There have not been many outings for Maize in the last few years.
Let’s hope we get to see more like this …
… an excellent puzzle with a cracking theme & Nina.
During the first pass of solving I managed to fill in most top acrosses and many answer on the right hand side. The bottom and left looked bare.
Then I spotted the perimeter: HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH
which delivered a heap of first letters to aid solving. The second half of the solve was thus easier than the first.
Only one clue where I’m still a bit unsure of the wordplay: For 25D, why is ‘on seesaw’ there?
It rhymes with Esau but what else? Does it have some allusion to the theme?
Until finalising this blog I would’ve also asked for help parsing 23A. But I got the significance of 11+ just now and thus will give it my “Favourite Clue” award.
Wonderful stuff. Thank you Maize
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | HERS | Sister’s half-siblings? (4) [brot]HERS (half siblings). I pencilled HERS next to the clue when I first read this first clue but didn’t have the commitment to put it in till I had confirmation from a crossing letter. So it cannot count as ‘first one in’. |
| 9 | HULLABALOO | Strip cartoon bear charged with a noisy disturbance (10) HULL (strip, as in peeling a fruit or nut) BALOO (the bear in Jungle Book) with an A |
| 10 | SONATA | Composition from boy with a talent (though not fast) (6) SON (boy) A TA[lent] (remove LENT (fast) from TALENT) |
| 11 | EXTENSOR | Grew upward round about 10, then 10 to get muscle (8) ROSE< (grew upward, round) around (about) X and TEN. First one in, not that I know anything about muscles It was the wordplay that shouted to me about X and TEN |
| 12 | UNREST | Trouble brewing close to infant nurse (6) ([infan]T NURSE)* AInd: brewing. Last one in. Not sure why. I think I just concentrated on the other unfilled answers before coming back to this one. |
| 14 | PEEKABOO | Go ‘CRASH!’ Not quite what you might say playing with baby (8) PEE (go) KABOO[m] (crash, not quite) |
| 16 | BEAR | Drop baby‘s cuddly toy (4) Double Def. |
| 18 | MORUS | Nursery product displayed in arboretum or used in these borders! (5) Triple Def. plus hidden (displayed) in ‘arboretuM OR USed’. I did not know the Latin name for Mulberry is Morus (wiki link) so looked this up to be sure. The central answer in the grid ensuring the perimeter is indeed around the mulberry bush. |
| 19 | MENU | Big boys’ uniform choices for course (4) MEN (big boys) U[niform] |
| 20 | YARMULKE | Mary and Luke modelled small person’s headwear (8) (MARY LUKE)* AInd: modelled. It is a person’s headwear that is small, not necessarily a small person! |
| 21 | DESIGN | Come up with tips to differentiate the twins, possibly (6) D[ifferentiat]E (tips of that word), SIGN (the twins, possibly, ref. sign of the zodiac) |
| 23 | RING TRUE | Scaremongering from 11+? Honestly, it’ll make you withstand examination (4,4) [scaremonge]RING (go from letter 11, ‘+’ till the end of that word) TRUE (honestly) |
| 26 | IN HAND | Nina managed to keep husband and daughter under control (2,4) (NINA H[usband] D[aughter])* AInd: managed. |
| 27 | REPOPULATE | Salesman had sex endlessly to create another baby boom? (10) REP (salesman) [c]OPULATE[d] (had sex, endlessly) |
| 28 | RUST | Living without Charlie Brown (4) [c]RUST as in earning a crust, earning a living, minus the C from Charlie |
| Down | ||
| 1 | HEROIN | Matilda is one avoiding bottom smack (6) HEROIN[e] Matilda is certainly the heroine of the eponymous Roald Dahl story, avoiding bottom. |
| 2 | ESCAPE FROM | Team spending time with forceps struggling to secure delivery (6,4) ([t]EAM FORCEPS)* AInd: struggling. |
| 3 | RHEA | Big Bird and Elmo have reinvented rearing beginners (4) First letters reversed of ‘And Elmo Have Reinvented’ |
| 4 | ELSE | European school ends up English instead (4) E[uropean] S[choo]L< E[nglish] |
| 5 | WAITRESSED | Served as girl with best-in-class upside-down cake? (10) W[ith] AI (A1: best in class) DESSERT< (cake, upside down) |
| 6 | EARN | Bring home outspoken little playmate for Eric (4) Homophone (indicated by outspoken) of “Ern” short (little) for Ernie, as in Eric and Ernie (Morecambe & Wise) |
| 7 | GO TO TOWN | Enthusiastically try putting baby Oscar in dress (2,2,4) TOT (baby) O[scar] in GOWN (dress) |
| 13 | TUMBLERFUL | Capacity of rough partner in child’s play to get body for rugby league (10) TUMBLE (Partner of, and as in “Rough and Tumble”) RFU (body for rugby) L[eague] |
| 14 | PUREE | First 60% of Indian bread rolls to become baby food? (5) RUPEE (Indian bread – money) with the RUP part reversed (rolls) |
| 15 | ATMOSPHERE | Tone and Tom running after a ball (10) (TOM)* AInd: running, After A, then SPHERE (ball) |
| 17 | EXAMINEE | Pupil facing questions a setter’s put in Old English (8) A MINE (a setter’s) in EX (old) E[nglish] |
| 22 | GANESH | Rubbish about hide of Nellie the Elephant being revered by Hindus (6) GASH (rubbish, as in poor quality) around N[elli]E |
| 24 | GLOB | Diminutive boy and girl vacantly shaking out a bit of ketchup? (4) (BO[y] + G[ir]L)* AInd: shaking out. |
| 25 | ESAU | Thesaurus entry for boy on seesaw? (4) Hidden in thESAUrus. I’m not sure why ‘on seesaw’ is there apart from it rhymes and has some allusion to the theme |
| 26 | ITEM | Newspaper article linked boy and girl (4) Double Def. |
25d – ‘I saw Esau sitting on a seesaw’ – a nursery rhyme or tongue-twister I remember from childhood.
According to Chambers, ‘gash’ is originally and especially a nautical term for ‘rubbish, waste’ which was new to me. Had 25d as skt @1.
I made a slow start, but the mention of NINA in 26a alerted me to the possibility of one (as the grid should have done!) and I discovered what it was with only about a third of solutions entered. The remaining two thirds went in quite swiftly, but I needed help with some parsing. I’m also confused about the seesaw, and abandoned 14d thinking Indian bread must be something to do with puri (doh!). Loved the inclusion of so much baby/child fodder in the clues of this Children’s Games puzzle!
Thanks to Maize and Beermagnet
Apart from the brilliant nina, which I wish I’d thought to look for, this was an interesting set of clues. Esau from the OT,, a Jewish skullcap, some Indian money, and their elephant god to balance the colonial’s fictional bear. And gash a new bit of argot. Enjoyed, thanks Maize and beermagnet.
I saw Esau sitting on a seesaw.
I saw Esau and ‘e saw me.
Strange. It is reasonably rare for me to be quite as comprehensively defeated as I was by Maize today. Hard on the heels of a reasonably swift solve of the Guardian prize. Simply not on the wavelength, I suppose. I did not recognise quite a few instructions and failed to spot WP fodder correctly on several occasions. And never even got close to spotting the nina as a result. Good to be brought down to earth occasionally, I guess. I enjoyed reading the blog and seeing where I went wrong.
Thanks both
A-maizeing. Half-way through, and I was Grumpy, but by the end I was Happy. The poison – apple was YARMULKE, 20(ac) , which I forced in, more in hope than confidence.
Unfamiliar solver, for me, and in turn, a lot of devices that foxed me for ages.
“scaremongering from 11+”, in 23(ac), is a flash of genius.
For once in my life, I spotted the NINA. Which obviously means, Maize is a 5-star setter, in my book.
This puzzle is simply, a “toughie but goody”, and I enjoyed revisiting all of the clues/surfaces long after I had finished it.
My yarmulke is raised, and I shall now enjoy a tumblerful.
Ta, and ta, Maize & beermagnet
Enjoyable. Took me a while to get going but I persevered and found it worthwhile to complete. Liked the clue for PURÉE, 23a with the 11+ trick, the reversal in RHEA etc. Idiosyncratic and inventive setting. Thanks both.
Definitely not child’s play for me either. In retrospect I can now appreciate a fine puzzle.
This was what we have come to expect from this setter – tough but fair and very enjoyable. It took a lot of work but I eventually emerged battered but triumphant.
Many thanks to Maize and to BM.
Thanks to Beermagnet and commenters. Always great to see feedback.
Just to say that I spend a lot of time on building sites, where ‘gash’ is the go-to word for anything that’s no good. ‘That plasterboard is all gash – chuck it in the skip!’
Thanks both. Definitely in my all time top-ten for difficulty, rescued partly by the Nina, though despair had taken me to AI to find phrases including ‘berry bush’ as that was all I could make sense of at the time….however it failed me, offering only ‘under a gooseberry bush’ so I repaired to my own devices which eventually worked, GANESH was always going to defeat me, as I knew neither the rubbish nor the answer, RING TRUE went in unparsed, where I feel I was hindered by ’11 + ?’ which looked like an algebraic equation, and I am not sure the question mark is justified otherwise, if it is intended as an instruction.
Where I did “get” the gist it was great.. like HULLABALOO, EARN, RUST and a couple of others… but not enough to get the perimeter even though suspicious, for once! Littered with reveals by the end… always tomorrow.
Thanks Maize and beermagnet
For once I saw the Nina, because the clue for MORUS basically told you to go look for one. (How are there people who missed it?) At that point, I had REWEGOROUNDTH or thereabouts, and it felt a bit like cheating to fill in the rest, but I did. As noted in the blog, that made a number of answers on the left side much easier.
Eric and Ernie never made it in the States, so EARN was a bung-and-shrug. I also was unfamiliar with ESAU’s seesaw, but I had three of the four letters thanks to the Nina, so it was clear. I assumed (correctly, it apparently turns out) that it was some British nursery rhyme.
Thanks beermagnet and Maize.
I thought this was excellent.
Spotted the nina towards the end that gave several answers at bottom and left.
Had gaps in parsing, thanks for clearing them up.
23a device – have never see that before. Neat.
Messing with LSE and E for 4d…..well.
ESCAPE FROM and WAITRESSED are the best.
The image of a team of surgeons messing around was scary.
On the other hand, the waitress was efficient in delivering an upside-down cake, so to speak!
MrP@14 Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise were never very funny. Sort of latter-day, Laurel & Hardy, but without the talent.
Their movie attempts were embarrassingly poor.
A UK thing, so well-spotted. Wise was commonly referred to as “little Ern”.
Give me Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, any day of the week.
One of our rare forays into Indy territory these days, and we found it quite a challenge. With a bit of help, though, we got it all once we spotted the nina, and there was a good PDM when we guessed MORUS and checked it in Chambers. Like our blogger we only saw the significance of ’11+’ at the vey end, realising it had nothing to do with 11ac, which happens to be our favourite.
Thanks, Maize and beermagnet.
I came out of hospital a few days ago. In hospital I solved several puzzles, but I’m having difficulty getting back into the swing. Didn’t quite finish this and never spotted the Nina.
Thanks BM and Maize, saw the perimeter coming very early on and it helped fill the grid very quickly. Parsing say for a blog took much longer.
Like others, spotting the nina towards the end helped with finishing off the remaining few in the SW corner, although still needed an overnight sleep to get there.
16a – what’s a drop baby in relation to a bear? I thought the definition was baby’s cuddly toy, but can’t see a synonym for Drop.
@16 E.N.Boll& – Eric and Ernie were national treasures, Christmas specials were must watch. How could you not enjoy the Andre Previn and Angela Rippon skits? Each to their own I suppose. Bring me sunshine…
Gnomad. It is in the sense of bearing children.
Gnomad@20.
Fair play. When I was a kid, I laughed a bit.
But if you look at them, now, very repetitive , same old jokes, recycled, again and again.
Arsenal!
But, you are quite right: national treasures from a much more innocent time. I withdraw my comment, with a bit of shame attached.
I found this one of the toughest . Completely missed the Nina etc. One query concernng 22d. My reference wotks refer to the Elephant god as Ganesha rather than Ganesh, presumably this is an alternative spelling but can’t find it anywhere. I worked out the answer but was never sure that it was correct..
A brilliant crossword but if see another by maize i might reserve it for a holiday solve!
Turendot @23
Broadly speaking it’s Ganesha in the original Sanskrit and in Southern India, but Ganesh in Northern India and English. But I spent six months travelling round India & Nepal in the eighties smoking the ubiquitous Ganesh [sic] beedies, and they’re made in the South.
Turendot @23
Broadly speaking it’s Ganesha in the original Sanskrit and in Southern India, but Ganesh in Northern India and English. But I spent six months travelling round India & Nepal in the eighties smoking the ubiquitous Ganesh [sic] beedies, and they’re made in the South.