Unusual puzzle. Got almost nothing on first run through. Then with three crossing letters saw what 8 was likely to be. After that made quite good progress, until getting badly stuck on 9. Finally cracked it tho, solving time, 38 mins, of which about 15 mins was looking for that last one.
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
8 THE OLYMPIC GAMES 20 12 is of course the year they’re due in London. In this puzzle 20 is CAPITAL 12 is UNITED so I think what it’s saying is that the ‘capital i.e. London united’ over this twice – i.e. held two previous games, 1908 and 1948.
9 PI (RI P I RICH ICKE )N PIN = ID rip = copy to disk (without paying) I = one rich = full-toned “Messiah” = David ICKE
10 SE (G-MEN)T
12 U NIT ED “You” “Night” “DJ “Not ‘alf” A look after solving gave two suggestions in an area I’m not personally familiar with. ED is half of something, but for some reason it’s ‘alf – not half. Not sure if this is because of the London Olympics or because of this bit of the answer itself. The two suggestions are (1) a DJ called Eddy Temple-Morris or (2) an artist called DJ Eddy (Thanks for correction below – this is much less complicated than the above suggests “You” “Nite” D – half of DJ)
(Thanks for those in comments below who explained this. U NITE D Definition: One
U = “You” NITE = “Night” D = half of DJ)
13 S (PAN IS H OME LET) TE (set)* Peter Pan
18 ST ROLL On a roll
20 CAP IT AL(l) Wellington, capital of New Zealand
23 FREE ASSOCIATION Liked this, dividing at Freudian / Society between a definition and a cryptic definition
24 DIGITAL COMPUTER Ref counting on toes as in nursery rhyme toe = piggy
DOWN
1 CHA (INS U) P (us in)* ‘tight’ indicates the anagram
2 GO RING
3 BY (LIN) E nil<
4 SPOILT FOR CHOICE (chief protocol is)* Hobson’s choice and Sophie’s Choice were the opposite – no choice in effect
5 I C (E H) O USE
6 WAR C RIME (emir craw)<
7 RED-EYE Double definition
13 MO I
14 NEOTERIC (erection)* I think I remember the late Ruth Crisp, who set the first Indy cryptic in 1986 as Marcy, complaining that a crossword editor, not the Indy I think, had returned a whole puzzle as that word, as a building, was in it.
15 SA LE (SM) AN
16 LEI (sure) 11 words to clue 3 letters and why not, for a change?
17 TAL (K O) VER (travel)*
19 T (URN) IP
21 PR (ISM)Y
22 TUT-TUT ref tutu
12ac. I read this as u+nite+d (half DJ). (don’t know what “one”s doing, though).
Cheers for the blog Niall. I had a similar run at this, getting 8A fairly quickly (I remember Paul doing the 20 12 trick in The Guardian a while back). I also got PIRI PIRI CHICKEN fairly early on, but had absolutely no idea on the wordplay until I read the above! Fell down PRISMY though and wouldn’t have even guessed it was a valid word.
For 12A, D is indeed one half of DJ, so the only thing I can think of is that this is a DJ referencee to the late, great Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman – ‘not ‘alf’ was his catchphrase – used purely to enhance the surface reading. It’s fairly oblique though!
IanN14 – 12ac “one” is the definition of “united”, i.e. whole, unified…
D’oh!
It’s actually a very good clue.
Didn’t understand the PIRI-PIRI CHICKEN clue. Grossly obscure in my opinion. THE OLYMPIC GAMES clue very vague.
TURNIP was last one I got. “Vessel loading extreme root crop” to me doesn’t work. “Loading” here is used in a transitive sense, i.e. to “take on board”. This implies that the answer is something like “UTIPRN”!…
Nimrod runs deep as ever, but highly entertaining nonetheless. Another fine run out for the gifted Indy panel.
For 12a I put in ‘played’ which is probably why I got so stuck.
AMB:
Can you explain what you mean by “Nimrod runs deep as ever” or, at least if you can’t explain it, give us an example in the puzzle of him “running deep”?
What’s entertaining about spending a long time doing a so-so puzzle and then finding at the end that the last clue you solved you thought didn’t work?
Hmmm…. no reply!