Phi’s regular Friday challenge. He’s given us quite a few of these over the years, hasn’t he?
Phi usualy has some sort of theme or hidden message in his grids. The solution at 2d reminded me to look for one (regulars here will know that a Nina is a hidden message in the completed grid), but I promptly forgot about it until I’d finished the puzzle. I then saw the point of the lovely self-referential clue at 7a. If you haven’t seen it yet, start at the top left-hand corner and work clockwise round the edge of the grid: Phi is telling us just how many puzzles he’s given us. Congratulations and thanks to Phi, and here’s to many more!
Some great clues here: as well as 7a already mentioned, I liked 27a (simple but effective), 13d (great surface, perhaps suggesting croquet or something similar?) and 15d (another great surface).
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | HELIOGRAPH |
This signals puzzling galore with Phi – source of happiness? (10)
|
| Anagram (puzzling) of GALORE + PHI + first letter (source) of H[appiness].
Signalling system using sunlight reflected from a mirror. |
||
| 9 | ECRU |
Last of wine provided by vineyard has dull colour (4)
|
| Last letter of [win]E + CRU (winemaking term for a vineyard, from the French verb for “to grow”).
The colour of unbleached linen. |
||
| 10 | TOGA |
Understood reversed article to be ancient dress (4)
|
| GOT (understood: get as in “I get it”), reversed, then A (the indefinite article).
Dress in the sense of clothing generally: a Roman cloak. |
||
| 11 | STUPENDOUS |
Sound upset, drunk, staggering (10)
|
| Anagram (drunk) of SOUND UPSET. | ||
| 12 | DEARIE ME |
Mostly distribute soldiers around one? That sounds bad (6,2)
|
| DEA[l] (distribute, as in playing cards; mostly = last letter dropped), then REME (Army engineering corps = soldiers) around I (one in Roman numerals).
Dearie me = an expression of sympathy, concern, or disappointment. |
||
| 14 | HALLOA |
Enquiring cry? There’s nothing in the first room (6)
|
| O (zero = nothing) in HALL A (which might be the first of a series of rooms, followed by Hall B, Hall C . . .).
A variation of “hello”, but more of a shout meaning “is anyone there?”; also a call to attract the attention of hunting hounds. |
||
| 16 | MANGLE |
Badly convey Mike’s opinion (6)
|
| M (Mike in the radio alphabet) + ANGLE (point of view = opinion).
Mangle = to mispronounce or misrepresent. |
||
| 17 | DELIUS |
British composer, mentally confused, abandoning carnival city (6)
|
| DELI[rio]US (mentally confused), abandoning RIO (Brazilian city known for its carnival).
Frederick Delius: considered a British composer because he was born in England, though his parents were German-Dutch and he spent most of his life in Europe. |
||
| 20 | ERECTS |
Sets up European clergy (not men) (6)
|
| E (European) + RECT[or]S (clergy) without the OR (other ranks = men = ordinary soldiers). | ||
| 22 | ANTIGUAN |
Island resident against weaponry is penning article (8)
|
| ANTI-GUN (against weaponry), containing (penning) A (the indefinite article). | ||
| 24 | RICHARDSON |
I scorn struggling to take in difficult English novelist (10)
|
| Anagram (struggling) of I SCORN, taking in HARD (difficult).
The novelist wasn’t familiar to me; I think Phi means Samuel Richardson, or possibly Dorothy Richardson. |
||
| 26 | DEED |
Wanted to dump man in fact (4)
|
| DE[sir]ED (wanted), without SIR (title for a man). This had me fooled for ages, because I kept thinking of DE[man][d]ED but couldn’t account for the extra D.
As in “indeed” = reality or action, as opposed to words or thoughts. |
||
| 27 | DAMP |
Power-crazed, facing setback in the rain? (4)
|
| “Power-crazed” separated into two words, P (power) and MAD (crazed), all reversed (facing setback). | ||
| 28 | PAPAL BRIEF |
Pressure if parable gets amended in religious document (5,5)
|
| Anagram (gets amended) of P (pressure) + IF PARABLE.
An official statement from the Pope. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | OENONE |
Person Paris no longer nurtured: old, English, with zero support? (6)
|
| O (old) + E (English) + NONE (zero). “Support” indicates that NONE is at the bottom (in a down clue), with the OE above it.
In Greek mythology, Oenone was the first wife of Paris, before he ran off with Helen and started the Trojan War. |
||
| 2 | NINA |
Girl’s name partly hidden, in actuality (4)
|
| Hidden answer (partly) in [hidde]N IN A[ctuality]. | ||
| 3 | EGGSHELL |
Obstacle to soldiers encourages uproar (8)
|
| EGGS (more usually “eggs on” = encourages) + HELL (uproar, as in “all hell broke loose”).
A somewhat quirky definition, as in “boiled eggs and soldiers” = strips of toast dipped into a soft-boiled egg in the shell. |
||
| 4 | THRESH |
Bit of racket in the silence indicating work on farm? (6)
|
| First letter (a bit) of R[acket], in THE + SH (sh! = silence! = a command to be quiet).
To separate grain from straw after harvesting. |
||
| 5 | HEAD |
Important teacher picked up dismissing component of education (4)
|
| HEA[r]D (picked up), dismissing R which could be one of the “three Rs” of basic education (reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic).
Head = head teacher = school principal. |
||
| 6 | ORDUROUS |
Dour, sour, nasty – like excrement? (8)
|
| Anagram (nasty) of DOUR SOUR.
Adjective from “ordure” = excrement. |
||
| 8 | ACUMEN |
University in peak position: new perception (6)
|
| U (university) inserted into ACME (peak = highest point) + N (new).
Acumen = insight or good judgement. |
||
| 13 | RUNIC |
Sport, mostly pleasant, involving curious old characters? (5)
|
| RU (Rugby Union = sport) + NIC[e] (pleasant; mostly = last letter dropped).
Relating to runes = old alphabets used in Northern Europe before the adoption of modern Latin characters. |
||
| 15 | LYING |
Banking not about to be providing dodgy data? (5)
|
| [re]LYING (banking, as in “banking on” = depending on), without RE (about). | ||
| 16 | MARZIPAN |
Artist capturing energy in fellow – it’s nutty but sweet (8)
|
| RA (Royal Academician = artist) containing (capturing) ZIP (energy), all contained in MAN (fellow).
Confection made from (mainly) ground almonds and sugar. |
||
| 18 | ENTANGLE |
Embroil knight in elegant twists (8)
|
| N (knight in chess notation, because K represents king) in an anagram (twists) of ELEGANT. | ||
| 19 | CATSUP |
Perhaps Tom’s finished the sauce (6)
|
| CAT’S (perhaps tom’s; tom = male cat) + UP (finished, as in “time’s up”).
Variant (mainly US) of the word “ketchup”. |
||
| 21 | SERAPH |
Fellow’s upset about rebuke for heavenly figure (6)
|
| HE’S (fellow’s), reversed (upset = reading upwards in a down clue), containing (about) RAP (rebuke). | ||
| 23 | ALEXEI |
Name of Russian beer that is picked up after a kiss (6)
|
| ALE (historically not quite the same as beer, but the terms now seem to be interchangeable), then IE (i.e. = that is) reversed (picked up) after X (representation of a kiss at the end of a message). | ||
| 25 | HAPU |
Maori group heads for Hamilton and Auckland, having turned up (4)
|
| First letters (heads) of H[amilton] and A[uckland], then UP reversed (turned).
Maori word for a clan = a group of extended families. |
||
| 26 | DERV |
Fuel used in older vehicles (4)
|
| Hidden answer (used in) from [ol]DER V[ehicles].
Vehicle fuel: it’s short for Diesel-Engined Road Vehicle fuel, to distinguish it from diesel fuel for farm machinery and other off-road uses (which is taxed at a lower rate). |
Always enjoy a Phi and, on occasions, he produces a puzzle that hits all the right buttons for me – and this was one of those. Brilliant! The unusual A at the end of 14a made me suspect a peripheral nina but left looking for it until near completion. Helped me get HEAD (was contemplating “need” for a while).
Congrats to Phi for the info in the nina, not to mention the not-so hidden nina at 2d.
My favourites were 3d & 4d. Left 1d until I had all the crossers and then checked OENONE was a character. Didn’t ring any bells with me. HAPU was another unknown.
For once, spotted both Ninas and wondered how many puzzles Phi might have produced so pleased to see it confirmed by our blogger. (Research didn’t throw that solution my way but I did discover it’s the 1,500th birthday of St Columba, jockey Edwin Gonzalez rode his 1,500th winner in Florida and the Quantock Brewery in Somerset has celebrated it’s 1,500th brew of the Milestone 1500 limited edition ale!)
Just as I was defeated by one letter in this morning’s G, so it was with Phi’s puzzle. I entered HALLOO instead of HALLOA and now see why the latter was correct – I rarely spot that particular device. I clumsily concatenated Hall which is the first room entered in a house with two zeros somehow indicating the nothing but leaving ‘in’ unresolved. Bah!
Always a pleasure to be able to get unknown words from accurate clueing and so it was with OENONE, HAPU, CATSUP, ORDUROUS and PAPAL BRIEF (rather than the better known Papal Bull). Also nice to find myself in synch with the setter’s mind for once spotting the devices in DELIUS, LYING, HEAD and DEED. And wasn’t STUPENDOUS stupendous? Which two words were the anagram fodder and which one the indicator? I needed crossers to be confident.
Thanks Phi and Quirister
Congratulations Phi-calls for a magnum of something specially sparkling-as the puzzle was,
Here’s to many more!
Didn’t spot the nina, but congratulations and thanks to Phi for truly being a “source of happiness”.
Congratulations to Phi for your 1,500 puzzles. Too good for me today, as I missed both ACUMEN and ORDUROUS, but I was still able to spot the Nina. Excellent puzzle all round with some challenging clues and several uncommon and new words to ramp up the degree of difficulty.
Thanks to Quirister and thanks and congrats again to Phi
Congratz to Phi on a humongous milestone! 1500, eh? Phew! 🙂
Phi has been my Friday morning first cup of coffee companion for many years now, and I always finish his puzzles with a smile on my face. Well done to him on the milestone, and thanks to Quirister for blogging this latest one.
As Hoskins@6!! Bravo Phi!! I think my first Nina was in one of the 1500 ( again.. just WOW!).. n I was very happy to spot the first THOU n FIVE n HUN quite early on.. really speeded up the solve… delightful cluing.. I’d started to write ODOUROUS for 6dn before counting up the available Os… MARZIPAN probs my favourite due in part to a nearly controlled addiction…
Thanks and chapeau to Phi n to Quirister
What more can we add? Congratulations to Phi on achieving this milestone. And for once we spotted the nina early on which helped us finish. We had to confirm OENONE in Brewer and HAPU in Chambers but it was all straightforward and enjoyable although EGGSHELL elicited a groan.
Thanks, Phi and Quirister.
Tremendous achievement Phi, congratulations on week after week producing a really nice crossword, of which this was one of the best; and I wonder how many more there have been in other places.
My take on 15dn was that it was ‘laying’ without the a (which Chambers gives as an abbreviation for about), and the equivalence of laying with banking seemed thin, to say the least. So it was nice to see how it really worked.
Well, for a change, I did spot the Nina but the grid was mostly complete by then. It did help with a couple but not 1dn, which I didn’t know and I could see.
Congratulations Phi – a superb achievement. I do hope you are having a celebration today. We certainly raised our glass to you.
We were stuck on the LOI when Bert noticed the NINA which enabled us to complete the puzzle.
Thanks Quirister.
Well putting Nina in first certainly raised the internal alarm and quickly suspected one thousand something. Even with Tees being as prolific as he is I can’t see anyone getting close to phi ever. Thanks both.
1500 is amazing Phi congratulations!
My ‘scientific’ research tells me hangovers (following Pub Quiz Win) and cruciverbal success are not good bedfellows so required substantial assistance this morning.
From the ones I got I think ANTIGUAN was my favourite
Thanks a lot Phi and thanks Quirister for explaining many (especially EGGSHELL!)
Flashling @ 13: Roger Squires?
Thank you for your good wishes. I put the 1000th in the series up on my website last week, with a few hints about ten further years of weekly puzzles. To be honest, though I had this signalled in my ‘forthcoming anniversaries’ list from late last year, it still crept up on me, and the perimeter message was a relatively simple response. Certainly simpler than the one in the 1000th puzzle, which completely defeated the Independent’s website software (and probably still would).
If you’re keen on anniversaries, my 300th BBC Music Magazine puzzle appears in the September issue.
It’s Samuel Richardson I had in my mind (the first English novelist, according to some) – not so many famous Richardsons, I found. I was pleased to get a Maori word in, and CATS appeared, of course.
PS (to a comment that arrived while I was typing)
Roger S has probably done 1500 in more than one outlet! Certainly nowhere near his overall tally.
@Simon I meant on the Indy site although Paul B does most excepr the graun
Late to this one, but had to comment. What a stupendous achievement! I wondered how this compared with Roger S, I think Phi is being too modest.
We’re even later, but many congratulations to Phi on the achievement, and thanks for all the Friday morning headscratchers.
We laughed out loud at EGGSHELL.