So it’s Crosophile to start our week here, he has a history of including extra treats in the grid but at first sight there appears to be no Nina…
Well Crosophile is known as Charybis in the IQ and was the part of PLENCH that inspired the infamous woodchuck puzzles so of course there is.
The extra today is hinted at by BLACKBERRY & APPLE PIE which is a cryptic hint at an anagram. In fact it’s two, as both [PEARL KELP CRABBY]* and [RABBLE PACK REPLY]* are both anagrams of BLACKBERRY and APPLE.
Must have taken a while to create this one, thanks Crosophile 🙂
I did try to colour the entries but my browser kept crashing…
Definitions underlined where appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FOLKS | People of over fifty lack spryness in the end (5) |
| Too true alas. OF reversed, over & L fifty & (lac)K (sprynes)S. Lovely clue I thought. | ||
| 4 | EMIGRATES | Old record company produces annoying noise and moves away from country (9) |
| E.M.I. (old record company) & GRATES (makes noise) Reminds me of a joke: I saw a record with the title “Country and Western Greats” – I thought yes, it does, doesn’t it. | ||
| 9 | AUTHENTIC | Real gold in that case is on credit? Not quite (9) |
| AU gold & THEN & TIC(k) credit reduced | ||
| 10 | BRAWN | Meat dish, uncooked, put in empty basin (5) |
| RAW in B(asi)N | ||
| 11 | CRABBY | Awkward call about a pair of bachelors (6) |
| A & 2*B(achelor) in CRY. I’d usually think of crabby as irritable rather than awkward. | ||
| 12 | APPLE PIE | See 18 (5,3) |
| See 18 | ||
| 14 | LIGHT METER | Met the girl in a rave – it shows the exposure you can get (5,5) |
| [MET THE GIRL]* “raving” | ||
| 15 | IDLE | In bed maybe edges across between the covers (4) |
| Eric? he was quite a performer in last night’s Monty Python show, but it’s s(IDLE)s | ||
| 17 | PACK | Initially place ace around king, and all the rest (4) |
| P(lace) initially & A(ce) & C(irca, around) & K(ing). Not really sure the surface works as how exactly do you place the Ace around the King? Alongside maybe but… | ||
| 18 | BLACKBERRY | With 12, it’s cooked up by high-tech companies with spies having cover blown (10) |
| With 12 (APPLE PIE) we get BLACKBERRY & APPLE PIE which is certainly cooked up. APPLE and BLACKBERRY are tech companies & (s)PIE(s) without their cover. | ||
| 21 | EXPEDITE | Former streetwalker shortly to have sex with European. Hurry up! (8) |
| EX former & PED(estrian) (street walker shortly) & IT (sex) & E(uropean) | ||
| 23 | SOCCER | Striker say in game of football? (6) |
| Hom of SOCKER, one who SOCKS, hits | ||
| 26 | DRAFT | Mortimer’s last to appear in silly sketch (5) |
| (mortime)R in DAFT, hinting at Reeves & Mortimer | ||
| 27 | EVERGREEN | Ivy for instance, always the ingénue (9) |
| EVER (always) & GREEN (ingénue, naive) | ||
| 28 | RULERSHIP | Joint on straight drawer’s in the monarch’s office (9) |
| RULERS (straight draw-ers) & HIP (joint) | ||
| 29 | REPLY | Come back and do steady work again? (5) |
| RE-PLY, re-working | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FRANC | Dictator cut precursor to Euro (5) |
| FRANC(o) | ||
| 2 | LETHARGIC | Mostly thick, large, clumsy and sluggish (9) |
| [THIC(k) LARGE]* is “clumsy” | ||
| 3 | SHERBET | Sweet shop item that’s solidified with maybe mint filling (7) |
| HERB (mint say) in SET (solidified) | ||
| 4 | EATS | In The Queen Vic warms up grub (4) |
| Londoner’s dropped aitch, ‘EATS | ||
| 5 | INCIPIENCE | The Creation in ridiculous cine epic (10) |
| IN & [CINE EPIC]* | ||
| 6 | RABBLE | Crowd wanting a couple of letters in word game (6) |
| (sc)RABBLE missing a couple of letters | ||
| 7 | TRAMP | Toerag with time to dishonestly increase the price … (5) |
| Not a nice description of Jambazi 🙂 T(ime) & RAMP (up the the price) | ||
| 8 | SINCERELY | … on account of bank in earnest (9) |
| SINCE & RELY (bank) | ||
| 13 | HELLS TEETH | This man will start to shoot canines etc – good grief (5,5) |
| HE’LL & S(hoot) & TEETH (canines) | ||
| 14 | LIP READER | He scans speech 20’s writing about international public relations (3,6) |
| 20 is Editor, so LEADER around I(nternational) P.R. | ||
| 16 | DIRT CHEAP | Chap tried in error is almost free (4,5) |
| [CHAP TRIED]* | ||
| 19 | BLOGGER | Black feller, one with online diary (7) |
| B(lack) & LOGGER (lumberjack), that’s me today. | ||
| 20 | EDITOR | What you’re looking for cantered round and round – the hacks are beneath him (6) |
| IT (what you’re looking for) with RODE (cantered) reversed (around) around it…The hacks are journalists not horses as the surface hints | ||
| 22 | PEARL | It’s milky white but could be paler (5) |
| PALER* | ||
| 24 | RUNNY | Flowing river with no force creating diversion (5) |
| R(iver) & (f)UNNY, a FUNNY – diversion with F(orce) removed | ||
| 25 | KELP | Seaweed caught in snorkel pipe (4) |
| Hidden in snorKEL Pipe | ||
*anagram
Thanks for the nice blog AND grid, flashling. I’m off for the day so will get my thanks in now. Well done getting the obscure nina by the way!
[PEARL KELP CRABBY]* and [RABBLE PACK REPLY]* is remarkable – did I miss a hint in the digital version that this was going on, or are you very observant, Flashling?
No hint in either version Alan. Funny you should say observant as I had a cataract operation Saturday and can now see a lot more clearly 🙂
I thought this was a good Monday puzzle, and I appreciate it even more now that I’ve been told about the nina, although it went way over my head during the solve as most of them do. IDLE took a while to see, and until I got LETHARGIC I couldn’t see FOLKS and PACK either.
Thanks to setter and blogger. Great puzzle from Crosophile. And as for flashling finding all those anagrams of 18+12 – simply incredible! Kudos to you.
Re. your comment@3: Did the cataract surgery include the gift of second sight? 😉
Dunno about ESP but Fuller’s ESB works for me. 🙂 Crosophile did hint privately to me there was a hard to find Nina cryptically clued yesterday.
He didn’t think anyone would find it otherwise…
Goodness, even with a hint I would never have spotted that. Well done, flashling.
Very pleasing Monday puzzle. No particular favourites today, which is usually the sign of a good all-round daily cryptic.
Glad the op went well, flashling. Next time we have an S&B event you’ll be able to see when my glass is empty.
Nice one, Crosophile, and thanks, flashling for pointing out the extra delights.
@K’sD methinks the Arsene Wenger blindness will strike again 😛
Thanks for the blog flashling – the nina passed us by completely but we did wonder as some of the words were a little odd.
Glad the op went well too!
Thanks Crosophile – an enjoyable start to the week.