Well…… this was a bit of a ‘tour de force’ by Hob. It wasn’t until Joyce came to write up the blog that Bert suddenly worked out the parsing for 24d and 19d.
When he sorted out the parsing of 19d, he also uncovered the theme. Nina Conti is an actress and comedienne and a number of thematic references are included within the grid (in green below). Conti also features within the across unches sharing a T with 19d. She’s not someone we’re familiar with, so we may have missed other thematic entries.
We are currently on Bryher in the Scilly Isles, so we may not be able to respond to comments very quickly.
| Across | ||
| 8 | Like Knotty Ash‘s hooter, keeping awfully loud (8) | |
| NODULOSE | NOSE (hooter) around or ‘keeping’ an anagram of LOUD – anagrind is ‘awfully’ | |
| 9 | Very happy heading off behind schedule (6) | |
| ELATED | |
|
| 10 | Copies from a month back (4) | |
| APES | A SEP (month) reversed or ‘back’ | |
| 11 | Teasing Len about bloomers (10) | |
| EGLANTINES | An anagram of TEASING LEN – anagrind is ‘about’ | |
| 12 | Sort of flat cap on chimneypot (6) | |
| GRANNY | Double definition – we had to check the chimney pot definition | |
| 14 | Antibiotic, one dispensed by my chemist if necessary initially (8) | |
| NEOMYCIN | An anagram of ONE (anagrind is ‘dispensed’) MY CIN (initial letters of Chemist If Necessary) | |
| 15 | Black line below boob (7) | |
| BLUNDER | B (black) L (line) UNDER (below) | |
| 17 | Float east of Bordeaux, say, to 22A again (7) | |
| REDRAFT | RAFT (float) after or ‘east of’ RED (Bordeaux say) | |
| 20 | Temple of Hope, Nantes, mostly rebuilt (8) | |
| PANTHEON | An anagram of HOPE NANT |
|
| 22 | Outline of small boat (6) | |
| SKETCH | S (small) KETCH (boat) | |
| 23 | Fielders starting to come in soon, since stupid ‘bad’ declaration? (10) | |
| CONFESSION | F (first letter or ‘start’ of ‘fielders’) ‘coming’ in an anagram of SOON SINCE – anagrind is ‘stupid | |
| 24 | Jogger, handsome, moving house (4) | |
| MEMO | Hidden or ‘housed’ in handsoME MOving | |
| 25 | A French girl with new flat? On the contrary (6) | |
| UNEVEN | UN (a in French) EVE (girl) N (new) | |
| 26 | Settle in: for starters, it’s snug enough (8) | |
| COLONISE | COLON (:) and first letters or ‘starters’ to It’s Snug Enough | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | A Teletubby’s broken into a cattle pen across the pond, officer (8) | |
| CORPORAL | PO (a Teletubby) inside or ‘broken into’ CORRAL (cattle pen). We’re not quite sure though why ‘across the pond’ is included. Neither corral or corporal are defined as ‘american’ in Chambers. | |
| 2 | Balls featuring in quotes regularly (4) | |
| NUTS | Regular letters in iN qUoTeS | |
| 3 | Countess Olivia and Malvolio, easily deceived? Yes at first, in Twelfth Night perhaps (6) | |
| COMEDY | Initial letters or ‘at first’ in Countess Olivia Malvolio Easily Deceived Yes | |
| 4 | Extremely evasive during affair? That makes sense (7) | |
| FEELING | First and last letters of EvasivE or ‘extremely’ inside or ‘during’ FLING (affair) | |
| 5 | Tall, thin person with a pulse to measure (8) | |
| BEANPOLE | BEAN (pulse) POLE (measure) | |
| 6 | Frenchman in Italy playing in Open with all the relatives there? (6,4) | |
| FAMILY TREE | M (Frenchman) inside an anagram of ITALY (anagrind is ‘playing’) inside FREE (open) | |
| 7 | Asian people in the old capital of India (6) | |
| YEMENI | MEN (people) in YE (old word for ‘the’) I (capital of Italy) | |
| 13 | 3 by 17, after 4 it’s time for a song! (4,2,4) | |
| NINE TO FIVE | Parsed just in time……. it’s 3 x 17 = 51 after 4 which on a clock gives you 04:51 or 9 to 5. | |
| 16 | Paradoxically, odds on good service (8) | |
| EVENSONG | Paradoxically odds in betting could be EVENS plus ON G (good) | |
| 18 | Confront first of medics and demand something to stop germs spreading (4,4) | |
| FACE MASK | FACE (confront) M (first letter in Medics) ASK (demand) | |
| 19 | After trip to China, a tonic’s drunk at hotel – ah, our Nina’s managed City once (7) | |
| ANTIOCH | Once again, parsed at the last moment……… it’s an anagram of TO CHINA (anagrind is ‘after trip’) but it is also an anagram of A TONIC (anagrind is ‘drunk’) and H(hotel). However, it’s also an anagram of CONTI (‘our Nina’, the theme of the puzzle) and AH (anagrind is ‘managed’) | |
| 21 | A cereal’s 2 (6) | |
| ACORNS | A CORN’S (cereal’s) | |
| 22 | Run like a spinster (6) | |
| SINGLE | Double definition | |
| 24 | Chap put in order worth £333.33? (4) | |
| MONK | MONK |
|
Thanks all three.
Nina is the daughter of Tom Conti, and a startlingly good ventriloquist. Does she do crosswords? Does she know about this one? Perhaps Hob would enlighten us.
What a lot of references! I couldn’t identify any others you had missed.
FWIW I always found Monk rather disturbing.
19 is one of my Clues of the Year. Terrific.
One of those just right Goldilocks puzzles. Didn’t need help to complete it, but it wasn’t a straight write-in. 12ac and 13dn were the only ones I couldn’t parse – thanks for the explanations. Totally failed to spot the Nina Nina, even though 19dn alerted me that had to be a Nina.
Nice idea, great puzzle – thanks to Hob & B&J.
A monkey is GBP 500. Or €480 at the bureau de change at Heathrow…
The theme and nina passed me by but didn’t prevent me finishing; needless to say I didn’t understand the second half of the clue to 19dn. Nor could I parse 13dn even though I thought at first it might be something to do with 51 and 4 (or maybe LI and IV) but when crossing letters suggested the answer I remembered that there is a COMEDY (3dn) of that name – a local (to me) amateur dramatic society is about to stage it – so I biffed it. GRANNY was my LOI after discovering the chimney connection. MONK was clever, but my CoD was COLONISE.
Thanks, Hob and B&J