So here we are again, the calendar has turned and I have landed a Saturday Nimrod
When tackling it I didn’t bother to time myself, I knew it would take ages. It definitely feels like I’m getting slower. I was more concerned with actually solving the thing. I tried all the long answers first – that was a bit too hopeful – not just the perimeter but the long double light across clues too. No joy. Nothing doing till I got to 11 which it turned out was a lovely way to start.
I noted the first pass at about an hour, the whole thing must’ve been upwards of 2.
In fact I got the letters in the grid in one very long sitting, but with many clues unparsed. I took a break before trying again to understand those fully expecting I would find some wrong answers, but I didn’t find anything better. (I would not be surprised if some are wrong.) The list of un-(fully)-parsed clues is below. So there may still be something better.
On the way there were some lovely clues that provided those feel-good PDMs that we all do it for.
Here’s my favourites list:
9 10 11 12 22 1d 2
Of these I nominate 1d as my top clue, definitely the right answer and a big sigh of relief when I got it, and also for the clutch of first letters for other lights it delivered. However, I still include it in the “not fully parsed wordplay” list – it seems to be a “Grieg’s 1st Piano Concerto” of a clue – all the right letters, not necessarily in the right order, I must be missing something.
Clues with wordplay I cannot fathom
Across 17/19 21 25
Down 1 7 8 15
Some more opaque than others
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | HYMN TO THE FALLEN | Potential national anthem encapsulating the folly in conflict (4,2,3,6) (N[ational] ANTHEM THE FOLLY)* AInd: in conflict. &Lit When I finally deduced this, from several crossing letters and the anagram fodder, I assumed it was an age-old Hymn. But now I’ve looked it up I find it is relatively recent – by John Williams for the 1998 film “Saving Private Ryan” |
| 9 | ULT | Awful toys unwrapped in December (3) Hidden in awfUL Toys. Unwrapped works nicely given we must remove 3 letters from each end of the phrase. December is the ultimate month, and was indeed that for too many people |
| 10 | UNDER ARREST | Bloody Duke, repelled in rebellion, apprehended (5,6) RARE (bloody) D[uke] reversed (repelled) inside UNREST (rebellion). Really tight wordplay that was a pleasure to parse. I wondered about various Dukes and which were the bloodiest before concentrating on the definition |
| 11 | GROCERY | Grand centrepiece missing from garden shop (7) G[rand] ROC[k]ERY. First one in with a sigh of relief after drawing a blank on all the long clues |
| 12 | IMPASTO | Nimrod’s too old for love and laying it on thick (7) I’M (Nimrod’s) PAST O (too old for love) |
| 14/16 | ASCENDING AORTA | Blood carrier somehow contains drainage, one in drops (9,5) (CONTAINS DRAINAGE – IN)* AInd: somehow. Started out thinking the definition was at the end of the clue I found myself considering Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain, and how genes carry ones bloodline. Unsurprisingly I had to clear my head before looking at the clue another way. Wiki link on this bit of tubing which I had to grind out of the anagram fodder. |
| 17/19 | SWORD-AND-SANDAL | In moments that pass too briefly, news of Spartacus? (5-3-6) WORD (news) inside SAND and SAND (Sands as in Sands of time that pass too briefly) but I cannot account for the final “AL” Spartacus is a classic 60s “Sword and Sandal” film by Stanley Kubrick. 60 years ago indeed |
| 21 | IN SMALL | Diminutive Sergeant-Major coming to barracks (2,5) If the answer is right it means Diminutive right enough, and S[ergeant-]M[ajor] is there providing the SM, but I do not see how “coming to barracks” might mean including them in “IN ALL” |
| 22 | ROOTLET | Recalled from Hotel to organise minor branch (7) Hidden rev. in hoTEL TO ORganise |
| 23 | UNALIENABLE | Restricting sodium, scribbled a blue line which cannot be removed (11) NA (Sodium) inside (A BLUE LINE)* AInd: scribble. |
| 25 | TOE | Just five letters and a digit (3) A toe is a digit – that’s all I’ve got – it’s just 3 letters, not 5. This is my least understood clue in the puzzle |
| 26 | EARLY-CLOSING DAY | Now trading has ceased prematurely, rebrand as Lily Grey and Co (5-7,3) (AS LILY GREY AND CO)* AInd: rebrand. First of the long lights to be solved and a big pat on the back from me to me because I didn’t have any crossing letters to help (in truth, the letter count was a bit of a give away) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | HOURGLASS FIGURE | Hotel gym’s opening: the girl we brought up has to work out to maintain it? (9,6) H[otel] G[ym] OUR LASS (the girl we brought up) FIGURE (to work out). All the pieces of the answer are there – not necessarily in the right order. How does OUR get above the G? |
| 2 | MUTTON CHOPS | Add up boxes circulating top-notch features (6,5) SUM reversed (add, up) around (boxes) (TOP NOTCH)* AInd: circulating. |
| 3 | TAUREAN | “Frisky nature” describes a spring newborn (7) (NATURE + A)* AInd: frisky. Born Apr19 – May 20 i.e. born in the spring |
| 4 | TODAY | Certainly on one’s own this time (5) TOD (on one’s own, as in “on one’s tod”) AY (certainly) I had “TRULY” pencilled in and un-parsed, for some time, which didn’t help in solving 10a. |
| 5 | EARWIGGED | Listened in fearful awe, prepared to bury head (9) (AWE)* AInd: fearful, making EAW, with the R (head) from RIGGED (prepared) shifted so that it is buried inside EAW |
| 6 | AGRIPPA | Roman general who’s keeping people enthralled in the auditorium? (7) Homophone “A gripper” an enthralling person. HInd: in the auditorium, i.e. spoken |
| 7 | LIE | Press put out fake news? (3) Fake news is a Lie, but the start of the clue wordplay eludes me |
| 8 | NATIONAL LOTTERY | Yet more playing on it, one sharing out cuts (8,7) Another &Lit (ON IT)* AInd: playing, delivers TION, then ALLOTTER (one sharing out), all inside (cuts) NAY (yet more – in a kind of Shakespearean sense, I think) |
| 13 | STRIDULATED | Having flipped, turtle did as cricket did? (11) (TURTLE DID AS)* AInd: flipped. Crickets are famous stridulators |
| 15 | IVAN LENDL | Wimbledon’s finalist – not No.1 – lived frustrated with lawn game (4,5) (LIVED + LAWN – W)* with the removed W from not No.1 (of Wimbledon), but that needs another N. If it were (N[ot] LIVED LAWN)* it has no way to lose the W. I’m confused. Either way AInd: frustrated. |
| 18 | DUALITY | In service, floater and stinger leading a double life (7) DUTY (service) around ALI (floater “float like a butterfly” and stinger “like a bee”) |
| 20 | APOGEAN | Self-esteem given a boost being received by a god of the highest order (7) EGO< (self-esteem, up – boosted) inside A PAN (a god) |
| 22 | REBUS | Something you might find puzzling on public transport (5) RE (on) BUS (public transport) |
| 24 | AYR | This port is warm and dry, did you say? (3) Homophone “air” |
For 21a, I took IN ALL to mean COMING TO in the sense of a sum with “barracks” denoting the inclusion.
For 25a, I have TO E as the first 5 letters of the alphabet.
For 1d, I can’t see how to parse it without “opening” doing double duty. Opening letter for GYM and as an inclusion indicator.
For 7d, I took it as a double definition, “press” and “put out fake news”.
Had the same problem with AL in 17/19 and couldn’t understand the NAY bit of 8d
Oh, and for 15d, I took it as an &lit, with Wimbledon’s finalist giving the N to replace the W (not No. 1).
Tough!
For 25ac, we had TOE as the first five letters of the alphabet, i.e. the letters to E.
In 1dn, we thought the “has” in the clue could mean that the OUR LASS contains the G from gym.
In 15dn, we took the “Wimbledon’s finalist – not No. 1” to mean that an N (the last letter of Wimbledon) is included and a W (the first letter of Wimbledon) is excluded from LIVED LAWN to form the anagram. Also, didn’t Lendl reach the Wimbledon final a couple of times without winning the title, as hinted at by the clue?
Can’t add anything on 17/19ac or 21ac. We didn’t even know the term “IN SMALL”.
Hadn’t seen the device in 5d before, but liked it!
Thanks to Nimrod and beermagnet.
The usual sinking feeling on seeing the setter’s name at the top of the puzzle. Maybe not his hardest, but still very challenging and the expected few I couldn’t parse either – IN SMALL, IVAN LENDL and LIE – and one new and unparsed term in SWORD-AND-SANDAL.
Maybe a bit unsatisfying in not being able to parse everything, but I was happy enough in eventually seeing everything ending up in the right place anyway.
Thanks to Nimrod and beermagnet
The best I could do with the Spartacus one was “pass too briefly” is “pass=allow “ but briefly is AL . Not convinced!
Really enjoyed Taurean as it confused me for ages
Thanks Nimrod and Beermagnet
DavidO @3. I think you are right about 1d. Hope somebody can give an explanation for SWORD-AND-SANDAL.
Just a passing thought. Given that it is a Nimrod, could AL be ALso (too briefly)?
I prefer Hovis’ AL suggestion to mine!
Perhaps AL(l)too briefly.
I think Sword-and-sandal is word (news) in sands (moments that pass) + and al(l) (too briefly).
Interestingly I always say ‘oh good’ when I see Nimrod’s name at the top of a crossword, although whether I’d say that if I had to blog it would be a different matter!
“Sword and Sandal” refers to a genre of books or films relating fantasy-adventure tales involving heroic exploits in ancient or biblical times, Spartacus being an example of such a film
Thanks to Nimrod for the enjoyable mangling and also to Beermagnet for sorting it all out
1d H + OUR LASS FIGURE to maintain G (it)
Thanks Nimrod, and beermagnet for unravelling all the long anagrams.
1d was a beauty, also enjoyed the description of poor old Lendl.
Not having ever heard of sword-and-sandal I must rely on wikipedia, which says that Spartacus is not part of the genre. Rather, it consists of (generally European) B-movies based on Hollywood films like Spartacus. Whatevs.
The blog has no definition marked for UNALIENABLE.
Thanks to all for sorting out the stuff I missed.
The only one I feel is a bad miss from me is the N for W from “Wimbledon – Not No. 1”
Is there still some doubt over the final AL in SWORD-AND-SANDAL?
I prefer Hovis’s suggestion at #7 “too, briefly” giving AL[so].
Interesting that Spartacus is officially NOT classified as a S-and-S film, Thanks for pointing that out James (here is the Wiki)
I have now underlined the def. in 23A UNALIENABLE
To clarify, I was referring to the expression “and all”, commonly used to mean “too”, not “all” on its own. E.g. “You took 2 hours? I was a bit slow an’ all.”
I don’t really see how any other parsing works
First puzzle of the day for me. i went looking for simple but witty clues like AGRIPPA to start/ Then TAUREAN, IMPASTO then cracked first anagrind “EARLY CLOSING DAY”
I dont time myself esp with Nimrod but I had to go out midway/
Nimrod is a good excuse for an early beer not to mention use of One Look( I hadnt heard of SWORD AND SANDAL). So a leisurely and enjoyable solve
As one fellow solver (and friend of Nimrod) put it “When you see his name on the puzzle its a mixture of Yippee and Holy xxxxx”
Thanks JH and beermagnet for blog
Herb @10,15. Yes, I think you have it. A quick check in Chambers has SANDS for moments of time and AND ALL meaning “as well as the rest” = too.
tough.. parsing was definitely a general issue… but some were not just guessed.. some normal clues like 20dn for instance.. and a couple of decent anagrams when I could see them..
thanks Nimrod and beermagnet
Too many questions left unanswered for it to be enjoyable.
It always seems worth having a go at JH in all his guises but it also always leaves me questioning my decision.
Thanks Beermagnet. After my first run through I had IMPASTO,
ROOTLET and STRIDULATE – which had me worrying how obscure the rest were going to be (brought back memories of tackling Bunthorne all those years ago). However, after an hour or so I’d filled in the grid and more or less parsed them all, but needed the blog for confirmation in a lot of places. I saw 17/19 in the same way as Herb, with SANDS and AND AL(l).
Thanks to Nimrod for a (thankfully) rare treat.
I was going to write “it’s been a long time since I had to give up on a puzzle with less than half the grid filled in” – and then I find it’s actually been precisely 48 days. Since Nimrod’s last outing. I said then I think I’ve found my level. Rather like my skiing: I can handle any red run on the mountain with safety, pleasure and even a degree of style! Put me on a black run and I can pretty much guarantee a wipe out. And the times when I’m not picking myself up out of the snow, I’m stumbling, wobbling, wishing I hadn’t started, looking for a way off the hill… And I generally end up trudging shamefacedly down with my skis on my shoulder. And so it was today.
I did get GROCERY. My COTD is … GROCERY.
Thanks Nimrod and beermagnet.
Hope you’re not too piste off.
Somehow managed to finish this with many of the same questions as beermagnet. I would never have seen “sands” as moments of time and didn’t understand “in small” at all — thanks to Hovis for explaining! Also could not see “nay” = “yet more”, although of course it does. This was all extremely clever but I take my hat off to anyone who solved it from wordplay rather than parsing at the end. Congratulations to beermagnet for blogging this one, and to Nimrod for providing the challenge.
If it’s Nimrod you probably know what you’ll get.
Well, I know it.
Five clues that will offer relatively easy entries into grid, another five clues that I find by either guessing and/or based on half of the correct parsing.
Many other answers then go in because ‘it has to be it’ with proper parsing afterwards.
And I’ll usually end up with a handful that really go beyond me.
(using dictionaries etc doesn’t feel like losing to me, so for me that’s part of the game here too)
I was surprised to find that today the only one I couldn’t parse at all was 17/19ac – the only one.
I can’t say Nimrod is my all-time favourite setter but everything was totally fair, wasn’t it?
Clever and challenging.
After starting a puzzle like this I just don’t want to give up.
And I didn’t – glad I didn’t.
Many thanks to beermagnet & Nimrod.
Just got round to Nimrod this afternoon, and finished it tonight.
I parsed 17/19 the same way as Herb, with WORD in SANDS AND AL(L).
Couldn’t see where NAY came from in 8d. I’ll admit to having used Chambers word finder and an anagram finder, which I find are essential tools for me when faced with any of JH’s puzzles.