Once I must have had a bad experience with Nestor, because his crosswords always fill me with fear before I start, yet this was perfectly pleasant and accessible. There are some very nice clues and it was not the horror I expected. Yes there are some solvers who don’t feel they have had a proper workout unless they have done something which to ordinary mortals is rather daunting, but I’m not one of those and on a blogging day I’m always quite happy to do something that can be done without use of the Reveal button. On any day, for that matter.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 What’s broadcast even parts of vicious self-history (having surprising beginnings)? (4,2,4,4)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE
({v}i{c}i{o}u{s} self-history)* — I think this is an &lit., where the surprising beginnings refer to the fact that at the start of the programme ‘This Is Your Life’ the victim was typically pounced on somewhere
9 Tidal surge in lake (not sea) found in 20? (8)
ARBOREAL
bore [tidal surge] in Aral — the Aral Sea is in fact more a lake than a sea, being entirely self-contained — 20 is the arboreal TREETOP
10 Moan about a gang’s outsiders with rough faces (6)
CRAGGY
(a g{an}g) in cry
11 Possible shipping hazard Arctic strait drops in? (4)
BERG
Ber{in}g — drops a transitive verb
12 Nurse to leave bed in medical drama: it softens the flesh (10)
TENDERISER
tend E(rise)R — the medical drama is ER, to leave bed is to rise
13 Exhausted by too many curtain calls? (7,3)
CLAPPED OUT
I’m never sure — CD or 2 defs or something like that: at any rate it is a play on the two meanings of ‘clapped’
15 Evidence of good overcome by evil … (4)
SIGN
si(g)n
17 … the latter side of nature evident in London park? (4)
HYDE
2 defs — or at any rate 2 references — to Hyde Park, and to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
19 Edward rebuffed by ceremonial-fur-wearing set (10)
DETERMINED
(Ted)rev. ermined
22 In this TV programme, the bloke’s got offers (10)
EASTENDERS
‘e ‘as tenders — in EastEnders that is how ‘he has’ would be said
25 Fine artist depicting ladies’ fingers (4)
OKRA
OK RA — this word comes so often in crosswords (there are few alternatives for O_R_) that it must be a nightmare for setters to think of something new
26 House that used to lead university during commencement (6)
STUART
st(u)art
27 Very form of liberty stopped by Republican (8)
TERRIBLY
R in (liberty)*
28 Kid copied Virgin, beheaded and worshipped (3,2,1,8)
PUT ON A PEDESTAL
put on aped {v}estal — put on = kid (nothing to do with putto, as I initially thought)
Down
2 Knockabout versions of Equus ? (9)
HORSEPLAY
Equus is a play involving horses, so could be seen as a horse play — not the first time this idea has been used
3 Provisional golf tournament bagged by second best (7)
STOPGAP
s top around PGA
4 18 metal from silvery fish (5)
SMELT
2 defs I think: extract metal from, and a smelt is a silvery fish (18 is EXTRACT)
5 Bloom in film over lake with mostly irregular covering (7)
ORLANDO
O r(l)ando{m} [o = over], and Orlando Bloom
6 Madwoman’s husband in French ensemble with turn-ups at the head and foot (9)
ROCHESTER
Orchestre with the first two letters and the last two letters reversed — referring to Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre
7 Science with endless botanical language upped indication of stress? (7)
ITALICS
(Sci. Lati{n})rev.
8 High-flyer in league, leader dropping to knock out United (5)
EAGLE
in the word ‘league’, knock out u [= United] and drop [ie move down the letters of the word] the leader (l)
14 Good neighbour in real life, gent did no wrong (9)
EDDINGTON
(gent did no)* — this refers to Paul Eddington, who played the neighbour of Tom and Barbara Good, the Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal characters in The Good Life
16 Irregular possibly switching sides at the end? (9)
GUERRILLA
(irregular)* gets you nearly there, but you have to switch sides at the end, ie make the last r into an l — &lit.
18 Citation in supplementary court (7)
EXTRACT
extra ct
20 Highest branch location to handle surgery by phone? (7)
TREETOP
“treat op”
21 Joanna’s bits to tickle four men, namely, sons (7)
IVORIES
iv OR ie s — rhyming slang and the Joanna is a piano — tickling the ivories
23 An award introducing first of those to go wrong (3,2)
ACT UP
t{hose} in a cup
24 Singular jazz style that Grappelli could have played (5)
STRAD
s trad — Stéphane Grappelli was a jazz violinist, so could have played a Stradivarius
*anagram
1ac is noy &lit, but shows how to correctly make the meaning that is apposite ( see or cf.yesterdays Guardian effort).
Ver good.
Cheers
R
I also found this more straightforward than some of Nestor’s previous puzzles, although my LOI, ROCHESTER, went in unparsed. John’s parsing is obviously correct and I’m surprised I didn’t see it, although that could be because I was put off slightly by the “French” in the clue.
I’ve had my share of whinges about Nestor puzzles but not here. Cracking stuff. If 1a is not an & lit then a new description of a clue type is required. It’s to me an &lit plus a cryptic hint. Thanks john several of these I was glad I wasn’t trying to write up the parsing as some were quite convoluted.
The puzzle might not be to everyone’s taste (Nestor seems to like the pop culture references a lot), but it was perfect for me. I got rather hung up on the “extract” in 4 down being an indication to remove a metal from a word for silvery, so kept trying to think of chemical symbols that could be added into smelt to make a word for silvery.
Hi there Flashling. I guess it’s because the ‘surprising beginnings’ bit is plonked on and doesn’t have a function in the wordplay. I see it as a kind of a ‘supporting definition’, which you can’t really have, as I’ve been led to believe, in an &lit style clue. But I sure liked it, and it goes in with a whole bunch of great clues.
Maybe Nestor will pop in to clarify the style point.
Lovely puzzle, and excellent blog. The problem in 6D is because it’s an “orchestre” in French, which makes it a super clue if you have good French! My LOI was ARBOREAL – no particular reason, just went brain dead.
Great workout! We had difficulty parsing 1ac and like NealH were hooked on finding a word meaning silvery and removing a metal for 4d.
Thanks Nestor for the challenge and John for confirming our thoughts on 17ac.