It’s Phi-day again!
Another puzzle from our regular Friday setter with the expected smooth surfaces and a good variety of wordplay.
We searched for a possible theme in the completed grid, but we can’t see anything obvious. Is there a connection between 9ac, 10ac, and 17d? Or maybe something centred on 4d? Perhaps Phi will drop in later and enlighten us.
We hadn’t come across the river at 5ac and didn’t know the oratorio at 4d, but the wordplay was clear and we’ve learnt something new!
CU (copper) PAL (friend) round or ‘nabbing’ F (fellow) IN
Hidden in (‘passing through’) UkraiNE VAguely – we had ‘vaguely’ heard of this river – it was obvious when we had the crossing letters, but we had to check it all the same – it flows from Lake Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland at St Petersburg
KNIGHt (man of honour) without the last letter or ‘mostly’ round or ‘receiving’ HEEd (attention) without the last letter or ‘a lot of’ reversed or ‘being pushed over’
GOEs (attempts) without the last letter or ‘unfinished’ + THE (article)
L (left) US (America) ‘going’ round CA (California) – a reference to George Lucas, director and producer of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ films, amongst others
AL (Al Capone, the gangster) + an anagram (‘unusually’) of WEALTHY
MOOCH (skulk) round N (northern) + ROME (Italian city)
An anagram (‘sadly’) of ERGO with the last letter missing or ‘endless’ and CONCEIt without the last letter or ‘endless’ Thanks Hovis
R (last or ‘final’ letter of retailer) ‘brought into’ STOCKPOT (kitchen item)
pITY (compassion) without the first letter or ‘no opening’ round or ‘keeping’ CH (church)
BOY (exclamation, as in ‘Oh boy!’) round lUNCh (middle letters or ‘core component’)
I’M (setter’s) PRO (supporting) PER (person)
DUKe (nobleman) without the last letter or ‘cut’ round S (square). Thanks Hovis – predictive text error and Joyce not checking the blog!
JET (plane) + NO SIT (place) reversed or ‘going backwards’
A despairing defence counsel in a trial may want to CON a JUROR
AD (advertisement) reversed or ‘up’ and ‘held’ in an anagram (‘dreadful’) of REPORT – a reference to the science fiction film franchise
Hidden (‘not entirely’) in faIRISh
An anagram (‘that’s peculiar’) of I CLAIM FOR THE DUO – as our knowledge of classical music is very thin, we had to get this from the anagram fodder with most of the crossing letters in – a check reveals that it is an Oratorio by Michael Tippett, composed between 1939 and 1941
E (energy) LEaVEN (source of change) without or ‘bypassing’ the ‘a’
ASH (remains) RAM (member of flock)
GEN (information) round an anagram (‘misbehaving’) of STEVE
L (Liberal) PEER (legislator) reversed or ‘upset’ ‘wrapped’ in THY (old word for ‘your’) – apparently some wool has three strands
STATS (numerical data) round I (one) ON (working)
E (last letter or ‘ending’ of rule) + an anagram (‘riots’) of EG IN THE
AT WOO (court) D (last or ‘final’ letter of exonerated) – a reference to Margaret Atwood, poet and author of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ among many others
S (small) CONES (‘servings of ice cream’)
TOPS (first) reversed or ‘upset’
I thought there was a football theme with ELEVEN , CUPFINAL and STOCKPORT [rare mention of Stockport and Cup Final in the same place, before anyone complains I’ve lived in Stockport for 25 years so I think I can get away with this!]
DNF as ever but once I’d eventually got the Oratoria from a few of the crossers and some pretty brute force anagramming and final google to help me out I found most of this do-able with clear clues
JETTISON and CONJUROR my favourites
Thanks a lot Phi and thanks to Bertandjoyce for making sense of it all
In 16a, it is ERGO that is endless. In 24a, “theist” -> “the last”.
An enjoyable solve but I’m not sure about the tense in 9d. Seems like it should be “Avenges”. Sure someone will convince me otherwise.
Thanks Hovis – blog corrected.
On the easy side for Phi, I thought, but no less enjoyable for that, with some great anagrams. I’ll add into the football mix that Stockport County are favourites for promotion from the National League next season. Could Phi be a diasporal supporter? Thanks Phi and B&J.
There is something numerical going on.
Hovis @2 I’d given it no thought until now, but I think it works if it’s “Is Avenged”
“She awaits the day that she is avenged”=“She awaits the day she gets even” but only if you use “is” for “will be” – in my head at least, [ I’m a product of 80s Comprehensive Education where grammar was barely covered so I couldn’t start to tell you what tense this is! ]
How about “Goethe is avenged/gets even by beating Lucas in the cup final”
Thanks to Phi and Bertandjoyce
Thanks to Phi’s help I can see numbers in words – One in Scones, Two in Atwood etc, however I can’t find them all so maybe something else I’m missing
I, too, found this one reasonably approachable and have failed to find any connections. Yes, the football idea was there from the very beginning and I thought Phi was being topical and looking ahead to the weekend. I also considered the (worryingly wide) possibility of a film theme with LUCAS, MONOCHROME, PREDATOR, ELEVEN (but then came no OCEAN). I’ve glanced through Margaret ATWOOD’s oeuvre but no novels or poems about CONJUROR’s or GOETHE so we’ll have to wait on the setter. I’m aligned with Tombsy on favourites – JETTISON and CONJUROR.
Thanks Phi and B&J.
Four in Child o(f Our)Time but, like, Tombsy (again), I can’t see others. Or anything significant in either 1811 or 1118. We’ve just been told to keep the comment numbers down (not usually a problem on the Indy page) but I can us eking out a theme post by post here!
Tombsy @6 That sort of works for me. Not so convinced by @8, I would write ‘is avenged/got even…’.
Beaten by a Phi theme yet again. I see aTWOod, THREE-ply, a child oF OUR times, ELEVEN, EIGHTEEN. In a more general sense of numbers, we have IMPROPER fractions and gets EVEN.
Also Seven in GETSEVEN
I’ve even tried today’s date as an improper fraction but that gives 1.2857 so I’m just going to wait and be amazed by someone more clever than me!
All The Way is a number that Frank sung!
Thanks Phi for your consistency
A while back I gave you the Fibonacci numbers(1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21). I thought it might be fun to try their near relatives, the Lucas numbers: 2,1,3,4,7,11,18.
I dare say 3,1,4,5,9,14 has a name, but I haven’t found it yet.
Excellent as ever Phi thanks again
Thanks to Phi for dropping by and to all the commenters who have helped reveal the details of the theme.
Phi – for us sad folks who take an interest in these things the sequence 3,
1, 4, 5 etc. is better known as A104449.
See the online encyclopedia of integer sequences. OEIS.
Thanks for your latest number ?
Forgot to mention that they used to be called the Pibonacci numbers.
This went in quickly, although I didn’t spot the theme. But 4dn went straight in almost immediately. A favourite work for me. Even saw Tippett conduct it once.
I was aware of the vast number of numerical sequences that have been catalogued like galaxies. I was rather hoping for something more like Smith or Jones.
As for the oratorio, I attended the fiftieth anniversary performance, at the original venue, with Tippett, by then in his late eighties, waving cheerfully from a box.
I bunged in an unparsed Johnny (rubber) from the crossers at 22a.