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Phi well up to his usual standard today; nothing obvious, but everything clear enough after a bit of thought. A few unfamiliar words, but the wordplay makes it straightforward enough to derive them.
An unusual grid too: I don’t remember seeing 4 black squares starting the first row before.
Too many good clues here to list them all, but I particularly liked the musical clues (8 and 11) and the &lit at 24. Thanks Phi.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DELIBERATE | Duke and Earl free to take stock (10) |
| D[uke] + E[arl] + LIBERATE (set free). Deliberate, as a verb = consider. | ||
| 8 | ACCORDION | Agreement about restricting one instrument (9) |
| ACCORD ON (on the subject of = about), containing I (Roman numeral 1). | ||
| 9 | GEEK | Techie jargon not right (4) |
| GREEK (jargon, as in “it’s all Greek to me”) without the R. | ||
| 10 | TRENCH | Channel or river filled with fish? On the contrary (6) |
| A classic crossword trick: “On the contrary” after a question mark means “reverse the sense of the wordplay”. So we’re looking for TENCH (a fish) with R (river) in it, not the other way round. | ||
| 11 | RHETORIC | Soprano avoiding confused chorister’s declamation (8) |
| Anagram (confused) of CHORISTER, without the S (soprano). | ||
| 13 | CUMBER | Obstruct doctor engaged in slight modification of treatment (6) |
| MB (Latin abbreviation for a Bachelor of Medicine degree) in CURE (treatment) with a slight modification (swapping the last two letters). This is probably stretching the rules for some crossword purists, but I think it’s clear enough. | ||
| 14 | TALISMAN | Dutch explorer capturing large island fetish (8) |
| Abel TASMAN, after whom Tasmania is named, containing L (large) I (island). | ||
| 17 | ENCIPHER | Long recalled that woman penning start of criminal code (8) |
| PINE (long, as a verb) reversed + HER, containing C[riminal]. Code, as a verb = encode. | ||
| 19 | BLAGUE | Depressed about a grand display of nonsense (6) |
| BLUE (depressed) around A G (=grand, slang for £1000). A new word for me, but easy to deduce from the wordplay; as you might guess, it’s originally French. | ||
| 21 | RINGSIDE | Circles most of plan for sports crowd? (8) |
| RINGS + IDE[a] (most of plan); as in a ringside seat at a boxing match. | ||
| 23 | EGRESS | Go back, having overlooked entry and exit (6) |
| REGRESS (go back) without the initial letter (entry). | ||
| 25 | TAKE | Receipts? Money is overlooked in error (4) |
| MISTAKE (error) without M IS. Take = takings = money collected on a specific occasion, such as admission charges at an event. | ||
| 26 | LOVELIGHT | Nothing insubstantial in expression of affection (9) |
| LOVE (nothing in tennis scoring) + LIGHT (insubstantial). | ||
| 27 | INCLEMENCY | Cycle in unhappily, going round blokes in poor weather conditions (10) |
| Anagram (unhappily) of CYCLE IN, around MEN (blokes). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DIRT CHEAP | Had t’price altered, offering a very low price (4-5) |
| Anagram (altered) of HAD T’PRICE. | ||
| 2 | LAIR | Study Liberal attitude (4) |
| L (liberal) AIR (attitude or manner). Study, as a noun = private room. | ||
| 3 | BONEHEAD | Idiot’s wrong about atomic number of hydrogen and helium (8) |
| BAD (wrong) about ONE (atomic number of hydrogen) + HE (chemical symbol for helium = He). | ||
| 4 | RIGHT | Justified and fine to abandon something ugly (5) |
| FRIGHT (something ugly) without the F (fine). | ||
| 5 | THEOREM | Opposition to seize source of metal? That’s the hypothesis (7) |
| THEM (opposition, as in us and them) containing ORE. | ||
| 6 | PASTICHEUR | Impressionist, say, broadcasting pushier act (10) |
| Anagram (broadcasting) of PUSHIER ACT. Pastiche = imitation of another’s style, so someone doing such imitation is a pasticheur; another new word for me, but easy enough to deduce. | ||
| 7 | SCREAM | Second best source of humour (6) |
| S (second) + CREAM (best, as in cream of the crop). It’s a scream = it’s very funny. | ||
| 12 | CONDENSATE | Notes dance choreographed to present more intense material (10) |
| Anagram (choreographed) of NOTES DANCE. Something that has been condensed to concentrate or intensify it. | ||
| 15 | ILLEGALLY | One beginning to lean on supporter in an unjustified way (9) |
| I (one) + L[ean] + LEG (=on, in cricketing terms) + ALLY (supporter). | ||
| 16 | PENDULUM | Indication of timing choice about to do for university (8) |
| PLUM (choice = the best) around END (do for = destroy) + U (university). | ||
| 18 | CONTAIN | Embrace ancient murderer, not upset internally (7) |
| CAIN (who murdered his brother Abel in Genesis 4), around an anagram (upset) of NOT. Embrace = include = contain. | ||
| 20 | GREIGE | Say I will have some work to pick up, offering nothing very colourful (6) |
| EG (say = for example) + I + ERG (scientific unit of work), all reversed (to pick up). Greyish-beige, so not at all colourful; Chambers tells me the word comes from the French for “raw undyed fabric” rather than the obvious amalgam of two colours, but if so it’s a neat coincidence. | ||
| 22 | SMELL | Detect nothing missing from a selection of lines (5) |
| SOME (a selection of) + LL (lines), with O (nothing) missing. | ||
| 24 | OVEN | What’s very involved in one’s cooking? (4) |
| V (very) in an anagram (cooking) of ONE. And a neat &lit (clue-as-definition). |
One of Phi’s better offerings imho. EGRESS getting a good outing today too! Two new words for me as well but, as Quirister says, eminently gettable from the wordplay.
Something about Phi having the regular Friday slot (rare exceptions noted) somehow leaves me less enthused about crosswordland on Fridays. hard to explain, but for some reason I prefer the ‘who will it be?’ ‘is there going to be a Nina/theme?’ that other days provide.
Thanks to setter and blogger
Stuck on the crossing LOVELIGHT and GREIGE, both unknown, at the end, which I entered in hope from the wordplay. The latter seemed like an invented word, so I’m surprised to hear it comes from the French.
BONEHEAD is a good term and PASTICHEUR, well, at least makes sense, even if I never come across it again for the rest of my life. OVEN was a v. nice &lit.
Theme? Who knows.
Thanks to Phi (Fridays aren’t the same without you) and Quirister
Not my favourite puzzle from Phi but perhaps I was just a bit grumpy about the three obscure (to me) words and the indirect anagram.
15d took the honours here.
Thanks and apologies to Phi and thanks to Quirister for the blog.
Thanks Phi and Quirister
I wasn’t over-fond of ‘treatment’ = ‘cure’ (there are treatments for cancer, but no cure), but they are given as equivalents in Chambers Thesaurus, so I guess I’m on dodgy ground.
Simon @4: I agree, though there have always been people selling “cures” that are at best treatments (and often less than that).
Chambers does give “money” for “M”, but I can’t think of an example or context. Please lighten my darkness.
M = money is an abbreviation in economics meaning Money Supply, with various constituents (eg cash, banl deposits etc) which change between M0, M1, M2 and so on. It’s been around since at least the 1960s.
Thanks – I’ve always avoided the dismal science.
Thanks to Quirister and Phi
Some nice clues, but what on earth is WILL doing in 20d? And I can look at the lower end of my grandfather clock for as long as I like, but will give me absolutely no indication of the time.
None of this, of course, is sour grapes because I confidently had NOSE @24d, which prevented me getting LOVELIGHT and INCLEMENCY for longer than I care to remember.
I still think NOSE is a perfectly valid answer, but perhaps that was the setter’s intended misdirection. Sneaky.
Dansar, some setters (and perhaps Phi is one of them) are convinced that, in this case, “say I” should be seen as one thing within the wordplay, needing the singular form of a verb. If that is so, Phi does it right here. On the other hand, there are also setters who see “say I” as an ‘expression’ consisting of two building stones which therefore needs the plural form of a verb and, yes, then we don’t need ‘will’. I actually had discussions about this with some well-known setters and, in the end, it led me to conclude that both are acceptable, although many prefer what Phi does here. By the way, this ‘issue’ is not new and regularly creeps up when setters choose words to indicate a ‘hidden answer’.
Dansar @ 9
Why are looking for an indication of time? The clue clearly says “Indication of timing”. A pendulum works like a metronome (or vice versa), indicating timing / tempo / rhythm.