Independent 9432 / Wiglaf

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This the first Wiglaf puzzle we have blogged. We have enjoyed all his previous offerings, including his IQs, so we really looked forward to this one – and we weren’t disappointed.

We found the puzzle rather tricky to get into at first, due to the inventive clueing that we have come to expect from this setter, but with a little perseverance, it all fell satisfyingly into place eventually. We thought early on that it might be a pangram once the Q, W, V, X and Z had turned up. However, there’s no J, K or Y.

We’re not 100% sure about the anagrind in 9ac – have we missed something there?

Across
7   Note about the author inscribed in map of the Underworld (9)
PLUTONIAN UT (note – now usually referred to as ‘doh’) ON (about) I (the author) in PLAN (map)
9   Middle Earth with another eclipse (5)
HEART An anagram of EARTH – anagrind seems to be ‘another eclipse’ – we’re not too sure about this and convinced that we are missing something very devious.
11   It’s 3 here, but near midnight perhaps in Washington (7,2,6)
QUARTER OF TWELVE 3 is a QUARTER OF TWELVE anywhere, but in the US they say ‘quarter of’ instead of ‘quarter to’, so ‘quarter of twelve’ would be 11.45 – ‘near midnight perhaps’
12   Debauched cad and roué in a state (7)
ECUADOR An anagram of CAD and ROUE – anagrind is ‘debauched’
13   Have some cheese sandwiches – and a small chocolate cake (7)
BROWNIE OWN (have) in or ‘sandwiched by’ BRIE (some cheese)
14   British automobile plant (5)
LOTUS Double definition
15   Mass is reduced by fusion (3)
MIX M (mass) Is (‘reduced’) X (by)
16   An unusual type of cricket? (5)
SPORT Double definition – apparently a SPORT can be an unusual type of person
17   Aims to get nothing wrong (5,2)
ZEROS IN ZERO (nothing) SIN (wrong)
19   Police sergeant patrols parts of beach at Qatar? They need minding (2,3,2)
PS AND QS PS (police sergeant) round or ‘patrolling’ SAND (‘part of beach’) Q (Qatar)
21   It’s pleasant to take a long bus ride but __, however (15)
NOTWITHSTANDING A long bus ride would be pleasant provided you were NOT (WITH) STANDING
22   She emerges from down river occasionally (5)
SADIE SAD (down) + alternate or ‘occasional’ letters of rIvEr
23   Sadly regrets having ousted leader in East African region (9)
SERENGETI An anagram of rEGRETS without or ‘ousting’ the first letter or ‘leader’ and IN E (east) – anagrind is ‘sadly’
Down
1   Enigmatic work, equal tempered apart from fourth in scale (6)
OPAQUE OP (work) + an anagram of EQUAl without or ‘apart from’ the ‘l’ (fourth letter in ‘scale’) – anagrind is ‘tempered’
2   More than one pancake roll for the northern girl to tuck into (8)
TOSTADAS TOSS (roll) with T (‘the’ in northern dialect’) ADA (girl) ‘tucked’ in
3   Youth exchanging knight for bishop in match (6)
MIRROR MInOR (youth) with the ‘n’ (knight) exchanged for RR (Right Reverend – bishop)
4   Where to keep fine tobacco? Small sock should hold enough (8)
SNUFFBOX S (small) BOX (sock – as in to strike hard) round or ‘holding’ NUFF (enough)
5   Hack into all the same group (3,3)
THE WHO HEW (hack) in THO (all the same) – one of our favourite live bands from student days
6   Most expensive type of sword picked up in the streets (8)
STEEPEST EPEE (type of sword) reversed or ‘picked up’ in ST ST (streets)
8   “Utter rubbish” uttered Landau (13)
UNADULTERATED An anagram of UTTERED LANDAU – anagrind is ‘rubbish’
10   There’s no rush to see galleon? (3,2,4,4)
ALL IN GOOD TIME Cryptically, ‘Galleon’ could be parsed as ALL IN GOOD (g) TIME (eon)
14   School punishment Arizona’s introduced has reduced indolence (8)
LAZINESS LINES (school punishment) with AZ (Arizona) ‘introduced’ + S (‘s – ‘has reduced’)
15   Some hint about becoming a pub landlord? (4,4)
MINE HOST An anagram of SOME HINT – anagrind is ‘about’
16   Reading Gaol’s new in Twitter? (8)
SCANNING CAN (Gaol) N (new) in SING (twitter)
18   Film actor from ‘The Birds’ makes critical comments (6)
SNIPES Triple definition. The film actor is Wesley Snipes.
19   Depart after tossing firework (6)
PETARD An anagram of DEPART – anagrind is ‘tossing’
20   Singing mostly out of tune? Try this register (4,2)
SIGN IN An anagram of SINGINg without the last letter or ‘mostly’ – anagrind is ‘out of tune’ – ‘try this’ seems superfluous, although it does make a good surface

 

8 comments on “Independent 9432 / Wiglaf”

  2. Thanks B&J
    I don’t think 9ac is an anagram. I parsed it as [eart]H EART[h] (earth with another) minus ‘earth’ (eclipse {the total disappearance of a heavenly body}). Alternatively, you could interpret ‘eclipse’ as ‘to hide completely or partially’.

  3. I found this hard to get into but loved ALL IN GOOD TIME with the word play in the solution.

    Gaufrid’s parsing of 9ac makes sense. Would never have figured it out myself.

  5. Thanks Gaufrid. We knew there must be more to 9ac but it turns out it was even more devious than we could have imagined.

  6. I completely missed the parsing of 9 – very clever and way beyond me to work out. I see that SPORT in the sense of ‘An unusual type’ is number 14 (and last!) in the meanings of the word as a noun in Chambers, so I don’t feel so bad about not having heard of it before. UT for ‘note’ was also new.

    A challenging Thursday puzzle with some excellent clues of which ALL IN GOOD TIME was my favourite.

    A big thanks to Wiglaf and B&J.

  8. Completed this without help, albeit having to correct two mistakes I’d made.

    I’d heard of “sport” meaning an animal that hasn’t bred true, such as a mutation.

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