No Phi today, maybe he’ll feature on Saturday this week. Instead what I found quite a tough puzzle from Morph esp SE corner. I failed on 24 across, which I understand now having looked at the Indy website. Time at the puzzle, 50 mins or so.
The unusual top row caught my eye before I even began to solve, now that I’m finished it could be a homophone of SO FAREWELL, looked at the bottom row then which reads MOOR FAWN USE, but that means nothing to me. I’m sure others will explain if I’ve missed something and also one where I do not see the wordplay. Some excellent clues as noted in the blog.
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
1 SEW “sow”
3 FAIR off air less of
6 WE’LL I liked this source = well collective will = we will
10 THE REIN
11 PALER M.O. Another one I liked a lot.
12 NOODLES (One sold)*
13 THE CLUB (belt chu)* ie pregnant
14 NATIONAL SERVICE c in (version in a late)*
15 STAND-UP COMEDIAN (medic on a)*
20 ‘AVOC ADO My favourite clue
21 EARACHE Cryptic definition
22 DUETTED (étude td)* second étude has odd letters removed
23 MA’S ONE D
24 MOOR motor less t
25 FAWN Initial letters
26 USE “Expl0it Eurosceptic nightmare in short” When first looking at this clue, I thought of ‘use’ from ‘exploit’ and so it turned out, but I don’t understand the rest.
DOWN
1 SIT ON ONE’S HANDS
2 WEED OUT “wee doubt”
4 AM NES (Sen)< IrAq (odd letters)
5 RE PUTES (set up)<
6 WELL-EARNED REST (Re all-new desert)* and pun on ‘well’
7 LORELEI Cryptic definition From German legend, familiar to solvers, this was a fresh approach to clueing it.
8 FEEL-GOOD FACTOR glee< in food
9 DOUB (LE EN)TENDRE (rude to bend)* Took me ages to understand the wordplay, being distracted by tend = nurse
16 AT ONE (atone) GO
17 PR (OUD) OF duo<
18 OVERMOW Cryptic definition
19 IN CONN U As Yale is a Conn (Connecticut) University (U), I think
The Nina was a homophone for So Farewell More 4 News, which is going (has gone?) off air, much to the sadness of our setter who worked a s a producer for it ( Mr Morph Ore Gnus). Not as hard as I expected it to be.
Hi nmsindy
I think [it took a while!] 24ac is United States of Europe’.
I loved 13ac and 9dn, once I got it – like you, I was diverted by tend = nurse.
Thanks nms. I too couldn’t get my last one, 24 ac, but it’s a very clever misdirection. I think 26ac may allude to a possible United States of Europe, giving USE. Nice range of clues, I thought, but I didn’t spot the Nina (and not sure I would have understood it even if I had).
I liked AVOCADO as well.
Catherine’s mum, you beat me to it …
A very nice puzzle. I suspected there might be some message going on in the top and bottom rows, though I fell short on WELL and MOOR and didn’t even know More 4 had a news programme, so I was never going to get it. Enjoyed 13A and 15A a lot.
Phi tomorrow then!
I used to watch C4 news and they always had a plug for More 4 news at the end, but I was hardly going to sit through another news programme, so didn’t watch it.
I found this very difficult but extremely satisfying to finish. 13 across was the last one I got, mainly because I’d convinced myself it must be “the flab”. Moor took a lot of getting as well.
A really enjoyable Morph; not as tough as some of his. Being a provincial and speaking likewise, I couldn’t get past the top line of the nina, so thanks for the explanation. Did anyone actually watch MawFaw, except of course last night when Larry David cocked up his own hilarious farewell? MOOR stumped me completely, even when I ‘revealed’ it – brilliant. USE could just be: Us? Europeans?
Cheers for blog and comments – United States of Europe is right.
More4 News had an everage of 50,000 viewers, so there may be a little overlap with Indy crossword solvers, but who knows? It was during my stint on More4 that Morph was born – hence the name – so there’s a link in my mind if nowhere else!
Got about 7 clues.Could have looked at it till next Christmas and still not got anymore.However God bless anagrams as I usually get them! A Christmas present would be to finish one!