Our last Nimrod blog was back in April. We needed help with one of the parsings then and surprise, surprise we need help again today.
There were some long answers which on first glance seemed to be anagrams, but on closer inspection you realised that they weren’t quite that straightforward – but that’s what we expect from Nimrod anyway. 1ac went in very late after we had most of the crossing letters and was our last one to parse – after the rest of the puzzle was complete.
We have only one silly idea for the parsing of 16d, so help there would be much appreciated. We’re also puzzled by 22ac. We’ve had it suggested that SET is ‘ready to cover’ in the sense of laying a table which would make some sense but seems rather awkward.
25ac raised a smile after we realised it wasn’t SECURITY TAG. UR was there for the ancient city but we couldn’t sort out the rest of the parsing. Treasury tags were once very common – brought back some memories as did the Australian in 3d.
Joyce used to teach Basic Skills (amongst other things) and tried to remember how she helped one of her adult students, who was a care worker, the correct spelling of the second word in 14ac which used mneumonics. Her student was fed up writing that one of the residents had a ‘touch of the runs’ rather than the correct term. Unfortunately we had to resort to Chambers!
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | Rasher gnarl? (8,3,4) | |
| THINKING OUT LOUD | Sounds like (OUT LOUD) RATIONALE (THINKING). Bert has been compiling crosswords (mainly for friends and family) for a while and was advised (by a setter) that using homonyms as definitions was not acceptable. He really liked the clue that he had compiled and we both like this one – it raised a smile when Bert suddenly realised the parsing. | |
| 9 | “New York Times” quote, out of “Time” (6,5) | |
| EMPIRE STATE | We think that this is |
|
| 10 | Quite a few late-night shows (3) | |
| TEN | Hidden or ‘shown’ in ‘laTE-Night’ | |
| 11 | Resting place of people past (3-2) | |
| LAY-BY | LAY (of people) BY (past) | |
| 12 | Redesigning BBC logo, I’m giving malicious instructions (5,4) | |
| LOGIC BOMB | An anagram of BBC LOGO I’M (anagrind is ‘redesigning’) | |
| 14 | Blathering Blair overheard by aides, brushing off that fateful day? (6,9) | |
| VERBAL DIARRHOEA | An anagram of BLAIR OVERHEARD (anagrind is ‘blathering’) by A |
|
| 17 | British people, previously sickly in appearance, saying Mass? (5-4-6) | |
| SPEAK YOUR WEIGHT | If we have the parsing correct, this is not our most favourite clue. We can only come up with OUR (British) WE (people) after PEAKY (sickly) in SIGHT (appearance) | |
| 20 | Does it pick up those on a criminal charge? (5,4) | |
| RADAR TRAP | A play on the fact that if a driver is ‘charging’ along, a RADAR TRAP might pick them up performing this criminal activity | |
| 22 | Electrical engineer ready to cover one lecturer on return (5) | |
| TESLA | We have SET (ready) and A (one) L (lecturer). We have each of them reversed or ‘returning’ but what part is ‘cover’ playing? | |
| 24 | Hooter needed for how long? That’s too long (3) | |
| OWL | Hidden in ‘hOW Long’ | |
| 25 | I attach a strategy for developing extra ancient city (8,3) | |
| TREASURY TAG | An anagram of A STRATEGY plus UR (ancient city) – anagrind is ‘developing’ | |
| 26 | Actress among four dancers performing legend from the East (7,2,2,4) | |
| FRANCES DE LA TOUR | An anagram of FOUR DANCERS (anagrind is ‘performing’) with TALE (legend) reversed or ‘from the East’ inside or ‘among’ | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | Awful Roosevelt gaffe: he’s half admitted battle’s about to commence (3,6,3,3) | |
| THE GLOVES ARE OFF | An anagram of ROOSEVELT GAFFE around H (half of ‘he’) – anagrind is ‘awful’ | |
| 2 | Easily heading off express, but not by direct route (5) | |
| IMPLY | ||
| 3 | How many million people could this sports revolutionary get into SW Ireland? (5,6) | |
| KERRY PACKER | Well……. we thought about SW Ireland and KERRY came to mind very quickly. We still remembered the Australian who founded the World Series Cricket even though it was back in 1977. The answer then is a play on his name – KERRY PACKER – who attempted to ‘pack in’ the crowds to boost the sport | |
| 4 | Chocolatier’s daughter got comfy (7) | |
| NESTLED | NESTLE (chocolatier) D (daughter) | |
| 5 | Single shot at goal’s saved, a pain for those attending (7) | |
| OTALGIA | I (single) inside or ‘saved by’ an anagram of AT GOAL – anagrind is ‘shot’ | |
| 6 | Kick in final third of game (see 25) (3) | |
| TOE | The third part of the game TIC TAC TOE | |
| 7 | Better garden party? (5) | |
| OUTDO | A garden party is held outside so you could say that it was an OUT DO | |
| 8 | National spot animal park employee patrols you should visit more often (4,2,1,8) | |
| DON’T BE A STRANGER | N (National) inside or ‘patrolled by’ DOT (spot) BEAST (animal) RANGER (park employee) | |
| 13 | Plant fish inside, did someone say? (11) | |
| CARPENTARIA | CARP (fish) ENTARIA (sounds like or ‘someone saying’ INTERIOR – inside). Needless to say, we needed a search for this one. | |
| 15 | This gypsy gentleman‘s conveying irony in broadcast (3) | |
| RYE | RYE – sounds like or ‘broadcasted’ WRY (irony). We only know this word because we were struggling with the IQ at the weekend and were looking up synonyms for gypsy. | |
| 16 | Textbook Gordon Bennett! (3) | |
| OMG | OMG – we have no idea how this is parsed although we have found an American textbook company called OMG Text books! | |
| 18 | In big trouble earls about to have a row? Probably not (7) | |
| OARLESS | OS (large as in out-size) around an anagram of EARLS – anagrind is ‘trouble’ | |
| 19 | East German breaks into rather indecent repartee | |
| RIPOSTE | OST (German for East) ‘breaking into’ RIPE (rather indecent) | |
| 21 | Follower of Charlie Brown stopped early to stalk Derek Trotter (5) | |
| DELTA | TA |
|
| 23 | Women missing from second group fight (3-2) | |
| SET-TO | SET T |
|
| 25 | Recurrent movement in first third of game (see 6) (3) | |
| TIC | First third part of the game TIC TAC TOE | |
Thanks Nimrod and Bert&Joyce – fantastic puzzle and blog!
1ac was my last in, and made me laugh.
Re 22ac TESLA, It is just that the reversal of “set” is covering, or preceding the a and the l, with all components being reversed.
I think OMG is textbook, because that is the way people who text would indicate their amazement or shock.
Thanks B&J and Nimrod.
Although I have the utmost respect for Nimrod as a nonpareil setter, frequently jaw-droppingly good, I don’t remember many laugh out louds. But when he lays one down, well, it stays there! I woke up next door’s dog with the guffaw that issued when, having written 1 across out (never in unless understood) the penny dropped.
Thanks for blogging. Quite a few we couldn’t parse and we had to cheat for Rye and omg (which doesn’t really work even with Muffyword’s clever suggestion). Do we accept enteria for interior – must be in some strange accent? Still there wee some clever ones as well as some unsatisfactory ones today.
Gosh!
Nimrod on top form once again, and if I followed Conrad’s dictum (never in unless understood) I’d still be stuck with an almost empty grid till this time next week. It was certainly tough and I needed plenty of help in both solving and parsing.
Thanks, Nimrod and B&J – see you all in York next month!
I found this incredibly tough. For about an hour, I had only three answers, and I wasn’t entirely sure of one of them. After that, I was slowly able to get near to finishing, let down in the end by not getting 18dn, but I now see I made a mistake when entering 26ac.
13d – how about homonym of Enter ‘ere, as in cockney speak?
The app says it’s carpenteria
Don’t understand I attach for treasury tag
I found this very difficult, eventually getting it all out but not understanding some answers such as TREASURY TAG and not being able to parse a few others such as 1a, which I agree was a beauty. I wondered about the parsing of 17 and in the end came up with your interpretation, which I also found a bit iffy. I have to say there were frustrations at a few lengthy roadblocks along the way, but the effort was repaid by some great clues such as the long anagram at 14 and KERRY PACKER – the ‘How many million…’ might well have indirectly referred to his considerable fortune as well.
A big thanks to B&J for such an excellent blog and to Nimrod
Paul A @7 and WordPlodder @8.
Sorry if I misunderstand you, but are you saying you don’t know what a treasury tag is?
If so try here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasury_tag
If not, apologies for my being dumb.
Hello Conrad Cork.
No, it’s me who’s the dumb one, not you. I’ve lived my life not knowing what a treasury tag is and now feel enriched by my new found knowledge. Seriously, thanks v. much for the link.
Thanks Nimrod and B&J
I was otherwise engaged much of yesterday, so didn’t complete this by quite a long way. As ever with a very good puzzle, having seen the answers here I wonder why I struggled, as the clueing is pretty much impeccable.
In 22, I thin SET comes from the restaurant trade, eg how many covers will it seat / how many can it set (tables) for. Any traction?
I saw 22 as ALL SET (ready, as in “all set to go”) with one L covered (hidden) then returned.
Terrific puzzle from Nimrod, as ever.
Many thanks cruciverbophile@12 – we think you’ve cracked it,
Conrad @9, I’ve come across treasury tag before, but I was quibbling the definition of ‘I attach’. It seemed a bit vague