Independent 6904 / Glowworm
Posted by NealH on December 1st, 2008
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone
A Christmas list themed puzzle that had some well-constructed clues, but a little too much obscure stuff (e.g. abolla, ibo) for my liking. There were a couple I didn’t follow (5 down and 24 across).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Advent: Opening letters of “accepted day” + vent. |
| 4 | Attracts: Opening letters of “Arsenal’s tedious” + tract + last letter of goalless, with draws as the definition. |
| 10 | Segue: Gu[nners] in see. Segue is a musical term meaning to move to the next piece without pausing. |
| 11 | Hie: Hidden. |
| 12 | Shahs: palindromic. |
| 13 | Ecclesia: Eccles (town in Lancashire) + [fr]ia[ry]. |
| 15 | Turkey: Tur[n]key. |
| 17 | Semi-metal: me in samite* + l. |
| 19 | Beef: BEF around e. BEF are the British Expeditionary Force, the name of the army in WWI. The Old Contemptibles was a slang term for soldiers in WWI. However, I’m not sure exactly why beef appears on a Christmas list. |
| 20 | Mess: Hidden. I’m not entirely sure whether mess is being used as a verb or eat as a noun. |
| 21 | Aforesaid: A fores[t] aid. The thought that “fore” had something to do with golf and involved chopping a wood shot held me up on this for a while. The definition refers to the fact that “sergeants” appears in the previous clue. |
| 23 | Abolla: A + boll + a[ppparel]. I had to get some assistance for this one because I’ve never heard of abolla, which is a type of cloak, and am not familiar with boll either. It seems to be a word for a plant seedcase. |
| 24 | Crackers: I didn’t follow this one. The clue is “Money on credit for the 9 26″. The 9 26 is the theme part of the puzzle (Christmas list), so obviously that gives the definition and I would guess credit is CR. Does that mean that “ackers” is some sort of term for money ? I can’t find it anywhere. |
| 27 | Leant: hom.of “lent”. |
| 28 | Ibo: bio*. Ibo seem to be a West African ethnic grouping. |
| 29 | Cease: C + ease. |
| 31 | Presents: present + s. |
| 32 | Lights: double definition. |
| Down | |
| 1 | Answers: Rawness*. |
| 2 | Veg: VG (very good) around E. |
| 3 | Niece: Nice around E. |
| 5 | Tree: Didn’t understand this at all and only got it from the Christmas List theme. The clue is “Robbie Keane’s hat trick for the 9 26 ?”. |
| 6 | Rescuable: RE (Royal Engineers) + bascule*. |
| 7 | Crackleware: Crack + le + hom. of “where”. |
| 8 | Sissy: hidden, reversed in “abyss is”. |
| 9 | Christmas: (Shirt scam)*. |
| 14 | Commemorate: Come around memo + rat. |
| 16 | Elbowroom: Seems to be bow + roo in elm, although bow for stick isn’t particularly obvious. |
| 18 | Mistletoe: (motel site)*. |
| 22 | Dispels: (ed slips)*. |
| 23 | All up: Double def. |
| 25 | Cacti: Odd letters of “chancy trip”. |
| 26 | List: Hidden, reversed. |
| 30 | Ash: Double def. |
December 1st, 2008 at 12:18 pm
24A – Ackers is (military?) slang for money. It’s in my Chambers.
23D is “All up”. I put “All in” at first but had to change it to fit with 31A.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
5d ‘three’ in an Irish accent.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I didn’t even know he was Irish !
December 1st, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Neither did I until I googled his name. Football is not one of my strongpoints (to say the least!).
December 1st, 2008 at 2:10 pm
28A Ibo: If like me you were alive and listening to the news during the Biafran war this was a quite easy but lovely clue. I mused that Glowworm had been waiting for an opportunity to use the “biodiversity” trick.
[No doubt someone will be along in a minute who can't conceive of a primary school education without study of Graeco-Roman fashion and thus consider abolla easy.]
December 1st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Nice puzzle. There’s an appropriately-themed Nina in it, too.
December 1st, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Good spot, Richard – so that’s why BEEF got on to the Christmas list and we all learned about ABOLLA
December 1st, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Beef was usually Boxing Day fare in my family and a quick internet trawl suggests we weren’t alone, e.g. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2558/roast-sirloin-of-beef.
Chelsea fans may be hoping 5D is not a premonition, although some of us are more concerned with matters at the bottom of the table.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
My thanks to all “responders”, not just the complimentary ones… Your comments are valuable and taken on board.
Glad Richard spotted the Nina; my original grid had the three words down rows 1 and 15, but this would have given eight entries with unchecked first letters – not popular, I guess.
My Dad was in the RAF in WW2, and “ackers” was a common word in our house – obviously not as widespread a usage as I thought.
Can’t take credit for 5 Down: that was Eimi doing a better job on “tree” than I did!
Compliments of the season (the next one, that is.)
December 1st, 2008 at 6:32 pm
“Robbie Keane’s hat trick”… “Arsenal’s tedious stretch” – I instantly detected the hand of a Spurs fan at work here. But don’t worry, the Indygooners will strike back!
December 1st, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Norwich City, actually, but I don’t broadcast it too much …