It’s Phi-day again!
Across
1 Non-British playwright authentic in his own tongue (4)
ECHT
brECHT (playwright) without ‘br’ (British)
3 End of mission to ruffle feathers, in a way (10)
SPLASHDOWN
If one were to SPLASH a bird’s DOWN (feathers), it would probably cause it to ‘ruffle’ its feathers
10 Covered by European articles (5)
UNDER
UN and DER are both ‘European articles’ – ‘one’ in French and German
11 Worried each soccer team after one’s sent off (5)
EATEN
EA (each) TEN (a ‘soccer team after one’s sent off’)
12 Lucky to offload my problem (3)
JAM
JAMmy (lucky) without or ‘offloading’ ‘my’
13 Two rents, one reduced – it keeps protests down (4,3)
TEAR GAS
TEAR (rent) GASh (another ‘rent’) without the last letter or ‘reduced’
14 To be audacious is unknown in Greek god (3,2,2)
TRY IT ON
Y (unknown) in TRITON (Greek god)
15 Measure of potential passion about a French writer (8)
VOLTAIRE
VOLT (measure of potential) IRE (passion) round A
17 Standard marks in national exam (6)
NORMAL
M (marks) in N (national) ORAL (exam)
20 Firm returning in former place (6)
LOCATE
CO (company – ‘firm’) reversed or ‘returning’ in LATE (former)
21 Turned sad, mostly, when employed in happy plant (8)
MULBERRY
BLUe (sad) without the last letter or ‘mostly’ and reversed or ‘turned’ in MERRY (happy)
23 Computer program redesigned real clothes (7)
APPAREL
APP (computer program) + an anagram of REAL – anagrind is ‘redesigned’
25 Plant swamping untidy home one way or another (7)
SOMEHOW
SOW (plant) round or ‘swamping’ an anagram of HOME – anagrind is ‘untidy’
28 Defeated leader ousted in contest (3)
OUT
bOUT (contest) without the first letter or ‘leader’
29 Brand new underwear (5)
LINEN
LINE (brand) N (new)
30 No good, then very good, over NZ tree (5)
NGAIO
NG (no good) AI (very good) O (over)
31 Chase winds around submarines? (10)
SANDWICHES
An anagram of CHASE WINDS – anagrind is ‘around’
32 Delay one in enclosure (4)
STAY
A (one) in STY (enclosure)
Down
1 Burst out: “Clean up half of it” (5)
ERUPT
PURE (clean) reversed of ‘up’ + iT (half of ‘it’)
2 Eccentric rich lady bringing in University regarding piped water? (9)
HYDRAULIC
An anagram of RICH LADY (anagrind is ‘eccentric’) round or ‘bringing in’ U (University)
4 Endless reporters certain to lead to tension (8)
PRESSURE
PRESs (reporters) without the last letter or ‘endless’ + SURE (certain)
5 A second student, not entirely perceptive (6)
ASTUTE
A S (second) TUTEe (student) without the last letter or ‘not entirely’
6 Love to search for maze (9)
HONEYCOMB
HONEY (love) COMB (search)
7 Schoolfellow once to hurry item in French (5)
OBJET
OB (old boy – ‘school fellow once’) JET (hurry)
8 Theoretically maximum support, as it were? (9)
NOMINALLY
NO MIN (no minimum, or ‘maximum, as it were’) ALLY (support)
9 Runs into vapours – contribution to coughing? (4)
FROG
R (runs) in FOG (vapours)
15 River mammal tailed boats for sources of warm flows (9)
VOLCANOES
VOLe (river mammal) without the last letter or ‘tailed’ + CANOES (boats)
16 Tower flag flapping in fading light (9)
AFTERGLOW
An anagram of TOWER FLAG – anagrind is ‘flapping’
18 Display male’s cunning history (5,4)
MARCH PAST
M (male) ARCH (cunning) PAST (history)
19 Pest is occupying shade (8)
NUISANCE
IS in or ‘occupying’ NUANCE (shade)
22 Military leader maintaining a lot of rank in health centre (6)
CLINIC
CIC (commander-in-chief – ‘military leader’) round or ‘maintaining’ LINe (rank) without the last letter or ‘a lot of’
24 Pointless climbing – a climber needs this (5)
PITON
NO TIP (‘pointless’) reversed or ‘climbing’ (in a down clue)
26 King dodging filthy multitude (4)
MANY
MANkY (filthy) with the ‘k’ (king) missing or ‘dodging’
27 Try to win day, after losing core of deal? (5)
WOODY
WOO (try to win) DaY without or ‘losing’ the middle letter or ‘core’
Very good fun although I’m a bit dubious about the inclusion of a French word and a German word. At least the former was clearly indicated and is part of a phrase we have adopted in English.
29a was my favourite.
Many thanks to Phi and to B&J.
Enjoyable hour or so spent doing this, being tied down a bit in the SE at the end.
The theme eludes me too, but I did note VOLCANOES ERUPT UNDER PRESSURE, and HYDRAULIC as well. Who knows if this is anything to do with anything, but it has relevance to Phi’s current place of abode, as does 30a of course. Someone will undoubtedly enlighten us.
Thanks to Phi and to B&J.
Felt sure that someone would have popped in to reveal the theme but it seems not.
Enjoyable puzzle and like RD I put 29a in the top spot.
Thanks to Phi and to B&J for the blog.
4/9 to Wordplodder @2. The full phrase is MANY VOLCANOES ERUPT MULBERRY JAM SANDWICHES UNDER NORMAL PRESSURE which I still use, despite it having been overtaken by circumstances, when I can’t quite remember whether it’s Uranus or Neptune that comes after Saturn.
But one assumes that, should Rangitoto blow, Auckland will not be strewn with mulberry jam sandwiches.
Thanks Phi for the explanation! We will try and remember the phrase – it may help when we next attend a local quiz night.
Not sure I’ve ever come across that mnemonic before – never had trouble remembering the order, and some mnemonics I can only remember by recalling the thing they stand for. But I did get a credit in a dictionary of mnemonics that was published nearly fifty years ago.
RD@1: Surely ECHT is one of those foreign words that has been adopted into English like schadenfreude and angst.
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Phi
I have no problem with ECHT or OBJET as they are both in English dictionaries, but I thought 3a a bit clunky – great definition let down by iffy wordplay and surface.
A minor quibble in a good crossword though. Not heard that mnemonic before so didn’t spot it.
Good puzzle as always from Phi and thanks to B&J for the blog. Less theme-friendly, but more memorable, is the mnemonic I use:
MY VERY EASY METHOD JUST SPEEDS UP NAMING PLANETS
Good weekend to all.
We worked steadily through this then ground to a halt with just 9 and 25 unsolved, and stared at them for ages before suddenly getting them. We did think VOLCANOES and ERUPT might be part of a theme but couldn’t get any further than that. Favourites were SPLASHDOWN, VOLTAIRE and AFTERGLOW.
Thanks, Phi and B&J.