Phi has given us a bit of a challenge today.
Unusual word of the day for me was COSMOGONY which I had to check. I expect I wasn’t the only person to write in COSMOLOGY before realising I couldn’t parse it. The wordplay for COSMOGONY was clear, but I had to check the word’s existence in the dictionary. I’m left wondering why Phi went for the more obscure entry when either word would fit.
I’m not sure about my parsing of PUT A STOP TO at 13 down as I don’t really see how the word ‘read’ fits into my parsing. I’m happy to be told that I have got something wrong there.
I always like clues where there are many component parts to the wordplay, so I enjoyed this puzzle. Liberal use of colour in the blog highlights the entries with lots of bits.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 9 | Head of family initially regretting atmosphere circulating during marriage (9) |
(R [first letter of {initially} REGRETTING] + an anagram of [circulating] AIR) contained in (during) MATCH (marriage) MAT (R IAR*) CH |
MATRIARCH (female head of a family, tribe or community)
|
| 10 | Noisy, very, heading away from pub (5) |
V (very) + LOCAL (public house [pub]) excluding [away from] the first letter [heading] L V OCAL |
VOCAL (noisy) |
| 11 | Try to extend day paper gets published (4,3) |
D (day) + RAG (newspaper) + OUT (published) D RAG OUT |
DRAG OUT (prolong unnecessarily or tediously; try to extend)
|
| 12 | Weapon making you ache and buckle (7) |
LONG (yearn; ache) + BOW (bend; buckle) LONG BOW |
LONGBOW (a weapon drawn by hand as distinct from the crossbow)
|
| 13 | Try to catch game dog, having change of heart (5) |
POOCH (dog) with the middle letter (heart) replaced by [change of] A POACH |
POACH (intrude on another person’s land in order to pursue or kill game)
|
| 14 | Evasive about unpleasant mist on offering theory of the universe (9) |
COY (evasive) containing (about) (SMOG [smoky fog; unpleasant mist] + ON) CO (SMOG ON) Y |
COSMOGONY (theory or myth of the origin of the universe) |
| 16 | Many recalled French article about energy in component of explosive (7) |
LOT (many) reversed (returned) + (UNE [one of the French forms of the indefinite article] containing [about] E [energy]) TOL< U (E) NE |
TOLUENE (methyl benzene, a colourless flammable liquid [C6H5CH3] used as a solvent and in the manufacture of other organic chemicals and explosives) |
| 18 | Artist very much into associate shade (7) |
(RA [Royal Academician; artist] + SO [very much]) contained in (into) PAL (associate) PA (RA SO) L |
PARASOL (shade)
|
| 20 | Crashed in flames around capital of Italy? It’s not the end of the contest (9) |
Anagram of (crashed) IN FLAMES containing (around) I (first letter of [capital of] ITALY) SEM (I) FINAL* either I could be the one contained |
SEMI-FINAL (the round immediately before the FINAL; it’s not the end of the contest) |
| 22 | Parrot‘s mouth containing bill (5) |
MAW (mouth) containing (containing) AC (account; bill) M (AC) AW |
MACAW (any of the large, long-tailed, brightly-coloured tropical American parrots of the genus Ara or Anodorhynchus) |
| 24 | Affected by charge, ion later decays, emitting electron (2,5) |
Anagram of (decays) ION LATER excluding (emitting) E (electron) ON TRIAL |
ON TRIAL (undergoing proceedings in a court of law; affected by charge) |
| 26 | Admit ice creams contain fluorine the sulphur (7) |
(CONES [ice creams] containing [contain] F [chemical symbol for fluorine]) + S (chemical symbol for sulphur) CON (F) ES S |
CONFESS (admit) |
| 28 | Medicine, extremely pleasant, endlessly (5) |
TOO (extremely) excluding the final letter (endlessly) O + NICE (pleasant) excluding the final letter (endlessly) E TO NIC |
TONIC (medicine) |
| 29 | Committee stay finally visible in hazy distance (9) |
Y (last letter of [finally] STAY) contained in (visible in) an anagram of (hazy) DISTANCE S (Y) NDICATE* |
SYNDICATE (combination of people for some common purpose or interest; committee) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Surrounded by Government support, keeping millions housed (4) |
AID (government support) containing (keeping … housed) M (millions) A (M) ID |
AMID (surrounded by) |
| 2 | Old Scottish engineer set up a capital city (6) |
O (old) + WATT (reference James WATT [1736 – 1819], Scottish inventor and engineer) reversed (set up; won clue) + A O TTAW< A |
OTTAWA (capital city of Canada) |
| 3 | Exclamation from Scot beginning to lose in long card game (8) |
(OCH [Scottish exclamation of impatience or contemptuous dismissal) + L [first letter of {beginning to} LOSE]) contained in (in) PINE (yearn; long) PIN (OCH L) E |
PINOCHLE (a card game like bezique) |
| 4 | Northern bird about to hide in lorry wheel, we hear (6,4) |
(C [circa; about] contained in [to hide in] ARTIC {ARTICulated lorry]) + TERN (sounds like [we hear] TURN [wheel]) AR (C) TIC TERN |
ARCTIC TERN (black-capped TERN [Sterna paradisea] that breeds in the Arctic and migrates south; northern bird) |
| 5 | Welsh resort rashly excluding a soprano? That’s not right (4) |
Anagram of (that’s not right) RASHLY excluding (excluding) (A + S [soprano]) RHYL* |
RHYL (Welsh seaside resort) |
| 6 | No good avoiding church service, all the same (4,2) |
EVENSONG (church service) excluding (avoiding) NG (no good) EVEN SO |
EVEN SO (nevertheless; all the same) |
| 7 | Suspicion about a brother supporting Conservative is harsh (8) |
SUS (suspicion) containing (about) (C [Conservative] + A + BRO [brother]) S (C A BRO) US This being a down entry, the letter C is supported by the letters A BRO |
SCABROUS (harsh) |
| 8 | How gale warnings are itemised? (4-2-4) |
A gale is a strong BLOW so if you itemise a series of them you are describing them BLOW BY BLOW. Cryptic definition BLOW BY BLOW |
BLOW-BY-BLOW (very detailed; itemised) |
| 13 | Paid attention, turning up to read next page to end (3,1,4,2) |
SAT UP (became alert; paid attention) reversed (turning up; down clue) + TO + P (page) + TO I’m not sure that I have parsed the second half of this correctly as I can’t see how ‘read’ fits in PU T A S< TO P TO |
PUT A STOP TO (cause to finish; end) |
| 15 | One begging drink, flexible about cold water (10) |
SUP (drink) + (PLIANT [flexible] containing [about] C [cold water]) SUP PLI (C) ANT |
SUPPLICANT (pleader;beggar) |
| 17 | Lithium – metal used in jet fighter – is restricting (8) |
LI (chemical symbol for lithium) + (TIN [metal] contained in [used in] MIG [colloquial term for a Russian jet fighter plane designed by Mikoyan and Gurevich]) LI MI (TIN) G |
LIMITING (restricting) |
| 19 | Extravagant description of 23 – an habitual response (8) |
ROMAN (CAESAR, the entry at 23 down was a famous example) + TIC (involuntary habitual response) ROMAN TIC |
ROMANTIC (extravagant) |
| 21 | Move quickly, getting children some meat (6) |
FLIT (move quickly) + CH (children) FLIT CH |
FLITCH (side of pork salted and cured; some meat) |
| 23 | Autocrat in chariot taking in rising tide (6) |
CAR (chariot) containing (taking in) SEA (tide) reversed (rising; down clue) C (AES<) AR |
CAESAR (reference Julius CAESAR [76 – 54 BC], an example of an autocratic ruler) |
| 25 | Left remains a scourge (4) |
L (left) + ASH (remains) L ASH |
LASH (scourge) |
| 27 | Small gardens may be asymmetrical (4) |
S (small) + KEW (reference KEW gardens in London) S KEW |
SKEW (asymmetrical) |
I wish I’d started with the Down clues for once. First pass on Acrosses was barren indeed, but the verticals were mostly write-ins. And yes, ‘cosmogony’ was wicked indeed. Just a bit Phiday mischief, I feel.
13a PTO = Read next page.
I can’t quite equate “many” = “lot” in 16a. Doesn’t “many” = “a lot of” rather than just “lot”?
Many thanks to Phi and to Duncan
Oops. I meant 13d.
I was faced with a choice between COSMOLOGY and COSMOGONY. One parsed and the other didnt .QED.
And nice to see Mr Beck pop in.Thanks duncanshiell and Phi.
I think that in 13 “read next page” gives PTO and the definition is “to end”.
COSMOLOGY doesn’t parse but I put it in, assuming that the inclusion of LO had been omitted by mistake. That’ll learn me.
As usual I can’t see the theme, whatever it is.
Paid the penalty for laziness for 14a and also missed the unknown FLITCH for which I had an unparsed ‘flinch’. PINOCHLE is a good word, though not one I suspect I’m likely to meet again out in the real world.
Thanks to Rabbit Dave @2&3 and cruciverbophile @5 for making sense of 13d.
Thanks as well to Phi and Duncan.
Had come across FLITCH in the old custom of the Dunmow Flitch (presumably now defunct) but not COSMOGONY.
Seemed unnecessarily complex really and if I only ever put in answers I could fully parse I wouldn’t finish many crosswords!
Learned a few new things in COSMONOGY, TOLUENE & PINOCHLE – but not sure when I’ll need any of them again!
Very much enjoyed ARCTIC TERN and BLOW-BY-BLOW although I was surprised to discover that the latter is hyphenated.
Thanks to Phi for the puzzle and to Duncan for the blog – took me a while to spot PTO as well!
Quite a challenge; we were half way through the acrosses before we got anything. Sure enough we fell into the ‘cosmology’ trap, but we did parse PINOCHLE, although we had to check the word in Chambers.
But one of us being a chemist meant TOLUENE was a write-in. The explosive, btw, is TNT or 2,4,6 trinitrotoluene, C6H2(NO2)3CH3 – those numerals should be subscripts. Phi may recall the rather sombre Flanders and Swann number noting that the total world nuclear arsenal in the mid-60s was equivalent to Twenty Tons of TNT for each man woman and child. Goodness knows how much it is now.
A satisfying solve, though. Favourites were MACAW, PINOCHLE and BLOW BY BLOW.
Thanks, Phi and Duncan.
Further to@7reddevil, there was a UK film of 1952, “Made In Heaven”, set in Dunmow centring on couples competing for the flitch.