I’ve done it again. After forgetting a few months ago I forgot again, and only remembered at nearly midday, not helped by the fact that I had taken ages to do this morning’s Times, So it’s all been done in a bit of a rush and no doubt there are various typos etc. My apologies. It really mustn’t happen any more.
Fortunately for me it was a fairly gentle Phi, with so far as I could see a whole lot of very nice sound clues.
Defnitions in lightseagreen, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
Certainly at a quick glance I can’t see a theme, but quite apart from my usual inability to see such things, today has made it particularly unlikely. But I’m sure someone will see something.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MOUNT ST HELENS | Huntsmen lost while wandering round Eastern volcano (5,2,6) |
| (Huntsmen lost)* round E | ||
| 8 | POSTDOC | Job cut not entirely doing for researcher (7) |
| post doc{k} — ‘doing for’ a link | ||
| 9 | BESTIAL | Brutal defeat – front of face scratched (7) |
| best {d}ial | ||
| 10 | SPEAR | Weapon brand seeing investment by Prince (5) |
| s(P)ear | ||
| 11 | LEGUME | Pea-plant and tree in shelter (6) |
| le(gum)e | ||
| 14 | RHINOS | More than one large animal represented in horse? Not entirely (6) |
| *(in hors{e}) | ||
| 15 | CAMPSITE | Make reference to having quantity of current flowing through holiday spot (8) |
| c(amps)ite | ||
| 18 | MOUNTAIN | Horse active in elevated region (8) |
| mount a in | ||
| 19 | SPIGOT | Brewery tap, with drunk embracing someone guzzling (6) |
| s(pig)ot | ||
| 21 | SCAMPI | Seafood racket attracting detective (6) |
| scam PI — Private Investigator | ||
| 23 | EXILE | European story, probed by Times, backing person living elsewhere (5) |
| (E li(x)e) rev. | ||
| 26 | PRAIRIE | Is inquisitive mostly about attitude in central American region? (7) |
| pr(air)ie{s} — I suppose there’s a question mark so that Phi isn’t accused of having a Definition by Example, there being prairies in other regiona as well. But it’s arguably unnecessary. | ||
| 27 | VIOLATE | Abuse Stradivarius, perhaps, and trombone’s case (7) |
| viola t{rombon}e | ||
| 28 | DINNER SERVICE | Material for courses beginning to detail less visible military force (6,7) |
| d{etail} inner service — the courses are food courses | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MYSTERIOUS | Your items getting rearranged by poltergeists ultimately? Very curious (10) |
| (Your items)* {poltergeist}s | ||
| 2 | UNDERFOOT | Ruled by France excessively, after uprising at ground level (9) |
| under F (too)rev. | ||
| 3 | TACKLE | Try raising two different types of mammal (6) |
| (elk cat)rev, | ||
| 4 | TOBOGGAN | Got upset about facilities on a new downhill ride (8) |
| (got)rev. round bog, then a n — lavatorial facilities | ||
| 5 | EPSOM | Surrey town records acknowledgement of merit (5) |
| EPs OM — Order of Merit | ||
| 6 | EVIL | Be upstanding? Wrong (4) |
| (live)rev. | ||
| 7 | SOLO | Aria, say, very much for bass? Not quite (4) |
| so lo{w} | ||
| 8 | PASTRAMI | Former source of mutton I perceived as form of beef (8) |
| past ram I — the source of mutton is a ram, not m{utton}, as I thought for a while | ||
| 12 | PILGRIMAGE | Resolute, 20, going through fortune to make significant journey (10) |
| pil(grim Ag)e — 20dn being SILVER or Ag | ||
| 13 | AESTHETE | Art lover worried about moving these (8) |
| ate round *(these) — but an art lover is only one type of aesthete, so if Phi is going to use question marks in such circumstances why does he not use one here, although he uses one in 26ac? | ||
| 16 | PEPPERONI | Energy in old salesperson after elevating sausage (9) |
| pep (in o rep)rev. | ||
| 17 | FIRMNESS | Determination shown by Marine aboard excellent vessel (8) |
| fi(RM)ne SS | ||
| 20 | SILVER | Metal shard I moved forward (6) |
| sliver with its i moved to the left | ||
| 22 | CIRCE | Sorceress left out of magic group? (5) |
| Circ{l)e — the Magic Circle | ||
| 24 | SPUD | Dig succeeded, turning up bit of debris (4) |
| s (up)rev. d{ebris} — why a spud is a dig I’m not quite sure: something you dig up? Now I am sure, after looking it up in Chambers: a spud is a little tool for digging, and to spud is to dig with a spud. | ||
| 25 | GAIN | Obtain article in spirit (4) |
| g(a)in | ||
Lovely crossword with nice surface constructions. The existence, or otherwise, of question marks in clues never bothers me but perhaps it should. Didn’t see a theme though I couldn’t help noticing, whilst solving, that 6 of the solutions contain ST. Hardly a theme but with the first 3 having this it kind of leapt out at me. Thanks to Phi and John.
I’d agree with John that this was gentle and with Hovis that the surfaces were enjoyable. No discernible theme – five food items and something with which to eat them but I suspect that’s coincidence. SPUD totally defeated me: I was looking for a three letter word meaning dig with an ‘s’ for succeeded following, the whole thing to then be turned to give me a four letter bit of debris. Thanks for parsing that one and introducing me to a new word. I shall be spudding with a spud amongst my spuds on the allotment tomorrow.
Thanks Phi and John
This one defeated me. SPUD, although considered still didn’t register. I also spent far too long trying to fit a reversed TROP into 2d for ‘France excessively’, even the crossers worked!
I’d entered MOUNTAIN anyway but couldn’t and still don’t see how ‘A’ = active. I daresay google would tell me.
Otherwise a good workout with some clever clues.
Thanks Phi and John
We found this very accessible. SPUD we vaguely remembered as a digging tool, and Chambers confirmed the verb form. We may be barking up the wrong tree but there might be a food theme; as well as SPUD (in its more common meaning) there’s PEPPERONI, SCAMPI and PASTRAMI as well as LEGUME – and we suppose they might be dished up in a DINNER SERVICE.
Plenty to like but no real CoD for us.
Thanks, Phi and John.
Googled SPUD to check it, even though the parsing confirmed it for me. I’d had expected (4-3) rather than (7) for 8a, but that would have made it too obvious.
Thanks to Phi and John.
Don’t normally like clues that rely on other clues… but i was struggling with sliver/silver until 12d sank in.. you beauty! Geddin..
thanks Phi nJohn
There is a theme which I expected only Dormouse to be in with a chance of getting, and he hasn’t shown up yet…
1ac and 1dn were my first ones in which tipped me off as to the theme, so I was looking for the MOUNTAIN. But the only other name I could think off was Majnun. Checking Wikipedia I see EXILE and SILVER PILGRIMAGE, which I didn’t know.
I think the theme is the symphonies of the American composer Alan Hovhannes (1911-2000) a long-time favourite of mine. He wrote 67 of them, so I don’t know them all. I re-listened to his Mount St Helens symphony this year on the 40th anniversary of the eruption. He was living in nearby Seattle at the time and he depicts the eruption in the music.
24dn defeated me, too.
Mount St Helens made me think of Hovhaness too, but I didn’t recognise any of the other titles. The only other symphony of his I know is City of Light, and that wasn’t in the grid. [Two of his symphonies are quite enough for me – though the erupting volcano movement is quite impressive, I grant!]