Independent 8451 / Nimrod

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There’s always a sense of expectation and trepidation when it comes round to blogging on Thursdays – at least for us that is! When we saw that it was Nimrod we knew that we were in for a treat and a struggle!

There was some clever misdirection and lovely surface readings. There are also two seemingly unconnected ninas in the top and bottom rows and the left and right columns – we’re not sure of the relevance of these – does anyone out there have any ideas?

We still haven’t sorted out the parsing for 11ac. Can anyone help us out please?

Across
2   See 33
8   Change partners in museum line
VARY V A (partners in V&A museum) + RY (line)
9   Leaving theatre, so much affected by comedy?
IN STITCHES A lovely clue and a ‘play’ on the fact that if you were laughing you could be ‘IN STITCHES’ and similarly, if you were coming out of a hospital theatre you may be described as being the same!
10   Support for author’s review, well received in European state
ESCRITOIRE CRIT (review) inside or ‘received in’ SO (well) in EIRE (European state). We have to admit that we needed an electronic search to sort this one out.
11   Retired chief in Ian Fleming novel
EMMA Well……. the ‘chief’ in the Bond novels was called M but how does this relate to retiring? Or maybe we are on the wrong wavelength!
13   Perhaps Nimrod’s embellishment once anagrams entered in grid
GRACE NOTE An anagram of ONCE (anagrind is ‘anagrams’!) inside GRATE (grid)
19   Retrieve missing folio to make a big impression
ETCH fETCH (retrieve) without f (folio)
16   See 33
21   Less untrue
NOT SO A double definition we think although we can only find NOT SO MUCH for less in Chambers
22   As Lewis’s boss you’ll have seen me get warmer
THAW This refers to the late John Thaw who played Morse (Lewis’s boss) in the very successful ITV series
23   Show sorrow for loss, second collection of ashes alongside
MOURN MO (second) + URN (collection of ashes)
24   Hole admitting liquid into vessel, it capsizes Venetian craft
VAPORETTI We guessed that this ended in TI but couldn’t sort out the rest. An electronic search came up with the answer and then we had to parse it! PORE (hole admitting liquid) inside VAT (vessel) + a reversal or ‘capsizing’ of IT
26   Article definitely introduces women’s literary strength
28 THEW 

WATER MUSIC

 THE (definite article) + W (first letter or ‘introduction’ to Women). A new word for us but it fell into place fairly easily.Suppressing an expression used to describe American, I can handle work on the radio!

A TERM US (an American expression) + I inside or being ‘suppressed by’ WC (can). ‘On the radio’ refers to how you would hear Handel’s (musical) work! (Sorry Eileen and thanks Gaufrid!)
31   Book and film defeat one’s devils
EAST OF EDEN An anagram of DEFEAT ONE’S (anagrind is ‘devils’)
32   Recall two portions of duck in spicy sauce that was disgusting!
POOH OO (two portions of O – duck) inside HP (as in the sauce) reversed or ‘recalled’
33   Who draws the line if bad director’s engaged just about everybody?
THE WORLD AND HIS WIFE An anagram of WHO DRAWS THE LINE IF (anagrind is ‘bad’) around or ‘engaging’ D (director)
Down
1   Italian epic poet no longer attached to old, old news agency
TASS TASSo (Italian poet) with O (old) removed or ‘no longer attached’
2   Excessively moist or unusually dry in this, classically
HYDRIC An anagram of DRY (anagrind is ‘unusually’) inside HIC (this in Latin). It’s one of those clues where Bert has great fun in informing Joyce of the parsing! Joyce had the pleasure of learning German at school instead of Latin and Bert likes to remind her how useful Latin is!
3   This number’s fantastically sexy, innit?
SIXTY NINE An angram of SEXY INNIT (anagrind is ‘fantastically’) – could this be described as a cryptic definition? (given the association with 69!) Could there be a connection with the nina in the bottom row?
4   Hats off to Scorpio handling Italian language
TSHI Initial letters or ‘hats’ to To Scorpio Handling Italian
5   Pay to use something further up, say?
HIRE Sounds like HIGHER (further up)
6   Gesturally expressed and verbally expressed qualms and much else about topping up
ACTED OUT ‘Verbally expressed’ or sounds like DOUBT (qualms) with ETC (much else) + A (about) reversed or ‘up’ at the beginning or ‘topping’
7   Company’s up-and-coming actress dropping stitch
TEAM A reversal or ‘up-and-coming’ MAE wesT removing SEW (stitch)
12   See 33
14   One-to-one, maybe, about getting evicted from address
RATIO oRATIOn (address) removing or ‘evicting’ ON (about)
15   This indicates a group of four tropical fish
TETRA Double definition - TETRA– as a prefix indicates a group of four
17   No more petty tales to spin
LEAST An anagram of TALES (anagrind is ‘to spin’) – Less can mean petty so if you cannot get anymore petty then you would have LEAST
18   Dye running? Look into it
COLOURANT COURANT (running) around LO (look)
20   Unsure whether one’s enclosed? It’s enclosed!
HEREWITH An anagram of WHETHER (anagrind is ‘unsure’) around or ‘enclosing’ I (one)
23   German associated with Cambridge University initially
MIT MIT (German for associated with) but also the initial letters of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, part of Cambridge University in the States
25   Board after a sound team
 

27

 EQUIPE 

HEAT

 Sounds like KEEP (board) after AGet agitated crossing the Atlantic

Hidden within the clue tHE ATlantic (Sorry Eileen and thanks to Gaufrid!)
28   See 33
29   List that plans a disturbance
TO DO Double definition
30   You French will abandon energetic Russian man
IGOR vIGORous (energetic) removing VOUS (French for you)

 

13 comments on “Independent 8451 / Nimrod”

  1. Thanks Bertandjoyce
    In 11ac I took ‘retired’ to indicate that formerly emma was a signaller’s name for the letter M.

  2. Thanks for the blog Bert and Joyce. I agree this was a real treat.

    I wondered whether 11ac was an allusion to the erstwhile phonetic alphabet used by servicemen, in which “EMMA” was “M”. Perhaps “retired” indicates that this is no longer in usage. Then again, maybe not.

    I am also puzzled by the Nina(s).

  5. Thanks, B and J.

    Your preamble echoes my thoughts on blogging last Saturday’s Guardian Enigmatist! [Thanks, Mr H, for another rewarding struggle.]

    I came here looking for an explanation of 28ac but you seem to have omitted it [along with 27dn – but I can do that one!]. I can see the ‘handle work on the radio – lovely! – and A TERM US but can’t fathom the rest.

  8. We’ve been out all morning so many thanks to Gaufrid (and Muffyword) for stepping in and explaining EMMA. Joyce apologises for the missing clues in the blog!

    As far as the nina goes, we googled it and then wished we hadn’t. Bert only remembered the phrase from the Men at Work single – Down Under which thankfully seems to refer to Australia.

  9. Blimey. A Nimrod completed and two ninas spotted, both unusual events for me (and not entirely unconnected, I would think).

    Quite a few I was unable to parse fully (definitely not an unusual event with Nimrod), so thanks to Bertandjoyce for the blog and to the others for their contributions.

    Really enjoyed the tussle and the inventive, idiosyncratic (how do you describe Nimrod’s style?) cluing. Great stuff.

    Hope the old git (© Anax) has recovered from his birthday celebrations 🙂

  10. Very enjoyable and I actually saw the Nina. As B&J say, definitely one not to investigoogle!

    What lucky solvers we are with an Enigmatist, Io and now a Nimrod all in the same week. Thanks to Nimrod for the brain stretching and to B&J for the blog.

  11. A Thursday Nimrod is indeed something to be feared by the bloggers, I know I’ve copped a few. The Ninas certainly helped finish this off for me even if not all the parsing, so thanks B&J and Gaufrid and thanks to Nimrod for the workout.

  12. Count me as another who saw the possibility of both ninas and they definitely helped me finish this puzzle faster than I otherwise would have done. Thanks for the heads up on the down nina. I won’t be googling it!

    The SE took the longest to unpick. I’ve read quite a few novels set in modern day Venice so VAPORETTI should have gone in a lot quicker than it did. Similarly, I should have got COLOURANT much faster than I did. I finally saw what “handle” meant in 28ac and was able to enter WATER MUSIC unparsed, and EQUIPE was then my LOI. I entered GRACE NOTE from the wordplay. All in all a tough workout, but more enjoyable than some Nimrod puzzles.

  13. Thanks B&J and Nimrod. I was pleased to “finish” this one but I missed the NINAs (as usual) and couldn’t parse them all – hence I had VAPORETTO for 24. Thought there was something to do with IN/TO. D’Oh! Great puzzle, esp 28a.

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