This one was unusually tough for me, though perhaps that’s to be expected on a Friday and from Nimrod. I felt a little short-changed at only having 22 clues, though at least that means I have less to write for this blog entry. I was introduced to a neologism, though on googling it seems its a well-used term. Some of Nimrod’s excellently misleading definitions made this an enjoyable puzzle once the answers dawned, though a couple of inexplicable word plays marred the puzzle slightly.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 5 | FILM CLUB — MC in (BULL+IF)< — bull is a sign of the zodiac, MC Hammer was a ridiculously pantalooned rapper. |
| 8 | OUTBOX — double def. — outbox is where work is put one it’s done. |
| 9 | SUPERSUB — SUPER+SUB — a new word for me even though it seems widely used in sports reporting. ‘smashing U-boat’ is excellent word play, unbalancing the clue to mislead. |
| 10 | EXEUNT — EX+(TUNE)* |
| 11 | ANYBODY’S GUESS — (GAY SON DEBUSSY)* — great anagram. |
| 12 | HORSESHOE BATS — ? — this clue initially threw me as I thought ‘nutty hangers-on’ might be the definition, referring to birds found on a nut feeder. I thus tried to force PENDULINE TITS to fit the word play. They’re not the most common tits and they may not even be true tits but the sequence LINE = string gave me some hope. A few checking letters later I gave up and realised that nutty = BATS and hangers-on was the overall, and very good, definition. I can also see HOE = ‘edge around garden’ but I’m otherwise lost.
HORSES+HOE+BATS, see Peter’s first comment. |
| 14 | SPONSORED WALK — EROS< in S(POND)WALK — great word play. SWALK = sealed with a loving kiss, ie a message from a valentine. Pond = Atlantic. |
| 17 | YEMENI — (ENEMY)*+I — republican can pretty much refer to the national of any country described as a republic, as Yemen is. |
| 18 | TOWN HALL — (NOW)*+H in TALL |
| 19 | TUT-TUT — ? — I can see TU comes from Tue cut short with T for Times being added? Can anyone help?
TU+TT+UT, see Peter’s second comment. |
| 20 | NORSEMEN — N+(h)ORSEMEN |
| Down | |
| 1 | VICUNA — VI(C+UN)A — I resisted the temptation to write in ALPACA without checking the word play. |
| 2 | AMBERY — (R+MAYBE)* |
| 3 | ET CETERA — C in TET< + ERA — ‘and the rest’ is a great definition here, getting lost in its surface meaning. |
| 4 | SO-AND-SOS — SO+AND+S.O.S. |
| 6 | LOSE ONE’S SHIRT — cryptic def. |
| 7 | BOBBY CHARLTON — BOBBY+CHARLTON — Charlton Athletic is a South London football club. |
| 8 | OWEN GLENDOWER — O+WENG(LEND+OW(n))ER — Wenger is Arsenal’s manager. |
| 12 | HESPERUS — HES(PERU)S — the name for Venus when it appears as an evening star. |
| 13 | ROOMETTE — (TO ME)* in ROTE |
| 15 | AT HEEL — THE in LEA< |
| 16 | KILLER — K+ILLER |
12A: the missing bit is: string = (of horses, camels, etc.) a drove or number (Chambers) – so it’s a charade of HORSES,HOE,BATS.
19A: As it says “Tuesday’s Times”, maybe the idea is that “Tuesday’s Time” = TUT and were making this plural to get TUT,TUT.
Wrong, Peter: UT = as, as in “ut supra” = “as above”. So it’s TU = Abridged Tuesday, T,T = Times, UT = as, TUT-TUT = “I don’t approve”.
And how are mortals like me supposed to figure that?! Geeee….
Peter, thanks for the clarifications. I did consider that string = HORSES but failed to check it before posting my comments. I think that as = UT is a little too difficult for a weekday blocked puzzle. Ut supra is fine as it is a well-used phrase but ut on its own is surely a foreign word that needs an indication to that.