As usual with Phi I was a little slow to get started as few answers seemed to be obvious, but once going it all seemed clear enough. And then I came to a long halt with the last three, 21ac, 19dn and 22dn, which wouldn’t budge. The somewhat unusual sense of ‘clipped’ is my excuse; although it isn’t perhaps all that unusual, being the first item in the second Chambers definition.
In the end it was the usual very pleasant Phi experience. Lots of single-letter abbreviations here: is this a theme? (l = league, d = depth, f = farthing, n = note, E = European, r = runs, h = hard, n = name, m = millions, o = old, s = son, again n = note, and perhaps others I’ve missed.)
The unches at the top and the bottom spell out two words which no doubt send us to some series of books that escape my experience.
Definitions underlined.
Across
7 Difficulty about league team’s weak point (5,4)
BLIND SIDE
b(l)ind side — side = team and league is there to give you the l — I hadn’t really heard of this, knowing only the rugby term
8 Erotic art lacking heart – endlessly boring instead (5)
ADULT
a{r}t with the r replaced by dul{l}
10 Waste a little drink (most of beer) (5)
TOTAL
tot al{e} — waste in the sense lay waste to, devastate
11 Old instrument, strange, with tips of metal hooks enclosed in metal band (9)
KRUMMHORN
I can (could, in retrospect) only get half of this: it’s evidently (rum m{etal} h{ooks}) in korn, but how korn = metal band I can’t (couldn’t) see — it could be k = potassium and orn = band: perhaps some orchestra is the ORN, like the LSO, but not apparently — ah, I’ve just googled it and this explains all — the sort of thing I should have expected, but not perhaps from Phi
12 Franchise ultimately precedes a roll etc possibly described thus? (9)
ELECTORAL
{Franchis}e (a roll etc)*
13 Vessel mostly filled with American food (5)
SUSHI
s(US)hi{p}
15 Soil shortage (no depth) (5)
EARTH
{d}earth
17 Hands back farthing with disdainful response (5)
SNIFF
(fins)rev. f — ‘with’ is not a link-word you usually see in Phi’s crosswords
21 Couple done over after clipping wings of little baby bird (5)
OWLET
l{ittl}e in (two)rev., with ‘clipping’ an inclusion indicator, something I haven’t met before, but it must be fine, since Chambers gives clip = encircle
23 Shock broadcast of story without foundation doing for security expert (9)
LOCKSMITH
locks [= shock] “myth”
25 Spies attending opening of play after tense note from strategist (9)
TACTICIAN
(t Act 1 (CIA) n)
27 Forbidding European filth (5)
GRIME
grim E
28 Big animal runs hard into no end of forest (5)
RHINO
r [= runs] h[= hard] in{t}o, the t being indicated by {fores}t
29 Large quantity, on being swallowed by cattle, produces much explosive power (9)
KILOTONNE
ki(lot on)ne
Down
1 Heroine of novel, literary – what will author do about the French name? (6,4)
LITTLE NELL
lit. t(le n)ell — an author tells a story
2 One reveres union agreement subsequently (8)
IDOLATER
“I do” later — union agreement in the sense that “I do” is part of the Marriage Service
3 Hard problem? Heading off to fiddle (6)
TINKER
{s}tinker
4 Quits ale, changing – to these? (8)
TEQUILAS
(Quits ale)*
5 Priests inviting millions in for harvest festival (6)
LAMMAS
lam(m)as — not a word that those unfamiliar with church activities may know, but familiar to readers of Thomas Hardy
6 Regret picking up old coin (4)
EURO
(rue)rev. o
7 Servant‘s a busy fellow, sending son packing (6)
BUTLER
bu{s}tler
9 Reasonable numbers seen around in rising sport (6)
TENNIS
ten(ni)s, where ni = (in)rev. — but just how tens are ‘reasonable’ numbers I’m not quite sure
14 Fun etc. is, if organised, ample (10)
SUFFICIENT
(Fun etc. is if)*
16 Endless twist about drop in European capital (8)
HELSINKI
hel(sink)i{x}
18 I note attractions providing more thoughtful pieces of information (8)
INSIGHTS
I n sights
19 Hero of series to wander aimlessly (6)
POTTER
2 defs, one of them referring to Harry Potter
20 Lead programme finally involving garden goddess (6)
PHOEBE
P(hoe)b {programm}e — the chemical symbol for lead is Pb
22 Carefully adapt shadow military force (6)
TAILOR
tail [= shadow] OR I think: OR = other ranks, so they are in a sense a military force
24 Light punishment restricting originators of dodgy loans (6)
CANDLE
can(d{odgy} l{oans})e
26 Film speed (4)
CLIP
2 defs
*anagram
I’m glad I wasn’t alone in finding the bottom left corner difficult to crack. Wander aimlessly is a reasonable definition of potter, but it didn’t come to mind. 11ac I got without knowing why. Still, a very satisfying puzzle. Thanks Phi
Thanks John and Phi. I also puzzled about the KORN part of 11a but eventually the penny dropped – my confidence about this one was not helped by being more familiar with the CRUMHORN spelling of the answer! 22d was a struggle because I kept thinking that the “shadow force” was TA. Once again, eventually I saw the light. An enjoyable, well-constructed puzzle – and I’m no wiser than you, John, re the Nina.
Excellent puzzle and blog. Suggest 21a = kilo (lot one) e, a typo perhaps.
Spotting the Little Priest NINA helped me a lot with this (although I’m not exactly sure what it refers to – the top hits on Google seem to be a song from Sweeney Todd). Rhino was my LOI – it took me ages to see that it wasn’t H in some word for forest that was spelt rino?.
Heather, not sure I follow your parsing, but I would agree with John’s. Lot on = large quantity on being swallowed by kine (cattle).
NealH… You’ve got it.. Tailor, Tinker, Potter, Locksmith, Butler are all in the lyrics to ‘A Little Priest’ from Sweeny Todd
Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t find this (or Qaos in The Guardian) very inspiring today. When a setter drags “forest” in to get a ‘t’ or “franchise” just to get the ‘e’, I tend to glaze over somewhat…and this seemed a common feature of this puzzle.
But, as I say, I might just not be in the mood today.
I don’t have a problem with including a word just for one letter, provided the word is sufficiently relevant to add to the surface of the clue. As in 12a; if you’re on the electoral roll you’re enfranchised.
I wondered whether anyone would spot this – there is a nice sequence in the middle of the song ‘A Little Priest’ (which closes Act I of Sweeney Todd) where Mrs Lovett first outlines the range of flavours available from Todd’s activities (including the unforgettable “shepherd’s pie peppered/with actual shepherd/on top”). Partway through the lyrics send up this facility with rhyming when she offers tinker. No, says Sweeney, something pinker. Tailor? No, paler. Potter? No, hotter. Butler? No, something (pause) subtler. Locksmith? Dead silence. There, I thought, was a list of words to build a grid around. (This might not be the last excursion into American song – just
I hadn’t reckoned with a work colleague suddenly asking me about British cannibalism, as he’d watching a film and they’d been singing about it. Yes, with Johnny Depp. “Well, Qigang,” I said, “it so happens I have a crossword about that today…”
Unlike John, I started quickly on this (although I fell into the CRUMHORN/KRUMMHORN trap) but then ground to a halt especially in the top right. Went out for the evening and finally finished it just now.
And I totally missed the Nina again, despite Have a Little Priest being a favourite song of mine. Planning on seeing Bryn Terfel and Emma Thomson singing it next year.