Wiglaf on Tuesday this week.
It’s nearly fifteen months since I last blogged a Wiglaf puzzle and I note I said then that was the first Wiglaf I had blogged, so this is another week where I wondered if I would be on the setter’s wavelength.
I certainly found this easier than the Poins puzzle I blogged last week.
It took me a long time to notice that all the across entries are birds. Indeed, I think I only had three left when the penny dropped and it helped me get KITE as the definition (dud cheque) was not one I had come across before. The bird theme also helped with PARROT so you can see I was finishing in the North West corner. A DEMOISELLE is a type of crane and I assumed that ROADRUNNER was just a cartoon bird until I did bit more research and found that the Greater ROADRUNNER is a long-legged bird of the cuckoo family.
I liked the clues for SHARIA and HAUNCHED
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
5
|
Riddle cracked by Welsh writer (5)
|
SIFT (sieve; riddle) containing (cracked by) W (Welsh) S (W) IFT |
SWIFT (reference Jonathan SWIFT [1667 – 1745], Anglo-Irish writer) |
|
6
|
Urgency having previously contracted the fungal disease (6)
|
THE excluding the final letter (contracted) E + RUSH (urgency) TH RUSH |
THRUSH (fungal disease)
|
|
9
|
Some hosts argue with women going ape (6)
|
PART (some) containing (hosts) (ROW [argue] excluding [going] W) PAR (RO) T |
PARROT (repeat by rote; mimic; ape)
|
|
10
|
Clothing arrives here in German jet (7)
|
HIER (German for ‘here’) containing (clothes) ARR (arrives) H (ARR) IER |
HARRIER (subsonic multi-purpose military jet plane)
|
|
11
|
Appeal to stop Grand Duke’s last dud cheque (4)
|
IT ([sex] appeal) contained in (to stop) (K [1,000; grand] + E [final letter of {last} DUKE]) K (IT) E |
KITE (a cheque that is written without sufficient money in the bank to cover it; dud cheque
|
|
12
|
After rally, Leslie bumped into girl (10)
|
DEMO (demonstration; rally) + an anagram of (bumped into) LESLIE DEMO ISELLE* |
DEMOISELLE (archaic or facetious term for a young lady; girl)
|
|
13
|
Victorian statistician in the dark, during storm (11)
|
NIGHT (in the dark) + IN (during) + GALE (storm) NIGHT IN GALE |
NIGHTINGALE (reference Florence NIGHTINGALE [1820 – 1910], English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing)
|
|
18
|
Our Darren goes out around noon for a quick one (10)
|
Anagram of (goes out) OUR DARREN containing (around) N (noon) ROADRUN (N) ER* Either N could be the one contained |
ROADRUNNER (someone who moves quickly)
|
|
21
|
London designer tucked into dinner with revolutionary (4)
|
WREN (hidden word in [in] reversed [revolutionary] DINNER WITH) WREN< |
WREN (reference Sir Christopher WREN [1632 – 1723], English architect; London designer responsible for the design of St Paul’s Cathedral)
|
|
22
|
Lost place in book (7)
|
Anagram of (lost) PLACE IN PELICAN* |
PELICAN (non-fiction imprint of Penguin Books)
|
|
23
|
Member of Rat Pack is out of cocktails (unlikely as it seems!) (6)
|
MARTINIS (cocktails) excluding (out of) IS MARTIN |
MARTIN (reference Dean MARTIN [1917 – 1995]. member of the Rat Pack, a group of entertainers centred on Las Vegas. The members changed over the years but they were always known for womanising and heavy drinking, so it is unlikely they would ever be out of cocktails)
|
|
24
|
It’s billed with nothing about price? Just the reverse (6)
|
PR (price) containing (about) LOVE (zero score in tennis; nothing) The container and contents are the opposite (just the reverse) of the arrangement set out in the clue (nothing about price) P (LOVE) R |
PLOVER (a PLOVER has a bill; it’s billed)
|
|
25
|
Actor who won posthumous award has following in Switzerland (5)
|
F (following) + IN + CH (International Vehicle Registration for Switzerland) F IN CH |
FINCH (reference Peter FINCH [1916 – 1977], English actor who won a posthumous best actor award for his role as a crazed anchorman in Network)
|
| Down | |||
|
1
|
Al Reid’s busy before 1 PM (8)
|
Anagram of (busy) AL REID’S + I (Roman numeral for 1) DISRAEL* I |
DISRAELI (reference Benjamin DISRAELI [1804 – 1881], British Prime Minister [PM])
|
|
2
|
Made a claim from government department (6)
|
STATE (government) + D (department) STATE D |
STATED (made a claim)
|
|
3
|
Delightful group of goldfinches perched on bank (8)
|
CHARM (collective noun for a group of goldfinches, variant spelling of CHIRM) + ING (dialect word for a meadow or bank beside a river) CHARM ING |
CHARMING (delightful)
|
|
4
|
Finished parts function horizontally (6)
|
UP (finished) contained in (parts) SINE (trigonometrical function) S (UP) INE |
SUPINE (prostrate; horizontal)
|
|
5
|
Theatre is regularly breaking Aussie state law (6)
|
HARI (letters 2, 4, 6 and 8 [regularly] of THEATRE IS) contained in (breaking) SA (South Australia; Australian State) S (HARI) A |
SHARIA (the body of Islamic religious law)
|
|
7
|
Beginning with Hastings, a king of the past (6)
|
H (first letter of [beginnings with] HASTINGS) + A + R (Rex; king) + OLD H A R OLD |
HAROLD (reference King HAROLD who was defeated at the Battle of HASTINGS in 1066) Wikipedia tells me that this HAROLD was generally known as HAROLD II, not HAROLD 1 who was probably HAROLD Harefoot, King from 1035 to 1040 so I am bit confused about the use of ‘Beginning’ in the definition. I can see clearly why ‘Beginning’ is used in the wordplay)
|
|
8
|
Some mushrooms to munch before nosing around (11)
|
CHAMP (munch) + an anagram of (around) NOSING CHAMP IGNONS* |
CHAMPIGNONS (mushrooms)
|
|
14
|
Harry had wingless duck and hen with fleshy hindquarter (8)
|
Anagram of (harry) HAD and DUCK excluding the outer letters (wingless) D & K and HEN giving an anagram of HADUCHEN HAUNCHED* |
HAUNCHED (descriptive of the hip and buttocks taken together; with fleshy hindquarters)
|
|
15
|
Blooming fellow leaving with a menacing scowl … (8)
|
FLOWERING (blooming) excluding (leaving) F (fellow [of a society]) LOWERING |
LOWERING (with a menacing scowl)
|
|
16
|
… interviews very old man about old times (3,3)
|
(V [very] + POP [father; old man]) containing (about) (O [old] + X [sign for multiplication or times]) V (O X) POP |
VOX POP (originally meaning the voice of the people; now applied to brief street interviews which are used to determine the voice of the people. Sometimes one gets the impression that the interviews are held with people known to hold the views the organisers of the interviews wish to highlight as that said voice of the people)
|
|
17
|
Enjoy a dip (6)
|
RELISH (enjoy) RELISH |
RELISH (condiment often used as a dip)
|
|
19
|
Lecturer welcomes old German scientist (6)
|
DON containing (welcomes) ALT (German for ‘old’) D (ALT) ON |
DALTON (reference John DALTON [1766 – 1844], an English chemist, physicist, and
|
|
20
|
Single female recruited by foreign army branch (6)
|
(I [Roman numeral for one; single] + F (female) contained in (recruited by) an anagram of (foreign) ARMY RAM (I F) Y* |
RAMIFY (divide into branches)
|
Took a little while to get tuned in, but worth it. To start I had about 5 downs and no acrosses. Somehow I knew they were all birds, but I couldn’t think of any. I didn’t mind some of the more abstruse definitions for the birds since the game was pretty clear. I liked SWIFT, KITE, SUPINE, VOX POP.
Thanks Wiglaf, Duncan
Took a while to work out what language this puzzle was in.
How is it possible; I completed it without noticing the theme. Certainly a different puzzle, with some ingenious cluing. LOI was PLOVER. In 3D I took the ING to refer to the multinational banking group. Favourite was SUPINE. Couple of minor typos in the definitions column for 24 and 25.
Thanks to Wiglaf and duncanshiell.
Found this tough. Didn’t like the assumed knowledge of the German language, but guessed them and finished except for parsing 3d. New words were ‘kite’ for ‘dud cheque’ and ‘ramify’. Enjoyed it overall – maybe I’m some kind of masochist. Thanks to S&B.
We thought there must be something going on when we saw the unusual grid, and soon spotted the theme so we found this quite easy. KITE was one of our last ones in after we worked out the wordplay and had to check (no pun intended – not) in Chambers for the ‘dud cheque’ meaning.
Lots to like here. Favourites included SWIFT, HARRIER, SUPINE and DALTON.
Only one quibble, not with the puzzle but with 15^2: Why wasn’t this set up for Pierre to blog?
Thanks, Wiglaf and Duncan.
The bird theme helped me with a few up in the NW including KITE (new as a ‘dud cheque’ to me too) and PARROT. I had no idea about the parsing of CHARMING so thanks for enlightening me. The ‘statistician’ bit for NIGHTINGALE also slipped by unexplained, as did the ‘Beginning’ in the def for HAROLD.
New fact for the day: Peter FINCH was not an Australian as I’d always thought but was born in England. Still he spent about 20 years in Aust., started his acting career here and served in the Australian Army in WW2 (thanks Wikipedia) so was sort of ‘one of ours’.
Thanks to Duncan and Wiglaf.
Re “beginning” in 7d: the sense in the definition is that Harold only started being a “king of the past” at Hastings (because he died there). I thought that was a lovely &lit.
I was very entertained by this one, although it moved from ‘I can’t get any of this’ to ‘That was fun’ pretty quickly once I had twigged the avian theme. Cleverly done, with not too many obscurities – I didn’t mind the German, but can understand others might not have been so keen.
Not sure whether Pierre would have loved this or wanted paying double time for blogging it – perhaps he’ll drop in and tell us.
Fine puzzle, blog the same. Thanks to both.
Thanks Wiglaf and DS
I enjoyed this, despite having been tipped off elsewhere about the theme, which gave me an in.
My only minor quibble is PELICAN as ‘book’, when it’s an imprint, or ‘publisher of books’. I can envisage a discussion of a physical book as “It’s a pelican”, but as a clue it seems very tenuous.
Happy to be proved wrong..