It’s Wiglaf’s turn in the Thursday slot this week and it’s six months since we last blogged one of his puzzles.
We found this one as tricky as his previous offerings, but didn’t enjoy it quite so much, mainly due to the unusual (to us) words at 13ac and 25ac, the oddity at 22ac and the fictional character (unknown to us) at 3d. Perhaps we were just not in the right mood for these – after all, we learn a lot of new words from crosswords, so we shouldn’t complain about having our vocabulary expanded! When we checked 25ac on Google we came across THIS Iranian mathematician who died recently. An amazing lady.
Having said that, there was much to enjoy, some crafty misdirections, (almost too) obscure definitions (e.g. 8ac) and a very convoluted and original method of arriving at the first ‘H’ in 17d.
Given the oddities and the fact that Wiglaf has produced some devilish IQ puzzles, we feel sure that we must be missing something in the way of a theme. We have WRONG NUMBER in the middle column and ZERO(th) at 22ac but cannot find any other numbers – even jumbled up or ‘wrong’!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Dunces will require special test (6) | |
| ASSESS | ASSES (dunces) S (special) | |
| 4 | Aircraft ace’s snazzy clothes (6) | |
| CESSNA | Hidden in or ‘clothed‘ by aCES SNAzzy | |
| 8 | Former leader has dispute in high security area (8) | |
| HEATHROW | HEATH (Edward Heath, former PM) ROW (dispute) | |
| 10 | Foreign trade in Ostia? (6) | |
| EXPORT | Ostia was once the port for ancient Rome – it is now an EX PORT | |
| 11 | Cooler sensation (4) | |
| STIR | Double definition | |
| 12 | What a poor hod carrier might do to cause social embarrassment (4,1,5) | |
| DROP A BRICK | A poor hod carrier might be liable to DROP A BRICK from his hod | |
| 13 | Abstract algebra’s used by Irish official? It’s indisputable (12) | |
| IRREFRAGABLE | An anagram of ALGEBRA (anagrind is ‘abstract‘) after or ‘by’ IR (Irish) REF (official) – a new word for us | |
| 16 | Is a cool douche inadequate when showering? No way! (1,6,5) | |
| I SHOULD COCOA | An anagram of IS A COOL DOUCH |
|
| 20 | Record by Bill and Charlie’s going to chart? That’s pleasing (10) | |
| ACCEPTABLE | EP (record) after or ‘by’ AC (account – bill) C (Charlie in the phonetic alphabet) + TABLE (chart) | |
| 21 | John with receding curly hair (4) | |
| WOOL | LOO (John) W (with) reversed or ‘receding’ | |
| 22 | Before the first unknown (or the variable) (6) | |
| ZEROTH | Z (unknown, in maths) + an anagram of OR THE – anagrind is ‘variable’. | |
| 23 | Disreputable señoras call your house (8) | |
| RASCALLY | Hidden or ‘housed’ in senoRAS CALL Your | |
| 24 | Doctor succeeded holding back money orders (6) | |
| DRAFTS | DR (doctor) S (succeeded) round or ‘holding’ AFT (back) | |
| 25 | Arab girl is allowed to hit back (6) | |
| MARYAM | MAY (is allowed to) RAM (hit) all reversed or ‘back’ – not a name we had come across until we realised that we had seen it earlier in the week when it appeared in an Indy obituary | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Hole in one? A true shot (8) | |
| APERTURE | A (one) PER (a, as in ten-a-penny) + an anagram of TRUE – anagrind is ‘shot’ | |
| 2 | Lecherous type appears in smart lycra now and then (5) | |
| SATYR | Alternate letter (‘now and then’) of SmArT lYcRa | |
| 3 | Aragorn was once in short trousers, then later king (7) | |
| STRIDER | STRIDE |
|
| 5 | A treasured possession English essayist penned with ecstasy (3-4) | |
| EWE-LAMB | E (English) LAMB (essayist) round or ‘penning’ W (with) E (ecstasy) | |
| 6 | Wicked lady’s ring is one with special powers? (9) | |
| SUPERHERO | SUPER (wicked) HER (lady’s) O (ring) | |
| 7 | RAF bombing CIA ground? We’re out of here! (6) | |
| AFRICA | An anagram of RAF (anagrind is ‘bombing’) + an anagram of CIA (anagrind is ‘ground’) | |
| 9 | Misdial NE Brum, literally (5,6) | |
| WRONG NUMBER | An anagram of NE BRUM – the anagrind is WRONG – in the solution, hence ‘literally’ in the clue | |
| 14 | Keeping some distance, Ezra Pound falls in love with a French writer (5,4) | |
| EMILE ZOLA | MILE (some distance) in or ‘kept by’ EZ (Ezra – the book in the Bible) + L (pound) ‘falling’ in O (love) A | |
| 15 | Former Labour minister sees member of parliament in NY gallery with spy chief (2,6) | |
| MO MOWLAM | OWL (‘member of parliament’ – the collective noun for a group of owls) in MOMA (Museum of Modern Art in New York) + M (spy chief in the James Bond novels) | |
| 17 | Nadia’s first in Russia to host foreign expert (7) | |
| HOTSHOT | H (Cyrillic script letter which is the equivalent of ‘N’ in English and would be the first letter of ‘Nadia’ in Russia) + an anagram of TO HOST – anagrind is ‘foreign’ | |
| 18 | Oceanic race being mounted: Spain to America (4-3) | |
| DEEP-SEA | SPEED (race) reversed or ‘mounted’ E (Spain) A (America) | |
| 19 | Beginning to see dogma in writing (6) | |
| SCREED | S (first letter or ‘beginning’ to ‘see’) CREED (dogma) | |
| 21 | Yes, we are all endlessly confused and tired (5) | |
| WEARY | An anagram of YE |
|
Tough, but I got there having had to resort to google to get MARYAM. The clueing for H in 17d was very original, making a nice change from rugby post. I have seen OWL clued as ‘member of parliament’ before but I do like it. Don’t know any theme, although after 7d, I wondered if ‘out of Africa’ was relevant. Never read it or seen the film.
Just to lighten the mood after that head scratcher, HEATHROW reminded me of a Tim Rice joke:
A man walks up to a woman at an airport and says “cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck”
The woman replies
“I’m sorry sir – this is the ‘check-in’ desk”
Whoops! Of course I meant to write Tim Vine. Don’t think Tim Rice is particularly known for his jokes.
Well, the apprentice has just bought me the 13th edition of Chambers, which came in very handy for IRREFRAGABLE and ZEROTH (and would have been helpful for ‘exoplanet’ yesterday).
Quite a challenge all the same, as we couldn’t parse STRIDER or MO MOWLEM. And we thought HOTSHOT was a bit sneaky with the use of H = N: quite clever but too sneaky to be our CoD (which was WRONG NUMBER).
Thanks, though, Wiglaf and B&J
Missed 25a (thanks for the link – extraordinary woman and so sad to have died at such a young age) and had to work hard for a few others. I thought I had nailed 22a by putting in ‘theory’ (unparsed of course) so that held me up in the SW. ZEROTH – it’s in Chambers but I’d have to say I’m not a big fan and ditto for I SHOULD COCOA, an expression I’ve only encountered in the realm of crossword land. ‘Nadia’s first in Russia’ was v. original and the highlight for me.
I won’t attempt to better your witticism, Hovis @1&2, whether from Tim Vine (Who he? Ed) or Tim Rice. Even if he’s not known for his jokes, Tim Rice is a great fan of n.molesworth, so he has a (sophisticated, in my view) sense of humour anyway.
Thank you to Wiglaf and to B&J.
Thanks B&J
I missed 15d MO MOWLAM, for which I forgive myself, but also RASCALLY – I hate it when I miss a hidden! Well done Wiglaf. And I didn’t parse EMILE ZOLA, though it had to be.
A challenging puzzle which pushes the boundaries a bit and I learned IRREFRAGABLE and I SHOULD COCOA. I was happy I remembered CESSNA and I had no problem finding MARYAM.
Many thanks
Cyrillic script……you’re ‘avin a Wiglaf!
Surprised so many have not met ‘I should cocoa’. Thought it was a well-used phrase, at least in Britain. It’s a kind of rhyming slang (for ‘I should say so’), so maybe not known by our fellow foreign solvers. I use it a lot.
A really excellent puzzle. Like others, couldn’t understand HOTSHOT; must remember the new info obtained from the clue. Confident it was MO MOWLAM, but took me several goes to work out the parsing, vg clue. Only one I semi-cheated on was MARYAM. Have come across IRREFRAGABLE, seldom used these days.
I think I SHOULD COCOA must have been used by Dennis Waterman in “Minder”. When I was in St Ives in 2011, noticed a shop called “I Should Coco” and took a picture. Shop still there.
Thanks heaps Wiglaf and to Bertandjoyce for the blog.
Enjoyable and challenging stuff with a fair bit of GK thrown in for free. Took me the hour before I admitted defeat (two in the NW and three in the SW beat me). Even though I studied a module of Russian once I didn’t see the H/N manoeuvre, but then again I was as good at Russian after the course as I was before it.
Thought there must have been some sort of thematic going on with all the obscure words but couldn’t see much other than an advert for a No1 Cola in the thirteenth column. Anyhoo, cheers to The Big Swede for an engaging puzzle and to B&J for the enlightenment.
Oh, and ‘I should coco/a is well-known round my parts as a phrase and also as the name of the debut album of Supergrass. Double Oh, ‘irrefragable’ was not a word known around these parts, but soon will be!
I actually found this went in quite easy, although there were a couple – 3dn, 15dn – where the answers were obvious even though I couldn’t parse them.
It probably helped that I read physics at university and there’s a zeroth law of thermodynamics, and zeroth symphony of Anton Bruckner in my CD collection. I also read Lord of the Rings many times when younger.
13ac was a word I didn’t know, but I put it together from its constituent parts and then checked Chambers. I also put 25ac together that way and was trying to remember why the name sounded familiar and then realised I’d just read an obituary of the mathematician.
Hard, but it’s Thursday. Couldn’t parse Zola, but didn’t know OT books had abbreviations. Never seen “I should cocoa” written down (Supergrass way after my time), but an enjoyable workout.
Thanks to S&B