We’re always pleased to solve a Phi-day puzzle at the end of the week.
We started off thinking that this was a fairly easy puzzle until we ground to a halt about two-thirds of the way through! Thankfully, the nina in the top and bottom row helped us to see the error of our ways with 17ac and solve 6d.
Thanks Phi – another good puzzle to end the week!
| Across | ||
| 7 | Pound, deposited in appropriate place, gets nothing | |
| BLANK | L (pound) inside or ‘deposited in’ BANK (an appropriate place for money) = nothing. Please do not add any comments about banks perhaps NOT being the most appropriate place to store your money! | |
| 8 | Thanks returned with gift right now | |
| AT PRESENT | TA (thanks) reversed or ‘returned’ + PRESENT (gift) = right now | |
| 10 | Performance by seed or new version of gamete | |
| NET GAME | N (new) + anagram of GAMETE (anagrind is ‘new version’) = performance by seed as in a game of tennis | |
| 11 | Latin bird jams bank machine, doing things the old way | |
| ATAVISM | AVIS (Latin word for bird) inside ATM (short form of Automated Teller Machine or bank machine) = doing things the old way | |
| 12 | A role hardships played for poetic hero | |
| A SHROPSHIRE LAD | Anagram of A ROLE HARDSHIPS (anagrind is ‘played’) = poetic hero in Alfred Edward Housman’s cycle of 63 poems | |
| 15 | Irish vehicle brought in a new backing group | |
| NIRVANA | IR (Irish) + VAN (vehicle) inside or ‘brought in’ A + N (new) reversed or ‘backing’ = group formed by Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic | |
| 17 | Capital city – is library in it knocked over? | |
| TBILISI | IS + LIB (library) inside or ‘in’ IT reversed or ‘knocked over’ = capital city of Georgia. We spent some while trying to work out how TRIPOLI fitted in until we realised that it didn’t! | |
| 19 | Idiomatic use of statistic quoted in Parliament? | |
| FIGURE OF SPEECH | Double definition as a parliamentary speeches often contain statistical figures as well as being a mode of expression such as asimile or metaphor | |
| 23 | Pianist’s sumptuous expression cut short | |
| RICHTER | RICH (sumptuous) + TER(m) (expression) with last letter removed or ‘cut short’ = pianist. You can listen to him here. We weren’t familiar with the pianist but as soon as we had a couple of crossing letters it was easy to solve from the wordplay. | |
| 24 | College employee backed removing front and reforming round building | |
| ROTUNDA | (t)UTOR (college employee) reversed or ‘backed’ with first letter removed + an anagram of AND (anagrind is ‘reforming’) = round building | |
| 26 | Fashionable society confused by Adobe menu | |
| BEAU MONDE | Anagram of ADOBE MENU (anagrind is ‘confused’) = fashionable society | |
| 27 | Plant, special, planted in triangular area | |
| GORSE | S (special) inside or ‘planted in’ GORE (triangular area) = plant. We had to check this one as we had not come across the other meaning of GORE | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Drawn gibe, after name released | |
| TAUT | TAU(n)T (gibe) with N (name) removed or ‘released’ = drawn | |
| 2 | Permitted priest to seize house in US state | |
| OKLAHOMA | OK (permitted) + LAMA (priest) around or ‘seizing’ HO (house) = US state | |
| 3 | ID etc. apparently carried by person | |
| PAPERS | AP (apparently) inside or ‘carried by’ PERS (person) = ID etc. | |
| 4 | The workers’ worker, say, a man on the rise in a mine | |
| APIARIST | A + SIR (man) reversed or ‘on the rise’ inside or ‘in’ A PIT (mine) = a worker who works with bees which would by necessity include worker bees | |
| 5 | Single income, nothing less? That’s very spiritual | |
| NEW AGE | (o)NE WAGE (single income) with O removed or ‘nothing less’ = a cultural trend which emerged in late 1980s concerned with the union of mind body and spirit | |
| 6 | Unoriginal option? | |
| DERIVATIVE | Double definition as in unoriginal and an option in the financial sense. This was our last one in and we needed all the checking letters before we could work it out. Not helped by us having been sidetracked by TRIPOLI for the capital city at one point! The nina helped us sort this last one out! | |
| 7 | Book and article note North American coloured cloth | |
| BANDANNA | B (book) AND + AN (article) + NA (North American) = coloured cloth. This one brought back memories of childhood for Joyce who used to wear one of these when she was pretending to be Jess Harper in this old TV programme! | |
| 9 | Bond getting money invested for a period | |
| TIME | M (money) inside or ‘invested in’ TIE (bond) = a period | |
| 13 | Marine squatter – the crime mostly disturbed and upset lawyers | |
| HERMIT CRAB | Anagram of THE CRIM(e) with last letter removed or ‘mostly’ + BAR (lawyers) reversed or ‘upset’ = marine squatter. These crabs use vacant shells when they have outgrown their existing ones. | |
| 14 | Food item is hot and cold with imitation garnishing | |
| FISH CAKE | IS + H C (hot and cold) within or ‘garnished by’ FAKE (imitation) = food item | |
| 16 | More skilful student dismissed with tirade? That’s not normal | |
| ABERRANT | AB(l)ER (more skilful) with L (learner) dismissed + RANT (tirade) = not normal | |
| 18 | I leave after I’m getting particular skin disease | |
| IMPETIGO | IM (I am) + PET (particular) + I GO (I leave) = skin disease | |
| 20 | Last month having sect dumping leader? It’s one month on | |
| ULTIMO | (c)ULT (sect) without first letter or ‘dumping leader’ + I (one) + M (month) + O (on) = last month | |
| 21 | Supports restricting clergyman’s search | |
| FERRET | FEET (supports) around or ‘protecting’ RR (clergyman) = search | |
| 22 | Good gymnastic event elevated interest | |
| GRAB | G (good) + BAR (gymnastic event) reversed or ‘elevated’ = interest | |
| 25 | Standard article eliminated by invader | |
| NORM | (NORM)an (invader) with AN (article) deleted or ‘eliminated’ = standard | |
Nina, what nina?
It was a good Friday puzzle, though. As you say, plenty of ways into it, but the last few took a bit of sorting out. I saw TBILISI, but had to check how it was spelled, but DERIVATIVE was one I got early doors. APIARIST is a clever definition, and RICHTER is more familiar to me as the man who developed the way to measure the magnitude of earthquakes.
Nice end to the week; thanks to setter and bloggers.
[This thread is becoming a bit of a confessional this week: yesterday I admit to S&M tendencies, and now Joyce reveals that she’s a closet cross-dresser … what next?]
K’s D – the devil is in the detail – look at our preamble again and all will be revealed and we don’t mean the cross – dressing!
Thanks, Phi, and B&J. I found this on the easy side and did not spot the Nina until I was finished. All good – favourite clue BLANK.
Thanks Phi for an excellent puzzle and B&J for the blog. I spotted the “bottom” half of the Nina from solutions entered and a likely way of making six letters on the top row helped me with 1/2/5/6dn. My favourite clue was 4dn, and I cannot resist mentioning the remark which I think came from Sellar and Yeatman (authors of 1066 and All That) that a keeper of bees is called an apiarist, but a keeper of apes is not called a beepiarist.
22dn: I took this as MO for “month” and “on” as meaning “added”, but M for “month” and O for “on” are both in Chambers 2008.
Correction to 4: I meant 20dn, not 22dn.
I was a bit puzzled by 10 across and refused to believe it was the right answer for a long time. I can see that a tennis player might be described as having a good “net game”, meaning they are good at volleying close to the net, but it hardly seems like common usage and I don’t think you would use it to describe a player’s overall performance. Other than that, this was an enjoyable and well-constructed puzzle. Spotting the NINA would have helped me with the couple I was struggling with (derivative and taut), but I didn’t notice it. The definition in 4 down was excellent.
10a seems uncontroversial to me. NealH is right that “net game” wouldn’t be used to describe a player’s overall performance, but there is nothing in the clue to suggest that it would. My understanding is that it means how a player (or seed) plays (or performs) close to the net – which fits Phi’s clue very well. I think it is a common expression. (I don’t know much about tennis but I certainly knew it.)
Pelham Barton @5 – We thought the same thing about 20d. It wasn’t until we came to write up the blog that we realised we couldn’t find MO as an abbreviation for month in any of the dictionaries!
Bah! Missed the nina, otherwise I might have got TAUT a lot sooner than I did. And I too had to check the meaning of ‘gore’; I always wondered why Kensington Gore was so called.
Thanks, Phi and B&J.
Further to 4/5 and 8: Chambers 2008 and 2011 (but not 1998) have mo. for “month” in a separate entry some way down from MO, which has various expansions.
Well spotted – we missed that entirely. Perhaps Phi will drop by and indicate which one he intended.
My notes (from when I typed up the puzzle to submit it) say ‘mo’.
The bee -> apiarist & ape -> beepiarist is rather neat. I don’t recognise it, but I must admit I tired of S&Y after ‘And Now All This’. There was one called ‘Garden Rubbish’, I think, and it may come from that.
Well, I thought I’d done this, but I now see I got 23ac wrong. I was thinking along the lines that as a pianist gives a recital, they could be a “reciter”, but of course the correct noun would be “recitalist”. OK, I couldn’t see how it worked but I couldn’t see 24ac either. (I see Richter kept playing into the nineties, but I don’t recall ever seeing him play.)
Thanks, and thanks for being not the only one having “Tripoli” for 17ac. Came back to the puzzle after several hours and suddenly saw 6dn, which told me I was wrong. I’d been previously telling myself there could be no word starting tb-.
No, I didn’t spot the nina.
Thanks Phi for dropping in. The “beepiarist” is indeed from Garden Rubbish: one of the few gems in a book which I found rather tedious overall.
Correction to 4: I meant 20dn, not 22dn.
Nice end to the week; thanks to setter and bloggers.