A busy week for Nutmeg, with the Quiptic yesterday and a cryptic today. Some nice sound clueing here; I had a feeling as I was working though the puzzle that there were rather a lot of clues that involved the removal (or addition) of a single letter, but looking back on it now there don’t actually seem to be that many. Thanks to Nutmeg
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | AGENCY | Mature Conservative entering State Department (6) AGE (mature) + C in NY (state) |
||||||
| 4. | CULPRIT | Offender‘s partner dismissed by primate in sect (7) PRI[mate] in CULT |
||||||
| 9. | OVERTIRED | It’s plain — setter’s bloody exhausted! (9) OVERT (plain) + I (setter) + RED |
||||||
| 10. | DOCKS | Reaches port where 4 acrosses may be seen? (5) Double definition – culprits may be seen in the dock of a court |
||||||
| 11. | TOTED | Bore made to talk about bottles (5) Hidden in reverse of maDE TO Talk – “bore” as in “carried” |
||||||
| 12. | ANCESTRAL | Hereditary earls can’t, unfortunately (9) (EARLS CAN’T)* |
||||||
| 13. | DRIZZLE | Intermittent rain penetrating blind not a trickle (7) R[a]I[n] in DAZZLE (blind) less A. This was quite hard to parse, as I initially assumed that “intermittent rain” was the definition |
||||||
| 15. | LADIES | Public room that is welcomed by young men? Hardly! (6) I.E. in LADS. This doesn’t quite work as an &lit, I think, or even as a straight clue, as “hardly” is redundant, but it raised a smile anyway |
||||||
| 17. | SCORCH | Almost 20 — central heating’s become too hot (6) SCOR[e] + CH |
||||||
| 19. | PIVOTAL | Critical old celeb reviewed short story (7) Reverse of O VIP + TAL[e] |
||||||
| 22. | PHEASANTS | Leaders ultimately booed off in rubbish game (9) HEADS less [booe]D in PANTS (rubbish) |
||||||
| 24. | RESAT | Stunner from the East tried to get through again (5) Reverse of TASER – to resit an exam is to try to get through it again |
||||||
| 26. | ISSUE | Children‘s network doesn’t get started (5) [t]ISSUE |
||||||
| 27. | VERSIFIER | Bard‘s son stops one checking authenticity (9) S[on] in VERIFIER |
||||||
| 28. | TODDLER | Short drink relative knocked back, just a little one (7) TODD[y] + reverse of REL. I spent a long time trying to justify TIDDLER here.. |
||||||
| 29. | INSTAL | Set up wartime leader in assuming new position (6) STALIN with IN “assuming a new position”. Chambers gives this as a variant spelling of “install”, but it just looks wrong to me! |
||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | ADOPTED | Took on bill covering party (private) (7) DO + PTE in AD |
||||||
| 2. | EXERT | Wield authority dismissing parliamentary leader (5) EXPERT (authority) less P[arliamentary] |
||||||
| 3. | COTE D’AZUR | Nice region dour Aztec trashed (4,5) (DOUR AZTEC)* – region of France containing the city of Nice |
||||||
| 4. | CODICIL | Will’s rider upset detectives, breaking wind (7) Reverse of CID in COIL |
||||||
| 5. | LIDOS | Where to find swimmers showing promise in class on regular basis (5) I DO (promise in a wedding ceremony, though as I never tire of pointing out the “correct” version is “I will”) in [c]L[a]S[s] |
||||||
| 6. | RECURRENT | Habitual sounds from cat out of bounds, coming in late (9) [p]URR[s] (sounds from cat) in RECENT |
||||||
| 7. | TUSSLE | Organisation of workers produced less conflict (6) TU (trade union) + LESS* |
||||||
| 8. | ARCADE | Gunmen backing rebel covered walk (6) Reverse of RA (Royal Artillery) + CADE, crosswordland’s favourite rebel |
||||||
| 14. | INCREASED | Extended home’s finished, builder finally admitted (9) IN (home) + [builde]R in CEASED |
||||||
| 16. | DIVERSION | Nutmeg had taken up translation as hobby (9) Reverse of I’D (Nutmeg had) + VERSION (translation) |
||||||
| 18. | HANOVER | Evidence of overindulgence not good for royal house (7) HANGOVER less G |
||||||
| 19. | PASTRY | Eg turnover from discontinued lines (6) PAST (discontinued) + RY (railway) |
||||||
| 20. | LITERAL | It all gets broadcast, including Queen’s typo … (7) ER in (IT ALL)* – I vaguely remembered this meaning a printing error (specifically of a single letter, say Chambers), but in any case the clueing is clear |
||||||
| 21. | SPRINT | … typo Military Intelligence overlooked — dash! (6) MISPRINT less MI |
||||||
| 23. | SMELL | Get wind of deception involving money (5) M in SELL |
||||||
| 25. | SWIFT | Fleet Street accepts Dutch, not English (5) WIF[e] in ST |
||||||
Great puzzle!
Did anyone else notice PRECIOUS in the fourth row?
Part of a nina? Or just a huge coincidence?
Oops, never mind. I looked up “precious” on Wikipedia and it suggested Precious Ramotswe, a character from The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. RAMOTSWE is in the 12th row. My first nina! 🙂
Well spotted Steve! I’d seen PRECIOUS but couldn’t find anything to go with it, and then forgot to mention it in the blog.
Precious Ramotswe (in the symmetrically placed row of unches) from the The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
I thought this was a very enjoyable puzzle, though I needed a heavy hint to find the nina. In addition to the name of Precious Ramotswe, Nutmeg has also managed to get ‘ladies’ and ‘agency’ into the solutions, but still the penny didn’t drop. Perhaps there are more I have missed.
Not to mention LADIES’ AGENCY at 15/1-Across.
Thanks Andrew and Nutmeg
I found this difficult, not being on Nutmeg’s wavelength at all. I thought that there were lots of “removals”, though some were very clever (PRImate in 4ac for example).
I thought SMELL very weak – sell for deception is obscure at best, and M for money isn’t common, is it?
There are “detectives” in 4dn, of course, to complete the reference to Precious Ramotswe.
Really good clues here, challenging but also satisfying and elegant, with an extra treat from the Nina (I needed prompting for that).
muffin @7
Re 23 M for money is very common…in crosswords. It’s one of those I don’t really know from the real world though. But I don’t agree about “sell”; it’s not obsolete and not particularly obscure (and also pretty popular in crosswords). I think Chambers has it right – it’s informal, not obscure (“deception” is their first noun definition of “sell”). The clue also has a nice definition. I thought it was a good clever clue for a straightforward word.
Ah well, the nina passed me by as usual, but well done Steve B for spotting it.
I enjoyed this, but found it tricky. Quiptic this certainly wasn’t. OVERTIRED was my favourite this morning.
For those that also do the Indy, there is a spooky coincidence in the two puzzles today. Can’t say more, otherwise I’ll spoil it. (It’s a good puzzle over there, though.)
Thanks to Andrew for blogging and to Nutmeg for today’s offering.
Bit of a coincidence: with ANCESTRY appearing yesterday, 12a occurred to me v. quickly today!
Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew
I think this is my fourth attempt at this setter and the last two have been decidedly harder than her first two. Have enjoyed them very much and although I’ve missed the nina again, can appreciate the effort all the same.
Ended up in the bottom left with SPRINT and PHEASANTS the last two in – had not heard of PANTS meaning inferior before … and the HEADS also took a bit of finding after settling that the game was indeed PHEASANTS.
Missed a couple of parsings – including RESAT where I took the stunner to be redhead (R) and EAST as an anagram !!! ????
Thanks Nutmeg; quite a treat with two in a row – if you haven’t tackled yesterday’s Quiptic, it is definitely worth a look. Clever setting to shoehorn in the NINA. Shame that detective couldn’t be fitted in. If AGENCY was switched to 29a, detective might have been put in at 3d while still retaining the NINA (?)
Thanks Andrew and Steve B as I failed to spot the NINA. As with Andrew, I thought the definition in 13 was ‘intermittent rain,’ so failed to parse it correctly. 🙁
Favourites were PHEASANTS, CODICIL, PIVOTAL and LADIES (where I think ‘hardly’ is definitely required for the surface, unless there are some cross-dressers out there. 😉 )
Thanks, Andrew.
Enjoyable puzzle, which I found rather tricky in parts. I missed the Nina, as per usual, but I don’t generally go looking for them.
Some clever constructions and misleading definitions here, coupled with smooth surface readings. I particularly liked PHEASANTS, INSTAL and PASTRY.
PS I agree with Robi @12 that ‘Hardly’ is necessary in the clue for 15a: the definition is surely ‘Public room’ and the rest is the cryptic part.
Took me a fair while this one but very much worth the effort. Alas the Nina passed me by.
Just a note on M for money. Economists have various definitions for the money supply – is it just cash? which types of credit should be included? – which they define as M0, M1 etc. So, at least to an economist, M is money.
Trailman @15; M is also listed as an abbreviation for money in Chambers.
Thanks Andrew and Nutmeg.
I missed the Nina completely even having just read one of the books over Xmas. Very clever!
I only got to the puzzle this afternoon and it took me quite a time. It was often something of a ‘guess the word and then discover why it’s right’ process I’m afraid, but enjoyable overall.
22a was LOI. I first toyed with ‘Pleasants’ and of course googling revealed a possible reason it might be right – John Pleasants seems to have had a lot to do with games at Disney and was fired! But sanity and the correct answer prevailed.
Much of the cluing was impressive – I ticked 11a, 15a (Gervase is correct re ‘hardly’, but I agree the surface still isn’t quite as nice as it first seemed), 24a, 4d, and 19d.
I admitted defeat with most of the NW corner (1a, 1d, 2,9 & 11) empty – needless to say I missed the Nina which would have made AGENCY obvious and the rest might have followed from that. There is a lot to admire here, so no complaints.
Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and I parsed all the clues, but the nina passed me by. I must remember to look out for a nina in future Nutmeg puzzles.
I also finished up in the SW with SPRINT and PHEASANTS.
Just wanted to say what a great puzzle this was.
(For us) not particularly difficult but elegant and in places very clever.
So far, my/our favourite crossword of the New Year.
Precision and care for surfaces too.
What more can one wish for?
Many thanks, Andrew.
Thanks to Nutmeg too. With puzzles like this you are coming quite close to my Top 10 of favourite setters.
Thanks all
Does Nutmeg still qualify as a tyro, I thought this was excellent.
I spent all of Tuesday in hospital and this proved perfect to fill in the inevitable longeurs between treatments.
My last in was the NW corner. What group name is given to clues with the small pieces put together; I liked 11,13,22 ac and 5, 25 d?