I’ve read that some find Nestor to be at the easier end of the Saturday Independent spectrum, though I’m not sure that I’ve always agreed.
There was some lovely stuff in here either way, and a few bits and bobs that I found awkward, although I’m quite willing to admit that may be merely my own limited understanding.
We had plenty of long entries including two at 15 letters, two at 14 letters and two 11s. There were all good fun to chip away at as solving progressed.
18 across in particular was nice too, while 19 down left me completely bewildered, so any help available there will be welcome.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DECISION TABLES | They’ll lay out actions beside logic, primarily (8,6) |
| An anagram of (ACTIONS BESIDE L[ogic]), and presumably &lit, though I’ll leave it to our many resident boffins to explain why. | ||
| 10 | RINSE | Flush nitrogen in reaction (5) |
| N in RISE. As in to “get a rise” out of someone. | ||
| 11 | TRANSPOSE | Switch stance on gender identity? (9) |
| TRANS + POSE. | ||
| 12 | VICAR | Six wheels or one brought in for service? (5) |
| VI + CAR. | ||
| 13 | LUSTLESS | Perhaps purge rolls without enthusiasm (8) |
| 15 | NASTASE | North America’s to zap man with many court appearances (7) |
| NA‘S + TASE, as in Taser. Ilie Năstase was a fairly successful tennis player several decades ago, hence “court”. | ||
| 16 | GAGGERS | We will silence more than one comedian, maybe (7) |
| Two definitions, the latter somewhat whimsical. | ||
| 18 | EGOTIST | A bighead lacking any aspiration, the man was duly rewarded with time (7) |
| ‘E GOT ‘IS + T. | ||
| 20 | TITULAR | Altruist hasn’t succeeded with a change in name (7) |
| Anagram of ALTRUI[s]T. | ||
| 22 | STANDARD | Ordinary brook by A-road (8) |
| BROOK + A + RD. Apparently “brook” can mean “to bear or endure”, so I’ve learned something today. | ||
| 23 | SUSHI | Cold food provided by Jesus himself (5) |
| Hidden in [je]SUS HI[mself]. | ||
| 25 | YORKSHIRE | Former riding zone is risky, hero getting thrown (9) |
| Anagram of (RISKY HERO). Yorkshire was formerly divided into “ridings”, derived from “thriding”, meaning a third. | ||
| 27 | INANE | Delirious, at home with a clubber’s pill (5) |
| IN + AN E. Can “inane” really be defined as “delirious”? | ||
| 28 | TWO-DIMENSIONAL | Flat 20 cents to include new item that’s charged, not quite everything (3-11) |
| (N in TWO DIMES) + ION + AL[l]. I enjoyed the wordplay here. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | EUNOCHS | Operating system’s sound: these people are unproductive (7) |
| Presumably we’re looking for a homophone of “Unix”, though the two are pronounced quite differently, and I don’t think that’s simply a case of our old favourite regional variations. | ||
| 3 | INEBRIATION | Number one song Elton possibly put in note, all about being trashed (11) |
| Deep breath. It’s (NO + I + ((AIR + BEN Elton) in TI)), all reversed. | ||
| 4 | INTELLECTUALISE | Think cerebrally elite Latin clues are tortuous (15) |
| A nice long anagram of (ELITE LATIN CLUES). | ||
| 5 | NEAR-SIGHTEDNESS | Limited view of expression of relief in tidy flush, exchanging queen and first of tens (4-11) |
| SIGH inserted into a construction of NEAT and REDNESS, the latter two exchanging their R and T[ens] components. | ||
| 6 | ASS | Clinton’s behind Democratic mascot (3) |
| Two definitions: the first a bit cheeky, and the second alluding to the fact that the US Democrat party use a donkey as their mascot. An interesting choice. | ||
| 7 | LOOK-SEE | Fail to cover fine before energy inspection (4-3) |
| (OK in LOSE) + E. | ||
| 8 | SPEW | Eject leader from safe seat (4) |
| S[afe] + PEW. | ||
| 9 | PROVINCE | Cable-supporting sphere? (8) |
| PRO VINCE Cable. Nicely done. | ||
| 14 | LEGATISSIMO | Very smooth, swanky ride, say, as it’s made over inside (11) |
| (EG + (AS IT‘S))* in LIMO. | ||
| 17 | STRAITEN | Limit small space below second property (8) |
| S + TRAIT + EN. | ||
| 19 | ONTARIO | Spin one observed in nucleus of fluorine, atomic number 9 (7) |
| Absolutely no idea. I can’t even see a viable definition. | ||
| 21 | LA SCALA | Here’s some wordless singing involving soprano, contralto and alto? (2,5) |
| (S + C + A) in LA LA and &lit, I guess. | ||
| 24 | CYST | Bag from fringes of Carnaby Street (4) |
| C[arnab]Y S[tree]T. | ||
| 26 | SKI | Runner? Nearly do one! (3) |
| My best guess is that this is SKI[p], but suggestions welcome.. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
To answer query at 19dn, parsing is, I think: wordplay = [1 in {[flu]or[ine] + At. + No.}]< (using spin=v.t., imper.) and definition = 9[dn, a Canadian] PROVINCE. Interestingly, no.=number also used at 3dn. As you say, SH, some lovely stuff in here, with grid firmly tied by 2 horizontal and 4 vertical long’uns; quite a feat.
13ac I took to be LIST LESS, as in not to register as much (on a roll)
Thanks, Paul. You are correct, of course.
Would have been quite appropriate as a prize puzzle (were The Indy still doing them). ‘Lovely stuff’ is right, and thanks for the blog Simon.
Hilariously, the printed version (as well as having two narrow columns at 4 & 5 – at least on my PC) has the date as Sunday June 18th 1916.
I think the true spelling of EUNUCH brings us slightly closer to the homophone “UNIX” but not by much, I agree.
SKIp for ‘do a runner (without paying)’ is fine: the wording ‘brooks’ no other interpretation.
YORKSHIRE was fun, and I loved the idea of Jesus handing out sushi in the loaves-and-fishes miracle (“You want wasabi with that? Ta-da!).
Thanks to Simon & Nestor.
I dont normally fear Nestor but this one was pretty full-strength.Some of the parsing was so tricky I was left trying to see what fit in the end.I got Ontario but couldnt see why. Thank you Monk for pointing out use of 9(I believe fluorine is atomic number 9 so a brilliant misdirect)
For some reason(nostalgia?) I put in REvision tables. I got listless, loved sushi(great surface)but fell foul of 17-what would fit/ sardines or sardined
Also got got bowled middle stump on spew.
I doffs me titfer.
Several clues made me smile, including ASS, SPEW and especially EUNUCHS, which == UNIX the way I speak (/?ju?n?ks/), although amazingly, I’d never made the connection before, despite having issued many ‘eunuchs’ commands in my time.
Let’s try that IPA again…
/’juːnəks/
If that doesn’t work, I give up. Anyway, the second vowel is a schwa (neutral).
Very enjoyable but I found this difficult to complete with some tricky parsing, eg 19d. I agree with you about INANE for ‘Delirious’ – haven’t looked it up but it’s not exactly the same in my book. Is LA SCALA really an &lit, as the singing there is not exactly ‘wordless’?
Hard to pick out just a few good clues among the many, but my favourites were NASTASE, INEBRIATED and my COD (and last in) EUNUCHS.
Thank you to Simon and Nestor.
Thanks for the comments.
I admit that the pronunciations in the dictionaries for “Unix” and “eunuchs” aren’t the same (/’ju?niks/ versus /’ju?n?ks/), but I’ve never been able to hear a difference when they’ve been spoken by me or others. Perhaps it’s my latent kiwi accent.
The reason for so many long entries was the Nina: the three stacks of black squares in the middle, as this was my 111th Nestor puzzle.