Not too difficult today, but all very well and fairly clued. I liked 9ac and especially 13dn.
Across
1 What tennis players may be doing in the forces (7)
SERVING
Double def. =”What tennis players may be doing”; “in the forces”
5 Whacking hostile delivery at the Oval? (6)
BUMPER
Double def. =”Whacking” as in enormous; =”hostile delivery at the Oval” i.e. a bouncer in cricket
9 Swaggering, make better boxing punch first to last (8)
COCKSURE
=”Swaggering”. CURE=”make better”, around or “boxing” OCKS=”punch (SOCK) first to last”
10 In old Rome I love retiring president, a low form of life (6)
AMOEBA
=”a low form of life”. AMO=”I love” in Latin, plus rev(ABE)=”retiring president”.
12 Pat kindly covers up the foreign head’s negligence (12)
CARELESSNESS
=”negligence”. CARESS=”Pat kindly”, around LE=”the foreign”, plus NESS=”head”
15 Remaining board members (one third gone) promise too much (10)
OVERCOMMIT
=”promise too much”. OVER=”Remaining” plus COMMIT[tee]=”board members (one third gone)”
17 Malicious utterance damaging leaders, perhaps (3)
MUD
M[alicious] U[tterance] D[amaging], &lit.
19 Endless row over nothing (3)
NIL
=”nothing”. LIN[e]=”Endless row”, reversed (“over”)
20 All gibbons gathered in distant watering holes (10)
BILLABONGS
=”watering holes”. (All gibbons)*
22 Band of players celebrate after work for soloists curtailed (7,5)
CONCERT PARTY
=”Band of players”. PARTY=”celebrate”, after CONCERT[o]=”work for soloists curtailed”
26 Unorthodox bishop with answer for society’s hatred (6)
PHOBIA
=”hatred”. (bishop)*, with A[nswer] replacing S[ociety]
27 Suggestive payment made to landlord in receipt of benefit (8)
REDOLENT
=”Suggestive”. RENT=”payment made to landlord”, around DOLE=”benefit”
28 Vinegary old hermit’s no saint (6)
ACETIC
=”Vinegary”. A[s]CETIC=”hermit” without S[aint]
29 Rubbish written about church — editor fired (7)
TORCHED
=”fired”. ROT=”Rubbish”, reversed or “written about”, plus CH[urch] plus ED[itor]
Down
1,2 Demand for the whole nation to go in fun sports event! (4,4)
SACK RACE
=”fun sports event”, or cryptically =”Demand for whole nation to go”
2 See 1
3 Fashionable carriage, for example (8)
INSTANCE
=”example”. IN=”Fashionable” plus STANCE=”carriage”
4 Dynamic chaps with energy moving bush (5)
GORSE
=”bush”. GOERS=”Dynamic chaps”, with the E[nergy] moving to the end.
6 Bare man swimming in river (6)
UNMASK
=”Bare”. (man)* in USK, a Welsh river
7 Promotion before commotion (10)
PREFERMENT
=”Promotion”. PRE=”before” plus FERMENT=”commotion”
8 Reformed characters in parishes do wax lyrical (10)
RHAPSODISE
=”wax lyrical”. (parishes do)*
11 Cheerful servant good for morose leader (6)
GENIAL
=”Cheerful”. MENIAL=”servant”, with G[ood] replacing M[orose]
13 Trouble afoot — temperature’s cold in the Land of More Plenty (10)
CORNUCOPIA
=”Plenty”. CORN=”Trouble afoot” as in hardened skin on a foot, plus UTOPIA=”the Land of [the book by Thomas] More”, with T[emperature] being replaced by C[old]
14 Purchasing power of earnings in Brazil? (4,6)
REAL INCOME
=”Purchasing power of earnings”, and the REAL is the Brazilian currency.
16 Doctor’s sobriety half-gone — either half (6)
MOIETY
=”either half”. M[edical] O[fficer]=”Doctor” plus [sobr]IETY
18 Crowd trouble on the rise after a cricketer’s shambles (8)
ABATTOIR
=”shambles”. RIOT=”Crowd trouble”, reversed (“on the rise”), and after A BAT=”cricketer”
21 Soldier guarding modern artist’s house, one of 12 (6)
GEMINI
one of the 12 astrological houses. GI=”Soldier”, around [Tracy] EMIN=”modern artist”
23 Watch chain not originally belonging on watch? (5)
ALERT
=”on watch”. ALBERT=”Watch chain”, minus B[elonging]
24 Fringes of more stylish network (4)
MESH
=”network”. Made fromt the “Fringes” of M[or]E S[tylis]H
25 Film company dismissing one old boss (4)
STUD
=”boss”. STUDIO=”Film company”, minus I=”one” and O[ld]
Thanks for blog and puzzle. I recognise Nutmeg’s name from Quiptic puzzles – is this her first Cryptic?
Has she been hoping to be “promoted” for some time? – This could explain the “Nina” in columns 6 & 10.
@#1.
Ah – I can answer my own question! Lots of Quiptics since May 2006 – this is second Cryptic – first in September 2013.
I reckon the Nina is quite heartfelt.
Well spotted, PGreen – I hadn’t noticed the Nina. It’s completed by the two 3-letter answers.
RE Comment #1 – 17 & 19ac needed to complete the phrase.
Thanks for explaining 10ac. I was trying to do something with OBAMA + E (anag) to get to the obvious answer.
Thanks manehi. Quite liked all this, and COCKSURE best. Perhaps too many swap-a-for-b clues as the answers to potentially tricky ones became predictable. Didn’t know the shambles meaning of 18d but it had to be that, or the Albert ref in 23d, ditto.
Thanks, manehi.
Pleasant puzzle which seemed straightforward, but the Nina (which I hadn’t spotted, of course) makes it much cleverer than it appeared at first sight.
Good clues, though there are rather a lot of single letter shifts, removals and substitutions.
To an astrologer, GEMINI is strictly a sign and not a house (which is something different), but this erroneous usage is common enough.
Great to see the lovely word MOIETY.
Welcome (again), Nutmeg.
Fine puzzle from Nutmeg. I’ve enjoyed her Quiptics and this was in that accessible style, but with some nice touches. I liked SACK RACE and CARELESSNESS in particular.
As for the nina, what can I say? Who the target audience is we shall probably never know. But well done to PGreen for spotting it.
Thanks for blogging, manehi.
Thanks manehi. This was very enjoyable and by no means the write-in I was expecting after the first few clues fell into place easily. I did notice quite a few letter swaps, too, but the definitions were nicely misleading and there were some v good surfaces, I thought.
Missed the nina. ‘Don’t let the bastards grind you down’ indeed! 🙂
Thanks manehi and nutmeg
I completely missed the nina and found it hard to spot even after it was pointed out. I also missed the significance of ‘boxing’ for the parsing of ‘cocksure’.
A lot of letter swapping as already noted in one or two comments.
I got 4d quite quickly even though this kind of clue is ‘on the edge’. I was vaguely reminded of the moving woods of Birnam to Dunsinane, where coincidentally, acc. to Google, there appear to be plenty of gorse bushes in the vicinity.
I liked 12a, 20a and 6d.
Thanks Nutmeg and Manehi. I too wondered about the number of single-letter movements but found the puzzle most enjoyable nonetheless.
Great spot from PGreen and doubtless others. Do some fellow solvers make a point of scanning the grid for potential ninas or do they just jump out at you? Either way, I’m full of admiration; getting the puzzle out is usually the limit of my ambition.
A nutmeg can be ground down..
A horrible grid again.
What a great crossword, especially now that the NINA has been revealed. For more information see this.
I had forgotten the AL(b)ERT reference. Particular favourites were COCKSURE and CORNUCOPIA.
The grid makes it easy to have wrods we know with this a long NINA. But there are many short words!!
Thanks to manehi for the blog. I had AMOEBA but was quite unable to parse it so extra thanks for that.
Can somebody please expand on the nina as I cannot see anything significant in column 6.
OK, I’m not to proud to beg – I completed the puzzle – but what’s the NINA?
Rowland, if you think this is a horrible Grauniad grid, try the one that has been appearing with disheartening regularity on a Monday with Rufus’ puzzles over the past couple of months.
dunsscotus @11
I don’t usually spot Ninas or ghost themes. I don’t make a habit of looking for them and they never jump out at me. I was prompted to look for this Nina because Nutmeg’s first cryptic had a very well concealed tree theme that passed many of us by.
Another rare success for me was with Arachne’s brilliant Big Brother. I was looking for this from the start because she had “previous” which had eluded me and the grid was extreme Rufusian. Like others I might not have finished the puzzle without an early “spot”. I don’t plan to take up twitching.
Thanks Nutmeg and manehi.
Not much more to be said: a sweet little puzzle that yielded very quickly, but then turned around and snarled at those that were being particularly attentive.
For those that remain bewildered (and I certainly didn’t spot it myself) the nina consists of 19 across, the 10th column reading down, the 6th column reading up and 17 across backwards: NIL BASTARDO CARBORUNDUM – a sort of Dog Latin translation of “Don’t let the bastards grind you down”.
My interpretation (and it is a total guess) is that Nutmeg is offering encouragement for any of her fellow setters who might have come in for some fairly vicious criticism lately, not least here.
The original ILLEGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM is not Latin euther. I will say again: nutmeg is GROUND.
Mitz, I’ve only just got round to the puzzle you gave us at Sheffield. I liked POSSESSION. Nice to meet you and DinP. And the lovely Eileen.
Thanks to Mitz@20: I was reading col6 downwards – silly me 🙁
Thanks, manehi.
I would have thought the NINA was impossible to spot – can we be sure PGreen is not Nutmeg?
Hahaha @ Dave Ellison!
@rhotician – thanks very much, glad you liked it. Plenty more where that came from if you follow the link in my name. All (constructive) criticism gratefully received.
What or who is nina?
JohnM @27
Please see the FAQ page.
I’d forgotten that Nutmeg has been in before and thought that, with Otterden last week, we had two newbies in a row. Is Quiptic-to-Cryptic a recognised progression?
And interesting to see a nina from a column of unchecked letters again.
Had to wait till I could get on line to check ALERT as I too had forgotten the ALBERT chain, but guessed it must be something like this.
26a. Surely a phobia is not a hatred? Isn’t it an intense fear? I hate ginger but I do not have a phobia about it.
Thanks Nutmeg and manehi. I couldn’t spot the Nina even after the location was explained.
Learned that a PHOBIA can also be a hatred and that whacking can mean enormous. Looking forward
to seeing some Sheffield pix.
Cheers…
Nice elegant puzzle by Nutmeg who well deserves her place in the paper version.
Is she perhaps offering encouragement to the Greenpeace locked away, far away?
Very enjoyable puzzle. Needless to say, I hadn’t spotted the Nina. Last in was “moiety”.
Grand puzzler @31. Just because it is in a newspaper, doesn’t mean it’s true.
Hi MartinD @34
It’s not just in the newspaper:
Chambers: a fear, aversion or hatred, esp a morbid and irrational one
Hats off to Nutmeg, this site and PGreen (whether or not s/he is actually Nutmeg in disguise). I would have had this crossword written off as a dull-ish, simple solve were it not for having the Nina pointed out. Which appears miraculously with no far-fetched vocab to assist it. Marvellous!
I didn’t spot the nina, but it wasn’t exactly hiding in plain sight so I’m not going to feel bad about it.
This puzzle was very similar in terms of difficulty to Nutmeg’s first cryptic, and a lot of the clues had a definite Quiptic feel. The trickier clues were mostly letter substitutions, and once I realised there could be a few of them they were easy enough to spot.
MOIETY was my LOI.
As far as unfamiliar definitions are concerned, if an answer has a meaning I haven’t come across before but the wordplay is clear enough then I’ll always go to my Chambers or an online dictionary post-solve to double-check the meaning before I come here.
MartinD
There are lots of phobias about. (There are literally thousands of such invented/joke words to be found on the Net.) Of the real ones most, such as arachnophobia, do mean fear. Others may suggest fear, aversion or hatred, or all three. Consider francophobia and xenophobia. And surely homophobia only means hatred.
The word hate itself has shades of meaning. Perhaps you just dislike ginger. Maybe you dislike it intensely. To say you hate it is, I suggest, a tad hyperbolic. I know someone who is genuinely afraid of spiders. She doesn’t ever say so, she says she hates them.
(We’re all Arachnephiles here, though.)
Thanks rhotician and gaufrid. I would argue that homophobia is fear which may manifest itself as hatred, as with arachnophobia. And it really do hate ginger! But an enjoyable chat, so thanks both.
Well after yesterday’s Paul this left me speechless.
In the 15 or so minutes this took I managed to feel almost patronised. I could only think that the setter had been pestering Hugh for a while and he finally gave in. I assumed he’d decided that the reaction of the solvers would finally convince his pesterer that he/she wasn’t ready yet.
However the reactions above astound me!
I didn’t see the nina but it does seem to confirm my thoughts.
I was almost wishing it was a Rufus 😮
Sorry Nutmeg, I hated it but thanks anyway.
Although the surfaces read OK the clues seemed to give childish intructions on how to build the answer which I found more than a tad irritating.
Thanks to Manehi.
Thanks Nutmeg and Manehi
Didn’t spot the NINA and needed to have it explained
No Latin of the dog sort or otherwise
Late coming to the puzzle today, but found it pretty satisfactory, and I’m sure that the setter would be happy to take account of constructive comments. As usual, I was completely unaware of the Nina: like Andy Borrows, I seem to have metaphorical blinkers on when solving clues, and I certainly fail to see the ‘bigger picture’ where there is one.
Gingerphobia is homophobia shurely.
Very professional job there, Mitz.
Well I got stuck by having OVERCREDIT from DIRECT[ors] for 15a.