When I swapped to Friday this week I expected a nice Phi puzzle, instead I got Nimrod! A little more difficult than Phi for me with some clues still a mystery. However, much of it was straightforward thanks to the long anagram and me seeing 1dn as soon as I had P-D… A couple of the clues are gems.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PETER CROUCH — PETER + CROUCH — the Liverpool and England striker is very tall, for a footballer. |
| 9 | NADIR — (AND)* + IR — IR = Inland Revenue. Although they have now changed their name I expect we’ll have IR in crosswords for decades to come. |
| 10 | GLISSANDI — (sc)A(le) in (SLIDINGS)* — really nice &lit. |
| 11 | TRILOBITE — OBIT in T+RILE — a trilobite is an early jointed animal found in the fossil record. |
| 12 | THYMI — healTHY-MIndedness — as a vegetarian sweetbread is a weird term. It refers, I think, to the various glands that can be eaten by those willing to do so. The thymus is one such gland and its role gives this clue a nice partial &lit surface. |
| 13 | DOGE — ? — I don’t see the word play here, some reversal of GOD? [ It’s EGO’D <] |
| 14 | MENTAL NOTE — cryptic def. — ref. to Post-It notes. Having worked in a Centre for Cognitive Science I like the surface but doubt the subject would warrant a whole Faculty! |
| 16 | EGO-TRIPPER — ‘E GOT RIPPER — fantastic clue. |
| 19 | KNEW — K+NEW |
| 20 | TIGON — GO in TIN — preserved = put in TIN. |
| 21 | NUMBER OFF — MBE in (FOR FUN)* |
| 23 | NEEDINESS — (SEES END IN)* — not sure about supply as the anagramming term here. |
| 24 | PUPIL — (s)LIP-UP(s)< — good wordplay. |
| 25 | NERVE CENTRE — ? — not sure what Euro means here. I did consider R being neRve centre but that hasn’t helped. [ It’s centre of nEUROn!] |
| Down | |
| 1 | PADDINGTON GREEN — ADDING TONG in PREEN — an excellent clue but you have to know about the police station (nick) in London. It gets mentioned on the news a bit as high profile suspects are often taken there. Tong is a Chinese secret society. |
| 2 | TORSO — T + OR SO — roughly = or so. |
| 3 | RAGTIME — RAG+TIME |
| 4 | RAIMENT — AIM iN RENT |
| 5 | UNSETTLE — (LUNETTES)* |
| 6 | HONEYMOON COUPLE — cryptic def. |
| 7,8 | UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL — (assumptio)N in (WEDS DWELT + INDIVIDUAL DEFEAT)* — good anagram &lit but fairly obvious from the enumeration. |
| 15 | FRONTIER — FR+ON+TIER |
| 17 | PINKEYE — KEY in PINE |
| 18 | EN MASSE — S(hip) in (SEAMEN)* |
| 22 | EXPAT — (X in TAPE)< — I think X = “and” here. [ It’s X = “by”, and is just connecting the two uses of over.] |
Doge. I (ego) ‘d (d) back =doge
Neuron = nerve. Centre of neuron = euro. nerve centre = locus of euro.
in expat I think ‘x’ = ‘by’, with tape over it then reversed.
Thanks Conrad.
I don’t know why I didn’t think I = EGO, especially as EGO appears in another answer.
I knew I was onto something with centre of nerve but NEURON completely escaped me. Very clever.
Finally, yes X = by, + = and. I didn’t notice the “by” in the clue and so struggle to use the “and”.
NEEDINESS I think the anagram indicator “supply” is a adverb “in a supple manner”. I’ve seen this device before.
Brilliant Nimrod I thought. My favourite is the ‘e got ripper one. Superb.
Just dropping by to see who use my name on their blog…even though the use is for the other meaning (U.S only)…and about the puzzle, I don’t have any idea but it look like a flash of brilliance…