Nimrod usually serves up a challenge. This one is a super deluxe version which caused me serious wordplay problems
I reckon today’s puzzle is the most difficult midweek national daily newspaper crossword that I have blogged in ten years on fifteensquared, and I’ve had the benefit of receiving the puzzle pre-publication. The entries weren’t too difficult to deduce, but many I only got from the definitions and the checking letters. It is the wordplay that has caused me the most problems. There are two that still defeat me, 1 and 4 across ABBOT and MOTOCROSS. There were a few others that needed a lot of headscratching and playing about with component parts. These were HORSESHOE MAGNET. LHASA APSO, THEREUNTO, PAR FOR THE COURSE and SEPARATE THE MEN FROM THE BOYS. My suggested parsings for these are in the body of the blog. Feel free to disagree with them.
UNMET, the entry at 15 across troubled me also as first impressions imply that it is an antonym of 8, SATISFIED, rather than a synonym. However by including the ‘to be’ in the definition as ‘to be 8’, then it works.
It’s quite interesting comparing setter’s styles. I have a checklist which I go through when trying to proof read a blog which includes looking for specific words, such as ‘excluding’ and ‘letters’ to check that I have highlighted properly some key elements of word play which involve disregarding or selecting specific letters in component parts. With some setters I use the words excluding and letters frequently. For Nimrod, today at least, I have hardly used the words at all.
Congratulations to anyone who solved this without a struggle.
I’ll be on the road most of today, so will be unlikely to reply any comments on the blog until early evening, if at all
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | 41 books, in sum, delivered to a chap who’ll be over order? (5) |
I am defeated by the parsing for this. I can see that BB can be books. I can also see that OT (Old Testament) may be books. We have the letters TO A in the clue and also in the entry but I can’t see an anagram indicator. Please feel free to indicate how you believe it should be parsed. |
ABBOT (person in charge of an abbey; one who heads [be over] a group of monks belonging to one of the Monastic orders) |
| 4 | Hairy biking, using e.g. Waterloo Bridge rather than Blackfriars? (9) |
Not a good start, as I can’t see how this one works either. We have CROSS for bridge, but not much else. MO is modus operandi but I can’t see how that fits anything in the clue. Finally, the relevanced of the two landmarks defeat me. I was hoping that Blackfriars bridge might have been just a foot bridge, leaving Waterloo as the MOTOr bridge, but it isn’t. Again, feel free to comment with the correct parsing. |
MOTOCROSS (form of scrambling, motorcycle racing round a very rough circuit. Difficult [hairy] biking) |
| 9 | Out of time, gripping match: it’s surprising about what’s attractive (9,6) |
HORS (out of) + (TENSE [time in grammar] containing [gripping] [GAME {match} + OH {expression of surprise}]) all reversed (about) HORS (E S (HO E MAG) NET)< |
HORSESHOE MAGNET (something that attracts iron or some other metals) |
| 10 | Is day wasted fixing City coach’s breakdown problem? (9) |
Anagram of (wasted) IS DAY containing (fixing) PEP’S (reference PEP Guardiola [born 1971], coach of Manchester City Football Club) DYS (PEPS) IA* |
DYSPEPSIA (indigestion; breakdown [of food] problem) |
| 12 | Stuffing knocked out of bowlers by rustic English opener (5) |
HOB (rustic, lout) + BS (letters remaining in BOWLERS when the central letters (stuffing) OWLER are removed [knocked out]) HOB BS |
HOBBS (reference Sir Jack HOBBS [1882 – 1963], famous cricketer who often opened the batting for England) |
| 13 | Dog takes a gulp of water well contains (5,4) |
(LAP [thin liquid food for animals; e.g.a gulp of water] + SO [well!]) containing (contains) (HAS (takes) + A) L (HAS A) AP SO |
LHASA APSO (Tibetan [breed of] small, long-haired dog.) |
| 14 | Bottling it, Nimrod’s moving West Africans (5) |
(I AM [Nimrod’s – Nimrod is the crossword setter, often referred to as I in clues which reference the setter]) containing [bottling] SA [sex appeal ; it]) all reversed (moving West – i.e running from right to left) (M (AS) A I)< You could look it as just I AM being reversed and containing SA as MA (SA) I< |
MASAI (African people of the highlands of Kenya and Tanzania) – some good misdirection here as the MASAI are East African rather than West African |
| 15 | Enemy reportedly after Union needs time to be 8 (5) |
U (union, as a term in mathematics. Listed in Collins) + NME (sounds like [reportedly] ENEMY) + T (time) U NME T |
UNMET ([yet] to be SATISFIED [entry at eight down]) |
| 18 | The Trumpeting Baker’s given score to conduct with steady, progressive movement (9) |
RATED (given a score) containing (to conduct) CHET (reference jazz trumpeter CHET Baker [1929 – 1988] ) RAT (CHET) ED |
RATCHETED (moved by steady progressive degrees) |
| 21 | Narrative tale screened by CBBC on Teletubbies (5) |
CONTE (hidden word in [screened by] CBBC ON TELETUBBIES) CONTE |
CONTE (short story, as a literary genre; narrative tale) |
| 22 | In days of yore, you afforded telescope as well (9) |
THEE (a term for you in days of yore) and RUN TO (afforded) telescoped together as part within part to form THEREUNTO I’m not 100% sure of this, but it’s the only idea I can come up with that uses all bits of the clue THE R E UN TO |
THEREUNTO (moreover, in addition to that; as well) |
| 24 | A takeaway split green bag, covering Standard (3,3,3,6) |
PURSE (bag for money) containing (covering) (A + R [take, Latin] + FORTH [away] + ECO [green])] The word ‘split’ in the clue instructs you to split TAKEAWAY into TAKE and AWAY for the purposes of the constituent parts of the wordplay P (A R FOR TH E CO) URSE |
PAR FOR THE COURSE (normal average result; standard) |
| 26 | Syrian loony takes turn, wanting a piece of the action (9) |
MAD (loony) reversed (takes turn) + A + SCENE (part of the action) DAM< A SCENE |
DAMASCENE (of or relating to Damascus, capital of Syria; Syrian) |
| 27 | Only fancy new material (5) |
Anagram of (fancy) ONLY + N (new) NYLO* N |
NYLON (material) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | One taken in by a third-degree sucker (5) |
I (Roman numeral for one) contained in (taken in by) (A + PHD [often the progression with university degrees is Bachelor, Master, Doctor, so a PHD can be classed as a third degree) A PH (I) D |
APHID (small insect that sucks plant juices; sucker). |
| 2 | Sticking arse in face of boss cheers coffee-shop employee (7) |
ARIS (arse) contained in (sticking … in) (B [first letter of {face of} BOSS + TA (thank you; cheers]) B (ARIS) TA |
BARISTA (person employed to make coffee in a coffee shop) |
| 3 | May’s one part of BST: here’s another (7) |
THERESA (hidden word in [part of] BST HERE’S ANOTHER) THERESA |
THERESA (reference THERESA May [born 1956], currently Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) |
| 4 | Attention-seeker’s turned up – am I bovvered? (3) |
HEM (sort of half-cough to draw attention) reversed (turned up; down clue) MEH< |
MEH (expression of indifference or boredom, equivalent to saying ‘am I bovvered’) |
| 5/6/7 | So-called "Mr Average" changes humans" to "H" with crafty alphabet mnemonic (3,3,2,3,7,7) |
Anagram of (changes and crafty) HUMANS TO H and (with) ALPHABET MNEMONIC THE MAN ON THE CLAPHAM OMNIBUS* |
THE MAN ON THE CLAPHAM OMNIBUS (hypothetical ordinary and reasonable person, used by the courts in English law where it is necessary to decide whether a party has acted as a reasonable person would; so-called Mr Average) |
| 8 | E.g. at dinner table, one’s given food and one’s content? (9) |
SAT (at dinner table, for example) + IS (one’s) + ( I [one] contained in [is content] FED [given food]) SAT IS F (I) ED |
SATISFIED (content after being sat at the dinner table and fed) &Lit clue |
| 11/16/17 | Take them by the nose and do this sorting? (8,3,3,4,,,3,4) |
THE MEN and THE BOYS is an anagram of (sorting?) THEM BY THE NOSE if we then SEPARATE THE MEN FROM THE BOYS we are sorting them as required by the clue |
SEPARATE THE MEN FROM THE BOYS (sorting to serve as a test of ability, calibre, courage etc) |
| 13 | A filling meal and somewhere to live – that’s a good start (6,3) |
A contained in (filling) LUNCH (meal) + PAD (room or home; somewhere to live) L (A) UNCH PAD |
LAUNCH PAD (place, event, etc which gives a good start to a career, etc, or at which a project, campaign, can be started) |
| 19 | US party‘s the means by which National Dictionary’s installed (7) |
OED (Oxford English Dictionary) contained in (installed) (HOW [the means by which] + N [national]) H (OED) OW N |
HOEDOWN (American term for party at which such country dances are performed) |
| 20 | Accepting death, headgear’s ditched by climber (7) |
TRILBY (hat; headgear) excluding (ditched) BY containing (accepting) END (death) T (END) RIL |
TENDRIL (a plant’s coiling threadlike climbing organ; climber) |
| 23 | Expanse no-one on earth is able to circumnavigate (5) |
O (zero; no-one) + (CAN [is able to] containing [circumnavigate] E [earth]) O C (E) AN |
OCEAN (expanse [of water]) |
| 25 | Look round hole in sewer? (3) |
EYE (look) ’round’ may refer to the fact that EYE is a palindrome EYE |
EYE (hole in a needle [hole in sewer) double definition |
Nice blog and honest too.
Just in case anyone is struggling with ARIS in 2d I seem to remember
ARIS(TOTLE)/BOTTLE BOTTLE &GLASS/ARSEp-double rhyming slang.
hanks Dunc and Nimrod
Crumbs she said politely – a nice surprise to stretch the cryptic grey matter to its utmost limits on this lovely sunny morning
My thoughts on the queries are
1a Delivered to A I think means that the rest follows the A – there are 39 books in the OT so you need two B for Books to get the total of 41
4a I wondered whether this was some reference to the cooking Hairy Bikers who travel on motorbikes – not sure about the bridges
22a I agree with your thoughts
Thanks to Nimrod for the surprise ‘treat’ and to Duncan for the blog. I only have one minute before I’m supposed to start the day job which doesn’t leave an awful lot of time for the much needed lie down in a darkened room
Sheesh! Too hard for me to enjoy.
I have an idea on 4a. I think on the London Marathon, MO (Farah) had TO CROSS Waterloo Bridge but passed under Blackfriars.
Hovis@3 – I think you are right – brilliant (both you and the clue!)
I don’t think 4a’s anything more than ‘the way you go about crossing’, as in m.o. to cross.
Thanks for sorting out horseshoe magnet, didn’t know where to start on that one.
I didn’t put thereunto in, despite it being the only thing that fit; rather backwardly, I had just about got the wordplay but didn’t know it meant ‘as well’.
Well gnarly
Thanks Nimrod, Duncan
The only bridge crossed during the marathon is Tower Bridge. You pass under Waterloo Bridge in the same way you pass under Blackfriars, along the Embankment.
Thanks James. It was just a guess. Thought it was a bit of a stretch for any setter other than Nimrod. Don’t like M.O. TO CROSS unless somebody can explain the “rather than Blackfriars” bit.
Well, if you take Blackfriars as Blackfriars station (which now spans the river on the railway bridge) rather than Blackfriars bridge, you might take Waterloo bridge as the ‘moto’ cross, but moto’s not a thing by itself, and it’s all too convoluted. I’m happy with the m.o. theory.
I think that there was a THIRD member of the rhyming-slang chain – “April in Paris” for “Aris”. So a character in “Only Fools and Horses”, Trigger, said “My April is really killing me!”
Rarely have I filled in a grid with so many answers unparsed! I entered SETACEOUS (bristly = hairy?) for 4 across (and consequently got 4 down wrong). To me James’s explanation is the best so far but it MO TO CROSS is very weak for a setter of Nimrod’s calibre.
It’s been ages since I’ve crossed either of those bridges but does it only take a MO(ment) to cross Waterloo and ages to cross Blackfriars? Probably not.
“Rarely have I filled in a grid with so many answers unparsed!” – we’re with you there, cruciverbophile. We got them all but mostly from definitions and crossing letters, especially the long multi-word answers. Interestingly, though, we had a wild guess at the start that 9ac was HORSESHOE MAGNET and looked for a few crossers which turned out to support the idea but it wasn’t till we checked MEH in Chambers (almost our LOI) that we were certain. Our actual LOI was RATCHETED and we couldn’t make out how Ted Baker came into it – we’d forgotten about Chet Baker and could have kicked ourselves when we saw the parsing in the blog.
Thanks to Nimrod and especially to Duncan.
I’m glad it wasn’t just me. Really struggled to get started on this and, like others, many answers were entered purely as guesses. Thanks to everyone who managed to parse these.
Surprisingly, I even finished this, and only had to do two wordsearches, one just to check I wasn’t missing any other possiblity for 15ac.
We didn’t think we’d be alone in entering so many unparsed answers. We used the check button so many times during the solve.
Still, we completed it which we were quite pleased about.
Thanks Nimrod but 1ac was just a bit too much!
Well done Duncan.
Four answers I got from the def and the crossers but couldn’t parse. Not unusual for a Nimrod.
As far as being able to (eventually) get the answers from the def/crossers/guesswork this wasn’t the hardest Nimrod, but as far as being able to parse everything (1a as an example) it was, or close to it.
My only (trivial) comment would be that 4d might be referring to the HEM of a dress as well as the ‘sort of half-cough’
Maybe not every day thanks very much, but good for the soul, or something like that, every once in a while
Thanks to Duncan (great job) and Nimrod