Phi has rounded off yet another suite of mid-week puzzles, as one might expect.
This puzzle uses a less common grid that allows for a lot of variety in terms of word length and also accommodates two 15-letter entries. For me at least, this made for an interesting solve as I worked my way around the grid.
I haven’t managed to spot any ghost theme today, so I wait to hear what other solvers might have noticed.
My favourite clues today were 10 and 15, both for smoothness of surface; and 22, for sheer ingenuity. As far as I can remember, I hadn’t come across the giant cactus at 26 until today, at least not in a crossword.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | PROOFREAD | Degree of spirit regarding publicity shown in check for errors
PROOF (=degree of spirit, i.e. alcohol content) + RE- (=regarding) + AD (=publicity, i.e. advert) |
| 06 | CAPES | Points to copy when taken on by chartered surveyor
APE (=copy, mimic) in CS (=chartered surveyor); points are headlands, hence “capes” |
| 09 | THEATRE | Tense pressure applied to soldiers in focus of operations
T (=tense, in grammar) + HEAT (=pressure, as in the heat is on) + RE (=soldiers, i.e. Royal Engineers) |
| 10 | CHAOTIC | Confused conversation I caught about love
O (=love, i.e. zero score) in [CHAT (=conversation) + I + C (=caught, on cricket scorecard)] |
| 11 | HOOP-LA | Work during holiday leading to a disturbance
[OP (=work, i.e. opus) in HOL (=holiday)] + A; according to Chambers, hoop-la is great activity, excitement or disturbance |
| 12 | ARTESIAN | Describing water-source from China, say, probed European broadcaster
RTE (=European broadcaster, i.e. Irish Radio and Television) in ASIAN (=from China, say); the reference is to the artesian well |
| 14 | MASOCHISTIC | Unusually harsh cement used around Olympic venue
SOCHI (=Olympic venue, i.e. 2014 Winter Olympics) in MASTIC (=cement, i.e. a bituminous or oily cement of various kinds) |
| 16 | TEC | Who’ll do for criminal, etc?
*(ETC); “criminal” is anagram indicative; a ‘tec is a detective; & lit. |
| 17 | CUE | Odd elements in crude suggestion
C<r>U<d>E; “odd elements” means odd letters only are used |
| 19 | ARRIVEDERCI | Turned up to get rice dished out – promise to turn up again?
ARRIVED (=turned up) + *(RICE); “dished out” is anagram indicator; arrivederci, like au revoir or Auf Wiedersehen, implies a future meeting |
| 21 | ESPRESSO | Crowd in rear of cafe accordingly getting coffee
PRESS (=crowd, throng) in [<caf>E (“rear of” means last letter only) + SO (=accordingly)] |
| 22 | BILLED | Apparently laid-up, as announced?
If you are laid-up, you are “ill” in “bed”, which gives the word BILLED (=announced)! |
| 25 | SASHIMI | Fish dish? I miss a fish’s tail in a stew
*(I MISS A + <fis>H); “tail” means last letter only is used in anagram, indicated by “in a stew” |
| 26 | SAGUARO | Cactus very much requiring intervention of a protector? Not entirely
[A + GUAR<d> (=protector; “not entirely” means last letter is dropped)] in SO (=very much); saguaro is a giant Mexican cactus with edible red fruits |
| 27 | NUDGE | New fiddle not seeing debut in gentle movement
N (=new) + <f>UDGE (=fiddle, cheat; “not seeing debut” means first letter is dropped) |
| 28 | MISSTATED | Incorrectly reported: it should be “Overlooked collecting rubbish”
TAT (=rubbish) in MISSED (=overlooked) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | PUT THE MOCKERS ON | Much to take out, ignoring article stuck in individual block
*(MUCH TO T<a>KE) in PERSON (=individual); “ignoring article (=A)” means letter “a” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “out” |
| 02 | ONEROUS | Single call to arms not entirely hard to deliver?
ONE (=single, i.e. one run in cricket) + ROUS<e> (=call to arms, reveille; “not entirely” means last letter is dropped) |
| 03 | FATAL | Lethal error I overlooked – ingesting astatine
AT (=astatine, i.e. chemical formula) in FA<i>L (=error; “I overlooked” means letter “i” is dropped) |
| 04 | EVEN | Equestrian competition unfinished still
EVEN<t> (=equestrian competition; “unfinished” means last letter is dropped) |
| 05 | DECORATIVE | I overacted wildly to no real purpose?
*(I OVERACTED); “wildly” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | COALESCED | Case closed, tidied up, without a second being amalgamated
*(CASE CLO<s>ED); “without a second (=S)” means one letter “s” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “tidied up” |
| 07 | PATRIOT | Nationalist group (not large) kept in touch
TRIO (=group, not large, i.e. just 3) in PAT (=touch, stroke) |
| 08 | SECOND CHILDHOOD | Indication of failing powers to support juvenile criminal
SECOND (=support, back) + CHILD (=juvenile) + HOOD (=criminal, i.e. Robin Hood); one’s second childhood is often a sign of impaired mental capacity |
| 13 | MICROSEISM | Crisis memo elaborated minor earthquake
*(CRISIS MEMO); “elaborated” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | CEASEFIRE | No fighting now – start to consider calm following fury
C<onsider> (“start” means first letter only) + EASE (=calm) + F (=following) + IRE (=fury) |
| 18 | EXPOSED | Revealed by stance adopted by editor
[X (=by, as in 4 x 6) + POSE (=stance)] in ED (=editor) |
| 20 | RELIANT | Former car company revived after article penned
AN (=article, in grammar) in RELIT (=revived, rekindled); cf. Reliant Robin |
| 23 | INGOT | Bar contributing to closing others
Hidden (“contributing to”) in “closING OThers” |
| 24 | USES | Declines to overlook official applications
<ref>USES (=declines); “to overlook official (=REF, for referee)” means letters “ref” are dropped |
In 8d, surely “hood” just refers to a hoodlum, not Robin Hood.
I don’t see how “fail” can equate to “error” as in 3d. I did look through my Chambers. The only nounal sense for fail (in this context) is an exam fail but this doesn’t equate to exam error. I await others to comment.
Found this very entertaining with a few tough clues. Managed to correctly get the cactus and minor earthquake, both new words to me. Thanks Phi and RatkojaRiku.
I got it all right in the end, but was far from sure about some and needed confirmation here. Didn’t think of RTE as the broadcaster, couldn’t find ‘tec’ as an abbreviation for detective in any of my dictionaries, and hadn’t heard of ‘sashimi’ (don’t care for Japanese food) or ‘saguaro’. ‘Hoopla’ is shown as one word in all my dictionaries – and by the way is what many Germans say for ‘Whoops!’ So a bit of a struggle really, but thanks anyway to Phi and RatkojaRiku.
After a bit more thought, I guess “an epic fail” is “an epic error”.
We weren’t happy with ‘fail’ for ‘error’, either. We can see the connection but that doesn’t make them equivalent.
And in 14ac surely it’s a sadist rather than a masochist who is unusually harsh.
In 16 ac ‘criminal’ is doing double duty, but we guess the question mark is sufficient indication of that.
A bit tougher than some Phi puzzles but we got everything. MICROSEISM and SAGUARO were new words for us. The former hardly needed confirming in Chambers, but we did need to look uo the latter.
Plenty to like but no real favourite, and we can’t see any ghost theme.
THyanks, Phi and RatkojaRiku
I found this one of the hardest Phi’s for a few months. After Brummie, Serpent and Vlad earlier in the week, ‘Unusually harsh’ at 14a should have been a write-in but of course it wasn’t and there were lots of other toughies. Anyway made it in the end, with the ‘Cactus’ at 26a and the ‘minor earthquake’ at 13d into the new words file, instantly to be forgotten.
I liked the reminder of the old RELIANT Robin and the ILL in BED, my last in.
Thanks to Phi and RR
I’m very surprised by the negative comments. I thought this an excellent puzzle and sincerely hope that Phi will tel us we’ve missed something!
Gave up on 22a and 24d, but in hindsight I should have solved them. Doing it online meant it was simply too easy to reveal.
Neil @6. That’s a bit of an exaggeration. Seems that all the posts are very much positive apart from a few minor quibbles.
I too hesitated about fail=error at 3D, since I couldn’t come up with a sentence in which the two words were interchangeable.
I suppose “extremely harsh towards oneself” at 14A would have been more exact.
“Epic fail” has surely taken the usage out of the exam room and into the wider world of simply not doing things correctly let alone well. Chambers hasn’t caught up with that yet, though it does have TEC and HOOP-LA with a hyphen (unlike the predictive text on this iPad).
I suspect if I were to ask you to draw a cactus many of you would choose the spiky branched version familiar from Westerns. That’s the SAGUARO, of course. It’s surprising how many things are familiar without our ever cottoning on to their names.
Very much on the tough side. Needed to cheat to get the last few and a couple, 14ac, 22ac, even when I’d got them I couldn’t parse them. Thanks for the explanations.
My teenagers would think of a FAIL as an error before any other definition. YouTube is infested with videos of fails, which are pratfalls, essentially, and thus most definitely errors. And perhaps a sadist could be considered harsh, whereas a masochist is harsh towards themself, which is more unusual, as in weird? Perhaps.
After my ‘epic fail’ yesterday this came as sweet relief. All bar three correct and well over half parsed. Par score for me. Thanks Phi and RatkojaRiku.
That was a VERY slow burn. First couple of trawls through produced very little. I then took to the “have a pop at random clues” approach. which lead me eventually to having just 22ac left to fill in. I could not get it even though i was pretty sure it was _ I _ LED. Very frustrating.
Didn’t parse the X in 18 and “guessed” 13 and 26 (after realising I needed to use the “A”)
22 meant it was a DNF for me but I was delighted to have got so close in what for a long time appeared to be an impenetrable (to me) grid.
If i had one gripe it wouldn’t be the Error = Fail, for me it would be 3 x overlook(ed) in one puzzle. Which reminds me – astatine was a “never heard of that” for me too. Still don’t know what it is as I didn’t bother looking it up. Going to assume a mineral or gas of some description.
Thanks to Phi for a mind stretching 4.5 hrs, and to RatkojaRiku for the parsings which eluded me.
Astatine is a metal element of the halogen family. Its claim to fame is as the rarest natural element – reputedly there’s somewhere between 1g and 25g present on Earth at any one time. Insert witticism regarding scarcity and politicians’ honesty as personal leanings and geographical location dictate.
RIP failure.