Independent 10,427 by Nimrod

by

The puzzle can be found here.

 

Hello, and happy Pi Day.

I found this more accessible than most Nimrod puzzles and made good early progress in the NW and SE corners.  Some of the long answers took me a bit closer to a more typical Nimrodian time.  My last in provided a real self-kicking, face-palming moment because I couldn’t think of a name which fit, even though I had considered a wine for white, and even though I had thought of chardonnay.  I can’t even!  In the end, I looked up Tweedsmuir.  If only the clue had said Buchan …

Other than that, the only other things I needed to clarify could safely be done after the solve, as Bastet intended.

The quest for a 100% clean Nimrod solve continues.  Now off to wash my hands and thank the setter.  Thanks Nimrod!

 

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

1a    Massage ace, out now for hot dog (4,3)
SHIH TZU
SHIaTZU (massage) with A (ace) replaced with (out now for) H (hot)

8a    Putting the lid on the whisky? (9)
SCOTCHING
A cryptic definition formed of a definition plus a reference to SCOTCH whisky

10a   “The Messiah” Keano & co in the heart of the melee (8)
EMMANUEL
MAN U (Keano & co; Roy Keane) in central letters of (the heart of) thE MELee

11a   Soup du jour? Its trimmings sustain First Lady on run (9)
DEVELOPER
Du jouR’s outer letters (trimmings) contain (sustain) EVE (first lady) next to (on) LOPE (run)

12a   Diamonds, something difficult to beat (4)
DRUB
D (diamonds) + RUB (something difficult)

15a   Travelling fans say who might be contacted after breaking down? AA? (7,6)
SUPPORT GROUPS
Travelling fans might be categorised as support groups, being groups of supporters.  The AA (Automobile Association) are a group providing support in the event of a motoring breakdown.  Finally, the AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), who might be contacted after a different kind of breakdown, are an example of a support group as defined normally

17a   Unable to work with personnel east of mine? He’s an old man (15)
PITHECANTHROPUS
CAN’T (unable to) and OPUS (work) with HR (personnel); all this is after (east of, in an across answer) PIT (mine) and HE (from the clue)

18a   Tweedsmuir creation: take one for nothing, I have it in white (7,6)
RICHARD HANNAY
We start with R (take) and I (one).  Then … in CHARDoNNAY (white), for O (nothing) substitute HA (I have it)

21a   Tragic figure, Romeo, getting over end of Juliet in sad tale (4)
LEAR
R (Romeo) replacing the last letter of (end of) JulieT in an anagram of (sad) [t]ALE

22a   Not in the pink, clearly (3-6)
OFF-COLOUR
A punning cryptic definition

25a   Vessel that stole into street (8)
SHOWBOAT
HOW (that) and BOA (stole) go into ST (street)

26a   Scientist‘s clerical error originally included (9)
PRIESTLEY
PRIESTLY (clerical) with the first letter of (…originally) Error included

27a   Spooner’s giving you a little fruit wedge? (4,3)
LUMP SUM
A Spoonerism of SOME PLUM (a little fruit)

 

Down

1d    Very pissed, breaking the clock (6)
SPEEDO
SO (very), with PEED (pissed) going inside (breaking)

2d    Compiler’s commuting maybe? Not on foot (6)
IAMBUS
I AM (compiler’s) + [on] BUS (commuting maybe) without (not) ON

3d    Cistern with lid off was minging (4)
TANK
Without the fist letter (with lid off), sTANK (was minging)

4d    Employed top man at Washington Post? (4)
USED
The top man (editor) at the Washington Post might be a US ED

5d    During course of stress, middle son’s no good, then rallies (11)
STRENGTHENS
In (during course of) STRE[s]S, the middle S (son) is replaced with NG (no good) + THEN

6d    Tip for old schoolmarm out of make-up? (11)
CHROMOSOMAL
An anagram of (… out) the first letter of (tip for) Old with SCHOOLMARM

7d    At intervals, turn wheel … lap of Mull futile (9)
UNHELPFUL
Regular letters of (at intervals) tUrN wHeEl … LaP oF mUlL

9d    What fire drill’s doing at Westminster finance office? (8,5)
CLEARING HOUSE
A fire drill at Westminster might well be CLEARING (the) HOUSE

13d   Wife separating POTUS and PM on TV makes way clearer (11)
BUSHWHACKER
W (wife) in between (separating) BUSH (POTUS) and HACKER (PM on TV)

14d   Spook agent receiving shocking treatment having landed by river (11)
SPECTRALITY
SPY (agent) containing (receiving) the following: ECT (shocking treatment) next to (having) ALIT (landed) by R (river)

16d   Lie to schoolgirl doing audition? (9)
MISINFORM
Sounds like (… doing audition) MISS IN FORM (schoolgirl)

19d   I’m very surprised indeed about northbound track (2,4)
YE GODS
YES (indeed) around (about) the reversal of (northbound, in a down answer) DOG (track)

20d   Boris’s repetition accepted for now (3,3)
PRO TEM
PM (Boris) has ROTE (repetition) inside (accepted)

23d   Welsh resort‘s babbling brook? (4)
RHYL
A homophone of (babbling) RILL (brook)

24d   Characters predominantly seen working in milk float (4)
SWIM
The first letters of (characters predominantly) Seen Working In Milk

 

11 comments on “Independent 10,427 by Nimrod”

  1. Thanks to Kitty and Nimrod

    Very very good

    I think the reference to car breakdown in 15a is for surface only and there 3 defs

    I can’t see what “now” is doing in 1a.

  2. Dansar,

    I had the same reservation about the “now” in 1a.

    I agree with you about three definitions in 15a.  The question is how to split things up.  I thought it very clever that the bit I’ve underlined could simultaneously refer to two examples of “support groups”, so that’s what I went with.  It is true though that you could split the clue more discretely into the three examples; in that case “who might be contacted after breaking down?” would provide a good straight indication of the answer, with the other two parts being examples of support groups, one whimsical.

    It could also be just that “Travelling fans say who might be contacted after breaking down?” refers to the motoring group and the “AA” gives the second example.

    I’m not sure, so I’ll leave the blog as it is … for now.  I’d be interested to hear the opinions of others in the group, and perhaps the setter would like to pop in to offer his support to clear things up.  🙂

  3. A mis-spelt ‘dog’ in 1a was my downfall after the usual Nimrod struggle. I was chuffed to remember John Buchan’s name (GG of Canada), even if I had no hope in being able to parse 18a correctly. A few others similarly went in from wordplay or def and I still don’t get DEVELOPER for ‘soup’. The Nina in the Serpent from a few days ago helped with 17a. I (very lazily) parsed 15a as a triple def

    I live in hope of being able to solve and correctly parse a Nimrod/Io/Enigmatist. One day.

    Thanks to Nimrod and Kitty

  4. Thanks Nimrod and kitty

    1a massage has two spellings but dog only one.First one sorted

    6 had to be with whisky spelled like that.

    Needed check button a few times-first puzzle of the day-why did I write SPEEDY instead of SPEEDO

    I just thought of 16 as a CD covering both definitions of AA

    lazy again in t writing in CHROMOSONES instead df correctly parsing.

    So check button needed again to fix that-not having read John Buchan or even seen the film of all those steps and failing to see CHARDONNAY for white held me up more

    I was slow seeing LUMP SUM when the first word looked like LIME

    Thanks for parsing of PRO TEM.

    Thought BUSHWHACKER  was a beauty

    So an enjoyable, lengthy and not entirely clean solve.

    All in all a masterclass in the noble art of setting

  5. A lot of electronic word finding and anagram solving needed, but we got 17ac unaided as our second one in, helped, like WordPlodder, by remembering Thursday’s nina.  And we thought 17ac had to be RICHARD HANNAY from the enumeration but had it only pencilled in till almost the end because we hadn’t a clue how to parse it.  And we couldn’t parse DEVELOPER as we got hung up on the idea that a ‘Lady on the run’ could be an eloper, although we did know ‘soup’ as slang for photographic developer, having used the stuff ourselves in the days before we went digital

    Plenty to like but no obvious CoD

    Thanks, Nimrod and Kitty.

  6. V hard compared to the IO earlier this week. Bushwhacker chromosomal and priestly were all very satisfying, but mostly my head was done in. I think a support group is what you need after you’ve had a breakdown, not after you’ve broken down.
    I thought ‘on the whisky’ gave scotching, but then we need the on twice.
    I don’t understand that = HOW, can anyone give me a sentence?
    Thanks Nimrod & Kitty

  7. James@6: Collins has under ‘how’, “10 Also: as how not standard that: he told me as how the shop was closed” – but it does seem to be stretching things a bit.

  8. The ODE has a better example:

    “[relative adverb] the way in which; that: she told us how she had lived out of a suitcase for a week.”

  9. Thanks allan_c and gaufrid. I suppose that must satisfy me.

    A: ‘He told me how he had cooked the chops’

    B: ‘How had he had cooked the chops?’

    A: ‘I don’t know, on the grill, I suppose.’

    B: ‘Eh?’

  10. I like both crosswords and football however the Man U reference in 10ac is unbelievably weak – Keane was a talented but violent player from well over a decade ago; many better players of the same name: many better players in the same team

     

  11. @10 We used to sing “there’s only one Keano” when Robbie of that ilk was at Spurs (incidentally I was taken to task by one of my Irish setters [human] for defining tree as a Robbie Keane hat-trick in one of my crosswords). But I think Nimrod’s choice of Roy Keane was because there was no one more likely to wade into a melee than him. He’s still picking fights as a pundit.

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