I believe this is the first time I’ve blogged a Wiglaf puzzle. It was a good one, though I’ll admit I struggled to adapt to an unfamiliar setter’s style in this case, and never quite settled into the flow of things.
Last ones in were a few of the downs in the lower right corner. 15 (OVERBORNE) and 16 (FALERNIAN) were both unfamiliar terms. In the case of the former, the wordplay was helpful. Not sure I can say that about the latter where we had only a non-deterministic device—an anagram—to guide us to what seems to be a fairly obscure term.
There were a few other bits and bobs that didn’t sit well with me, though I’ll be the first to admit they may be the result of my own non-erudition or general wooly-mindedness.
If that all sounds overly negative I’ll apologise, because that would be unfair. There was a lot to enjoy in there.
| Across | ||
| 1 | THE STAGE | Label these clothes? That’s not a job for Miss Worthington (3,5) |
| TAG “clothed by” THESE. It’s a reference to the Noël Coward song “Don’t put your daughter on the stage, Mrs. Worthington”, so is the “Miss” a simple typo? | ||
| 5 | STAMP | Character actor (5) |
| Two definitions: character/the actor Terence Stamp. I can’t imagine using the former interchangeably with the entry, but the surface is nice. | ||
| 9 | RAVEN | Chicken decapitated crow (5) |
| [c]RAVEN. | ||
| 10 | ALGEBRAIC | Gaelic eccentric receives a pair of cups relating to mathematical work (9) |
| BRA in GAELIC*. | ||
| 11 | ANNELID | Bin Laden trained missing book worm (7) |
| ([b]IN LADEN)*. | ||
| 12 | SHIATSU | Mum’s institute occasionally has tissue massage (7) |
| SH + I + [h]A[s]T[i]S[s]U[e]. | ||
| 13 | TUM | Maybe pot‘s the last thing you’ll need during meditation (3) |
| [yo]U in TM. | ||
| 14 | SNAP OUT OF IT | What an alligator may do to recover quickly (4,3,2,2) |
| Not quite sure here. Alligators might well snap a lot, but out of what? | ||
| 17 | ENDLESSNESS | Aims to install new lenses and start to see infinity (11) |
| (LENSES* installed in ENDS) + S[ee]. | ||
| 20 | LIE | Stretcher carrying Salieri? The opposite (3) |
| Hidden in [sa]LIE[ri]. I guess we need to think of a lie as something that may stretch the truth. | ||
| 21 | PYRAMID | Rolling agenda, involving Mike Pence, makes one wonder (7) |
| ((M in DIARY) + P), all reversed. One of seven wonders, more specifially. Enjoyed this one. | ||
| 24 | BACARDI | Rum barrels in front of top-class drinking club? (7) |
| B + (CARD in A1). | ||
| 25 | MAIL ORDER | A way to purchase flexible armour by post? (4,5) |
| I think this is a cryptic definition, with a reference to e.g. chain mail. | ||
| 26 | ENIAC | Drug company dumped retrograde computer (5) |
| [co]CAINE<. ENIAC was an early electronic computer. Perhaps a little niche as general knowledge goes, but then it is Saturday. | ||
| 27 | NO END | A legion will get turned on and climax (2,3) |
| ON< + END. | ||
| 28 | BEATINGS | Punishments by educators and teachers is niggling grammar schools’ principals (8) |
| An acrostic of B[y] E[ducators] A[nd] T[eachers] I[s] N[iggling] G[rammar] S[chools]. Perhaps the definition is simply “punishments”, but I rather like it as an &lit. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TARZAN THE APE MAN | Film featuring sailor, unknown soldier, ambassador and primate stuck on island (6,3,3,3) |
| Nice long charade of TAR + Z + ANT + HE + APE + The Isle of MAN. | ||
| 2 | ENVENOMED | Filled with malice, the first lady holds tail of Tasmanian devil up (9) |
| ([tasmania]N in EVE) + DEMON<. | ||
| 3 | TINKLES | Leaks telephone call to The Sun (7) |
| TINKLE + S. Nice surface there. | ||
| 4 | GUARDIANS | “You rang” said Lurch, not ultimately happy, to Mr and Mrs Addams? (9) |
| ([yo]U RANG SAID)*. We need to remove the final letters of happY and tO from the potential anagram fodder here. But of what/whom are these two “guardians”? | ||
| 5 | SUBSIST | Advances, first to last (7) |
| SUBS + 1ST. | ||
| 6 | ADAPT | Old programmer goes to gym to get fit (5) |
| ADA Lovelace + PT. Another bit of computing history here: Ada Lovelace was the programmer of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, despite being born the daughter of Lord Byron. | ||
| 7 | PICK UP THE PIECES | Restore mouldy pie with spice and ketchup (4,2,3,6) |
| (PIE + SPICE + KETCHUP)*. | ||
| 8 | AGES | Women avoiding regular payments for years (4) |
| [w]AGES. | ||
| 15 | OVERBORNE | Subdued individual catches part of speech given to troops (9) |
| (VERB + OR) in ONE. | ||
| 16 | FALERNIAN | Anna Friel’s drunk the wine of Pontius Pilate (9) |
| (ANNA FRIEL)*. This stuff. | ||
| 18 | ELMWOOD | Model who unloaded recycled timber (7) |
| (MODEL + W[h]O)*. | ||
| 19 | SICKERT | German-English painter, getting worse over time (7) |
| SICKER + T. Walter of that ilk. Hadn’t heard of him myself, but there he is. | ||
| 22 | RAYS | Put up beams in the auditorium (5) |
| Homophone of “rays”. | ||
| 23 | DIDO | Mythical queen languished, devoid of ecstasy and love (4) |
| DI[e]D + 0. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
Thanks Simon. (Should have ‘raise’ at the solution for 22.)
As you say, lots to enjoy here, so many thanks to Wiglaf. My computing background helped with a couple, and as a lover of the slightly gruesome paintings by Sickert, no problems there. If I had to pick out an individual clue, I would say the wonderful spot of the anagram at 16.
Can’t help with 4 though. Anybody?
Your intro Simon perfectly summed up my feelings. I have said before that I don’t like obscure words like 16d clued by an anagram, though not too many options. I didn’t get 5a and don’t like it. Didn’t like 13a or 20a either. Having said all that, there are some great clues. Liked ‘label these clothes’ in 1a and thought 26a and 3d were good, amongst others. I was a fan of the Addams family back in the day, but wouldn’t have referred to them as ‘guardians’ – perhaps some other Addams?
I don’t share most of the above objections, although I do wince a little at stretcher for lie. I hadn’t heard of FALERNIAN either, but it’s an amusing anagram, guessable with crossers, and I thought TUM was good.
The Addamses could be guardians of Thing, I suppose!
1a was superb. As for Miss being a typo, I hope I’m not missing your point, but I don’t see that. It’s just a reference to Mrs Worthington’s daughter – “not a job for Miss Worthington” [according to Coward].
Thanks, Wiglaf and Simon.
Fair enough. My original dislike for TUM was the clueing for the letter U but, on reflection, it works quite well. Still don’t like STAMP or stretcher for lie. I meant to add that I thought 14a was fine as a humorous definition. The ADA part of ADAPT was maybe a bit obscure but gettable. I like fairly obscure words like 15d when they are clued in a way that makes it relatively easy to get. Has anybody out there ever heard of FALERNIAN wine? Given the crossers, it was really just a question of where the E goes but does mean you need to get all the crossers first.
FALERNIAN was my first one in. Anyone familiar with Roman history or historical novels will know it. I didn’t find any of the words obscure, though I too don’t get the Addams family reference
Hi Simon. Re 1a, presumably Mrs Worthington’s daughter would be called Miss Worthington?
This puzzle was frankly terrible. Falernian and Sickert are obscure but uninteresting. Over relied on hackneyed cryptic-see like OR, HE, PT. A stretcher might be a liar but not a lie. 5a, 14a, 25a don’t fully make sense. The clung for 13a was far from parsimonious. And a 1935 Noel Coward song is obscure for the sake of showing off.
Enjoyable, engaging and tough puzzle that bested me by about 6 in the end. Lots to like here with my fave being 1a so thanks to Wiglaf for the puzzle and to SH for the enlightenment.
Didn’t know the same 2 words as Simon and had never heard of the ADA referred to in 6d. I agree with LIE being a bit of a stretch and still only sort of get MAIL ORDER. I think an example of STAMP for ‘character’ is ‘to leave your stamp’ on something = ‘to leave evidence of your character’. Maybe.
Despite these (to me) fairly minor reservations I liked this, with ENVENOMED, TINKLES and PYRAMID being my favourites.
Thanks to Simon and Wiglaf
Some of us do seem to have got out of bed on the wrong side this a.m.
There was nothing I found unfair. To take some of the more common complaints: ‘mail’ has ‘chain mail’ (the ‘flexible’ stuff) as its first meaning in this context; Chambers gives ‘lie or exaggeration [informal]’ for ‘stretcher’ at def. 8 and “That Cholmondley’s a decent cove; we could use more men of his stamp” would be a fair if rather dated use of the word.
I’ve seen a lot worse than these. I found it hard but enjoyable. They can’t all be coffee-time puzzles, you know.
Thanks to Wiglaf & Simon.
I second all that Grant@10 says, though I did need a bit of help. And as for 1ac, “Don’t put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington” isn’t that obscure – it’s included in the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations – and I thought it was a super clue.
I think Philip Kromer @7 rather overstates his case. I agree with Grant Baynham @10 that there’s nothing unfair here as such – at least nothing that would justify inclusion in the Nimrod playbook. That said, 14a and 4d are poor, while 13a is arguably the worst clue of the week from any puzzle reviewed on this site – which is quite an achievement, given that we had Tramp in The Guardian on Tuesday.
Overall verdict: Wiglaf could do better – if bothered.
Thanks to Simon Harding for the blog.
Some unnecessary bile here. There is no problem with 1A, 5A, 14A, and I found some of this quite funny. Particularly surprised by objections to STAMP and some comments show a lack of general knowledge and generosity. Also liked the two long entries at 1D and 7D and thought 21A rather clever; concede to not liking TUM much, but so what?.
Thanks to Wiglaf and Simon Harding.