Today is Thursday, a compiling slot not infrequently occupied by Nestor. Alas, it has not recently fallen to me to blog a Nestor, so I was pleased to see his name alongside today’s offering.
I thought that this was vintage Nestor – a set of scrupulously fair and entertaining clues, pitched at the medium-to-hard end of the difficulty range. I found that it took me a while to get into this one, as neither of the longer entries nor 1A would reveal itself to me, meaning that I didn’t have many (initial) letters in the grid to get me started. Eventually, I managed, in fairly quick succession, the intersecting entries at 4, 14, 15 and 16, which gave me an inroad into each of the four quadrants of the grid. Solving my last half dozen or so clues was helped by the realisation that, appropriately, the adjective SINISTER was to run down the left-hand side of the grid, with DEXTROUS running down the right. 7D and 22 were new to me but could be worked out satisfactorily from the wordplay.
As to my favourite clues today, loth though I am to single out any clues above the rest, I will plump for 12 for its sauciness and 22 for its humorous surface reading; I also liked 13 and 26, for playing on the multiple meanings of “jet” and” “rip off” respectively.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | SLIP-STITCH | Slender people and small one join imperceptibly
SLIPS (=slender people, as in a slip of a girl) + TITCH (=small one, i.e. small person) |
| 07 | PLOD | School traps large bluebottle
L (=large) in POD (=school, e.g. of whales) |
| 09 | INNOVATE | Make changes in pub round, bigger at the end?
INN (=pub) + OVATE (=round, bigger at the end, i.e. egg-shaped) |
| 10 | YORKIE | Barker first catalogued Mozart work in the past
K1 (=first catalogued Mozart work, in the Köchel catalogue) in YORE (=the past); the “barker” concerned is the Yorkshire terrier dog! |
| 11 | NO JOKE | I’m serious judge in recess before end of case
[J (=judge) in NOOK (=recess)] + <cas>E (“end of” means last letter only) |
| 12 | LUNCH BOX | Container for sandwiches // or meat and two veg?
Double definition, the second of the two referring to a strategic part of the male anatomy! |
| 13 | INKY | Jet possibly having Kentucky as a location
IN KY (=possibly having Kentucky as a location, where KY is the abbreviation for the US state of Kentucky) |
| 14 | RUSSIANIST | Strain is terrible, engulfing American Kremlin expert?
US (=American) in *(STRAIN IS); “terrible” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | STATUETTES | Legislation as a whole restricting French and producing small figures
ET (=French and, i.e. the French word for and) in STATUTES (=legislation as a whole) |
| 19 | GOER | Lead for earth sheathed by bloody short live wire
E<arth> (“lead for” means first letter only) in GOR<y> (=bloody; “short” means last letter dropped) |
| 21 | TREELESS | Fish in lock with no tall plants
EEL (=fish) in TRESS (=lock, of hair) |
| 23 | NUNCIO | Religious woman cheers in Rome, shunning a papal ambassador
NUN (=religious woman) + CI<a>O (=cheers in Rome, i.e. informal Italian expression for goodbye; “shunning a” means letter “a” is dropped) |
| 24 | EASILY | Eastern Slavic man losing very simply
E (=Eastern) + <v>ASILY (=Slavic man, i.e. a Slavic male forename; “losing very (=V)” means letter “v” is dropped) |
| 25 | BLESS YOU | Wishing well statement with deduction of variable in brief period of activity
[LESS (=with deduction of) + Y (=variable, in algebra)] in BOU<t> (=period of activity; “brief” means last letter is dropped) |
| 26 | ROBE | Rip off back of loose garment
ROB (=rip off, con) + <loos>E (“back of” means last letter only) |
| 27 | ADDRESSEES | Intended receivers to notice returns on commercial clothing style
AD (=commercial) + DRESS (=clothing style) + EES (SEE=notice; “returns” indicates reversal) |
| Down | ||
| 02 | LINCOLN | It’s so funny accepting incorporated name for city
[INC (=incorporated) in LOL (=It’s so funny, i.e. “laugh out loud”, in mobile phone speak)] + N (=name) |
| 03 | PHOTOSYNTHESISE | Spray containing radioactive thorium splitting is seen somehow to do light energy conversion
[HOT (=radioactive, in slang) in POSY (=spray, of flowers)] + [TH (=thorium in *(IS SEEN)]; “somehow” is anagram indicator |
| 04 | TO A DEGREE | Somewhat unpleasant person such as grass cut down
TOAD (=unpleasant person) + E.G. (=such as) + REE<d> (=grass; “cut down” means last letter is dropped) |
| 05 | TRELLIS | Support for training ploughmen turning all but edges
T-ILLER-S (=ploughmen); “turning all but edges” means that all but first and last letters are reversed; gardeners train plants over trellises |
| 06 | HAYDN | Composer’s skilful, transposing middle and bottom parts
HA-N-D-Y (=skilful); “transposing middle and bottom parts” means that the central and last letters swap places; the reference is to Austrian composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) |
| 07 | PARTHENOGENESIS | Equality in addition seeing so complicated a method of unaided multiplication
PAR (=equality) + THEN (=in addition) + *(SEEING SO); “complicated” is anagram indicator; according to Chambers, parthenogenesis is reproduction by means of an unfertilised ovum |
| 08 | OMINOUS | Zero less than zero divided by zero, giving a negative sign?
O (=zero) + [O (=zero) in MINUS (=less than zero)] |
| 15 | INSINCERE | Hollow cries with nine crushed
*(CRIES + NINE); “crushed” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | TORNADO | Violent storm split flap
TORN (=split) + ADO (=flap, fuss) |
| 18 | TEST BED | Raising sum owed, established trial arrangement
DEBT (=sum owed) + SET (=established, fixed); “raising” indicates (here full) vertical reversal |
| 20 | EPISODE | Extended play does live poetry event
EP (=extended play) + IS (=does live) + ODE (=poetry) |
| 22 | ETYMA | High-society madam’s partly visible roots
Hidden (“partly visible”) in “high-sociETY MAdam’s”; etyma are the roots, true origins of words, hence etymology |
Tricky puzzle, hence pleasure when clues come to mind and kicking oneself on reading the blog! Thanks to both.
I really enjoyed this puzzle. I saw the possibility of SINISTER and DEXTROUS about halfway through the solve and that definitely helped. I came across PARTHENOGENESIS in another puzzle not so long ago, and that also helped. PHOTOSYNTHESISE was my LOI, although I probably should have seen it sooner and it was only when I got SLIP-STITCH that the penny dropped.
Because of an impending house move and a trip to the US this will be the last puzzle I comment on until early December. I hope everyone continues to enjoy their solving.
A good workout today. I struggled to get going as well, getting lunchbox first, but not getting the Linford Christie reference until I read the blog. Also didn’t see the nina for the nine hundredth time in a row. Once I forgot about Ivan losing his v, the puzzle resolved reasonably quickly, with goer my LOI.
Excellent stuff from Nestor and RR. Many thanks to both.
I guess it says something about me that ‘lunch box’ was my FOI, and pdq it was too. Mind you, I did once have a missive about its modern usage printed in the letters page of this esteemed .. er .. organ.
There were a few stunning clues in this – I’m surprised nobody has mentioned OMINOUS, which I thought was a classic. He must have been thrilled when he got that one to work. Maybe ‘ominous’ and ‘handy’ relate to the Nina?
I’m slightly less keen on the more convoluted clues, of which there were a few, but that’s mainly because my brain aches quite easily. I’m sure others love them.
Thank you so much Nestor for some great clueing, and RatkojaRiku for a very elegant blog.
Andy B hope the move goes well – will miss your comments here.
Thought this was very good. Much enjoyed. I had trouble parsing INNOVATE, since I thought it started inn [= pub] o [= round] and then couldn’t see how vate meant bigger at the end, although I did see that ovate meant bigger at the end. Just couldn’t cope with the ’round’. Never saw the Nina of course. Pity really that we couldn’t have had sinister and dexter.
SpecSavers? My optician blames the grey of recycled newsprint and the faint and tiny typeface.
Thoroughly enjoyable, and my second quickly-completed puzzle this week! Makes up for Tuesday’s dismal failure. COD was 8d for me, but I also enjoyed 3d, probably because I was pleased with myself for spotting that ‘spray’ meant ‘posy’.