If it didn’t say “The Friday Crossword by Phi” in the paper, then the completed grid would give you a few clues as to who compiled it!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | (HELP IM)*,ON – the epistle to PHILEMON is an apparently undisputed work by St Paul. This was news to me but the clue was easy enough, especially with a couple of checking letters here and there. |
| 9 | HIL[-l] in PIP – I assume this is right as I can’t account for PIP, which must be connected to “aggrieved feeling” somehow. Full clue is “Man’s aggrieved feeling about endless inclination”. |
| 10 | HI in PAL |
| 11 | PORT<,HIES – it was this clue and 10A which led me to the PHI theme in the puzzle. |
| 12 | (HIS PLIGH[-t] POISON)* – PHILOSOPHISING. Two PHIs for the price of one. (Edit: thanks to nmsindy for pointing out a minor mistake, now corrected] |
| 16 | S,TIG,MA – TIG is another name for “tag” or “it” as we called it in my school. |
| 18 | (HOSPITAL IN P[-e]RTH)* – PHILANTHROPIST. |
| 20 | ALTO in DINE[-r] |
| 24 | COR,NEA[-r] – I loved the definition here: “something of a looker”. |
| 25 | CAY< in HINT,H – filled this on the basis of clue=HINT so I had to look up why CAY is “island”. Turns out it’s another spelling of “key”. |
| Down | |
| 3 | INST,EP – INST for “current month” is always worth making a mental note of. Biazarrely, I read the enumeration for this as (4,2) rather than (2,4) which held me up for a while. |
| 4 | U,PTO – this is something I’ve not seen before: “do read further” for PTO (Please Turn Over). |
| 6 | KIL[-l]ER,G – KILLER for “decisive fact” occurred to me straight away but KILERG just didn’t look like a word. Eventually I filled it in, but only because I couldn’t think of anything else to fit it. |
| 8 | (EMAILS)* in ATM< – MELISMATA was new to me and I nearly went for MILESMATA. It’s a musical term meaning “an ornamental phrase of several notes sung to one syllable of text”. |
| 14 | (E IN A TRIAL)* – INTER ALIA. |
| 17 | SOLU[-tion] in (BEAT)* |
| 18 | H in GO,ZIP (going up) – PHIZOG is a shortening of “physiognomy”. |
| 23 | PHIZ – “fizz”. PHIZ was Hablot Knight Browne. |
To get the pip means to be aggrieved in some way, e.g. “He’s given me the pip”
V minor correction in 12 across – it’s the pligh(t) that’s endless. I did not see the theme till the very end. Good as always from Phi.
Shameless self-publicity: anyone care to blog the FT today?
I’d like to see that one blogged too as I’m currently stuck on a few. If it isn’t likely to get blogged can one of the bloggers create an entry so that we can at least discuss it in a sensible place?
Thanks.
Testy – ’tis done.