It’s Phiday again.
A few tricky corners: I had to guess-and-check a couple of unfamiliar abbreviations (EL and POL), and a few definitions seem a bit loose (particularly 4d, which I’m still not convinced about). But I liked the anagram in 19a, and the surface of 11d (it’s not far from where I live, but somehow I wouldn’t expect to see the Pony Club arranging an event there). 6d had me stumped for ages but turned out to be quite neat when I finally saw it. If there’s a theme it has completely passed me by; it wouldn’t be the first time. Thanks Phi as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | STUDENTS |
Learners of French restricted by checks (8)
|
| DE (“of” in French) contained in (restricted by) STUNTS (checks, as a verb, as in to stunt / check the growth of something). | ||
| 5 | CALICO |
Cotton cloth: company importing a line, I see (6)
|
| CO (abbreviation for company), containing (importing) A + L (line) + I + C (see = the name of the letter C, or in text messaging as in “c u later”). | ||
| 9 | MONAURAL |
Working article presented in artwork using one channel (8)
|
| ON (working, as in “the light is on”) + A (the indefinite article), contained in MURAL (artwork).
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction, usually abbreviated to “mono”, as opposed to stereo. |
||
| 10 | PULPIT |
Place to declare what to do with unsold print run? (6)
|
| Definition and cryptic definition. A place from which to declare a message; or a publisher with a batch of unsold books would traditionally PULP IT. | ||
| 12 | COCKLESHELL |
Lines written by male left with English female in frail boat (11)
|
| COCK (a male bird) + L (left) + E (English) + SHE (female), with LL (two L = lines) written after it.
A small lightly-built boat. |
||
| 14 | RUM |
Unusual cut of meat presented with further cut (3)
|
| RUM[p] (a cut of meat), without the last letter (further cut).
Rum = strange or unexpected. |
||
| 15 | SPECTACLES |
Sporting caps – select for great performances (10)
|
| Anagram (sporting, as a verb = playing) of CAPS SELECT. | ||
| 16 | HILL |
Hard and difficult climb (4)
|
| H (hard) + ILL (difficult, as in ill-tempered). | ||
| 18 | EDEN |
Cumbrian river partly turned East, reversing course (4)
|
| Hidden answer (partly) in [tur]NED E[ast], backwards (reversing course).
River running roughly north-west through Cumbria to the Solway Firth. There are other rivers elsewhere in the UK with the same name. |
||
| 19 | LAW SOCIETY |
We also worked with City solicitors (3,7)
|
| Anagram (worked) of WE ALSO + CITY.
The professional association for solicitors in England and Wales. |
||
| 21 | MIC |
Rapper seizing one amplifier (3)
|
| MC (a rap performer, from Master of Ceremonies or Mic Controller) containing (seizing) I (one in Roman numerals).
Short for microphone = a component used in amplifying sound. Though if the “Mic Controller” derivation is correct, this is a bit self-referential. |
||
| 22 | TRIO SONATAS |
Pieces generally for 4 in rotation with 26, possibly (4,7)
|
| Anagram (possibly) of ROTATION with ASS (26 = reference to 26d).
A somewhat confusingly-named musical form. A trio sonata is written for two melody instruments (for example violins or flutes) with continuo (bass); but the continuo part is generally provided by a combination of cello (or another low-pitched string instrument) and keyboard – hence four players in total. |
||
| 24 | HOOPOE |
Bird guano turned over in garden (6)
|
| POO (guano = bird droppings), reversed (turned over), in HOE (garden, as a verb = work the ground). | ||
| 25 | DECREASE |
Order to conceal a second reduction (8)
|
| DECREE (order), concealing A + S (second). | ||
| 27 | PASTEL |
Pale colour shown by historic American railway (6)
|
| PAST (historic) + EL (American short name for an “elevated railway”). | ||
| 28 | ESPOUSAL |
French are ahead of politician about America’s support (8)
|
| ES (French “are” as in tu es = you are) + POL (slang abbreviation for politician), around USA (America). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SUMAC |
Total account identifying source of spice (5)
|
| SUM (total) + AC (abbreviation for account).
Flowering plant whose dried fruits are ground as a spice. |
||
| 2 | URN |
Top falling off smart container for ashes (3)
|
| [b]URN (smart = be painful), with the first letter (top, in a down clue) falling off. | ||
| 3 | EQUALITY |
Attribute applied to energy parity (8)
|
| QUALITY (attribute) added on to E (scientific symbol for energy). | ||
| 4 | TRANSOCEANIC |
Arranged Asian concert, describing trip for American performer? (12)
|
| Anagram (arranged) of ASIAN CONCERT.
I’m not sure what the “American performer” has to do with the definition. Perhaps the idea is that Americans tend to say “ocean” rather than “sea”, and might therefore say “transoceanic” rather than overseas – but why “performer”? Or that an American performing a concert in Asia would have to cross the ocean to do so? It feels a bit vague to me, unless I’m missing something. |
||
| 6 | AQUILA |
Eagle in the sky – a bird with article at its tail (6)
|
| The wordplay here took me ages to work out: it’s A QUAIL (a bird), with the second A (the indefinite article) moved to the end (tail).
The constellation Aquila = the Eagle. |
||
| 7 | IMPERTINENT |
Being rude, one million shut up about Queen getting money (11)
|
| I (one in Roman numerals) + M (million), then PENT (shut up = locked in) around ER (the Queen) + TIN (slang for money). | ||
| 8 | OPTIMALLY |
I’m entering work account in the best way (9)
|
| I’M inserted into OP (short for Latin opus = a work of music, literature etc) + TALLY (account = record of payments due). | ||
| 11 | SEVEN SISTERS |
Son is enthralled by small equestrians in part of London (5,7)
|
| S (son) + IS, contained in (enthralled by) S (small) + EVENTERS (equestrians, as in “three-day eventing” = a combination of dressage, cross-country riding and showjumping).
Area in the borough of Haringey, north London, named after a group of seven trees. There are many other places in the UK and elsewhere with similar names. |
||
| 13 | CLEVER CLOGS |
Carbon bar gets stuck – presumed expert required? (6,5)
|
| C (chemical symbol for carbon) + LEVER (bar) + CLOGS (gets stuck).
A disparaging term for someone who seems (or claims) to know a lot, as in “don’t be such a clever clogs” = presumed expert. I think “required” is – well, one could say not required, except for the surface. |
||
| 15 | STEAMSHIP |
Vessel having southern crews with it (9)
|
| S (southern) + TEAMS (crews) + HIP (with it = fashionable). | ||
| 17 | SCENARIO |
Outline arranged for cinemas, excluding beginning and end of film (8)
|
| Anagram (arranged) of [f]OR CINE[m]AS, excluding the beginning and end letters of F[il]M.
Extended definition: scenario = an outline of the plot and scenes of a film or dramatic work. |
||
| 20 | STROKE |
Dash right into Potteries town (6)
|
| R (right) inserted into STOKE (short for Stoke-on-Trent = city in Staffordshire, England, known as the Potteries for its traditional association with ceramics production). | ||
| 23 | SPELL |
Glamour session (5)
|
| Double definition. Charm (metaphorically in the sense of attractiveness or behaviour) that holds someone in thrall; or a period of time. | ||
| 26 | ASS |
Fool stealing money from lots of people (3)
|
| [m]ASS (lots of people) without the M (finance industry abbbreviation for money). |
EDEN:
Is there a third component in ‘course’? Does it refer to a famous golf course or a race course?
TRANSOCEANIC: Looks plain like saying that it’s a transoceanic trip for the American performer. Of course, someone will come up with something more interesting.
Started this well after 4.20 our time and thoroughly enjoyed it and the blog which helped. I can’t help with ‘transoceanic’. I thought of it as ‘bi-coastal’. I liked ‘cockleshell’ and didn’t know it was a boat but I do now. There seemed to be a lot of ‘o’s. Favorites were ‘trio sonata’, ‘scenario’, ‘optimally’, and ‘monaural’. Outright top is ‘Aquila’, a bird that carried Zeus’s thunderbolts, apparently. Delightful.
Theme hunters note: KVa is on to something…
For now, I’m off to bed after a long day ending in a Christmas party
Presumably discretion prevented the clueing of Miss Grainger’s Bosoms, which would be challenging to do without frightening the horses…
It’s certainly topical – thanks Phi.
mw7000 Best to avoid the Valley of Sin at all costs. I managed to do this without getting bunkered on too may occasions. I would never have got the theme without the hint, though. Thanks Phi and Quirister.
The theme is racehorses and race courses?
KVa @6: No, it’s this. Which I’d never have worked out without all the hints above – thanks Phi and others for the help.
Thanks, Quirister.
So the clue for EDEN has 3 parts. Ok.
I wouldn’t have got the theme without the hints either, despite ‘that event’ being on just now…and with me immediately thinking of another river EDEN, the correct one in this case. PULPIT and STUDENTS vaguely rang a bell but not enough to twig it. And I don’t live that far away either. Damn.
Some words new to me, for which I am always grateful. Crosswords are so much more than just puzzles, they are openings into new areas. Never heard of TRIO SONATAS or MONAURAL.
I liked ESPOUSAL for making me start with the wrong “are” – some kind of —-(r)EST type support? COCKLESHELL made me think there might be heroes around (WW11 mission) and I spent too long on bridges – the SPECTACLES bridge is in Nagasaki.
Many things to enjoy here and thank you as ever for the Friday workout Phi – I will get it one day – and to Quirster for the fine, fine blog.
We’re of the good walk ruined persuasion when it comes to golf so the theme was totally lost on us. Now if it had been the Tour de France …
But an enjoyable crossword and perfectly solvable without knowin the theme. PULPIT, TRIO SONATAS and CLEVER CLOGS were our favourites.
Thanks, Phi and Quirister.
I think many of us still need help. Knowing nothing about golf courses I see nothing that fits a theme of St Andrews. Enlightenment welcome!
Ericw @11, check Quirister @7 for the link. Or should that be plural?
Salad@12 Nice one.
As an alumnus of St Andrews University – and I’ve walked across the links at various times – I couldn’t hold off using the 150th Open as a theme, even if I’m no golfer. It’s impossible for me to watch Chariots of Fire without wincing slightly as the title ‘Eastbourne’ comes up in front of the R&A Clubhouse, and also without recalling how I nearly walked in on the filming of it one Sunday morning when I was popping out for my Observer.
Ok, names of bunkers at St Andrews. Would have been great if someone had just said that (as it’s certainly something I would beaver have known) but I guess you are all golfers!
“Never” not “beaver”
Sorry, Ericw, but I appreciated mw700 giving me the hint, which enabled me to discover the theme for myself.
I do get the irritation at people coyly skirting round things but I am with you on that Petert. Even if I am being slightly spoon-fed by hints it is still more satisfying to put the very last piece of the puzzle in oneself.
Ericw @16 that is an outrageously low blow. I have never golfed in my life!