(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) There’s a nina in the grid, which helped me in solving the last couple of ones in. Thanks to Puck. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
7 Knocking gets back “Hello, sailor”? Just the opposite (3-1-3)
RAT-A-TAT : Reversal of(back) [ TA-TA!(Just the opposite;converse of”hello!”) + TAR(informal term for a sailor) }.
8 CV a university briefly chewed over without reference to anything else (2,5)
IN VACUO : Anagram of(briefly chewed) [ CV A + UNI(short; for “university”) ] + O(abbrev. for “over” in cricket scores).
9 Amongst friends in Gabon, departs for Sweden (4)
AMID : “amis”(French, the official language of Gabon, for “friends”) with “d”(abbrev. for “departs”) replacing “S”(International Vehicle Registration code for Sweden).
10 King argued with a prince’s backing for preparatory drudgery (9)
SPADEWORK : Reversal of(… backing) [ K(abbrev. for “king” in chess) + ROWED(argued) plus(with) A + P(abbrev. for “prince”)‘S ] .
12 Quiet and noble type, one of great worth (5)
PEARL : P(abbrev. for “piano”, musical direction to play quietly) plus(and) EARL(a noble title).
13 “Dangerous women” are words often repeated by priests on vacation (8)
MANTRAPS : MANTRA(words often repeated while meditating) plus(by) “priests ” minus its all inner letters(… on vacation).
15 Something armour-plated and brown looking, essentially (4)
TANK : TAN(coloured brown) + the middle letter of(…, essentially) “looking “.
16 Day at Georgia golf club (5)
WEDGE : WED(abbrev. for Wednesday) plus(at) GE(the ISO country code for Georgia).
17 Kind of snout, extremely yellow on the inside (4)
SORT : The 1st and last letters of(…, extremely) “snout ” containing(… on the inside) OR(the colour yellow, in heraldry).
18 Hope lad’s working in plant (8)
ASPHODEL : Anagram of(… working i) HOPE LAD’S.
20 Sailor with alias in Asian city (5)
OSAKA : OS(abbrev. for “ordinary seaman”;a sailor) plus(with) AKA(abbrev. for “also known as”, introducing an alias).
21 Remove impurity in trifle? (6,3)
FILTER OUT : A reverse clue: Anagram of(… OUT) FILTER = “trifle“.
22 Stops goals (4)
ENDS : Double defn.
24 Resistance level once 80% below 500? That’s approximate (7)
ROUNDED : R(symbol for electrical resistance in physics) + O(-Level, once the secondary school leaving exams in England, now replaced by the GCSE) + 4 out of 5 letters of(80%) “under”(below) + D(Roman numeral for 500).
Defn: Describing a number that’s expressed less precisely than it really is.
25 Fungal growth left by old cherry (7)
MORELLO : MOREL(an edible mushroom, a genus of the fungi kingdom of organisms ) + L(abbrev. for “left”) plus(by) O(abbrev. for “old”).
Answer: A variety of small, very dark sour cherry.
Down
1 Old woman this setter’s hurt (4)
MAIM : MA(mother;sometimes refered to as one’s old woman) + I’M(self-referencing “setter is” or “setter’s” = “I am” or “I’m”).
2 Rescuers on the way to see rescue ship find one of first pair listed for saving? (8)
AARDVARK : AA(sort of rescuers when you’re having car trouble) placed above(on, in a down clue) RD(abbrev. for “road”;way) + V(abbrev. for the Latin for “see”, when citing references in text) + ARK(sort of rescue ship, during the biblical Flood).
Defn: I think this refers to the pair of animals in the grid which are or might become endangered species. And I see that today’s FT crossword setter is Aardvark – is this just coincidence or another connection?
3 Mothers the Spanish lady who’s in distress (6)
DAMSEL : DAMS(mothers; especially of livestock) + EL(Spanish for “the”).
Defn: The stock character in distress, requiring a hero to rescue her.
4 Painter needlessly includes one in confinement … (8)
INTERNEE : Hidden in(… includes) “Painter needlessly “.
5 … for this work? (6)
LABOUR : Cryptic defn: From the previous clue(…), one in confinement might;? be doing hard labour.
6 Hide fortune, making run for Cuba (4)
LURK : “luck”(fortune;your lot) with “r”(abbrev. for “run” in cricket scores) replacing(making … for) C( code for Cuba).
11 A right crazy one? LOL! Crazy one of a number hiding around here (9)
ARMADILLO : A + R(abbrev. for “right”) + MAD(crazy) + I(Roman numeral for “one”) + anagram of(…! Crazy) LOL.
Answer: There are 2 more of this answer hidden round the grid perimeter. And a tail-less one in the lower half of the grid’s 14th column – it has been 24 off?
12 Those carrying babies in pregnancy, reminded as morning sickness starts (5)
PRAMS : The 1st letters, respectively, of(… starts) “pregnancy, reminded as morning sickness “.
14 Source of prosciutto supplied by mail, say? (5)
PARMA : The 1st letter of(Source of) “prosciutto ” plus(supplied by) homophone of(…, say) “armour”(mail;body protection worn by the knights of old).
Defn: The Italian city where the famous ham;prosciutto comes from. A WIWD (wordplay intertwined with definition) clue.
16 Showing great surprise on hearing reason for death (4-4)
WIDE-EYED : Homophone of(on hearing) “why died”(query as to the reason for a death).
17 Ben’s height is measured relative to this Cork daredevil biker (3,5)
SEA LEVEL : SEAL(which could be accomplished with a cork, cf. wine in bottles) + EVEL(Knievel, American daredevil biker and stuntman).
Defn: The datum above which the height of a mountain, including any Scottish ben, is measured.
19 Spartan/Trojan adult female (6)
HELENA : HELEN(in Greek mythology, originally from Sparta, then abducted to Troy) + A(abbrev. for “adult”).
Defn: A feminine name.
20 Month before French king gets tax on goods brought into town (6)
OCTROI : OCT(abbrev. for the month of October) placed above(before, in a down clue) ROI(French for “king”).
21 Beginning at the start of false memory (4)
FROM : The 1st letter of(the start of) “false ” + ROM(abbrev. for “read-only memory” in a computer).
23 Lecturer to top up pickle ingredient (4)
DILL : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) [ L(abbrev. for “lecturer”) plus(to) LID(the top of, say, a container) ].
(Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)
The definition for AARDVARK refers to their alphabetical placing on Noah’s list I think.
Thanks sschua. Puck, guru of the four-letter word here, which had me cursing a few times, eg SORT and LURK, last 2 in. I had ‘bounded’ for 24a , thinking that fitted ‘approximate’ – needed you for the parsing,
I really enjoyed this: many thanks to Puck and scchua. I thought the definition in 2d referred to animals going in two by two: if they did it alpabetically the first pair in the list would be aardvarks.
And I found four armadillos: in addition to the two round the outside of the grid. For the first, start at the second A of aardvark, go down, across, up and across; for the second – as you suggest scchua – start at the first A of parma and go right down to the bottom, then turn right and go back up.
Sorry, sidey; posting crossed.
I took the ‘labour’ and ‘confinement’ link to refer to childbirth.
Very enjoyable thank you Puck – a nice easy to spot Nina too. Agree with endwether about the labour and confinement reference to childbirth and the alphabetical placing of the aardvark in the Ark.
Thanks to scchua too.
Two crosswords with central nina clues in two days! What are the odds? Fun puzzle, although some of the parsings completely passed me by (AARDVARK and PARMA were completely unintelligble to me, so thank you for the explanations)
(Also, is it just me, or have we had lots of golf clubs lately? WEDGE today, IRON yesterday, LONG IRON from Picaroon last week…)
Was really hoping there was something more to 19d than just “HELEN + A”.
thanks to Puck and scchua.
Re 5d, surely the reference to confinement is to what women tell us is the hardest labour of all!
Re 14d, inthe cause of accuracy, Parma is the most well-known, and arguably the best, but not the only source of prosciutto.
Two wrong for me today, but a very clever puzzle. Memories of Flanders and Swann again.
Thanks Puck; you obviously like armadillos after your hiding one before in Guardian 25,615.
Thanks scchua; nicely misleading painter in 4. I guess most people would have heard of EVEL KNIEVEL – according to Wiki: ‘He suffered more than 433 bone fractures in his career, thereby earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the survivor of “most bones broken in a lifetime”. He died from pulmonary disease!
I liked the clue for MANTRAPS.
Thanks sidey and jillfc – the clue makes more sense to me now.
Re 5: I initially thought childbirth too, but I had another interpretation of “for” as in “for the purpose of”, and, knowing what I know of such matters, confinement comes after the labour is done, so it didn’t quite work for me. Thus, I went for a Gulag confinee. But I see what you mean, entwether and crypticsue.
I’m not one to ordinarily spot ninas, but yesterday’s having one, I was alerted to it. Unfortunately, this didn’t seem quite as well crafted as yesterday’s, nor did it seem to be as entertaining as Puck’s puzzles usually are. I think this is due to a number of obscure entries forced by the nina.
I believe the term “or” in heraldry means a metal (gold), not a colour (yellow). That’s how you can have lions “or” on a field of gules. The rules would not allow you to put yellow lions on a red background.
Pedantry over, I admire those who finished this, and particularly those who solved 24a from the clue rather than by reverse engineering.
Overall I found this irritating rather than exciting. ‘Enceinte’ fits 4d and goes rather well. Even tho it is wrong.
Spotted yesterday’s nina but not today’s. Still, one out of two is above my long-term average. Very ingenious it is too, and again I’m in awe of the grid-setting: ARMADILLO plum centre plus in two bits of the perimeter, without wilful obscurities.
When I came to the blog I was momentarily disconcerted to find that today’s FT setter is AARDVARK.
Thanks Puck and scchua
I didn’t understand “priests on vacation” but see it now. I didn’t like the double duty P in PROSCIUTTO – I was working along the lines of PAR – supplied by (though PER would work better) and MA(le) or MA(il), but without being able to explain the missing last two letters in either.
WIDE-EYED was my favourite.
Thanks, scchua.
After blogging a Puck puzzle less than two weeks ago, I was surprised – but delighted – to see his name again this morning.
It’s a good job I wasn’t solving this puzzle on the train, or in any other public place: I smiled wryly when I saw the reminiscent ‘armour-plated’ in 15ac, then more broadly and ruefully as I entered 11dn, which had me scampering to revisit my Waterloo of 20th April 2012 http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/25615 [really that long ago?] but when I realised where Puck was taking us [again] I laughed really long and really loud. Absolutely priceless, Puck – I would love to have blogged this puzzle, to redeem myself! 😉 . [I actually wrote this comment before I went out before lunch and thought the blog hadn’t been posted then – I couldn’t see it! – and was surprised that the first comments didn’t mention the curled-up armadillo that Robi mentioned.]
Apart from the hidden creatures – I hesitate to say how many, in case I’ve missed any – my favourites were RAT-A-TAT, AMID, MANTRAPS, FILTER OUT, ENDS, AARDVARK, LURK, SEA LEVEL, – how brilliant to have such good clues under such self- imposed constraints and with only one obscure word at 20dn, which was very clearly clued, with a very nice surface.
Huge thanks, as ever, Puck, for a really fun puzzle – it really made my day.
Enjoyed this. I must admit that when I saw the central ARMADILLO my first thought was that I didn’t know very many varieties, but fortunately that wasn’t necessary. Last in and least familiar was OCTROI – didn’t help myself by writing FILTER OFF and the even less plausible AKABA, but eventually realised where I was going wrong. Liked WIDE-EYED and SEA LEVEL.
Thanks to Puck and scchua
An enjoyable puzzle but with one wrong. I noticed that the unches down the LHS spelled out a palindromic RATAR, so I thought the RHS probably contained a similar palindrome, and indeed it did, just not the one I decided upon. I could see wordplay that justified “soro” for 17ac, which was SO (extremely) with OR (yellow) inside. For all I knew there was a “kind of snout” called a soro (what I don’t know would fill several libraries), and the unches down the RHS spelled OSOSO. In TftT an incorrect answer that fits the wordplay but isn’t a real word is known as a momble, and “soro” was most definitely one. When I clicked on “check all” and saw the last letter was wrong I immediately thought of the correct SORT and its parsing. The symmetry of OSTSO down the RHS is an even better match for the RATAR down the LHS because of their middle Ts. If that was deliberate on Puck’s part and not just a coincidence then a tip of the hat to him.
A decent challenge which I completed without spotting the nina although I suspected it was there. (I think they are actually more entertaining for the setter than solver!)
I agree with the other posters who said that this was less fun than a normal Puck. (It’s the nina wot does it!)
Thanks to scchua and Puck
Am I the only one who thinks 9a is a very weak clue? What have I missed?
I was glad for what I could get. In the explanation for spadework the source of s is not mentioned. It seems to come from ‘s of the Prince’s.
You’re quite right, ravilyn. It was an omission on my part when drafting the blog; I’ve corrected it now. Thanks.
I’m posting this on Friday morning so I’m not sure if the intended recipient, or anyone else for that matter, will see it.
Cryptocyclist@21 – I thought 9ac was a superb clue. The definition of “amongst” wasn’t too obvious because it could have been referring to a hidden answer, and for the wordplay the solver needed to know that French is spoken in Gabon together with what French for “friends” is, followed by a pretty neat replacement indicator involving another country. I really don’t see how that could be viewed as very weak.
Andy B, I was going o reply to Crypto but also thought it might be too late.
I agree totally with what you said. The clue also had a pretty good “surface”.
Not weak at all in my opinion. 🙂
Thanks Puck and scchua
Very late to this one … after only starting it today.
Most has been already said and I only found three of the five armadillos.
Whilst I got AMID, I didn’t have it properly parsed … I was trying to do something with AMIGO (with the GO going … ), but then I couldn’t get the Swedish bit accounted for. A month of Sundays would not have equated Gabon to the French word for Friends (AMIS).
Still a lovely puzzle that went across a good part of the day.