The usual excellent production from Phi. My own stupidity resulted in lack of completion — I was looking for ages at 1dn — and in particular Phi has done two things of which I approve: although there are unches all round the edges he never has less than 50% checking, something that the grid makes a bit tricky; and in 12ac he has given us some wordplay. Many setters would have been quite happy with ‘Supporters of bridges’ as a cryptic definition, but not Phi, who gives us two ways into the solution, realising that there is nothing to stop you from having a clever and witty definition in a ‘straight’ clue.
The unches around the edges suggest that there is some sort of Nina here, but I can’t of course see it, although some of the combinations of letters suggest one.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | ||
| 7 | ADHESION |
He’s enthralled by a Canadian singer – that’s a sticking point (8)
A D(he’s)ion — referring to Celine Dion, not Leonard Cohen — I had COHESION, not having taken enough trouble, and therefore became unable to do 1dn |
| 9 | TRANCE |
Number used in indication of musical style (6)
tra(n)ce — this is trance music, of which I’d never heard and probably should have |
| 10 | ATTEST |
Bear witness to watching international deliveries? (6)
at test — if you’re at a test match you’re probably watching international deliveries |
| 11 | NEGATION |
One cancels new diplomatic mission after leader pulls out (8)
n {l}egation |
| 12 | ROMAN NOSES |
Oarsmen possibly including numbers as supporters of bridges? (5,5)
(oarsmen)* round nos — bridges of the nose |
| 14 | OR SO |
Film director’s name cut short roughly (2,2)
Orso{n} [Welles] |
| 15 | SPOOMS |
Englishman carrying nothing on board moves fast at sea (6)
S(Po(0)m)S — not a common word, but to spoon (also spoom) is to scud before the wind, according to Chambers |
| 17 | AUSSIE |
American is backing investing in application from Melbourne? (6)
A (is)rev. in use |
| 20 | SAES |
Return mail main areas processed in reverse order (4)
(seas)rev. |
| 22 | ROTISSERIE |
Oven to spoil one’s TV programmes (last cancelled) (10)
rot 1’s serie{s} |
| 24 | LIBRETTI |
Story time? It reflected including British words for operas (8)
Br in (lie t (it)rev.) |
| 25 | LOLITA |
Recalled Love in a Farm, a novel (6)
(a til(0)l)rev. |
| 26 | ECLAIR |
Sweet food where financiers hide? (6)
EC lair — EC being the City (not the old abbreviation for the EU) |
| 27 | EATERIES |
Teas ‘ere, I fancy! (8)
(Teas ‘ere I)*, &lit. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | EDITIONS |
Rabble-rousing, first to last, in such publications (8)
sedition with the first letter moved to the end |
| 2 | GENEVA |
European city, say, erected on river entering Baltic (6)
(eg)rev. Neva — the Neva is the river on which St Petersburg stands |
| 3 | HINT |
Suggestion having some worth in time (4)
Hidden in wortH IN Time |
| 4 | STEGOSAURS |
Argues toss about extinct creatures (10)
(Argues toss)* |
| 5 | CAPTIOUS |
Criticising limitation – in our view restricting one (8)
cap t(1)o us — ‘in our view’ = ‘to us’ |
| 6 | ACROSS |
A burden this isn’t! (6)
A cross — this is not an across clue |
| 8 | NANISM |
Upset fellow about wrong condition of small things (6)
(m(sin)an)rev. — hadn’t heard the word, but fairly obvious in view of nanotechnology |
| 13 | NUMERATORS |
More than one arithmetic quantity could be – ur – 16? (10)
Since 16 is ON STREAM this is (ur on stream)* |
| 16 | ON-STREAM |
Number picked up power, capturing river already flowing (2-6)
(no.)rev. st(r)eam |
| 18 | EPISTLES |
Letters seen in stone in English buildings (8)
E pi(st)les |
| 19 | STRIPE |
Measure of rank, second of three corporal finally ignored (6)
s trip{l}e, the l that is removed coming from {corpora}l |
| 21 | APIECE |
One’s carrying dessert for each person (6)
a(pie)ce |
| 23 | ELLERY |
Queen? Queen tucking into royal stuff, not Judge (6)
{j}ell(ER)y — referring to Ellery Queen |
| 25 | LATE |
Turning up at midnight for some ball at eleven? (4)
Hidden in balL AT Eleven — the second time in this crossword that we have had the giveaway ‘some’ for a hidden — I don’t quite see how ‘turning up at midnight’ = ‘late’ and suspect I’m missing something
|
Too hard for me: desperately seeking the blog! Thanks to both.
Yes, SPOOMS was forced on me rather as was SAES. I suspect this is sufficiently intricate to demand a hint, so here is a couple: cyclical, across.
I haven’t got a clue what the nina is, and there must be one otherwise Phi’s comment @2 makes no sense. I enjoyed this but I also raised an eyebrow at SAES and SPOOMS, the latter of which was my LOI and I was waiting for the checker from 13dn before I was happy to trust the wordplay for it.
I usually look forward to and enjoy Phi in his normal Friday slot, but I didn’t enjoy this at all. It appeared to be a crossword that had crawled through a wormhole from a parallel universe and was masquerading as a daily cryptic in this part of the cosmos. SPOOMS? SAES? CAPTIOUS? Give me a break. I gave up with about a third to go, and that’s the first time I’ve done that with a Phi puzzle for a long, long time.
Didn’t help myself by putting COHESION in at 1ac like John.
And the nina? Even with Phi’s hint I can’t see it and I’m not minded to spend time looking any further. A normally good Friday Indy crossword sacrificed on the Altar of the Goddess Nina, I’m afraid. Can we have a vanilla Phi next Friday, please?
End of rant. Good weekend to all.
Thanks Phi and John. I found this hard but enjoyable, though I eventually used a thesaurus for 5d.
I’ve got no good ideas on the nina either, but I’ll venture some observations. The puzzle is quite anti-pangrammatic – we’ve got no FJKQWXZ, and VY only have minor cameos at the periphery. I’m sure that contributed to a lot of the difficulty and must be a necessary side-effect of the theme. I would guess that OR SO was also forced in since it’s a slightly weird choice over OUST or OSSA.
I thought this was tougher than normal for Phi, but I did manage to finish it. Getting captious was a matter of working through the possible letters job after I’d got as far as -a-tious. Spooms was one of those where the solution occurs fairly quickly but the word looks a bit too odd, so you hesitate to put it in.
John, 25D turning up at midnight for a ball (scheduled to start) at eleven …
CAPTIOUS not a word one hears often, but would not have thought it so obscure as claimed.
This took me a long time and have no idea about the Nina.
Thanks to Phi and John.
This was pearls before swine as far as I was concerned. My vocabulary doesn’t stretch to SPOOMS or CAPTIOUS, and I kind of lost interest halfway through. As for a Nina…..
Thanks for the blog anyway, and to Phi
I did complete all of this unaided bar 15A Spooms, at which I utterly failed. I needed all the crossing letters for 5D Captious, after which I decided it was the least unlikely-sounding solution. SAEs? Is The Independent allowing abbreviations as answers now?
I looked at the Google Ngram graph for word frequency of “captious” and “spoom”. Captious has never been common and has been decreasing in usage for 200 years. Spoom is vanishingly rare. So, yes, it was hard.
Thanks for your work on the blog, John. Thanks for the challenge, Phi, I enjoyed it, despite my inability to complete it.
Aha, got it finally! The outer pair of letters in each across entry become the inner pair of letter in the next one.
Well done, Cyborg. I’ll refrain from commenting about how pointless that is from a solver’s point of view. However, a recycled vanilla Phi is in the i today, which I am halfway through and am enjoying. Will finish when England have taken another three wickets against Phi’s adopted country.
K’s D @11: Oh dear! The i usually has (recycled) Phi on Saturdays. Does that mean we’re going to get some horrendous recycled footie-themed puzzle tomorrow, I wonder?
Yes, definitely on the tough side, especially the bottom half. I needed help to get 5dn and 15ac, and even with help, I couldn’t see 20ac.
When I did the one with CA and AC dancing their way through the across entries someone on fifteensquared said how much they preferred Ninas where the letters of the entries were manipulated rather than Ninas where there were thematic links between selected answers. And this was the result, so be careful what you ask for. Cyborg is quite right, by the way.
You may be able to treat next week’s as vanilla – when it eventually comes around.
While I’m always in for a (vanilla) treat, it seems that – according to Crossword Solver – there will be no Phi next week.
A Phi-less week?
Late as away this weekend, but feel obliged to make two apposite comments.
Firstly, I am one who has adored some of Phi’s non-thematic Ninas (in fact, I often wonder whether hidden themes should be described thus given the Nina’s origin) – perhaps this one was just a little too subtle for some. (I didn’t spot it, but circumstances made me solve this inattentively – I usually take my Phi with a Saturday morning coffee; not possible this week).
Secondly, I can think of another setter whom we approve of regularly including several more abstruse words.
So, Phi, please don’t go changing – it’s part of your individuality as a compiler and, for me, your high value.
Thanks again, and to John.