I’m always pleased to find Nutmeg’s name on a puzzle, especially when I’m blogging because, even when there’s a bit of a challenge, I know I can completely trust the integrity of the clues – everything is just as it says on the tin. Add the ingenious wordplay and witty, elegant surfaces and you have something to put a smile on your face at the beginning of the day.
Favourite clues:11, 15, 25 and 26ac and 5/6 and 14dn. [Among others.]
Many thanks to Nutmeg for a most enjoyable solve.
Across
1 Leeway given as barge fell back (5,4)
ELBOW ROOM
ELBOW [barge] + a reversal [back] of MOOR [fell]
6 Implicit authentication partially withdrawn (5)
TACIT
Hidden reversal in authenTICATion
9 First-rate leader resolved row about stray dog (8,7)
AIREDALE TERRIER
A1 [first class] + an anagram [resolved] of LEADER + TIER [row] round ERR [stray]
10 They say the writer had checked out (4)
EYED
Sounds like [they say] I’D [the writer had]
11 Cheer as soprano divides fortune tenor’s lost (8)
REASSURE
S [soprano] in [divides] [t]REASURE] [fortune] minus t [tenor]
14 Homes in on drinks trendy Italian banker’s imported (9)
PINPOINTS
PINTS [drinks] round [imported] IN PO [trendy Italian banker]
15 Is mum OK? (3-2)
SAY-SO
SAYS O [nothing] = is mum – a little gem!
16 Set placard in southern port (5)
RADIO
AD [placard] in RIO [southern port
18 Non-U sportsman following in car is unlikely to be caught (9)
INAUDIBLE
BL[u]E [non-U sportsman] following IN AUDI [in car]
20 Cherish men forgoing male hour during function (8)
ENSHRINE
[m]EN + H [hour] in SINE [function]
21 Bird speed (4)
KNOT
Double definition
25) Adult in risible scandal rocked holiday resort (8,7)
BALEARIC ISLANDS
A [adult] in an anagram [rocked] of RISIBLE SCANDAL
26 Little man scratching my back in alien land (5)
EGYPT
A reversal of PYG[my] [little man] minus [scratching] ‘my’ in ET, Crosswordland’s favourite alien
27 Ideal place acquired by Virgin on far side of river (9)
EXEMPLARY
PL [place ] in MARY [Virgin] after EXE [river]
Down
1 Duck‘s bill almost flat on the outside (5)
EVADE
EVE[n] [almost flat] round AD [bill]
2 British medic hasn’t started to develop (7)
BURGEON
B [British] + [s]URGEON [medic]
3 Reporter’s measured progress through water (4)
WADE
Sounds like [reporter’s] ‘weighed’
4 50 in old city having no siblings (4)
ONLY
L [fifty] in O [old] NY [city] – a nice change from Ur!
5 Doctor, always welcoming extra people into family celebration, … (7,3)
MOTHER’S DAY
MD [doctor] AY [always] round OTHERS [extra people]
6 … looks away as nudists are milling around (5,5)
TURNS ASIDE
Anagram [milling around] of NUDISTS ARE
7 Exclusive clubs start to thaw, perhaps when fellow leaves (7)
CLIQUEY
C [clubs start] + LIQUE[f]Y [thaw] minus f [fellow]
8 Heroes met surprisingly small group (9)
THREESOME
Anagram [surprisingly] of HEROES MET
12 Blush like a wanton unlikely to run (10)
COLOURFAST
COLOUR [blush] + FAST [like a wanton]
13 Where to store papers from the Raj, one after another? (6,4)
INDIAN FILE
Cryptic definition
14 Whip mainly blames peer for letting things through (9)
PERMEABLE
Anagram[whip] of BLAME[s] PEER
17 Detectives carry on fencing area for demo (7)
DISPLAY
DIS ]Detective Inspectors] + PLY [carry on] round [fencing] A [area]
19 Good French soldier ultimately wanting stroke of luck (7)
BONANZA
BON [good French] + ANZA[c] [soldier ultimately wanting]
22 Delicious snack using last of meat for priest (5)
TASTY
[p]ASTY [snack] with T [last letter of meaT] replacing p [priest]
23 Crack judge getting libel case dismissed (4)
JIBE
J [judge] + [l]IBE[l] minus its ‘case’
24 Frivolous female banter (4)
FLIP
F [female] + LIP [banter]
Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen
I found this tricky, particularly the NW, where I had an inexplicable blank over what word to put before “ROOM” in 1a. Some initial wrong turns too – I tried SCAUP (a duck) for 1d wondering how SUP was “almost flat”; in 11a I removed TENOR from FORTUNE and wondered what to do with the remaining FU; I didn’t parse MOTHERS DAY totally as I took the doctor to be MO; and I even tried to shoehorn KNOT into 3d (“measured progress through water”), so was a bit startled when it was the correct answer for 21a!
Favourites SAY SO and CLIQUEY. Free gift – BALEARIC ISLANDS is an anagram of RADICAL LESBIANS.
The only one I didn’t like was 14d for the lazy “mainly blames” in the anagram fodder.
Eileen – I think “hour” needs to be HR in 20a.
A perfect puzzle for me, just the right level of difficulty. What a pleasant change!
As Eileen says, you can rely on the integrity of Nutmeg’s clue so you know they’re solvable.
[How about “Ample beer about” for the anagram for “permeable”?]
Quite a struggle (and couldn’t get EYED) but definitely worth it – a lovely puzzle. Favourites included ELBOW ROOM, EGYPT, BONANZA and PINPOINTS. Many thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.
Thank you, Eileen, agree entirely about this setter.
Very enjoyable solve with one (very minor) quibble: I wonder why ‘pygmy’ is uniquely little “man”. Surely those folks have wives, don’t they?
PYGMY was thus LOI and the SW corner in general took longest.
Fine puzzle, thank you, Nutmeg.
Nice week, all.
muffin @1 Love the lesbians. It’s also an anagram which includes acridness but I’ll leave the first part to you to avoid insensitivity.
I was stuck trying to fit EDEN into 27 somehow until I noticed that the puzzle was a pangram except for X, and EXEMPLARY then fell right into place. First time I can remember noticing a pangram actually helping with the solve!
Lovely puzzle and great blog. thanks Eileen.
Re 14ac – pinpoints.
A lovely clue, but I thought the usage of river = banker was now unacceptable. Wasn’t there a discussion about it in the past?
re 22d – anyone who thinks a pasty is a snack is eating the wrong pasty.
Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen.
A lovely crossword, I do not have favourite setters, but with Nutmeg I know that I will always get there in the end. ELBOW ROOM, AIREDALE TERRIER, REASSURE, INAUDIBLE, CLIQUEY, INDIAN FILE and so many others were fun.
Well done Iroquois spotting the pangram. I did not, but my last one in was EXEMPLARY, and I noticed that I had not used an X which gave me the answer.
tonyoz @10, river = banker was used somewhere else very recently…
Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen
Excellent stuff, just the right level of difficulty for me, with no Internet searching necessary
I’ll join the chorus for this Nutmeg puzzle. It wasn’t what I would call easy, but what helped was that when I depended on the integrity and fairness of the clueing to get me through I was not let down. I thought this was an excellent crossword – one of the best.
I needed Eileen’s help just to confirm the parsing of 10A, 15A and 26A.
I liked 7D (CLIQUEY) a lot. ‘Exclusive clubs’ (cliques!) was a misdirection, and I liked the accuracy of ‘thaw, perhaps’ and not just ‘thaw’. I also liked 17D (DISPLAY). I’m with muffin (@1), though, on 14D, where ‘mainly blames’ makes ‘blame’ for the anagram fodder. Also, in 1D (EVADE) ‘Duck bill …’ would have been just as good as or better than ‘Duck’s bill …’.
What a pot pourri we have of anagrams of BALEARIC ISLANDS! Strangely, Nutmeg didn’t quite use one. Instead of A RISIBLE SCANDAL, she used the last two words of that and made the ‘A’ separate. I thought that was a nice touch.
In 16A, ‘port’ might have served for RIO with most setters, but ‘southern port’ was fairer. Again, a nice touch.
Many thanks to both Nutmeg and Eileen
Alan Browne @15, I don’t often comment on clues since I am not competent enough to do so, but I thought “Duck’s bill” was fine since it led me astray; is the complaint due to the fact that the ‘s’ is not accounted for in the word play?
Cookie @16
This wasn’t actually a complaint on my part. As I interpret the clue, the ‘s is just a filler, like the word ‘in’ often is. Fillers that are just that and do not interfere with a correct reading of the clue are part of a setter’s toolset and fair game, but I thought it wasn’t needed here.
On second thoughts, though, ‘Duck’s bill …’ makes a better surface, and could mislead, and I now believe that my suggested change is not an improvement. So thank you for making me study the clue again.
Alan Browne @17, thank you, I now understand about fillers.
I was very excited there, getting down to Iroquois @8 before anyone spotted the pangram. Thought I might be the first. For me it was a Q rather than X that I was short of, with just two clues to go, and only CLIQUEY made sense – and also, this was the first time a pangram has helped with the solve.
Didn’t get the pygmy bit of Egypt. Not sure I’d agree with Alan Browne @15 about ‘southern port’ being fairer – RIO is one of the stock setter’s ports, and the ‘southern’ just has one scrabbling round for an S. Though one should hardly blame a setter for seeking to mislead.
D’oh! Thank you Eileen. I was completely fixated on MO for doctor in 5d so failed to parse it.
Thanks too, of course, to Nutmeg for a great puzzle – I’m really warming to her. This was Goldilocks level for me, neither too hard nor too easy. Favourites include EGYPT and (LOI) the lovely SAYS-SO (another D’oh!).
Another cracking puzzle from the always excellent Nutmeg, who definitely deserves a crack at the prize slot. The top half was mostly fairly straightforward but the last few took ages with JIBE holding out longest, though BALEARIC ISLANDS opened things up. Liked SAY-SO, RADIO and TASTY.
Re banker=river, Rufus used it yesterday and I still can’t remember it ever being used anywhere other than in crosswords, but it is clearly a popular device and Nutmeg used it very neatly.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen
[@beery hiker….Italian banker knowledge used to end at Roberto Calvi, until Mario Draghi turned up at the ECB. I don’t do much better with the bankers masquerading as rivers, either: Arno and Po being about it]
[baerchen @22 – fair point – but can I add the Tiber?]
Lovely puzzle, almost got there in the end. Still baffled by 15a – even seeing it parsed and spelled out, it still makes no sense to me. Say-so, says O?!? What’s ‘OK’ got to do with it?
Sorry, I do realise it’s obviously me, but I just don’t get it.
[@bh…..derp;only walked over the bridges aout 20 times!]
RH @ 24. I’ll send you the explanation if you give me the say-so/ok.
I would like to use this post to enshrine and display my thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.
I am a relative pygmy in Crosswordland so was pleased to wade steadily through this one (albeit not at a fast rate of knots)- I am reassured that my skills are starting to burgeon.
LOI (and the only one I failed to parse) was a very tentative EYED (the “I’d” bit of the parsing evaded me, and I wondered if EXED (“checked out”)might be the answer).
I endorse the praise (neither flip nor tacit) of others for this exemplary and tasty puzzle. If I had to pinpoint a favourite, it would probably be 18ac for the misleading “non-U sportsman” and “unlikely to be caught”.
I agree with the jibe that banker = river is a bit cliquey.
I must now turn aside to wash my colourfast Egyptian cotton clothes and walk the Airedale Terrier. The dog and I like to walk in Indian File as it gives more elbow room. This evening, I hope to listen to Bonanza on the radio but I expect it will be inaudible.
Excellent puzzle! And that coming from a relevant novice. Not a quibble but would like some clarification Chambers has “Elbow Room” hyphenated, Collins as all one word and Cambridge as per the answer?????????
Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen. I agree with others that this was a very enjoyable solve. I too started MOTHERS DAY with MO = doctor until I saw the correct parsing, but I needed Eileen’s help to parse TASTY (I missed the P = priest), INAUDIBLE (I did not see the BLUE minus U), and BONANZA (Anza was new to me). Great fun.
When are setters going to learn that NY is not the official abbreviation for the city, but for the state?
Denis @30. I think they know that. It may not be “official” but it’s commonly used – as in I [heart] NY on T shirts etc, for example.
another Andrew @27 – Well done! Very amusing!
On BANKER = RIVER in crossword land, OED on-line has:
“Australian /NZ informal. A river flooded to the top of its banks.” Not quite what we were looking for, but close.
I have seen objections before to NY = New York City rather than state (Denis @30) but seem to remember that NYPD stands for the eponymous city’s police department rather than the state police, if such a body exists.
As usual with Nutmeg, I enjoyed this puzzle. I got off to a very slow start, but eventually got there, except for needing help with CLIQUEY and failing to parse TASTY. I missed the pangram, of course. Favourites include ELBOW ROOM, AIREDALE TERRIER, BALEARIC ISLANDS, MOTHER’S DAY and COLOURFAST.
Thanks, Nutmeg and Eileen.
Blowed if I could parse EYED, or ONLY, come to that. The former is absurdly simple now I’ve seen the blog but I thought the latter a bit desperate. Still, that’s the only quibble from me. The rest was really straightforward and enjoyable.
Thanks Nutmeg.
Howie @28, never mind, the definitive dictionary, the OED has it as two word, ELBOW ROOM.
another Andrew @27
That made me chuckle – I read it twice. Well done! How long did it take you? No, don’t answer that – just accept the plaudit.
William @7
Just seen yours. Yes, some of the labiates (Stinking Woundwort, for example) are pretty acrid.
anotherAndrew @27
Very clever!
another Andrew @26, your example for SAY-SO/OK has clarified things for me too, thanks, and for @27!
Trailman @19
Concerning ‘southern port’ = RIO in 16A: thank you for your comment, enabling me to see a new angle on ‘southern’. Is it setting a fair limit to the huge number of ports in the world, or does it ‘trick’ the solver into thinking there might be an ‘S’ in the answer? Good point.
On the fairness side of things, I often don’t appreciate clues where, for example, ‘boy’ is lazily used as an indicator for one of a huge number of possibilites for part of the answer, including LAD and SON, of course (not to mention ‘B’, which was defended quite recently as an OK abbrev for ‘boy’). This sort of practice can increase the difficulty but not necessarily the quality of a clue. I just had a feeling that this was the reasoning behind Nutmeg’s ‘southern’ in the clue of 16A – not to try and mislead.
Whatever the merits of 16A (RADIO), I thought the overall quality of today’s clues was very high.
Late to the party today, mainly because BT Broadband is the worst ever company in corporate history, but just wanted to add my thanks to Nutmeg for an enjoyable puzzle. Bit tough in places, but I especially liked … actually, no, I liked it all.
Thank you to our blogger too.
Belated thanks to muffin @2 for pointing out the typo: I went out for the day immediately after posting the blog.
My apologies for not making the parsing of SAY-SO more clear. This is now in my album of classic clues, competing for succinctness with my all-time favourite, EGO – I say nothing: cue Sandy Balfour’s book http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17406734-i-say-nothing-3
Apologies also for not spotting the pangram. Regular readers will know that I just don’t look out for them.
anotherandrew@26
OK thanks for that, now I realise why it made no sense to me – I’ve never understood ‘say-so’ to be a synonym for merely ‘OK’, but something much more assertive. One lives – and hopefully learns.
RH @42
I find it quite spooky, that, after a whole day, we comment within a minute of each other re SAY-SO!
Chambers:
OK: interj expressing agreement or approval
say-so: an authoritative saying
At the risk of over-indulging in frivolous banter (I fear other will say so), might I just add that when I eyed the possible hint of a threesome in the Balearic Islands on Mother’s Day, I did wonder if Nutmeg might be related to Paul.
I fear that spending too much time in Crosswordland is causing my brain to become over-permeable, so shall turn aside and try to do something sensible.
An enjoyable solve.
One of those where I had the top half completed bar one and only one in the bottom half!
The precise cluing finally revealed all and LOI was EYED. (Now you all know what was missing in the top half 🙂 )
I am pleased that the hours wasted by all you pangram seekers has finally paid off. Hope you enjoy the weeks of fruitless letter counting until the next one. 🙂
Thanks to Eileen and Nutmeg
BNTO
Needless to say, on the occasion when seeing the pangram might have been useful, I didn’t see it. On the other hand, my last ones were EVADE and WADE, so it probably wouldn’t have helped after all.
Brendan @45, no need to letter count, one gets to know intuitively what is going on, see my post @12…
Cookie @47
I think the pangram issue depends very much on the solver. I personally am a very intuitive solver and most of my clue discovery is done subconsciously. I would guess that on at least 50% of occasions the answer leaps into my mind and then I parse it.
If I was asked the the three-quarter solved stage which letters I had entered I wouldn’t have a clue and would have to go through all the solutions to see! For me “noticing” a pangram would be a mechanical chore and would over time be very inefficient. (I have never noticed a pangram, even themes almost always pass me by)
I do accept that we all solve in different ways and that some are more aware of the mechanics of a particular puzzle. Howvever I amsure that, for me,any attempt at this would be counterproductive.
Having said all this however,I am still dubious about the benefits of pangram spotting. They are relatively rare yet I guess it is quite common that a puzzle comes to near completion and only has a coupkle of the less common letters not entered. In these cases I still believe that trying to solve the remaining clues normally is more fruitful than trying to shoehorn in any required Zs, Qs or whatever. In most cases they won’t be there!
Chacun à son goût
Brendan (@48)
(Belatedly) well said. I too don’t care whether a puzzle is a pangram or not, and I never notice it when it is there, like today. (Actually, I did notice a potential pangram once and it helped me by giving me a ‘Z’ in my final answer. That was luck, and amusing at the time, but a one-off.)
I do, however, admire a pangram as an art form, if you will, when it has been achieved without the puzzle being ‘contrived’ – or appearing to be so. Today’s is one, and full marks to Nutmeg. I have composed a couple myself, just for the hell of it, and it is certainly harder to achieve than a normal crossword.
Meanwhile, I’ll continue to enjoy my hobby without noticing any pangrams or ninas in the future. Somebody is sure to point them out, and I’ll appreciate them then.
Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen
Another to enjoy the crisp clues that are the trademark of this setter – and found it in the mid- hard range when doing it. Failed to parse a couple properly prior to coming here – EGYPT (went looking for a GYP to be some sort of short guy, but not to be) and TASTY (failed to see the PASTY). Did not even think to look for the nina.
Originally entered SINGLE FILE in at 13, until I couldn’t parse it and found it’s straight definition – thought that it was more of a double definition of which one was cryptic. Struggled with the parsing of ENSHRINE for a while until I realised that it did need a HR instead of just the H for hour.
Finished in the NE corner with CLIQUEY (originally put in a hopeful COTERIE), SAY-SO (which was the clue of the day for mine) and REASSURE (not sure why it took so long to find the definition part of the clue)..
Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen.
Enjoyable solve with only EGYPT and FLIP un-parsed.
Thanks for explaining the former – should have got that – but I still can’t see why FLIP = Frivolous. Flippant maybe.
While I thought the crossword and the blog were wonderful, I am somewhat sceptical of the use of single letters to stand for words – eg, p for priest. I have never seen such a contraction used – not that it doesn’t exist somewhere – and it strikes me as rather lazy clueing. Anyone agree? But say-so – that was quite beautiful!