I must admit that this seemed to be about the toughest Nestor puzzle I’ve ever come across. As a result, I was picking away at it all week. One final entry, 17dn, remained blank until I could check it online today. Nevertheless, there is some very inventive and pleasing clueing in there.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | LIEUTENANTSHIP – ((U + TENANT) in LIES) + HIP. The “let contractor” definition for TENANT was well-hidden, I thought. |
| 9 | UPLIFT – (FLIP [o]UT)*. |
| 10 | PALOMINO – from DOMINO, with PAL (“china plate” = “mate”) ousting the leading D. |
| 11 | GREAT APE – [o]GRE AT A PE[nitentiary]. |
| 12 | ENGULF – ENG + FLU<. ENG was certainly new to me. |
| 13 | GANDHI – G[oing] AND HI. |
| 14 | SEMESTER – (M + EST) in SEER. |
| 16 | AMUNDSEN – (US MANNED)*. Roald Amundsen, no doubt. |
| 19 | DILUTE – DI + LUTE. |
| 21 | GARUDA – U in GARDA. It turns out to be these chaps, though I had to rely on wordplay for this one. |
| 23 | OVERSTEP – (VOTES PER)*. |
| 24 | EUPHUISM – E + UP + (IS in HUM). |
| 25 | SWIVEL – (W in LEVIS)<. |
| 26 | ETHNIC MINORITY – cd. |
| Down | |
| 2 | IMPERIAL MEASURE – (AREA MILES)* in IMPURE. |
| 3 | UNITARD – NIT in [g]UARD. |
| 4 | ESTUARIES – ES TU + ARIES. |
| 5 | APPLETS – APPLE + T[ool]S &lit. |
| 6 | TILDE – L in TIDE. |
| 7 | HOMAGES – MAG in HOES. |
| 8 | PENAL SETTLEMENT – TALENTS* in (P + ELEMENT). |
| 15 | MID-SEASON – SIDE* in Perry MASON. |
| 17 | NOUGHTH – (UGH + T) in NOH. |
| 18 | NUOC MAM – COUN[t]< + (M + A.M.). |
| 20 | LOSSIER – L + [d]OSSIER. |
| 22 | ALIBI – LIB in A.I.. |
I agree it was quite tough but very good as usual from Nestor. There is also reading down the left hand column LUGGAGE i.e. [Left] luggage, and down the right hand column OF REPLY i.e. [right] of reply.
I spend about 5 hours and only solved 8 clues. Thought that was down to my lack of ability but I see that it was tough.
Thanks for the blog
Yes, tough but solvable. Thanks, Nestor, for the challenge, and Simon for the blog – and jmac for spotting the nina which I missed.
21a was obviously U somewhere in GARDA but I’d never heard of the airline so it was Google to the rescue, and also to confirm 17d from the wordplay. At Oxford the week before a university term is frequently referred to as ‘noughth week’ – see http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/guide/uniterms.html
NUOC MAM was also new to me, but I got it from the wordplay and then found it in Chambers.
Favourites? ESTUARIES and TILDE.
Yes, well spotted jmac. I noticed that but didn’t understand it at all, and eventually forgot to even mention it. Thanks for the explanation!
The other thing I meant to mention relates to Allan_C’s comment: us programmers start counting at 0 (for example in the context of array indices), so the noughth of anything would be the initial, rather than the one preceding the initial item! That’s basically pedantry, though 😉
Yes, this was pretty tough, but totally fair. Seeing LUGGAGE and OF REPLY emerging helped me but I did not get the LEFT RIGHT idea till coming here. Quite a few words I’d never heard of but the clear wordplay led me to them in all cases. Favourite clues GANDHI and TILDE.
Thanks, Nestor, and Simon – programmers may start at 0 for convenience, Simon, giving 10 one-digit numbers, but I guess the rest of us will stick with 1 as our starting point for the foreseeable future…
Thanks Simon and Nestor.
Really challenging, though perhaps I had a slight edge with GARUDA and NOUC MAM. Last one in was NOUGHTH, couldn’t think of a word ending ….H_H, until I thought east and Japanese drama. Lots of tough but fair clues as always with Nestor, favourites of which were 10A PALOMINO, got held up slightly trying to fit “China”=”Ming” porcelain, 5A APPLETS and 25A SWIVEL, though some might frown at the use of tradenames in the latter two. Thanks jmac for the explanation of the ninas, which I spotted but couldn’t connect.