Friday is the beginning of my four week blogging cycle and not surprisingly it’s a Phi puzzle that gets me underway.
We have a well signposted theme this week with 24 / 7, OPEN ALL HOURS, ROUND THE CLOCK and WE NEVER CLOSED. I got WE NEVER CLOSED before the WINDMILL. In fact I reverse engineered the entry at 12 across from 18 / 20.
I’m guessing that Phi built up the entries on the grid by starting with OPEN ALL HOURS filled in at 24 / 7.
The only entry I hadn’t come across before was IDEAL POINT but the wordplay was very clear.
This was a pleasant Friday solve to ease in the weekend.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 7 | See 24 Down | ALL HOURS | |
| 9 | See 5 Down | CLOCK | |
|
10
|
Market regularly failing brand (4)
|
MARKET excluding (failing) letters 3 and 6 (regularly R and T) MAKE |
MAKE (brand)
|
|
11
|
Website requirement – most important contributing to party reputation (6,4)
|
MAIN (most important) contained in (contributing to) (DO [party] + NAME {reputation) DO (MAIN) NAME |
DOMAIN NAME (the distinctive NAME of a specific computer network or service used as part of an Internet address, allowing its easy identification)
|
|
12
|
Theatre of war where activity was uncovered? (8)
|
WINDMILL (reference the WINDMILL theatre in Whitehall, London, where during the Second World War the vaudeville revues featured nude performers in statuesque poses. The theatre ,management convinced the Lord Chamberlain that if nude statues were OK, then stationary nude glamour girls were also OK. ‘If it moved it rude’ was another phrase associated with the theatre’s argument) WINDMILL |
WINDMILL (the WINDMILL theatre famously used the slogan ‘WE NEVER CLOSED‘ [see 18 / 20 across] during the Second World War)
|
|
15
|
Squad not favoured to take on attack (6)
|
OUT (not in favour) + FIT (attack of illness, especially associated with convulsion or paroxysm) OUT FIT |
OUTFIT (any set of persons; squad)
|
|
16
|
Italian city – composer getting endless Latin love there (7)
|
BERG (reference Alban BERG [1885 – 1935], Austrian composer) + AMOR (Latin for love) excluding the final letter (endless) R BERG AMO |
BERGAMO (city in northern Italy))
|
|
18 /20
|
24 / 7 as claimed by the 12? (2,5,6)
|
WE NEVER CLOSED (a claim by the management of the WINDMILL theatre [see blog detail at 12 across]) WE NEVER CLOSED |
WE NEVER CLOSED (a phrase that literally equates to having been open 24 hours, 7 days a week, all year)
|
|
21
|
Greedily eat stew of mole in bowl (8)
|
Anagram of (stew of) MOLE contained in (in) DISH (bowl) D (EMOL*) ISH |
DEMOLISH (eat greedily)
|
|
23
|
Loudly in favour – is most energised after intervention by Independent (10)
|
FOR (in favour) + (I [independent] contained in [after intervention] [an anagram of {energised} IS MOST]) FOR T (I) SSIMO* Either I could be the one contained |
FORTISSIMO (as loud as possible)
|
|
25
|
Certain French Police will release alien (4)
|
SÛRETÉ (reference SÛRETÉ Nationale [civil police force in some French speaking countries]. Wikipediea tells me that it is now known as Police Nationale in France itself) excluding (will release) ET (extra-terrestrial; alien) SURE |
SURE (certain)
|
|
27
|
New number – one released in cover (5) |
NO (number) + VEIL (cover) excluding (released from) I (Roman numeral for one) NO VEL |
NOVEL (new)
|
|
28
|
The gold is beside the end of escarpment, one hypothesises (8)
|
THE + OR (the tincture gold in heraldry) + IS + T (last letter of [end of]) THE OR IS T |
THEORIST (one who hypothesises)
|
|
Down |
|||
|
1
|
Soaring sprite upon a biting insect (4)
|
ELF (sprite) reversed (soaring; down clue) + A FLE< A |
FLEA (example of biting insect)
|
|
2
|
Protective cover started, securing line (6)
|
SHIED (flinched; started) containing (securing) L (line) SHIE (L) D |
SHIELD (protective cover)
|
| 3 | Store of money unearthed (second component missing) (4) |
FOUND (unearthed) excluding (missing) the second letter (component) O FUND |
FUND (store of money laid up) |
|
4
|
Distribution of this marine creature could be chore in Med (10)
|
Anagram of (distribution of this … could be) CHORE IN MED ECHINODERM* |
ECHINODERM (a phylum of radially symmetrical marine invertebrates, with a hard body-wall strengthened by calcareous plates, and usually moving by tube-feet, including starfishes, sea-urchins, brittlestars, sea-cucumbers and sea-lilies; marine creature)
|
|
5 /9
|
24 / 7 and definitely not 9-to-5 (5,3,5)
|
ROUND THE CLOCK (for the whole of a twenty-four hour period. If you extrapolate to a week, this becomes 24 / 7)) ROUND THE CLOCK |
ROUND THE CLOCK (more than nine-to-five)
|
|
6
|
Minimal coverage? Heavens – little special about politician getting elected (10)
|
(SKIES [heavens] + S [special]) containing (about) (MP [Member of Parliament; politician] + IN [elected]) SKI (MP IN) ES S |
SKIMPINESS (scantiness; minimal coverage)
|
|
8
|
Herb is coming up – tree conceals one (6)
|
IS reversed (coming up; down clue) + MAPLE (tree) excluding (conceals; hides) A (one) SI< MPLE |
SIMPLE (medicinal plant; herb)
|
|
13
|
Imaginary meeting oil-painted badly (5,5)
|
Anagram of (badly) OIL-PAINTED IDEAL POINT* |
IDEAL POINT (a hypothetical point where two parallel lines join at infinity. imaginary meeting)
|
|
14
|
Setter’s way: touch of trickery in cunning (making a boast) (10)
|
I’M (setter) + MODE (way or manner of acting) + (T [first letter of {touch of}] TRICKERY] contained in [in] SLY [cunning]) IM MODE S (T) LY |
IMMODESTLY (boastfully)
|
|
17
|
Gossip over rigged votes is a source of heat (3,5)
|
GAS (gossip) + an anagram of (rigged) VOTES GAS STOVE* |
GAS STOVE (source of heat)
|
|
19
|
Skilful missing nothing about heading off fleet at seas 6)
|
(ADROIT [skilful] excluding [missing] O [(zero; nothing]) containing (about) F (first letter of [heading off] FLEET) ADRI (F) T |
ADRIFT (at sea)
|
|
22
|
Brilliance is what’s tempting about stone (6)
|
LURE (something that tempts) containing (about) ST (stone) LU (ST) RE |
LUSTRE (brilliance)
|
|
24 / 7
|
24 / 7 (4,3,5)
|
OPEN ALL HOURS (all the time, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week) OPEN ALL HOURS |
OPEN [ALL HOURS] cryptic definition using the clue numbers 24 / 7 to clue 24 / 7
|
|
26
|
No opening in crowd to hurry (4) |
CRUSH (crowd) excluding (no) the first letter (opening) C RUSH |
RUSH (hurry) |
I found this tricky, although I did notice and understand the theme for a change. I was defeated by the herb, however, having never heard of that definition. The best I could come up with was SIMILE, (IS and ELM up with I in). Eventually I revealed the P to finish. Took over 3/4 of an hour though. I didn’t know the expression IDEAL POINT, but assumed it was a mathematical definition. Thanks Phi and Duncan.
Is Phi THE wordiest compiler on the dailies?
I never have a problem with his splendid puzzles, but I thought I’d ask the question!
Because of the way the Indy’s rubbish software handles linked clues (it can’t, actually) in a printout, it took so long sorting them out that we guessed the answers to 5/9 and 24/7 before we even started to fill the grid.
That apart, this was a satisfying puzzle from Phi. We hadn’t come across IDEAL POINT before, though we realised what it referred to. We also worked out that 8dn was SIMPLE but had to check that meaning in Chambers, although our first guess that ‘herb’ might be slang for a simple person proved not to be so. Favourites were DOMAIN NAME, FORTISSIMO and ECHINODERM.
Thanks, Phi and Duncan.
I failed on SIMPLE (where my thoughts went along the same likes as John’s @1) and also on MAKE for no reason other than a SIMPLE brain. I didn’t get WINDMILL (or fully understand the clue referencing it) as I didn’t know who famously never closed. Apart from the utter bafflement at the end I enjoyed it.
Thanks to Phi and Duncan.
Thanks Phi, Duncan
All good, but can’t believe i didn’t get MAKE having tried what I thought was every combination of regular deletions from everything. I knew WINDMILL, though not the connection to WE NEVER CLOSED, but it was rather like Julius’s PEER GYNT CD the other day; you can understand the clue but still have no idea about the answer, and I think that’s a bit unfair.
It took me a word search to get 8dn. I did know that meaning of SIMPLE but I just couldn’t see it. I too could only think of an elm as the tree. And 10ac totally defeated me.
A good way to end the week.
Thanks to Phi and Duncan.