Solving time: 30 minutes
More ingenious clues from Nestor here, making a puzzle I found very hard – I suspect others who struggled more than me on other Nestors will have beaten me this time. The grid is pangrammatic, but I can’t see anything else going on. As Nestor is proving himself a master of Nina-spotting in the Times RTC blog, there may well be something I’m too dense to notice. I can see ART four times in the grid, once backwards, but that doesn’t feel like enough to count. Several clever uses of bits of foreign language, too. The clues not mentioned here were quite a bit easier, so there were places to get a start – good judgement by Nestor or just possibly his editor.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PERFORMING ARTS – anag. of e.g. firm patrons, r (=right) |
| 10 | EL,O(QUE)NCE |
| 11 | SEIZE = sixteen in French, hence “Cousteau’s four square” |
| 12 | PRO(U)L(i)X – which teaches me that Annie P. wrote the orginal book used for the movie. |
| 13 | CREATIVE = rev. of E=European,VITAE=lives in Rome (i.e. in Latin), R.C. |
| 19 | ON THE TILES – the last answer, which took me a long time to spot – thought too much about bathroom floors, as I was doubltless intended to. |
| 20 | W,ART (art being “creative expression”) |
| 22 | N(A POLE)ON |
| 24 | FU(N(ickelodeo)N),EL |
| 27 | AP(ART MEN)T |
| 28 | TRAVEL SICKNESS – (risk vessel cant)*, &lit. |
| Down | |
| 2 | ECONOMIST – rev. of T(SIMON)O,C.E. – Simon being the original name of Saint Peter |
| 3 | FO(U)LLY – “you on mobile” = U – text-messaging argot is gradually getting into cryptic puzzles – you knew it would … |
| 4 | (f)RANK |
| 5 | ICEBREAKER – ea. in (bickerer)* |
| 6 | GOSSAMER – Mass rev. in GOER as in church-goer |
| 8 | SI,e.g.,EM(m)ENTAL,IT,Y |
| 9 | PEPPERCORN RENT – cryptic def. expliting two meanings of “ground” |
| 14 | V(A RIF(f))OCALS |
| 17 | B,RAINLESS – with “as a drip” as the very apt definition |
| 18 | LE(ELF,RE)E – Rivendell being the home of the elves in Lord of the Rings |
| 21 | JUST IN |
| 23 | PAD,(q)UA(y) – where Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew takes place |
I really enjoyed this one. The Indy is lucky to have Nestor setting. A very gifted setter, who I know as Kea from the Listener series. This was full of rigorously clued gems, which gave great satisfaction as solved and understood. It showed also to me, on looking back at the clues, that minimising use of link words does not diminish invention. Only one I was not absolutely certain about was JUSTIN (got it right, but was not quite sure what “cousin” meant). Don’t usually quote my solving times except in my own reviews, but if Peter’s is 30 mins, I’m quite proud of my 50 mins!
I can’t take any credit for this puzzle allowing the solver to get started. I think all puzzles should and Nestor is a master and wouldn’t need to be told.
Cousin was just a way of indicating similarity. I know Justin as an answer in the series of jokes that includes “What do you call a man with a seagull on his head?” and “What do call a man with a spade in his head?” etc. but I won’t be reproducing it here.
I pinched a paper in a pub in Bristol to do this one, and just about managed to finish it before having to give it back again. Wonderful stuff, anyway!