Independent 6904 / Glowworm

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*=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.

12 comments on “Independent 6904 / Glowworm”

  1. 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.

  5. 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.]

  9. 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.)

  10. “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!

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