Ouch! My brain has only just recovered from the pummelling it received from Enigmatist/Nimrod’s recent Grauniad Genius, so to get a Saturday Indy from him as well could inflict further neural damage…
…and so it turned out…a pretty hard stint put in just to get a few footholds – BEEP, OUIJA, ERATO, SIMI, WIFI – and then some grid-staring and long-anagram twiddling on those longer/linked entries.
I was slightly concerned when FIFTY SHADES OF GREY appeared, especially when 27A looked like it could be ORGY – where is Nimrod taking us? And I have to admit to using a pattern matcher to get the SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS – mainly due to time pressure of getting this solved/blogged. At this point I had GHOST as the first half of 9A, and then found NINA (Simone) at 8A – but still didn’t twig that there might be a NINA staring me in the face…
Then I saw ‘WHAT IS A’ along the top row and tried to make sense of the rest of the perimeter before realising that it just continued into the second row: WHAT IS A NINA? GHOST THEME…and there they were – GHOST, PHANTOM, SPIRIT, SHADE, OUIJA (board), GREY…and probably more that I have missed(?).
I entered a couple of those longer answers – THE PHANTOM…, SHADOW OF A DOUBT…without fully parsing them, and only really appreciated the subtleties of the surface reading/anagrams/&lit-ish-ness when I started trying to unpick them – and I still can’t explain SHANIA TWAIN! (Any assistance below gratefully received..…scratch that – I just twigged it on my final proof-read.)
A couple of the entries looked a little ‘contrived’ – TEN-MONTH, YES MADAM – which I guess was the compromise around fitting all that other material in – but even their clues/parsings were intricate enough to need a bit of work. And I’d never heard of INTERTRIGO – looks and sounds painful!
This article on Ninas by Alberich is quite enlightening – hope he doesn’t mind me quoting it here: ”… it should be possible to solve a puzzle without even noticing the Nina, and in most cases that’s what happens. A Nina is a bit of harmless fun added by the setter for whatever reason; if you spot it, great, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t. …“. So kudos if you did, and never mind if you didn’t – you should still have had a testing solve to fill your Saturday morning…and afternoon?…
I’m off for a lie-down in a darkened room – thanks (I think!) to Nimrod for a tough workout…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 8A | NINA | Out of condition, 10 25 sets this woman an example … (4) | an example… / SIM( |
|
| 9A | GHOST THEME | … one here first to greet innkeeper, then nameless writer (5,5) | …one here / G (first letter of Greet) + HOST (inn-keeper) + THE( |
|
| 10A | SIMI | It’s a double-edged sword, missing the middle of Planet of the Apes (4) | (East African) double-edged sword / SIMI( |
|
| 11A | THE PHANTOM | & 24 ‘Jazzed-up’ Chinese pro, frequently the chap in the boozer before a show (3,7,2,3,5) | show / T_OPER (drunkard, boozer), around HEP (cool, in Jazz terms) + HAN (native Chinese people) + TOM (prostitute, or pro) + OFT (frequently) + HE (the chap), plus A |
|
| 12A | SHADES OF | See 14 Down (6, 2) | See 14D / See 14D |
|
| 15A | ERATO | Inspiration for versifier at Olympus? (5) | inspiration (muse) / hidden word in, i.e. inspiration for, ‘versifiER AT Olympus’ (with the whole clue being a possible definition of the Muse Erato as well, so a true &lit?) |
|
| 17A | SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS | It’s solo trip [US-France] it initially managed (6,2,2,5) | it?! / anag, i.e. managed, of ITS SOLO TRIP US + F (France, initially)) + I (it, initially), and again the whole clue can be a definition of the plane Spirit of St Louis and its achievement in flying from the US to France) |
|
| 20A | TWAIN | See 6 Down (5) | See 6D / See 6D |
|
| 22A | YES MADAM | Acknowledgement made, say, with difficulty by male? (3,5) | acknowledgement / YES MADA (anag, i.e. with difficulty, of MADE SAY) + M (male) – and again the surface reading could be the definition… |
|
| 24A | OF THE OPERA | See 11 (2, 3, 5) | See 11A / See 11A |
|
| 27A | ORGY | Beggar 24, spending penny, revels (4) | revels / ( |
|
| 29A | INTERTRIGO | Retiring to put right skin inflammation (10) | skin inflammation / anag, i.e. put right, of RETIRING TO |
|
| 30A | BEEP | What immediately follows a power signal (4) | signal / BEE (phonetic representation of B, which immediately follows A) + P (power) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | WI-FI | One replaces mate’s European connection facility (2-2) | connection facility / WIF( |
|
| 2D | HAVILDAR | Indian officer had rival banged up (8) | Indian officer (sergeant) / anag, i.e.banged up, of HAD RIVAL |
|
| 3D | AGATES | Is a stirrer losing it – and marbles? (6) | marbles / AG( |
|
| 4D | TOME | As far as I can tell, it’s a book (4) | a book / TO ME (as far as I can tell), without the space = TOME |
|
| 5D | ITCHIEST | Extremely irritating chaser in playground I boxed? (8) | extremely irritating / IT (the person chasing others in a playground game…you’re IT!) + CH_EST (box) around (boxing) I |
|
| 6D | SHANIA | & 20. Singer’s remix of question one above (6,5) | (Canadian Country & Western) singer (and songwriter) / anag, i.e. remix, of the question at the top of the grid: WHAT IS A NINA! |
|
| 7D | AMMO | Shake, following the morning rounds (4) | rounds / AM (morning) + MO (moment, short time) |
|
| 13D | HOP IT | Surgery collision cases do one! (3,2) | do one! (be away with you!) / H_IT (collision) aroiund (casing) OP (operation, surgery) |
|
| 14D | FIFTY | & 12 & 28. Fighter’s day off? Yes – off work! (5,6,2,4) | (literary?!) work / anag, i.e. off, of FIGHTERS DAY OFF YES |
|
| 16D | OUIJA | Board that signals agreement from Assemblée Nationale and Bundestag? (5) | board that signals (allegedly) / two versions of ‘yes’, or agreement – OUI (French, i.e. Assemblée Nationale) + JA (German, i.e. Bundestag) |
|
| 18D | TEN-MONTH | Second round first, they follow Sun 9th – like our football season? (3-5) | like (the length of) our (the UK’s) football season / the day following Sunday the ninth would be Monday the tenth, or MON TENTH. The secoond word (TEN_TH) going eound the first word, MON, gives TEN-MONTH! |
|
| 19D | OF A DOUBT | See 23 (2, 1, 5) | See 23D / See 23D |
|
| 21D | AT HEEL | Following close behind, you stabbed Scarface (2,4) | following close behind / A_L (Al Capone, gangster, AKA Scarface, Big Al, Big Boy, Public Enemy No. 1) around (stabbed by) THEE (you) |
|
| 23D | SHADOW | & 19 Commercial for irrigation tool released, shot with inverse black and white film (6,2,1,5) | film / SHADO_OF AD (an advert for a shadoof could be a commercial for an irrigation tool) + OU_T (released), around W and B respectively (black and white, inverted), gives SHADOW OF A DOUBT! |
|
| 25D | FONE | Mobile texted fine joke (4) | mobile (phone) texted (in TXT SPK) / F (fine) + ONE (joke) |
|
| 26D | ERIK | Henry is at intervals King and, nominally, 11 24 (4) | nominally (i.e. the title character of) 11 24 (the Phantom of the Opera) / ERI (regular letters, i.e. at intervals, of hEnRy Is) + K (king) |
|
| 28D | GREY | See 14 Down (4) | See 14D / See 14D |
|
Phew! My brain hurts. Finished but used a word fit to get INTERTRIGO (new to me). Also new to me where: SIMI and HAVILDAR. Couldn’t parse SHADOW OF A DOUBT (never heard of SHADOOF).
Managed the rest. First one in was 11/24 got from the enumeration then parsed, with difficulty, afterwards. Fortunately, I remembered TOM for prostitute from other cryptics. Reading the blog, I realised that I had forgotten to go back and see if I could parse SHANIA TWAIN. Drat, now I’ll never know if I could. Brilliant anagram though. Up there with ‘Presbyterians’ for ‘Britney Spears’ and ‘narcoleptic’ for ‘Eric Clapton’.
Thanks to Nimrod and mc_rapper67.
I don’t know how I did it but I finished this crossword faultlessly.
That doesn’t mean that I parsed everything correctly too. In that sense, I ticked six clues that went beyond me.
I quickly got what’s in rows 1 & 3 but did it help? Yes, for filling the grid more steadily. No, as far as the theme is concerned (but it’s staring me in the face now).
Like the previous speaker, I thought the SHANIA TWAIN anagram was simply stunning and worth the price of this puzzle alone.
Many thanks to Nimrod & mc_rapper.
Failed to enter only SIMI, everything else correct. But also failed to parse Shania …, The Phantom …, and Shadow … – well actually, I didn’t even try to parse them, because I knew from previous experience that they would be beyond me.
Thanks to the setter for the enjoyment and to the blogger for the enlightenment.
Finished eventually – had to resort to solving anagrams by writing out the fodder to get anywhere, something I don’t think I’ve done for years. It’s an impressive puzzle, a bit too knotty and hard for my max enjoyment. I didn’t understand SHADOW OF A DOUBT, or NINA my LOI, plus a few others. I agree the Shania Twain anagram is great, but I didn’t understand the clue so missed it. It was one of the first ones in with *****A T****, and like Hovis, I forgot to go back and have a proper crack at trying to work it out, despite having seen ‘what is a’ quite early. I had a few niggles on the way, but the blog’s cleared them up except for 1) I thought Scarface to AL was too far to go and 2) GHOST THEME; is a ghost theme a thing anywhere except in crosswordland? I get that there is literally a theme of ghosts, but would, say, ‘football theme’ be a good solution?
Thanks Nimrod, mc_rapper
Phew! Got there in the end but only after barking up several wrong trees and with lots of googling and wordfinder help (but no direct cheating). Never heard of SIMI or SHANIA TWAIN. But no need to go via Al Pacino for 21dn – Al Capone was known as ‘Scarface’.
Thanks, Nimrod, for the challenge and mc_rapper67 for the parsings we couldn’t work out.
Frustrated equally by Nimrod and the phone app initially, but after a dozen or so restarts and blatant use of the ‘show errors’ button on the long anagrams I made it. SIMI and TOME the favourites, if only for proving I was on the same wavelength. Thanks to S&B
I didn’t enjoy the battle with the Indy site to get the puzzle – very kind of them to provide me with a grid to print off, but some clues would have been helpful (after four attempts I gave up and ‘phoned a friend’
I did, however, enjoy the battle with the devious mind of Nimrod, not least because I spotted the 9a before I solved the clue and spotted the message at the top of the grid.
Thank you to Nimrod for the crossword and also to mc_rapper for the explanations
Well, I completed it eventually, with only a little cheating. Word searches for 29ac and 25dn. Checked to see if SHANIA TWAIN was the correct spelling of a name I remembered from somewhere, and if there was a film called SHADOW OF A DOUBT (there have been at least three, but I presume they mean the Hitchcock). I used to have a flying model of the SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS and when I got that early on, I wondered if there was going to be a theme of Jimmy Stewart films.
A slight problem with 18 down – the domestic football season lasts nine months.
Dave@9: I don’t know much about football but Wikipedia tells me that the first games of 2017-18 season were played on 4th August and the Cup Final was on 19th May, so games were certainly played in ten different months, which is what I took the answer to mean.
Three + hours of hard slog rewarded by a completed, if not fully parsed, grid. Had no idea about 11a/25a or 23d/19d which I wouldn’t have solved without the theme.
Realising what was going on with SHANIA TWAIN (? Otago’s most famous landholder) made it all worthwhile.
A late thanks to mc_rapper67 and Nimrod.
Thanks. Your parsing was completely needed, especially for phantom where there were 3 separate elements of the clue I would never have got! Small correction on 9a where the g is from greet not good.
Ditto Hovis’s first paragraph @1. (Though I’m not sure my headache this morning was entirely down to crosswords!)
Managed to fill the grid unassisted bar INTERTRIGO where I failed to resist the early temptation of an anagram solver, but did have to consult the man in the pub for a couple of parsings. Fortunately I chose my drinking companions well and for once the pub was the right place to find enlightenment. I even managed to provide some too – the silly biffers had just thrown in 6d/20a and moved on (whereas I’d actually used that one to reverse-engineer 8a).
Thanks Nimrod and mc_rapper.
Brilliant puzzle
Thanks for all the comments/feedback – just to address a few points:
1. Eric Wolfe at #12 – well spotted – the other blog I was working on at the same time had G as ‘first of good’, or something similar, so I think I subconsciously repeated it here – will fix
2. David and Dormouse at #9/10 – fair point from David and plausible explanation from Dormouse…far too long is another way to put it!
3. Allan_c at #5 – good point! I wasn’t aware of that nickname – I’m more familiar with the Al Pacino film – again, will update…and hopefully that answers James’ point 1 at #4
4. After further consideration, I think this puzzle breaks the ‘Alberich convention’ on Ninas – in that the solver can’t really parse SHANIA TWAIN without spotting the WHAT IS A across the top and NINA in the second row – although they could guess at Ms Twain from the definition – singer – and the crossing letters…
True, mc_rapper, re 4 but, what a fantastic anagram it is!