Fairly easy puzzle from Nimrod, although getting the 3 long down clues early on definitely helped.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 3 | WAS< in WARP,ACT – “pervert”is a verb here, rather than a noun. |
| 8 | SCOREBOARD – not sure I understand this one, unless it’s a pun on “shower” being “something that shows”? |
| 10 | ED in PANTRY |
| 11 | ONE WAY – “A street” literally is ONE WAY and can also be ONE WAY. |
| 12 | FIVE IRON – I didn’t understand this at first so I was debating whether to fill in FIVE IRON or NINE IRON, then I saw that “And how” is the answer at 5 Down. |
| 17 | W,HAT,NEXT |
| 20 | A,”gender” – sounds like GENDA. |
| 21 | C,H in LATKEY – Chambers has LATKE (a trad. Jewish pancake) rather than LATKEY – maybe it’s in another dictionary? |
| 22 | ACTA – “Minutes” is the definition I think but I can’t see the wordplay. |
| 23 | THIRD-PARTY – an extra “do” on “dodo” would be a third party. |
| 24 | FLEE,TINGLY |
| 25 | LSD – tough one this. “Specie” can mean “coined money” and LSD is an abbreviation for “pounds, shilling and pence” (from the Latin Librae, solidi, denarii). The rest of the clue must be a reference to the hallucinatory effects of LSD. |
| Down | |
| 1/2 | (BIG WATERLOO CAFE RAILCAR)* – BACTERIOLOGICAL WARFARE. I somehow managed to see WARFARE in all of those letters which made this clue a bit easier. |
| 4 | (INWARDLY ALIGNED)* – READY AND WILLING. |
| 5 | AN,DHOW |
| 6/7 | PRESENT COMPANY EXCEPTED – another way of saying “Give two out”. |
| 16 | ANT in SAFE |
| 18 | AT in (UHLAN)* – NAHUATL. I only got this because it appeared in another Nimrod crossword from a couple of weeks ago. |
| 19 | MAI TAI – “might I”. |
22A: Acta(eon) – who was somehow transformed into a stag in Gk. myth. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaeon for more detail than I could remember.
My favourite was 1 across – I did not get the idea of FIVE = AND HOW for FIVE IRON. Also had present company “excluded” rather than “excepted”xfor a while. I found it very hard, esp the 22-letter entries. Also liked 13/15 though the checking was a little unkind and I got it only near the end.
I tripped on LSD (as it were). I tend to assume that answers will be whole words in a daily puzzle, and the advanced cryptics at least warn you when abbreviations are in play. I got BMW, but foolishly thought I had to choose between LAD, LED, LID and LUD for 25ac. I plumped for LED on the grounds that it might help you to see something. But since it’s an abbreviation anyway, I really should have looked further!
I’d originally the same thought for LED but “species no longer” gave LSD to me, esp as I’d seen the symmetrically placed BMW. Thought shower was quite OK in the cryptic defn for SCOREBOARD which I got fairly early on.
LATCHKEY = LAT/C,H/KE/Y, Y AS IN y-fronts. Sorry, ‘avin’ a larf…