Another Friday, another Phi-day. It took us a little longer to get started on this one. No idea why – perhaps it was just one of those days. There’s one (4d) which we are not totally happy about our parsing. It’s the role that ‘Reputation’ has that is causing some of the concern.
Well, once again we have looked for a theme and not found one. Could it be one of Phi’s obscure personal themes to help him fill the grid or are we missing something?
| Across | ||
| 1 | Possibly recruit officer to company | |
| COLT | LT (officer) after or ‘to’ CO (company) | |
| 4 | Trainee keen to retain misplaced trust? Not right | |
| ART STUDENT | ARDENT (keen) around or ‘retaining’ an anagram of T |
|
| 9 | Slave with line lassoing one flowering plant | |
| HELIOTROPE | HELOT (slave) + ROPE (line) around or ‘lassoing’ I (one) | |
| 10 | Frontless dress to cause a stir? | |
| ROCK | ||
| 11 | Drunken barflies dislocated bone | |
| FALSE RIB | An anagram of BARFLIES (anagrind is ‘drunken’) | |
| 12 | Man with balls getting reduced notice being naked | |
| UNCLAD | UNCL |
|
| 13 | Lines, namely comment on passing time | |
| SCRIPT | SC (namely) RIP (comment on passing as in Rest in Peace) T (time) | |
| 15 | Acknowledge a lot of rocks, including one of the heaviest rocks | |
| GRANITIC | GRANT (acknowledge) IC |
|
| 17 | Arctic vessel circling island in the Channel Isles | |
| ICE YACHT | CAY (island) in THE CI (Channel Isles) reversed or ‘circling’ | |
| 19 | Roof-worker succeeded afterwards | |
| SLATER | S (succeeded) LATER (afterwards) | |
| 20 | Witch getting a lot of profit as prophet | |
| HAGGAI | HAG (witch) GAI |
|
| 22 | Juvenile holding power in resort | |
| YARMOUTH | YOUTH (juvenile) around ARM (power) | |
| 24 | Wine writing with no little power | |
| ROSÉ | ||
| 25 | Is officer chasing quantity of film stars? | |
| CANIS MAJOR | IS MAJOR (officer) after or ‘chasing’ CAN (quantity of film) | |
| 26 | A lot of money is surrounding man with operating system: the culminating point | |
| APOTHEOSIS | A POT (lot of money) IS ‘surrounding’ HE (man) + OS (operating system) | |
| 27 | Old variables, involving core of algebra, call for attention | |
| OYEZ | O (old) YZ (variables) around or ‘involving’ E middle letter or ‘core’ of Algebra | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | Person involved in vocal parts of Tosca is producing this | |
| OPERA | PER (person) inside O A (vowels or ‘vocal parts’ of Tosca) | |
| 3 | This time I left yard clutching last of timber with some eagerness | |
| THIRSTILY | THIS T (time) I L (left) Y (yard) around or ‘clutching’ R (last letter in ‘timber’) | |
| 4 | Line encapsulating source of Scott’s reputation? | |
| ANTARCTIC CIRCLE | We’re not totally sure about the parsing of this one. Scott is famous for his exploration of the Antarctic, which is encapsulated obviously by the ANTARCTIC CIRCLE. Also the source of Scott could be seen as the first letter or S (South). Does anyone else have a neater way of explaining the answer please? | |
| 5 | Excessively delay adopting black kit | |
| TOOLBAG | TOO (excessively) LAG (delay) around or ‘adopting’ B (black) | |
| 6 | Novel astonishes and lures possibly | |
| THE SUN ALSO RISES | THIS novel is an anagram of ASTONISHES and LURES (anagrind is ‘possibly’) | |
| 7 | Scientist picked up circuit board feeding in current | |
| DIRAC | CARD (circuit board) reversed or ‘picked up’ around or ‘feeding in’ I (current) gives THIS scientist | |
| 8 | Fruit I found in entrance squashed | |
| NECTARINE | I inside an anagram of ENTRANCE (anagrind is ‘squashed’) | |
| 14 | Excited, ready to fire a round | |
| COCK-A-HOOP | COCK (ready to fire) A HOOP (round) | |
| 16 | Lover keen on engaging second artist | |
| INAMORATO | INTO (keen on) around or ‘engaging’ A MO (second) RA (artist) | |
| 18 | Experiments with bells around railway | |
| TRYINGS | TINGS (bells) around RY (railway) | |
| 21 | Catch involved about welcome | |
| GREET | GET (catch) around or ‘involving’ RE (about) | |
| 23 | Transactions almost complete for ownerless items | |
| TROVE | TR (transactions) OVE |
|
This took me ages to get started, too. By the end of the acrosses I had only two answers on the first pass. However, progress remained steady, and perhaps picked up towards the end. Unfamiliar words today 18D Tryings and 20A Haggai. I put 4D down as a CD. Favourite 26A Apotheosis just because it’s a lovely word! TGIPhi, and thanks to Bertandjoyce!
Is there a connection between The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway’s Iceberg theory, ice yacht, Antarctic Circle and possibly 15A?
…and heliotrope (sun) and 24A link to 6D.
Thanks for your comments Chris and Helen – we don’t recognise your names so perhaps your are new to 225 – if so, welcome!
We are surprised by the lack of comments. We have been without internet access all day so this is the first chance we have had to check the blog. You may well be correct. Perhaps Phi will check in later and let us know.
Nothing in this one other than the realisation that the clue for UNCLAD wasn’t suitable for the outlet where it first occurred to me, but would be perfectly OK in the Independent. So in it went and I dipped into my ongoing list of interesting words to fill a few other slots.
I think I’d done ANTARCTIC CIRCLE elsewhere recently which had used up one idea, so I went for a CD. Sometimes these ‘manufactured’ CDs work better than others. Not really sure about this one.
Thanks for dropping by Phi and giving us the low-down. Have a good weekend.