Nitsy has been on the crossword circuit for over a decade now, but we don’t see much of him in the Indy. I’ve always liked his crosswords: they are carefully written, thoughtfully constructed and good fun to solve. Just like this one.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Golf shot somewhat missed a fairway going backwards
FADE
Hidden reversed in missED A Fairway. It wasn’t in fact Mark Twain who said golf was a good walk wasted, but I agree with whoever did coin the phrase.
3 Good wearing torn anorak and ordinary jumper
KANGAROO
An insertion of G in (ANORAK)* followed by O. The insertion indicator is ‘wearing’; the anagrind is ‘torn’.
9 Porridge? Oat diet my cousin arranged
SITUATION COMEDY
(OAT DIET MY COUSIN)* Porridge was a sitcom starring Ronnie Barker which ran for many years on the BBC.
11 Permanently in food shop by around end of April
INDELIBLY
A charade of IN, DELI and L for the last letter of ‘April’ inserted into BY. The insertion indicator is ‘around’.
12 Woman not oddly cross after husband’s practical joke
HOAX
A charade of H, O and A for the even letters of ‘woman’, and X.
13 A copper holding middle of shotgun bolted down trigger
ACTUATE
A charade of A, T for the middle letter of ‘shotgun’ inserted into CU, and ATE. The insertion indicator is ‘holding’.
15 Party I held in bloke’s field
DOMAIN
A charade of DO and I inserted into MAN. The insertion indicator is ‘held in’.
17 The man grabs American behind large badger
HASSLE
An insertion of ASS and L in HE. The insertion indicator is ‘grabs’. ‘American’ is there because ASS is essentially AmEng; we British would be more refined and call it an ARSE.
19 Tip for polishing dirty set of books is well advised
PRUDENT
A charade of P for the initial letter of ‘polishing’, RUDE and NT for New Testament.
20 Notable achievement moving a cheese
FETA
A ‘notable achievement’ is a FEAT; move the A around and you end up with the solution.
21 Traveller sees prang round the bend
PASSENGER
(SEES PRANG)*
24 Unruliest are shot – not hard playing this?
RUSSIAN ROULETTE
(UNRULIEST ARE)* (UNRULIEST ARE S[H]OT)* with an extended definition. The anagrind is ‘playing’.
25 Threaten to destroy bug
ENDANGER
A charade of END and ANGER.
26 Work over, drink’s knocked back
OPUS
A charade of O and SUP reversed.
Down
1 Female estimated one valued 50 per cent off is fair
FESTIVAL
A charade of F, EST, I and VAL[UED].
2 Went out with old hat
DATED
A dd.
4 Loudspeaker leaving tense editor fed up
ANNOYED
A charade of [T]ANNOY and ED.
5 Urge loud and moody drunk to go outside hotel amicably
GOOD-HUMOUREDLY
(URGE LOUD MOODY)* with H inserted. The insertion indicator is ‘to go outside’.
6 Again research about a short time in river
RE-EXAMINE
A charade of RE and A MIN inserted into the river EXE. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
7 Mineral one’s cut with axes
ONYX
A charade of ON[E] and YX. You need to read ‘axes’ as the plural of ‘axis’ rather than ‘axe’.
8 Unfortunately a wit isn’t a royal such as Victoria?
RAILWAY STATION
(A WIT ISNT A ROYAL)*
10 This writer is unhappy, forgetting bottom of hill’s steep
IMBUE
A charade of IM for ‘this writer is’ or ‘I’m’ and B[L]UE.
14 Crossed river wearing a vest and red pants
TRAVERSED
An insertion of R in (A VEST RED)* with ‘pants’ as the anagrind and ‘wearing’ as the insertion indicator.
16 These could make chef from Claridge’s heat each fish?
STARTERS
Nitsy is highlighting the fact that the starting letters of the last four words of the clue make the word ‘chef’.
18 Delete witticism after former lover, for example, gets upset
EXPUNGE
A charade of EX, PUN and EG reversed.
19 Troublesome thing, duck sauce
PESTO
A charade of PEST and O.
22 Rouse what could be young sheep?
GET UP
I get GET UP as ‘rouse’. I get ‘sheep’ as TUP. I don’t get the rest, I’m afraid, so am taking the ‘ask the audience’ option. I thank you in advance.
Edit: KVa has kindly explained this for us. A teg is a sheep in its second year, so since it’s a down clue, GET UP could clue TEG. You don’t learn that kind of stuff doing sudoku, do you?
23 Genuine regret after Truss’s first
TRUE
If you were being imaginative, you could think that this clue was referring to the morning after Mary Elizabeth’s move away from being virgo intacta. I think we should keep that thought to ourselves and wish her luck at the Tory conference today. I hope the NEC staff have plenty of shampoo to get all the blood out of the carpet on Wednesday evening. A charade of T and RUE.
Many thanks to Nitsy for the Sunday morning entertainment.
Thanks Nitsy; and Pierre for the fine blog.
23d was FOI, caught my eye at bottom of page.
Hugely amused by your comments on it…
Needed parsing for 16d.
Not knowing Tannoy, wondered what Antony had to with it. Well..
GET UP
TEG is a two-year-old sheep. GET is reversed (UP)
Thanks KVa. Didn’t know that.
Neither did I, KVa, so thank you. I’ll amend the blog.
Nice, clean, quick puzzle helped by crystal clear cluing and relatively straightforward constructions. Delightful anagrams for all four of the long ones with RAILWAY STATION and RUSSIAN ROULETTE being the standouts. STARTERS was the one I had to go back for – a sort of reverse acrostic which I liked A lot.
Thanks Nitsy and Pierre
That a fun and more than fair solve.
I’d never heard of the sheep, the loudspeaker, the golf shot or the tv show, but all were gettable despite that. I’m happy that my guess that “teg” was an obscure name for a sheep turned out to be correct.
Thanks pierre, and thanks nitsy
At 24 the anagram fodder is “UNRULIEST ARE S(h)OT”
Beaten by the STARTERS trick and had forgotten about the ‘young sheep?’ which we have had in crosswords before. Managed to get the rest without too much bother but a good one to kick off the day. Just as well I (almost) try not to take any notice of surfaces when solving, which I was happy about for 23d today!
This was great fun throughout with only the slightly lame TRUE not floating my boat.
I thought the three long anagrams were top-notch but my favourites were PRUDENT and FESTIVAL.
Many thanks Nitsy and Pierre.
I, too, couldn’t parse STARTERS, but I like it now I’ve seen it. I pencilled in PUT UP for GET UP, but couldn’t justify the young, so, like Arossignol, guessed that TEG was a young sheep. Thanks both.
Complete cryptic novice, but this is one of the first I have completed on the day, so I felt I would needlessly tell you all!
I agree with channelswimmer @ 7 regarding RUSSIAN ROULETTE, but also agree with the blogger that this is a well-made puzzle. Excellent fare for a Sunday, in my book.
That’s not needless, Alexicon @11 – very necessary, I would say. Bravo!
Well done Alexicon @11. You picked a good puzzle.
All done and dusted without reference to any help apart from confirming our guess for 1ac in Chambers. And a minor grumble about the ambiguity of 20ac – it needed the intersection with 8dn to establish if the answer was the achievement or the cheese.
Thanks, Nitsy and Pierre.
Really enjoyed this, and it would have been my first 100% unaided indy puzzle but for 16D which I just couldn’t parse.
Very enjoyable, thanks Nitsy and Pierre
Thanks Pierre. We completed the puzzle but failed to parse 16d and 22d.
Thanks Nitsy – an enjoyable solve whilst eating.