We got off to a slow start on this one because we put the wrong answer in for 9ac. Once we realised our error, things fell neatly into place.
Good surfaces throughout – thanks Tyrus – always appreciated.
Tyrus usually has a theme, but when we had completed the puzzle it took us quite a while to realise that there is a Nina in the perimeter. A bit of research revealed that FRANZ STIGLER was an ace German WWII fighter pilot who risked being court-martialled by not shooting down CHARLIE BROWN’s B-17 bomber in 1943 and escorting it back to the UK. After the war Stigler moved to Canada and in 1990 the two characters met and became friends – as in 16ac. They both died in 2008.
A play on the fact that the MILKY WAY is a GALAXY but they are different chocolate bars.
AIR and AIR (looks) around TO (facing). We had EYE TO EYE at first thinking that a ‘confrontation’ could perhaps be a type of combat. However, nothing else seemed to connect with it – not surprisingly as it was totally wrong. When we recognised the Nina, we realised that it could be considered thematic.
A play on the fact that the definition for ‘ILL’ could be ‘SICK’
DUE (expected) L (first letter of lady)
T (first letter or ‘beginning’ of track) H (the ‘head’ of Holy – a ‘ lift and separate’) RILED (bothered) about L (length)
I (Italian) LO (see) PAN (attack) all reversed or ‘repelled’. We worked this out from the wordplay but checked afterwards – Napoli were the Champions in Serie A last year.
An anagram (‘suffering’) of LEGIT LAWMEN and ArE (missing the middle letter or ‘heartlessly’)
A homophone (‘discussed’) of SIN ODDS (chances of bad behaviour)
DEE (Jack Dee the comedian) around a reversal (‘pushing back’) of SIT UP (a bit of exercise)
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of ZOO LOO – ‘where animal keepers might go’. This was one of those answers I said – ‘Why is it Zulu? – and as soon as I it was said out loud, the penny dropped. No pun intended.
R (Romeo) in HEAT (state of excitement) and an anagram (‘off’) of BOTH R (right)
An anagram (‘struggling’) of SEE PLANE
hAIRIER (not as safe) missing H (hotel)
L (left) and an anagram (‘out’) of FIND in ALL (everything)
A homophone (‘sound’) of EIFFEL (engineer)
RAN (charged) round or ‘admitting’ I (one)
EN (nurse) ‘shoved in’ an anagram (‘after attack’) of CRAZED
Double definition
rAIDEr (attacker) missing first and last letters or ‘unprotected’
ALLAY (drive off) around T (town) HEW (hack)
DAD (old fellow) with RE (on) inside or ‘entering’
LONGS (wants) + ORE (deposit) after H (home)
We think this must be: CHIEF (prime) with M (Minister) IS first – but we can’t find M as an abbreviation for Minister – is ‘at first’ doing double duty?
An anagram (‘may be’) of ANOTHER I (one). Winston Smith was the fictional antihero in George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’
jOCULAR (humorous) missing first letter or ‘not front cover’
IT’S in PAW (hand)
Hidden in (‘ingested by’) creatURE Allegedly
stAMEN (male organ in a flower) without or ‘short of’ ‘st’ (street – ‘way’)
Thanks Tyrus and B&J!
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog!
Liked AIR-TO-AIR (took the same route as the bloggers), ILL-DEFINED, ZULU, ALL THE WAY (Had to look up ‘Go ALL THE WAY’ for any ‘other’ meaning) and ANTIHERO.
MINISTER
With CHIEF, MIS could be taken as MISCHIEF without using the ‘at first’ again, I think.
Hardest standard cryptic I have done in months. Way over an hour’s solving time – with thesaurus help too. Not sure about some of the clues. But will reread clues and blog and see if it was me or Setter
Obviously I missed the Nina. But not surprised by that
thanks B&J, & Tyrus
Re Mischief I parsed as per KVa.
I prefer Blog’s parsing of ill-defined to mine (which was very weak); I had “that is” giving defined – as in defining by showing an example.
Good old fashioned groans from Zulu ( do like bad homophones) and Galaxy.
Thanks both. I parsed MISCHIEF as M being ‘minister at first’ then ‘is’ all being with chief for ‘prime’. The Nina which I saw forming and researched helped the eventual at one time unlikely solve, my only issue being DREAD for feared rather than fear – I see it can mean a feared thing, but can it mean feared? No doubt it is me lacking and not the clue….
Parsed MISCHIEF as all the above did. I wondered about “dread” = “feared” but felt they could work as adjectives. The dread/feared spectre of death. Does this work?
Long convoluted solve heading toward infinity before spotting the Nina! Pleased to get over the line..
Retrospectively I feel I enjoyed the Nina the most.. both spotting it, and the remarkable story
Thanks Tyrus n Bertandjoyce
Well, I got nearer to finishing this than I thought I was going to, but I’ve spent enough time on it and I have other things to do now.
Thanks to B&J for the blog and to others for their comments.
Thanks also to Franz and Charlie without whom the puzzle could not have happened.
Thank you Tyrus and B&J – I needed a couple of reveals to get to the end, and did not see the Nina until told about it – obviously it’s too long since I last did a Tyrus. Very tough but therefore also very satisfying.
Tough, yes, but not nearly as tough as Thursday’s Vlad – or maybe that’s just me. Anyway, I find Tyrus always tempers the difficulty with a sense of fun, so solving is never a chore. Thanks, Tyrus and B&J!
Hovis @5 – yes, I had similar thoughts re DREAD.