Independent Crossword 6748 by Nimrod

by

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed

I was too stingy to buy the paper this morning, but I had a quick glance at the newsagents to find out who the compiler was. I believe it was Nimrod, but apologies if I’ve misremembered that. At any rate, it was a decent puzzle for a Monday morning – a good mixture of clues and not too difficult.

Across
1 Speak of the devil: Cryptic def. I’m not sure if Dickens was actually on old name for the devil or it’s just referring its use in exclamations (what the dickens ? what the devil ?).
9 Large port: o[pene]r in (leg trap)*.
10 Canal: I believe this is hidden in “American always”, although the wordplay doesn’t easily suggest that meaning to me.
11 Niagara: Again< + RA. Fairly standard clue for Niagara.
12 Arapaho: (Rap in AA + h) + o.
13 Take into account: Sort of double definition, but again I wasn’t completely convinced by the wording.
16 Electronegative: (entitle coverage)* + &lit (I think).
19 Triumph: double definition.
21 Taffeta: Fat< + feta.
22 Erica: Hidden in clerical.
23 In general: double definition (soldiers place trust in a general or any more senior officer).
24 Tom, Dick and Harry: Cryptic definition.
Down
1 Silent treatment: (me instant letter)*.
2 Earmark: arm in E ark.
3 Keep a list: double defintion (Pisa’s tower leans or lists).
4 Fiona: F + Iona.
5 Hit parade: (apartheid)*.
6 Dicta: DA around I ct.
7 Vanuatu: Van + UU around a t.
8 Lily of the Valley: (They all + lovely if)*.
14 Toothpick: Too thick around p + excellent cryptic definition.
15 Chaffinch: Chaff + inch.
17 Elitism: Not totally sure how to intepret this one – “The manufacture of cream”. There doesn’t seem to be any wordplay, so it must be cryptic. Is elitism the process by which the cream (elite) is made ?
18 In error: In [t]error.
20 Miami: MI + a + MI.
21 Tigon: (No git)<. A tigon is a tiger/lion hybrid.

7 comments on “Independent Crossword 6748 by Nimrod”

  1. Elitism’s not in Collins for this sense, but Chambers gives ‘the favouring or creation of an elite’.

  2. CANAL I think the hidden indicator is ‘getting in’. I too liked TOOTHPICK a lot. Fairly easy perimeter words made this easier for me than Nimrod usually is.
    Not sure though where the O in ARAPAHO comes from but you seem to have seen it!

  3. No, ARAPAHO was the one that defeated me. I thought it would be APARA_O, with _O being a word for ‘hard’, and RAP going over. But I suppose O must be an abbreviation for over in cricket.
    Absolutely loved TOOTHPICK.

  4. Thanks for O = over – the Concise OED gives it (from cricket scorecards). Not in Collins or, indeed, Chambers which is probably why I was unfamiliar with it.

  5. Dickens is synonymous with devil. From Dickon = Richard, a substitute word for devil. That way, you wouldn’t summon the bugger.

  6. If NealH had waited until after Countdown this afternoon, which of course he couldn’t do, he’d have got the answer to his question about Dickens and devil in 1ac from Susie Dent. Much as Paul B says.

  7. Are we in the middle of a great age of crossword-setting? Practically every broadsheet cryptic one does contains some magnificent clues. This one in particular contained the brilliant 22ac (Female clerical collars: ERICA), the idea of which was new at any rate to me, and the even more brilliant 14dn (Not clever enough to take pressure, my aims are food and lodging: TOOTHPICK).

    And then a day later they are forgotten, just like yesterday’s newspapers.

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