Phi Crosswords

phionline.net.nz

  • About me
  • Types of cryptic crossword
    • Solving crosswords
    • Outlets
  • APEX Crosswords
  • My other puzzles
    • BBC Music Magazine crosswords
    • Beelzebub Crosswords
    • Church Times puzzles
    • Enigmatic Variations
    • The European crossword
    • Independent Inquisitor
    • Independent: newspaper
    • Jumbos
    • Magpie
    • Other puzzles
  • Setter’s blogs
  • Book Reviews
  • Cats

Algebra solution

This one took a lot of re-evaluation.  It’s not unsolvable as it stands, but the preamble was not as informative as it should have been for 4 down (which actually featured both treatments) – amending it actually shortened it.  I also took out a pound sign, replacing it with $, purely because I couldn’t readily find it on a New Zealand keyboard, and GRAND is currency independent!  A typo in one clue has also been amended.

I glanced at the solution grid and worried slightly about the Z in ZENITH, followed by the X in EXES.  If I was serious about removing the standard algebraic variables then surely I should have sidestepped these.  But of course I can’t remove them once I’ve decided to reinsert SIX.  Hence the alternative approach of removing them from wordplay.


ACROSS

1              BLAZER; laze in Br. z = 10

7              GEMS; ge(r)ms

10           SALAMI; I’m alas (all rev.)

12           RAIL; 2 mngs.

13           IRKSOME; anag.

14           LAX; LA x; x = 1

16           SUNDAE; anag.

17           LYRES; hidden; y = 5

21           AMMETER; Am meter

23           UPPED; U PPE D

25           WEANS; a in wens

26           ZETA; hidden; z = 4

28           PASTICHE; anag.

30           RAINED; (d)rained

34           AYE; hidden; y = 2

35           ANTILOG; ant I log

36           DOOM; mood (rev.)

37           (Z)ENITH; anag.

38           ONL(Y); on l

39           ZEST; hidden; z = 3

DOWN

1              BYLAW; by LA w; y = 6

2              LARD; hidden

3              ALK(Y); (t)alk

4              TAXONOM(Y); tax on o,m; x = 7

5              EMOTE; (r)emote

6              E(X)ES; see (rev.)

7              GRAND PRIX; R in grand pix; x = 9

8              MINARET; are in mint

9              SLEEP; peel’s (rev.)

11           PLUS; plus(h)

15           TREFA; anag.

18           IMAM; hidden

19           EROSE; e sore (all rev.)

20           SPEC; spec(k)

22           MEGATON; not a gem (all rev.)

24           DAY; D a y; y = 8

27           PRADO; ad in pro

28           PEEL; p eel

29           TUTEE; tu tee

31           DASH; d ash

32           PLIE; plie(d)

33           LOTS; Lot’s

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Share
Tweet
Pin

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Phi RSS feed

  • RSS - Posts

About me

This is the website of Paul Henderson, who sets crosswords for The Independent (London) under the pseudonyms Phi, for the Daily Telegraph (London) under the pseudonym Kcit, and anonymously for The Times (London) amongst many other outlets. For a more detailed biography see the About Me page.

Blogroll

  • Alberich Crosswords
  • Alchemi's puzzles
  • Anax Crosswords
  • Azed slip
  • Big Dave's Crossword Blog
  • Boatman Cryptics
  • Crossword centenary
  • Crossword Centre
  • Crossword Club
  • Crossword Unclued
  • CrosswordMan: Crossword construction software
  • Crosswords by Hasslethymi
  • Fifteensquared
  • George vs The Listener crossword
  • Guardian Crosswords
  • Hoskins Crossword
  • Hubble Crosswords
  • idothei
  • Independent Crosswords
  • Listen with Others
  • Listener Crossword
  • Magpie Crossword Magazine
  • One Across
  • Peter's Cryptic Crossword Corner
  • Telegraph Crosswords
  • The Stickler Weekly
  • Times Crossword Club
  • Times for the Times
  • Undisclosed Enumerations
  • Unscramblerer

Comments

  • Tim Myall on Listener Awards weekend
  • KMB on An unexpected addition
  • Phixwd on Updating the blogroll
  • KMB on Updating the blogroll
  • Erin on On not mowing the lawn

Copyright © 2021 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in