Our regular Friday setter is here as usual.
A few slightly obscure entries and loose definitions, but nothing that a bit of lateral thinking and guesswork can’t deal with. I liked 16d for the surface, 14d for the neat anagram, and 3d for both.
Phi sometimes includes a theme or Nina just to give him a way to start filling the grid, or so he claims. Today we have SCORPIO along the top row of unchecked letters, which would be the star sign of anyone whose birthday is around now, but I can’t see anything else obviously related to that. Thanks Phi as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | RECOIL |
Respond nervously regarding carbon fuel (6)
|
| RE (regarding = on the subject of) + C (chemical symbol for carbon) + OIL (fuel). | ||
| 9 | ON AND OFF |
Number backing a new shed intermittently (2,3,3)
|
| NO (no. = abbreviation for Latin numero = number), reversed (backing), then A + N (new) + DOFF (shed = remove an item of clothing). | ||
| 10 | FEEDBACK |
Dutch defender chasing payment gets subsequent comment (8)
|
| D (the dictionaries recognise this as an abbreviation for Dutch, though I don’t think I’ve ever seen it used) + BACK (defending player in a sports team), after (chasing) FEE (payment). | ||
| 11 | SPIDER |
Reversal of decline in series – here’s the rest (6)
|
| DIP (decline) reversed, in SER (abbreviation for series).
In snooker, the “spider” is a type of rest = a support for the cue, used instead of the player’s free hand for awkward shots. |
||
| 12 | TANNING |
Source of flavour in wines – good effect of the sun? (7)
|
| TANNIN (substance giving an astringent flavour to wine or tea) + G (good). | ||
| 14 | HI TECH |
Recent advances, say, to strike City hard (2,4)
|
| HIT (to strike) + EC (postcode for East Central London = “the City” = the business and financial district) + H (hard, as in 2H pencils).
Short for high-technology. |
||
| 15 | WHIP |
Weak start of cheer from party official (4)
|
| W (it seems this is an abbreviation for “weak” if you’re a particle physicist) + HIP (the first part of “hip hip hooray” = a cheer).
An official responsible for discipline in a political party. |
||
| 17 | ORATE |
Speak with enough representatives, without question (5)
|
| [qu]ORATE (with enough representatives: a meeting is “quorate” when there is a “quorum” = enough authorised people in attendance for any decisions they take to be legally valid), without the QU (qu. = abbreviation for question). | ||
| 18 | FISH |
What describes making fake hake and cod? (4)
|
| FAKE becomes HAKE when F IS H.
Definition by example, indicated by the question mark. |
||
| 19 | EREBUS |
Hellish region giving European a puzzle to solve (6)
|
| E (abbreviation for European) + REBUS (a puzzle in which pictures and/or individual letters stand for words or parts of words).
In Greek mythology, a region of darkness between Earth and Hades (Hell). |
||
| 21 | SCOURGE |
Singular bravery seeing off a source of affliction (7)
|
| S (abbreviation for singular) + COUR[a]GE without (seeing off = sending away) the A.
Scourge = a whip used for punishment, or metaphorically something that causes severe affliction. |
||
| 23 | PINION |
Point to one leg, revealing fetter? (6)
|
| PIN (point) + I (one in Roman numerals) + ON (leg, in cricket terminology = one side of the wicket).
Pinion = to restrict someone’s movements by holding their arms. Fetter = to put someone in fetters (chains or shackles round the ankles). They’re equivalent in the metaphorical sense of keeping someone under restraint, but not literally; maybe that’s what the question mark is for. |
||
| 25 | BALLISTA |
Old military weapon is source of triumph in endless song (8)
|
| IS + first letter (source) of T[riumpn], inserted into BALLA[d] (song) without the last letter (endless).
Greek or Roman siege weapon: a mechanism used to hurl rocks at a defensive structure. |
||
| 26 | MACHISMO |
Historic speed challenge’s second to produce male pride (8)
|
| MACH I’S (historic speed challenge’s: Mach 1 = the speed of sound, historically a target in aircraft development) + MO (short for moment = second = a very short time). | ||
| 27 | PLACID |
Place of a harsh nature to become calm (6)
|
| PL (abbreviation for place, in street maps) + ACID (of a harsh nature, perhaps metaphorically as in “acid-tongued”). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SELECT |
Very particular group seen around the French college (6)
|
| SET (group), around LE (a form of “the” in French) + C (abbreviation for college). | ||
| 2 | COLD SNAP |
Caught with mouldy biscuit in wintry weather? (4,4)
|
| C (caught, in cricket scoring) + OLD SNAP (snap as in ginger-snap or brandy-snap = a biscuit, which may become mouldy if it gets very old). | ||
| 3 | OLEAGINOUS |
Slippery muddy goal is one letting in United (10)
|
| Anagram (muddy?) of GOAL IS ONE, containing (letting in) U (abbreviation for United).
A rather long-winded word for “oily”. |
||
| 4 | ROCK |
Stun in topless dress (4)
|
| [f]ROCK (a dress) without the first letter (topless, in a down clue). | ||
| 5 | PASS |
Free ticket – Italian dishes? No thanks (4)
|
| PAS[ta]S (Italian dishes) without TA (thanks = thank you). | ||
| 6 | IDOIST |
Internationally-minded speaker in India is in a spot (6)
|
| I (India in the radio alphabet), then IS in DOT (a spot).
A speaker of Ido, derived from Esperanto, one of various attempts to invent an international language. |
||
| 7 | OFFENCES |
Old fellow fights in instances of disorderly behaviour (8)
|
| O (old) + F (abbreviation for fellow) + FENCES (fights, as a verb, with a sword or similar weapon).
Offence = disorderly behaviour in the sense of disobeying orders / rules, rather than as in “drunk and disorderly”. |
||
| 13 | GRASS |
Odd bits of German stories without content from German writer (5)
|
| Odd-numbered letters of G[e]R[m]A[n], then S[torie]S without the content (inner letters).
Günter Grass, 20th-century German writer. |
||
| 14 | HIEROGLYPH |
Sacred character? Phi he represented with glory (10)
|
| Anagram (re-presented) of PHI HE + GLORY.
A symbol in the ancient Egyptian pictorial writing system; the name is Greek for “sacred carved symbol”. |
||
| 16 | HARRIDAN |
Difficult to accept scripture lessons provided by an old witch (8)
|
| HARD (difficult), containing (to accept) RI (religious instruction = scripture lessons), then AN. | ||
| 18 | FARCICAL |
Ridiculous accommodating British territory in distant California (8)
|
| CI (Channel Islands = British territory near the coast of France), accommodated in FAR (distant) + CAL (abbreviation for California). | ||
| 20 | BRIGHT |
Sparkling river entering bay (6)
|
| R (abbreviation for river) inserted into BIGHT (a wide bay in a coastline, perhaps best known from “German Bight” in the Shipping Forecast). | ||
| 22 | ENTAIL |
Crazy losing head about one occasion (6)
|
| [m]ENTAL (crazy), losing the head (first letter), around I (one in Roman numerals).
Occasion, as a verb = cause or give rise to a requirement for = entail. |
||
| 24 | NOSE |
Ability to detect rumour? Not I (4)
|
| NO[i]SE (a rumour) without the I. | ||
| 25 | BOOK |
Disapproving response given to King novel? (4)
|
| BOO (an expression of disapproval) + K (King).
Definition by example, indicated by the question mark. |
Spotting the nina helped me get 6D, as I had entered an unparsed ‘adrift’, then online research helped me to IDOIST, which I didn’t know. I look forward to seeing Sagittarius in a Phi puzzle after 23 November. Excellent as always, so thanks Phi and Quirister.
I tried to make more of the Scorpio nina, having discovered that there is a ROCK scorpion. Quite a few other solutions seemed promising – GRASS, WHIP, BRIGHT, SPIDER – but they all turned out not to be.
IDOIST was new and nho the language so thank Goodness for clear cluing which enabled me to get it – though it was LOI. WHIP, SCOURGE and FARCICAL my favourites today.
Thanks Phi and Quirister
Just like Tatrasman @1 and PM @2, IDOIST was new to me and was my last in. Thank goodness for the Nina as I wouldn’t have been able to solve this otherwise, even with the wordplay.
Everything else more or less parsed though I mistakenly thought a PINION was a noun, as well as a verb, for a form of restraint. I liked OLEAGINOUS, a word which always brings Obadiah Slope from “The Barchester Chronicles” to mind.
Thanks to Phi and Quirister
IDOIST was new to me too. Spotted the Nina but also could not find a link. There is a WHIP, SCOURGE which I thought might link to (rack and) PINION but I don’t think pinion necessarily part of the torture device so a blind alley there.
At first I thought I had had an ‘aha, gotcha’ moment when TANNING went in early. Phi seems to like an obscure theme so convinced myself we were looking for references to surreal artists. Ah well, I got that wrong. Hoping Phi will step in with enlightenment or a hint.
Lovely stuff as ever. Thank you to Phi & Quirister
I had a few that I struggled with today, mostly through my own shortcomings. I incorrectly parsed the topless dress as [s]mock, though wasn’t quite sure how mock might mean stun. This made a mess of the nina and any help it may have been in respect of IDOIST, which I ended up revealing. I also gave up on PINION, but that was entirely due to my poor spelling of Harridan, where I had used RE for scripture lessons instead of RI. My favourite was FISH.
Thank you to Phi and Quirister.
Tetrapulmonata
I solved this in a thematic way, as it all went fairly easily but there was a bit of a sting in the tail, when I got to the Northeast corner.
I didn’t spot the nina so had to choose between IDOIST AND ADOIST. Made the wrong choice so DNF. Also couldn’t parse Fish as I thought ‘hake and cod?’ was the definition.
So thanks Quirister for a much-needed blog and Phi for a fun puzzle.
Scorpio is the current astrological sign. There are, if I remember correctly, four examples of X where X fits X-scorpion (who would have thought there was a book-scorpion?), and four examples of Y where Y fits scorpion-Y, and two direct synonyms.
Of course. What a fool. Nah, no idea. I’ll work on it, but nah.