Independent 6453/Nimrod
Posted by Colin Blackburn on June 22nd, 2007
When I swapped to Friday this week I expected a nice Phi puzzle, instead I got Nimrod! A little more difficult than Phi for me with some clues still a mystery. However, much of it was straightforward thanks to the long anagram and me seeing 1dn as soon as I had P-D… A couple of the clues are gems.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PETER CROUCH — PETER + CROUCH — the Liverpool and England striker is very tall, for a footballer. |
| 9 | NADIR — (AND)* + IR — IR = Inland Revenue. Although they have now changed their name I expect we’ll have IR in crosswords for decades to come. |
| 10 | GLISSANDI — (sc)A(le) in (SLIDINGS)* — really nice &lit. |
| 11 | TRILOBITE — OBIT in T+RILE — a trilobite is an early jointed animal found in the fossil record. |
| 12 | THYMI — healTHY-MIndedness — as a vegetarian sweetbread is a weird term. It refers, I think, to the various glands that can be eaten by those willing to do so. The thymus is one such gland and its role gives this clue a nice partial &lit surface. |
| 13 | DOGE — ? — I don’t see the word play here, some reversal of GOD? [ It's EGO'D <] |
| 14 | MENTAL NOTE — cryptic def. — ref. to Post-It notes. Having worked in a Centre for Cognitive Science I like the surface but doubt the subject would warrant a whole Faculty! |
| 16 | EGO-TRIPPER — ‘E GOT RIPPER — fantastic clue. |
| 19 | KNEW — K+NEW |
| 20 | TIGON — GO in TIN — preserved = put in TIN. |
| 21 | NUMBER OFF — MBE in (FOR FUN)* |
| 23 | NEEDINESS — (SEES END IN)* — not sure about supply as the anagramming term here. |
| 24 | PUPIL — (s)LIP-UP(s)< — good wordplay. |
| 25 | NERVE CENTRE — ? — not sure what Euro means here. I did consider R being neRve centre but that hasn’t helped. [ It's centre of nEUROn!] |
| Down | |
| 1 | PADDINGTON GREEN — ADDING TONG in PREEN — an excellent clue but you have to know about the police station (nick) in London. It gets mentioned on the news a bit as high profile suspects are often taken there. Tong is a Chinese secret society. |
| 2 | TORSO — T + OR SO — roughly = or so. |
| 3 | RAGTIME — RAG+TIME |
| 4 | RAIMENT — AIM iN RENT |
| 5 | UNSETTLE — (LUNETTES)* |
| 6 | HONEYMOON COUPLE — cryptic def. |
| 7,8 | UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL — (assumptio)N in (WEDS DWELT + INDIVIDUAL DEFEAT)* — good anagram &lit but fairly obvious from the enumeration. |
| 15 | FRONTIER — FR+ON+TIER |
| 17 | PINKEYE — KEY in PINE |
| 18 | EN MASSE — S(hip) in (SEAMEN)* |
| 22 | EXPAT — (X in TAPE)< — I think X = “and” here. [ It's X = "by", and is just connecting the two uses of over.] |
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Doge. I (ego) ‘d (d) back =doge
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Neuron = nerve. Centre of neuron = euro. nerve centre = locus of euro.
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:31 pm
in expat I think ‘x’ = ‘by’, with tape over it then reversed.
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Thanks Conrad.
I don’t know why I didn’t think I = EGO, especially as EGO appears in another answer.
I knew I was onto something with centre of nerve but NEURON completely escaped me. Very clever.
Finally, yes X = by, + = and. I didn’t notice the “by” in the clue and so struggle to use the “and”.
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:50 pm
NEEDINESS I think the anagram indicator “supply” is a adverb “in a supple manner”. I’ve seen this device before.
June 22nd, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Brilliant Nimrod I thought. My favourite is the ‘e got ripper one. Superb.
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:08 am
Just dropping by to see who use my name on their blog…even though the use is for the other meaning (U.S only)…and about the puzzle, I don’t have any idea but it look like a flash of brilliance…