It’s Friday and as expected we have a Phi to solve and blog – no complaints here.
Phi has apparently decided to set himself challenges other than the inclusion of themes or ninas in his last few puzzles. We spotted the connection between all the clues early on which actually helped us solve a number of them.
This one features at least one letter H in every entry, as well as an H formed by the blocks at the centre of the grid. How Has He Handled tHis cHallenge? Happily, witH Humour & panacHe!
tHanks, pHi.
| Across | ||
| 8 | Alongside this, woman’s English humour’s hard to follow (8) | |
| HEREWITH | HER (woman’s) E (English) WIT (humour) H (hard) | |
| 9 | City gardens prompting memories (6) | |
| ECHOES | EC (city) HOES (gardens). Joyce however doesn’t ‘hoe’ in her garden as we have raised beds! Much easier. | |
| 10 | Church loves to overwrite content of “Soul Train” (6) | |
| SCHOOL | CH (church) OO (loves) replacing or ‘overwriting’ the middle letters or ‘content’ of S |
|
| 11 | Well-structured study covering this place and time (8) | |
| COHERENT | CON (study) round or ‘covering’ HERE (this place) + T (time) | |
| 12 | Rather late, say, for the USA, sadly bringing in Republican (5,5) | |
| AFTER HOURS | An anagram of FOR THE USA – anagrind is ‘sadly’ round or ‘bringing in’ R (Republican) | |
| 14 | Move slowly, in pain (chronic) (4) | |
| INCH | Hidden in ‘paIN CHronic’ | |
| 16 | English novelist, last in roster in long run (6) | |
| ARCHER | R (last letter of ‘roster’) in ACHE (long) R (run) | |
| 18 | They illuminate imaginative leaps not initially displayed (6) | |
| LIGHTS | ||
| 20 | Wife meeting with success? Only a little (4) | |
| WHIT | W (wife) HIT (success) | |
| 21 | Tall plants shelter car in storm (5,5) | |
| LARCH TREES | An anagram of SHELTER CARS – anagrind is ‘in storm’ | |
| 23 | Rough guy not entirely expert in goal, sadly (8) | |
| HOOLIGAN | HO |
|
| 25 | They ask people to pull up, and they pull up (6) | |
| HIKERS | In our opinion, a rather dodgy double definition – the first meaning presumably refers to hitch–HIKERS, who stick out their thumbs for a lift, or ‘ask people to pull up’. To us, ‘hikers’ are walkers who cover challenging terrain or long distances. The second meaning refers to ‘hiking up’ an item of clothing for example | |
| 26 | Space article coming in to strike America (6) | |
| HIATUS | A (article) in HIT (strike) US (America) | |
| 27 | Truly religious around the home (8) | |
| HONESTLY | HOLY (religious) around NEST (home) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Female force motivated half of them subsequently (10) | |
| HENCEFORTH | HEN (female) + an anagram of FORCE (anagrind is ‘motivated’) + TH |
|
| 2 | Find new place for the fellow up in European city (6) | |
| REHOME | HE (the fellow) reversed or ‘up’ in ROME (European city) | |
| 3 | Target of climb unfriendly – top missed (4) | |
| HILL | ||
| 4 | Assessment: US payment process operational (5-2) | |
| CHECK-UP | CHECK (US payment process – their version of ‘cheque’ or ‘bill’) UP (operational) | |
| 5 | The writer gets so healthy, picking up example of long life (10) | |
| METHUSELAH | ME (the writer) THUS (so) + HALE (healthy) reversed or ‘picked up’ | |
| 6 | Corps causing damage? How nice is that? (8) | |
| CHARMING | C (corps) HARMING (causing damage) | |
| 7 | Cut question exhibiting downgrading of women (4) | |
| HEWN | WHEN (question) with the ‘w’ moved down or ‘downgraded’ | |
| 13 | Redesign of logo I used, in short, revitalised expert in time (10) | |
| HOROLOGIST | An anagram of LOGO I (anagrind is ‘used’) in an anagram of SHORT (anagrind is ‘revitalised’) | |
| 15 | Pet recovers after intervention of medic in large buildings (10) | |
| CATHEDRALS | CAT (pet) HEALS (recovers) round or ‘with intervention of’ DR (medic) | |
| 17 | Stolen silverware and kitchen item (8) | |
| HOTPLATE | HOT (stolen) PLATE (silverware) | |
| 19 | Show distress about meal, overlooking first of salad onions? (7) | |
| CRUNCHY | CRY (show distress) round |
|
| 22 | King I found covered in outbreak suggestive of debauchery (6) | |
| RAKISH | K (king) I ‘found covered’ in RASH (otbreak) | |
| 24 | Rings, receiving greeting from US state (4) | |
| OHIO | OO (rings) round or ‘receiving’ HI (greeting) | |
| 25 | Suggestion with little content, first to last (4) | |
| HINT | THIN (with little content) with the first letter moved to the end | |
I managed to spot the theme for once, but only after finishing. Didn’t much care for 19d either. Fantastic blog – loved that final sentence in intro 🙂
Thanks, both, for blogging.
Way too hard for this solver. I got about a third of it, but then couldn’t make any more progress. All very clever (now that you’ve explained the theme), but … Four out of five daily Indys this week with themes. It’s not compulsory, you know. Just saying.
Thanks to Phi and good weekend to all.
Is Phi getting easier or am i just getting used to him? I suspect its a mixture of the two.Only saw theme after finishing.
Thanks B&J and Phi.Always enjoyable.
In the end, 19dn defeated me. Just couldn’t see it, even after doing a word search.
I was also held up as I entered THIN for 25dn. I’d worked it all out, and then absent-mindedly entered the wrong word.
Didn’t spot the theme, either.
Spotted the theme almost at the end – it helped with my last few in.
And of course there’s an H in the middle of pHi, and there’s an H of blocked squares in the middle of the grid!
Thanks, Phi and B&J