We were pleased that we had another Serpent to blog today. Always a pleasure to solve.
There’s normally something going on in Serpent’s puzzles. Often the NINA is hidden in the perimeter or in the unchecked letters within the grid – when compiling the blog we could not spot anything. However, just as Bert finished checking it, he spotted Serpent’s hidden treasure in the diagonal inches unches. Thanks crypticsue – predictive text got the better of us.
As it is a memorable birthday for Bert today we don’t have time to highlight it in the grid – it just confirms there isn’t a nina!
Thanks Serpent for today’s puzzle – some lovely surfaces as we expected.
Thanks for all the birthday wishes.
mAIMING (causing serious injury) missing first letter or ‘start’
Hidden (‘protected by’) in bisHOP PERhaps
Double definition
This is almost a clue as definition – IS inside or ‘accepted by’ CAPITAL (chief) and M (first or ‘primary’ letter of Monetarists)
TESTER (someone trying) around or ‘overtaking’ AM (American)
A (first letter or ‘opening’ to Audio) SCENT (track)
A homophone (‘reporter’s’) of MEDAL (prize) and SUM (money)
A reversal (‘backed’) of I (International) GAM (school)
NUT (bolt’s partner) and S (first letter or ‘beginning’ to Sprint) all reversed or ‘backwards’
C (clubs) OATH (curse) ANGER (rage)
M (maiden) N (name) on SOLE (individual)
NUN (woman in order) inside or ‘stopping’ I (current) DATE (engagement)
COMPLETE (perfect) after or ‘dogging’ IN (home)
WANE (lose power) with the first letter or ‘leader’ moving to the right
REST (others) around or ‘taking’ IS (lives)
RAY (spoke perhaps) in PER (a)
TONE (style) in A (article) and a homophone (‘for audience’) of MEANT (intended)
Clue as definition – MINI (small) M (first letter or ‘introductory piece’ of Music)
NECK (down – as used to describe drinking) TIE (link)
OUTAGE (loss of power) around R (Republican)
A clue as definition – an anagram (‘novel’) of MALE COP IN
SIREN (alarm) with last letters or ‘terms’ of bankS and neveR changing places
An anagram (‘cook’) of LEARNS POISE
US (America) behind DO (party) round or ‘filled with’ ANGER (resentment)
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of GRATE (cause irritation) and BARE (out of habit)
An anagram (‘mushy’) of PEAS and CAN (are able) swapping places or ‘exchanged’
H (first or ‘initial’ letter of Helped) AUTEUR (creative director)
dOWNER (depressing experience) with D (daughter) omitted or ‘leaving’
A reversal (‘reflection’) of YR (your) AID (financial support)
Happy Birthday, Bert, and thanks for finding the (non-)Nina – Serpent (who is more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made) seems to be getting better at hiding them.
Yes, Birthday greetings to Bert. We must be on Serpent’s wavelength as we fairly rattled through this and even spotted the untruthful nina. We had ‘(h)arming’ for 1ac – arming someione might be part of military training, but AIMING is obviously correct.
COATHANGER and INCOMPLETE WERE FAVOURITES.
Thanks, Serpent and B&J.
Oops! ‘Caps Lock’ left on.
A splendid Serpent crossword, especially the non-Nina
Many thanks to him and B&J – Happy Birthday to B – if you aren’t too busy eating cake, the last word of your second paragraph needs change to unches not inches!
Haven’t seen Basilisk in a while so I was very pleased to find his alter ego here.
A very compelling puzzle though I failed ultimately on HOPPER. But though I missed this cleverly defined hidden answer (blushes), I did at least spot the Surrealist nina which helped confirm ANEW.
MINIM, POLICEMAN and COATHANGER were favourites.
Thanks to Serpent, as well as the birthday boy and Joyce.
Another September birthday boy Bert? Hope it’s a good one. Tricky from serpent but we expect that. Well spotted on the non Nina. I remember a near pangram by Morph which didn’t include an F. Just so he could pop in here to say “There is no F in pangram” ?
But it is a nina, isn’t it? Lots of cleverness from Serpent, one of the top setters in my opinion. MEDDLESOME, SOLEMN, ATONEMENT, POLICEMAN, and CANAPES are a few of the reasons I liked this crossword. Thanks B&J and all the best in the coming year.
Thanks Bertandjoyce and Serpent.
Birthday wishes to Bert.
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Failed to spot the non-nina, nina!
HOPPER, ANEW, ATONEMENT, POLICEMAN, RISEN are my favs.
Apologies for the late post – busy day yesterday.Many thanks to Bertandjoyce for the great blog (and belated happy birthday to Bert), and to everyone who was kind enough to post a comment.