It’s hardly a secret that Egbert is one of the Nottingham S&B’s main organisers, and here’s his puzzle: Egbert @ Nottingham 2017
As always, don’t look any further yet if you haven’t done this crossword but still want to.
As on previous occasions Egbert offered us a grid with clue numbers rising high into the thirties.
This means relatively short solutions and hardly any (if at all) obscurities.
It also made it possible to include a fair number of obvious theme words (and a nina).
After all, we’re in Sherwood country.
They are highlighted in colour in the blog and in the completed grid at the end of this blog.
As to the nina, I’ll leave it up to the solver to decypher it.
A huge 9ac to Egbert (and his better half) for organising such an almost 19acful event.
| Across | ||
| 8 | ENCAMP | Set up temporary accommodation in French college with one of 16d (6) |
| EN (in, in French) + C (college) + AMP (one of 16d, the solution to 16d being ‘amps’) | ||
| 9 | THANK YOU | Words of gratitude for turning out and embracing rather improper behaviour – not half! (5,3) |
| (OUT)* around HANKY [panky] (rather improper behaviour, only half of it) [* = turning] | ||
| 10 | OBI | At heart, local legend shows charm (3) |
| The solution is the central part [at heart] of ROBIN (our local legend) | ||
| 11 | MARIAN | She‘s hit back at Independent article (6) |
| Reversal [back] of RAM (hit) + I (independent) + AN (article) | ||
| 12 | SADISTIC | Upset with one’s credit being curtailed – cruel! (8) |
| SAD (upset) + I’S (one’s) + TIC[k] (credit, shortened) | ||
| 14 | OMEGA | Type of fatty acid found in some gateaux (5) |
| Hidden solution [found in]: some gateaux | ||
| 16 | ANORAK | Resistance leader found in 28/24 hideout (according to folklore) – this guy will know all the trivial details (6) |
| R[esistance] inside AN OAK ‘They’ say that the Major Oak tree was Robin Hood’s (28ac/24d) hideout. |
||
| 18 | ASSAM | Bum returns in the morning for tea (5) |
| Reversal [returns] of ASS (bum) inside AM (the morning) | ||
| 19 | CHEERS | 9 taps by phone company get leaders of Republicans sacked (6) |
| C,H (taps, cold and hot) + EE (phone company) + starting letters of ‘Republicans sacked’ The definition 9 = 9ac = ‘thank you’. |
||
| 22 | PROTEA | Plant used for beverage? (6) |
| PRO (for) + TEA (beverage) | ||
| 24 | HOODS | Local legend’s outlaws perhaps? (5) |
| HOOD’S (local legend’s, Robin, of course) | ||
| 26 | LITTLE | Short till receipt strangely doesn’t include revised price (6) |
| (TILL RECEIPT)* minus (PRICE)** [* = strangely] [** = revised] | ||
| 28 | ROBIN | He’s renowned for stealing from missing baron, not the good (5) |
| ROBBING (stealing) minus one B (baron) and also dropping G (good) The clue as a whole should be seen as the definition. |
||
| 31 | ELIGIBLY | Suitably glib lie concocted by Yard chief (8) |
| (GLIB LIE)* + Y[ard] [* = concocted] | ||
| 34 | JUST SO | Unbiased, very much like some stories for children (4,2) |
| JUST (unbiased) + SO (very much) Just So Stories for Little Children is a collection of stories from 1902 written by Rudyard Kipling. |
||
| 35 | IDO | International language used for wedding vows? (3) |
| Kind of Double definition | ||
| 36 | WOOD-BORN | Like 28/24 followers perhaps – threadbare clothing, in the red and having a problem with personal hygiene (4-4) |
| WORN (threadbare) around {OD (in the red, overdrawn) + BO (problem with personal hygiene)} Robin Hood’s (28ac/24ac) followers might have well been born in Sherwood Forest. |
||
| 37 | HONEST | Truthful description of an American brothel? (6) |
| In the States a HO is a whore, so ‘an American brothel’ may be described by a HO NEST, perhaps | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENCALM | English navy starts to commandeer all local merchandise to prevent movement at sea (6) |
| E (English) + N (navy) + starting letters of ‘commandeer all local merchandise’ | ||
| 2 | YAWING | Showing signs of boredom, losing attention, finally changing direction (6) |
| YAWNING (showing signs of boredom) minus one [attentio]N | ||
| 3 | UPON | Above suspicion, but no saint, not special, not here in France (4) |
| [s]U[s]P[ici]ON, the deleted parts being S (saint), S (special) and ICI (here, in French) | ||
| 4 | PTISANS | Decoctions made with barley tips brewed outside former hospital (7) |
| (TIPS)* around SAN (former hospital, sanatorium) [* = brewed] | ||
| 5 | MAID | Girl‘s suit’s returned, but only the top half (4) |
| Reversal of DIAM[onds] (suit, only the first half of it) | ||
| 6 | EKES | Seek out supplements (4) |
| (SEEK)* [* = out] I like a simple clue that is oh so effective. |
||
| 7 | DOMINATE | Overlook banning sex from organised meditation (8) |
| (MEDITATION)* minus IT (sex) [* = organised] | ||
| 13 | ION | Charge faced by Liberal makes him a hero (3) |
| If L (Liberal) would come before the solution (ION), one would get LION (a hero) | ||
| 15 | EWE | Solvers made out to be sheepish (3) |
| Homophone [made out] of YOU (solvers) The definition should be seen as ‘the solution gives you something that is sheepish’. |
||
| 16 | AMPS | When a politician gets involved in current measures…… (4) |
| MP (a politician) inside AS (when) | ||
| 17 | OXO | ….nothing follows…no vote…but stock’s consolidated by this manufacturer (3) |
| O (nothing) coming after O (no) X (vote) | ||
| 18 | ASHE | A female former Wimbledon champion (4) |
| A + SHE (female) Arthur Ashe (1943-1993). |
||
| 20 | HEIRLOOM | Irish diplomat, first to threaten ancestral property (8) |
| HE (diplomat, His Excellency) preceding IR (Irish), then + LOOM (threaten) | ||
| 21 | EAT | Scoff at European leader (3) |
| AT with E (European) coming fist, indicated by ‘leader’ Egbert knows that I am not keen on this use of leader but he likes it and it is his puzzle. |
||
| 23 | TAB | Key drug bill (3) |
| Triple definition | ||
| 25 | OBEYING | Going by the book, honour’s given to unknown character in government (7) |
| OBE (honour) + Y (unknown character) + IN + G (government) | ||
| 27 | LEI | Heard a song that may be presented on arrival in Honolulu (3) |
| Homophone [heard] of LAY (a song) | ||
| 29 | ORSINI | Italian nobles‘ moral shortcoming is rooted in old religious lessons (6) |
| SIN (moral shortcoming) inside {O (old) + RI (religious lessons)} An Italian aristocratic family that was prominent in Rome from about the 12th to the 18th century. |
||
| 30 | INSIST | Spanish agreement is crucial to May’s formal demand (6) |
| SI (Spanish agreement, ‘yes’ in Spanish) in the middle of INST (this month, which is indeed ‘May’) I would say, do whatever you want with ‘formal’. See what Eileen @4 did with it. |
||
| 32 | GADA | Indian club reversing an American lawyer’s final ruling (4) |
| A DA (an American lawyer, District Attorney) + [rulin]G, together reversed [reversing] The gada is the main weapon of the Hindu god Hanuman – more of it here . |
||
| 33 | BOOH | Disapproval rarely expressed when two Oscars are picked up by lead characters in Hollywood Boulevard (4) |
| O,O (Oscar and another one, Nato alphabet) inside a reversal [picked up by] of the starting letters of Hollywood Boulevard | ||
| 34 | JOHN | Can vacuous jargon enthral? That’s a surprise! (4) |
| J[oh]N around OH (that’s a surprise!) | ||
Many thanks, Sil – it’s very good of you to do this labour of love.
And many thanks to EgBert for another highly enjoyable puzzle.
I think some folk may not have spotted the top row as being the beginning of a Nina! Fortunately, I’m from Leicester, where we have the same expression [variously spelt]. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32780916
Lots of good clues, cleverly woven to incorporate the theme.
Renewed thanks to Bert’n Joyce for a great day out yesterday. And it was great to see some new faces – along with the ‘old’ ones, of course. 😉
This newcomer didn’t know there would be so much brainwork to do and wasn’t prepared! (I’m referring to the quizzes on the day as well as the crosswords on offer.)
I took this crossword home and tried it the following day. I really appreciated the overall standard of these puzzles and would like to comment now on this one having done so on the other two.
I stumbled on PTISANS, WOOD-BORN and GADA but otherwise found this an interesting and enjoyable challenge. I had to come here to understand 37a HONEST and 30d INSIST, and, like the blogger, I wondered why ‘formal’ was in the latter clue.
I particularly liked 9a THANK YOU, 26 LITTLE, 34 JUST SO, 17d OXO and 23d TAB for their originality and good surfaces.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Solved with a little help from the nina, despite being wrong-footed at first where for 10ac I originally had [Fri]ART[uck] even though ‘art’ doesn’t really equate to ‘charm’.
As to the nina, the expression is also found at my end of the Brian Clough Way, though the Derby(shire) spelling is often with ‘mi’ rather than ‘me’.
Anyway, thanks to Egbert and Sil – and to [Eg]BertandJoyce for another great gathering.
I took ‘formal’ with ‘May’ in 30dn and now see that Chambers gives ‘inst: the present month [in formal correspondence]’.
Enjoyable stuff with a steady solve on the train from Nottingham to Peterborough. I clocked most of the thematic material quickly, but it took getting a bit stuck in the SW to read the nina correctly which helped me get a couple more there before finally being done by 32d and 36a. My honours go to misdirection and nice humour in general as well as the nina and theme so thanks to Egbert for the puzzle and to Sil for the blog.
Didn’t quite finish this (I wanted DUCKS rather than DUCK A since I thought we were being addressed in plural, so I didn’t get PROTEA, and GADA resisted my attempts to confirm it, not that I tried very hard) but I enjoyed what I did get, and the obscurities were fully justified by the perimeter nina – the Nottingham welcome is not heard as regularly as it used to be when I was at school there in the 70s, and it has a few variant spellings.
Thanks to Egbert for the crossword, (Eg)B & J for organising, to Sil for blogging, to John for the quizzes and to everyone else who was there for another entertaining day.