Independent 7,313/Nestor
Posted by Ali on March 25th, 2010
Apologies, I’ll need to be brief today, so won’t be able to give this the full treatment it deserves. I found this to be a tough but very enjoyable puzzle from Nestor. I often tend to struggle with single-word answers of 10+ letters – 6A and 8D being the culprits here – but got there in the end. There are some great clues in here, 17A and 12D being my pick of the bunch. And yes, there’s a Nina in there too!
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 6 | AGROINDUSTRIAL – GROIN +DUST in ARIAL | |
| 9 | MEAT LOAF – (METAL)* + OAF | |
| 10 | EXCITE – XCI (91) in ETE | |
| 11 | INCREASING – IN + CR. + EASING | |
| 13 | NINA – Hidden in hiddeN IN Artwork | |
| 14 | A SHOT IN THE ARM – TINT + HEAR in AS HOM[-e] | |
| 16 | SCAR -SCAR[-e] | |
| 17 | UNDENIABLE – E[-motio]N in UN DIABLE | |
| 19 | SMILED – S + MILE +D | |
| 20 | EVENTING – T in EVENING | |
| 22 | OFF ONE’S TROLLEY -Cryptic def. | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CO-STAR – Cryptic def. | |
| 2 | UNDO – D in UNO | |
| 3 | STRENGTHEN – STR + ENG. + THEN | |
| 4 | PIACENZA – 1 + ACE + NZ in PA | |
| 5 | PLATINUM BLONDE – (MOLL+ BUN PAINTED)* | |
| 7 | GREENHAM COMMON – GREEN HAM + COMMON | |
| 8 | UNFEIGNEDNESS – SEND ENG. rev. in (FINE US)* | |
| 12 | ARTHUR DENT – THUR (which follows WED!) in ARDENT – Ref. HItchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy | |
| 15 | HARD LEFT – R in HAD LEFT | |
| 18 | ATTILA – TT 1 L in A(lcoholics) A(nonymous) | |
| 21 | EARN – Even letters in rEpAiRiNg | |
March 25th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
I loved the PLATINUM BLONDE anagram, though a bun may not be the hairstyle most associated with that look. And a very cheeky little Nina there, that didn’t stop me looking for another one. But I think it’s just the clue.
March 25th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
The left hand side spells amiss but that may just be coincidence. I enjoyed this with the exception of 4 down which I couldn’t get because I didn’t have a clue what the Maori village was and had never heard of the Italian town. 1 down was my favourite: I don’t think it’s exactly a cryptic def since there is also an anagram of “actors” there – more of an &lit. 9 across was also good – another one some people would describe as a &lit.
March 25th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Ali,
I’ve just wasted 5 minutes of my very busy day looking for a nina in this one.
I sort of saw “Leo”, nearly “Libra” and “cusp”, which, together with the “Galaxy” reference, I thought might lead to an astrological theme, but then I remembered (when I saw Mick’s comment) doing 13ac. shortly after midnight last night….
So thanks for that.
March 25th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
This was excellent, I found it a little easier than some Indy puzzles by Nestor. Favourites, NINA, OFF ONE’S TROLLEY (I read that as a double definition), CO-STAR, PIACENZA, UNFEIGNEDNESS.
Many will know tho some may not that Nestor (AKA Kea) won the “Ascot Gold Cup” presented to the setter of the best Listener puzzle of the Year as voted by the “all-correct” Listener solvers. This was for 2009 puzzles at the recent annual Listener setters’ dinner in Chepstow where nmsindy had the pleasure of meeting Nestor/Kea and many others. Kea also won it the year before, becoming the first to retain the trophy, and won it on two other occasions also, I think, once as Dolos, pseudonym chosen to meet the needs of a special puzzle. So a brilliant setter indeed!
March 25th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
He’s also the man responsible for the use of the word Nina to describe hidden features of crosswords, so it’s appropriate that he should include 13 Across.
March 25th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Managed all but a couple, struggling also with 4dn; bit unsure about 1dn (is it an anagram?) 14ac is one of those where the enumeration makes the answer easy to guess, but I found the wordplay a bit convoluted even now that Ali’s explained it.
Loved PLATINUM BLONDE and GREENHAM COMMON. I didn’t mind été and le diable in the French clues, since I speak it, as it goes – and I think we had ‘aller’ in the Grauniad recently – but just wonder whether these kinds of foreign words are within the reach of your average punter. Discuss; write on one side of the paper only.
March 25th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Strange mixture of the blindingly obvious and the simply blinding. There needs to be a new version of a curate’s egg for ‘excellent in parts, just good elsewhere’.
March 25th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
I don’t think this passes the morning coffee test for do-ability, as 4D is just too obscure without recourse to reference books (although I did manage to work out all but the first letter from the wordplay and the cross-checked letters). Otherwise it weas enjoyable enough.
April 8th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Living in New Zealand, 4dn came quite easily to me. However – can someone please explain to me how UNO relates to ‘Roman’(2dn). Does the clue refer to a Roman numeral, ‘Uno’ being ‘one’ in Italian??
April 9th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I don’t have the puzzle anymore but ‘one in Rome’ would be ‘one in the Italian language’ like ‘and in Paris’ = et. So that there are Roman numerals is just a coincidence, it does not refer to them. This is from memory.
April 9th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Thanks for your reply, nmsindy. The clue was: Duke in Roman ruin (4) giving ‘UNDO’. I have quite some Indy backlog, hence the dated puzzle.
April 9th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Again from memory, I think there was more in the clue in the Indy on the day than you have quoted, Wilfried. Roman by itself would not lead to UNO, I think.
April 10th, 2010 at 12:54 am
nms & Wilfred
The clue was ‘Duke in a Roman ruin (4)’, hence D in UNO.
April 10th, 2010 at 6:30 am
Sorry, my mistake – it must be the drought. I retrieved the applet and found that the ‘a’ must have got lost in the transition to paper via my crossword compiler. Many thanks for your help – much appreciated. I’ll be more careful in future.