Oh Dear! No doubt you have come here to check the parsings of those clues you struggled with. Well, we have to
apologise. It’s not often that we have such difficulty but if we do, you can bet it was a Nimrod puzzle that defeated us.
We really would appreciate some help with the clues below. There are some that we cannot even work out which is the definition! Hopefully someone will come to our rescue.
Having said all that, we enjoyed what we did solve and parse. Just filling in all the blank spaces gives us a sense of achievement but there’s always that niggle when you can’t work out what is going through the setter’s mind.
A URE (northern river or ‘banker’) inside or ‘oppressed by’ MEN (counter parts to females – Maureen is an example of one)
An anagram of cOE USING without C (first letter or ‘opening’ to Chariots) – anagrind is ‘manoeuvres’
VET (to check) after LEV (Bulgarian currency) – reversed or ‘returned’. However, it feels as if we need another reversal indicator. If you won a bet in Sofia you would get a ‘return’ from your bet in LEV. Any thoughts please? We had to check the definition as we had no idea that ‘velvet’ was slang for gains or winnings.
HELD (thought) about METE (limit). This was one of those clues that we had trouble parsing again when we came to write up the blog!
A play on the fact that if the PIER ROTS you wouldn’t have any seaside entertainers
An anagram of A REP TO YORK – of course you all were aware that a a prokaryote is an organism (usually unicellular) that has no nucleus containing its chromosomes. Its DNA is found instead lying freely in the cytoplasm.
FAIRE (make in French) NOUGHt (zero or love) missing last letter or ‘endless’
A play on the fact that Alan SUGAR hosts the Apprentice so if a hitman wanted to stop the programme he may have a plan of ICING (killing) Alan SUGAR.
Sounds like AIR (manner) with the ‘of speaking’ as the homophone indicator
An anagram of OK PUD WE CASED IN – anagrind is ‘nuts’. How do you parse this and what is the definition? It feels as though it should be a clue as definition but it isn’t one. Upside-down cakes have nothing to do with Nebraska, New England or the North East (all NE) from what we can find out and they don’t normally have nuts in them. HELP!
Our last one in and we had to cheat to check that we had the correct answer. We have no idea what the definition is though, how it is parsed or actually any clue whatsoever apart from the devilish clue that Nimrod has given us. We hope someone out there can enlighten us. No doubt most of you scrolled down here to find out how it was parsed. Sorry, we cannot help you! Joyce was just drying her hair when inspiration struck. Having typed in various anagrams she realised that MOON BREW with ‘bad’ an anagrind gave you NEW BROOM (3,5) which gives you SWEEPING CHANGES………….. PHEW! Back now to finish drying hair, hoping for further enlightenment.
Hidden or ‘a series’ in scoRES ULTimately. A clue as definition.
OUR AGE (now) after or ‘getting laid out by’ C (coke)
An anagram of ACE CERAMICS – anagrind is ‘muddling order up’. We had to check this, as we didn’t know the alternative name for the competition.
This must have something to do with 22/26 but whatever it is, defeats us. We only managed to solve this when we had all the crossing letters. It has something to do with ‘bettering’ a ‘rival’s product’, but we can’t see the connection to what is ‘shown up here’.
Hidden or ‘bottled’ in refusES TO Provide
GOLD (metal) AMIR (ruler) around or ‘catching’ E (last letter or ‘rear’ of square)
An anagram of VERSES TO RHYME NO – anagrind is ‘deviating’
Alternate letters or ‘regularly visited’ in cUrAtE
WHO (23d) IN G (good) CO (company) UGH (it’s horrid) around or ‘nursing’ OP (work). Not sure why it’s just a worry for Mum – we would have thought either parent would be worried.
TAG (fix insignia to uniform) ELLE (French woman) around or being ‘cut by’ TAIL (end) reversed or ‘up’
I (one) NETS (takes home) reversed or ‘after raise’ IN inside or ‘packeted by’ FAG (cigarette)
Hidden or ‘introduced’ in CorbyN OR THe – There seems to be a second definition in the 18th century Prime Minister, Lord Frederick NORTH.
Initial letters or ‘tips’ to On His Word – reversed or ‘pulled up’
Thanks B&J. GATEAU is hidden upside-down in the NE of the grid. I couldn’t see anything more than you in VELVET. The engineer is reversed (up) in hERe is how I read REVERSE-ENGINEER. One little correction: A(ce) CERAMICS* UP.
Don’t think “return” needs to be a double duty in 10a. LEV could be “bet in Sofia”, you bet money after all. I wondered about parsing 3d via hERe but don’t like it. If it said “in here”, I would be more likely to accept it. Failed to parse SWEEPING CHANGES and missed HEIR altogether.
I really enjoyed this rare sighting of Nimrod – quite a lot of it was on the ‘who are you and what have you done with John?’ difficulty level but as usual he wasn’t going to let us get away that easily.
I agree with Hovis about the reversal of the money you’d use to put on a bet with in Sofia. I think 3d does refer to the reverse Royal Engineer in hERe. I particularly liked 12/21, 17a and 14d
Thanks to Nimrod and B&J
Thanks B&J
NeilW @1 has nailed 19/15 but I cannot agree with his suggestion for 3dn. The ‘shown up here’ refers to row 1 where you will find REENIGNE.
“No doubt you have come here to check the parsings of those clues you struggled with“.
Well, indeed!
I got it all, something that’s very rare when I tackle a Nimrod crossword.
But I did not understand 19/15.
Kudos to NeilW for explaining Nimrod’s clever little trick.
And, yes, I thought 3d was [h]ER[e] reversed but like Hovis I didn’t like it.
As surely RE is shown up in ‘here’ – too minimal for me.
But then there was Gaufrid, pointing at another one of Nimrod’s clever little tricks!
All in all, very enjoyable and I’m proud of myself (after I was going nowhere, initially)! 🙂
Many thanks to Bertandjoyce and Nimrod.
Thanks, Gaufrid. Having seen GATEAU, I really should have been a bit less lazy!
Too hard for us, requiring a lot of cheating and guesses with no parsing. All very clever just not much fun!
I liked the clue within a clue (NEW BROOM) I only twigged when I saw what the answer must be,He is my favourite setter-tough but fair and witty.He wants you to get it so you cnn share the joke but he leads you uo the garden path to get there. Thanks all!
Thanks Gaufrid. The stupid thing is I actually looked for ENGINEER< but only in the lightless rows and columns. When I eventually spotted GATEAU< , I still didn’t think to look further. Rats!
Thanks Nimrod, B&J
Got all the answers, with SWEEPING CHANGES the only one I couldn’t fathom. I just about sussed that we needed an anagram of moon brew, but got the hump at that point and left it. I don’t think it’s fair; is ‘as effected’ the definition? There are lots of ways of splitting moon brew (3,5) of which ‘rob women’ and ‘won ombre’ are two that make sense, even if they wouldn’t qualify as solutions, and without a clear definition, how to know what to look for?
But, very pleased that I saw gateau from the UAE T___ which help me get TAGLIATELLE, and then also saw the reverse engineer, which helped me get loi MAUREEN when I was thoroughly stuck.
Isn’t there a superfluous A or possibly I in the clue for FASTENING?
5ac: I remember watching Seb Coe and Steve Cram doing the Trinity Great Court Run as featured in Chariots of Fire on telly in the 80’s.
James@10 Looking again, we think you are correct about the extra I (one) in FASTENING.
Thanks B&J, and to Neil W and Gaufrid too for explaining 3dn and 19/15.
There seems to be a problem with 16dn though. The parsing given [(I NETS)rev., in FAG] is short of an N. I have tried using the word ‘in’ from the clue as part of the insertion [(I NETS)rev. IN, in FAG], but that gives an extra I.
Any better suggestions out there?
Actually, the def must be ‘zip one’, as it’s an example
Didn’t notice the parsing of 16d in blog differed from mine. I took the “one” to refer to “a solver of the puzzle”
Thanks James. That explains it, with the correct parsing then being [NETS(rev.) IN, in FAG].
And apologies for the extra space below my previous comment – not sure why that happened (will it happen again?).
For anyone not done in by this, there’s a fantastic NTSPP puzzle today:
http://crypticcrosswords.net/puzzles/not-the-saturday-prize-puzzles/ntspp-533/
Phew! Got it all with copious help (but no actual cheating, i.e. looking up the answer) and without understanding half the parsings.
Thanks, Nimrod and especially B&J and anyone else who’s contributed.
Very tough. Had to use the check button a lot and 1ac totally defeated me.
Failed on only 1a, don’t know very many English rivers. Had I parsed 3d, I’d may possibly have got it. Also failed to parse HELMETED, UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE, SWEEPING CHANGES, and COURAGE, so I didn’t do very well here.
Thanks all. Unbelievably, I looked for an upside down cake in the NE corner of the grid, found “tea”, and left it at that. Didn’t have the foggiest where 3d came from and still not sure I entirely understand it. Reverse engineering in itself isn’t bettering a rival’s product, although that could be one reason for doing it.