[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
As ever, we have a puzzle from Phi on a Friday.
A good crossword today, even with a few words that are not that common in everyday vocabulary. QUIETUS (11a) was completely new to me and I don’t use TERNARY (8a), FURBISH (22a), HOBBLEDEHOY (10d) or RUCKUS (18d) that often, although I have come across all of last four at some time.
Phi often fills his grid with words from lesser known literary or artistic works,. I found a website dedicated to a review called THE QUIETUS which includes references to books and music that included books or albums with the words ANTIQUARIAN, STARFISH and HOBBLEDEHOY in their titles, so there may be a theme here.
I usually look for a pangram. in grids. I didn’t find one (no X or Z) but I did notice that there were no entries ending in ING in the grid, something that doesn’t happen that often.
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 7 | Edited topical item – Saving Energy – led by car offering computer control (9,5) |
AUTO (automobile; car) + an anagram of (edited) TOPICAL IT AUTO MATIC PILOT* |
AUTOMATIC PILOT (a computer controlled system which can be set to guide and control an aircraft or a ship on a chosen course) |
| 8 | Looking unhappy about navy at third level (7) |
TEARY (shedding a few TEARs; looking unhappy) containing (about) RN (Royal Navy) TE (RN) ARY |
TERNARY (of a third order or level) |
| 9 | English explorer not entirely fair about booze (7) |
RIGH R (ALE) IGH |
RALEIGH (reference Sir Walter RALEIGH [1552 – 1618], English explorer) |
| 11 | Extinction? Mostly ask questions of the French and America (7) |
QUI QUI ET US |
QUIETUS (discharge from life; extinction, death) |
| 13 | Cooler to attack supporters? (3,4) |
FAN (cooler) + CLUB (beat; attack) FAN CLUB |
FAN CLUB (supporters) |
| 14 | Remains in party after leader goes (3) |
ASH |
ASH (remains) |
| 15 | Duke leading crowd right to the end? He has no serious intent (7) |
D (duke) + RABBLE (crowd) with R (right) being moved the last position (right to the end) to form ABBLER D ABBLER |
DABBLER (one who does things in a trifling or small way; he has no serious intent) |
| 16 | Pass on, leaving item of punctuation (3) |
COL COL |
COL (mountain pass) |
| 17 | Fellow from Fair Isle, possibly – or fellow from Middle East (7) |
Anagram of (possibly) ISRAELI* |
ISRAELI (person from the Middle East) |
| 19 | Vote in favour to split period of financial reporting? (4-3) |
YEA (a vote in favour) + REND (split) YEA R END |
YEAR END (business report their financial position at their fiscal YEAR END) |
| 21 | Knight, embraced by niece, getting disordered item of apparel (7) |
KT (knight) contained in (embraced by) an anagram of (getting disordered) NIECE NEC (KT) IE* |
NECKTIE (item of apparel) |
| 22 | Hide error in repair? (7) |
FUR (animal’s skin; hide) + BISH (blunder; error) FUR BISH |
FURBISH (renovate; repair) |
| 23 | "Fact is, if you set out … well, there’s nothing to add" (7,2,2,3) |
Anagram of (out) FACT IS IF YOU SET SUFFICE IT TO SAY* |
SUFFICE IT TO SAY (let it be enough to say; there’s nothing to add) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Marine creature, small, this far out (8) |
S (small) + an anagram of (out) THIS FAR S TARFISH* |
STARFISH (marine creature) |
| 2 | Tell Independent politician to get skill (6) |
I (independent) + MP (Member of Parliament; politician) + ART (skill) I MP ART |
IMPART (relate; tell) |
| 3 | Messy location limiting a period in hotel (4) |
STY (pen for pigs; messy place) containing (limiting) A ST (A) Y |
STAY (period of time in a hotel for instance) |
| 4 | Soil surrounding grain farmed initially with contempt (10) |
SULLY (tarnish; soil) containing (surrounding) (CORN [grain ] + F [first letter of {initially} FARMED]) S (CORN F) ULLY |
SCORNFULLY (with contempt) |
| 5 | Pitman going round wrong purveyor of headgear (8) |
MINER (pitman) containing (going round) ILL (bad; wrong) M (ILL) INER |
MILLINER (person who makes or sells women’s headgear) |
| 6 | Judge old bottle capable of providing cheer (6) |
J (judge) + O (old) + VIAL (small bottle) J O VIAL |
JOVIAL (joyous; cheerful) |
| 7 | Collector and historian describing tanks containing moulded tin (11) |
AQUARIAN (descriptive of fish tanks) containing (containing) an anagram of (moulded) TIN A (NTI*) QUARIAN |
ANTIQUARIAN (person who studies, collects or deals in relics of the past, but not usually very ancient things; collector and historian) |
| 10 | Awlward youngster guided to follow books found in garden and on ship (11) |
([BB {books} + LED {guide}] contained in [found in] HOE [garden]) + HOY ( large one-decked boat; ship) HO (BB LED) E HOY |
HOBBLEDEHOY (awkward youth) |
| 12 | Collapse in membership fees? I study sources of club expenditure (10) |
SUBS (subscriptions; membership fees) + I + DEN + CE (first letters of [sources of] CLUB and EXPENDITURE) SUBS I DEN CE |
SUBSIDENCE (collapse) |
| 15 | A shade hard, ultimately? Certainly difficult, we hear (8) |
D (final letter of [ultimately] HARD) + YES (certainly) + TUFF (sounds like [we hear] TOUGH [difficult]) D YES TUFF |
DYESTUFF (substance used in dyeing to create a colour or shade) |
| 16 | Champion sweet I distributed – most like toffee (8) |
CH (champion) + an anagram of (distributed) SWEET I CH EWIEST* |
CHEWIEST (softest and stickiest; most like toffee) |
| 18 | Scrum getting our side in uproar (6) |
RUCK (scrum) + US (our side) RUCK US |
RUCKUS (disturbance; uproar) |
| 20 | Get agitated time after time in A&E (6) |
(ERA [period of time; an age; a time] + T [time], showing time after time) contained in (A + [and] E) A (ERA T) E |
AERATE (get agitated) |
| 22 | Lose it, following cheeky comments (4) |
F (following) + LIP (cheeky comments) F LIP |
FLIP (lose one’s temper; lose it) |
This was one of my fastest ever solves for a Phi.
QUIETUS was new to me. Wasn’t sure of the spelling for HOBBLEDEHOY but the clueing made it clear it was an E before HOY. The word ISRAELI occurs quite often as a solution, usually from (D)ISRAELI so the clue for 17a was a refreshing change and was my favourite today.
Thanks to Phi and Duncan.
Top half went in very quickly. FLIP and FURBISH were my last two in. Didn’t know the words HOY and BISH, and never spotted the theme.
I flipped or flopped on FLIP. Otherwise OK
A DNF for me as I couldn’t see 22A/D. What is it about SE corners? Most struggles and DNFs occur there for me lately. At 15D I thought ‘A shade’ as the definition for ‘dyestuff’ was peculiar, unless I’m missing something. Fine otherwise, so thanks Phi and Duncan.
A pretty quick solve, like Hovis, – but slowed down in the SE and defeated by FURBISH like Tatrasman. Bish is new to me as, to be honest, is the entire solution and I ended up with an unparsed Furnish. I thought QUIETUS very cunningly clued, STARFISH is a lovely anagram and likewise ISRAELI, AERATE misled for a while (“surely era can’t follow an a. Oh yes it can), SUFFICE IT TO SAY has a nice mixture of clever anagram and relevant surface and COL is just brilliant.
As a rugby fan, I wondered about ruck=scrum but see it is defined as ‘a loose scrum’ so that’s fine. As a bit of a pedant, I wonder about YEAR END as a period. To my mind it marks the end of a period, be it financial year, calendar year, quarter or whatever.
The theme, needless to say, escaped me completely. Phi may have inside knowledge regarding a commenter’s particular interests: I recall a recent theme dedicated to a US composer admired by a poster on here.
Thanks to Phi and Duncan for the detailed blog.
No theme today – just slotting in an accumulation of interesting words. QUIETUS, of course, pops up as one of the “not to be” options in a certain well-known soliloquy.
Phi & Duncan: given the ‘inadvertent’ identification of a possible theme, one amusing characteristic of the Guardian blogs are the regular references spotted by some posters to songs/lyrics by popular beat combo Half Man Half Biscuit. It seems that, if one takes a selection of the slightly more exotic solutions and insert them into a search engine, the one denominator that might connect them is a HMHB song! Seems that’s what’s happened here with The Quietus.
PostMark@7
You have described exactly what I did. The review of the album Starfish referenced an Antipodean music group, so I thought that fits with Phi’s location. It’s ironic that I usually never spot Phi’s themes, but when I think I have one, it’s just a coincidence!
yes that SE corner blues again… I’ve always used FURBISH in the sense of getting things in order the first time round and reFURBISH for a more repairy feel to it – but i was miles away looking for another word for conceal rather than skin so i was unsurprisingly unsuccessful… can’t blame Phi for that…. oh wait a minute! that’s his whole purpose in life!
thanks to Phi and Duncansheill
A fairly quick solve with no words that we didn’t know (although it took a few moments to remember some of them and we too had FLIP and FURBISH as our last ones in). QUIETUS, STARFISH and JOVIAL were our favourites. Thanks, Phi and Duncan.
PostMark@8: Although Chambers marks ‘end’ for ‘period’ as ‘rare’ that meaning was probably more common in earlier times – there’s a 16th century poem Thule, the Period of Cosmography where Thule is thought to refer to Iceland and the period of cosmography means the limit (end) of the known world. Chambers also has ‘period’ as a verb used by Shakespeare meaning ‘to put an end to’. And ‘period’ is also used to mean ‘full stop’.
allan_c @10: that’s a good point. I hadn’t looked at it that way and, if that’s what the setter intended, it’s a cunning misdirect. I’m not 100% convinced tbh – it does require some mangling of the wordplay over and above that given by Duncan.
QUIETUS and TERNARY were new words to me. Otherwise a steady enjoyable solve.
Thanks to Phi and Duncanshiell