A super puzzle. Thank you Monk.
Across and down the middle of the grid I can see THREE D and BILLY O. I found some articles about chap called called Billy O’ Foghlu who reproduced a Bronze Age horn mouthpiece using a 3D printer. I have absolutely no idea if this is on the right lines or not.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BERMUDA TRIANGLE | Where fighter might disappear in corner after mad brute exploded before start of round one (7,8) |
| ANGLE (corner) follows (after)anagram (exploded) of MAD BRUTE before Round (starting letter of) and I (one) | ||
| 9 | ALCOPOP | What could get Coppola tiddly (7) |
| anagram (tiddly) of COPPOLA – definition is &lit | ||
| 10 | NIMBLER | More light needed by doctor cutting a huge flower, right? (7) |
| MB (doctor) INSIDE (cutting) NILE (a huge river, something that flows) and R (right) | ||
| 11 | DRILL | Exercise yard’s close by stream (5) |
| yarD (closing letter) then RILL (stream) | ||
| 12 | CHANDLERY | Shout about name for specified trade shop (9) |
| CRY (shout) contans (about) HANDLE (name) – a shop dedicated to a specific need, eg Ships’ Chandler | ||
| 13 | NIGHTMARE | Almost one month consumed by toothache – extremely horrifying experience (9) |
| NIGH (almost) MAR (march, one month) inside (consumed by) ToothachE (extremes of) | ||
| 15 | HOTEL | Wherein union of passionate couple, unfaithful to the end? (5) |
| join together (wherein a union of) HOT (passionate) and teh last letters (to the end) of couplE UnfaithfuL – definition is &lit | ||
| 16 | UGRIC | Doug and Richard jointly absorb an Eastern European language (5) |
| found inside (absorbed by) doUGRIChard – jointly indicates Doug and Richard have to be joined together | ||
| 18 | MELODIZES | Makes music as Greek hors d’oeuvres divided by eastern hero (9) |
| MEZES (Greek hors d’oeuvres) contains (divided by) LODI (eastern hero?) – IDOL (hero) reversed (read right-to-left, from the East on a map), thanks to Hovis | ||
| 20 | GENTLEMEN | Let out setter’s name when pursuing low-down chaps (9) |
| anagram (out) of LET then ME (the setter) N (name) all following GEN (low-down) | ||
| 23 | ADMIN | Violent dictator repressing Democrat’s term of office (5) |
| AMIN (Idi Amin, violent dictator) contains (repressing) D (democrat) | ||
| 24 | AMORIST | Lover Romeo is interrupting a clever remark (7) |
| R (Romeo, phonetic alphabet) IS inside (interrupting) MOT (clever remark) | ||
| 25 | EGGHEAD | Intellectual, one getting repeatedly stabbed by soldiers? (7) |
| definition and cryptic definition – soldiers are pieces of bread dipped into a boiled egg | ||
| 26 | EXTRAORDINARILY | Wonderfully English way to stop irrational loony into axes (15) |
| E then RD (road, a way) inside (to stop, like a cork) anagram (loony) of IRRATIONAL inside X and Y (axes, on a graph) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BRANDENBURG GATE | Type by Gutenberg coined around a German passage (11,4) |
| BRAND (type) then anagram (coined) of GUTENBERG containing (around) A | ||
| 2 | ROCKING | Swinging band, grasping over comeback, gutted (7) |
| RING (band) contains (grasping) O (over) ComebacK (gutted, no middle letters) | ||
| 3 | UNPOLITIC | Indiscreet violation of punctilio (9) |
| anagram (violation) of PUNCTILIO | ||
| 4 | ASPIC | When still, it will be clearly set (5) |
| AS (when) PIC (still, a photograph) – a clear jelly | ||
| 5 | RING A BELL | Early victim on call line — sound familiar? (4,1,4) |
| ABEL (early murder victim in Bible) inside (on, eg “on a train”) RING (call) L (line) | ||
| 6 | ARMED | Excited wife going out with mine? (5) |
| wARMED (excited) missing W (wife) | ||
| 7 | GILBERT | William, say, born before Elizabeth, having gold-coloured clothing (7) |
| B (born) then ER (Queen Elizabeth) inside (having…clothing) GILT (gold-coloured) – William Gilbert was physician to Queen Elizabeth I | ||
| 8 | EARLY CLOSING DAY | Organically dyes knitting when work is cut short? (5,7,3) |
| anagram (knitting) of ORGANICALLY DYES | ||
| 14 | ALMA MATER | Keeping mum, change college (4,5) |
| ALTER (change) contains (keeping) MAMA (mum) | ||
| 15 | HYDRANGEA | Bury park official picked up a shrub (9) |
| sounds like (picked up) “hide ranger” (bury park official) | ||
| 17 | RING OUT | Sound old drummer’s extremely upset (4,3) |
| RINGO (Ringo Starr, old drummer) then UpseT (extremes of) | ||
| 19 | ZAMBEZI | Lamb (Elia) nearly left, repeatedly turning into an unknown river (7) |
| LAMB ELIa (nearly) with L (left) turning into Z (an unknown, maths) gives ZAMB EZI | ||
| 21 | LAIKA | Social-media fan reported a famous dog (5) |
| sounds like (reported) “liker” (a social media fan, on Facebook) – the first dog in space | ||
| 22 | NAEVI | Russian turned up to frame European moles (5) |
| IVAN (a Russian) reversed (turned up) contains (to frame) E (European) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
The hero in 18a is IDOL. Eastern denotes reversal since, perhaps confusingly, it means from the East.
I also saw BILLY O + THREE D. Couldn’t make sense of it. Wondered if Billy Ocean was known to be ‘unpolitic’ but have nothing to support this.
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee.
Great crossword – I particularly liked 25a – I do like a clue with a ‘soldier’ d’oh moment. I spotted the Nina but like our blogger and first commenter, I’ve no idea what it means
Thanks to Monk for the entertain and to PeeDee for the blog
Picaroon and Monk on the same day-what luxury. I was struggling to see his signature-I saw THREE D, missed BILLY O.
Thanks for parsing of MELODIZES, Pee Dee and thanks to Monk.
Thought the Nina might refer to Sir Billy (Connolly) being unpolitic. ‘Sir’ is hidden kn line 2 of the crossword….
Wow, what a puzzle. I finished half in quick time but struggled with the rest. Got GILBERT from crossers but did not understand until I read this blog. Thank you, PeeDee. Favourite clue – HOTEL, of course.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee. Like Uncle Yap @ 5 I needed Pee Dee’s blog to fully understand the GILBERT connection. Favourite today was ZAMBEZI. I didn’t see the nina’s, but wouldn’t have made the connection if I had.
The ‘William’ in 7d might also refer to William S. Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan.
passerby – yes that is much more more likely, I missed it at the time. A bit of a shame as the Elizabethan connection was nice, if unintentional.
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee. I struggled here and needed a lot of help with the parsing, though I too thought of the GILBERT of G & S. I did finally piece out ZAMBEZI, but I was slowed down by what I thought was the appropriate UK spelling of MELODIZES with -ise (and yes I missed both lodi-idol and for a while mezes).
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Did this whilst overseas but didn’t getting around to checking it off until now. Could parse neither MELODIZES (hadn’t heard of MEZE before and was surprised at the spelling) nor ZAMBEZI (which I think now is probably clue of the puzzle).
Lots to enjoy and forgot to look for his trademark nina / theme – so didn’t see BILLY O or THREE D. Can remember that his last nina referred to his recently passed pet dog so they can be fairly obscure to interpret. Though that the homophonic LAIKA was very good.
Finished in the NE corner with GILBERT (which I assumed was a person called w=’William Gilbert’ did not connect to the physician of Elizabeth I), CHANDLERY and ARMED (which took a while to twig to the weapon ‘mine’).