Phi pops up on a Thursday this week – is there something special in store for us tomorrow?
A well-constructed themed puzzle from our regular Friday setter. As usual, smooth clues and good surfaces with no unusual words except for one of the themed entries, which was unknown to us. Unusually for Phi, the theme was not hidden – 5 down being the gateway clue, and no less than 9 individuals who may or may not be commemorated in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey fitted effortlessly into the grid.
It wasn’t until Joyce came along to check the blog and saw the colouring, that she realised that the Poet’s Corner probably refers to the SE corner of the grid and that the non-occupants were the entries elsewhere in the grid. Nothing to do with Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey! Bert wrote up the blog for today’s puzzle and it seems a shame to delete his research on who or who isn’t commemorated in Westminster Abbey.
Many thanks Phi and a Happy New Year to all.
T (tense) in or ‘concealed by’ DANE (Andersen is a fairly common Danish surname – Hans Christian probably the most famous) – Dante Alighieri, the Italian poet died in Ravenna and is not commemorated in Poets’ Corner (5d) in Westminster Abbey
LIP (brass, as in cheekiness) STICKS (fails to move)
OP (work) H (hard) in or ‘filling’ MEAD (drink)
NO LISP (difficulty in speaking) E (English) all reversed or ‘recalled’
A reversal (‘back’) of TOILEt (‘place to go’) without the last letter or ‘not entirely’ – T S Eliot is commemorated in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey
CU’S (copper’s) TO DIAL (face)
A ‘possible’ anagram of REMIT could be described as an ORDER OF MERIT
An anagram (‘done over’) of LAST CHAIRMAN
DIRE (awful) PAIR (couple) round or ‘maintaining’ S (son)
ROSe (came to prominence) without the last letter or ‘mostly’ in FT (newspaper). We initially assumed this refers to Robert Frost, the American poet, but he is apparently not commemorated in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, but David Frost, the TV personality, is.
IN ERA (time) in or ‘filling’ ML (millilitre – ‘small amount of liquid’)
PENS (writers) in or ‘contributing to’ SER (series). Edmund Spenser the 16th century poet (who has given us cruciverbalists so many alternative spellings) is buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.
A reversal (‘recalled’) of TA TA (cheers) in or ‘during’ CON (study) I A (advanced)
DONE (completed) round or ‘taking’ a second N (name). As far as we can establish, John Donne is apparently not commemorated in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey – he was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral.
a Reversal (‘upset’) of LEAD (star, as in a leading role) round or ‘penning’ MS (manuscript)
We’re not sure about this – it is clearly KIN (family) after or ‘supporting’ NAP – but we can’t find a reference to ‘preferred choice’ being a synonym for ‘nap’. We wondered about the phrase ‘go nap’ but that seems to refer to a risky decision, rather than a preferred one. Are we being too pernickety?
An anagram (‘unusual’) of ROLE ETC + A L (Liberal)
LIDo (swimming venue) without the last letter or ‘bottom’ (in a down clue)
An anagram (‘revolutionary’) of RECTOR OPENS – the gateway clue to the theme, a reference to Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey
Hidden (‘some’) in blatanT ASS Obviously. We had not heard of Torquato Tasso before. He was apparently an Italian 16th century poet, who is not commemorated in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey
COLLIE (dog) R (runs) Y (yard)
A reversal (‘elevated’) of LINES (poem) + IT + Y (years)
REST (others) F (following) ALL (everyone) in CE (church) + N (noon)
An anagram (‘flaunted’) of SELF and MEDIA. John Masefield’s ashes are buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey
AC AC (accounts) round a reversal (‘rising’) of I (one) MED (sea)
I (one) NET (piece of lacy fabric) after or ‘under’ (in a down clue) BASS (deep)
JONeS (Welsh surname) without ‘E’ (English) + ON (in operation). Ben Jonson is buried in Westminster Abbey and commemorated in Poets’ Corner
A homophone (‘audibly’) of STERN (authoritarian). We assume this refers to Laurence Sterne, the 18th century novelist, who, as far as we can establish, is not commemorated in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey – have we missed something? He is an ‘unrightful’ occupant – we are a bit puzzled.
EG (say) RE (about) T (time)
Odd letters or ‘bits’ of SePiA (brown ink)
Thanks to B&J for explaining the “this” in the poet clues. I suppose Sterne is an unrightful occupant because as far as I know he wasn’t a poet.
One of the definitions of NAP in Chambers is “a dead cert” which I suppose could be a preferred choice, but it seems loose to me so perhaps there’s a better explanation.
Re Nap, Merriam-Webster has “a pick or recommendation as a good bet to win a contest (such as a horse race)”. It’s the only instance of this definition I could find online and it’s marked “British”, so it’s an American dictionary’s idea of how we speak… I imagine it’s more familiar to racegoers?
[I haven’t finished the puzzle yet but just popping in to say I’ve posted on General Discussion some correspondence of yesterday with Arkadia about the new app. A late-ish post on yesterday’s blog also suggests that eimi is on the case. 😀 ]
The gateway clue was simple enough but such a fun puzzle
When Joyce was mentioned in the preamble I did a double take…oh THAT Joyce
As for STERNE I’ve never been a fan-couldnt have been because he was Irish as Sheridan is there
Very good fun
Thanks Phi and B&J
Finished now and a very pleasurable Friday romp which I found to be at the more accessible end of Phi’s spectrum. I was pleased to get BASSINET which I’ve only ever encountered in puzzles but nothing else was particularly tricky. Highlights included CUSTODIAL, the delightfully connected anagram and surface in CHARLATANISM and the assembly of CRESTFALLEN but, as B&J observe, lovely surfaces pretty much throughout. All very elegant.
COLLIERY reminded me of being taken completely off guard by another dog walker back in August who, seeing me with my Welsh Border Collie, enquired whether I knew I was breaking the law by walking him on that particular day. It was a Ban Collie Day. To my shame, I didn’t get the pun until a few minutes later!
Thanks Phi and B&J
I missed the POETS CORNER = SE corner of the grid too (v. clever) and did not know which poets are commemorated in Westminster Abbey anyway. Still I was happy to get the gateway clue and to work out the POETS, one of whom was unknown and another who apparently wasn’t a poet at all.
‘Greek character(s)’ in crosswords are often little more than space fillers (technical crossword terminology) so it was good seeing EPSILON taking a more starring role today.
Thanks to Phi and to B&J – well done for picking up the extra subtlety of the theme, so a good way to finish off your blogging year
‘Quinquireme of Nineveh’: honestly.
I was going to take Phi to task for an apparently superfluous ‘this’ in themed clues, so glad I didn’t! Thanks to him for an elegant puzzle as always and to B&J for the explanations.
Loved the “ban collie day” pun, PostMark. So we have Phi and epsilon but, thankfully, no omicron today. I also wondered about the “this”. Why is David Frost in Poet’s Corner?
Very enjoyable and with an extra penny drop moment when, having spent most of the crossword thinking “that insistent THIS must be there for a reason”, I finally saw it. Excellent. Thanks to Phi and also to Bertandjoyce for the very informative blog. Great clue for journalist David Frost, if it’s he, but you do have to wonder why he’s in there.
Thanks also to PostMark – nice story!
And another penny drops…
Thank god for that.
Thanks Phi and BnJ
I assumed that FROST was the American poet as he’s in the poets’ corner of the puzzle, and that the possible reference to David Frost was a serendipitous possibility for misdirection.
Perhaps at this point we could remember that in THIS poets’ corner, any poet can appear, even an American one (plus interlopers such as Laurence Sterne). So I am sure that the intended victim is Robert, even though only Frost David has a memorial in, or at least near, the real Poets’ Corner.
After the initial groan of ‘oh no, poets’, we had a lot of fun with this one. Very smooth surfaces and lovely anagrams. The Wikipedia list of poets corner did help us though! Our only question mark was about Eliot, until we read the blog and realised which corner was being referred to.
A lovely birthday solve for German Labradoodle with prosecco.
Thanks Phi and B&J
Re: NAP in 2d, as Herb @2 says this is a term which would be familiar to racegoers. The Sporting Life (the newspaper of the racing industry in years gone by) used to run a twice yearly competition for racing correspondents (one for the flat season, one for the jumps) which was called the Naps Table; each had to name a horse which they reckoned was the best bet of the day, which was their nap. An imaginary £1 bet was placed on the horse and the journalist with the most imaginary cash at the end of the year would win a prize.
We soon realised we needed the names of various poets who might or might not be found in one corner or another but even after the significance of ‘this’ was explained we’re still a bit confused.
No matter, this was a highly enjoyable solve with lots of great clues. Favourite was EPSILON.
Thanks, Phi and B&J.
Is it not strange that of all the Phi puzzles not to appear on a Friday, it should be one based around POETS (the over-used acronym for the day)?? A really enjoyable puzzle though.
Managed to complete this on my Samsung iphone, despite the infuriating continual scrolling back and forward.
If Arkadium read this, may I request the reinstatement of the PRINT option.
Thanks Phi, Bertandjoyce
Charming grid, rather passed me by as so little of it is visible solving on my phone. There was a similar thing a few years ago in a Philistine puzzle with a Latin quarter.
I thought Hovis@8 just meant that he hadn’t heard of Robert Frost (whether tongue-in-cheek or not) when asking why David Frost is in poet’s corner. Then I checked wiki which confirmed it, but I just assumed it was a fake wiki entry until finding a BBC video report on it. So it’s true, but strange, and I add my why to Hovis’s.
Phi reported on Tuesday he had editorial trouble with this. Spill the beans?
The intent for this puzzle was to have a corner of the grid filled with the names of poets plus POETS’ CORNER elsewhere (which turned out to be quite a limiting factor as I didn’t want to say X Across when referring to it, but just X). It took four or five attempts to get the “corner’ and even then STERNE kept intruding – he does have such useful terminal letters, but he doesn’t seem to have written any poetry (there must be some in Tristram Shandy, though I never got far enough in).
Then I found TASSO appearing and decided to dot a few other, largely foreign, poets around the grid. I originally had these as escapees from 5, Masefield et al as residents, and Sterne as an intruder. The editors were worried about solvers focussing on the actual location, so I put in the ‘this’ and we standardised everything else around ‘occupant”.
Sadly the powers at the Abbey do not use suitability for a crossword grid as a criterion for admission. Given the inclusion of David Frost (I referenced Robert in the grid, of course) you have to wonder what criteria they do use.
Though I was never a fan of racing I thought NAP as a tipster’s best recommendation of the day was familiar enough.
Thanks to everyone for their comments and especially to Phi for giving us the lowdown of how he set the puzzle. In checking information on ‘Poets’ Corner’ we uncovered the fact that it was given that name because of the high number of poets buried or commemorated there. However, it is used a place for interring or commemorating people in recognition of their contribution to British Culture – not just poets and writers.
An early Happy New Year to everyone.
To be fair to Phi, I also think NAP is a familiar term, though not as much as in the 70s and 80s. I recall the racing pages of the Daily Mirror (and similar) had the editor’s choices for the winner (the favourite) and then there was the NAP – which sometimes coincided with the editor’s choice, and sometimes didn’t. The idea was that it was a pick that, on the face of it, was a potential winner. I never could figure out the logic.
Anyway, top puzzle, and thanks to Phi and Bertandjoyce
Quite a quick solve once I’d worked out the theme. And it was TASSO that was my first themed answer that gave me the theme. Well known as the author Jerusalem Delivered which was adapted by Handel in his opera Rinaldo. There was a production at Glyndeborne a few years ago which I saw when it came locally on tour.
Nap meaning a tip that’s supposedly a certainty is in Chambers (entry 3).
Telling the computer to print only the first page this morning did work. As a left-hander, I’m curious about left or right-handed printing. It’s not as if I’m reading the clue whilst entering the answer.