This was my first blogging encounter with Nimrod for a long time – and is not one that I will forget in a hurry!
A first perusal of the grid reveals that most of the down entries are covered by clues to two long phrases. As such, I instantly began to fear that I might get nowhere with this puzzle unless the longer expressions were familiar to me and also occurred to me while solving.
Although the gateway clue offered a fairly straightforward way into the theme, I suspected immediately that any references to the monarch concerned would be lost on me, and that was indeed the case, since the mole anecdote was totally new to me. That said, in all fairness to Nimrod, I was able to work out the name of the horse and the toast from the letters in the grid and the wordplay, so prior knowledge of the topic was not a prerequisite for completing the puzzle. All in all, I think it was a super idea for a puzzle, and I especially liked the way the historical incident was tied in with the contemporary mountain/molehill idiom. Incidentally, the latter clue was actually one of the first that I solved, while the toast was the last.
The wordplay is rather complex in this puzzle, so if my parsing has gone awry in places, please let me know, but I think that I got there in the end. I would appreciate confirmation of the parsing at 12, since Chambers doesn’t list the agent noun that I refer to.
And after all that hard work (and pleasure), I still have a working day to face!!
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 04 | GLOBATE | Like ball put up over opponent in opening set
LOB (=put up over opponent) in GATE (=opening) |
| 08 | MEMBERS | Male has confirmation of love’s dying body …
M (=male) + EMBERS (=confirmation of love’s dying) |
| 10 | TOAST | … “brown bread” perfectly encapsulates end of mistress
<mistres>S (“end of” means last letter only) in TO A T (=perfectly) |
| 11 | GULLIVER | Traveller, one hears, all over Scouse bird
GUL (LUG=one hears, i.e. ear; “all over” indicates reversal) + LIVER (=Scouse bird, from the building in Liverpool and the sitcom); the reference is to Johnathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, of course. |
| 12 | LEKKER | Courting male’s enjoyable for South African
To lek is to engage in a courtship ritual, display, of blackcocks, etc; by extension, whimsically, a “lekker” would be a courting male; lekker means fun, enjoyable in South African slang |
| 13 | AT THAT TIME | A dry ambassador embracing a dry crossword compiler is back, then?
[A + TT (=dry, i.e. teetotal) + I’M (=crossword compiler is, i.e. Nimrod referring to himself)] in [A + TT (=dry) + HE (=ambassador, i.e. His/Her Excellency)]; the definition is “back then”, without the comma! |
| 17 | WILLIAM THE THIRD | Dreadfully hard time will hit monarch
*(HARD TIME WILL HIT); “dreadfully” is anagram indicator; this is the gateway clue to understanding the anecdote alluded to in 7/5/14/6/3 and 9/22 |
| 18 | SWEETIE-PIE | Dessert dish with a crust that’s held dear
I.E. (=that’s) in [SWEET (=dessert) + PIE (=dish with a crust)] |
| 19 | BON MOT | Witticism returned by opponent of Jerry and Jack at card table
TOM (=opponent of Jerry, i.e. in cartoon) + NOB (=jack at card table, i.e. in cribbage); “returned” indicates (here full) reversal |
| 22 | RE-ENLIST | Again sign on dotted line, still engaging
*(LINE) in REST (=still); “dotted”, presumably in the sense of scattered, strewn, is anagram indicator |
| 23 | TOKYO | Old capital put forward to select new one
KYO-TO (=old capital of Japan); “put forward to” means letters “to” are placed at front of word to give Tokyo, the new capital |
| 24 | LIAISON | Bond of union – at the outset, Androcles is demonstrating alternative fate!
[A<ndrocles> (“at the outset” means first letter only) + IS] in LION (“demonstrating alternative fate”, i.e. ending up inside the lion rather than taming it, as in the fable) |
| 25 | OFF-SITE | Brief proposal to hold position away from work
SIT (=position, i.e. as a verb) in OFFE<r> (=proposal; “brief” means last letter dropped) |
| Down | ||
| 7/5/14/6/3 | TO THE LITTLE GENTLEMAN IN THE BLACK VELVET WAISTCOAT | Add brief info on me et al merrily gulping 9th Guinness/Moët bubbly ‘cos a wit, in passion, 21 10
TOT (=add) + {LITTLE (=little) + GEN (=info) + [NINTH (=9th) in *(ME ET AL)] + BLACK VELVET (=Guinness/Moët, i.e. a drink combining the two) + *(‘COS A WIT)} in HEAT (=passion); “merrily” and “bubbly” are anagram indicators; the definition is (makes) “toast” (=entries at 21 and 10), referring to the toast that the Jacobites raised to the mole who inadvertently triggered the downfall of William the Third |
| 9/22 | SORREL | Little brother, say, with guitarist overlooking 17’s mount (as it did 2)
SOR (=guitarist, i.e. the Spanish classical guitarist Fernando Sor (1778-1839)) + REL (=brother, say, i.e. relation/relative; “little” suggests an abbreviation); Sorrel is the name of William the Third (=entry at 17)’s horse, who stumbled (“overlooked”) over a molehill (=entry at 2), an incident that led ultimately to the monarch’s demise |
| 15 | CHEERLESS | Gloomy sides (both) tucking into deli specialities, second now relegated
[R L (=sides (both), i.e. left and right) in CHEE-S-ES (=deli specialities; “second (=S)” now relegated” means the (first) letter “s” is moved to a lower/later position in the word) |
| 16 | CROISSANT | Vexed soldier grabbing what’s essential for daily bread
<da>I<ly> (“what’s essential for” means middle letter only) in [CROSS (=vexed) + ANT (=soldier)] |
| 21/1/20/2 | MAKES A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL | Comes to “Quantity A” two ways from one reduced “Standard Quantity”: what badly stresses!
MAKES (=comes to, as in That makes £5.75, when totting up a bill) + AMOUNT (=quantity) + A + IN OUT (=two ways) + OF (=from) + A + MOL<e> (=standard quantity, i.e. an SI unit; “reduced” means last letter dropped) + EH (=what, as an exclamation) + ILL (=badly) |
Well; truly amazing. Thanks to RatkojaRiku for the parsing of the two huge answers. The gateway clue was straightforward enough and when I saw the outline of the word “waistcoat”, dim bells started ringing and I managed it from there, using the enumeration of the two leviathans. Would never have been able to parse them.
Cannot see any anniversary or other significant date relating to the third William.
In 16D I think it’s “I” in “CROSS” + “ANT (or “I” in “CROSS ANT”).
Thanks indeed to Nimrod (how long did it take to devise those clues?) and RatkojaRiku.
Brilliant stuff and well done RR.
I think you’re as close as anyone can get on 12a – for me it was a G&G (guess and google). For my money better to fudge the grid than have last resort entries like that but the rest of the puzzle I enjoyed hugely and counted myself lucky to crack the biggies from the faint dinging of distant bells – although the gateway anagram was friendly enough. Great stuff all round.
There are some people on the G thread who would like enumerations to be dispensed with and for blocked cryptics to have those vague hints (eg 3 words etc) that barred-grid puzzles typically have. I think I prefer things as they are. The enumerations certainly helped a lot here.
I thoroughly enjoyed solving this one – I don’t think I have ever had so much ‘anagram letter’ scribble on a piece of paper for a very long time. Splendid stuff thank you Nimrod and well done RR for explaining it all.
When I saw this puzzle I wondered whether it was worth the effort of trying to decipher those lengthy down clues. However, I then found and solved the gateway clue at 17a and spotted the reference to 17’s mount in 9d. Unlike our blogger I did know about the “little gentleman” and so quickly deduced the solution to the thematic down clues from word lengths alone. For some reason I found completing such a large part of the grid in this way somewhat dissatisfying. I then solved about half the remaining clues from the definitions and checking letters alone which added to my vague sense of dissatisfaction. I’m afraid this feeling is more a reflection on my own laziness rather than on the crossword itself.
LEKKER was a new word for me, but I agree with RR’s parsing.
Thanks to RR for the parsings I was too lazy to work out and to Nimrod for such an impressive crossword.
Very tricky puzzle: even with aids I did poorly. However, I thought for 22a that I needed all of ‘sign on the dotted line’ to make enlist (with again for the preceding hyphenated ‘re’) and that the whole meant still engaging as when jouster takes another go in the ‘lists’. I never spotted an anagram in it. Some clues have different routes of course.
Thanks to gwep (and indeed to Nimrod, who spotted another little glitch in my parsing) for the correction – the blog has been amended accordingly!
Wow. When I saw the two long anagrams I thought I wouldn’t get anywhere with it, because they’re my least favourite type of clue; but of course on finishing it I realised that there wouldn’t have been any other way of creating the theme. I got WILLIAM THE THIRD (thank you for a straightforward gateway clue) and then MAKES A MOUNTAIN OUT OF A MOLEHILL; but since I didn’t know the story it meant nothing to me. When VELVET WAISTCOAT looked likely, I’m afraid I had to resort to Google to discover the TOAST.
The remainder was the usual hard work for this solver with Nimrod. LEKKER I guessed because it’s the same word in Dutch (there it usually refers to food as being ‘yummy’ or ‘delicious’, I think). But well done to the setter for such an achievement, and I now know more about British history than I did this morning.
And a special well done to RR for solving and blogging this one!
Many thanks to RR, although some answers were write ins I felt for the blogger that had to fully decipher those long answers. My only criticism is that such long answers mean you get nowhere then virtually everywhere in a blink.
In my less than enthusiastic entry @4 I should have added a big “thank you” to Nimrod for a theme I was acquainted with (familiar would have been an overstatement). It made a nice change from the more usual fare of football and obscure pop bands of the latter part of the 20th centre which always leave me floundering (if I knew how to do it I would have inserted a smiley emoticon at this point!)
Whoops – that should have been “20th century”
I am completely in awe of both setter and blogger – bravissimo, both!
17ac was my first in and I did do the right period for A Level History, which was a help with the long ones, but being able to write them in didn’t make the rest a doddle, by any means. And as for parsing them …!
A real tour de force, in both the construction and the individual clues.
As I’ve said elsewhere, it’s been a very good day in Crosswordland. 😉
Yeesh. A beast of a puzzle.
Because of time constraints today I had to do this over three sessions, and I used aids for my last few entries.
I just didn’t see BLACK VELVET for the Guinness/Moet part of the longest clue, which is pretty embarrassing as I had parsed the rest of it. I also needed aids to check Sorrel because I had never hesrd of the guitarist. I then used aids for GLOBATE (the unnecessary “set” in the wordplay was very offputting) and LEKKER (too obscure for me).
Well, I completed it, but I did need help. I knew about the molehill etc., but I didn’t know the name of the horse and googled that, and even then I couldn’t parse it, although I had heard of the guitarist (but I think of him as a composer). And I had to do a search to get 12ac, both meanings were new to me. Rather a lot I couldn’t parse today, including the two whoppers, so definitely a big thanks for doing all that work.
Brilliant, good to see the boy JH fully at it, which I think we can safely say he is in this one, with the two long ones very much trademark – who else could, or would, have done it like that?
My only irk is LEKKER, which I would argue is ungettable without aids unless you are a grouse expert or a South African. I’m neither, so plumped for the ole cheat button.
I agree with Paul B – whilst the overall puzzle was ingenious and challenging there were a couple of clues which could only be solved through extensive use of internet search engines – LEKKER and SORREL spring to mind. IMHO a truly great crossword is one that should allow solvers to come at the answers from a couple of directions without needing recourse to google. LEKKEr was impenetrable unless you were a grouse expert or an Afrikaaner whilst SORREL could only be got at through extremely obscure general knowledge (Billy the thirds horse or spanish guitarists).
Other than that this was just a straightforwardly bloody hard puzzle!
Great stuff! I didn’t immediately connect 17a with 7/5/14/6/3, but having had to leave the puzzle unfinished to go out, the connection occurred to me, and I wondered if there was some significance in the date. So when I got back I looked up William III on Wikipedia; of course there was no significance in the date but I did discover the name of his horse which enabled me to get 9/22. GLOBATE was a new word to me but I had vaguely heard of LEKKER without knowing its meaning so I guessed it and confirmed it with the check button.
Thanks and admiration to Nimrod and RatkojaRiku
Andy B #12. Why is “set” “unnecessary”, please?
I (thought I) knew lekker (from my days as a student of comparative psychology) in the context of antelope, but it was interesting to discover that even the birds if not the bees do it. Neither of my checkers commented on the SA usage.
Many thanks for comments. I’ve emailed RR to tell him what a wonderful blog it was. But he did have five days to prepare it.
Best to all.
J
I would imagine Andy B thinks “set” unnecessary for the same reason that RR didn’t need to mention it in the blog.
I would imagine Andy B found “set” unnecessary for the same reason that RR didn’t mention it in the blog.
Is there an echo in here?
John H@17 – I’m not sure if you will read this as seeing as it is being posted a day after the puzzle and blog appeared, but I’ll answer anyway.
After looking at the clue again I have decided it is more devious than I gave it credit for. Although the clue would work without “set”, as per RR’s explanation, the surface reading would not be anywhere near as good. Not only does “set” improve the surface reading, but it actually serves as the inclusion indicator rather than “in”. My bad.
Many thanks, Andy B. Your reply very much appreciated! Best, J