Bluebird, whose work I am solving and blogging for the first time today, has provided this week’s Tuesday puzzle.
As it is Tuesday, one expects a theme, and the Nina reveals an extract from The Tyger by William Blake (see 17D). The reference to the tiger is relevant in that today marks the Chinese New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Tiger.
I found this to be an enjoyable puzzle, and I was particularly pleased to spot the Nina, which helped me to complete the puzzle, and to understand the relevance of the quotation to today’s date. That said, some of the longer clues have quite intricate wordplay, which I struggled with at times – indeed, I am still unable to parse 17A and look forward to being enlightened by fellow solvers – thank you, blog amended accordingly!
My favourite clues today are numerous: 1D, for ingenuity; 3 for making me smile and for the clever splitting of Seb and Coe into wordplay and definition respectively; 5, 6 and 12, for their smooth surface readings; 19, for the clever wordplay; and 24, for making me laugh out loud when the penny dropped. Incidentally, 14A was a term that I was unfamiliar with.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 06 | BLUEBELL | A flower’s sad diminished beauty
BLUE (=sad, low) + BELL<e> (=beauty; “diminished” means last letter is dropped) |
| 08 | PREFAB | Roll about outside official building
REF (=official, referee) in PAB (BAP=roll, i.e. bread; “about” indicates reversal) |
| 10 | ULTRASONIC | In mid-April, a locust flies too high to be heard
*(IN + <ap>R<il> + A LOCUST); “mid-” means middle letter only is used in anagram, indicated by “flies” |
| 11 | STAR | Lead extract from bituminous tarmac
Hidden (“extract from”) in “bituminouS TARmac”; a lead(ing) role is a star(ring) role |
| 12 | REUSES | Recycles electronic drilling devices
E (=electronic) in RUSES (=devices, artifices) |
| 14 | MARIACHI | Music from ‘Mexico’s Madonna’ with an elemental energy
MARIA (=Madonna, as in Ave Maria) + CHI (=elemental energy, in Chinese medicine) |
| 15 | NORI | Edible seaweed?! Me neither!
NOR I (=me neither); nori is an edible seaweed used e.g. to wrap sushi |
| 17 | SOCKS | Very fashionable brand’s producing belts
SO (=very) + CK (=fashionable brand, i.e. Calvin Klein) + ‘S; too sock is to hit hard, hence to belt |
| 18 | PING | Piano in the middle of Argos making high-pitched sound
P (=piano, in music) + IN + <ar>G<os> (“middle of” means the middle letter only is used) |
| 19 | INFORMED | Reported the status of my deputy – dead
(standing) IN FOR ME (=the status of my deputy) + D (=dead) |
| 20 | SERAPH | An angel of the highest order, he’s returning to accept punishment
RAP (=punishment) in S’EH (HE’S; “returning” indicates reversal) |
| 22 | NOES | One’s suffering knock-backs
*(ONE’S); “suffering” is anagram indicator |
| 23 | EMPIRICIST | Tim Rice’s plays about Private Investigator, based on direct experience
PI (=Private Investigator) in *(TIM RICE’S); “plays” is anagram indicator |
| 26 | GLUIER | Well-stirred gruel containing iodine is stickier
I (=iodine) in *(GRUEL); “well-stirred” is anagram indicator |
| 27 | NIRVANA | Rock band reversing in van kept by artist
NI (IN; “reversing” indicates reversal) + [VAN in RA (=artist, i.e. Royal Academician)] |
| Down | ||
| 01 | TEAR | Initially, trunks are back-to-front, resulting in damage
T<runks> (“initially” means first letter only) + E-RA (AR-E; “back-to-front” means the last letter becomes the first letter) |
| 02 | YESSES | Doctor beheaded asses and aye-ayes
*(<a>SSES + <a>YE); “beheaded” means first letters are dropped from anagram, indicated by “doctor” |
| 03 | GLEN | Singlet repeatedly discovered tangled round the midriff of Seb Coe?
<s>E<b> (“midriff of” means middle letter only) in <si>NGL<et> (“repeatedly discovered” means two letters are dropped from each of beginning and end in anagram, indicated by “tangled”); the reference is to Glen Coe in the Scottish Highlands |
| 04 | EPICURUS | Greek, 23, ambitious and posh, meets Queen and starts to utter sallies
EPIC (=ambitious, impressive) + U (=posh) + R (=Queen, i.e. regina) + U<tter> S<allies> (“starts to” means first letters only); like Aristotle, Epicurus was a Greek empiricist |
| 05 | RED SNAPPER | Paparazzo stalks sunburnt swimmer
RED (=sunburnt) + SNAPPER (=paparazzo, photographer) |
| 07 | LILLE | Island races wiped out (by leprosy, primarily) in small arrondissement
LI-TT-LE (=small); “TT (=island races, i.e. on Isle of Man)” wiped out by “L<eprosy> (“primarily” means first letter only)” means letters “tt” are replaced by “l” |
| 09 | AGA KHAN | At the back of Anantara Hotel, snorting gak with an affluent Arab
{*(GAK) in [<anantar>A (“back of” means last letter only) + H (=hotel)]} + AN |
| 13 | SAILOR SUIT | Singular look inspired by look upon quarterdeck?
{S (=singular, in grammar) + [LO (=look) in AIR (=look)]}+ SUIT (=quarterdeck, i.e. one of four suits in a deck of cards); semi -& lit. |
| 14 | MACED | Just over half of Alexander’s kingdom is defended against attack
MACED<onia> (=Alexander’s kingdom; “just over half” means 5 of 9 letters are used) |
| 16 | OWN GOAL | Allow object to cause self-inflicted injury
OWN (=allow, admit) + GOAL (=object) |
| 17 | SYMMETRY | Nina’s fearful quality that’s not quite possessed by this grid
The Nina spells out TYGER, TYGER BURNING BRIGHT, from the 1794 poem The Tyger by William Blake, the last lines of which read: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? |
| 20 | SARTRE | In the environs of Sancerre, a sculpture, perhaps Rodin’s original ‘Le Penseur’?
[ART (= a sculpture, perhaps) + R<odin> (“original” means first letter only)] in S<ancerr>E (“the environs of” means first and last letters only); the reference is to French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre (1905-80), hence “le penseur” |
| 21 | PASTA | The letters in alphabet soup, say, beyond A
PAST (=beyond) + A |
| 24 | PONG | Whiff – from the bottom area of dog? Nope
Reversed (“from the bottom”) and hidden (“area of”) in “doG NOPe” |
| 25 | CZAR | Chief’s Z car outside
Z in CAR |
Thanks both. I parsed SOCKS where CK is Calvin Klein
17ac is So=very CK = Calvin Klein, fashionable brand s=s SOCKS = hits = belts
Nice.
TFO we crossed. I think that is the first time in my life that a Nina has ever helped me solve a crossword. A very nice puzzle. I am not sure I would class the Aga Khan as an Arab, though.
Congratulations on your debut, Bluebird. I’ve got ticks for NORI, PING, TEAR and RED SNAPPER, I also thought the grid was brilliant.
Thanks to Bluebird and RatkojaRiku.
We realised there was a nina as the grid began to fill up and knowing today was the start of the Year of the Tiger we soon guessed what it was. We were slightly thrown by the ‘tyger’ spelling as we’ve always used the standard spelling – as does the New Oxford Book of English Verse. Lots to enjoy, including MARIACHI (once we’d dredged it up from the depths of memory) and SYMMETRY.
Thanks, Bluebird (a new setter?) and RatkojaRiku
Good stuff, SAILOR SUIT very neat. But nina is crossword jargon, and doesn’t mean anything in the wild. Is it fair to write a clue for the (hopefully small) minority of solvers who read crossword blogs?
I agree with James @7 that using ‘Nina’ at 17D is unfair and unintelligible to anyone attempting a high-level cryptic for the first time, or early in their career. But all very enjoyable so welcome Bluebird, thanks to you and RatkojaRiku.
I mentioned on the Guardian thread I thought this one pretty good, and so it was, with 17 giving us the heads up. There were a few tiny things that slightly gave pause, but hardly worth mentioning in what could be a rather good debut. In that you never know…
17D: It should also be noted that the grid is not quite symmetrical
Thanks RatkojaRiku, i thought this was great, reminded me of Fed in that some of the wordplay was very convoluted but all repaid careful analysis and there was a good amount of wit sprinkled around. i take your point James@7 but here it reminded me to step back and look at the grid so in my case at least was very welcome use of jargon. Thanks Bluebird and if this is your debut then what a start, congratulations.
Also our first ever time realising there was a nina in time for it the be useful! We overcomplicated the parsing of ping and bluebell, needing the crosses to figure out that they were actually quite straightforward. Epicurus and Aga Khan were new for us but entirely parseable. We noticed yesses and noes and ping and pong – happy coincidence or planned?
All in all lots of fun, thanks to Bluebird and RatkojaRiku!
Labradoodle@12 A Ying-Yang thing?? Together with Songs of Innocence and Experience????
I greatly enjoyed this — the yesses and noes and ping/pong can’t be a coincidence! I needed help to parse LILLE!
I always assumed an arondissement was a small region but now I learn that it can be a large town! Something new every day. This one grew on us and in the end I enjoyed everything except the parsing of socks which I wouldn’t have got in a million years.
I also (for the first time) spotted the Nina in good time for it to be very useful. Loved In-for-me-d, at least partly for the echoes of Kenneth Williams. Enjoyed the tussle on this one and didn’t parse it all, so many thanks to Bluebird and RatkojaRiku.
Thanks to RatkojaRiku for the blog, and thanks to all those who have the taken the time to do this puzzle and to comment – it’s greatly appreciated. I’m inclined to agree with those comments about ‘Nina’ being a jargon word that might put people off – I’m all for breaking down barriers so appreciated the sentiment. I hope to be back here before the year of the Tyger is out!
Many thanks for the blog, RatkojaRiku, and thanks, Bluebird, for the excellent puzzle. Found it quite difficult in places but got there in the end with SAILOR SUIT, REUSES and LILLE last to fall Had heard of the “fearful symmetry” quote so that clue pointed me to the theme, though I did not think of the connection with the Chinese New Year. Seeing BURNING BRIGHT appear helped me to finish. Favourite clues PONG INFORMED SARTRE.
Saw the possible tiger tiger Nina threw it and and then finally after some head scratching remembered tyger… Thanks RR and welcome to the fold bluebell..
Annoyingly, I spotted the Blake reference in 17d but then didn’t think to actually look for a Nina. Got just over half of this done.
Thanks to TFO @1 and Petert @2 for explaining the wordplay at 17A – that’s the second time in a matter of months that I have missed so=very when parsing a clue. And they say we live and learn!
I came here for the parse on why Nina was symmetry, having guessed the answer, but the parse assumed I knew what it meant already – it might be useful to include what a Nina is for newbies like me next time you encounter one.
Defeated us by several clues. Thought some of them were very clunky.
Sorry, hit send by accident. Clumsy phone fingers.
Some clever misdirection, 14ac being a good example. Learnt a few new things, never heard of Blake or Tyger Tyger, don’t think i’d’ve got 17dn in a million years!
Thanks BB and RR. 🙂