fancy) NICE SOCKS COCKINESS* |
| 7 | Quotation from withdrawn religious publication? (7)
EXTRACT (a passage or quotation taken from a book or other writing) EX (former; no longer; withdrawn) + TRACT (religious publication) EX TRACT |
| 8 | A special triple variable solar phenomenon (7,7)
PARTIAL ECLIPSE (an ECLIPSE, especially of the sun, in which the body is only PARTIALly hidden; solar phenomenon) Anagram of (variable) A SPECIAL TRIPLE PARTIAL ECLIPSE* |
| 14 | Colleague in a rush getting organised? Truly a professional (9)
SHAMATEUR (a sportsperson retaining amateur status while receiving payment for playing or competing; someone who is truly a professional, given that he / she gets paid) MATE (colleague) contained in (in) an anagram of (getting organised) A RUSH SHA (MATE) UR* |
| 17 | Car hire firm investing in provider of cash showing very traditional attitude (7)
ATAVISM (reversion to an ancestral, or to a primitive, type; traditional attitude) AVIS (name of a multinational car hire firm) contained in (investing in) ATM (automated teller machine; dispenser / provider of cash) AT (AVIS) M |
| 18 | Qualified teacher put out, being called up when they want to sleep? (7)
BEDTIME ([time] when people want to sleep) BED (B Ed, Bachelor of Education, a degree held by a qualified teacher) + EMIT (put out) reversed (being called up; down entry) BED TIME< |
| 19 | Marsupial work needing very large amount (7)
OPOSSUM (a small marsupial) OP (OPus [work]) + OS (outsize; very large) + SUM (amount) OP OS SUM |
| 22 | Pub bringing in beer finally with one pipe (5)
BRIAR (a tobacco pipe made out of the wood of the white heath) BAR (pub) containing (bringing in) (R [last letter of {finally} beeR] + I [Roman numeral for one]) B (R I) AR |
Reliably solid setting from Phi, and very solver-friendly, though a few of the surfaces are a bit clunky, for me.
In 11(ac), “acting impartially” = “detachment” does not seem to scan very well? c.f. impartiality.
Having seen “HARRY” and (The) SUN in the unches, I thought I was onto a theme, but as usual, I’m wrong.
Thumbs up, Phi & duncan