Jack, aka Serpent of the Independent and Basilisk of the FT, has set a few Genius puzzles, but I think this is his first appearance in the Cryptic slot. Very welcome too, as he is one my favourite setters. This was harder than your average Monday, but with plenty of helpful clues to get us started. Thanks to Jack.
Jack’s alter egos’ puzzles are known for including a theme or Nina, so I was on the lookout for something here, and soon noticed the characteristically-placed message around the “inner ring” of cells, with an extra “tail” for the last word. COMMENT IS FREE, BUT FACTS ARE SACRED was coined by C P Scott, editor of the (then) Manchester Guardian in a 1921 essay on the role of the press.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | KRONOS | King and Queen soon upset God (6) K + R + SOON* |
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| 4 | ASSURED | Self-confident idiot’s dreadfully rude (7) ASS + RUDE* |
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| 9 | ESTATE CAR | Vehicle, say, in track event getting withdrawn (6,3) STATE (say) in reverse of RACE |
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| 10 | YOBBO | Lout‘s two children almost going head-to-head (5) Two BOYs, one reversed and one truncated, with their “heads” together |
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| 11 | CAROL | Sing part of barcarolle (5) Hidden in barCAROLle |
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| 12 | RACKETEER | Terrible noise listener said is one to avoid? (9) RACKET (terrible noise) + homophone of “ear” |
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| 13 | PRALINE | American embroiled in public relations row is kind of sweet (7) A in PR LINE |
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| 15 | NEWBIE | Recent arrival‘s drunk a lot of beer and a lot of wine (6) Anagram of BEE[r] + WIN[e] |
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| 17 | EPONYM | Author’s negative response is reflected in titular character (6) Reverse of MY NOPE |
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| 19 | GERBERA | Flower in beer garden’s half gone to seed (7) Anagram of BEER GAR[den] |
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| 22 | ACROSTICS | Type of clue receiving much credit in word puzzles (9) TIC[k] (credit) in ACROSS (type of clue) |
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| 24 | CUFFS | Copper’s bored by following his usual restraint (5) FF (following) in CU’S |
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| 26 | ROACH | Last of joint method deleting application (5) APPROACH less APP, with a roach being “the butt of a marijuana cigarette” |
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| 27 | TRANSFUSE | To instil mortal fear, stun suspect to begin with (9) Anagram of FEAR STUN S[uspect]. I’m not sure how I feel about “mortal” as an anagram indicator: Chambers gives “very drunk” as one if its definitions (new to me), which could work |
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| 28 | DIE DOWN | Drop off and admit having stopped working earlier (3,4) DIED (stopped working) + OWN (admit) |
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| 29 | TSETSE | Set about limiting firm’s cause for complaint? (6) SET (firm) in SET* |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | KNEECAP | Joint protection once called in revolutionary gang (7) NEE (“once called”) in reverse of PACK |
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| 2 | OTTER | Weaselly individual wanders about naked (5) [p]OTTER[s] |
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| 3 | OCTILLION | Huge amount of work stopping no one company rising (9) TILL (work) in reverse of NO 1 CO |
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| 4 | AFRICAN | Continental area has sufficient power to support French island (7) A[rea] + FR[ench] I[sland] + CAN (has sufficient power) |
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| 5 | STYLE | What may cross boundaries for audience in particular way of writing? (5) Homophone of “stile” |
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| 6 | RUBBERISE | Masseur is initially expected to put on protective coat (9) RUBBER (masseur) + IS + E[xpected] |
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| 7 | DOOBRY | Show disapproval about being detained by boring thing one cannot name (6) Reverse of BOO in DRY (boring) |
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| 8 | ACCRUE | Build up credit union’s leader with great coverage (6) CR + U[nion] in ACE (great) |
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| 14 | ASPARTAME | Sweetener upset team following a dispute (9) A + SPAR + TEAM* |
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| 16 | WORMCASTS | Malware gets rid of evidence of underground activity? (9) WORM (computer malware) + CASTS (gets rid of) |
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| 18 | MOISTEN | Sprinkle items on ground (7) (ITEMS ON)* |
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| 19 | GASMAN | School article about singular individual doing readings (6) S in GAM (school of whales) + AN (indefinite article) – the gasman may read your meter |
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| 20 | AUSTERE | Exacting short-term drills start off aerobic exercise (7) TER[m] in (“drilling”) A[erobic] + USE (exercise) |
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| 21 | SACRED | Salvation Army doctrine mainly dedicated to religious use (6) SA CRED[o] |
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| 23 | SCHMO | School mom dumps married idiot in New York (5) SCH + MO[m] |
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| 25 | FRUIT | Produce attack to seal game (5) RU (Rugby Union, game) in FIT (attack) |
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Only got about half out and didn’t enjoy it much today. Never heard of SCHMO, ROACH, DOOBRY, WORMCASTS or a gam. Would never have picked “mortal” as an anagrind.
Thanks, Jack and Andrew. After an excellent Serpent in the Indy on Saturday, it was a treat to see this setter again so soon. Quite tough for a Monday morning but well up to the expected standard.
I’ve heard of mortal meaning drunk before but I would never have thought of it as an anagram indicator and only got that one from the crossing letters. Otherwise, all good.
Completely missed the Nina, but that’s standard for me. Very nicely done – great choice of quote for a Guardian debut.
Hard, had to collaborate with my SO, but we got there in the end. “Mortal” was the least of the difficulties. DOOBRY was the real sticking point.
Challenges:
WORMCASTS are not evidence of underground activity in my worm farm which is a set of tiered boxes on legs.
Don’t know that ‘potters’ is a good synonym for ‘wanders about’. But no doubt someone will quote a dictionary entry.
Moisten for sprinkle? Can’t think of a sentence with the equivalents. Surely you have to sprinkle something on something to moisten the second something.
Never heard of DOOBRY. I think it’s a made-up word.
CUFFS are plural. Restraint is singular. ( I know, I know, but it still jars.)
The surface for ROACH is doing my head in.
And why wasn’t the nina an ACROSTIC? I so wanted it to be, or something EPONYMous. The only nina I saw was SMART in Row 13 and it didn’t even count.
(There are more but who am I to challenge the Professor?)
Liked RUBBERISE. Made me laugh.
Expected a gentle Monday, but this was tough, though with some satisfying clues. Didn’t like Mortal as an anagram indicator, and never heard of gam meaning a school of whales. I thought of ‘totters’ rather than ‘potters’, but potters is probably right
Very hard. Missed ROACH and had never heard of DOOBRY but my real problems were in the SE corner with the crossing GASMAN, WORMCASTS, AUSTERE, GERBERA and TRANSFUSE; not alone to have missed ‘mortal’ as the anagram indicator. To top it off I didn’t spot the Nina which I might have looked for more closely had I known that Jack is Serpent in another guise.
I came here after a toughie in The Times today expecting a bit of relief; no such luck!
Thanks to Jack and to Andrew
It took me a while to get on Jack’s wavelength, and I found this pretty hard. Some nice clues (eg KNEECAP, PRALINE,WORMCASTS).
ROACH brought back memories of my computer science course in the ’70s – the punched cards used for data input were ideal for the purpose, when rolled up. Wikipedia tells me that the word has a somewhat different but related meaning in North America.
But some annoyances too. Unlike Andrew, I do know how I feel about ‘mortal’ as an anagrind – I don’t think it works at all. ‘Across’ isn’t really a ‘type’ of clue for me, though I suppose it can be justified. To me, AUSTERE is not the same as ‘exacting’, though a quick online check suggests it can mean this.
The Nina is clever if you like such things – I never look for them, though I suppose if seen, it could be helpful in solving.
Thanks both.
I thought there were some pretty dismal definitions; RACKETEER, TSETSE etc. Also seemed to be an awful lot of truncation and deletion going on. A very rare nul points from me I’m afraid. If the paper had arrived on time I’d probably have switched to the sudoku
Cheers J&A
‘Aha,’ I thought, ‘a new setter. This could be very Mondayish or not at all.’ It turned out to be the latter. Very enjoyable in parts, with EPONYM, ACCRUE, AUSTERE, and FRUIT (neat surface) as my favourites. Not sure about TSETSE’s definition. Thanks Andrew for the parsing of GASMAN – never heard of a gam of whales. Also new were DOOBRY, GERBERA and SCHMO, but gettable from the clues. Thanks Jack, I look forward to the next one.
Quite a shock to the system on a Monday and I diverted at one point to ascertain the true identity of our setter as I haven’t encountered Jack before. Once apprised, I had a better idea as to what to expect. Everything solved and parsed bar nho ASPARTAME and GERBERA – I’m no good with plant names. I have to confess to being in what I suspect will be a minority in rather liking ‘mortal’: ‘I was mortal drunk’ seems like it could have slipped into a Wodehouse – it turns out to be ‘the most used phrase’ in the series Geordie Shore acc to Wikipedia. For my sins, I have encountered both DOOBRY’s (doobries?) and ROACHes. With my critical hat on, I’d have to agree with bodycheetah @8 that the defs for TSETSE and, particularly, RACKETEER are weak.
ASSURED, ACROSTIC, KNEECAP, GASMAN, SACRED and FRUIT were my favourites today.
Thanks Jack and Andrew
ps – totally missed the Nina (why is it called that?) of course. COMMENT IS … rather than COMMENTS ARE…
Paul@11.
https://www.crosswordunclued.com/2009/10/what-is-nina.html#:~:text=A%20Nina%20is%20a%20special,is%20it%20called%20a%20Nina%3F
Thanks, Jack and Andrew!
Liked ACROSTICS and AUSTERE.
bodycheetah@8!
Agree with your views on the definitions of TSETSE and RACKETEER.
I should have checked to see if Jack is setting elsewhere, as I have come across Serpent/Basilisk.
All in but not all parsed. I had tOTTERs too, didn’t know GAM for GASMAN, my LOI, but should have as I’m sure it’s come up before. Didn’t parse ROACH but I’m useless at getting longer words to reduce, got that from the definition, I’m sure there’s more.
Nina, what Nina? I’m not familiar enough with Serpent/Basilisk to look for them, only started solving the FT and Independent crosswords last month. And I’m finding it interesting how familiarity with Guardian setters makes the finding definitions and identifying cryptic bits easier, after solving the Guardian for a few years, compared with other less familiar setters.
Thank you Jack and Andrew.
I very rarely do the Genius puzzle or the Serpent and Basilisk ones, so I don’t have much experience of this setter’s output. I finished it without aids but failed to parse ‘austere’. I would never have found the Nina even if I was looking for one. I agree with other commenters that some of the definitions and indicators are a bit ‘iffy’, but, overall, I enjoyed the challenge.
Well this was the first G crossword where I have had to resort to the reveal button since I began doing them regularly in the first lockdown. I liked the ones I did get but there were only a couple revealed that I realised I could have got. Too many new words, and I lost the will to even consider a NINA. But it was all very clever, just too much for my tiny brain. Here’s hoping for something a bit easier tomorrow!
Thanks Andrew, and hats off to Jack.
Unfortunately the alternative spelling CRONOS works as well as KRONOS for 1A, because the current King and Queen are Charles Rex and Camilla Regina. Didn’t delay me that long, because 1D had to be kneecap, but still…
More enjoyable than the usual Monday fare, so thanks to Jack and Andrew.
P.S. Forgot to mention that I couldn’t parse GASMAN and failed utterly to notice the brilliancy hidden in the grid.
beaulieu@7. I didn’t know about the difference in the meanings of ROACH in the different parts of the northern hemisphere. From what I can remember, from what others have told me that is, the Oz meaning is the same as the one in Jack’s crossie. But how would we know? They say that if you can remember you weren’t there, or was it the other way round? As my lama said, Remember to remember to remember.
Harder than usual for a Monday. I have used the word DOOBRY fairly often, so I knew it well. Don’t reckon TSETSE is a familiar enough word to be used synonymously for “cause for complaint”. One would use “TSETSE fly” rather than plain “TSETSE”.
Liked GASMAN a lot, so here’s an earworm for that profession :
https://youtu.be/v1dvAxA9ib0
Thank you Jack and Andrew.
paddymelon @19, if someone says ROACH to me, my first thought is something you spray with Baygon or Mortein. I’d never seen one until I came to the lucky country.
And yes, I found this tough with a few unparsed.
Quite tricky for a Monday as others have said, but lots to enjoy – the definition for GASMAN was probably my pick. I liked ‘mortal’ as an anagrind; I know it as Geordie slang for drunk. And ‘potter’ is a reasonably common word I thought! To ‘potter’ (often but not necessarily ‘potter about’) is to aimlessly wander or perform idle tasks, e.g. “I’m just pottering about in the shed”.
Thanks Jack & Andrew.
Earworms: for beaulieu. Tim C et al
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z08zZ1xW9Yw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-4dohyfsWA
PS. If the first link offends, the second one is really funny. Great jingle which almost all Aussies grew up on, initially on black and white TV.
Max Roach was a great drummer
Great to see this setter in the Monday slot.Volume turned up to 11 in SE
I’m still investigating the band in his Saturday puzzle so forgot to look for a nina here
Thanks everyone.
Excellent! A very pleasant change for a Monday! Took me a while to get going but powered through some tricky parsings esp. AUSTERE.
Favourites were DOOBRY, GASMAN and KNEECAP.
Thanks Jack and Andrew
So this is the famous Serpent/Basilisk whose praises I have heard sung on Guardian comment threads. Obviously very skilful, but I can’t say I enjoyed it much, but that may be the effect of getting used to a new setter. Didn’t remember GAM, or ff=following, and didn’t help myself by trying to force an unparsed TERRORISE into the TRANSFUSE slot (couldn’t parse that either). I knew DOOBRY by ear – so that’s how you spell it, eh?
Missed the message, of course. Now I know this is a setter who does this, I’ll look out for it next time – not what you expect on a Monday.
I acknowledge the cleverness of this, but didn’t finish it and had to reveal several answers. DOOBRY is not in Chambers, which gives a couple of alternate spellings, but as I’d never come across any of them didn’t matter to me. I also didn’t like “Mortal” as anagrind but the clue was gettable.
[paddymelon @23, the second clip was way before my time arriving on these shores as a reffo from the Old Dart. The first I watched in horror. I much prefer a coffee flavoured vape. 🙂 ]
Far beyond me for a Monday morning, so I gave up when I’d revealed several I couldn’t then parse. Thanks Andrew for the explanations which have been very helpful.
For “mortal” the SOED has “extremely great” and “as an emphatic expletive” and gives the example “I was a mortal sight younger then” from Dickens. So presumably the phrase was originally “mortal drunk” meaning very drunk, then became shortened.
Thanks both. (By the way this blog is not on the Guardian page of 15² and I’ve only just found it.)
A few straightforward ones early on gave me a false sense of security as that was ultimately a bit tough for a Monday for me, with some bunging and shrugging happening in the last stretch — but I am unfamiliar with the setter’s other guises and took a while to tune in.
Interesting to see parts of words as anagram fodder twice (GERBERA and NEWBIE).
Liked KNEECAP, EPONYM, RUBBERISE.
Thanks both!
For 20d, was anyone else looking for a word for aerobic exercise and then removing the first letter (i.e. taking the start off)?
Angus @33 I was!
> (By the way this blog is not on the Guardian page of 15² and I’ve only just found it.)
Sorry about that – now fixed.
Definitely not on his wavelength. Didn’t enjoy much.
Doobry? No.
Great crossword and nice to see Jack/Serpent in the daily Guardian.
I was faced at the beginning with having solved all of the LHS, but little in the RHS. The SE corner was the last to fall. Mortal is in the Chambers list of anagrinds and one of the synonyms in the thesaurus is ‘terrible’, so I think that’s fine.
I liked NEWBIE for the surface, TRANSFUSE, where the alternative anagrind ‘suspect’ was nicely misleading, AFRICAN for the sufficient power, and WORMCASTS for the definition. I got my knickers in a twist trying to parse AUSTERE, where I thought ‘ae’ had some significance. I realised with the word choices that something was going on but failed to spot the NINA (the explanation for which is also on this site’s FAQ).
Thanks Jack and Andrew.
Like many commentators, I flounderedn a bit to get on the right wavelength. I’ll know what to expect next time I see Jack (as I hope I shall).
I’ve never seen DOOBRY in print and always heard it as “Dubury” or “dooberry”.
So thanks to Jack and to Andrew for clearing up some obscure (to me) parsing.
Good to have a top-notcher on the team. Great puzzle. Surprised it wasn’t used later in the week.
Super tough for a Monday.
I have no problem with DOOBRY, being a northern chap.
However, SCHMO, GERBERA, GAM all new to me. Dnf I’m afraid.
What Tramp said @39.
Helped a lot by spotting the Nina. I was also helped by knowing the words other solvers didn’t, although I haven’t heard anyone use 7d for years.
Thanks very much to Jack and Andrew
paddymelon @4 – can confirm; DOOBRY is a made up word. Made up by my mum as a synonym for WHOJAMAFLIP.
@Andrew, surely the Nina is “COMMENT IS FREE”?
Ah, so lovely to find that I was not alone in some of my consternation. Agree with most of the instances of somewhat less than satisfactory cluing.
As others have said, very tough, but I found it very enjoyable. I also had no problem with mortal as an anagrind. I distinctly remember a Roger Mellie strip in Viz from a while back, where he told his neighbour at an awards dinner that he had better discuss any serious business with him very quickly because he planned to be thoroughly mortal before too long. That is good enough for me!
Angus@33 I even checked whether Arduous was an alternative spelling for arduous (c)ardio + us (start of use)
Suzy@44: “Ah, so lovely to find that I was not alone in…” Hmmm. Yes, I think that’s essentially what Fifteensquared is for, isn’t it?
Very tough. Absolutely not on this setter’s wavelength! Solved about half of this (mainly the LHS) and gave up on it.
Of the ones that I solved, I could not parse 17ac, 22ac, 2d, 3d
Thanks, both.
Clever Nina, but some of the clueing, especially “mortal”, left me dissatisfied with this crossword.
Great to see Jack in the daily, and I agree with Tramp @39 that the average quality has just gone up.
I’m with those who didn’t like mortal; fine, it can mean very drunk (which I didn’t know) but as such it’s a more obscure synonym of a word that only works as an anagram indicator by convention. Incomprehensible on the face of it.
Robi @37 It’s no good trawling for synonyms to justify indicators – if mortal means terrible, it’s in the sense of grievous/fatal, not faulty.
Nice puzzle, thanks all.
A shame that both GERBERA and BERGERA are garden plants, nho either of course….
Please keep Jack away from Mondays. So much for a gentle start to the week. Found it all too convoluted (yes I know that cryptics are convoluted!) but even though I like a good challenge (Paul is my fave) I found this very unsatisfying and agree with much of what others have said. Ah for a Monday Rufus………
Excellent although I didn’t like DOOBRY. I have only known one person that used the word and they used it far too often!
“Mortal” = drunk is used by Ian Rankin in his Inspector Rebus novels (set in Edinburgh) – in the title of one book.
Never heard of a DOOBRY; over here we have doohickeys instead. Also unfamiliar with WORMCAST and GERBERA, so I had to cheat on that entire corner; the super-loose definition of TSETSE and opaque wordplay for AUSTERE didn’t help matters down there either.
I agree that this puzzle was more a Thursday than a Monday. Even taking into account that not everyone finds the same puzzles as easy as others, it truly shouldn’t be that hard to test-solve a fortnight’s worth of puzzles and run two of the easiest on the Mondays.
Thanks for the blog , great puzzle but I agree with Tramp about the wrong day. Put certain other setter’s names to this and everyone would be showering it with praise. EPONYM is very neat with the nope, ROACH is very clever , mortal very novel for an anagram, the students use mortal all the time just to mean drunk. AUSTERE had great word play , GASMAN reminded me of the Monty Python sketch with the weather chart.
PDM@4 a garden sprinkler will sprinkle everytning with water.
Please Guardian can we have some more.
Beaten by this, after I thought I might manage it. Tough going generally and much of the wordplay exploring unusual meanings fo words – all fair enough.
Was glad of the blog for parsings of AUSTERE and GASMAN, so thanks, both.
After trying to come up with some piece of armor that fit 1d, I finally popped in KNEECAP but had no idea why.. So thanks for that, Andrew. Thanks for parsing DOOBRY (word I’ve never heard of, mrpenney’s right, we say doohickey), GERBERA (another jorum), AUSTERE or ACCRUE.
Massage isn’t rubbing, it’s kneading. You don’t move your hands along the skin, you stay put and work the area.
Overall fun, though I totally missed the Nina. Thanks and welcome to Jack, thanks to Andrew.
Nice to get a (kind of) double name check.
Thanks Andrew – I needed a few of those explanations. Good surfaces, but some over-vague definitions as a result. I prefer Mondays to be challenging, but not to come quite as close to being defeated. Come back, Jack and do it again!
Did anyone toy with TROLL for 2d? STROLLS seems closer to ‘wanders about’ than does TOTTERS, and troll seems as close in meaning to a weaselly individual as does otter.
Thanks Jack & Andrew
Nice puzzle. I took my time with it, savouring the clues. Missed the NINA and failed to parse 20d.
Nametab@61 the otter and weasel are both mustelids . I think it is potters for wanders about, usually in the garden.
Thanks Jack and Andrew
Like Gladys and Auriga I had heard DOOBRY but always assumed it was spelled “dooberry”.
Welcome, Jack – great debut puzzle. Loved the ‘individual taking readings’ especially.
Several clunky surfaces necessitated by too much fiddly word-snipping. If you have to chop up ‘a lot’ of some words it is less than elegant. Yes, you can guess an answer and then rearrange it to suit a wordy clue, but it becomes a soulless exercise in the end. That said, lots of praise for this here so the rest is silence.
Brilliant stuff, lots of lovely quirky words like DOOBRY and SCHMO. (PostMark @10: you may be thinking of Doobie as a joint). I’ve been using mortal for drunk for over 50 years, so loved that. Know nothing about his alter egos as one puzzle a day is enough for me but as some have said, more of this setter please (though not on Mondays before I’m rushing off to golf). Brilliant Nina btw but no chance of spotting that.
Ta Jack & Andrew for your astute parsing.
Except for this: the Nina is doubtless very clever for those who spot/enjoy such things. And well done Andrew for seeing it. I just wonder if its construction ultimately lead to some of the unevenness and strain
that detracted from the whole thing for me and one or two others.
I’ve only ever heard one person say ‘doobry’ (and she’s no Spring chicken) but I did get it from the wordplay after rejecting ‘doodah’. A fun, medium difficult puzzle. Thanks to Jack and Andrew.
Thank goodness I wasn’t alone in finding this just too tough for any day, let alone a Monday. Learned some new words in DOOBRY, SCHMO and OCTILLION so I’m still happy.
[Lord Jim @31: I couldn’t find 15² either by 10 am, so couldn’t post this morning, but it seems others were able to?]
Thanks Jack, that was great. (If I had known Jack was Serpent/Basilisk I would have searched for a nina. Serpent’s crossword in Saturday’s Indy is superb by the way.) I had some problem parsing a few and I revealed DOOBRY but overall I liked this with ESTATE CAR, NEWBIE, DIE DOWN, and FRUIT being among my favourites. I agree with Roz @56: “Please Guardian can we have some more.” Thanks Andrew for the blog.
Maybe it’s because of our president’s recent trip to NI and Rep of I, but somehow the 1D clue made Ms P think of kneecap as a verb done by some revolutionary gangs . . .
Other than that unpleasant jolt of a thought and a couple of minor quibbles, this was a nice addition to our breakfast table.
I had never heard of DOOBRY, SCHMO, OCTILLION or ASPARTAME. I’d always spelt Kronos with a C. I didn’t know that meaning of ROACH. So this puzzle was a bit difficult for me. I have to confess I didn’t see the quotation in it. Very clever.
Kept having to come back to this. Defeated badly by the SE corner.
Tough but fun given that the reveal button is my friend.
To instil mortal, ie into a mortal, is to transfuse. Suspect is doing double duty as anagrind and as having s as its first letter.
Well it worked for us!
Upset is deployed as an anagrind twice: for “soon” in 1A and for “team” in 14D. Surely this is not right. Also DIE DOWN appeared in Paul’s effort on Friday. The same answer on two consecutive weekdays? Surely this is not right.
Many thanks to Andrew for the excellent blog. And thanks to everyone who has taken the time to solve the puzzle and leave a comment.
Murderous.
Managed CAROL.
NOTHING ELSE.
This was way too hard for me – my worst performance for a long time. Thanks to Jack for the challenge and to Andrew and other posters for help with the answers and parsing, which I will study to try to improve.
Very late in the day, but I do remember ‘mortal’ as an irishism for very drunk indeed – beyond stocious(?) (pron ‘stochus’) which was pretty leathered. So fair anagrind, and a useful addition to that stable.
Anyway, big welcome to Jack – excellent puzzle, though very hard SE corner, and will know to look for a nina next time. And ta Andrew for an excellent blog.
Well done Andrew for spotting the Nina. I would never have got that in a million years, though I’m familiar with the quote, of course. It’s always above the leading articles on page two of the journal pages – the same section of the paper that has the cryptic crossword.
I think ‘set about’ has been used for TSETSE before, but I still couldn’t see it. I was lucky in plumping for GERBERA and not BERGERA at 19a, but if I’d gone the other way would I have been able to solve 19d and correct it? Almost certainly not. And like many others I didn’t see ‘mortal’ as an anagrind.
Had to work really hard to come within four of the finish. Maybe doing more of this setter will help me to get used to his style, so can we have him every day for a fortnight please. (Only kidding.)
thanks paddymelon@12 – much appreciated.
Given that I watched MTV’s Geordie Shore as a teenager, I’m gutted to have missed ‘mortal’ as a brilliant anagrind
Coming in somewhat tardily here, but does anyone immediately else think of the late, great Kenny Everett when they see the word ‘doobry’?
I now see the Mortal Man Hotel in Troutbeck, Cumbria in a new light!
Thanks Jack and welcome. I am also a bit late to the party but there was much to enjoy here and a 30 letter NINA to admire. I just wonder if the need to complete the NINA led to a couple of sacrifices – MOISTEN does not equal SPRINKLE; RACKETEER has a somewhat poor def; a couple of unusual words esp OCTILLION etc But look forward to the next one and thanks to Andrew for the blog.
This was hard and I can’t see the point of the NINA…though it must contribute to some unusual words in grid.
Following was F recently and now FF!
Long gone are days when a GASMAN read a meter.
I guess quite a few.
Thanks both
I leapt right onto 2D. Went for [s]TROLL[s] and then wondered why 11A wouldn’t fit.
How does “ff” mean following? Usually it’s “f”.
And if the locals don’t know dobro, we down under had no chance.
Sorry, doobry.
I only just saw this:
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainability/cp-scott-centenary-essay
The nina: Comments are free but facts are sacred.
https://www.theguardian.com/au/commentisfree
Good. Ness.
I’ve always thought it was ‘dooberry’ and ‘schmoe’ but with slang words I guess the spelling isn’t as exacting. Had to admit defeat in the SE corner.
Astounding number of people have never come across a doobry … presumably you’ve never come across a whatsit, thingamajig, whatchacallit or hoojamaflip either