As expected, a challenging Nimrod this Thursday with, in our humble opinion, a number of rather over-long, convoluted clues. However, when the true ingenuity of the puzzle was finally revealed, we forgave him. We think we have figured out the parsing of these clues, but several are quite difficult to explain in a blog. We hope we’ve managed to make some sense of them for anyone who was as puzzled as we were. We realised what the solutions were from the definition or crossing letters, but trying to sort out the wordplay for confirmation led to a lot of head-scratching.
The grid immediately suggested a nina in the left and right columns, and this initially helped confirm one or two clues. However, with the left side complete and some of the right, we were fooled into thinking that the nina might be an alternative version of the 2nd day of Christmas, with ‘two birds a-nesting’. At that stage we hadn’t solved 6ac, 26ac or 33ac, or a few of the crossing down clues. When they finally fell into place we realised the error of our ways – and the three other 8-letter words formed by vertical unches that relate to the nina were revealed – an awesome achievement – yet more respect, Nimrod!!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Little beast circling ready-to-mate female entering fold (6,3) | |
| TURNIP FLY | IN RUT (ready-to-mate) reversed or ‘circling’ + F (female) in PLY (fold) | |
| 6 | Well done ham’s second-rate? (5) | |
| BRAVO | In the phonetic alphabet, as used by (radio) hams, BRAVO is the letter B (second-rate) | |
| 10 | Went to do some gardening (4) | |
| WEED | WEED is the past tense of the verb to ‘wee’ (go) | |
| 11 | Law refreshed with a modern equal-op Lord Mayor in waiting? (10) | |
| ALDERWOMAN | An anagram of LAW and A MODERN – anagrind is ‘refreshed’ | |
| 12 | Chance of taking such slices from tea – Viennese? No – or maybe yes? (4) | |
| ODDS | If you take the ODD letterS or ‘slices’ from ‘ |
|
| 13 | Pecorino? ‘Che sfortuna!’ (4,6) | |
| HARD CHEESE | ‘Che sfortuna’ is Italian for ‘Just my luck’ (‘HARD CHEESE’) – Pecorino is an Italian hard cheese | |
| 16 | As overbearing type says, so blatantly covering back (5) | |
| BOSSY | Hidden or ‘covered’ and reversed or ‘back’ in ‘saYS SO Blatantly’ | |
| 18 | Lots of storage bays meet minimal requirement of grandee when moving (9) | |
| MEGABYTES | An anagram of BAYS MEET and G (first letter or ‘minimal requirement’ of ‘grandee’) – anagrind is ‘when moving’ | |
| 20 | Engraving art by the medium of dog dirt: “retro”! (9) | |
| INTAGLIOS | IN (by the medium of) TAG (dog, as in to follow) + SOIL (dirt) reversed or ‘retro’ | |
| 22 | Clashers on stand one has reduced in height (2-3) | |
| HI-HAT | I (one) HA |
|
| 24 | This played in earnest without lawn originally? (4,6) | |
| REAL TENNIS | An anagram of IN EARNEST round or ‘without’ L (first or ‘original’ letter of ‘lawn’) – anagrind is ‘played’, doing double duty as part of the definition | |
| 26 | Initiate utility room’s sequence (4) | |
| TYRO | Part or a ‘sequence’ of ‘utiliTY ROom’ | |
| 28 | They’re high-calibre doubles, with King dominating bill (10) | |
| DERRINGERS | DE |
|
| 31 | Literary code survives note on reverse (4) | |
| ISBN | IS (survives) + NB (note) reversed | |
| 32 | In which Indy you’d find Jumbo GK crossword with no empty spaces? (5) | |
| SATED | The jumbo General Knowledge crossword appears in the SAT(urday) ED(ition) | |
| 33 | You and I quickly wanting to be let out from it? (9) | |
| OUBLIETTE | An anagram of U (‘you quickly’ as in text-speak), I and TO BE LET – anagrind is ‘out’ | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | Spot-kick converted following United defender’s initial trip (5) | |
| UPEND | PEN (penalty – a ‘spot kick’) following U (United) + D (first or ‘initial’ letter of ‘defender’) | |
| 3 | Would others consider us mad covering nether regions? (7) | |
| NUDISTS | This seems to be what others have described as an ‘&lit’ (and we can’t find a better way to categorise it) – NUTS (mad) round or ‘covering’ DIS (the underworld or ‘nether regions’) | |
| 4 | One of the items in the fruit bowl going for a song? (5) | |
| PEACH | almost any items would be very cheap (‘going for a song’) if they cost a P (penny) EACH | |
| 5 | Scottish lover‘s raising the pulse (3) | |
| LAD | DAL (pulse, as in bean) reversed or ‘raised’ | |
| 7 | Lofty breeding-place‘s fine, stopping eggs dropping onto track (7) | |
| ROOKERY | OK (fine) in or ‘stopping’ ROE (eggs) + RY (railway – track) | |
| 8 | Parisian is going to nurse one through (3) | |
| VIA | VA (French for ‘is going’) round or ‘nursing’ I (one) | |
| 9 | Decisive uprising of people supporting company vocally (7) | |
| CRUCIAL | LAIC (of people) reversed or ‘uprising’ after (‘supporting’ in a down clue) CRU – sounds like (‘vocally’) ‘crew’ (company) | |
| 14 | During year in navy, discover green grass of Australia (3,4) | |
| RYE CORN | YR (year) in RN (navy) all round or ‘discovering’ ECO (green) | |
| 15 | The land of Solomon‘s regal visitor, and man born in it (5) | |
| SHEBA | HE (man) B (born) in SA (sex appeal – ‘it’) | |
| 17 | Wild-cat, one of several in a pound (5) | |
| OUNCE | Double definition | |
| 19 | It’s a job for me to stick to soulless exercise (it bores) (7) | |
| CLUEING | CLING (stick to) round or ‘bored’ by U |
|
| 21 | Free ASTATINE? (2,5) | |
| AT LARGE | AT is the abbreviation for the element Astatine – in capitals or LARGE in the clue | |
| 23 | Knit top for the wife between 1300 and 2100 hours? (7) | |
| INTWINE | T (first letter or ‘top’ of ‘the’) W (wife) between I (1pm – 1300 hours) and NINE (9pm – 2100 hours) | |
| 25 | Fibre ____, making sign align (5) | |
| SISAL | If S in ‘sign’ IS turned into AL, it makes ‘align’ | |
| 27 | Capital invested in adjoining abattoirs? (5) | |
| RABAT | Hidden or ‘invested’ in abattoiR ABATtoir (‘adjoining abattoirs’) | |
| 29 | Last of The Arsenal Years? (3) | |
| ERA | E (last letter of ‘the’) RA (Royal Artillery – Arsenal) | |
| 30 | The ultimate in culture? Let me think about Hull’s character (3) | |
| EMU | E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of ‘culture’) + UM (‘let me think’) reversed or ‘about’ – a reference to ‘entertainer’ Rod Hull’s puppet | |
Helped no end after I spotted the splendid Nina. Thanks to Nimrod for a lovely brain work out and to B&J for the explanations.
No, I didn’t really enjoy this one. Spotting the nina might have helped, but I didn’t and was reduced to trial and error for several clues to finish it. Even then there were far too many that I couldn’t parse. That being said, though, there were a few that I saw straight away and thought were brilliant – e.g. HARD CHEESE and UPEND.
So thanks, Nimrod and B&J.
Thanks, Nimrod and B&J.
As another blogger – who shall be nameless, but whom for the sake of argument I’ll call Pierre – says Chuffing Norah. My Brian hurts. How does he do it?
Thanks for blog- cleared a couple of unparsed clues. As with Monk, I am usually looking out for ninas which seem to help when stuck.
And it was like the jackpot (coins issuing from machine) with “two birds”, “redstart.”, “flamingo”, “amethyst” and “one stone”.
This bloke is brilliant!
Thanks Nimrod and Bertandjoyce
I don’t often do the Indy crossword, but Enigmatist and his alter egos is a setter I need to practice on. I’m not as daunted as I used to be, but still find him a struggle. So I failed on a couple (my e-Chambers doesn’t have ALDERWOMAN, which didn’t help).
Worked out the nina in column 1 when I had all but three, so guessed at what column 15 must be. Didn’t even think to look in columns 3 and 13.
What a fantastic achievement, I’m happy to have got as many right as I did.
Found that very tough, especially as in 27d adjoiniNG ABAttoirs gives Ngaba, a district of Kinshasa capital of the Congo. Didn’t spot the Nina, didn’t finish. I’m going for a lie down.
Defeated yet again. In fact, did worse than Monday, only got a handful of clues all day.
Nice stuff – got there in the end. We need more puzzles like this.
A Nina! Now you tell me.
What was it? One of those heart on sleeve jobs or just something to help the solver along.
I’m not going to dig it out of the WPB to find out what it was at this late stage.
There should be warnings; “May contain Ninas” – but only on the ones that genuinely might.
Thanks both + CS for the Nina alert, even of too late.
Exceptionally difficult, had to give up with a few left after many visits. Keeps the grey matter working.
In 2D, the word “converted” is ignored in the parsing, but it can’t be meaningless and I took it to mean that when goalscorers are shown accompanying the match score, those goals resulting from penalties are indicated by (pen); which is a free-kick converted.
Thanks to Nimrod and Bertandjoyce.
Thanks B&J and Nimrod. I nearly gave up on this several times, but got there in the end (though needed help with some parsings). A fine puzzle – and a terrific job by the CLUER (19d) and bloggers.