This was I thought one of Phi’s harder crosswords. The simplicity of the parsing in many cases doesn’t reflect the ease of solving.
But as always and as we have come to expect he has set a fair challenge full of good clues.
The fact that Phi doesn’t always have a Nina or theme discourages me from trying to find it. Actually I doubt whether I’d try to find it even if he had one every time. In any case I can’t see anything.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PEASANTRY |
Friendly comment’s put out fifty country people (9)
p{L}easantry |
| 6 | STONE |
Gem‘s special quality (5)
s tone |
| 9 | ANTIC |
Father abandoning wild caper (5)
{fr}antic |
| 10 | AGREEMENT |
Union soldiers receiving a welcome? On the contrary (9)
a gree(men)t — it’s the welcome that receives the men, the contrary of what is said |
| 11 | IRON |
Firmness of purpose in suppressing most of argument (4)
i(ro{w})n |
| 12 | SMALL BEER |
Unimportant stuff in shops facing competition in Southern Region (5,4)
S(mall bee)R — mall = shops, bee = competition (as in spelling bee etc.) |
| 14 | IMPRINT |
Something in publication: one never used to include price (7)
1 m(pr)int |
| 16 | MACLEAN |
Spy‘s mother having nothing incriminating (7)
ma clean — ref Donald Maclean |
| 18 | SHINGLE |
First cut of hair in one’s haircut (7)
s(h{air})ingle — not sure about the &lit. aspect here as I’m a little vague about the details of a shingle haircut, but it involves little cuts and layers |
| 20 | CAPSTAN |
Top mark after discharging one revolver (7)
cap sta{i}n |
| 21 | CELEBRANT |
Minister, perhaps, to go on and on behind famous person’s back (9)
celeb rant |
| 23 | ECHO |
Repetition Henry observed in Italian author (4)
Ec(H)o — ref Umberto Eco |
| 26 | ASTRODOME |
A second book about staff in sporting venue (9)
a s t(rod)ome |
| 27 | ROUEN |
Profligate consumption’s closing French city (5)
roué {consumptio}n |
| 28 | GREEN |
Location of hole about to be put in dirt? (5)
g(re)en — a golf reference |
| 29 | RESURGENT |
Remainder, without time pressing, rising again (9)
res(urgen{t})t — a slightly uncomfortable parsing but I think this is it — no, on second thoughts this must be wrong since it requires ‘without’ to do two things: I think it’s just rest without time, ie res{t}, and then urgent |
| Down | ||
| 1 | PLAN |
Prepare for curtailment of foundation (4)
plan{k} |
| 2 | ACTOR |
Performer, tense, welcomed by a cry of enthusiasm (5)
a c(t)or! |
| 3 | ASCENDING |
Aiming high, Alpine Club accepting singular conclusion (9)
A(s)C ending — to begin with I was unsure how Phi got a = alpine, but AC is in Chambers as Alpine Club |
| 4 | TRANSIT |
Passage in feature about bridge team (7)
tra(NS)it |
| 5 | YARD-ARM |
Ship’s timber, cracked beam set upright around rear of tiller (4-3)
(mad ray)rev. round {tille}r |
| 6 | SHELL |
Explosive comment introducing next female act? (5)
“she’ll” — a statement about what the female will do next |
| 7 | OVEREXERT |
Capturing King and Queen, old, old soldier’s to stress too much (9)
o ve(rex ER)t — if you overexert you put too much stress on the body |
| 8 | ENTHRONING |
None right to riot about new bishop’s installation (10)
(none right)* round n — the ceremony of installing a bishop |
| 13 | AILSA CRAIG |
Fails to improve account given by newspaper about one Scottish rock (5,5)
ails ac ra(1)g — ails = fails to improve, and don’t be sidetracked as I was by the fact that ‘ails’ is part of ‘fails’ — this island |
| 15 | PAILLETTE |
Sparkly item I left amongst collection of paints (9)
pa(I l)lette — a new word for me: a spangle |
| 17 | CUPBEARER |
Copper and lead are carried by Queen’s attendant (9)
Cu Pb E(are)R |
| 19 | ENAMOUR |
A good head of hair elevated our charm (7)
(mane)rev. our |
| 20 | CUTLETS |
Some meat allowed during economies (7)
cut(let)s |
| 22 | BROWN |
Brother to admit being ecclesiastical detective (5)
Br own — ref the Father Brown stories of G.K. Chesterton — which have no doubt reached a new audience because of the 2013 TV series, of which I was unaware |
| 24 | HOUSE |
Audience hard to excite after opening fails (5)
h {r}ouse |
| 25 | CNUT |
Old King, note, restricted by wound (4)
c(n)ut — the one that people of my generation would have called Canute, but that name seems to be non-PC nowadays |
Thanks Phi and John
29ac: I took this as RES{t} + URGENT
Pelham you’ve got in quickly. I was just checking it over. Of course you’re correct.
The similarity of ails and fails threw me – couldn’t work out why fails to improve would be [f]ails. It’s maybe not the most obvious definition of ails.
Thanks Phi and John. My impressions are much the same – I found it harder than usual, and couldn’t figure AILS in 13d. All still enjoyable, as ever.
The grid-fill seems a bit lacking in ambition for an unthemed puzzle, and Mr Eco precludes it from being a repurposed Times puzzle. So, it’s probably themed, but it’s beyond me.
Hard to begin with, then got going from the bottom upwards!! Thanks to both.
Trickier than usual for Phi. Needed two sessions for this and I too got going from the bottom up. Can’t see a nina or theme but no doubt someone else will spot one. (There’s BROWN and GREEN in the SW corner but that’s probably just fortuitous.)
Thanks, Phi and John
Thanks Phi and John.
Took a while to get started and then to fully parse. It had to be CNUT, a new ‘spelling’ of Canute for me.
Maclean made me laugh, my parents were visiting Europe in 1951, and were woken in a French hotel one night by two gendarmes shining torches onto their faces – it was not until several days later that they found out the reason.
Cannot see a theme, but almost certainly something is there, several maritime terms etc. AILSA GRAIG is the pen-name of Charlotte MacLoud, but her books do not seem to be the sort that Phi would read!
I did this on a train from London to Nottingham so no aids and I did complete it, so it couldn’t have been that hard.
That said, I couldn’t quite see the parsing for 6dn so thanks for that.
Thoughts from an Ayrshireman regarding possible theme.
Ailsa Craig granite is used to make curling stones.
The curling terms of house, stone and (ma)clean are definitions.
I am not a curler but perhaps there are other curling terms present.