A second consecutive duel with Nimrod – oh dear I’m going to need my grey cells.
Not as fearsome as some of his offerings, in my opinion to complete the entries. Explaining the full intricacies of the clues is quite a different matter. Certainly a little risqué in places 9ac is a new one on me in a crossword but I may have had a more sheltered upbringing than I thought. 6dn continued the theme and 25dn possibly completed it!
7dn and 8dn lost me completely so any helpful hints welcome on those.
Thanks Nimrod for some severe head scratching to get to the bottom of the intricacies in the clues
Key
Underline – definition
DD Double definition
Rev. reverse
* Anagram
ACROSS
9 United face big cups and monopolise throughout (2, 3, 4)
U (united) + pan (face) + dd (Big cups as in breast size) + own (monopolise) = UP AND DOWN
10 Animal‘s cross, shut inside (5)
Tau (cross) around to (shut) = TATOU
11 Web journal resident turned out of North Dakota (1-4)
Rev(denizen (resident)) – nd (North Dakota) = E-ZINE
12 Deliberately deceptive down clue would have you see department with inner spirit (7-2)
Dept(department) around rum (spirit) – if it were a down clue it would be reversed by Up = TRUMPED UP
13/21 Condition backed by criminal courts, time being accepted by father having provoked relative (5, 6, 4, 7)
Rev if (condition) + (courts)* + nonce (time being) in sire (father) + moved (provoked) = FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOVED
15 Some trouble – and no escaping it (3)
annoy (trouble) – no = ANY
16/19 Cook acted to stall us having new test players coin phrase? (5,2, 7)
(acted)* around uu (u’s) and (test)* + men (players) = DECUS ET TUTAMEN (Check your pound coins for the origin)
20 Officer in tow plays – you may recall writer’s name (3)
Rev. my (writer) + n (name) = NYM (Shakespearean character in Henry V)
24 Fully informed about drugs (2,2,5)
DD UP TO SPEED (with a cryptic twist – amphetamines)
26 Monotonously beat maidens after getting clear of American (5)
Thru (American expression for get clear of – through) + m (maiden) = THRUM
27 Returning pair in Pointless age cheese … (5)
Rev. (age – e (pointless) around duo) = GOUDA
28 … and infusing French plonk by the cask, get tipsy in game (5-2-2)
Vin (French plonk) + (get)* + tun (cask) = VINGT-ET-UN
DOWN
1 Hug forbidden orderly carrying small instrument for royalty (4, 2, 9)
uke(small instrument) in (hug forbidden)* = DUKE OF EDINBURGH
2 Missionary position initially rejected in promotion of peace by churchman I gathered (6)
Rev. (pax (peace)) – p (position initially) + I in rev. rev (churchman) = XAVIER
3 Notice an opening coming (6)
ad (notice) + vent (opening) = ADVENT
4 Jerk‘s a bit left to fill … (4)
dot (a bit) around l (left) = DOLT
jot (a bit) around l (left) = JOLT – making this a pangram (see comments below)
5 … for one Torquemada crossword puzzle (10)
DD INQUISITOR (Try it sometime if you haven’t already not the Spanish version though)
6 With heaving bosom to comprehend, excitedly open zip (4,2,2)
(open)* Rev. indicated by heaving tits (bosom) = STEP ON IT
7 Turf accountant’s top MD’s new breeding business (4,4)
(turf + mds + a)* = STUD FARM
8 Easily stretching new worker, independently procured by more price regulators (6, 3, 6)
supply (easily stretching as in supple) + n and man (worker) inserted independently into added (more) = SUPPLY AND DEMAND
14 What enables you to view it over in fantastic Provence! (5, 5)
(Provence)* around Rev(it) = OPTIC NERVE
17 To be fulfilled, space traveller must get over regret (4, 4)
Comet (space traveller) + rue (regret) = COME TRUE
18 Northerner‘s most nervous during examination (8)
(most)* in scan (examination) = SCOTSMAN
22 Unable to talk about a temperature change (6)
Mute (unable to talk) around a + t (temperature) = MUTATE
23 It’s encapsulated in “Light and Truth” (6)
Very (light) around it = VERITY
25 A light-headed wanderer Ben of Westminster’s output ready in Hanoi (4)
Triple definition DONG (I must admit the light headed wanderer is hard to explain!!)
Another corker from Nimrod.
It’s a week ago now but as I recall:
7d: anag of TURF A MD S
8d: Easily stretching: SUPPLY
new: N
worker: MAN
independently procured by more: ? ADDED independently kind of letting the N in.
Can’t remember the exact detail but it seemed to work at the time.
Thanks for the blog.
Not being familiar with Henry V, I couldn’t resolve which of NOM or NYM was the answer for 20a. NOM would satisfy the “writer’s name” definition (short for nom de plume) if only there were an officer called “mon”. Unfortunately Google didn’t help this time for either option.
I also couldn’t parse 2d and then wondered if instead of XAVIER it could possible be the alternative JAVIER. I then spotted that the only letters lacking from making this a pangram were J and X. Could Nimrod possibly be expecting us to use both somehow?! With this thought I gave up and had a quiet lie down.
Thanks for the entertainment Nimrod and to twencelas for the blog and explaining those two clues.
I know some people find them irrelevant, but I do love a pangram – at least, my completed grid was a pangram, since I had JOLT for 4d (JOT as in ‘not a jot or tittle’).
In 25a, THRU is simply the American spelling of ‘through’ (= clear of) rather than an expression.
I took the light-headed wanderer in 25d to be Edward Lear’s Dong with the Luminous Nose.
Thank you to Nimrod and twencelas,
I missed 16/19 and 10 (which I see now is a very nice clue, given the habits of the animal in question) but overall I didn’t find this quite as fiendish as the last few Nimrods have been and therefore a bit less frustrating. Yes Polly, I had JOLT for 4 too, which I think works OK (including the “link” to the next clue) even if it isn’t the accepted answer.
I now have today’s paper, and the answer to 4dn does indeed appear to be JOLT (which is what I had too).
I did this in between concerts at the Barbican last week, so no aids available, although I must admit I looked in my pocket for a pound coin to get 16/19, but I completed it fairly quickly for a Saturday crossword.
9ac and 6dn made me wonder if there was a mini-theme going, maybe someone said a beast of a crossword was required and this was mis-read.
Thanks Polly, Wordplodder and Dormouse – have amended the blog. Thanks also to the Jolly Swagman for an explanation of 7dn and 8dn.
Thanks for this.
I was convinced that there was a mistake in the clue for 16/19A – should have known better! us (plural of u) for uu is fiendish, if incidental to solving the final grid. I took a long time parsing 8D – perhaps time that would have been better spent on actually getting 2D and 11A (but then if we’re talking ‘time better spent’ doing crosswords is probably not optimal). I did think briefly about pangrams – this might have dredged up E-ZINE from my memory and surely XAVIER would have followed. But then I also had DOLT rather than JOLT, so I was a long way from it looking like one.
Not as difficult as some Nimrod puzzles but I didn’t spot the possibility of the pangram and needed aids at the end for E-ZINE, which in retrospect should have been a simple clue to solve. I entered DONG from the definition without understanding the wordplay. However, I did parse both XAVIER and JOLT, although with the latter I think that “dolt” fits the definition and the wordplay perfectly well, although it obviously wouldn’t give us the pangram.
Superb crossword thank you Nimrod – my favourite has to be the DONG triple definition clue. Took a while to see TATOU but it has been around a lot in cryptics the last few weeks which finally made the penny clang to the floor.
Thanks to twencelas for the explanations.
So it was a pangram. Unfortunately I had DOLT as 4d, hence my troubles described in Howard@2