Guardian 26,270 / Nutmeg

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With only two entries during my first pass through the clues I thought I was going to struggle with this one. However, slow but steady progress ensued and the grid was gradually filled in, starting with the right hand side, followed by the SW quadrant and finally the NW corner.

Looking back, I think my initial difficulties were caused by some well-hidden definitions (and perhaps some slightly obscure ones, for example tablet/nameplate) and intricate wordplay (or it may just be down to the fact that I started the puzzle shortly after 5am and was not fully awake).

Whatever the cause, this was a stiff but enjoyable challenge, so thanks Nutmeg.

Across
1 Poultice collected, we hear, for each nursing terminal (7,7)
MUSTARD PLASTER – a homophone (we hear) of ‘mustered’ (collected) PER (for each) around (nursing) LAST (terminal)

9 Tablet used by Lloyd’s underwriter with false teeth (9)
NAMEPLATE – NAME (Lloyd’s underwriter) PLATE (false teeth)

10 Quality instrument used by dramatist (5)
AMATI – hidden in (used by) ‘drAMATIst’

12 Smashing results a long time after opening shot (9)
BREAKAGES – BREAK (opening shot {in snooker}) AGES (a long time)

13 Plot and background of Arsenic and Old Lace? (8)
SCENARIO – an anagram (lace) of ARSENIC O (old)

14 Time for hands to meet team with one extra? (6)
TWELVE – eleven (team) plus one (with one extra) – a reference to a clock/watch

17,11 Sleuth‘s report on result of parental exposure in Sun? (6,5)
FATHER BROWN – def. & cryptic indicator – this sleuth

19 Predator follows beaten track, missing a huge amount (8)
TRILLION – TR[a]IL (beaten track, missing a) LION (predator)

22 Key worker on main motorway turning left (9)
IMPORTANT – M1 (main motorway) reversed (turning) PORT (left) ANT (worker)

24 Playwright’s first / annual award (5)
OSCAR – double def. – the first being a reference to Oscar Wilde

25 Corners everyone’s against? (5)
NOOKS – NO OKS (everyone’s against)

26 Speaker’s prevailed after a king’s brought to court (9)
ARRAIGNED – A R (king) plus a homophone (speaker’s) of ‘reigned’ (prevailed)

27 24’s character from army 5 crudely round bend (4,10)
LADY WINDERMERE – an anagram (crudely) of ARMY LEERED (5) around WIND (bend) – she who is noted for having a fan

Down
1 Boxer possibly top advocate for offshore tax haven? (4,4,6)
MAN’S BEST FRIEND – def. & cryptic indicator – the ‘offshore tax haven’ being the Isle of Man

2 VIP setter’s filling in a second puzzle, finally (7)
SOMEONE – ME (setter) in (filling) SOON (in a second) [puzzl]E (puzzle, finally)

3 Postscript saying Poland’s premier writer should be included (9)
APPENDAGE – P[oland] (Poland’s premier) PEN (writer) in (should be included) ADAGE (saying)

4 Liqueur I found in Bermuda all over the place (8)
DRAMBUIE – I in (found in) an anagram (all over the place) of BERMUDA

5 Smirked before getting taken outside (6)
LEERED – LED (taken) around (getting … outside) ERE (before)

6 Trace / source of 8 (5)
SPARK – double def. – a reference to Muriel Spark who wrote The Prime of 8dn

7 Welshman raised on gospel (7)
EVANGEL – EVAN (Welshman) LEG (on {cricket}) reversed (raised)

8 Mine’s a dire job in conflict with head of school (4,4,6)
MISS JEAN BRODIE – an anagram (in conflict) of MINE’S A DIRE JOB S[chool] – &lit

15 Slimmer with more guile eats little (9)
WILLOWIER – WILIER (with more guile) around (eats) LOW (little)

16 Old banger’s bloodstained, bearing signs of impact (8)
CRATERED – CRATE (old banger) RED (bloodstained)

18 Tucking into endless snacks, I only came originally for pudding (7)
TAPIOCA – I O[nly] C[ame] (only came originally) in (tucking into) TAPA[s] (endless snacks)

20 Anger / a feature of high church ritual (7)
INCENSE – double def.

21 A fellow dons long garment for long journey (6)
SAFARI – A F (fellow) in (dons) SARI (long garment)

23 Gay going topless with doubtful outcome (5)
RISKY – [f]RISKY (gay going topless)

29 comments on “Guardian 26,270 / Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks, Gaufrid.

    Another excellent puzzle from Nutmeg. My progress around the board was a little different to yours but, by the sound of it, at about the same pace.

    The only very slight complaint I might have was that, for me at least, there seemed too many “solve first and parse later” clues.

  2. Kicking myself this morning! Held up by Mary from army at 27ac from a playwright beginning with A at 24ac. A much better work out and some enjoyable clues. Particularly liked 1d, 2d and 14ac. I only got two on first reading, but then made steady progress until Mary and SE corner held me up

    Thanks, Nutmeg, I feel ready to face the day!

  3. Thanks Gaufrid. Bit rusty. I found the left side quite doable but bogged down on the right. There my mind went blank, trying to think of 6d’s Miss …… for 8d, so I looked it up: Grr. The rest was quite quick. Some nice clues from an impressive setter.

  4. Thanks, Gaufrid.

    By now, Nutmeg’s name on a puzzle gives a frisson of expectation and this one did not disappoint.

    Some superb clues, especially SCENARIO and the wonderful MISS JEAN BRODIE. I also ticked MUSTARD PLASTER, SOMEONE, DRAMBUIE and FATHER BROWN, which raised a smile. Lovely surfaces throughout.

    I take NeilW’s point but when the wordplay is as good as this, I don’t mind doing it that way round sometimes: it just prolongs the pleasure.

    Many thanks to Nutmeg for another top-notch puzzle.

    [Nice t see you back, molonglo. 😉 ]

  5. Thank you for a very enjoyable puzzle, Nutmeg! One half was easy, the other half tricky, but that made it all the more enjoyable.

    Like NeilW@1, I often found myself filling the answer and then parsing it, but I also agree with Eileen @4 that that prolongs the pleasure in a few cases! In the case of 1a, I couldn’t parse the second word at all, so a special thanks to Gaufrid to clearing that up.

    20d seemed too straightforward a definition, but that’s a very small niggle in the midst of some very good clues indeed.

  6. I’m another one who only got two solutions on a first pass and them slowly fought my way to completion. However, this was more exquisite torture from the Grauniad’s own Scary Spice, and I wholeheartedly agree with Eileen that seeing Nutmeg’s name as the setter gives a little thrill of expectation.

  7. Thanks to Nutmeg for a demanding and most entertaining puzzle and to Gaufrid for the blog.

    I too ended up with only two solutions after the first pass – TRILLION and TAPIOCA.

    I endorse all the favourable comments, and would like to add to Eileen’s favourite clues MANS BEST FRIEND.

  8. Thanks, Gaufrid.

    Splendid puzzle from Nutmeg: I enjoyed this more than any for a long while. Slow start, as others confirm, but I made fairly steady progress, though 1d and a few more answers on the LHS proved a little more recalcitrant.

    Some very clever and misleading wordplay; hence there were, as NeilW grumbled mildly @1, quite a few ‘solve first, parse later’ clues – but as many of the most ingenious and amusing clues tend to fall into that category, I have no complaint at all.

    It’s a bit invidious to highlight particular ones in such a well composed crossword, but I starred 1a, 13a, 25a, 1d, 2d, 8d.

  9. Thanks Nutmeg and Gaufrid. The only clues I got at first were DRAMBUIE and ARRAIGNED. For a long time I had “Long John Silver” for 1dn which held me up! Quite a few answers I had to check (mustard plaster, plate for false teeth, crate for an old car) but overall a very enjoyable crossword. I didn’t have any opinion about Nutmeg before but I will look out for him/her next time!

  10. What I like is that I never feel cheated with this setter. Yes hard, but yes very fair. If I don’t get a clue at least it’s my fault.

  11. Thanks Nutmeg for an enjoyable solve – I eventually struggled over the finish line.

    Thanks Gaufrid for a good blog. I was another ‘MARY’ at first for 27. 🙁

    I tried to fit As for Arsenic into SCENARIO until I discovered lace as the anagrind.

    MISS JEAN BRODIE was a classic.

  12. 5d LEERED — I don’t buy “smirked” as a definition for “leered”. “Leered” has a sexual connotation absent from “smirked,” which more connotes self-satisfaction and a put-down.

  13. I agree that this was an enjoyable solve – like Eileen @4 I’m starting to look forward to Nutmeg’s appearances. This was challeging enough to hold out until the last couple of minutes of my lunch break, when I finally saw FATHER BROWN and MANS BEST FRIEND (my favourite of a good bunch along with NOOKS) and the last couple followed easily from there – last in was SOMEONE. A nice variety of devices, though I must admit writing LADY WINDERMERE in from the enumeration and using the rest of the fodder to deduce LEERED after that.

    Thanks to Gaufrid and Nutmeg.

  14. I too have Nutmeg on my shortlist of favourite setters, so was looking forward to this. But it didn’t ever really spark into life for me. I got through it, but it was more of a challenge than a thrill. Just shows how we all have different tastes I suppose.

    I thought TWELVE was lovely though, and  “..in a second..”/SOON.   And of course ‘Miss J.B.’ was very clever.

  15. @Valentine ‘leer’ is in my Thesaurus for ‘smirk’ so I think that makes it ok. Depends on the situation, I suppose, or whether you’re the leerer or the leeree!

  16. Like our blogger, my order was RHS – SW – NW, and key to the whole thing was LADY WINDERMERE from *A*Y then working back to LEERED. That didn’t stop me though wondering how to parse WILDE at 24 – a very clever piece of misdirection.

    All in all a tough but very fair work out, all the more rewarding as after my slow start I feared I’d never finish. Like many I’m thoroughly enamoured of Nutmeg’s puzzles.

    SCENARIO was a favourite but I’m not sure I should single it out as there were many.

  17. Thanks all
    I’m afraid that ‘first in’ RHS was sadly my never in and I had to submit and come here, WhyI’ve no idea since the author and her work were borh familiar – perhaps I should have abandonned “speck” for trace.

  18. Quite a change from yesterday, no complaints of too easy today then? 🙂
    Thanks Gaufrid and Nutmeg, this took some beating. Really didn’t help myself by writing in breakfast instead of breakages and not noticing for ages.

  19. Yes, another excellent puzzle from Nutmeg. I saw NAMEPLATE, AMATI and BREAKAGES very quickly and they gave me my way into the puzzle. Of the long answers I solved 8dn and 27ac much quicker than 1ac and 1dn. I needed 1ac before I remembered that it was Muriel Spark who had written The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. WILLOWIER was my LOI after TWELVE, the latter of which took me much longer to see than it should have done.

  21. Best ever Nutmeg for me. Very enjoyable.

    I had the same experience as Gaufrid and others. Only two entries after the first pass and I was thinking that this was going to be a slog. However steady progress was made until the last few became obvious with the crossers.

    Almost every success was an “aha, why didn’t I see that” moment. The sign of a great setter I think. I’m growing to really like Nutmeg after a troublesome “first date” 🙂

    Thanks to Gaufrid and Nutmeg

    By the way Gladys @20. I doubt anybody else will query postscript as an appendage. The SOED for instance has

    3 A thing appended; an additional or conclusory action; an afterthought, a sequel. l19.

  22. Struggled at first and took me longer than the usual 20 minute commute to complete but looking back the clues seem effortlessly obvious, which to my mind is sign of a great compiler. Many thanks Gaufrid and Nutmeg

  23. I only want to repeat what I said about three weeks ago:
    she’s good, isn’t she?

    And how good is 8d?
    Very.

    Once more a Nutmeg puzzle that deserves an exclamation mark printed in bold (with a smiley too).

  24. Thanks Nutmeg and Gaufrid

    This was certainly a ‘steady as she goes’ solve for me where each clue only surrendered after due process.

    Started off in the SE with SAFARI and ARRAIGNED and ended up back there with CRATERED the last one in.

    Hadn’t heard of MUSTARD PLASTER or Ms SPARK and her novel, so needed help with them.

    As others have said, there were many clues that were very, very good.

  25. I have to say that Miss Jean Brodie is as perfect and brilliant a clue as I have seen for a while, up there with anything Araucaria put in front of us. And, quite remarkably, Trillion and Tapioca we’re also the only two I solved on the first sweep through, Mac Ruaraidh Ghais…

  26. But Jean Brodie wasn’t the head of the school. Or am I being dense? I enjoyed this one, though I didn’t complete it

  27. Hi Tom

    Quite right – as the brilliant &lit clue has it, she was in conflict with the head.

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