Another end to the week and another Phi to solve. However, we still have some of this week’s Indy puzzles yet to solve as the Inquisitor crossword in the i newspaper last Saturday kept us occupied for a lot longer than usual – no complaints though!
There were a couple of new words which had us puzzled – SKEET and and ENCOMIASTS. Although when we eventually resorted to a word search for the anagram in 14d we were pretty sure we had seen it in another crossword. We are more familiar with HEDONISM so HEDONICS had to be checked in Chambers. Our LOI was HOW ABOUT which for some reason or other had us stumped as to possible first words.
Our only concern was with 26/28 across which didn’t really seem to work in our opinion – but maybe that’s just us!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Contents of past capital city (6) | |
| ATHENS | A THEN S (‘contents’ or middle letters of pASt) | |
| 4 | Digital attachments to online correspondence showing shift in character (3-5) | |
| TOE-NAILS | TO E |
|
| 9 | Moody music in edgy place recalled in personal narrative (6) | |
| MEMOIR | EMO (moody music) inside RIM (edgy place) reversed or ‘recalled’ | |
| 10 | Area supporting wine-growing, say, including a bit of Chardonnay (8) | |
| PROVINCE | If you supported wine-growing you could say that you were PRO VINE around or ‘including’ C (the first letter or a ‘bit of’ Chardonnay) | |
| 12 | Alternatively providing allocation to a different worker (2,3,5,4) | |
| ON THE OTHER HAND | We can only parse this if you imagine giving work to a different worker so that you are putting something ON THE OTHER HAND (worker). It all feels a bit clunky though. Can anyone help us out with a better parsing please? | |
| 15 | Nationalist approach to festival right? Not 20 Across (5) | |
| NEVER | N (Nationalist) EVE (night before or ‘approach to’ festival) R (right) | |
| 17 | Person receiving attention dreads variant view (9) | |
| ADDRESSEE | An anagram of DREADS – anagrind is ‘variant’ + SEE (view) | |
| 18 | Not showing results of attention regarding dress to clothe Queen (9) | |
| OVERGROWN | OVER (regarding) GOWN (dress) around or ‘clothing’ R (Queen) | |
| 20 | Article stretching credulity of any kind (2,3) | |
| AT ALL | A (article) TALL (stretching credulity) | |
| 21 | One million having run in disrupted capital city? That shows unworkable situation (14) | |
| IMPRACTICALITY | I (one) M (million) + R (run) in an anagram of CAPITAL CITY – anagrind is ‘disrupted’ | |
| 24 | Playwright initially ready to occupy end apartment (8) | |
| STOPPARD | R (initial letter of Ready) inside or ‘occupying’ STOP (end) PAD (apartment) | |
| 26/28 | Medic presumably able to give a second opinion? (6,6) | |
| DOCTOR JEKYLL | We think that this must be a play on the fact that Dr Jekyll had a split personality, his alter ego therefore would presumably offer a second opinion. However, we didn’t really like this clue – maybe it was because we guessed the first word was doctor very quickly but needed all the crossing letters before we could hazard a guess at the full answer. | |
| 27 | 50 involved in clay-pigeon shooting never returning for winter sport (8) | |
| SKELETON | L (50) inside SKEET (pigeon shooting – a new one on us) NO (never) reversed or ‘returning’ | |
| 28 | See 26 | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Daft to discount British forces (4) | |
| ARMY | ||
| 2 | Sound of activity leading to a new person (5) | |
| HUMAN | HUM (sound of activity) A N (new) | |
| 3 | Below accepting one word suggesting double negative? (7) | |
| NEITHER | NETHER (below) around or ‘accepting’ I (one) | |
| 5 | Blade removing head from pig (3) | |
| OAR | |
|
| 6 | A pair of monarchs in part of church in part of Spain (7) | |
| NAVARRE | A RR (pair of monarchs) inside NAVE (part of church) | |
| 7 | Pair penning feasible articles about South-East Mediterranean area (6,3) | |
| IONIAN SEA | I I (pair) around or ‘penning’ ON (feasible) AN A (articles) around SE (South-East) | |
| 8 | Plants went successfully on board (10) | |
| SPEEDWELLS | PEED (went – as in urinated) WELL (successfully) inside SS (ship) – could be said to be ‘on board’ | |
| 11 | Let’s try method, coming out on top of a fight (3,5) | |
| HOW ABOUT | HOW (method) on top of A BOUT (fight) | |
| 13 | Man had tossed coins in the study of pleasure (8) | |
| HEDONICS | HE’D (man had) an anagram of COINS – anagrind is ‘tossed’ | |
| 14 | They praise drifting ocean mists (10) | |
| ENCOMIASTS | An anagram of OCEAN MISTS – anagrind is ‘drifting’ | |
| 16 | Bigwig entertaining bridge team to make sharp form of visual communication (9) | |
| VIEWPHONE | VIP (bigwig) around or ‘entertaining’ EW (bridge team) HONE (make sharp) | |
| 19 | Seize grain and fruit (7) | |
| GRAPPLE | GR (grain) APPLE (fruit) | |
| 20 | Unanimous about degree being finished (3,4) | |
| ALL DONE | ALL ONE (unanimous) about D (degree) | |
| 23 | Shabby races held in river (5) | |
| TATTY | TT (races) inside or ‘held in’ TAY (river) | |
| 23 | Examination removing top of reef feature (4) | |
| ORAL | |
|
| 25 | Large animal wanting endless space (3) | |
| ROO | ROO |
|
Most solutions went in easily until I reached the SE corner, where I slowed considerably. I also needed all the crossers for JEKYLL.
My favourite was TOE-NAILS and LOI was ATHENS, which I just couldn’t parse. I kept trying to find a city that started with AS followed by a four-letter word for ‘capital’.
Thanks Phi and B&J.
Thanks Phi, B&J
I was coasting for half, then hit a brick wall. Similar doubts about ON THE OTHER HAND and DOCTOR JEKYLL, and exactly the same experience as swatty for ATHENS (so blinded by ASH*E* that I revealed it).
I liked TOE NAILS and ENCOMIASTS, but favourite was SKELETON. Skeet always brings this to mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f_19nxNfjs
We also were caught out by Athens – the penny dropped very late in the solve.
I was floundering on this(sorry that was Boatman)
but loved DOCTOR JEKYLL.
We enjoyed this. We eventually saw the A THEN S device and remebered having come across it before. Interestingly we got PROVINCE from the crossing letters and at first we thought that it might be ‘Provence’ for an ‘area supporting wine-growing’ but soon realised that it wouldn’t parse.
HEDONICS and ENCOMIASTS were new but easily checked in Chambers since they were obviously related to ‘hedonism’ and ‘encomium’ (once we established 14dn was an anagram of ‘ocean mists’, not ‘they praise’). As for 26/28, we guessed DOCTOR JEKYLL as soon as we saw it, so didn’t need to seek a second opinion!
A few old chestnuts, e.g. ‘went’ and ‘on board’ in 8dn, but some ingenious cluing as well – we paricularly liked OVERGROWN and NAVARRE.
No nina or theme that we can see – but it’s a fairly safe be there is something.
Thanks, Phi and B&J
Thanks, both.
As always, a sound and enjoyable puzzle for the end of the Indy week from Phi. Well done for parsing ATHENS – I couldn’t get that. ENCOMIUM I had vaguely heard of, so the derivation was gettable; and I too struggled with ?O? ABOUT, reckoning that the editor would allow SOD ABOUT, but that it didn’t parse.
Thanks, Phi, and good weekend to all.
I battled through this until I was left with ASH_N_ at 1a, and then gave up and revealed the second letter giving me the T, at which point I sighed and entered ATHENS, but then spent another 2 minutes parsing it. The penny did eventually drop. A couple of new words for me such as SKEET and HEDONICS, but ENCOMIASTS surfaced from somewhere in the depths. Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Phi and B&J.
One of my favourite moments in the play is when Rosencrantz (or possibly Guildenstern) says to Guildenstern (or possibly Rosencrantz): “The toenails on the other hand never grow at all”.
Thanks Phi. Tom Stoppard is one of our favourite playwrights although we don’t remember the quote.