A very good puzzle for April Fool’s Day by Nimrod. Very tough, solving time, 66 mins. There’s a Nina which I refer to after the clue explanations.
* = anagram
ACROSS
6 PAUL Robbing Peter to pay Paul, as in proverb. Peter = safe. I liked this.
7 GET THE CHOP Double definition I got early on.
9 IVOR(y)
10 OR TH (OPTER) A (hat)* Cockroaches. Order a very brief definition, but fair
12 SE (A) TTLE There’s a University of Washington in Seattle, Google confirms
13 SORT OUT Double definition with excellent surface reading
14 NO-W IN I liked this, but trust it does not refer to Barack at this early stage of his presidency…
16 SON Empty tin = SN (symbol for tin) with O in it. I got this only near the end, but it seems so obvious when you see it.
18 I ON IC(e)
19 A (LSO) RAN Aran Islands off West coast of Ireland. London Symphony Orchestra (players)
21 I’LL WILL (leave i.e. bequeathe)
23 R(O)AD RUNNER Hard
24 DEMO Hidden
25 LARCENISTS (clean stirs)* rhyming slang tea leaves = thieves
26 STYE Hidden &lit
DOWN
1 C (U POLe) A ca = about Tough
2 DEBRI (E F) S Definition: After the event, reports Very good
3 ETC HE’S
4 PEPPER MILLS (&Boon)
5 SHOEHORN My last entry (snore hho)* Water = H2O
6 POISSON D’AVRIL April fool – refers to theme poisson = fish (swimmer) in French
8 PRACTICAL JOKE (erotic lap Jack)* Also thematic for the day.
11 I TIN (ER) ARIES
15 WI (SEAC) RE (case)*
17 NOISETTE Double definition. Nutty/hybrid rose. I got this only when I’d all the crossing letters
20 N (UNCI)O
22 I D(E) ATE
Nina: As well as the thematic entries in the outermost columns. APRIL FOOLS DAY can be seen in the diagonal from the A of PAUL to the Y of STYE. I saw this only at the very end.
Jeez, this was tough.
I very nearly gave up with only half the grid filled, but then spotted the diagonal Nina and that seemed to help me a lot. Still ended up 5 clues short, but that’s par for the course for me when it comes to Nimrod. Despite having done a French degree, I only knew POISSON D’AVRIL from the Azed comp a while back and needed all the checking letters before I got it. Enjoyed the PAUL clue too.
I didn’t manage to finish the NE corner, partly because I put FOR THE CHOP in.
Failed to spot the Nina as well, I was looking for something across the top and bottom rows.
Some great clues in here; the Nina certainly helped me finish. ROADRUNNER was my last entry, I spent ages trying to justify ‘rearranged’ or ‘rearranger’.
Agreed, Ali. Defeated me, not helped by my failing to see the diagonal Nina. Even now can’t see why ‘Rad’ is a political reformer in 23ac.
One quibble: 17dn: OK a noisette is a hybrid rose, but it doesn’t mean ‘nutty’ (unless there is some sense in some dictionary of which I am unaware). I don’t like this type of clueing.
Wil
Noisette: a nut-like or nut-flavoured sweet (Chambers)
Re Wil’s points at 4, RAD = radical (in politics). Re ‘nutty’, I did look in a number of dicts before posting and while NOISETTE is generally a noun, it was given in a adjectival sense also in at least one.
Indeed. Collins, the most useful dictionary for Indy puzzles, gives the adjective as its first definition: flavoured or made with hazelnuts, hence, rather unspecifically but still fairly, I think, nutty.
“Collins, the most useful dictionary for Indy puzzles…
This seems rather strange, to my way of thinking. No statistics available, of course, but at a guess, the most popular dictionary for people who do cryptic crosswords is Chambers. (I’ve never had a Collins. The popularity of this has probably increased by the Guardian giving Collins dictionary as its prize).