Guardian 26,545 by Nutmeg

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A bright sunny morning brings Nutmeg, who can be quite a tricksy setter to unravel.

There’s a lot to enjoy here and some lovely extended def / &lit clues to get into. Nutmeg often had Ninas or themes to begin with but if there is one it’s gone whoosh over my head today.

completed grid
Oh and it’s a pangram.

Across

1 Trouble afoot at college for these legendary beasts (8)
UNICORNS

CORNS (foot problem) following UNI (college)

6 Cut through one denom­ination headed by bishop (6)
BISECT

B(ishop) & 1 in SECT

9 Subtly alters complex task, hampering the two of us (6)
TWEAKS

WE (the two of us) inside (hampered by) TASK* complex

10 Painkiller disreputable characters produced, best avoided possibly (8)
EPIDURAL

Subtraction anagram – [DISREPUTABLE – (best – avoided)]* possibly

11 See 2
13 See 3
15 Inscrutable question master? (6)
SPHINX

Cryptic def

17 Cockney trios said to form fancy band (6)
FRIEZE

Sounds like THREES with the TH as an F as is the East London way

18 Grant admission for old boy returning big bottle (6)
CARBOY

Actor CARY (grant) with O(ld) B(oy) returning – reversed admitted – inserted

19 I carried in sparkling wines in this case (2,2,2)
AS IT IS

I in ASTIS (sparking wines)

21,23 Intricate source of visual reception? (5,5)
OPTIC NERVE

Looks like an excellent &lit to me. [(source of) V(isual) RECEPTION]* intricately

22,27 Delicate musical variation that’s no good for male conductor (9,3)
LIGHTNING ROD

LIGHT (delicate) & NIMROD (musical variation {and IQ crossword editor}) with N(o) G(ood) replacing the M(ale)

25 Unwholesome bread found by dog in street (8)
STAGNANT

TAG (tail, dog) & NAN (unleavened bread) all in ST(reet)

26 A writer regularly dividing extremists in Sorbonne? (6)
SARTRE

Maybe not a true &lit but getting there. A & (w)R(i)T(e)R regularly all in the extremes of S(orbonn)E

28 Two thirds of tosses involving gold coin (6)
FLORIN

OR (gold) in two thirds of FLIN(gs)

29 What happens on New Year’s Eve, assuming sun goes down (8)
DESCENDS

DEC(ember) ENDS with S(un) being assumed

Down

2,11 Errant Becks run in, admitting two wives separately here in Canada (3,9)
NEW BRUNSWICK

2 times W(ife) in [BECKS RUN IN]* errantly

3,13 How the convict broke free in emporium? (5,5)
CHAIN STORE

Well the convict could escape if the CHAINS TORE, although what sort of chains would a convict be put in if they could tear?

4 Flower lady alone around noon – a typical sight in church (4,6)
ROSE WINDOW

ROSE (flower) & N(oon) in WIDOW (woman alone now)

5 Sniffer’s initial carp? (6)
STENCH

Another &lit attempt. S(niffer) & TENCH (type of carp)

6 Heat up meaty drink shunned by Queen Victoria (4)
BOIL

V(ictoria) R(egina) removed from BOVRIL (meaty drink, other drinks are available etc but not MARMITE which is yeasty)

7 Most dumpy workers in group avoiding last time trial (9)
SQUATTEST

most of SQUA(d) & T(ime) & TEST (trial)

8 President reformed prisoner after tea (11)
CHAIRPERSON

CHA (tea) & PRISONER* reformed

12 What’s essential for new business venture north of Rome, say (4,7)
RISK CAPITAL

Nutmeg does like her extended defs today, I’m tempted to add venture to the def. RISK (venture) on top of (north in down clue) CAPITAL (Rome say)

14 Expert’s line of reasoning a substitute for the real thing (10)
PROSTHESIS

PRO’S (expert’s) & THESIS (line of reasoning)

16 Herald dashing to catch British engineers heading north (9)
HARBINGER

HARING (dashing about) with B(ritish) inserted & RE (engineers) reversed, heading north.

Using the heading north device twice so close to each other seems a tad off.

20 Struck, as rock is often (6)
MINTED

Double def, one a bit cryptic. Seaside rock often tastes of mint & what the Royal Mint does.

23 See 21
24 Indian ascetic elected after agreement in Berlin (4)
JAIN

OK I didn’t know this and looked it up afterwards. JA (german yes) & IN (elected)

27 See 22
*anagram

52 comments on “Guardian 26,545 by Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks Nutmeg and flashling
    So much to like, so I’ll get the two I didn’t out of the way first. I didn’t like “unwholesome” for “stagnant” – yes, it’s in Chambers, but only as a consequence of lack of flow (which is what stagnant means). I also don’t like the 2/3 (or x%) trick used in 28, particularly when the word to take a fraction of doesn’t appear in the clue.
    Now the good ones – 1a, 15a, 22a, 29a, 14d and 16d (I wasted time here trying to fit “erb” in); and many others.
    I didn’t parse OPTIC NERVE or SARTRE, and I hadn’t heard of RISK CAPITAL.

  3. easy theme for me…..my old boss Anshu JAIN is co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, who have a STAGNANT stock price and who have the NERVE keep asking us dumb shareholders to stump up more RISK CAPITAL. Sphinx helped me see the pangram. Thanks Nutmeg and Flashling

  5. Thank you, flashling, well put together blog of a tricky puzzle.

    As Muffin says, much to enjoy, but a few that grate a bit.

    I thought the inclusion of boy in the CARBOY clue rather spoiled it.

    Whilst accepting the &lit possibility, I just don’t get STENCH I’m afraid. Perhaps I’m being dim.

    I though MINTED was difficult and clever, and I liked TWEAKS.

    COD for me was DESCENDS.

    All in all, nicely done Nutmeg.

    Nice week, all.

    {Captcha One + 1 = ? Handled that!}

  6. @William carp = complain, and a stench would make the sniffer complain? I think it works OK for me.

  7. Thanks Nutmeg and flashling.

    I often struggle with Nutmeg, but today’s offering seemed to flow quite freely. I think using ‘north’ twice is OK, as it has a different purpose each time.

    I’d add 10 to the &littish clues, as I see ‘characters produced’ as the anagrind, and an epidural is possibly best avoided when giving birth.

  8. Very enjoyable. I also couldn’t parse OPTIC NERVE (great clue, no wit’s explained), and thought that LIGHTNING ROD must be LIGHT plus NG and ROD (male), with NI somehow meaning musical variation! Many nice clues, including UNICORNS, FLORIN and SARTRE. Thanks to Nutmeg and flashling.

  10. Thanks, flashling.

    Fun puzzle from Nutmeg, which I found mostly very straightforward for once.

    I liked the &littish clues, especially OPTIC NERVE and SARTRE, but my favourite was DESCENDS.

    Spotting the pangram enabled me to get my LOI: MINTED.

  11. flashling @6 yes, see what you mean now. It’s fair enough and quite get-able but not my favourite.

    Gervase @10 re pangram…wish I had, MINTED took me ages.

  12. Thanks Nutmeg and flashling.

    Really enjoyable, last in was FRIEZE, only solved since I was searching for the Z.

    I liked EPIDURAL, OPTIC NERVE and LIGHTNING ROD among many others.

    [Baerchen, better watch out, the bank created quite a STENCH not long ago…]

  13. I thought this was top quality stuff from Nutmeg, and I liked the &littish clues already mentioned by others. I finished in the SE with DESCENDS after LIGHTNING ROD.

  14. Thanks Nutmeg & Flashling. Well constructed, well clued, just right for me.

    I completely missed the anagram for OPTIC NERVE and assumed it was a bit of a clunky attempt at a cryptic definition. Pleased to find that Nutmeg wasn’t being lazy.

    Thought it was a nice touch for the answers with more than half of the letters unchecked to be part of longer solutions. Not necessary, perhaps (thankfully no -A-E- anywhere!) but thoughtful at least.

    RISK CAPITAL was last in, the SPHINX having eluded me for some time.

  16. [Thanks cookie – I’ll have to look at his answers, though. Is it available online? I’ve done the Independent and the Radio Times today, as well as this one – outdoors beckons!]

  19. Adventurous from Nutmeg, whose technique is usually very good. I really liked 21 23.

    10a I really can’t see a need for that second anagram indicator; 18a unfortunately the ‘admission’ is a noun, maybe works if you insert commas here and there, but I don’t like it; 22 27 very hard indeed; 26 not a good &lit, so it amounts to a ‘double duty’ clue; 3 13 quite weak; 5d another ‘not quite’ &lit; 7 don’t like the word much; 14 16 agree with the blogger.

    HH

  20. Great – thanks Nutmeg and flashling. I had “real” instead of “risk” (not sure why), so didn’t get “sphinx”. If I’d spotted the pangram I might have sorted that out.

  21. Thanks flashling and nutmeg
    Very enjoyable. As others noted, optic nerve was a cleverly concealed anagram. I liked ‘harbinger’. It brought back memories of a distant classical education where translations of Greek plays had heralds addressed as ‘harbingers of woe’ and asked ‘what terrible words have escaped the fence of your teeth’?

  22. MINTED held me up, as I had LICKED (taking the seaside rock theme) early on; is seaside rock commonly minted? Not my first thought, but maybe I just need to get down to the seaside again.

    SPHINX took ages too and that’s an old chestnut. Spotting the pangram would really, really have helped with these two. Liked SARTRE, ROSE WINDOW and PROSTHESIS among others.

    A far more rewarding challenge than yesterday’s quickie.

  25. Thanks all
    Once again she defeated me although I solved 3/4 very easily and quickly.I was beaten by 7 d and 10 ac.

  26. Rather tricky I thought but enjoyable even though I couldn’t parse everything and didn’t see the anagram.I especially liked PROSTHESIS,HARBINGER and UNICORNS. I didn’t much like CHAIRPERSON, LIGHTNING ROD or CHAIN STORE but,as a whole, I thought the puzzle rather good.
    Thanks NUTMEG

  27. I have never heard of rocks tasting like mint before. Maybe that’s because I grew up, and now live, hundreds of miles from the nearest body of salt water. Anyway, I had to cheat on that one.

    I also entered LIGHTNING ROD and OPTIC NERVE without understanding the parsing. Thanks to flashling for supplying those.

  28. I usually find Nutmeg difficult, but this one was a relatively straightforward solve – just as well as I flew back from Japan yesterday and my brain is still somewhere over northern Siberia.

    My only niggle is that some clues with the relevant crossings were relatively easy without having to work out the wordplay: for example 21,23, 22, 12 and 16.

    What would setters do without Asti? Does anyone actually drink the stuff?

    Thanks to Nutmeg and flashling.

    PS apologies if this has been pointed out before, but I watched “The Imitation Game” on the flight and there is a nice little crossword theme.

  29. [Marienkaefer @28
    We always drink a bottle of Asti on Christmas morning – it’s fizzy and festive (and also is one of the few wines that tastes of grapes), and it isn’t alcoholic enough to affect the cooking of the dinner. On all other occasions that we have fizz, it will be Prosecco.]

  30. Thanks Nutmeg & flashling, nice puzzle with a pangram that I missed.

    mrpenney @27, in case you are mystified by the ‘rock,’ it is the fifth online Collins definition: ‘5.(British) a hard sweet, typically a long brightly-coloured peppermint-flavoured stick, sold esp in holiday resorts’

    Lots to like here, I particularly admired LIGHTNING ROD & RISK CAPITAL.

  31. {To add to Robi’s (Collins) explanation, generally the outside is pink, the inside white, with a circumferential name of the resort in red running throughout the length. If this sounds disgusting……………..]

  32. Getting Lightning Rod helped me get Minted (after much experimenting) so thanks to flashling for the parsing.

  34. Thanks, Nutmeg for an excellent puzzle and flashling for the excellent blog. My experience was exactly the same at Gervase at #10. Seeing M was the only letter missing led me to MINTED as final answer – the second meaning (relating to rock) was new to me, but confirmed by Collins. I suspected a pangram from early on because of the rather obscure JAIN with a very easy clue. I thought the &lit clues were particularly good.

  36. Hi Sue S, it’s a grid that contains all the letters of the alphabet, they are fairly rare, double pangram with each letter at least twice very rare and I’ve once seen a triple.

  37. Muffin @29

    Sorry – I associate Asti with cheap rubbish from student days. Just doing an Ocado shop and it gets four stars … I may give it a try.

  39. [Marienkaefer: I’m not claiming that it’s fine wine, but, at the right time, it’s very pleasant.]

  40. Sartre is an excellent & lit. I don’t think you need to know all that much about him to know that he divided opinion amongst left wing intellectuals and students in Paris.

  42. @acd wow, now that is an masterful thing. Tees did a triple with no rare words, I blogged it a couple of years ago. At the time he thought quads weren’t possible.

  43. I must admit that I’m beginning to like Nutmeg. Some of the earlier puzzles were not to my taste but the last few have been splendid.

    I was naturally delighted that this was also a pangram. đŸ˜‰

    Thanks to flashking and Nutmeg

  44. Thanks, Nutmeg and flashling!

    I didn’t notice that it is a pangram and I missed the anagram for OPTIC NERVE. SPHINX and then RISK CAPITAL were my LTI (last two in).

    My favourites among many good clues are 9,10 and 22/27, but like flashling I wondered about those tearable chains.

  48. Thanks on the “mint rock” thing (a little late). In my time doing British crosswords, I think I’ve found more transatlantic discrepancies in the area of sweets and desserts than in any other. That is to say, I’ve encountered a lot of British terms for cakes and candy that Americans simply don’t know; I have no idea if the reverse is true.

  49. That quad is indeed fine. I think a shorter maximum word length is absolutely necessary for such a creation, but even so, I only queried DIKING (which is fine) and TOPEKA (which is the state capital of Kansas) in the whole grid (which of itself is eminently user-friendly).

    I dunno if I really said a quad is impossible, and I’ve certainly had a hankering to try for it, but I won’t now. Been done innit. Shortly after my Indy triple appeared, Monk did one in the FT, IIRC. I’d heard tell that one was offered to, but not accepted by, one of the Times’s editors, which would have pipped us both.

    Thanks to Nutmeg for a lovely puzzle, and to Phil for an ace blog.

  50. Robi @30 — thanks for the explanation of rocks that taste like mint. I had an image of someone walking along the seashore tasting all the rocks . . .

  52. This whole thing is becoming bizarre – Neo and Tees both referenced in the comments, and Tees actually commenting to say it was a “lovely puzzle”? Despite the problems with 10a, 18a, 22, 26, 3, 13 etc?

    At least no one fed the troll.

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