A lovely offering from Nestor today with nothing to complain about!
Hopefully, if you haven’t spotted the theme/nina the opening sentence will give you something to think about!
| Across | ||
| 8 | Opening numbers dropped from libretto about vessel in battle scene | |
| OTTERBURN | ||
| 9 | What’s seen at start of any road running one way? | |
| ARROW | Cryptic definition – Initial letters or ‘what’s seen at start of’ Any Road Running One Way | |
| 11 | Before this crime we would make passes tediously | |
| ARSON | If you added WE to ARSON you would get weARS ON (passes tediously) | |
| 12 | Investigator with authorisation’s good for carbon industry | |
| DILIGENCE | DI (investigator) + LI |
|
| 13 | Wife leaving exotic flower’ll put in low shrub swiftly | |
| HELL FOR LEATHER | Anagram of FLO |
|
| 16 | Mostly, John Brown leads with ritual and meditation? | |
| TANTRIC | TAN (brown) at the start or ‘leading’ followed by TRIC |
|
| 17 | After turnover, blast kind of unfinished dessert | |
| CUSTARD | DRAT (blast as in mild expletive) + SUC |
|
| 20 | See leaf ridges covering wild linseed plant | |
| LOVE-IN-IDLENESS | LO (see) + VEINS (leaf ridges) around or ‘covering’ and anagram of LINSEED (anagrind is ‘wild’) | |
| 23 | In municipality near Mons, Ghent unexpectedly extends | |
| LENGTHENS | LENS (this municipality near Mons) around an anagram of GHENT (anagrind is ‘unexpectedly’) | |
| 25 | Brush or pasture | |
| GRAZE | Double definition | |
| 27 | Suffering periodic losses, retiring farmer lacks system for reaping what’s sown | |
| KARMA | Hidden backwards or ‘retiring’ within the clue with every other letter being removed or ‘suffering periodic losses’ fArMeR lAcKs | |
| 28 | Lug 50 litres aboard the ship with relish | |
| SHELL-LIKE | L (50) + L (litres) inside or ‘aboard’ SHE (ships are usually described as female) + LIKE (relish). Well……. that’s what Bert told me to write as I hadn’t got a clue, although I was the one who solved it originally, although I couldn’t work out why! | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Model that I own in no sense | |
| NOT A WHIT | Anagram of THAT I OWN (anagrind is ‘model’) | |
| 2 | I’m surprised it’s expressed poetically for US inventor | |
| OTIS | O TIS (I’m surprised – as it may be said by a poet!). The inventor is Elisha Otis. Next time you use a lift, be very thankful for his invention. | |
| 3 | Time passed with more security overlooking a handover | |
| TRANSFER | T (time) + RAN (passed) + S |
|
| 4 | House of Lords having nothing from sell-offs? That’ll show this Tory member | |
| HURD | HoUse of loRDs with any letters in SELL-OFFS removed or ‘having nothing from’. This was our last one in and took us a little while to parse. Joyce uses the royal ‘WE’ here as this was another one she couldn’t work out! | |
| 5 | Successfully applied pressure to smoke pipe in pub; overturned last month | |
| INFLUENCED | FLUE (smoke pipe) inside or ‘in’ INN (pub) + DEC (last month reversed or ‘overturned’) | |
| 6 | Endlessly disobedient 1 | |
| NAUGHT | NAUGHT |
|
| 7 | Venerable lady stigmatised, losing crown in contest | |
| GRANDE DAME | ||
| 10 | Minute: 1,000 or 10,080 of them | |
| WEEK | WEE (minute) + K (1,000). 10,080 minutes are equal to 1 week. | |
| 14 | People involved with deeds that crash office computer networks? | |
| LANDOWNERS | A play on LAN (computer networks) + DOWNERS (a network is said to be down when it crashes). A topic very close to my heart at present as our main Apple computer keeps losing its wi-fi network even though there is nothing wrong with the wi-fi itself! | |
| 15 | One with tales to tell of deception in tax application | |
| RACONTEUSE | CON (deception) inside or ‘in’ RATE (tax) + USE (application) | |
| 18 | Society leaving out someone having 5 victims? | |
| SVENGALI | S (society) + anagram of LEAVING (anarind is ‘out’). When writing up the blog I tried to check that SVENGALI had five victims – I haven’t read the book as you may have guessed. It was made more difficult by the problems mentioned in 14d so it took a few goes before the penny dropped! The 5 relates to 5d as Svengali, who appeared in this novel was a hypnotist! | |
| 19 | Female in seedy premises left untidy | |
| DISHEVEL | SHE (female) inside or ‘in’ DIVE (seedy premises) + L (left) | |
| 21 | Beguile flustered parent | |
| ENTRAP | Anagram of PARENT (anagrind is ‘flustered’) | |
| 22 | Bad press has ‘Columbo’ actor’s guts churning | |
| FLAK | FALK (actor who played Columbo) with middle letters reversed or with ‘guts churning’ | |
| 24 | Little time to gather in parking requirements | |
| SPEC | SEC (little time as in second) around or ‘gathering in’ P (parking) | |
| 26 | Stretch of land like Iowa | |
| ASIA | AS (like) + IA (Iowa) | |
Thanks for the blog. This crossword was great fun, as was your opening sentence.
I didn’t realise pasture could be a verb, but put GRAZE in anyway. My Chambers tells me it certainly can be.
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. There were so many clues that I liked, especially 28a, 20a, 27a, 13a, 5d & 6d and my favourites were WEEK, LANDOWNERS & RACONTEUSE.
Thanks for the blog. I needed your help to parse 11a, 16a, 4d & 18d.
And thanks for pointing out the nina.
I needed to resort to aids to get my last three, OTIS, OTTERBURN and HURD in that order. If I had seen the nina it may have helped. I found this as hard as yesterday’s but less fun.
I’m other way round andyb, where yesterday’s seemed fuzssy with the strain of ‘I may’, or ‘one mmay’. Today’s clues much better, more artistic, just seemed more professiona; job!!
Cheers
Rowly.
Thanks you guys–8 and 4 lost on me–no surprise there–but Otis and Flak were turnabout, not to mention Iowa. Still have no idea what’s up with 28 though–the def is… lug?
Hi JohnF@5 Chambers has ‘shell-like’ as an epithet for the ear (poetic or joc) and ‘lug’ is an informal word for the ear – chiefly Scottish!
Found this pretty tough going. Got there in the end but still can’t parse Svengali, even with the excellent blog. I saw the cryptic construction, but how does “someone having 5 victims” give the same answer?
Ah! Just seen it, exactly as the blog explained! Sorry to be so dim!
Hi PJ. I thought Svengali may have had 5 victims but when I checked on google I found that he hypnotised his cictims – hence the link to 5d!
Did better than yesterday, but it was tough going. Just couldn’t see what 4dn was, and now that I’ve come here, I see this is because I read only half the clue. In the paper, the column break came at the end of the first sentence and I totally failed to notice there was a second sentence in the next column!
So thanks again. And all right–I give up. Is that “Chambers Crossword Dictionary” or one of the others? And do you come by this naturally or do you consult your Chambers on the way? I have an eye on a used copy for a $1.03 from a Boy’s Club in Red Gap, Montana. The expense notwithstanding, you realize this would be absolute…. absolute…. I don’t think there’s a WORD for what it would be over here!
Marvellous stuff. Failed on LOVE IN IDLENESS and SHELL LIKE but a fair cop in both cases.
Cheers.
JohnF: As no one else has answered, I’ll just say that Chambers probably refers to Chambers Dictionary, a standard UK English dictionary that seems to be the preferred dictionary for crosswords. When I use to do the Azed in the Observer, it would always say if there were words that weren’t in Chambers.
Currently, Chambers is at the 12th edition, copyright 2011. A new edition comes out every five years or so, and I usually treat myself with the new edition.
Thanks Dormouse for replying to JohnF. I was going to add that we used to buy the dead tree version of dictionaries but now have them (Chambers Dictionary and Thesaurus) on our iPad which is a lot easier to transport!
There’s something satisfying about the heft of the dead tree version of Chambers.
Not when you have to carry the two of them in your luggage!