Slightly unexpected to see Nimrod on a Tuesday – I was hoping for something a little easier on the first day back after a long weekend! I struggled with the corners on this one and there are a few bits and pieces where explanations will be required (especially in the NE corner)
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | GIVE IN – I’VE in GIN – ‘Trapped’ as in ‘in a trap’ |
| 9 | APPLETON – APPLET,ON – ref. Edward Victor, the physicist |
| 10 | DON – N,DO rev. |
| 11 | FIDDLE – Double def. ‘Do’ as in ‘con’ |
| 12 | IMPROPER – IMP,ROPER – A nice clue |
| 13 | AGENTS – A,GENTS |
| 14 | PEEWIT – PEE,WIT – Very tricky. I initially guessed PARROT! |
| 16 | CONCEALED WEAPON – CO,(NEW DEAL CAPONE)* – Not sure why ‘repeatedly’ appears in the definition here |
| 19 | STARRY – YR,RATS rev. |
| 21 | NACHOS – I think this is AN rev. (‘one misguidedly’) + CHOS[-e] |
| 24 | ARMAGNAC – (ANAGRAM)*,C – ‘Self-descriptive anagram’ was very clever here |
| 26 | SANITY – Not sure on this one – ‘what’s normal for oomph and more oomph to ring in New Year?’ |
| 27 | ALP – A,LP |
| 28 | SEA EAGLE – (A GALE)* in SEE |
| 29 | ALLICE – ALL,ICE – Cryptic def. |
| Down | |
| 1 | PIPING HOT – PIP + 0 in (NIGHT)* |
| 2 | LEAD-IN – Cryptic def. |
| 3 | UNDERSEA – (NUDES ARE)* |
| 4 | RANI – Got this from the checking letters, but I can’t work out where there’s a letter removed! |
| 5 | EPOPEE – OP in EPEE |
| 6 | VERONICA – Presume this is a doube def, but am not sure of the symphonic reference |
| 7 | LOVER – R after LOVE |
| 14 | PIETY – E in PITY I think, though not sure why ‘the tab’ would be E |
| 15 | POGO STICK – (TOGO’S)* in PICK |
| 17 | COTTAGER – AG in COTTER – I didn’t know that a cotter was a pin, but fortunately do know that Fulham play at Craven Cottage! |
| 18 | WINGSPAN – (SPAWNING)* |
| 20 | RENEGE – Hidden reversal in thE GENERation… |
| 22 | CANDLE – [-zodia]C,AND,LE[-o] |
| 23 | GREED – [-de]GREED |
| 25 | CAEN – I think this is EN (French for ‘in’) on C (clubs) and A (source of ‘apples’)! |
26 ac Sanity – sa = oomph, it = more oomph in ny
4dn – I guess this is Iran with the I “deposed”
I think the reason for the inclusion of “found repeatedly here” in 16ac, is that all the weapons from Cluedo can be found hidden in the grid; either in two consecutive down lights, L-shapes, diagonally or simply hidden in 12ac.
6d I think this is N (name) in V (playing) EROICA (symphony). V=playing as in City v United.
14d tab – a pill or drug esp Ecstasy (Chambers)
14a: One might refer to a tab (abbreviation of tablet) of ecstasy.
6d: I think this is N in EROICA – I’m not sure where the V comes from, though… “mentioned” somehow?
This was very tough, I thought, but maybe I’m having a bad day. Ironically I missed the reference to Java applets, although their irritations were foremost in my mind while doing the crossword 🙂
Thanks for the explanations. And very, very well spotted on the Cluedo weapons. I would never have got that!
7D is legover without eg.
I found this very hard, especially the NE corner. I didn’t spot the Cluedo weapons (or the French towns yesterday).
Take a bow, IanW. That’s a wonderful spot about the Cleudo weapons. A tough puzzle, but a wonderfully inventive creation from Nimrod
I failed with this at the very end, perhaps because of a life lived in total ingorance of the Cluedo weapons (though I’d heard of the board game of course). The unusual grid made me suspect something was going on, but I did not twig it.
Yes, very tricky, but satisfying once completed. Missed the Cluedo nina, though.
Nice bit of consecutive clueing for 13 & 14 ac, with ‘a gents’ suggesting ‘pee’.
But I was misled in 7 (thanks for the explanation, Richard) by “say” which set me trying to find a word with a ‘q’ in it (‘Romeo’ follows ‘Quebec’ in the phonetic alphabet). If that was a deliberate misdirection it was a good one!