Sixty Happy Years by Nimrod
In an Only Connect Wall, 16 arbitrarily arranged words, phrases or names must be sorted into four groups of four, each with a different thematic link. Representing such a Wall, the 16 silvered answers in the grid are clued in alphabetical order of solution, by wordplay only. The four thematic groups may themselves be sorted into two groups; the item connecting the two groups is to be highlighted in the completed grid (15 cells in two separate blocks, each block appropriately oriented). The wordplay for non-Wall five- letter answers ignores one letter of the answer. These letters may be arranged to give a rendering of a book title, to be written below the grid. Remaining non-Wall clues are normal.
Well, there I was in York for the annual Slogger & Betters do. This has been covered a fair bit on this site. This year it was a “special” event to celebrate sixty years since Nimrod drew his first breath.
Thus, given the title of this crossword, I thought that our normally mild-mannered editor had become a bit egotistical. But, as it turns out, I needn’t have worried.
The extra letters generated by the five letter answers led to an anagram of PRU AND ME a recently published book by Timothy West regarding his sixty year marriage to Prunella Scales.
In a nod to Only Connect
, we also had to solve a wall. I’ve shown what I believe to be the correct solution in the table below but I’m also prepared to be told that I’ve got it wrong somehow.
I don’t know what else to say, except that it was pretty tough especially with so many obscure definitions and the libertarian style though that didn’t spoil it in any way.
Many thanks to Nimrod for a tough workout.
| Category | ||||
| Anagrams of west | EWTS | STEW | TEWS | WETS |
| Associated with west | HAM UNITED | HAVERFORD | SACKVILLE | SIDE STORY |
| Types of scales | KELVIN | LIKERT | MOHS | RICHTER |
| Associated with “scale” | FLAKE | RANGE | SPILL | WEIGH |
| WALL CLUES | Wordplay | ||
| • Few at a site looking at prime locations | EWTS | Prime locations (2, 3, 5, 7) of fEW aT a Site | |
| • The onset of listeriosis, doctor gathers | FLAKE | FAKE (doctor) around L[isterosis] (first letter) | |
| • Case only detective can hesitate repeatedly about (2 words) | HAM UNITED | D[etectiv]E (case only)+TIN (can)+UM (hesitate)+AH (hesitate) rev: about | |
| • One so nearly replacing cracking hot date | HAVERFORD | A (one)+VER[y] (so; minus last letter)+FOR (replacing) inside Hot+Date | |
| • Like getting worried about Varadkar’s first name | KELVIN | LIKE (anag: getting worried) around V[aradkar] (first)+Name | |
| • Two engagements on social media: one in, one out | LIKERT | LIKE+RT (retweet) | |
| • What may be heard from the Springfield Tavern | MOHS | Sounds like Moe’s (Tavern in Springfield – ref: The Simpsons) | |
| • Put in a sprint to get back for one | RANGE | RAN (put in a sprint)+EG (for one; rev: to get back) | |
| • Biscuit’s not completely right | RICHTER | RICH TE[a] (biscuit; not complete)+Right | |
| • Fashion house as advertised by SEX in hall … | SACKVILLE | SA (sex)+CK (Calvin Klein: fashion house)+VILLE (hall) | |
| • … that is very good for clothing line (2 words) | SIDE STORY | ID EST (that is) inside SO (very) + STORY (line) | |
| • Contents of medicine bottle put into circulation | SPILL | PILLS (contents of medicine bottle; anag: put into circulation) | |
| • The missing hospital in the Cornish region? | STEW | T[h]E (minus Hospital) inside SW (Cornish region) | |
| • As absent tea was! | TEWS | TE[a] W[a]S minus both Absents | |
| • The MO of the radio DJ? | WEIGH | Sounds like Way (MO) | |
| • Something that may be eaten up – and in haste, weirdly!) | WETS | STEW (something that may be eaten), haSTE Weirdly (hidden: and in) rev: up | |
| Extra letter | |||
| ACROSS | |||
| 9 Duffel & Terylene keeping separate in the wash (5) | ELUTE | U |
duffEL TErylene (hidden: keeping) |
| 10 This King failing us would appear egregious (7, 2 words) | GEORGE I | EGREGIO[us] (minus US; anag: failing) | |
| 13 Cable-cars whirring help to interrupt uneasy rest (8) | TELPHERS | REST (anag: unesay) around HELP (anag: whirring) | |
| 15 Son longing to be free of energy charges not so cunning (7) | SLYNESS | Son+LESS (not so) around Y[e]N (longing; minus Energy) | |
| 19 Are uniform and fine old hat being deposited by fairies? (3) | AUF | Are+Uniform+Fine | |
| 21 Very American routine (3) | WAY | (double def) | |
| 22 Miss cat after heading off (4) | OMIT | [v]OMIT (cat; minus first letter) | |
| 23 A little from each city (4) | ROME | fROM Each (hidden: a little) | |
| 24 Take post as far as Glastonbury? (3) | TOR | TO (as far as)+R (take) post indicates that R goes behind | |
| 25 Dawn’s one with a motley (4) | EOAN | ONE+A (anag: motley) | |
| 26 Impressive, one’s last shot (4) | EPIC | [on]E (last)+PIC (shot) | |
| 27 Gym with somewhere to sit (3) | PEW | PE (gym)+With | |
| 28 Lump together old on-line staff? (3) | NUR | (double def) National Union of Railwaymen | |
| 29 A few frogs hurried through to find a prince! (4) | RANA | double def with a cryptic bit in the middle: RAN (hurried)+A | |
| 31 Winter transport distracts person on strike (7) | SLEDGES | (double def) to sledge a cricket batsman (person on strike) | |
| 34 Open note owns up about top hack (8) | UNHASPED | Note+HAS (owns) inside UP + EDitor (top hack) | |
| 38 On and off excels, to great applause (5) | ÉCLAT | A |
E[x]C[e]L[s] T[o] (on and off) |
| 39 Ahead of tango, exactly two taking the stage (4) | DUET | DUE (exactly)+Tango | |
| DOWN | |||
| 1 Take intermittent readings of the exact temperature (4) | HEAT | [t]H[e] E[x]A[c]T (intermittently) | |
| 2 Shagged with one short screw? (5) | ALLEN | E |
|
| 3 Upon entry Inverkip loafers slip into us (5) | MUILS | M |
&lit. US around I[nverkip] L[oafers] |
| 4 One entitled to keep maiden name (3) | NEE | oNE Entitled (hidden: to keep) | |
| 5 On subject of upset, somewhat concerning (4, 2 words) | IN RE | concERNIng (hidden: somewhat; rev: upset) | |
| 6 R Goosen’s rival characters with a devious bent (4) | EELS | Retief Goosen is a South African golfer as is Ernie ELS | |
| 7 Way in which person is giving number away? … (4) | DOOR | DO[n]OR (person giving; minus Number) | |
| 8 … perhaps Schiele image adopts it? (4) | EGON | I’m sure I solved this one but I just can’t see it now. EGON Schiel – Austrian painter |
|
| 11 Low number in bridge rubber ring about getting a boost (4) | TREY | TYRE (rubber ring) with RE (about) moved up | |
| 12 Quickly leaves vessel with cargo of deer (8) | VAMOOSES | VAS (vessel) around MOOSE (deer) | |
| 14 Christmas fare, say, priest and gospeller conducts mass about (8) | PLUM-CAKE | Priest+LUKE (gospeler) around Mass+CA (about) | |
| 16 Anyway, not revealing the last bit of buttocks (5) | NATAL | N |
AT AL[l] (anyway minus last letter) |
| 17 Berks, perhaps? Not one little bit (5) | SHRED | D |
SH[i]RE (Berkshire, maybe) minus I (one) |
| 18 Oh wow, here we are in Muscat (4) | OMAN | Sounds like “oh, man!”. Muscat is capital of Oman | |
| 20 Arm gashed by ordinary thrust with very old sword (4) | FOIN | FIN (arm) around Ordinary | |
| 27 Weir with a thousand fish (4) | PENK | PEN (weir)+K (thousand) | |
| 30 International slices potato in trat at top whack (5, 2 words) | AL PIÙ | P |
ALU (potato) around International. I think trat(toria) is used to indicate Italian |
| 32 Organ’s route to loft? (5) | RENAL | R |
LANE (route; rev: to loft) |
| 33 Ballerina out of the way up in Fife formerly (4) | ANCE | [d]ANCE[r] (ballerina) minus RD (road: the way; rev: up) | |
| 34 Compound you’re about to bottle (4) | UREA | yoU‘RE About (hidden: to bottle) | |
| 35 Top vet that’s frustrating! (4) | HECK | [c]HECK (vet; minus first letter) | |
| 36 I’m stoned, see (4) | DATE | ||
| 37 Numb after this smash from Dimitrov? (3) | LEV |
Tough indeed. I didn’t expect to finish, and it took most of the week! But impressive throughout. All thanks to Nimrod and kenmac. Never parsed the SACKVILLE clue at all, even after seeing what it had to be. I think the preamble’s “rendering of a book title” means that PRU AND ME is spelt out although it’s actually PRU & ME on the cover — I’m guessing the latter should be written below the grid but am not entirely sure.
For 37d, I think “smash from Dimitrov” is to be read as “money from Bulgaria”, while in traditional Old Testament book abbreviations LEV comes after NUMB.
PS for 2D my best guess was “shagged” = “all in” which with “one short” gives ALLEN minus the E.
@1a That was supposed to be “NUMB comes after LEV”. I’ll get me coat now.
A bit clever for me so thanks for great blog kenmac and to Nimrod for linking his 60th with a similar anniversary
I seem to remember a weekend puzzle ten year ago celebrating their 50th
Great stuff!
Thanks Nimrod and kenmac, a super puzzle. Re EGON: I think EGO (image, of oneself) gets (“adopts”) the N that was given away in the previous (linked) clue.
A marvellous celebratory crossword, very satisfying to follow all the way through. Warmest congratulations to Nimrod (and of course to the “item” themselves), and thanks to Kenmac. One point of detail: in 30 down, doesn’t “alu” suggest potato in an Indian restaurant, not a trattoria? Or am I missing something?
@7 kenmac’s write-up suggests (and I agree) that the “in trat” doesn’t relate to the potato but is part of the definition, flagging an Italian answer.
Fair enough, and I should have read the blog more carefully
DATE (I think it works like this)
I’m stoned=I have a seed/stone.
See.
I must admit I always slightly shudder when I see Nimrod’s name at the top of an Inquisitor. Yes, the grids are beautifully constructed and there will be multiple layers of execution. But I also know that it will be “just that bit harder than it really needs to be”.
And so it proved with this one, although I did solve it and I enjoyed the experience more than I expected. The WEST-addition clues were particularly fun. But next time, maybe just 10% easier?
I think it worth mentioning that TIMOTHY goes WEST in the final grid and PRUNELLA goes up (ie SCALES). A very neat ending to a fitting tribute. Apologies if this has already been mentioned
Samuel West was credited as a question writer on Only Connect a few weeks ago.
What a wonderful puzzle! It took me five days to crack the end-game, finally dreaming up PRU AND ME (which I’ve never heard of) as I nodded off to sleep on Wednesday. Then Google did the rest. A lovely tribute to the happy couple.
Oh, and SACKVILLE is surely CK by VI (SEX in Latin) in SALLE?
I grumbled at first at the lack of word-lengths for all the Wall clues, but when I saw how that information might have given the solver too much help in placing some of those answers I put such thoughts aside and got started on the crossword.
The clues were excellent, many of them pretty tough, and I was well satisfied with my completed grid. The best part of the endgame was the gradual revelation of the items in the silvered entries, interrupted along the way by wrong guesses such as TIMOTHY, which ended up as RICHTER, and LAGERFELD followed by WATERFORD, which ended up as HAVERFORD.
Once I had the four groups it was not difficult to form the two supersets ‘West’ and ‘Scales’. What took the most time was finding the ‘item’ connecting those two words. I was unable to make anything useful from the letters UAEMNDPR, but my earlier guess of Timothy (West) may have prompted me to find the connection to Prunella (Scales). They were of course an item! I didn’t know about the book Pru & Me, but it was easy enough to find, and that is how I back-solved PRU AND ME. I entered Pru & Me below the grid.
I appreciated the skill that evidently went into the thematic design of this puzzle and the inventiveness that went into the clues. Among the clues, I would highlight 24a TOR and 2d ALLEN in particular. TREY took the longest to parse: it came to me the next day after reading the clue in another (simpler) way.
Many thanks to Nimrod for a superb puzzle and to kenmac for an excellent and colourful blog.
Not surprisingly this took us longer than the ‘average’ IQ. We were late starting it due to the York S&B and staying with friends and then family.
We chipped away at it – leaving many daily puzzles unsolved – and were still puzzling over the endgame when the next IQ arrived. We had the book title but could not find the item in the grid.
It wasn’t until Sunday morning that Bert finally spotted TIMOTHY going west and then found PRUNELLA while making an early morning cup of tea. Once you see it, you wonder why it took so long.
We agree with TonyG@14 about the parsing of SACKVILLE. AL PIU took ages to sort out despite knowing the name for the potato.
Thanks Nimrod for the challenge – lived up to expectations. Similarly the blog, so many thanks to kenmac.
2d: Shagged = ‘All in’, less the i (one short), resulting in ALLN.
Excellent if difficult crossword. We saw DATE as stoned (obviously) and to see (someone) is to date him or her.
Very hard, as it looked from the very beginning starting with the rubric. I got everything in, some by default, except for HAM UNITED and HAVERFORD (I wanted Waterford but that would have displaced WEIGH alphabetically and the only tenuous link would have been that there is a DJ CRYSTAL and Waterford is known for crystal – or the MO of a radio (an old one) was a crystal…)
I put SIDE STORY in half-heartedly and stated to muse on West without pursuing it to a solution. So I missed solving the wall and everything about Tim and Pru. SIDE STORY, incidentally, I think is ID EST inside SO (very) + RY (line).
Could not parse LEV but it had to be – never thought of Biblical abbreviations, and it’s a bit far-fetched to assume that Dimitrov would always give you Levs; smash FOR Dimitrov would make more sense, but would ruin the surface.
Oh, and I thing TEWS is TEA WAS with both ‘A’s absent, not two absents.
THINK!
Tough indeed. Nearly gave up a couple of times, but got there in the end, albeit missing 2 or 3 parsings.
Thanks to kenmac for sorting those out and to Nimrod for the hardest doable puzzle so far this year. And Happy Birthday too.
BTW: I agree with Colin Standfield @19 & 20 regarding Wall clues for SIDE STORY = ID EST in SO (very) + RY (line), and TEWS = TEA WAS with both ‘A’s absent.