Nutmeg returns, some tricky stuff today.
Think I’ve got it all sussed, but that was a struggle at times.
| Across | ||
| 1 | GODSON | He’s sponsored superior seating cricket side added (6) |
| The GODS (upper circle, superior seating) & ON (cricket side) personally I’d hyphenate it and just show myself to be an oik 🙂 | ||
| 4 | EPIDEMIC | Communicators briefly suffering setback during Great Plague (8) |
| MEDI(a) reversed in EPIC | ||
| 9 | BRAZEN | Shameless supporter of female branch of religion (6) |
| BRA & ZEN | ||
| 10 | CLAUDIUS | Emperor‘s declaration of independence welcomed by Santa’s other half (8) |
| UDI that of Rhodesia infamously inside (santa) CLAUS | ||
| 11 | CHIEF CONSTABLE | I catch extremely blasé felons on the run (5,9) |
| Attempted &lit, but Chief Constables would be very unlikely to do so, they have minions for that. [I CATCH B(las)E FELONS]* on the run | ||
| 13 | COASTGUARD | On cruise, this paper, not the Scotsman, can be a lifesaver (10) |
| COAST (cruise) & GUARD(ian) less the typical crossword scotsman | ||
| 14 | OXEN | Available power replaced by ten draught animals (4) |
| X (ten) not P(ower) in OPEN | ||
| 16 | MOTH | This leads to masses of tiny holes (4) |
| Another &lit, first letters of M(asses) O(f) T(iny) H(oles) | ||
| 18 | CHAMBER POT | Legislative body funds facility for night-time relief (7,3) |
| CHAMBER parliamentary body & POT funds | ||
| 21 | ROBINSON CRUSOE | Sailor wrecked Cambridge college rowers, so they say (8,6) |
| ROBINSON is a Cambridge college just down the road from mine & sounds like “CREW & SO” | ||
| 23 | UNCLE SAM | US mother turning back on her brothers, perhaps (5,3) |
| MA (mother) reversed after UNCLES (her brothers) | ||
| 24 | PILLAR | Stalwart‘s reviewed rent — everyone included (6) |
| ALL in RIP all reversed | ||
| 25 | DROP SHOT | Abandons dodgy element of play at Wimbledon (4,4) |
| DROPS & HOT (dodgy, stolen) | ||
| 26 | FRIDAY | When to eat fish caught in Wear? (6) |
| Fish doing double duty or extended def? ID in FRAY, Really didn’t help myself by misreading this several times seeing WHERE not WHEN… | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | GIBE | Rock drummer’s penultimate taunt (4) |
| Rock of GIB(raltar) & (drumm)E(r) | ||
| 2 | DRACHMA | Crisis gripping Switzerland’s former capital (7) |
| Well until Greece gets kicked out of the Euro club. CH inside DRAMA | ||
| 3 | OPERETTA | Paris’s father in extravagant amateur musical (8) |
| PERE (father in french) in O.T.T. & A(mateur) | ||
| 5 | PALINDROMIC | Like Mum and Dad, I complain vigorously about doctor (11) |
| DR inserted into [I COMPLAIN]* | ||
| 6 | DOUBTS | Mistrusts the French leaving for a short time during game of tennis (6) |
| T(ime) not LE in DOUBLES | ||
| 7 | MAILBOX | Bill often gets here in armour leading fight (7) |
| (chain) MAIL & BOX (fight) | ||
| 8 | CASHEW NUT | Fruit cut up primarily to feed players (6,3) |
| HEWN (cut) & U(p) inside CAST | ||
| 12 | COUCH POTATO | Lethargic spectator from Chesterfield apt to shuffle over? (5,6) |
| COUCH (chesterfield is a type of) & [APT TO]* shuffled & O(ver) | ||
| 13 | COME ROUND | Drop in yield (4,5) |
| Double def | ||
| 15 | PECULIAR | Distinctive copper bar put up to support drill (8) |
| RAIL reversed & CUÂ after P.E. (drill, exercise) | ||
| 17 | TOBACCO | What’s old country’s top navigator brought back? (7) |
| O & top of C(ountry) & navigator all reversed, tricky took a while to see this one. | ||
| 19 | PROWLED | Working girl with key turned up and nosed around (7) |
| PRO(stitute) & W(ith) & LED (delete key reversed) | ||
| 20 | KNEELS | Knight with lustrous clothing rises and prepares to 22, maybe (6) |
| N chess for Knight in SLEEK reversed | ||
| 22 | PRAY | Run in to return petition (4) |
| R(un) in PAY (return) | ||
*anagram
I like this setter’s style – clean, non-fussy clueing all through, and plenty to keep one entertained.
There’s an awful lot of fish swimming around in 26 – unintentional distractors perhaps.
In 19d I guess you mean to say LED is DEL reversed.
Thanks for the blog, and to the ever reliable Nutmeg.
Thanks, flashling, for a top blog and Nutmeg for another superb puzzle, brimming with excellent clues.
There are really far too many to mention but I laughed at 18ac and 5dn and I did like 17dn – what a pity it was Raleigh and not Cabot who brought the tobacco back.
flashling, in 21ac, I think it’s just one crew and in 19dn it’s a reversal of DEL [key], I think.
Sorry for the cross, endwether.
Yes enjoyed this as I don’t always complete Nutmeg’s offerings. I am not 100% with 19d. I couldn’t decide between PROWLED, POOTLED OR PROLLED, all three of which seem to fit as well as the first. But thank you Nutmeg and Flashling.
Thanks for the corrections, obviously got distracted by work on 19d 🙂
Re: 11A. Chief Constables do like to “‘ave a go” occasionally, as shown by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe recently:
Guardian Article – Crime waits for no man
Enjoyed this one a lot. It yielded slowly but steadily enough to prevent frustration. Thought each and every clue was a little gem in its own right. It felt like a very caring setter who thought hard about all of them instead of sometimes when I feel the setter (not this one) gets bored and throws in a few loose ones.
Thanks both.
Thanks flashling – cracking stuff from Nutmeg, I thought: it was a puzzle where I alternated long periods of staring at empty spaces, then getting an answer that meant that an entire corner went in quickly. GIBE/GODSON were my last two in: after trying to justify JIBE (the more common spelling?) I had a nice penny-dropping moment with GIB = rock.
Superb puzzle and fun, thank you Nutmeg and Flashling for the blog.
A bit confused with 14a. Is OPEN from available? If so should it be OXEN = draught animals.
Or is draught in the clue signifying an OPEN window, door…?
Thanks all
Yes, slightly easier than average for Nutmeg.
I enjoyed it, last in was prowled (sorry crypto @4 but your alternatives ignore the with = w)
Favourite was 21 ac , sailor is so often ab, tar, salt etc not the definition!
Enjoyed this. After getting a few in I didn’t think I was going to but then things got tougher – gear change needed – also more entertaining. I think I fell into just about every trap that was set. I even got to the point of googling for the name of Paris Hilton’s dad.
26a you can get off the double duty charge (or make a plea for mitigation at least) by calling “when to eat” the def – it indicates an arbitrary time (or day?) so OK-ish for a def that you’re then going to extend. The fact that “when” and “when to eat fish” are screaming out at you as much better ones distracts from that approach, but doesn’t negate it.
Maybe we fuss too much.
I liked the unstated link between Friday and Robinson Crusoe.
Many thanks to S&B.
Apologies for obtuseness, but I still don’t understand where the ID comes from in 26a.
ID is a variant spelling of IDE see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ide_(fish)
Thanks Nutmeg for a great puzzle, although tricky to find the answers.
Thanks flashling – I thought ‘what’s old’ was not a good definition for TOBACCO, doh! 😳
I liked the CHAMBER POT, PALINDROMIC and the name-check in ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I agree with the blogger that 11 is very unlikely, and I had a few quibbles as to technique (26 is dreadful, 21 might have used ‘it’s said’ or similar), but credit where it’s due: this compiler seems to have a better grasp of technique than yesterday’s I can say! I enjoyed the puzzle.
Sorry if I seemed vague yesterday, but I really didn’t want to re-blog. That would be very rude I think, and others had already picked out some of the faults.
Btw 16 extends the definition, doesn’t it?
I found it a bit hard to have to put up with ‘working girl’ and ‘pro’ these days especially as it would have been easy to put say Tiger Woods in there.
It spoiled what was otherwise a fine crossword, though not all of us are as familiar with distant university colleges as the setter perhaps assumes.
Bravo Nutmeg! Superb, entertaining puzzle which at first seemed impenetrable and then I found almost every solution amazing. Really enjoyed this. Thanks to Nutmeg and Flashling.
Enjoyed this a lot, but found the last few quite tough – didn’t think of the DEL key so didn’t dare write PROWLED in until I had all the crossers, PILLAR was the last in before that. As always with Nutmeg the clues are perfectly fair once you understand them, with a lot of clever misdirection. Liked DRACHMA, PALINDROMIC and ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Thanks to Nutmeg and flashling
I quite enjoyed this. The SW corner gave most trouble. PROWLED,PILLAR and PRAY were the last ones in with PROWLED being the most troublesome. I wasn’t offended by PRO,it was the W that foxed me. Still I was doing the puzzle while watching the Labour party conference.
Thanks Nutmeg
Where’s the definition in 17 ac? Surely it should be “What old country’s ….” not “What’s old country’s…” That would make it an &lit wouldn’t it?
And despite flashling’s explanation @ 13 I would like to know where it says that “id” is an alternative form of “ide”.
Thanks Nutmeg and flashling
Quite a challenge. The top went in easily enough (GIBE actually being my first), but the bottom was a struggle (not helped by initially entering the plausible WIND FALLS for 13d).
I looked up Paris’s father too, but found Priam – different Paris from the one Jolly Swagman was looking for, perhaps?
I didn’t spot the LED part of PROWLED either.
I thought the ID in FRIDAY was a “sounds like” IDE, with the “caught” doing double duty. I know IDE as a familiar crossword fish, but I hadn’t come across the shorter name before.
jaceris @ 20
I just found ID as a fish (to my surprise) in Chambers. In fact, it gives IDE as the alternative, rather than vice versa.
btw there wasn’t a Robinson college at Cambridge when I was there – where has it been put, flashling?
@muffin, it’s on Grange Road, it opened while I was at Cambridge in 1981
Thanks flashling – I left in 1974
I parsed 19d in a less offensive way. PRO W (professional woman = working girl?) with DEL reversed = PROWLED. Does that work?
Very enjoyable, as indeed seems to be the consensus! Solved during bits of a day out – lots of blank spaces on the journey out, multiple ah-ha moments during lunch, and mopping up OPERETTA, FRIDAY, PRAY and last one PROWLED at the start of the journey home. Just how I like it.
PALINDROMIC the favourite, and I’m another who wondered who the father of Trojan Paris was.
In xwds W does not equal ‘woman’ but ‘women’s’ Rog. As far as I can tell it really is a hooker reference, and thus too street for some!
17 it has to be ‘what’s’ with the duality on ‘has’ & ‘is’ (for the apostrophe) for the clue to work. It’s all right as it is anyway, just sounds like a question similar to ‘what’s that over there?’ or some such.
@flashling: thanks, I’ve now confirmed that ID is in Chambers. Yet another one to remember.
A fine puzzle, IMHO, and definitely not Nutmeg in Quiptic mode. I had to tease out several of the answers and eventually finished in the SE corner with the PROWLED/PILLAR crossers.
I agree with many comments notably almw3’s.
When I saw the setter I adopted a Keep Calm And Carry On approach and it worked. I think like RCW it must have been easier than most Nutmegs because I finished without holdups.
Being a UCL dropout I didn’t know the college so hands up for a guess there.
Many thanks all.
I didn’t expect to complete this unaided, but woke up at 4.30 and finished off the SE corner – and then The NW. Last in was “gibe”.
Thanks Nutmeg. Brilliant.
I agree with most of what’s been said and enjoyed this.
Easy start but difficult to finish.
Luckily I managed not to be offended by the use of “pro” for prostitute. Possibly because it’s a normal expression (and abbreviation) for a “prostitute”. Anyone who was offended by this should consider a visit to a shrink. (Oooops, is “shrink” offensive too? 😉 )
Thanks to flashling and Nutmeg
Just to be clear, Brendan (NTW), I wasn’t personally offended by what would now appear to be the only possible parsing of 19d (point taken, hedgehoggy), but was taking vicarious offence on behalf of the Guardianista sorority. There, I’ve probably given offence now. I hope you’re satisfied! 😉
Thanks Nutmeg and flashling
Another high class offering from a setter that I look forward to seeing these days. You know you are in for a battle, and there was no let down here.
Had a very similar solving experience to trailman down to the last clues to be filled in. Still took some work to understand how PROWLED worked with the clever use of ‘with’.
If I remember correctly, she used to have a cleverly disguised theme in her work – but apart from the already mentioned CRUSOE – FRIDAY pairing , nothing here that I could see.
Rog @34
OK. Point taken.
I’m not sure that the group you mention actually read this forum. However perhaps they have designated persons who scan the whole internet in search of the dreaded “MCP”s. (Not that I’m one, my female side is very active apparently. I can even recognize taupe!)