As I’m used to saying, a thoroughly efficient and workmanlike crossword from Phi. In one or two cases there are marginal criticisms and in one place the parsing defeats me, but hell, we get a very good crossword week after week and we can only be grateful.
Definitions in firebrick, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
As usual with Phi I’ve looked a bit, since he so often has Ninas, but either it is so obscure that goodness knows how anyone could find it, or I’m missing something obvious.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BRAINCHILDREN | Ideas I encountered in part of field doctor brought into line, possibly (13) |
| bra(I)nch, then Dr in (line)* — branch as in branch of medicine | ||
| 9 | RIVET | Fix support for pot after front falls off (5) |
| {t}rivet | ||
| 10 | MERGANSER | Duck answer when probing business deal? (9) |
| merg(ans.)er | ||
| 11 | MOROCCO | Way of working: very ornate, disregarding one old leather (7) |
| m/o roc{o}co — rococo disregards one of the three o’s — m/o is modus operandi | ||
| 12 | COYNESS | Yen to tuck into ice-creams – source of some reticence (7) |
| co(Y)nes s{ome} | ||
| 13 | THEM | Satisfied about husband backsliding? Not us (4) |
| (me(h)t)rev. | ||
| 14 | IDEALISTIC | One of French, most celebrated in Cannes, primarily as visionary (10) |
| 1 de A-list i{n} C{annes} — de = of in French, A-list = most celebrated — to begin with I had A-list as most celebrated in Cannes, and then i/c for primarily, all of which seemed a bit odd | ||
| 17 | RUBIKS CUBE | Bucks laid out, investing in gems mostly, or toy design (6,4) |
| (bucks)* in rubie{s} | ||
| 19 | WARP | Misinterpret return of crude power (4) |
| (raw)rev. P | ||
| 22 | THINNER | The champion, dismissing bridge team as less substantial (7) |
| th{E W}inner | ||
| 23 | REALIGN | Material that’s grand in fashionable shift (7) |
| real i(G)n — real = material, in = fashionable, that’s = that has = that has next to it | ||
| 24 | PRIMAVERA | Formal state banquet’s second prepared with spring vegetables (9) |
| prim aver {b}a{nquet} | ||
| 25 | PLAZA | Extreme characters engaged in a lot of sport in open space (5) |
| pl(AZ)a{y} — the extreme characters are A and Z | ||
| 26 | GREETINGS CARD | Morag’s crying a lot about Queen’s congratulatory message? (9,4) |
| greeting sca(R)d — well no, who ever said that scad = a lot? — surely greeting, being a Scottish word for weeping (indicated by Morag, a Scottish name), is correct, but the rest of it? Does it refer to the Queen’s congratulatory message that she sends to centenarians? If so then dracs = a lot and this is reversed. Again no. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BAROMETER | Remote working after lawyers showing indication of pressure (9) |
| Bar (remote)* — I’m not quite sure if the definition is ‘showing indication of pressure’ or simply ‘i of p’: neither of them seems quite right — a barometer shows i of p but the countable noun barometer isn’t ‘showing i of p’, nor is it the i of p itself | ||
| 2 | ADVERSE | Confrontational poem used in commercial (7) |
| ad verse — the wordplay seems to lead to a(verse)d, but you must read it as ‘an ad verse is a verse that’s used in an ad’ | ||
| 3 | NOTICE | Pleasant around even parts of North – observe (6) |
| n({n}o{r}t{h})ice | ||
| 4 | HUMBOLDT CURRENT | Pacific ecosystem rumbled North and cut out (8,7) |
| (rumbled North cut)* — this was almost my last one in; I was expecting it to be something well-known only to people who live in New Zealand, so was anticipating a trip to Pear’s Cyclopedia, but after a while I worked this out and it was vaguely familiar; where I’ve heard of it I don’t know — perhaps from cricket reports of test matches in New Zealand; perhaps it’s very well-known and should have been more familar. | ||
| 5 | LORD CHAMBERLAIN | Official in royal household diverted abnormal child after intervention by old king (4,11) |
| ER [King Edward, the old king, not O R, as one might think at a glance until one realises that there is no e in the anagram material] in *(abnormal child) | ||
| 6 | READY-MIX | Study algebraic variables (I’m up in them) prepared for prompt use (5-3) |
| (I’m)rev. in (read yx) | ||
| 7 | NO SWEAT | We will block number given places at table? It’s easily done (2,5) |
| no s(we)at — I think the ‘number given places at table’ is the number who are sat at the table. Certainly I can’t equate ‘given places at table’ with ‘sat’. Perhaps I can: ‘the host sat the guests in their various places around the table’ | ||
| 8 | ARES | Looks to dispose of stone god (4) |
| {st}ares — the Greek god of war, the counterpart to the Roman Mars | ||
| 15 | CAP IN HAND | International player being dealt with submissively (3,2,4) |
| cap in hand — the cap is an international player and in hand = being dealt with | ||
| 16 | SKINCARE | Use of cosmetic items getting family in panic (8) |
| s(kin)care | ||
| 18 | BOILING | Very hot fuel filling container? Good (7) |
| b(oil)in g | ||
| 20 | ALI BABA | A fabulous figure – a centrist politician and a graduate … (3,4) |
| a Lib. a BA | ||
| 21 | CAMPUS | … affected American college centre (6) |
| camp US | ||
| 22 | TYPO | Extract of dirty poem, one showing errant character (4) |
| Hidden in dirTY POem — should there not have been a question mark at the end? A typo is a typographical error, and while it is usually of one letter [character] that isn’t necessarily so. | ||
Thanks, John. Chambers gives SCAD: (esp US) (usually in pl) a large amount, a lot (esp of money.) Seems a little unfair to mix a Scottish word, indicated, with an un-indicated US one…
I had no idea (and still don’t really) about how GREETINGS CARD works and just put it in from the def. I thought BAROMETER was OK for ‘showing (an) indication of pressure’ but am probably missing something. BRAINCHILDREN is an unusual word and took me a while to nut out.
Overall a bit more gentle than the last couple of Phi’s offerings, but more than enough to keep the brain out of neutral.
Thanks to Phi and to John.
We had trouble parsing GREETINGS CARD but eventually decided that greetings (plural) might be a lot of crying and a card was a queen (as in a pack of cards), though we couldn’t account for ‘about’ except as a link word. Never heard of scad.
The HUMBOLDT CURRENT is on the other side of the Pacific from New Zealand, and flows north along the coast of South America, as wikipedia explains.
An enjoyable solve, and nice to have Phi back in his accustomed Friday slot.
Thanks, Phi and John.
Thanks to John and Phi
I’m not sure if 1a works. The wordplay needs to break down into:
“I” in “branch” plus “dr” in an anagram of “line,”
but does it?
Does “I encountered in” avoid the ‘I am/is’ issue or simply fudge it?
Help needed from a grammarian.
No problem with 26a, but only because I had read PeterO’s preamble yesterday.
Queen(‘s) could be R a lot (SCAD)about, as in envelope,shows as SCARD
I’d hardly call myself a grammarian, Dansar, but it struck me at the time (and still does) that [I encountered in part of field] is an elliptical way of saying [“I” is encountered in part of field], so it seems to me quite a neat way of avoiding the ‘I am/is’ problem.
Thank you John,
but I’m still not sure:
Your second example simply inserts “is”.
“Encountered” here just seems equate to “found”, so the clue might read:
“I found in part of field”, which we are required to read as “I is found in part of field”, but the “is” seems to be entirely of our own invention.
But I’m happy to be put right.
Excellent workout with top clues. 1A was last one in, had not seen pluralisation of brainchild before, but no logical reason why there shouldn’t be one. As many, couldn’t pass the last bit of 26A. In 22A, for non-bridge players, E and W comprise a pair. They are not a team, but if playing as a pair in a four-person team, they are part of a team (the others being N and S).
Thanks to Phi and John (how many unused colours do you have in reserve?)