The usual very pleasing crossword from Phi, with the musical references that we have come to expect. He is always easy enough to understand once a clue is solved, but not I find always all that easy to get one’s teeth into. Perhaps this is because his definitions are so well-concealed.
Definitions underlined.
Is the theme in some way cactuses or deserts or something related? 1ac is SAGUARO and 22ac is CACTUS, and 12ac COYOTE is connected also to deserts. Who knows, a TREE FROG (24ac) may have something to do with it; as may FIRE AGATE, (10ac). Clutching at straws here.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SAGUARO | Desert plant unfortunately accidentally recorded initially within ‘dessert’ (7) |
| sag(u{nfortunately} a{ccidentally} r{ecorded})o — the saguaro cactus | ||
| 5 | BLOSSOM | Failure, not quite incurring negative returns, is to look good suddenly (7) |
| b(loss)om{b} | ||
| 9 | LIVIA | Endlessly cross with a Roman matriarch (5) |
| livi{d} a — Livia | ||
| 10 | FIRE AGATE | Fellow cross about energy shown by silver mineral (4,5) |
| f ir(e)ate ag — fire agate, which I had to look up | ||
| 11 | CARDINAL | Religious leader almost completely behind Queen, say (8) |
| Card in al{l} — a queen is an example of a playing card and it’s ‘in all’ rather than just ‘all’. | ||
| 12 | COYOTE | Animal, shy, heading away from observation (6) |
| coy {n}ote | ||
| 14 | GIFTWARE | Animated image with flowing water depicting suitable presents (8) |
| gif (water)* — I can’t quite see how a gif is an animated image: surely it’s just a graphics format which can be used to make animated images | ||
| 16 | INDIA | Country to support province after reverse (5) |
| (aid NI)rev. | ||
| 19 | ROGER | I heard that monarchs will suppress regressive personality (5) |
| (ego)rev. in (r r) | ||
| 20 | CROSS-PLY | Angry with work regarding some tyres (5-3) |
| cross [= angry] ply [= work] | ||
| 22 | CACTUS | Desert plant around Connecticut (America) (6) |
| ca CT US | ||
| 24 | TREE FROG | Two-thirds of grotto collapsed around rock amphibian (4,4) |
| (grot{to})* round reef | ||
| 27 | BILLIARDS | Poor one engaged in one option for fives (a game) (9) |
| 5dn being BARD, fives = bards, but what ‘one option for’ is doing I can’t see and perhaps I’m missing something — b(ill 1)ards | ||
| 28 | CLOWN | Comedian, one whose heart is given over to depression (5) |
| If you take out the heart of ‘comedian’ you get ‘cn’, which you now fill with low (which as a noun = depression) | ||
| 29 | THEREIN | Take this to fill can in that (7) |
| t(here)in — ‘take this’ as in ‘here you are’ | ||
| 30 | SPLASHY | Informer receiving punishment of a watery sort (7) |
| sp(lash)y | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SOLACE | Console expert after smear sees one sacked (6) |
| so{i}l ace — solace a verb | ||
| 2 | GOVERNING | Finished with notes about one investing in goods as a rule? (9) |
| (over n(1)n) in (g g) | ||
| 3 | AMATI | A lot of post about violinist’s latest violin (5) |
| a ma({violinis}t)i{l} | ||
| 4 | OFF BALANCE | Encouraging a tip that’s not on the scale (3,7) |
| off [= not on] balance [= the scale] | ||
| 5 | BARD | Poet using only 25 letters? (4) |
| If you take the 26 letters of the alphabet but bar D then you have only 25 letters | ||
| 6 | ORATORIOS | High point in treatment of arioso seen in choral works (9) |
| tor in (arioso)* | ||
| 7 | SHAKO | Military headgear to wobble endlessly round (5) |
| shak{e} o | ||
| 8 | MAECENAS | Came running with sound upsetting rich man (8) |
| (Came)* (sane)rev. — Maecenas was a classical character famed for his great wealth | ||
| 13 | BED OF ROSES | Comfortable place to exist for ailing tucking into medicines (3,2,5) |
| be d(of)oses — you might argue that a dose is more a quantity of medicine, not the medicine itself, but if you regard ‘medicines’ as a verb (which according to Chambers you can) then I think it’s OK | ||
| 15 | TURQUOISE | Quite sour, out of sorts, somewhat blue? (9) |
| (quite sour)* | ||
| 17 | DELIRIOUS | Very nice with run for leadership of Congress getting crazy (9) |
| delicious with the c [leadership of Congress] replaced by r | ||
| 18 | BRICKBAT | Criticism appropriate for stonewalling cricketer (8) |
| The bat is a brick wall, a sort of CD here I think unless I’m missing something | ||
| 21 | AGENCY | Means to get on, heading for career in US city (6) |
| age N(c{areer})Y | ||
| 23 | CHLOE | Classic lover, very disengaged from church and romance (5) |
| ch. lo{v}e — Daphnis as in Daphnis and Chloe, made famous by Ravel | ||
| 25 | EXCEL | Fish circling cross current’s beginning to do well (5) |
| e(x c{urrent})el | ||
| 26 | WREN | Architect right to block big ugly city (4) |
| w(R)en — Chambers says that a wen is an enormous congested city, but is this ugly? London, the Great Wen, is large and congested, but is it ugly? Not everyone would say so. | ||
*anagram
Every straw a winner, though – and there are more to find.
Phi@1 I was pleased enough to finish it let alone clutch at straws.You are not getting any easier. Fun though.Ta.
And for blog
Thanks Phi and John
I parsed 11 as CARD (of the playing kind, hence ‘Queen, say’) + IN AL(l) (‘almost completely’).
Thanks Simon S @3. When I did the crossword I saw it this way, then completely forgot about it when I came to write the blog. Honest!
Will amend the blog.
Thanks Phi and John. It’s my first time back for quite some time, and it took quite some time! I think 29a was my favourite.
Regarding “one option for five” in 27a, presumably there’s another poet somewhere between BARA and BARZ which would also work as an answer. Possibly this one?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barr_(poet)
No ideas about the theme though.
If the theme is related to deserts, there’s “The desert shall BLOSSOM as a ROSE” in the book of Isaiah. Can’t see anything else, though.
A bit tougher than some from this setter, but got there in the end. WREN was my LOI.
Thanks, Phi and John.
I ended up in Arizona earlier this year and this puzzle was clued there. It has several state symbols in it plus a couple of sports teams (the Cardinals are the ice hockey team, I think, which just seems odd in a desert). I spared you having to identify the official state soil!
Completely scuppered by entering NOEL (” no L”) at 5d. There are at least two poets of that name.