Another week over and another Phi to end it with.
During the solve Bert noticed that LADY BENCHER could be found in the unches in the SE corner. It wasn’t until the very end that we realised our mistake. We actually prefer it when bloggers give a hint that there is a theme or nina, we then have an opportunity to sort it out for ourselves. On the other hand, we have people who want the whole thing revealed at the beginning. We have attempted to please both camps which may or may not work.
Along the bottom Bert found BENCHERS going backwards and then Joyce noticed HELLYAA going up which rang a few bells. It suddenly dawned us that we had
It was then that we realised that we had an error in 16ac. When this was corrected we found THIS.
Thanks Phi – all good fun for a Friday.
| Across | ||
| 8 | A river’s name, nothing more (4) | |
| ARNO | A R (river) N (name) O (nothing) – a cryptic definition for the Italian river | |
| 9 | A scoundrel nipping back to snatch one item of jewellery (5) | |
| TIARA | A RAT (scoundrel) reversed or ‘back’ around or ‘nipping’ I (one) | |
| 10 | Grant, perhaps – college horde squandering millions (4) | |
| CARY | C (college) AR |
|
| 11 | A US writer penning good English? That’s the remotest thing (6) | |
| APOGEE | A POE (US writer) around or ‘penning’ G (good) + E (English) | |
| 12 | Scary shifts, covering most of lap in synthetic fibres (8) | |
| ACRYLICS | An anagram of SCARY (anagrind is ‘shifts’) around or ‘covering’ LIC |
|
| 13 | Certainly uncommonly teary about Queen in the past (10) | |
| YESTERYEAR | YES (certainly) + an anagram of TEARY (anagrind is ‘uncommonly’) about ER (Queen) | |
| 16 | Store that’s invested in modelling in America? (4) | |
| DELI | The answer is hidden in the clue when the word is written with an American spelling moDELIng. This was our LOI – we’d had DELL written in for a while – yes, we knew that it was an IT firm rather than a store – as we couldn’t think of anything else. When we had completed the grid and found the nina we were able to correct our mistake. | |
| 17 | Particle captured suddenly after one escapes (6) | |
| LEPTON | LE |
|
| 19 | Aircraft pilots heading off, having recalled answer (6) | |
| CESSNA | ||
| 21 | Can start to accommodate molten material (4) | |
| LAVA | LAV (can) A (first letter or ‘start’ to accommodate) | |
| 22 | Fake vandalised? Not initially penitent (10) | |
| SHAMEFACED | SHAM (fake) |
|
| 24 | Divers, full of excitement, abandoning river, circling cape (8) | |
| ECLECTIC | ELECT |
|
| 26 | Appropriate logo for company, perhaps involving one cathedral (6) | |
| TIMELY | TM (‘logo for company’, as in trade mark) around or ‘involving’ I (one) + ELY (cathedral) | |
| 28 | Tries to avoid acting of the woman (4) | |
| HERS | HE |
|
| 29 | Fabric swatch in orange, though not entirely (5) | |
| CHINO | Hidden in the clue (‘not entirely’) – swatCH IN Orange | |
| 30 | Slopes deprived of soft sheep (4) | |
| RAMS | RAM |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | Go over a lot of nonsense (4) | |
| TRIP | TRIP |
|
| 2 | Confectionery name incomplete: different name taken up (6) | |
| NOUGAT | NOU |
|
| 3 | Old German man blocking military vehicles and soldiers (5,5) | |
| OTHER RANKS | O (old) + HERR (German man) inside or ‘blocking’ TANKS (military vehicles’) | |
| 4 | Endless party, no longer fresh, showing devastation (7) | |
| RAVAGED | RAV |
|
| 5 | Loud song of reasonable quality (4) | |
| FAIR | F (loud) AIR (song) | |
| 6 | Stops senior officer getting head of detectives to probe crime information (8) | |
| OCCLUDES | OC (senior officer as in Officer Commanding) + D (first letter or ‘head’ of detectives) inside or ‘probing’ CLUES (crime information) | |
| 7 | Copper advanced, stopping short, interrupting cessation of hostilities and aggression? (10) | |
| TRUCULENCE | CU (copper) + LEN |
|
| 14 | Lovely gumshoe given to baseball player (3-7) | |
| EYE-CATCHER | EYE (gumshoe) CATCHER (baseball player) | |
| 15 | Hobby developed into career (10) | |
| RECREATION | An anagram of INTO CAREER (anagrind is ‘developed’) | |
| 18 | Cross and abrupt about half of partying (8) | |
| TRAVERSE | TERSE (abrupt) about RAV |
|
| 20 | Riotous overture for concert penned by composer, I see (7) | |
| BACCHIC | C (first letter or ‘overture’ of concert) in or ‘penned by’ BACH (composer) I C (see) | |
| 23 | Think a lot of spot with quantity of mud (6) | |
| ADMIRE | AD (spot as in advert) MIRE (quantity of mud) | |
| 25 | Gutted the church and college (4) | |
| TECH | T |
|
| 27 | Meat? Happen to be tucking into pound (4) | |
| LAMB | AM (happen) inside or ‘tucking into’ LB (pound) | |
Friday is definitely Phiday for us! We like his themes and although they are sometimes too obscure to add to the pleasure (and it is always a pleasure) of solving, this was fun. Like you we could see there was something, but the link with the ups and backs didn’t dawn till near the end. How intriguing to discover Up Helly Aa!
Thanks to Bert and Joyce and Phi. We’re visiting the land of the long white cloud in January, so we’ll have to pay you our regards!
Well spotted! The grid with unches all round the edge screamed ‘nina’ but apart from ‘bench’ (I didn’t connect the ‘er’) I couldn’t see anything else so thought it was just fortuitous. Just goes to show that you don’t need to see ninas or hidden themes to enjoy a well-constructed crossword.
I found the SW corner tricky. No doubt because in 14dn I initially took ‘gumshoe’ to be PI (private investigator) so that the second word might be PITCHER – not that I could think of a suitable first word. Eventually TRAVERSE followed by LAVA put me on the right track.
Thanks, Phi and B&J.
Second day in a row with a DNF.
It’s all very clever, but the layout made it very hard for this solver. Thanks to Phi and B&J.
Thanks Phi and Bertandjoyce.
I found this hard going and had to parse several words post-solve, needed B&J’s help with DELI and EYE for ‘gumshoe’ was new.
Of course I did not spot the nina, but with the hint from B&J managed to finally see what was going on (that was nicely done).
Yes thanks B&J, in my opinion you’ve got it about right so far as disclosing the Nina is concerned. There are people (like me) who don’t really care a lot about it but are vaguely interested when they are told what is going on and there are those who find it as interesting as they do the crossword itself.
So far as I was concerned this was a good example of Phi’s craft. How he manages to produce such good clues and also to think of the Nina and incorporate it so well is very impressive. I had a couple wrong: 1dn was an unparsed rude word, which I suspected was wrong but I couldn’t see anything else, also DELL. If I’d seen the Nina I’d have found these mistakes.
Phi usually manages to do all this without departing from 50%+ checking, but in this crossword he has twice deviated from his usual rule. What does that matter, some say.
I’d go so far as to say that if there’s less than 50% checking, then there’s probably something going on that has cornered me into doing it!
NZ in January is usually pretty good (visitors take note) – summer only really gets going after Christmas (though we did hit a very muggy 30C on Christmas Day a few years ago), and absolutely gets going once the kids go back to school in February. Always happy to guide people to interesting sights!