Nitsy gets the week off to a pleasant start.
This is a setter I’m not hugely familiar with – I see their last outing in the Independent was about a year ago, though they also set as Flimsy for the FT (ah, and I now see Flimsy has also set today’s FT puzzle).
Anyway, I found this a very neat and amenable puzzle. Ticks for the use of the split infinitive in SPLIT INFINITIVE, the rather nasty-sounding gin/ouzo cocktail for INCOGNITO, the pleasingly concise clue for ABRIDGE (source of much misery for us old hacks) and the delightful RACEHORSE. Many thanks to Nitsy.
Moh’s wildly subjective cruciverbial hardness rating: Gypsum
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HERO |
Champion‘s returned or come again? (4)
|
| Reversal (returned) of OR + EH (come again?) | ||
| 3 | CHOP-CHOP |
Children work doubly quick (4-4)
|
| CH + OP twice | ||
| 9 | SPLIT INFINITIVE |
If inn spilt it recklessly, I have to really complain, perhaps (5,10)
|
| Anagram (recklessly) of IF INN SPILT IT + I’VE | ||
| 11 | INCOGNITO |
Secretly mixed gin and tonic with last bit of ouzo (9)
|
| Anagram (mixed) of GIN TONIC + ouz[O] | ||
| 12 | ACHE |
Craving Australian cheese? Not half! (4)
|
| A + CHE[ese] | ||
| 13 | ABRIDGE |
Cross after article’s cut (7)
|
| BRIDGE (cross, as a verb) after A | ||
| 15 | SWEDES |
Vegetables we had kept in shed, oddly small (6)
|
| Insertion (kept in) of WE’D in odd letters of ShEd + S | ||
| 17 | SCARED |
Frightened about entering South Africa with communist (6)
|
| C (about) inside S[outh] A[frica] + RED | ||
| 19 | TROUSER |
Appropriate short garment (7)
|
| TROUSER[s] without the S | ||
| 20 | CHIC |
Young bird – king leaves with it (4)
|
| CHIC[k] minus K (king leaves) | ||
| 21 | TAPE DECKS |
Tense animal knocks down recording equipment (4,5)
|
| T + APE + DECKS | ||
| 24 | VIRGINIA CREEPER |
Unsteadily grip ice, a nervier climber (8,7)
|
| Anagram (unsteadily) of GRIP ICE A NERVIER | ||
| 25 | MEEKNESS |
Shout of alarm by knight in tight spot showing submission (8)
|
| Insertion of EEK + N (chess notation for a knight) into MESS | ||
| 26 | CEDE |
Hand over chapter before editor expects, initially (4)
|
| C (chapter) + ED + E (expects initially) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HOSPITAL |
Where you might find doctors from America enthralled by effervescent Hot Lips (8)
|
| Insertion (enthralled by) of A[merica] inside anagram (effervescent) of HOT LIPS | ||
| 2 | RELIC |
Priest breaking Roman Catholic object considered sacred (5)
|
| ELI (priest) inside RC | ||
| 4 | HEINOUS |
Shocking the man wearing old uniform as top’s removed (7)
|
| HE (the man) + IN (wearing) O + U (uniform in the Nato phonetic alphabet) + S (aS without its top) | ||
| 5 | PRIVATE SOLDIER |
Terribly evil predator is fighting man (7,7)
|
| Anagram (terribly) of EVIL PREDATOR IS | ||
| 6 | HEIGHTENS |
Waving the sign he raises (9)
|
| Anagram (waving) of THE SIGN HE | ||
| 7 | PHEW |
Sigh of relief not many heard (4)
|
| Soundalike of ‘few’ | ||
| 8 | STAGE DIRECTION |
Actor might be given this part with sense of purpose (5,9)
|
| STAGE (part) + DIRECTION (sense of purpose) | ||
| 10 | NOISE |
Rhino is emitting gripping sound (5)
|
| Hidden (gripping) in rhiNO IS Emitting | ||
| 14 | RACEHORSE |
Reaches for crackers, ignoring female’s quick nag? (9)
|
| Anagram (crackers) of REACHES [f]OR without the F | ||
| 16 | PRESERVE |
Keep parking next to store (8)
|
| P + RESERVE | ||
| 18 | DETAILS |
Features of French dogs (7)
|
| DE (of French) + TAILS | ||
| 19 | TOPIC |
Theme in music I potentially picked up (5)
|
| Hidden reversal (in…. picked up) in musiC I POTentially | ||
| 22 | COPSE |
Manage crossing second thicket (5)
|
| Insertion (crossing) of S in COPE | ||
| 23 | OVUM |
Egg on volunteers using motivation, primarily (4)
|
| Initial letters of On Volunteers Using Motivation |
A quick and pleasant solve. Thanks Nitsy.
Good blog. Thanks MoH.
Liked SPLIT INFINITIVE and RACEHORSE.
One question:
COPSE
Isn’t manage=COPE with?
A light delight to start the week!
RACEHORSE was my favourite of many ticked clues.
KVa @1: how about “how do you cope/manage”?
Many thanks to Nitsy and to MOH.
RabbitDave @2, yes, that’s how I read it too, though of course KVa is right to say that it’s often/usually? paired with ‘with’.
Agree with ‘neat and amenable’. My top clue is TROUSER for the ‘short garment’. KVa @1 ‘cope’ is used as an intransitive verb when the context makes the object clear, (I can’t cope anymore) but it is almost always followed by ‘with’ when referring to a specific difficulty (I can’t cope with life anymore). I think a native speaker would get that without the grammar lesson, but hope that helps.
Interesting in 9ac that the “to”, which forms “have to” (ie must) in the surface, needs to be ‘borrowed’ to form the infinitive.
Very quick this morning. SPLIT INFINITIVE, my fave. A quick glance at 225 suggests Nitsy produces one a year for the Indy at about this time in the early Autumn.
Thanks both
Rabbit Dave@2 and moh@3
COPSE
Thanks for your response.
I am not sure a transitive verb could clue an intransitive verb in the solution.
Many setters do it. So it must be acceptable.
sofamore@3
Thanks for your grammar lesson.
COPSE
I got it. Query withdrawn.
Nitsy/Flimsy also sets weekly for the Daily Telegraph, usually every Tuesday.
Good to see Nitsy again. Easy solve but that’s not a bad thing after a run of absolute brain busters I’ve tried recently, Thanks MOH and for getting it posted with the on going issues the site is having.
Easy enough but loved some of the evocative surfaces, particularly 11a, 12a, 20a .
Well, my comment was there and now it’s gone – did I contravene a rule somewhere along the way? Anyway, I just want to reiterate that I really enjoyed the puzzle and the memories 1d conjured up of Hot Lips Houlihan et al in MASH. My other ticks went to PHEW & DETAILS – neither of them the most difficult of clues but certainly a couple of the funniest.
Many thanks to Nitsy aka Mr Plumb and to MOH for the review.
Great fun, not the hardest but SPLIT INFINITIVE took an age to work out. I think that was my favourite clue today.
Nitsy does love an anagram although INCOGNITO and RACEHORSE were very clever.
Was going to have a moan about CHEddar having more than half taken off but the obvious came to me. Doh!
Thanks Nitsy and MOH
RACEHORSE, ICOGNITO and the wonderful SPLIT INFINITIVE were my faves today, all anagrams as Staticman1 says, which normally aren’t my favourite clues, but all done excellently. The “to” bit which grantinfreo@5 mentions was my favourite part of the clue for SPLIT INFINITIVE and what makes that my pick of the day.
Thanks both
A pleasure to solve. My last one was MEEKNESS; the M_E pattern at the start threw me off, and I’m not sure why it took me a long time to suspect that the answer may end in -NESS. Thanks both!