All very nice. Good clues and nothing that seems to me to be all that much of a problem (although see below for my discomfort over 8ac and 26ac). I enjoyed this and although it wasn’t perfectly simple — is it ever perfectly simple on a Tuesday? — everything was easily enough explained after the event.
In the unches along the top and down the right we see ADVENT SEASON and down the left and along the bottom CHRIST COMING. Just the sort of Nina I like: straightforward and not particularly demanding. If indeed that’s all there is. There may be other references that have passed me by.
| Across | ||
| 7 | SEAGOING |
Type of vessel in which a gin goes bad (8)
(a gin goes)* |
| 8 | VEXES |
Annoys a number of old flames? (5)
V [= a number] exes [old flames] — but I’m not absolutely sure, since if it’s this then ‘of’ rather gets in the way, and V is more naturally clued as ‘a number of old’, but exes are old flames, not flames, so … |
| 9 | CALENDARS |
Sandra briefly flirts with Alec, Julian et al (9)
(Sandr{a} Alec)* — the Julian calendar etc |
| 10 | CANOE |
Former gold medallist collects a new boat (5)
C(a n)oe — in all the furore that is going on at the moment people tend to forget that Sebastian Coe was one of GB’s great gold medallists |
| 12 | HETERO |
Straight there, going round and round (6)
(there)* O |
| 13 | ABSCISSA |
Co-ordinate muscles? Crybaby has year off before beginning to act (8)
abs ciss{y} a{ct} — the abscissa is typically the x-coordinate |
| 14 | RANSACK |
Managed to fire rifle (7)
ran sack |
| 17 | WINDOWS |
Bowls over restricting Indian openers (7)
w(Ind.)ows |
| 20 | IODOFORM |
Antiseptic fellow found in opening in Douglas’s place (8)
IO(do(f)or)M — Douglas on the Isle of Man |
| 22 | DYNAMO |
Monday off makes someone lively (6)
(Monday)* |
| 24 | SALEM |
Broadcast which trials here? Thirteenth lot, perhaps (5)
ref. the Salem Witch Trials: Broadcast which = witch [= “which”] — Thirteenth lot is sale M, where sale A and sale B are first lot, second lot, etc |
| 25 | ELEVATION |
Drug a violent criminal for advancement (9)
E (a violent)* — ‘criminal’ the anagram indicator |
| 26 | TILDE |
Mark on character until December’s entry (5)
’til De{cember} although I’m not certain about this, since the fact that it’s the first two letters of December doesn’t seem to be indicated; or is it D for December and somehow E for entry? Another possibility: it could be that the definition is simply ‘Mark’ and it’s tile [= character, as in Scrabble (??)] with D inserted — but none of these seems quite satisfactory |
| 27 | FALL DOWN |
After season on Broadway, director’s beginning to have collapse (4,4)
fall [season on Broadway, ie in the USA] d{irector} own [= have]
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | ASHAKE |
Trembling like a fish? (6) as hake |
| 2 | DATELESS |
Lacking any engagement, unlike 9 (8)
9 being CALENDARS, it is not true to say that calendars are dateless |
| 3 | VOODOO |
Magic you perform in Franglais, say? (6)
vous do — as a Franglais speaker might say |
| 4 | ENTREAT |
Ask, in French, about right nipple (7)
en t(r)eat — ‘en’ is ‘in’ in French |
| 5 | NEPALI |
Asian plane, I suspect (6)
(plane I)* |
| 6 | TENON SAW |
Reason trapeze act was scary turned up in this cutting? (5,3)
Not confident about the parsing here: it looks as if the reason is that there ‘was no net’ and all this is reversed |
| 11 | ASTI |
Drink lassi this regularly (4)
{l}a{s}s{i} t{h}i{s} |
| 15 | AROMATIC |
Scented candle in this, as my old romantic affair starts over (8)
(c{andle} i{n} t{his} a{s} m{y} o{ld} r{omantic} a{ffair})rev. |
| 16 | CHOC |
Cold white wine, almost sweet (4)
c hoc{k} |
| 18 | DONATION |
One is given length of time working for old city (8)
length of time = duration, and you replace the old city [Ur] with on [= working] |
| 19 | AMALGAM |
Magma confused with 50% lava mixture (7)
(Magma la{ve})* |
| 21 | OVERDO |
Exaggerate as regards affair (6)
over [= as regards] do |
| 22 | DIVALI |
Prima donna left Italy for Hindu festival (6)
diva l I |
| 23 | MOOING |
Being the lower of two ducks in a dynasty (6)
M(0 0)ing — ‘being the lower’ is being a cow, and a cow moos |
I’ve only just spotted it, but TILDE is hidden (an “entry”) in the clue (26). My mind went down the same path as yours when solving, though. I concur in your parsing of 6D.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
What a good hidden, Ian. Just what a hidden ought to be: not obvious, and misleading.
I found this rather tricky and needed a bit of e-help, but got there in the end, though without understanding several parsings. If I’d spotted the nina it might have helped.
I didn’t have any problem with 9ac once I got it. Simply a number of (V, =5) EXES. When the phrase “a number of” is replaced by the actual number, the “of” disappears.
Thanks, Hob and John.
One of those puzzles where identifying the Nina definitely helped. I liked CALENDARS, ABSCISSA, VOODOO, TENON SAW and IODOFORM.
Poor old Seb Coe. He must feel he’s in a 10a of the barbed wire variety without a paddle in a stream of effluent given the recent IAAF revelations.
Thanks to Hob and John
Oh look, Rufus’ laziest grid has leaked into the Indy.
Presumably the top row and 9 across are furtherly nina-ish.
How can “this cutting?” mean tenon saw? A tenon saw is a cutter. IMNSHO that’s not the worst bit either.
And in full grump mode “Sebastian Coe was one of GB’s great gold medallists”, greater than any other gold medallist? Or just someone who ran better than the others in a particular race? Don’t mention that he’s now an unelected peer, I might lose my lunch.
Re sidey at #5, I think in TENON SAW, the definition is – “this” cutting – so quite OK for the noun.
Thank you for blogging, John.
Apart from the religious propaganda in the Nina (this is not the Church Times), this was okay, except for the bits sidey mentioned. I don’t buy into the definition for TENON SAW either.
And anyway, Advent in the Christian tradition started on Sunday, so the Ed should have given Hob the IoS gig. It’s only the CHOC, WINDOWS and CALENDARS bits that start today.