Spot the Nina time – take a peek down the left- and right-hand sides of the grid.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | VEND – I hope I’ve understand this correctly: SALSA appears in the completed grid at 7D or “seVEN Down”. |
| 4 | (IS TACITURN)* |
| 9 | AVANT-GARDE – a fairly complex clue to parse this one and I’m not confident I’ve got it right. Here goes: “No 1 for Arsenal” = A, (GRANTED A)*, “playing up front” = V(ersus), before the anagram fodder. |
| 10 | LEGO – which is a toy but “I left in van” is lost on me. |
| 11 | ME in ROO |
| 12 | PEN,DRAGON – is “playing TV role” a reference to Dragon’s Den?. Uther PENDRAGON is this person. |
| 14 | IS,IS – Isis is the reserve boat racing crew of Oxford University (Goldie is Cambridge’s) |
| 15 | DENT in WOO,OPS – A bit before my time but I had heard of the TV series – didn’t know about the dog though so this was a bit of a guess. |
| 21 | BILLY LIAR – Spooner’s way of saying “lilly buyer”. |
| 23 | hidden in “booZE BRAndy” – very nice hidden clue as the definition is well disguised. |
| 27 | GG in (PERMEATE)* – the surface reading for this is very creaky: “What child’s up on getting admitted to permeate unusual medium?”. Also, why does GG (Gee-Gee = horse) have to be something only a child would ride? I’ve heard plenty of grown-ups using the term. |
| Down | |
| 2 | VI in (NO USE)* |
| 3 | N,ERSE in DINT – can DINT mean “force”? |
| 5 | AGREE TO DISAGREE – 13D and 6D are TWEEDLEDUM and TWEEDLEDEE, who agreed to have a battle but never had one. Not sure about “imitate “Starboard” and “Port” here?” thought – it might be reference to the far left- and right-hand side of the grid which spells out the words VARIABLE and CONSTANT in the unchecked letters. |
| 6 | TWEED,LED,EE – “cummings” is a reference to e.e.cummings – the typographically-challenged poet. |
| 13 | TWEE,(MUDDLE)* |
| 16 | BLEW in (EAT IN)* |
| 20 | THREE R’S – this must be right as nothing else fits but I don’t understand the clue – any offers? |
| 22 | LEAST – 28A is EAST |
| 24 | hidden in “onLY RAda” |
LEGO ego = I left in van put L first. Thanks for VEND.
PENDRAGON DRAG ON TV cross-dressing
You’re right about AVANT-GARDE , I think, that’s how I read it.
Don’t get THREE RS either thought there might be three rs in the text but there ain’t
Liked that LEGO clue, but phew! Some really complicated stuff here.
Clever to get the ‘nina’ in.
PORT and STARBOARD
PORT AND STARBOARD – Apologies for above mistype. See it now. T and T are placed in those positions in the grid compared to AGREE TO DISAGREE.
15A was nostalgic – my Dad made us at least one ‘woodentop’ doll. Just scraped under 20 minuts for this one, so pretty tough.
All references to the great e e cummings gratefully received by an editor who took his pseudonym from a(n unreadable) book by the crossword setter’s poet (he does extraordinary and often beautiful things with words) – though probably an Araucarian rather than a Ximenean. Have returned from pub where this puzzle was described by a would-be solver in expletives. As a general rule the Thursday Indy crossword is almost as hard as the Saturday prize puzzle, but this was super tough, I will concede.
When I was an overly-earnest Eng. Lit student I thought e.e.cummings was the business; reading lines like:
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
I discover that my opinion hasn’t changed at all.
Back to the puzzle: thanks for all the explanations and corrections. Definitely a super-tough puzzle but not as tough as Merlin’s “Saints (not)Alive” I think.
I solved this at 4am after a night out as a pre-emptive hangover cure (it works, when coupled with Raisin Wheats and tea – honestly). Somehow I completed it correctly in 12:35. I am sure that this is much faster than I could have solved it clean and sober. Can anyone explain this?