i Cryptic Crossword 1809 Tyrus
November 25, 2016
Tyrus – not a warm cuddly name, more pugnacious, definitely tough, well that’s how I found this puzzle. I did though find it enjoyable. Plenty of unusual answers which were solved from the cryptic part of the clue but then had to be checked with the dictionary. Struggled at first to get into this but 16d was the breakthrough, once I’d got that I was off and well not running but making progress. There was a Nina which I did spot, couldn’t really miss it with Aria a cross the top. The only real oddity for me was the use of Ham as an anagrind.
COD 1d Josh under attack initially unworried (2,4)
This was originally a Prize Puzzle in the IOS in July 2012 and the original blog and explanation is here – http://www.fifteensquared.net/2012/07/01/independent-on-sunday-1166tyrus/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
A day late, surely? 🙂 I thought this was extremely difficult, especially for an IoS reprint. And yes, I completely failed to spot the Nina.
Ha! It was only as I read your “There was a Nina…” that the otherwise puzzlingly missing third ship (mischievously misdirected in 23A) became apparent. I rather liked the ham.
Hello OPAtrick. I liked it too just have no idea why or how it works as an anagrind:-)
I think if you read it as ‘badly acted’ it works, and the clue definitely makes it worth the stretch.
Hell’s teeth. I live in fear of something like this coming up when it’s my turn to do the blog, so jolly well done Sprouthater. And well done to Tyrus too: to be frank I loathed the puzzle, but it was worth the teeth grinding for the cleverest Nina since … well, last Saturday, actually. Bravo.