Another great Phi-day puzzle, and one that we found a bit trickier than usual.
As it’s Phi, we’re sure there is a theme, but we haven’t been able to find it yet. There are a lot of potential words in the unches – TATE, MUM, GEENA, ELSE, DEC, RING and SID in the acrosses, and ROE, ALEC, NIT, ARE, OHM, CAT or CATH and HOD in the downs – can this anyone make any sense of these, or is it just coincidence?
| Across | ||
| 7 | Sounded like cat secured English and British pedigree (4-4) | |
| PURE-BRED | PURRED (sounded like a cat) round or ‘securing’ E (English) and B (British) | |
| 9 | Nothing in lorry suitable for large vessel (6) | |
| AORTIC | O (nothing) in ARTIC (lorry) | |
| 10 | Privy to Italy and France’s rejection (2,2) | |
| IN ON | I (Itlay) NON (French for ‘no’ – rejection) | |
| 11 | Work with house in strange Arabic surroundings – not something for Burj Khalifa? (10) | |
| ACROPHOBIA | OP (work) HO (house) in an anagram of ARABIC – anagrind is ‘strange’. Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, in Dubai – not somewhere for those with a fear of heights | |
| 12 | Mum suppressing passion in tight dress (6) | |
| SHEATH | SH (mum, as in ‘quiet’) round or ‘suppressing’ HEAT (passion) | |
| 14 | Top American making comeback with weakest in group securing second (8) | |
| SURMOUNT | US (American) reversed or ‘making a comeback’ + RUNT (weakest in group) round or ‘securing’ MO (second) | |
| 15 | Background program put on, covering one the writer rejected (6) | |
| DAEMON | DON (put on) round or ‘covering’ A (one) ME (the writer) reversed or ‘rejected’ | |
| 17 | Recommendation is persistently ignoring the actual programmes? (6) | |
| ADVICE | We think this must be a play on the idea that someone who persistently ignores (commercial TV) programmes must just watch the adverts, and could be said to have an AD VICE | |
| 20 | Man’s man, one smoother around first of ladies (8) | |
| ISLANDER | I (one) SANDER (smoother) around L (first letter of ‘ladies’) | |
| 22 | Ridicule about recording showcasing Lloyd Webber lead (6) | |
| JOSEPH | JOSH (ridicule) about EP (recording) | |
| 23 | Way to pay for recording when around Yorkshire town that accepts it (6,4) | |
| CREDIT CARD | CD (recording) around REDCAR (Yorkshire town) round or ‘accepting’ IT | |
| 24 | Method with number is older recording style (4) | |
| MONO | MO (modus operandi – method) NO (number) | |
| 25 | Arriving imminently, by the sound of it, being prompt (6) | |
| INCITE | Sounds like (‘by the sound of it’) IN SIGHT (arriving imminently) | |
| 26 | Thoroughgoing theologian went back about old article (4-4) | |
| DEEP-DYED | DD (theologian) PEED (went) all reversed or ‘back’ around YE (old article) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Put out question to finish off captured revolutionary (8) | |
| QUENCHED | QU (question) END (finish off) round or ‘capturing’ CHE (revolutionary) | |
| 2 | Bird, a model, disregarding sign of affection (4) | |
| TERN | ||
| 3 | Part of Ireland: member’s after a good hotel? On the contrary (6) | |
| ARMAGH | ARM (member) before A G (good) H (hotel) – ‘on the contrary’ indicating ‘before’ not ‘after’ | |
| 4 | Fiddled with current measure adopted by Irish politician (8) | |
| TAMPERED | AMPERE (current measure) in or ‘adopted by’ TD (Irish politician) | |
| 5 | Crimes go on after revising study of workplace (10) | |
| ERGONOMICS | An anagram of CRIMES GO ON – anagind is ‘after revising’ | |
| 6 | End up in the wrong, like a monkey (6) | |
| SIMIAN | AIM (end) reversed or ‘up’ in SIN (wrong) | |
| 8 | Uniform included in clothing constraint (6) | |
| DURESS | U (uniform) in DRESS (clothing) | |
| 13 | Song about country surrounding old African city (10) | |
| ALEXANDRIA | ARIA (song) about LAND (country) ‘surrounding’ EX (old) | |
| 16 | Excess I’d taken up limits curious situations (8) | |
| ODDITIES | OD (excess – overdose) I’D reversed or ‘taken up’ TIES (limits) | |
| 18 | End up in former flat with more stuff (8) | |
| EXPANDED | This seems to be an anagram of END, the anagrind being ‘up’, which is rather unusual, but not unreasonable, in EX (former) PAD (flat) | |
| 19 | Some housekeeper ran domestic duty for a servant (6) | |
| ERRAND | Hidden in, or ‘some’ of ‘housekeepER RAN Domestic’ | |
| 21 | Analyst having a brief time in depression (6) | |
| SHRINK | HR (‘brief’ time) in SINK (depression) | |
| 22 | Epistle’s incorporating good part of Old Testament (6) | |
| JUDGES | JUDE’S (epistles – a new one on us) round or ‘incorporating’ G (good) | |
| 24 | Girl ditching American I encountered in South of France (4) | |
| MIDI | M |
|
Defeated by the SE corner, and missed the parsing of quite a few others which I found very tricky. I don’t know what those words in the unches mean either, so definitely a win to Phi for this one.
Thanks to Phi for such a good challenge and to B & J for explaining the difficult clues so well.
Not finished yet, but I am beginning to wonder if Phi is a cat lover?
Cookie @ 2 – Yes he definitely is. There’s a whole page about his cats on his website
Thanks Phi and Bertandjoyce.
An enjoyable puzzle, but hard going for me, especially some of the parsing. ADVICE was really good (I think B&J have interpreted the clue correctly!) and so was INCITE.
As for my suspicion of a cat theme, the words for CAT are QT in Arabic (TQ reading from right to left, vowel not hard, so omitted), CATH in Welsh, KASS in Estonian, PISICI (plural) in Romanian… but I am probably meowing up the wrong tree.
I didn’t find this too tricky, apart from 26ac, although some of the parsings escaped me. I couldn’t remember what ACROPHOBIA is the fear of, nor did Burj Khalifa mean anything to me, but fortunately the anagram fodder was easily unscrambled. Couldn’t see a theme/nina, but I think Cookie’s suggestion is as good as any.
Thanks, Phi and B&J
Way too hard for me today, I’m afraid. Got just over half of it and then ran out of time/enthusiasm.
Thanks, all three.
Well, I did wonder whether this one was too outrageous to be sussed. A while ago I spotted a photo, probably shopped, of a crowd of cats clustered around a municipal sign saying “No cats here by order”. Only it said it first in another weird-looking language. My interest was piqued, not merely by the language but by the fact that it coexisted with English. Where was that?
Malta, it turned out, where cats = QTATES. Armed with Google Translate I went looking for 6-letter versions of ‘cats’ in other languages. I had to exclude Cyrillic and the like, and I was wary of transliterations but there was a decent sample to choose from.
I really am rather flabbergasted that anyone spotted it. Bravo!
Thank you again Phi for all the fun, I do hope the Independent online will keep the crossword going.
What made me suspicious was CAT, after ruling out CATHODE, so I googled round for KASS. The result encouraged me to look for PISI–, I found PISICA in Romanian and then searched to check the plural which took some doing.
Then I got suspicious about that QT, it suggested Arabic. I have just tried Google Translate for the first time, the plural for cats in Arabic is QTT, many Maltese words are from the Arabic (the singular for cat in Maltese is QAT).
I’m hours too late I know, but to complete the picture: “cats” appear along all four sides:
top QTATES (Maltese)
bottom KASSID (Estonian)
left PISICI (Romanian)
right CATHOD (Welsh)
There’s also a mini Lloyd Webber theme, with CATS and JOSEPH at 22A.
Re 22d, isn’t the Epistle of Jude the penultimate book of the New Testament?
Looks like you are correct Denzo. It is not something we bothered to check and looks like nobody else noticed it back in 2016.
I am no holier than any one else and, no longer having a bible, had to google to con firm my suspicion, but have not previously met a Phi clue which could not be parsed.
Indeed, but the answer is Judges, part of the Old Testament. Wouldn’t expect Phi to get that wrong.
Anyway, thanks B&J, needed your help here!