Quite amazingly difficult, for me at any rate, who took ages. Tyrus sails fairly close to the wind but is so far as I can see ultimately fair. I didn’t really enjoy this because it was such a slog, but perhaps if I hadn’t had the pressure of blogging, it would have been easier. It will be interesting to see how people got on.
I don’t think there is a real Nina apart from the various cross-references in the clues. Quite a few examples of trophies perhaps is the extent of it.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | ||
| 8 | TROPHY |
Prize puzzle at first hard – getting nothing at first, go out … (6)
tr(0 p{uzzle} h)y — ‘go out’ means that go [= try] is outside |
| 9 | DO BATTLE |
… struggle initially when you get here – time to stop tale of woe (2,6)
d.o.b. , t in (tale)* — your date of birth is the time when you get here |
| 11 | MARMADUKE |
Man hurt, forced across country (9)
mar mad(UK)e |
| 12 | EARTH |
Want to drop daughter where we live (5)
{d}earth |
| 13 | LATCH |
Funeral at last in church – it should bring closure (5)
{funera}l at [= in] ch. — I’m never very comfortable with one preposition being replaced by a rather different one, but no doubt there are two sentences where ‘at’ and ‘in’ can be used interchangeably |
| 14 | PULL APART |
Rip sheet up over Emin’s unmade bed? Hmm, maybe (4,5)
I don’t quite get this: it’s something to do with that ‘work of art’ where Tracey Emin put a sheet up over her unmade bed, the sheet having pictures of the men she’d pulled, but how it all fits together I can’t see |
| 16 | TROUSER |
Centre back has United in pocket (7)
resort(rev.) round U |
| 18 | UTENSIL |
Spoon? You listen, weirdo! (7)
u [= “You”] (listen)* with ‘weirdo’ the anagram indicator — as below, the textspeak isn’t indicated — at first sight it is, with the word ‘listen’, but that is needed for the anagram |
| 20 | DEDICATEE |
Music journalist reflected on support – he’s honoured (9)
(acid ed)rev. tee — is this acid house music or ACID (TM), the TM a superscript which I’m unable to achieve here? |
| 22 | ERNST |
Artist Max back cycling (5)
stern with the first two letters sent to the end — ref Max Ernst |
| 24 | STORM |
Attack first – or maybe defend (5)
Hidden in firST OR Maybe |
| 25 | CAT LITTER |
Queen may go here (3,6)
CD referring to the use of ‘queen’ for a female cat |
| 26 | ADENAUER |
Cockney spent some time talking to former Chancellor (8)
‘ad “an hour” |
| 27 | CUP TIE |
Lovely girl’s quietly entering stage in quest for 8 (3,3)
cu(p)tie since 8 is TROPHY |
| Down | ||
| 1 | STIMULATED |
Risqué adult site – a little memory jogged (10)
(adult site m{emory})* |
| 2 | POIROT |
City lifted 8 without frequently booked Belgian (6)
(Rio)rev. in pot [= trophy] — Hercule Poirot is a Belgian who appears frequently in Agatha Christie’s books |
| 3 | THE ASHES |
Hates playing second – what about 8? (3,5)
(Hates)* (s eh?)rev. — The Ashes is an example of a trophy |
| 4 | NOBEL LAUREATE |
Finally the unalterable is changed – nothing in it for Obama surprisingly (5,8)
({th}e unalterable)* round o — perhaps it was a surprise when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize |
| 6 | STAR WARS |
Beatle was a little mixed-up in popular 70s film (4,4)
‘Starr was’ with an r moved a little to the right — close to being an indirect anagram but just on the right side of it I think |
| 7,5 | LECH WALESA |
Rake land with a 4 (4,6)
lech [= rake] Wales a — Lech Walesa is a Nobel Laureate |
| 10 | BUMPERSTICKER |
Biker’s crumpet’s unusual attachment to vehicle (13)
(Biker’s crumpet)* or (Biker crumpet’s)* — could be either but the first is perhaps slightly better |
| 15 | TALK TURKEY |
Be frank and address failure (4,6)
talk [= address] turkey [= failure] |
| 17 | OLD FOGEY |
Why English go to food banks? Look up ‘Conservative’ (3,5)
(Y E go f{oo}d lo)rev. — Y = why, the textspeak not being indicated as such |
| 19 | EMERITUS |
Birds admitting hanky-panky at Queen’s like retired academic (8)
emus round (ER it) — it = sex appeal (in crosswordland anyway), but it = hanky-panky? |
| 21 | COMBAT |
9 with doctor dressed to go out (6)
9 is DO BATTLE and MB is in a coat, so is dressed to go out |
| 23 | NOTATE |
What music maker may do conducting at Eton (6)
(at Eton)* with ‘conducting’ the anagram indicator |
| 24 | SCAR |
Cliff and 8 dropping round (4)
An oscar is another example of a trophy and it’s {o}scar |
14ac looks like PALL (sheet) + UP , all reversed in front of ART – but is it art? HMM….
Only got half way on train, liberal use of check button on-line since. A slog, definitely
Thanks, John and Tyrus. I think that in 17D the Y may be a homophone.
Well done John.
Jim the Great always shows us where his heart is doesn’t he? 17 down being the outstanding one today.
Chapeau Tyrus.
Yes, liberal use of check button and word finder needed today. And several parsings only apparent from the blog. But it is Thursday! EMERITUS was my CoD.
Thanks, Tyrus and John
A bit too hard for me today. I entered several answers because they seemed right without understanding why, eg 8A, and so there was nothing noble in my defeat.
Thanks for putting me out of my misery John, and thanks to Tyrus for putting me into it.
I enjoyed this and did not find it a slog. It did take me two sessions to finish. The breakthrough was getting Combat, which led to the tricky Do Battle. Then, with all the crossers, all I had to do was think of a Nobel laureate. I finally got Lech Walesa when I realised that the N in his surname was pronounced but not written. Adenauer was a lovely clue but a bit tricky for anyone born post-1950s.
Very tricky. Gave it my ‘three separate goes’ but instead of putting it in the bin, I came here to find out why I hadn’t got the ones I couldn’t solve.
Thanks to John for the explanations and Tyrus for the battle.
Much too hard for me. I only got halfway and found it pretty miserable with no easy way into the mesh of cross-references. I have (sour grapes) complaints about the fairness of ACID for “music”, “weirdo” as an anagrind, and the DBE at 4d.
On the flip side, I think txtspeak making its way into crosswords is a good thing. It’s about time for all the antiquated abbreviations to get binned and replaced with something that people actually use.
Gosh a bit of a slog as you say John, all the linked answers in the NE especially made this a tough one to break open.
Thanks Tyrus 17d worth the entry fee. (Yes I still buy the dead tree version)
Hard work indeed. I thought LECH WALESA was my LOI but I didn’t get the congratulatory message. The one answer I had biffed was 17dn where I’d put “old money”, so I looked at it again, entered another biffed OLD FOGEY, got the congratulatory message, and then parsed it. Very tricksy.
The only quibble I’ve got is the clue for TROUSER because I don’t think “resort” and “centre” are synonymous. When text is centred the word order isn’t resorted. Maybe Tyrus meant them as nouns and they relate to places, but again, I’m not sure they’re synonymous.
I enjoyed this a lot although I couldn’t get the chancellor.
According to Chambers “centre” can be “a resort”.
Thanks to John and others for the blog and comments.
Apologies to anyone who found it too hard.
Hit the wall quite early on this, with just a handful of answers in the bottom right. Several attempts later, I got all but the top right corner and I had to do several word searches to finish this.
Kept on thinking 2dn ought to be TINTIN at first, the only Belgian fictional hero I could think off.
Being a cryptic newbie, I found this very hard. I got all of the top left after a lot of staring and swearing, but not much of any of the rest. There are some I still don’t quite understand, but it’s all a learning process.
Thanks to TYRUS, John and all for further enlightenment.
A complete waste of time for the i in 2019, the only advantage for the i, would be the 80p per minute plus network charge for anyone stupid or rich enough to ring for help.