*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
Interesting puzzle. Despite only having to blog about six clues, I’ve failed to manage them all: 1dn is still searching for an explanation.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 8 | HEPATICA – (CHAP + A TIE)*. |
| 9 | LET UP – LET + UP, I guess. |
| 11 | INKBERRIES – (BIKER + REINS)*. “The Hollies” being the def. |
| 12/25 | CRYING SHAME – (SEARCHING MY)*. “Pants” being the anagrind. |
| 14 | NUISANCE – 1’S in NUANCE. |
| 15 | GET AWAY – dd. |
| 17 | AGAINST – A[dversary] GAINS T. |
| 20 | SEMOLINA – (LEMONS I + A)*. |
| 22 | LOG JAM – LOG + JAM. |
| 23 | BANANA SKIN – BA + NANA’S KIN. |
| 26 | NACELLES – SCAN< “outside of” ELLE. |
| Down | |
| 1 | PEDIGREE – “line” would be the def. |
| 3/24 | LIVING HELL – LIVING + HE’LL. |
| 4/2 | WALKING TALL – dd. |
| 5/10 | SLEEPING PILL – is this just a convoluted cd? |
| 6 | STARGAZING – dd. |
| 7 | APNEIC – (IN CAPE)*. |
| 13 | INAMORATAS – (ANIMATORS + A)*. |
| 16 | AGITATED – TATI< in AGED. |
| 18 | SEAWATER – (A SWEATER)*. |
| 19/24A | TALKING HEAD – a triple, I think. Some web searching shows the third to be TAL (“chess master”) + KING[‘s] HEAD. |
| 21 | ELAPSE – PAL< (“China plate” = “mate”) in ESE. |
| 22 | LUNACY – LUCY “contains” (A N)<. |
Simon
1d is [o]PE[n] (on cutting open) DIG (get) RE (on) E (drug)
19/24a I believe David Byrne was one of the two members of Talking Heads group.
One of the four, actually, MIKE, but I think that was Simon’s unmentioned second definition.
Liked 12/25 and 23ac.
HEPATICA, INKBERRIES, NACELLES, APNEIC, INAMORATAS?
Come on, this isn’t an AZED…
It took me all day, but I managed to finish this in the end, pedigree being the last one I got. Unless you’re a botanist, I think hepatica was just about impossible without looking up liverworts. I wasn’t too impressed with inkberries: it’s not at all clear to me that both words have to be anagrammed together. I kept trying to do separate anagrams of them.
“Got myself a crying, talking, sleeping, walking, LIVING DOLL” – Cliff Richard, No 1, 1959. Now that’s what I call a Nina (or perhaps a Grannina).
Just finished this extremely hard puzzle (one hour +) which has many convoluted constructions (e.g. 1Down). Not once did I laugh or snigger or guffaw or smile. This compiler must be totally devoid of a sense of humour … does everybody has to be like Andy Murray when he steps on court?
Uncle Yap,
Not even 12/25ac?
Of course everything is subjective, especially senses of humour, but what if, say, Paul had written that clue?
I personally look forward to Nimrod/Enigmatist puzzles. A challenge, yes, usually, but devoid of humour? I don’t think so.
And Mike; nice one. A nina that totally passed me by…
I have to admit that I missed the Nina too. I thought there was some sort of 60s pop thing going on somewhere with the Hollies and Crying Shame (Cryin’ Shames), but Mike Laws seems to have nailed it.
I find it a bit strange that Uncle Yap only appears on Indy blogs to accuse the setter of a lack of humour. As I’ve said before, perhaps it just that the humour doesn’t always travel as well as his whisky.
I note Mr. Mike Laws has not moaned about this Nina (if that’s what it is – I suppose anything hidden in the grid, by whatever means, could be): do you know, I think he’s coming around to the (daily) Indie’s way of thinking!
I have been solving crosswords for a number of years and must take issue with Uncle Yap’s rather nasty comment. Nimrod in all his guises produces consistently entertaining, witty and original clues, and while he may be at the tougher end of the scale, long may he continue to do so.
I’d rather spend an hour tackling a nimrod puzzle than six or seven minutes tackling some other setters, whose clues are so hackneyed that you feel like you have steeped back into the 60’s to solve them.
Humour is subjective perhaps – the joke that has to be explained is never a joke – but having tackled every Nimrod puzzle since he began to appear in the Indy, humour is definitely a big feature of his puzzles, I’d have to say.
I would not mind going back to the 60s tho, Dave T, if that was possible…
I remember some jolly good puzzles in the 60s. A Grauniad speciality on Bank Hol weekends was the double puzzle – two identical grids with the 2 clues for each light run together. First of all you had to decide where one clue ended and the other began; then you had to decide which answer went in which grid! I don’t suppose the Indy would give you space for that, Eimi.
I have a few of those in my stock if anyone wants them, mail me.
Re the NINA I can find LIVING But where’s DOLL?
DOLL was simply the link between the five adjectival participles Cliff used to describe his notional squeeze, each linked with another word in the diagram. So it was unnecessary to have it in the diagram.
And for the information of Paul B Esq, I wasn’t moaning about ninas per se, just the prevalent expectation of them as a matter of course.
I sense some hostility about my criticism of the last two Nimrod puzzles. First, let me make it absolutely clear that I am a huge fan of John Henderson, whom I have personally met and with whom, I have exchanged drinks in a London pub.
That aside, I reflected how I honestly felt after solving the latest Nimrod – a sense of “no fun”. Too much convoluted trickery without a modicum of humour or any surface reading that could be construed as amusing. Am I not entitled to my opinion?
That said, I will still look forward to the next Henderson puzzle, be it Enigmatist, Io or Nimrod.