Thanks to Eimi for confirming on Monday that today’s puzzle is a Phi – at least some things remain constant while the technology moves on!
We like the new format of the interactive puzzles in the online Indy, but we have complained (along with Eimi and several others) that they do not now include the setter’s name – pretty crucial to cryptic addicts like us! We are told that this issue is being addressed but maybe, the more folk who comment on it, the more likely it is that it will be dealt with quickly.
We found this to be at the easier end of Phi’s spectrum – it was a fairly straightforward solve today, although we did have to check the ON = DRUNK synonym at 28ac.
We’ve looked for a theme but can’t find one, unless there is more to the inclusion of the Shakespeare plays at 3d and 6d…. or are these misdirections from one of Phi’s more esoteric themes?
Across
1 Silly smile upset NCO at first (5)
SMIRK
IRK (upset) after SM (Sergeant Major – NCO)
4 Drop, clutching tip of hand in pain in landing zone (9)
BEACHHEAD
BEAD (drop) round or ‘clutching’ H (first letter or ‘tip’ of hand) in ACHE (pain)
9 Company mistreated millions adopting a means to exploit dependencies (11)
COLONIALISM
CO (company) + an anagram of MILLIONS (anagrind is ‘mistreated’) round or ‘adopting’ A
10 Three-handed bridge? That’s novel (3)
NEW
Bridge players are referred to by the cardinal points – if N (north), E (east) and W (west) were playing it would be a ‘three-handed’ game
11 Historic city kid – Artful Dodger’s place? Not half (7)
BABYLON
BABY (kid) + half of LONdon (‘Artful Dodger’s place’ – as in the Dickens novel)
12 Satisfying consultation (7)
MEETING
Double definition
13 Row of houses unfinished, having applied excessive source of awful reddish colour (10)
TERRACOTTA
TERRACe (row of houses) without the last letter or ‘unfinished’ + OTT (over the top – ‘excessive’) + A (first letter or ‘source’ of ‘awful’)
15 Beginning to lose a little lead (4)
STAR
STARt (beginning) ‘losing’ the last letter
18 Fellow more-or-less happy about liberal people (4)
FOLK
F (fellow) OK (more-or-less happy) round L (liberal)
19 Select CAPS, when making edits – they make things easier to read (10)
SPECTACLES
An anagram of SELECT CAPS – anagrind is ‘when making edits’
22 Hard to avoid best flowering plant (7)
CAMPION
ChAMPION (best) without or ‘avoiding’ the ‘h’ (hard)
24 Father’s active and delicate (7)
FRAGILE
FR (father) AGILE (active)
25 Special former lover offering it? (3)
SEX
S (special) EX (former lover)
26 Small measure dished up when in Egypt (11)
PENNYWEIGHT
An anagram of WHEN IN EGYPT – anagrind is ‘dished up’
27 A dodgy smile, cunning, but without intent (9)
AIMLESSLY
A + an anagram of SMILE (anagrind is ‘dodgy’) + SLY (cunning)
28 Without friends, getting drunk, tucking into beer (5)
ALONE
ON (getting drunk – a new one for us!) ‘tucking’ into ALE (beer)
Down
1 Old instrument has wine barrel cut down (7)
SACKBUT
SACK (wine) BUTt (barrel) without the last letter or ‘cut down’
2 Restrictive arrangement of Braille in one line (9)
ILLIBERAL
An anagram of BRAILLE (anagrind is ‘arrangement of’) in I (one) L (line)
3 Family stuff fixing climax of historical tragedy (4,4)
KING LEAR
KIN (family) GEAR (stuff) round or ‘fixing’ L (last letter or ‘climax’ of ‘historical’)
4 Intelligence in Britain having to fall (5)
BRAIN
B (Britain) RAIN (to fall)
5 Given a kiss, I will get romantic, losing head, forgetting name (9)
AXIOMATIC
A X (kiss) I + rOMAnTIC without or ‘losing’ the first letter or ‘head’ and without or ‘forgetting’ ‘n’ (name)
6 Tragic figure, male, accommodated in vigorous time (6)
HAMLET
M (male) ‘accommodated’ in HALE (vigorous) T (time)
7 Lack of interest in Rossini unnecessarily picked up (5)
ENNUI
Hidden and reversed (‘picked up’) in RossinI UNNEcessarily
8 Party with a German widow (7)
DOWAGER
DO (party) W (with) A GER (German)
14 The other side chooses to keep on interrupting writer (9)
OPPONENTS
OPTS (chooses) round or ‘keeping’ ON in or ‘interrupting’ PEN (writer)
16 Tense singer hogging piece should get reprimand (7-2)
TALKING-TO
T (tense) ALTO (singer) round or ‘hogging’ KING (‘piece’ as in chess)
17 Prison’s mostly safeguarding a downbeat US city (8)
PASADENA
PENAl (prison’s) without the last letter or ‘mostly’ round or ‘safeguarding’ A SAD (downbeat)
18 Such – if developed – will lead to a flower (7)
FUCHSIA
An anagram of SUCH IF (anagrind is ‘developed’) + A
20 Dear little resident in farm buildings losing tail (7)
SWEETIE
WEE (little) ‘resident’ in STIEs (farm buildings) without the last letter or ‘losing tail’
21 Medicinal plant is coming up before tree after area’s cleared (6)
SIMPLE
IS reversed or ‘coming up’ + MaPLE (tree) with the ‘a’ (area) omitted or ‘cleared’
23 Machine-gun, variable in harm (5)
MAXIM
X (variable, as in algebra) in MAIM (harm)
24 Fine place to stop, not wanting a quick trip past (3-2)
FLY-BY
F (fine) LaY-BY (place to stop) without or ‘not wanting’ the ‘a’
*anagram
Good fun and a nice antidote to the other puzzle that I solved this morning.
I didn’t know “on” = “getting drunk” in 28a, and 1d & 21d were new to me (I think). 8d was my favourite.
Thansk to Phi and to B&J.
P.S. I am 100% in favour of including the setters’ names. It has long puzzled me why the DT shows who has set the Toughies but not the back-page cryptics (even though we know the majority of these in their regular slots).
Thanks B&J. You can see the setter’s name if you view the Print version of the puzzle. (Talking of issues to be complained about, the horrible six-column layout of the print version is another one, together with the long-standing bug whereby multi-light clues are needlessly repeated.)
Thanks B&J. I solve online so don’t normally bother but, after a week of annoyance, I noticed today that if you click “print” you will see the setter’s name in the print preview window.
Sorry, we crossed, Andrew!
Another enjoyable puzzle from a very consistent setter. As RD@1 commented, it brightened the day considerably!
New word for ‘drunk’ to be filed away – thought it was only used in relation to taking drugs.
Thanks to Phi and to B&J for the blog.
Put me down as another who likes to know who’s compiled a puzzle.
Just to add that “on” for “tipsy” has often been used by Hoskins, usually as an anagram indicator. So well worth storing away for the future.
I didn’t know ON for ‘drunk’ either and picked wrongly between SIMPLE and ‘sipple’ (‘apple’ without the ‘a’) for the unknown ‘Medicinal plant’ at 21d. CAMPION is another new ‘flowering plant’ to file away.
A pleasant Friday evening solve from Phi.
Thanks to Phi and B&J.
Yay! For once I’ve spotted the ghost theme (I think). New Babylon, King Lear, Hamlet, Alone and Maxim have a composer in common.
Enjoy the crosswords but would like to have the setter’s name included
SIMPLE people is another themester.
Well I thought no-one would get this one so kudos to cruciverbophile. My transliteration of the titles has Simple FOLK for NNI’s spot.
They also have a director in common – I think Shostakovich worked with Kozintsev more often than any other.
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Phi
The cows would have been safely tucked up by the time I spotted the theme.
One query – does penal mean prison?
Dansar@12. As in the blog, penal = prison’s not prison.
Well, I didn’t have too much trouble finishing this, and I’m a great Shostakovich fan, but I didn’t spot the theme.
Hovis@13
I saw it as PRISON IS (mostly) i.e. PENA safeguarding ASAD (a downbeat) = PASADENA, which implies PRISON = PENAL.
I know that “Penal System”, for example, can be seen as synonymous with “Prison System”, but if that means PRISON = PENAL, then they both also = CORRECTIONAL, and perhaps REHABILITATION and PUNISHMENT as well.
KING LEAR, HAMLET and (Romeo) ALONE have another composer in common – topical this year.
Andrew@2: I agree with you about the print version layout, although it’s not unique to the Indy. At least the PDF is editable which means I can (and do) copy and paste it into my word processor and re-format it into something more readable. It takes a few minutes but is worth the effort.