Bert & Joyce are off on their holiday so I’m standing in today in my 300th blog . This seems like a plain Phi puzzle.
The words MAKE OUR appear on the top line but I can’t see what this leads to, you don’t often see words in the unchecked rows by accident in the Indy, I had a couple of minor grumbles in places but I just can’t see the wordplay for 22ac MIDGE at all, all contributions welcome.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | USURP |
Take place of our team, getting promoted around end of year (5)
|
| US – our team & and of (yea)R inside UP for promoted | ||
| 9 | ALLOWANCE |
Grant a couple of pounds in the past, to go round Perth area (9)
|
| A & LL (two pounds) & W(estern) A(ustralia) inside ONCE | ||
| 10 | INERTIA |
Difficulty in moving train i.e. after wreck (7)
|
| A straightforward wrecked [TRAIN I.E.]* | ||
| 11 | OBSCURE |
Unusual rocky material enthralling science graduate attending university (7)
|
| BSC & U(ni) all inside ORE | ||
| 12 | ETUDE |
Expected back around ten initially – English study (5)
|
| It’s Phi – of course there’s some music. T(en) in DUE reversed & E(nglish) | ||
| 14 | EMACIATED |
A lot of additional material arrived back, offering little substance (9)
|
| Most of DETAI(l) & CAME all reversed | ||
| 17 | SWISS |
European people, very smart, though changing at the end (5)
|
| SWISH with the last letter changed | ||
| 18 | RHO |
Letter from Greece slipped into our house (3)
|
| Hidden – slipped into – ouR HOuse | ||
| 19 | LORCA |
Poet runs into pub, expressing final line (5)
|
| Spanish Poet – R(uns) in LOCA(l) with the last L removed | ||
| 20 | LAVISHING |
Showering and seducing, leading with the other hand (9)
|
| Left not Right in RAVISHING | ||
| 22 | MIDGE |
F, say, for ‘flying insect’ (5)
|
| Don’t get this one, sorry, I see the insect and EG reversed – flying possibly, possibly the middle of EFG. Perhaps someone more enlightened can say below. | ||
| 23 | INTEGER |
Number in computer support, for instance, having little hesitation providing mathematical quantity (7)
|
| N(umber) in I.T. & E.G. & ER for hesitation | ||
| 25 | RINGGIT |
Asian currency cartel linked to awkward customer? (7)
|
| RING & GIT – the Malaysian currency. | ||
| 27 | BON VOYAGE |
Nice show of friendliness, encouraging you to go! (3,6)
|
| Cryptic def using Nice to indicate French. I don’t think there’s any more than that or other word play. | ||
| 28 | TROLL |
Cost to be paid when hosting Republican internet pest (5)
|
| R(epublican) inside TOLL | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MUSE |
Ponder rise in total energy (4)
|
| A risen SUM & E(nergy) | ||
| 2 | APOTHEOSIS |
Isotope has decayed, achieving final state (10)
|
| A decayed [ISOTOPE HAS]* | ||
| 3 | KARATE |
King and Queen worried about a martial activity (6)
|
| OK I read that as Marital when I first tried this which certainly didn’t aid the solve. So K(ing) and & A & R(egina) & ATE – worried | ||
| 4 | ELDORADO |
Director in part picked up business in rich area (8)
|
| D(irector) in ROLE reversed rather than “heard” for picked up as I first suspected & ADO for business | ||
| 5 | OWES |
Has debt, large, covering our group (4)
|
| WE our group inside OS for over size – large | ||
| 6 | UNCULTURED |
Irish party suppressing new fad, left-wing and philistine (10)
|
| UU (Ulster Unionists) with N(ew) CULT inserted and RED for left wing. I guess CULT and FAD are synonymous somehow but it’s not one I’d use. | ||
| 7 | RENE |
Philosopher’s name enshrined by revolutionary generation (4)
|
| Descartes – I don’t think therefore I’m not. Hidden reversed in gENERation | ||
| 8 | UNIVERSAL |
Anvil user hammered without exception (9)
|
| A hammered [ANVIL USER]* | ||
| 13 | UNINVITING |
Not welcoming one nursed by worried nun – coming to call is cancelled (10)
|
| I inside a worried NUN* and IS cancelled from V(is)ITING | ||
| 15 | ILLUMINATI |
Exclusive group – I left organisation of alumni getting it set up (10)
|
| I L(eft) & an organised ALUMNI* & IT reversed | ||
| 16 | DIALECTAL |
Face Conservative in most recent uprising regarding speech (9)
|
| DIAL (face) & C(onservative) in LATE reversed | ||
| 18 | RAILROAD |
Unduly force bar staff to welcome one (8)
|
| RAIL (bar) & A (one) in ROD (staff) | ||
| 21 | GARDEN |
Dull time turning over small space in yard? (6)
|
| DRAG – a dull thing reversed & EN the small size of a letter N | ||
| 23 | IGBO |
European country investing in oil mostly upset Nigerian people (4)
|
| GB onside most of OI(l) reversed. I thought the country was UK not GB but car tickers use GB I guess | ||
| 24 | GROW |
Bring up Government dispute (4)
|
| G(ov) & ROW | ||
| 26 | GOOD |
Sentimentality and a dash of dreaminess can be excellent (4)
|
| GOO for sentimentality & a bit oi D(reaminess) |
Thank you for blogging, flashling, welcome back and congratulations on the milestone.
MID G-E is suggesting that F comes between those two letters, I fancy.
Thanks to Phi for the workout and good weekend to all.
I also felt that MID G_E worked.
“MAKE OUR” leads to 21D and 24D “GARDEN GROW”, the closing number in Leonard Bernstein’s musical ‘Candide’. However, I can’t see any other connections or reason for this, maybe just one of Phi’s occasional whimsies!
On the way to SWISS at 17A I travelled via SLAVS, SCOTS, SERBS and the incorrect SAMIS.
Thanks Phi and Flashling.
Pierre @1
I parsed MIDGE as you did, but the clue doesn’t appeal to me for some reason.
And 27 seems weak (can’t think of any more explanation than what flashling has given).
Liked LAVISHING and RAILROAD.
Thanks to Phi & Flashling. ELDORADO and UNIVERSAL GOOD also appear in Candide, but I only found that out by googling to see if Make Our Garden Grow was ‘a thing’.
…also BON VOYAGE I now see.
Appreciate the help with parsing. Thanks. I enjoyed UNINVITING and RAILROAD once explained. I though ‘one’ was an ‘i’ but is an ‘a’. Not so keen on KARATE (ate=worried?) and INTEGER is very clever but dry (imho). EMACIATED and OBSCURE which I could parse were my top picks. Thanks Friday Phi.
I too couldn’t parse 22A. If all reversed EG DIM then someone who is dim will likely get a grade F? Still not very convincing.
Thanks for standing in for us flashling and congratulations. We also must mention that flashling commented last Thursday that there had been a misunderstanding at 15squared HQ as he had prepared a blog, only to find out that we had already compiled one. We have to admit that it was BJ’s HQ that made the mistake for which we would like to apologise now!
We parsed MIDGE and F appearing midway in a reversed alphabet between G and E. We also noticed the MAKE OUR but couldn’t find anything else to go with it. Thanks to other commenters for explaining the thematic entries.
Thanks Phi for Friday fun.
I was wondering if the F for flying referred to seats on a plane where F would be between G and E, so you wouldn’t need a reversal indicator?
I think you’re on to something Petert.
NIce fun. EMACIATED is another of those clues that can be reverse-engineered but you’re (I’m) never going to get cold, but it is a crossword and one is (I am) expected to tease out the crossers so no real complaint. Lots to enjoy including APOTHEOSIS and ILLUMINATI – these represent the lint in the pockets of the vocabulary and as such are always a pleasure to pull out. (I feel that could be better put but under time pressure it will have to do.)
Thanks both and congrats to flashling on the ‘tercentenary’ (more lint).
I was listening to the new recording of Bernstein’s Candide and simply nicked some of the track titles. Make Our Garden Grow is one of the most powerful closing numbers I know, so it had to go in somehow.
I thought F being midway between G and E unusual but not that unusual. I might draw the line at MIDAS = J.
Hi Phi re midge just goes to show that a simple device is only simple once in a blue moon. It’s why the patent and copyright schemes exist. At B&J yes I knew I didn’t want to embarrass you! Thanks to those who welcomed me back to the fold. I’m back Sunday in hopefully a short term gig but read why in the Everyman blog. Does anyone in the S&B land think a meet anytime soon would be a good idea yet?
I think a meet sounds like a plan, Flash – maybe in May or beyond so the Covid figures drop and I can save up some beer money – but defo a plan. Congratz on your 300, BTW. 🙂
Hang on, does that mean it’s just a coincidence that we have SWISS RHO L…. in the middle row??
Thanks to Phi and Flashling.
I know this thread is over but I have to add that to my comment @5 that I thought the ‘thing’ I was searching for might turn out to be something by MIDGE (OBSC)URE. It amused me at any rate.
Yes let’s just ignore nouns completely and go to a meet where we can do a solve….presumably after receiving an invite.