(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) Today, Gaff has given us a nina, with a pun in the caption. The nina actually helped me this time, shortening the time it took to solve. Thank you Gaff. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
8 Group in Kuala Lumpur with a hot esoteric doctrine (8)
KABBALAH : ABBA(the Swedish singing group, once) contained in(in) KL(abbrev. for Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia) plus(with) A + H(abbrev. for “hot”).
Answer: A body of mystical teachings, often based on an esoteric interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
9 Siberian airgun’s gone off (6)
UGRIAN : Anagram of(…’s gone off) AIRGUN.
Answer: A member of a group of peoples of western Siberia.
10 Wallace’s sidekick largely cut out (4)
OMIT : “Gromit”(stop motion animated character Wallace’s doggy sidekick) minus its 1st 2 letters(largely).
11 One objective of tree maintenance (10)
DESCENDANT : Cryptic defn: Reference to a family tree. An objective, and result, of maintaining an ancestral line is the production of a descendant;an heir.
12 Status of well-connected surfer (6)
ONLINE : Cryptic defn: Reference to a surfer of websites.
14 Tending to set short clue about intelligence, is hard to follow (8)
CLIQUISH : “clue” minus its last letter(short) containing(about) I.Q.(abbrev. for “intelligence quotient”, a measure of intelligence) placed after(… to follow, in an across clue) [IS + H(abbrev. for “hard”).
Defn: Having the tendency to join into a set;a small exclusive group of friends or associates.
16 Cheek of young male holding race for second (7)
BUTTOCK : BUCK(a young male of some animals, or a spirited young man)containing(holding) [TT(abbrev. for “Tourist Tropy”, the annual motorcycle races held on the Isle of Man) + 2nd letter of(… second) “for ” ] .
18 Roll of dice in roll-back and taxi (7)
PEDICAB : Anagram of(Roll of) DICE contained in(in) reversal of(…-back) BAP(a large soft bread roll).
Defn: A sort of taxi;a passenger vehicle for hire. And she must surely have lots of fares:
20 Break up sergeant’s mess (8)
ESTRANGE : Anagram of(…’s mess) SERGEANT.
21 Oriental dwarf training (6)
BONSAI : Cryptic defn: The Japanese art of training, by selective pruning, etc., ornamental trees and shrubs to be dwarf-sized, smaller than what they would normally grow into.
22 Watch final – loser can’t dance (10)
CHARLESTON : Anagram of(dance) [the last letter of(… final) “Watch ” + LOSER CAN’T]. The anagram indicator doubles up as the defn. A nicely apt surface.
24 Barbarian begins bowing out of rugby (4)
BOOR : 1st letters, respectively, of(begins) “bowing out of rugby “.
25 Signal bewildered allies (6)
ALIGNS : Anagram of(bewildered) SIGNAL.
Defn: As a verb.
26 Parisian cop in continued clash (8)
CONFLICT : FLIC(slang for a French police officer) contained in(in) CONT.(abbrev. for “continued”).
Down
1 Smells surround a minor operation to pump organs (10)
HARMONIUMS : HUMS(unpleasant odours;bad smells) containing(surround) anagram of(operation) A MINOR.
Answer: Musical instruments of the organ family, operated by pumping air out of bellows.
2 Neighbour returns instrument (4)
ABUT : Reversal of(returns) TUBA(the musical instrument).
Defn: As a verb.
3 Bond, say, turned on soft light (6)
PLEDGE : Reversal of(turned) EG(abbrev. for the Latin “exempli gratia”;for example;say) placed below(on, in a down clue – this indicator works for an across clue, but I’m not sure it does for a down clue) [P(abbrev. for “piano”, musical direction to play softly) + LED(abbrev. for “light-emitting diode”;the modern technology light bulb) ].
4 Subject to drugs (7)
PHYSICS : Double defn: 1st: One of the science subjects; and 2nd: Medicinal drugs, especially those used to purge.
5 Solvers will even like sound of Christmas (8)
YULETIDE : Homophone of(like sound) [ “you’ll”(contraction of “you will”, “you” being the pronoun used by setters to refer to solvers) + “tied”(to be even in points in a competitive match) ].
6 Organised Labour in true can-do fashion without Conservative leader (5,5)
TRADE UNION : Anagram of(fashion) “in true can-do ” minus the 1st letter of(leader) “Conservative “.
7 Be paid attention by knight (4)
EARN : EAR(sympathetic attention, as in “to lend an ear” or “to bend someone’s ear”) plus(by) N(abbrev. for “knight” in chess).
13 Rash in grottier folds (10)
INTERTRIGO : Anagram of(folds) IN GROTTIER. A WIWD(wordplay intertwined with defn.) clue, as the answer is a rash that develops in, maybe the more unwashed;grottier? body folds.
15 Buffoon fell with force and cry of pain (10)
SCARAMOUCH : SCA(Fell, the mountain in the Lake District, the second highest in England) plus(with ) RAM(to force) plus( and) OUCH(a cry of pain).
Answer: Usually spelled with an “e” at the end, the clownish character in Italian farce.
17 He’ll sit uncomfortably on rough ocean (8)
CANOEIST : Anagram of(uncomfortably) SIT placed below(on, in a down clue – cf. comment for 3 down) anagram of(rough) OCEAN. A clever WIWD.
19 Condition of leaving will challenge a country’s borders (7)
TESTACY : TEST(to challenge;to ascertain the worth, capability or endurance of someone or thing) + A + 1st and last letters of(…’s borders) “country“.
21 From Durban, a narcotic plant (6)
BANANA : Hidden in(From) “Durban, a narcotic “.
23 Use lethal force in proportion (4)
HALF : Hidden in(Use) “lethal force“.
24 Exposed wound reported (4)
BALD : Homophone of(reported) “balled”(wound into a ball, like yarn, say).
Defn: Without covering.
(Please do NOT post any comment hereinbelow relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)
Thanks scchua and Gaff,
A tremendous blog and puzzle.
The nina also helped me finish off the crossword.
TESTACY, CONFLICT, CLIQUISH and YULETIDE were all very nice.
I was held up for a bit because I thought Gromit was spelt Grommet, which didn’t help much.
The wordplay of 10A seems to me to lead to omitted rather than omit.
By the way it is the first two letters of (Gr)omit that are ‘omitted’ (no pun intended).
This did not spoil an otherwise very enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks to Gaff and scchua.
ernie, thanks for pointing it out . Blog corrected.
what’s a nina?
Hornbeam@4
Here is an excellent explanation of a nina that I copied from the thread of Tuesday’s Guardian puzzle, submitted by Muffin.
“A Nina is a message (or theme words etc) hidden in the grid, sometimes round the perimeter, sometimes along a diagonal or sometimes in the unchecked squares in a particular row or column (or more than one of each). Its name is derived from the American cartoonist Al Herschfeld’s habit of hiding his daughter’s name, Nina, in his cartoons.”
I’d only add that normally you don’t have to spot the nina in order to complete the puzzle, but if you do, as per the comments above, it can be a great help.
Thank you, Gaff. The crossword was a pleasure anyway — now I like it even more.
Thanks Gaff and schhua
Only just started doing the FT crossword again recently after finding a pile of photocopied ones from the late 1990’s. It’s good to see that they have been made a bit more challenging now :).
The style of this setter is very much to my liking … and even with the hint at the top, I only spotted the nina after I’d completed it.
A couple of new words in FLIC and INTERTRIGO and messed up with the parsing of SCARAMOUCH – using scar=fell and struggling with the AM.