Our first blog of the New Year and another lovely offering from Phi – the first of many in 2014 we hope! Joyce’s favourite clue is 4d for its briefness!
When it came to writing up the blog we had a good look at the completed puzzle for hidden themes or ninas. If we are blogging we sometimes put a random selection of answers into an internet search and we struck lucky this time. We are not sure whether we have found all the theme items that are CASTLES – RAGLAN, ETAL PORTLAND. Bert thought he remembered a CASTLE PLENTY but we couldn’t find one. Perhaps 5d is related too!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Ample time to cut back after start of past year | |
| PLENTY | LENT (time to cut back) after P (start of past) + Y (year) | |
| 5 | Name for vase showing things the returning sailor craves | |
| PORTLAND | PORT and LAND – presumably a sailor would be looking forward to both of these on her way home! | |
| 9 | Discouraging comments is unsaid, so goes wild | |
| DISSUASION | An anagram of IS UNSAID DO (anagrind is ‘goes wild’) | |
| 10 | Firm and sure to spoil | |
| COOK | CO (firm) + OK (sure) | |
| 11 | Newspaper’s line encountering an old military leader | |
| RAGLAN | RAG (newspaper) + L (line) + AN | |
| 12 | Call out to gain knowledge of curtailed safety announcement | |
| ALL CLEAR | An anagram of CALL (anagrind is ‘out’) + LEAR |
|
| 13 | That agreement about musical selection’s right, based on annual returns | |
| YEAR ON YEAR | YON (that) + YEA (agreement) about EAR (musical selection) + R (right). We weren’t sure about EAR for musical selection – you can say that someone has an ear in terms of distinguishing sounds etc so it just about works for us. Sometimes though we select our music for nostalgic reasons! | |
| 16 | A lot of noise obscuring first murder victim | |
| ABEL | ||
| 17 | Looking old, when avoiding looking slimy | |
| GREY | GRE |
|
| 19 | Smooth cryptic Listener holding mother back | |
| STREAMLINE | An anagram of LISTENER (anagrind is ‘cryptic’) around or holding MA (mother) reversed or ‘back’ | |
| 21 | Medicine in water knocked back? Here’s possible reward | |
| LOLLIPOP | PILL (medicine) within POOL (water) reversed or ‘knocked back’. Looking back, it seems rather strange to Bert that he always received a sweet or ‘lollipop’ as a reward after he’d seen the dentist when he was a child. | |
| 23 | Prompt opening of newspaper after one’s getting mention | |
| INCITE | N first letter or ‘opening’ newspaper after I (one) + CITE (mention) | |
| 25 | Endearment putting of Prince (and everyone else) | |
| ET AL | ||
| 26 | Amount allocated in rail working is not sensible | |
| IRRATIONAL | RATION (amount allocated) in an anagram of RAIL (anagrind is ‘working’) | |
| 27 | Work includes arrangement of rites? Such work does | |
| PRIESTLY | PLY (work) around or ‘including’ and anagram or ‘arrangement’ of RITES and a play on the fact that priestly work would involve rites. | |
| 28 | Fort? Actors exited bypassing fort | |
| CASTLE | CAST(actors) + LE |
|
| Down | ||
| 2 | Liberal attitude over time needed for keeping stock | |
| LAIRAGE | L (Liberal) + AIR (attitude) over AGE (time) | |
| 3 | Describing some hooter or some klaxon as ‘a loudspeaker’ | |
| NASAL | Hidden within the clue klaxoN AS A Loudspeaker | |
| 4 | Desires unknown income | |
| YEARNINGS | Y (unknown – as used in maths) + EARNINGS (income) | |
| 5 | Soldier’s correct tally – not all personal items? | |
| PRIVATE PROPERTY | PRIVATE (soldier) + PROPER (correct) + T |
|
| 6 | Nitrogen found in most of region around the kidney | |
| RENAL | N (nitrogen) inside REAL |
|
| 7 | What’s very funny about duplication of state message? | |
| LOCAL CALL | LOL (short for laugh out loud) about CAL (state as in California, duplicated). Whenever Joyce sees LOL she cannot help but remember THIS story! | |
| 8 | Gas worried very young child | |
| NEONATE | NEON (gas) + ATE (worried) | |
| 14 | Rake gathering bally nuts in deep shade | |
| ROYAL BLUE | ROUE (rake) around an anagram of BALLY (anagrind is ‘nuts) | |
| 15 | Practical article is reviewed | |
| REALISTIC | An anagram of ARTICLE IS (anagrind is ‘reviewed’) | |
| 18 | Jumper’s back needing something scraped off? That’s due to bird | |
| ROOSTER | ROO (jumper) + STER |
|
| 20 | Royal partner about to be announced in sport | |
| NETBALL | TBA (to be announced) inside NELL (Royal partner as in Nell Gwynne) | |
| 22 | Indicate one’s name engraved in trophy | |
| POINT | I (one) + N (name) inside or ‘engraved in’ POT (trophy) | |
| 24 | Frustrate or frustrated? | |
| CROSS | Double definition | |
Were this the British version of the Nina, you’d all be saying ‘Not that again…’
Please Phi, can you give us some more clues please? Were we completely off target?
By the way ……. Happy New Year!
NZ coastal districts – local knowledge helps me, for once.
B&J re 5 down, did you mean that an Englishman’s castle is his home?
As is usual with most of Phi’s ninas/themes this one passed me by. As far as the puzzle itself is concerned it didn’t take me too long but I didn’t find it as satisfactory a solve as some of Phi’s because several answers went in without my bothering to parse them. NETBALL, PRIVATE PROPERTY and YEAR-ON-YEAR fell into that category.
LAIRAGE was my LOI from the wordplay alone.
Thank you to setter & bloggers. LAIRAGE was new to me and I couldn’t parse 13 – thanks for the explanation. I’ll feel that I’ve achieved at least something in my life if I ever get a Phi Nina but I don’t think it’s going to happen!
Thanks, both.
Like Andy, the nina passed me by. But I guess the world divides into two categories: nina hunters and those that have other things to do … That wasn’t meant to be facetious, btw; it’s just that I’m rubbish at them.
Couple here that I couldn’t parse, so thank you for those. PRIESTLY was my favourite today; LAST RITES and all that. PETAL as a term of endearment works for me, but I’m northern.
Random fact: LOLLIPOP has a claim to fame. Ask a touch-typist – it’s the longest English word that you can type using just your right hand. I’ll get me coat now.
Joyce has just returned – so thanks for all the comments while she has been out and Bert was at the hospital (nothing serious!).
Well… we will keep an eye out for these districts when we go to NZ! Thanks Muffyword.
Yes, Conrad, we did intend the reference in 5D – although it is somewhat tenuous.
I parsed 16ac as A + BEL, which , logically enough, is obscure term for 10 decibels.
Sorry, should have added: so then defn is “First murder victim”
G.
Thanks Phi for an enjoyable puzzle and B&J for the blog. Does the remark on 25ac mean that Bert would be happy to be so addressed by Joyce? Thought not.
Geebs@9 and 10 re 16ac: That was my first thought as well, but I could not account for the word “obscuring” in the clue, and it does not really work for me as an indication of an obscure meaning, so I greatly prefer the parsing given by B&J.
PB @12. Agree about obscuring but seems to me that “first” is an essential part of the defn – it’s what makes Abel unique – so that leaves no indicator to remove initial letter of Babel.
G.
No chance Geebs.
That Abel is (according to some pre-Dawkinsian text) the first murder victim is neither here nor there in Phi’s clue, which states clearly what to do to get the required word.
Just back from a long day riding on a steam train to see a white (though not albino) kiwi (and didn’t take the iPad along). Yes, indeed – NZ shipping forecast areas do include a lot of perfectly usable crossword words (as well as some I couldn’t go near) so after Boatman had used the UK ones for a Guardian thematic, I thought this might be a nice ghost theme that you didn’t need to get to be able to solve the puzzle.