As always with Phi, everything perfectly simple and sound once it’s done, but not before, when there seem to be so many possibilities. Enjoyable.
Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators (not that there are many) underlined.
The usual cursory look at the unches reveals nothing. Nor did anything strike me during the solve. So it’s up to you.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LAW OF AVERAGES | US city salaries blocked by first two of officials – State making mean observation (3,2,8) |
| LA w(of{ficials} aver)ages | ||
| 8 | GAGSTER | Supplier of crack forgetting hoodlum’s name (7) |
| ga{n}gster — the witty type of crack | ||
| 9 | ORPHANS | Spare lines writer finally included in work by German? (7) |
| o({write}r)p. Hans — widows and orphans are the single lines either at the end of a paragraph on a new page, or at the beginning of a paragraph on the previous page, which are to be avoided by those keen to avoid inelegance in their preparation of text, such as book designers — I can never remember which is which, but they’re both spare lines | ||
| 10 | ALTO | Singer very much wanting books returned (4) |
| a lot with the ot [= OT] reversed | ||
| 11 | STEEL PLATE | Metal covering, sharp behind, shielding little length (5,5) |
| stee(l)p late — steep = sharp I suppose as in ‘a sharp/steep increase in prices’ | ||
| 13 | THEMATIC | Those people at reserve, not fully adhering to topic (8) |
| them at ic{e} | ||
| 14 | ARTIST | Possibly painter‘s portrait finally accepted by nobleman, nothing less (6) |
| ar({portrai}t)is t{o} | ||
| 17 | BURIED | Rear of caterpillar that is found in part of flower, well-hidden (6) |
| bu({caterpilla}r ie)d | ||
| 18 | PENNINES | Change swamping Northern hills (8) |
| penni(N)es | ||
| 21 | UNCONSOLED | Sadly, no clues on back of grid – still distressed (10) |
| (no clues on)* {gri}d | ||
| 23 | IRON | I take back no metal (4) |
| I r. (no)rev. — I have seen it written that r = recipe should be left for the difficult barred crosswords, but in my opinion it’s fine in places like this: helpful for setters and it doesn’t take much learning for the solver | ||
| 25 | GOURMET | A lot of pumpkin, perhaps, satisfied food critic? (7) |
| gour{d} met | ||
| 26 | REMAINS | Restraints around old woman? Stays (7) |
| re(Ma)ins | ||
| 27 | MATCH OF THE DAY | Striker frequently had ye excited – watching this? (5,2,3,3) |
| match [= striker] oft (had ye)* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LIGHT-YEAR | Long distance? Insubstantial and not entirely long (5-4) |
| light year{n} | ||
| 2 | WATT | Quantity of power, with a doubling of temperature (4) |
| w a t t | ||
| 3 | FIRST AID | Tree remained in place, we hear, getting treatment (5,3) |
| fir “stayed” | ||
| 4 | VIOLET | Initially nice to avoid seeking blood (purplish) (6) |
| viole{n{ice}}t | ||
| 5 | REPAPERING | Unusually rare pigpen that has changing decor (10) |
| (rare pigpen)* — has? — I can’t place it in the wordplay | ||
| 6 | GUAVA | Article swallowed by Cockney boss – a fruit (5) |
| gu(a)v a | ||
| 7 | SUSPECT | Dodgy American President involved in religious group (7) |
| s(US P)ect — Collins gives P = President as an American abbreviation | ||
| 8 | GIANT | One engaged in good sex? Absolutely great (5) |
| g i(an)t — here ‘one’ is not ‘i’ or ‘a’, but ‘an’ — it = sex is a crossword staple, although I’ve never heard the word used in this sense | ||
| 12 | WATER NYMPH | Road speed enthralling bird (divine creature) (5,5) |
| (wa(tern)y mph) | ||
| 15 | INNER CITY | It, apparently, is an urban area (5,4) |
| ‘it’ is the inner part of ‘city’ — the slight strangeness of the construction is indicated by ‘apparently’, which I prefer to the exclam favoured by some | ||
| 16 | RESEARCH | Study to restore cut-down monument (8) |
| rese{t} arch — hands up those who pronounce this word with the stress on the second syllable, as I and a very few friends and acquaintances do — we seem to be a dying breed | ||
| 17 | BLUE GUM | Down with stick from eucalyptus tree (4,3) |
| blue [= down] gum [= stick] — I never bothered to look it up since it seemed obvious and now I have done for the blog yes, sure enough | ||
| 19 | SINUS | Crime and employment reduced in capital space (5) |
| sin us{e} — capital as in in connection with the head | ||
| 20 | SORT OF | Annoyed nobleman tails off in a vague way (4,2) |
| sor{e} tof{f} | ||
| 22 | COURT | Seek to marry – finding love, in summary (5) |
| c(0)urt | ||
| 24 | AMID | Surrounded by support, receiving money (4) |
| a(m)id | ||
*anagram
Thanks Phi, John
Ripped through this one, for some reason, plus I can smugly announce I spotted the thematic artist, Kazuo Ishiguro, who wrote The Buried Giant, The Unconsoled, Remains of the Day, When We Were Orphans, Innercity Waternymphs and Suspect Research.
Didn’t know that nice meaning of orphans, nor parse ALTO. Does the still need to go with the distressed to define UNCONSOLED? I’m afraid I say reSearch, having never known better. My pet hate is kiLOmeter.
Well if I understand you correctly, James@2, you put the stress on the second syllable of research, which in my opinion is correct. I don’t think you ever knew any better. Agree with you about kilOmeter.
Sorry, said the opposite of what I meant. I in fact say REsearch, but it’s already starting to sound odd. Chambers gives ri-surch’ or ree’-surch for the noun or verb relating to investigation/investigate, but for re-search, meaning to search again, it gives ree-surch’, a sort of combination pronunciation. Most confusing.
The trouble with the dictionaries is that they just report what happens without giving any advice about what is ‘right’. OK I can accept that that is their job, but it would be a help if they gave some indication of what is the majority usage, something they occasionally do but often don’t. One usually ends up having to see how many entries for each alternative are given by Google, but for pronunciation it’s not much use. Although in this case the dictionaries would probably now say, after the creeping Americanisation of things that we have had to endure, that ree-search is the more widespread pronunciation, which wouldn’t help my case.
But Gaufrid is going to be cross about this off-topic rant.
Is a match a striker or a strikee? Don’t take that seriously. Finished quickly but 8a and 8d took some thought. Thanks to S&B.
REsearch is the noun, reSEARCH is the verb, surely?
We didn’t exactly rip through this, nor did we spot the theme, but we solved it all without help. Thought it was towards the more difficult end of Phi’s spectrum but by no means the most difficult Phi ever. Seeing 1 and 27 across straightaway was a help.
We weren’t too happy with steep=sharp, and were mildly surprised that Phi had used ‘nobleman’ twice in the clues. But those are minor quibbles; we thought the rest was great. Our CoD was ORPHANS because of the many possibilities – did ‘German’ indicate G, or one of several German words meaning ‘by’, or a German composer (had it not been for ‘guava’ in 6dn we might have been tempted to biff it as ‘Orpheus’) or even Edward German? And in the end it was none of those.
We agree with you, John, about R for recipe/take. It’s never any problem for us. And we agree with Goujeers@7 about ‘research’, too.
Thanks, Phi and John.