A slightly chewy puzzle from Tyrus, this non-prize Saturday…
…with a bit of sporting, leisure, music and anthropology General Knowledge needed, and a ‘dummy’-Nina starter that initially distracted me from the main course!
After the first couple of passes through the menu clues, I had the bottom half nearly complete, but the top half was almost empty, apart from SINISTER.
It took a few more goes, chipping away as I worked my way upwards, to gradually approach a full grid.
The ‘dummy’ Nina was in N-ERIT-INA at 1D, and I was so smug with myself for spotting this, that I nearly missed the bigger picture. Around the outside is a reference to the situation last December, during the confusion over Tiered lock-downs and re-opening of pubs, when various government ministers, Eustice and Gove in particular, pronounced that a ‘scotch egg’ could count as a ‘substantial meal’, to be served with alcohol. (I wonder if anyone has ever checked whether any government minister had shares in companies manufacturing said food items?…) With hindsight, the grid layout should have immediately flagged ‘possible Nina!‘, with all those unches around the edge…
Back to the General Knowledge – from sport we had the famously TALL Peter Crouch contributing to classical music’s Thomas TALLIS at 25A, and MIDDLE(SEX) Cricket Club playing at Lords at 6D. The Russian airline AEROFLOT at 8A, and a Siberian tribespeople, the EVENKI, at 15A may have tested your Eastern European knowledge. From the world of leisure, we had the SHERATON hotel group, at 23A. I expect a lot of people would have known most of these – I had to check EVENKI in my eCollins app, but was reasonably familiar with all the others.
My solving notes have mentions in dispatches for the ‘old scorer’ Peter Crouch in 25A TALLIS; NOAH as an ‘animal rescuer’ at 24D; the Wet Wet Wet reference at 13D TRIPLE TIME; and the surface reading of 16A, with its indirect description of the Nina.
My LOI was 17D HAT PLANT, which I had to pattern match and then ‘retro-parse’.
Many thanks to Tyrus for an enjoyable mental workout – although maybe not for the reminder of those confused and troubled times last year!
I hope all is clear below.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 8A | AEROFLOT | One lot (nameless) trained with RAF fliers (8) | fliers (Russian airline) / anag, i.e. trained, of O( |
|
| 9A | ENIGMA | Puzzle’s meaning not essentially obscure (6) | puzzle / anag, i.e. obscure, of MEA( |
|
| 10A | TILDES | Accents of Dutch wearing dated hats (6) | accents / TIL_ES (hats, old-fashioned slang, i.e. dated) around (wearing) D (Dutch) |
|
| 11A | PRANDIAL | Plan raid after serving of meal (8) | of (a) meal / anag, i.e. after serving, of PLAN RAID |
|
| 12A | SINISTER | Disturbing conundrum ultimately leaves cabinet chasing its tail (8) | disturbing / ( |
|
| 15A | EVENKI | First lady back home welcoming a thousand people from Siberia (6) | people from Siberia / EVE (first lady, biblical) + N_I (in, at home, back) around (welcoming) K (a thousand) |
|
| 16A | BARGAINING CHIPS | Possible concessions – getting into pub grub (10,5) | possible concessions / BAR_CHIPS (pub grub) around GAINING (getting) |
|
| 19A | URNFUL | Sad way of working out what container may hold? (6) | what container may hold / ( |
|
| 22A | SWEET PEA | Played tapes to entertain little one in bed (5,3) | one in (plant) bed / S_T PEA (anag, i.e. played, of TAPES) around (entertaining) WEE (little) |
|
| 23A | SHERATON | Hotel chain delayed taking action over that woman inside (8) | hotel chain / S_AT ON (delayed taking action over) around HER (that woman) |
|
| 25A | TALLIS | Old scorer (as Peter Crouch is) (6) | old scorer (creator of musical scores – composer, Thomas Tallis) / TALL (as Peter Crouch, a famously tall English football player – a striker, or goal scorer, now retired, hence ‘old’ – in playing terms, at least – adding to the quality of the surface read) + IS |
|
| 26A | ANONYM | Shortly the setter’s retiring – one won’t reveal his identity (6) | one won’t reveal his identity / ANON (shortly) + YM (my, the setter’s, retiring) |
|
| 27A | ATLANTIC | A lot of water in room upstairs – get daughter out (8) | a lot of water! / AT_TIC (room upstairs) around LAN( |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | NERITINA | Flag up puzzle feature on the perimeter – snails (8) | snails / N_INA (puzzle feature!) around (forming the perimeter of) ERIT (tire, or flag, up) |
|
| 2D | TOADYING | Being obsequious to American on the way out (8) | being obsequious / TO + A (American) + DYING (on the way out) |
|
| 3D | ILLS | Schools doctor withdrawing complaints (4) | complaints / ( |
|
| 4D | ATOP | Crowning achievement – emptied flipping chamberpot (4) | crowning / AT (A |
|
| 5D | LEGAL EAGLE | Member initially gets in two beers – barman here one of the best (5,5) | barman here (the legal bar!) one of the best / LEG (bodily member) + AL EA_LE (two beers) around G (initial letter of Gets) = LEGAL EAGLE |
|
| 6D | MIDDLE | Lord’s tenants having relations evicted – that’s mean (6) | mean / MIDDLE( |
|
| 7D | EMBARK | British ship has space on board (6) | board / EM (space, printing) + B (British) + ARK (ship) |
|
| 13D | TRIPLE TIME | Beats arrangement from Wet Wet Wet we always dismissed? (6,4) | beats arrangement / if you always dismiss ‘we’ from Wet Wet Wet, you are left with T T T (TRIPLE TIME!) |
|
| 14D | REINS | Are inside keeping some measure of control (5) | some measure of control / hidden word, i.e. keeping, in ‘aRE INSide’ |
|
| 17D | HAT PLANT | Perennial scheme which involves cycling (3,5) | perennial (the sola plant)/ PLAN (scheme) + THAT (which), cycling three letters to the front = HAT PLANT! |
|
| 18D | PRESIDIO | Periods I spent in fort (8) | fort / anag, i.e. spent, of PERIODS I |
|
| 20D | REHANG | Put up again outside hotel – anger misplaced (6) | put up again / RE_ANG (anag, i.e. misplaced, of ANGER) around H (hotel, phonetic alphabet) |
|
| 21D | FIRING | Though upset, call for dismissal (6) | dismissal / FI (if, though, upset) + RING (call) |
|
| 24D | NOAH | Animal rescuer not finishing early – that’s good (4) | animal rescuer! / NO( |
|
| 25D | TALC | Mineral – type I twice rejected (4) | mineral / ( |
|
“A slightly chewy puzzle” is a good description I think. Spotting the nina fairly early on (from the letters in the bottom row) helped me enormously.
A very nice way to start the weekend.
Many thanks to mc_rapper67 and Tyrus.
(Just to note, the wording of the nina under the (very impressive) animated grid isn’t quite right.)
The nina “Gove’ it away-thats not true but I couldnt resist
I find his Tyrus’s tougher than his Vlads but the ninas even the score-and helps me keep up with UK affairs.\What a great setter! Favourite URNFUL
Thanks Tyrus and mc_rapper67
Despite there being a Vlad earlier in the week I didn’t find this one easy, but as ever there was lots to admire and enjoy, assisted by the gaps in the nina suddenly falling into place.
I made a fairly substantial meal of this. I foolishly wondered where the IME came from after the TRIPLE T. Thanks Tyrus and mc-rapper67
I think this must have been put to one side for a while as this sort of thing is normally much more up to date. The Nina as ever was a great help in solving and a laugh as ever. Thanks MCR and Tyrus.
Quite a toughie. We didn’t get any acrosses in our first pass, although we should have seen AEROFLOT. Then things gradually came together with a bit of help and dictionary-checkiong until eventually we got NERITINA and the ‘dummy nina’ alerted us to the real nina which enabled to finish at a gallop. LOI was HAT PLANT which we hadn’t heard of. Looking back, there was plenty to like, such as TILDES and TALLIS.
Thanks, Tyrus and mc_rapper67
The kind of puzzle that seemed impossible at first but then yielded. In other words, very satisfying! I don’t live in the UK so the Nina didn’t mean much to me, but it helped a lot in the SE corner.
Tyrus = Quality
(Probably just) like Simon S @3 I found this crossword harder than Vlad’s a couple of days ago.
My first one in was AEROFLOT (8ac) followed by TILDES (10ac) but then everything came to a standstill with the odd exception.
My ‘way-further-in’ turned out to be PRESIDIO (18ac) which made clear that the second part of 16ac had to be ‘chips’.
What a masterful clue, this 16ac (BARGAINING CHIPS)!
And then, all at once, I detected what might be a ‘Scotch egg’ and the rest of the nina.
Very very helpful.
I agree with Flashling @5 that this looked like an overdue crossword, one that was lying on a shelf for a while (but that can happen since the Independent has so many setters fighting for a place).
I also agree with Hoskins @8 – totally!
Many thanks to mc_rapper67 (for the blog) & Tyrus (for a proper challenge).
Thanks to mc rapper for an excellent blog and to others for their comments.
It’s true this was a bit of a blast from the past.
At least we have double figures now – it’s what this puzzle deserves.
Very late. Great stuff, with the Nina helping out to complete a very slow solve, even if I didn’t know what it was referring to. No impossibly difficult clues , and a couple of new words to provide a bit of education as well as entertainment.
Thanks to Tyrus and mc_rapper67
I struggled with this and only finished on a third pass this morning but very satisfactory indeed. Can’t believe I missed the nina – Doh!
Thanks Tyrus and mc_rapper67.
Just finished – chewy as a piece of gristle for us! We also didn’t spot the nina which clearly would have helped. I finished up bunging in HOT PLANT without parsing it – along with NERITINA. 16a was excellent. A very clever and enjoyable puzzle – much harder than his Vlad for me – thanks to Tyrus and mc.
Thanks for all the comments/feedback – especially Tyrus for popping in at #10.
Apologies for late response, but I have been a bit off-grid all weekend. No particular points to pick up on – it seems like a well received puzzle…
I wasn’t aware that Tyrus = Vlad, but now I am, I look forward to locking horns again on today’s Grauniad Genius!