Independent on Sunday 1,534 by Nimrod

by

The puzzle can be found here.

 

Hello!  Well, what a surprise to see Nimrod on a Sunday.  I suppose now that Phiday is anyday, anything can happen.  No complaints from me: I enjoyed this, though once again fell short of my goal of a “perfect” solve.  Puzzles by this setter I liken to Everest: decent cruciverbalist climbers can get to the summit, but you need luck with the weather, and may well require extra oxygen.  Fortunately, now that blogs are a thing, we have crossword Sherpas to help more and more people up to the dizzy heights.  (Oh dear, though — that’s me today!)  Today, true to form, I got tantalisingly close, but needed my Chambers Oxygen Supply in a couple of places … EASY STREET this is not!

There is a delightful mini theme with a nina, part of which you need to spot solve one of the clues, but the clue does tell you where to look.  (And of course the solver doesn’t need to know that we enthusiasts call them ninas.)

The nina helped me immensely, and I very much enjoyed the theme and the clue for SERIALLY (though I fully understand some people’s reservations about this device).  I liked lots of other bits too, but it is this which has left me with a big smile — thanks Nimrod!  How was it for you?

 

Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.

 

Across

8a    “Are we comfortable here?” Eaters set to reorder, apprehending Sally’s climax … (4,6)
EASY STREET
EATERS SET anagrammed (to reorder) containing (apprehending) SallY’s last letter (climax)

9a    … a long time doing the same – people do in Katz’s (4)
EONS
Doing the same – taking the last letter, like in the previous clue – peoplE dO iN Katz’S.  Katz’s Delicatessen is the location of the thematic scene in question, from When Harry Met Sally, not that you need to know this to solve the clue

10a   Intense medical examiner keeps males fit! (8)
VEHEMENT
VET (medical examiner) contains (keeps) HE-MEN (men fit: fit men)

11a   I’m disgusted with king because of fortress (6)
KASBAH
BAH (I’m disgusted) next to (with) K (king) and AS (because of)

12a   Continually breaking law, say? (6)
ALWAYS
An anagram of (breaking) LAW SAY

13a   Something saucy slipped back into Tony’s song (8)
MARINARA
RAN (slipped) reversed (back) and put into MARIA (Tony’s song in West Side Story)

14a   Rubbish defender’s howler was doubly hard to comprehend (7)
HOGWASH
OG (own goal: defender’s howler) and WAS (from the clue) put inside (… to comprehend) H H (doubly hard: two copies of hard, abbreviated)

16a   Peter in film that anyone can see? He maybe has time for all like him? (7)
USTINOV
U (that anyone can see) + ST (He, maybe: St Peter), then I NOV (All Saints day: time for all like him).  Peter Ustinov.  I needed a leg up with this parse!

20a   Support for old gamblers that may be sacked? (3-5)
LOO-TABLE
LOOTABLE: that may be sacked/looted

23a   Potato cake that’s flipped and served with eggs (6)
ROESTI
IT’S (that’s) reversed (flipped) and placed next to (and served with) ROE (eggs)

25a   Means to transport people out of Portugal and Austria (6)
LANDAU
This carriage can be taken from (out of) PortugaL AND AUstria

26a   Barnacle Bill’s parting reason for moving? (3,5)
SEA ACORN
AC (bill) is inside (‘s parting) REASON, anagrammed (for moving)

27a   9 letters returned? Not this one (4)
IOTA
A TO I (9 letters of the alphabet) reversed (returned).  This is a letter from a different alphabet, so not one of them

28a   Essentially, actor’s got very rich, having secured work playing The Tramp? (10)
TROLLOPING
The central letter of (essentially) acTor is next to (‘s got) ROLLING (very rich), with the insertion of (having secured) OP (opus, work)

 

Down

1d    Extremely unfavourable outcome of engagement later quashed in court (8)
WATERLOO
LATER anagrammed (quashed) in WOO (court)

2d    Meat-eater heard greeting moralist in The Street? (6)
HYAENA
Sounds like (heard) HI ENA, Ena Sharples being a moralising character from “The Street”, Coronation Street

3d    Infidels present during more than one robbery (8)
ATHEISTS
AT HEISTS: present at more than one robbery

4d    Bit of a boob leaving top actor speechless? Work stops now (7)
TEATIME
TEAT (bit of a boob) + [m]IME (actor speechless) without its first letter (losing top)

5d    Author who provides fuels from gas to kerosene (6)
STOKER
The author of Dracula or a feeder of fuels is taken from gaS TO KERosene

6d    City man is about to crack cryptic link (8)
HELSINKI
HE (man), followed by IS reversed (about) inside (to crack) an anagram of (cryptic) LINK

7d    Poor Ireland, endlessly under discussion (2,4)
EN LAIR
An anagram of (poor) IRELANd without its last letter (endlessly)

15d   Leave, celebrating late equaliser? (8)
WITHDRAW
An equaliser scored at the last minute makes it most likely you will end up WITH DRAW

17d   Bit by bit, perimetrically referenced woman contains rising passion (8)
SERIALLY
SALLY (the “she” referenced in the perimeter nina, highlighted at the bottom of the blog) contains the reversal of (rising) IRE (passion).  The surface once again references the scene in the video at 8a

18d   Apt signs describe where GP stands on potassium put under table? (8)
OUTDRINK
OUT and IN are apt signs: that is, with reference to the rest of the clue, describing where the GP is; these surround (describe) DR (GP).  All of this comes before (on, in a down answer) K (potassium)

19d   Harry finally says “bye” now he has to do a round (7)
NEWSBOY
Make an anagram of (harry) the last letter of (finally) sayS + BYE NOW

21d   He holds forth on podium, unless heap of rocks is available? (6)
ORATOR
OR A TOR: unless there’s a tor/rocky height.  Here’s Larry the Cat, announcing his intention to run for PM:

22d   Beginner in espionage needed to make these subtler! (6)
BLURTS
BLURTS + E, the first letter of (beginner in) espionage, can be anagrammed to make SUBTLER

24d   Sally goes about on a cycle (6)
ESCAPE
PEES (goes) and CA (circa, about) with two letters on a cycle from the beginning to the end

14 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,534 by Nimrod”

  1. Didn’t that 30 years pass quickly?   I like the way the lead characters ‘met’ diagonally at the bottom of the grid

     

     

  2. What! Nimrod on a Sunday? Isn’t there a law against that sort of thing?

    The expected hard work, but definitely worth the effort as the theme and Nina appeared and helped with a few answers. You know you sound like an old geezer when you make comments like “Was that really thirty years ago?” Guilty.

    Mostly parsed, though the wordplay for ORATOR, USTINOV and almost everything about ESCAPE, well… escaped me. There were some excellent non-thematic clues including the ‘put under table’ def, TROLLOPING, which seems too good a word to be true and ‘Tony’s song’ in MARINARA.

    Thanks to Nimrod, and to Kitty for the blog and multimedia accompaniments.

  3. Didn’t spot the HARRY meeting SALLY part of the nina. Very neat.

    Couldn’t parse MARINARA, USTINOV or OUTDRINK (which I left as OUTDR?NK with a possible missing I, A or U). Got the rest with help from the nina and elsewhere.

    Thanks to Nimrod and Kitty.

  4. Great puzzle especially on a Sunday-and great blog-I missed the diagonal nina and parsing pf SEA ACORN but the perimeter nina bits helped confirm a few clues. I think the mark of a good setter is that he/she wants you to get it and be in on the fun-but makes you switch the battery on and connect the sprocket to the noggin (as Brigster says) to get there.

    Thanks all.

  5. A nice bit of nostalgia – even if this took me longer than today’s Mephisto! The Nina helped of course but I didn’t see HARRY and SALLY at the bottom.

    I never came close to parsing USTINOV – good call, Kitty (excellent blog too, can’t have been easy). I’m still confused by the parsing of OUTDRINK. I interpreted Apt as the abbreviation for apartment – some apartment blocks have IN/OUT signs that residents use to indicate if they’re home or not. I’m sure your explanation is the correct one, even though I don’t really understand it!

  6. Had to come in for Kitty’s help with the last few but that didn’t matter in the least – I’d found the perimeter Nina and was still chuckling over what has to be one of the best one-liners ever to be heard in a film!   Like others, I completely missed the extra ‘Sally meets Harry’ Nina.

    Didn’t know the variants of either rosti or hyena and thought ‘sea acorn’ was a bit of a stretch – ‘corn barnacle’ was the closest thing I found.

    Thanks to Nimrod for the walk down memory lane and huge thanks to Kitty for both the help where needed and the excellent (as always) blog.

  7. We certainly needed the extra oxygen to reach the summit today, helped by the weather clearing when we realised that the nina didn’t extend all the way round and what it was. And it’s so long since we saw the film that we’d forgotten the name of the establishment in that scene.
    But, with help, we did finish.
    Thanks, Nimrod and Kitty.

  8. I thought this was absolutely brilliant. The perimeter gave up it’s secret early on, but I missed the v-connection at the bottom.

    Thanks to Kitty and Nimrod.

  9. Never saw the film, so the Nina and the themed clues went completely over my head. My loss. Failed to parse “Ustinov”, very clever, and failed to remember “en l’air” although I must have seen it before.
    Did this while glancing at the golf on the TV, which, unlike this puzzle, was a bit of an anticlimax.

  10. Thanks to Kitty and Nimrod

    Some (most), of this is brilliant, but some I don’t understand.

    9a The answer had to be EONS, but the wordplay gives EONS with a Y in there somewhere

    11a I think the OF must mean FROM with AS meaning BECAUSE

    13a To clue MARIA by reference to a song sung by a character in a 60+ year old play is abstruse in the extreme

    16a HE (PETER) for ST? I don’t think there is a single male christian name not represented in a saint’s name.

    23a THAT’S = IT’S? Okay, but very loosely.

    2d see 13a! (I still remember Ena fondly, but does anyone under fifty?)

    6d Does anyone else get away with HE = MAN, rather than THAT MAN?

    7d Perhaps my dictionaries aren’t up to the task, but I can only find EN L’AIR defined as a type of ballet step – literally, IN THE AIR

    15d I don’t get it. If my team concede in the last minute, I won’t be celebrating.

    18d Pardon?

    21d A TOR can also mean a heap of rocks, not just a hill, but the clue still begs too much indulgence IMO.

    24d The curse of the theme – tempting to include SALLY, but I can find no justification for SALLY = ESCAPE

    Does the V shape formed by HARRY and SALLY have any significance?

  11. Thanks Dansar – you’re right that in 11a the OF is just a link word.  No idea what I thought when writing it up.  Maybe a typo, quite probably a braino.  I’ll amend the blog.

    7d: Chambers has “being discussed or expected” as a definition of EN L’AIR.

    15d: I interpreted it as my team scoring, not conceding, the last minute equaliser.

    24d: Sally = escape I wasn’t too sure about, but thought it could probably be justified.

    You talk about the vintage of the Coronation Street and West Side Story references, but I think the musical is a classic.  I could bring to mind the name Ena Sharples too (though had to take it on trust that she was moralistic), despite not having ever watched the soap – and being under 40.

    Speaking of which, it seems strange to think that I wasn’t yet into double figures when When Harry Met Sally came out.  I don’t think I actually saw the film until a bit later!

  12. many thanks for the blog! needed help parsing several of the answers and totally missed the nina.

    i’m a relative newcomer to cryptic crosswords, and only started doing the independent puzzle a few days ago when my friend sent me the link. i noticed that friday’s puzzle had STRUMPET (with “tart” in the clue) and this one had TROLLOPING – should i expect to see this sort of thing regularly in the puzzle? do solvers ever take exception to it?

  13. Kitty @ 11

    Thanks for your response, you’ve cleared a couple of things up for me

    I still don’t get 18d, but your parsing comes as close as anything I can come up with so that will have to do!

    It’s a shame because I think the definition is very good.

Comments are closed.