As is customary on Friday, Phi’s latest puzzle takes us gently into the weekend and all its cruciverbal challenges.
I found this to be a medium difficulty puzzle for Phi in the Indy and I made steady progress throughout, never really getting bogged down.
I am fairly happy with my parsing, but I would appreciate confirmation of 16 and 19. I also wondered if “do well” at 1D was a tad weak by way of definition. My favourites today were 3, 5D, 8, 9 and 11, all for smoothness of surface; and 10, for originality of construction. 18D and the coarse cotton at 6 were both new to me, I think.
Has anyone spotted a theme here? I certainly haven’t, but no surprises there.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are underlined; a break in underlining separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| ACROSS
|
||
| 1 | COMPASS |
Limit kindness? No one turned away (7)
|
| COMPASS<ion> (=kindness); “no one turned (=reversed) away (=dropped)” means letters “ion”, i.e. “no (=number) + i (=one)” are not used; the compass of something is its limit, the extent of it | ||
| 5 | MODICUM |
Little doctor’s pronouncement, taking temperature (7)
|
| MO (=doctor, i.e. medical officer) + DIC<t>UM (=pronouncement, i.e. something said; “taking (out) temperature (=T)” means letter “t” is dropped | ||
| 9 | NIX |
Cancel nine to begin with? Nine (3)
|
| N<ine> (“to begin with” means first letter only is used) + IX (=nine, in Roman numerals); to nix is to cancel, reject | ||
| 10 | DOUBLE-CROSS |
Cheat, repeating final letter of last answer? (6-5)
|
| DOUBLE (=repeating) + CROSS (=X, i.e. final letter of last answer, which is “nix” at 9) | ||
| 11 | UNDERWRITE |
What insurer may do, governed by legal document (European) (10)
|
| UNDER (=governed by, as in under UK law) + WRIT (=legal document) + E (=European) | ||
| 12 | SKUA |
Seabird a European country’s repulsed (4)
|
| A + UK’S (=European country’s); “repulsed” indicates reversal | ||
| 14 | RAMROD |
Staff concealing a title for man, a strict disciplinarian (6)
|
| [A + MR (=title for man)] in ROD (=staff, pole) | ||
| 16 | FREAK OUT |
Arrangement of Take Four? How Brubeck might respond (5,3)
|
| *(TAKE FOUR); “arrangement of” is anagram indicator; the Dave Brubeck Quartet, might “freak out” if its renowned performances of the jazz standard “Take Five” suddenly were to become “Take Four”! | ||
| 18 | MESSAGES |
More than one report gets old after confusion (8)
|
| MESS (=confusion) + AGES (=gets old) | ||
| 19 | HOOKED |
Under compulsion, Home Office initially agreed (6)
|
| HO (=Home Office) + OKed (=agreed; “initially” implies this spelling, with initial letters, as opposed to okayed); if you are hooked on something, you are dependent on it, hence are “under compulsion” | ||
| 22 | MACE |
Spicy stuff: hint of masochism excellent (4)
|
| M<asochism> (“hint of” means first letter only) + ACE (=excellent); mace, or nutmeg, is a culinary spice | ||
| 23 | BATTLESHIP |
Tablet’s revamped trendy element of pen-and-paper game (10)
|
| *(TABLET’S) + HIP (=trendy, fashionable); “revamped” is anagram indicator | ||
| 26 | STORYTELLER |
Fabulist, believer in markets, perhaps, keeping right-winger tense (11)
|
| [TORY (=right-winner) + T (=tense, in grammar)] in SELLER (=believer in markets, perhaps) | ||
| 27 | RUN |
One avoiding loss in delivery round? (3)
|
| RU<i>N (=loss; “one (=I) avoiding” means letter “i” is dropped); an e.g. milk run is a delivery round | ||
| 28 | NOMINEE |
Candidate: a lot of negative votes about my selection? (7)
|
| MINE (=my selection?) in NOE<s> (=negative votes; “a lot of” means last letter is dropped) | ||
| 29 | SECRETS |
Religious groups gathering about things to be revealed? (7)
|
| RE- (=about, regarding) in SECTS (=religious groups) | ||
| DOWN
|
||
| 1 | CONQUER |
Do well to study question, eliminating unknown component (7)
|
| CON (=to study) + QUER<y> (=(to) question; “eliminating unknown component (=Y, in algebra)” means letter “y” is dropped) | ||
| 2 | MIXED |
The writer’s upset Times editor in confusion (5)
|
| MI (I’M=the writer’s, i.e. Phi; “upset” indicates vertical reversal) + X (=times, as in 6 x 4 = 24) + ED (=editor) | ||
| 3 | ALDERWOMAN |
Civic dignitary possibly now alarmed (10)
|
| *(NOW ALARMED); “possibly” is anagram indicator | ||
| 4 | SQUIRM |
Knight embracing Queen and maiden, making you feel uncomfortable (6)
|
| [QU (=queen) in SIR (=knight)] + M (=maiden, on cricket scorecard) | ||
| 5 | MILITARY |
Landed area in muddy surroundings for the army (8)
|
| [LIT (=landed (on) + A (=area)] in MIRY (=muddy, boggy) | ||
| 6 | DUCK |
Avoid coarse cotton, dear (4)
|
| Triple definition: (to) “duck” is to dodge, evade AND a kind of coarse cotton or linen AND dear, i.e. as a term of endearment | ||
| 7 | CLOCKWORK |
Face elevated argument over last of steampunk machinery (9)
|
| CLOCK (=face, mug, colloquially) + WOR (ROW=argument; “elevated” indicates vertical reversal) + <steampun>K (“last of” means last letter only) | ||
| 8 | MISCAST |
One starts to seem crazy, drilling section of yacht with the wrong part (7)
|
| [I (=one) + S<eem> C<razy> (“starts to” means first letters only are used)] in MAST (=section of yacht); if you are miscast, you have been given “the wrong part” in a play, say | ||
| 13 | BAROMETRIC |
Describing pressure arising from wandering of erratic mob (10)
|
| *(ERRATIC MOB); “from wandering of” is anagram indicator | ||
| 15 | MUSIC ROOM |
American mother keeping various curios in playing area (5,4)
|
| *(CURIOS) in MOM (=American mother, i.e. an American way of saying mum) | ||
| 17 | LEGALESE |
Storms penetrating sheltered zone? Here’s the small print on policy (8)
|
| GALES (=storms) in LEE (=sheltered zone, on vessel) | ||
| 18 | MU MESON |
Particle’s energy absorbed by quiet child (2,5)
|
| E (=energy) in [MUM (=quiet, as in to keep mum) + SON (=child)]; mu meson is a kind of subatomic particle | ||
| 20 | DAPHNIS |
Famous lover‘s lust for one with husband – apartment overturned (7)
|
| SIN (=lust for one, i.e. one of the seven deadly sins) + H (=husband) + PAD (=apartment, as in bachelor pad); “overturned” indicates vertical reversal; the reference is to Daphnis, a famous lover in Greek mythology | ||
| 21 | STYLUS |
Pen, mostly attractive – digital pen? (6)
|
| STY (=pen, for pigs) + LUS<h> (=attractive; “mostly” means last letter is dropped) | ||
| 24 | HORDE |
Lots of people taking road through garden (5)
|
| RD (=road) in HOE (=(to) garden, weed) | ||
| 25 | HYMN |
Song – again my heart will soar? Not entirely (4)
|
| Reversed (“will soar”) and hidden (“not entirely”) in “agaiN MY Heart” |
I’m sure there are others, but DOUBLE CROSS, RAMROD, STORYTELLER, MILITARY & SECRETS would all appear to be part of the annual theme, as hinted at by the setter last week.
I found this a surprisingly quick solve – maybe I was just in a hurry to get something to eat.
Thanks to Phi and RR
Well, I had question marks on a few here, and I still have, ( not the blogger’s fault ).
FREAK OUT 16(ac), doesn’t work at all. But hey, TAKE 5, will be today’s earworm.
SKUA, 12(ac) , weak.
HOOKED, 19(ac) weak.
23(ac), I thought the game was BATTLESHIPS?
28(ac) NOMINEE…..no way.
5(d) MILITARY , weak.
So, 1(d), “do well”, = CONQUER, does it?
MU MESON, no comment.
By Phi’s standards, not a good day at the office.
Blog appreciated, RR
FREAK OUT
Gemini says:
The “Take Four” joke is a famous musical meme within the jazz community where musicians intentionally arrange or perform Dave Brubeck’s iconic 5/4 track, “Take Five,” completely in a standard 4/4 time signature.
The clue makes more sense if the above is true. The blogger has probably meant the same thing.
MILITARY
Could the def be just ‘the army’? Of course, MILITARY is not just the army, but it works in a way.
HOOKED
Though HO is standard, if we take ‘Home Office initially’ as HO and ‘agreed’ as ‘OK’ed’, does it work better?
Thanks RR and Phi.
ENBoll& @2. Yes the game is BATTLESHIPS but the definition here is ‘element of …’. I dare say you may think this is weak 😉
ENB for 23a the definition is “element” of game. CONQUER is odd, I agree [Surely they don’t have horse chestnut burgers in Wellington?] Even when you know that the theme is the Wellington burger contest, it’s hard to spot the burgers. I quite liked FREAK OUT, but my favourite is MISCAST.
Thanks both. Just right for a Friday for me, and no problem with BATTLESHIP singular, though why it’s in ‘pen and paper’ format given plastic and electronic versions are out there I am unsure. FREAK OUT I took wrongly as a reference to Le Freak by Chic, so very much one for the in-crowd, and I’d disagree personally that DAPHNIS is famous, although certainly legendary by definition.