As I said when posting last week, I am always slow to begin Phi’s crosswords, but then everything becomes clear and you wonder why there were any difficulties, because it all fits together fine and one is left wondering what the problem ever was. Perhaps that’s the mark of a good setter.
I have given up having more than a cursory glance (which of course failed to find anything here) to see if Phi has given us a Nina, since his — if they exist at all — are always so difficult to see. No doubt …
Definitions underlined.
Across
9 Condemn treatment after son’s brought in (5)
CURSE
cur(s)e
10 American anger about sums handed over for philosopher (9)
ARISTOTLE
(A rile) about (tots)rev.
11 More than half lose strength, having recalled obscure writing and ancient tongue (6,3)
LANGUE D’OC
langu{ish} (code)rev. — I thought this was all one word and had to look it up in the dictionary — it is a collective name for the Romance dialects of southern France, the language of the troubadors
12 Spacious heavens seen behind Australian icon (5)
ROOMY
roo [= kangaroo] my! [= heavens — heavens above!]
13 Report: “Turned cosy and warm” (7)
GUNSHOT
(snug)rev. hot
15 Cause perplexity in new place located in a bit of common? (7)
NONPLUS
no(n pl)us — a bit of common sense
17 Swoons with two ladies, working to do this? (3,4,4,4)
SOW ONES WILD OATS
(swoons two ladies)* — &lit.
20 Colouring‘s s-slight, mostly (7)
SAFFRON
s affron{t}
22 Black tree caught in a particular blaze (7)
BONFIRE
b on(fir)e
23 Sommelier possibly not offering one non-alcoholic drink (5)
WATER
wa{i}ter
24 A glory when hybridised in the manner of an apple (5,4)
ROYAL GALA
(a glory)* à la
26 Capital city beset by simple plant insects (9)
MOSQUITOS
mos(Quito)s
27 Excellent disposition of oil in dressing (5)
AIOLI
A1 (oil)*
Down
1 Green scientists record one amongst energy expenses (10)
ECOLOGISTS
E co(log 1)sts
2 Refuse to turn up without signs of wear (5-3)
BRAND-NEW
bran (wend)rev. — most of the definitions of wend in Chambers are obsolete, but one of them is turn
3 Country series overlooked by reader (4)
PERU
peru{ser} — misleadingly simple, but my last one in and I couldn’t explain it for a while
4 Sex symbol? Little point for boozers (6)
BARDOT
A bar dot is a little point for people drinking at the bar, boozers; I think. It all seems rather odd, though, and at the least one might expect a question mark since a bar dot is hardly a term in common usage — the definition refers to Brigitte Bardot
5 Italy supports nobleman ousting university director (8)
VISCONTI
visco{u}nt I — Visconti the film director
6 Extinct reptile‘s end with no raptor losing tail in struggle (10)
PTERANODON
(end no rapto{r})* — I knew it was something like this, although I had to look it up
7 Street transport on wheels? Go by foot (6)
STROLL
St roll — although I initially put in stride until it became clear that NONPLUS was the correct answer
8 Refuse to acknowledge twenty-fifth hideout? (4)
DENY
Fancifully, den Y is the twenty-fifth den, Y being the twenty-fifth letter of the alphabet
14 Stink about one supporting working with gold getting a primarily ridiculous fee (10)
HONORARIUM
h((on or a r{idiculous})1)um
16 Well arranged, yet miscast, possibly (10)
SYSTEMATIC
(yet miscast)*
18 Who has Spain included in distribution of rations? (8)
SENORITA
E in (rations)* — something &littish here, but not a full &lit. I think
19 Disney perhaps picking up schedule with bird (8)
ANIMATOR
(rota mina)rev.
21 Curious fellow retaining alien obsession (6)
FETISH
f(ET)ish
22 Childlike error about old lady’s rear (6)
BOYISH
b(o {lad}y)ish
23 One’s ineffectual with mischievous child (4)
WIMP
w imp
25 Go East, moving forward in body of water (4)
LEAK
lake with the e moved closer to the front
*anagram
My experience with this puzzle is captured perfectly in John’s opening sentences. About 15 minutes of just staring at the clues, then an entry point in CADILLAC, then another fallow period, then things things falling into place at a fair clip. My LOI was PERU too, and it was one of the two I failed to parse (ANIMATOR being the other one).
I found the clue for SENORITA a bit…lacking. I am not sure it works as &lit and – barring that – there is no definition as such. (Unless, of course, I am missing something.)
Many thanks to Phi and John!
I got stuck on the top-left corner, explicably with langue d’oc because I hadn’t heard of it and less explicably with curse (although cure and treatment have always seemed different things to me, since you treat someone without curing them).
Abhay, I don’t recall Cadillac being in the puzzle but maybe I forgot it. I agree the Senorita clue seems a bit odd (is it saying that Senoritas get priority over rations?)
Oops – that’s what happens when one solves two puzzles back-to-back! I meant ECOLOGIST here – at 1 down. (CADILLAC was my FOI in the Brummie crossword in the Guardian today.)
I think a clue of the type for SENORITA is usually described as an “extended definition”. PTERANODON was vaguely remembered so I didn’t have to look it up, but if I hadn’t heard of it I wouldn’t have liked to have guessed at the correct arrangement of the anagram fodder and would almost certainly have had to resort to aids. BRAND-NEW was my LOI and I only parsed it after I entered it.
My kind of daily puzzle. SOW ONE’S WILD OATS was excellent; but like others, I don’t really get SENORITA.
Thanks to S&B.
All comments above are spot on! Thanks to both.
I can’t see any nina or theme to this one either – but that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t one.
Last two in were PTERANODON and DENY, both from crossing letters and even then it took a while for the penny to drop in parsing the latter.
Thanks, Phi and John.
Funny, I tend to have the opposite problem with Phi. Start at a rush getting quite a few, and then grinding to a halt. The top left corner took me a while to sort out in the end.