The puzzle can be found here.
Hi everyone. Today Tyrus entertains us with a puzzle I found at the gentle end of his (his, not the!) difficulty range. Not too much political content this time either — in fact, we have a nina quoting a very non-PC character, the DCI in 20d. The show also features in the grid, plus a mention in the clues for Sam (Tyler) in 15a and a nod to the theme in 5d. I very much like these clues and also enjoyed Brad and Angelina (22a), the car having difficulty in reverse (30a) and the dance in bar naked (5d).
The SW corner being the first to give me joy, I saw “penguins” early, and “nervous” opposite emerged shortly after. The other two corners posed more difficulty and it took some time to make full sense of the nina. The original quote specifies that the nun is very small. Hunting for this took me down a long rabbit hole of video clips, which rather extended the time it took me to produce this post!
Thanks to Tyrus for the fun puzzle and the reminder of a show I enjoyed.
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 Not fantastic entertaining Duke’s circle at first — horrible experience! (6)
ORDEAL
REAL (not fantastic) containing (entertaining) D (duke) has O (circle) at first
9a Range in both directions (3)
AGA
This cooking range is a palindrome (in both directions)
10a See 23 Down
11a Surgery that’s good for swimmer (4)
OPAH
OP (surgery) + AH (that’s good). Not a cold fish
12a Lake island has bridge across, Patient A maintaining (7,3)
CASPIAN SEA
I (island) goes inside (has … across) SPAN (bridge). Around (… maintaining) this is CASE (patient) + A
13a Harriet’s underwear enthralled long-legged individual (10)
HARVESTMAN
HARMAN (Harriet) surrounds (‘s … enthralled) VEST (underwear)
15a Sam left struggling for aid (4)
ALMS
SAM L (left) anagrammed (struggling)
17a Boy brings in ‘Works of Shakespeare‘ (7)
SONNETS
SON (boy) + NETS (brings in)
19a Large half-open building is a feature of garden (7)
PERGOLA
LARGE and OP (half-OPen), anagrammed (building)
22a Brad and Angelina initially in love (4)
NAIL
The first letter of (… initially) Angelina in NIL (love)
24a Unusually debonair, one northerner (10)
ABERDONIAN
An anagram of (unusually) DEBONAIR + AN (one)
26a I’m going to charge Heather which will create resentment (3-7)
ILL-FEELING
I’LL (I’m going to) + FEE (charge) + LING (heather)
28a African people essentially keep quiet (4)
HUTU
Inner letters of (essentially) sHUT Up (keep quiet)
30a Fiat car has a little difficulty in reverse (4)
UNDO
UNO (Fiat car) contains (has … in) the first letter of (a little) Difficulty
31a Resort in South America’s quiet (3)
SPA
SA (South America) + P (quiet)
32a Kind of place in Africa that’s good to visit (6)
BENIGN
BENIN (place in Africa) containing (that’s … to visit) G (good)
Down
1d Dance in bar naked (4)
TRIP
The answer is seen in sTRIPe (bar) without its outer letter (naked)
2d Top university city worried when river’s rising (3,5)
NEW HAVEN
An anagram of (worried) WHEN, then NEVA (river) is reversed (rising)
3d Returns from setting up latest celebrity (6)
ELECTS
The answer is found in (from) the reversal of (setting up) lateST CELEbrity
4d English writer picked up pay-off (7)
RANSOME
A homophone of (picked up) RANSOM (pay-off)
5d Police ran Vice with a difference (8)
VARIANCE
Make an anagram of (police) RAN VICE with A
6d Could be no team folds (6)
OMENTA
This is an anagram of (could be) NO TEAM
7d Drive or sweep? Somerset’s opener lost (4)
URGE
[s]URGE (sweep) with S (Somerset‘s opener) gone (lost)
14d A love for prince shown in islander’s greeting (5)
ALOHA
AL[p]HA (A) with O (love) substituted for P (prince)
16d At end of term like to have time in country (5)
MALTA
After the last letter of (end of) terM, À LA (like) containing (to have … in) T (time)
18d Cross note party people penned (8)
TRAVERSE
TE (note) with RAVERS (party people) inside (penned)
20d For one about the nun, condemned DCI, not PC (4,4)
GENE HUNT
EG (for one) reversed (about), then an anagram of (… condemned) THE NUN. The non-PC DCI from 23d LIFE ON MARS; for the one about the nun see the perimeter
21d Tree in clump (a pine) gets pulled up (7)
GENIPAP
This tree is found in clumP A PINE Gets reversed (pulled up)
23d & 10a Show alien forms at work (4,2,4)
LIFE ON MARS
ALIEN FORMS anagrammed (at work)
25d Deserted since sailor toppled memorial (6)
DAGOBA
D (deserted) + AGO (since) + AB (sailor) reversed (toppled)
27d Cumbrian border — pull over and have a breather (4)
LUNG
CambriaN’s last letter (border) with LUG (pull) around it (over)
29d On rising picked up a robe (4)
TOGA
The reversal of (on rising) GOT (picked up) followed by A (from the clue)
Thanks to Tyrus for the usual entertainment. I’ve never watched Life on Mars so hadn’t heard of Gene Hunt but not difficult to piece together. I rather enjoyed the moment when the Nina became clear. Great clue for NAIL.
Lovely blog as per, dear Kitty
Thank goodness for your explanation of the unfamiliar reference! I read it as “a penguin’s hoot” and imagined a mating call.
Your version’s better, Ian SW3! I needed help on the opah fish and the dagoba memorial – never heard of either, but there’s a chance I’ll remember next time, I suppose. Also hadn’t come across d = deserted. Nail was fab.
A tough crossword with 4 entries not known to me, which I expected more of as the long nina phrase started to be revealed. It was a great payoff, humorous in its own right, and losing little compared to the original quote, so I felt delighted with the payoff. I watched every episode of that show so it was a particular delight to be reminded of it. Googling it and finding this IMDb entry reveals how much fun the writers just have had coming up with lines for Gene Hunt. Thanks to Kitty for the blog and to Tyrus for the ultimately rewarding struggle
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0994344/characters/nm0322562
didn’t entirely share Kitty’s enthusiasm.. although now I’m aware of the possible Nina effect I should probably start looking more closely… Life on Mars equally a tumbleweed moment, so 20d remained grittily unfathomable… on the other hand 12ac raised an unquestionable smile…
thanks Kitty n Tyrus
We got it all with some help. Never having seen 23/10 we only got 20dn by guesswork and googling, and the nina wouldn’t have meant anything to us even if we’d spotted it. Some new words for us (OPAH, OMENTA, GENIPAP, DAGOBA) which we had to confirm in Chambers.
All sound enough, anyway. Thanks, Tyrus and Kitty.
As you say, Kitty, surprisingly mild for a Tyrus puzzle.
But very satisfying nonetheless despite some new (or even strange) words.
A couple of days ago, Serpent was also in a friendly mood, and so the conclusion must be that last Monday’s crossword from Filbert was the Pick of the Week as to difficulty.
Like others I found NAIL (22ac) a wonderful clue, with another short one (30ac, UNDO) not far behind.
And I needed the blog to understand 1dn (TRIP).
I was probably too much distracted by the surface …….
Anyway, many thanks to Kitty (for a lovely blog) and Tyrus (for the fun).
ps, I knew about Life On Mars but never watched it.
Meaning, the theme was wasted on me (although the perimeter did actually help).
Oops.
Serpent was Basilisk this week, somewhere else.
And Monk was in the Indy a couple of days ago.
Still, Filbert won.
A lot of unknown words made this a rather too guessy solve even though we watched Life on Mars (but not to the extent that we recognised the Nina phrase). Nail was lost on us because we’d never heard of a Brad. Am I alone in being a bit annoyed by clues that use long random words to denote a letter, such as d for deserted and d for difficulty?
I really enjoyed this and spotting the edge Nina helped finish. Thanks Jim T and kitty
Not as difficult as last Saturday but it still defeated me. Got slightly over half. I was a fan of Life on Mars but didn’t spot the Nina, nor did I get 20dn.
Thanks Tyrus and Kitty
Ericw @ 9: D = Deserted is a standard military abbreviation for one of the words used as way of leaving service, along the lines of KIA, MIA etc
And ‘a little’ or ‘a bit’ of x often means the first letter. It’s a current convention, whether one likes it or not.
Some new words, 6d, 21d and 25d, for me, and I needed google for 20d and to finish off the nina in the NW corner. Then I could finish off the grid with my previously unsolved 1d and 11a. Failed to parse just 14d.
Quite a struggle, but very satisfying and well worth the effort.
Thanks JT and Kitty.
Thanks to Kitty and Tyrus
Mostly very good as always but two things I’m not at all keen on:
28a “essentially” = “however many letters suits”, is becoming the norm but I’ll never like it
“content to keep quiet”?
27d Why not “Northumbrian border”?
Many thanks to Kitty for a very nice blog and to others who commented.
Dansar @ 14
Have you come across hegdehoggy? You’d probably get along well.
A late post. Unlike some others, I found this very, very difficult and spent ages on it. Four new words, some tough parsing and the LIFE ON MARS references meant I spent a lot of time wondering “What on earth…?”. Still, rewarded at the end by a great Nina, even if I didn’t know its full significance, which also helped with my last couple in.
After last week’s and now this one, time for a gentler Saturday puzzle methinks!
Thanks to Tyrus and Kitty