I was under the impression that I had blogged Wiglaf more recently than last October, but apparently not. Everyone since then seemed to moan gently about the difficulty. Although I didn’t really do so last October, I’ll do so this time, but not with the intention of criticising, simply to say that I was defeated by 6dn and was rather unsure about some of the others (8ac, 26ac, 28ac) because the words were so apparently unusual. It was hard but enjoyable.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
Of course it would have been easier to solve if I’d seen the theme. Which was entirely wasted on me, if there was one.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MEGABYTES | Doctor maybe gets much more than a bit (9) |
| (maybe gets)* | ||
| 8 | AREAWAY | Passage from article about heading abroad (7) |
| a re away [= heading abroad] — I found this difficult for two reasons: I didn’t know the word, and away = heading abroad seemed a bit unlikely, but I suppose that in they’re away/heading abroad/going on holiday it’s OK | ||
| 10 | SPA TOWN | Private quarrel further west in Buxton? (3,4) |
| own spat with the ‘spat’ further west, ie further to the left | ||
| 11 | GRISAILLE | A girl is excited by the French style of painting (9) |
| (A girl is)* le — this style of painting | ||
| 12 | EXACTS | Demands to see old religious text (6) |
| ex Acts [of the Apostles] | ||
| 15 | IT SEEMS | The other escort massages, but only the limbs apparently (2,5) |
| it [= the other] see [= escort] m{assage}s | ||
| 16 | DRUBBINGS | Rex comes in calling son for thrashings (9) |
| d(R)ubbing s | ||
| 19 | OWNERLESS | Unclaimed lenses, worn, almost new (9) |
| (lenses wor{n})* | ||
| 20 | UTENSIL | Make alteration to bustline, but not with second-grade kitchen knife? (7) |
| (bustline – B)* | ||
| 22 | PARSEE | Analyse Eastern sect member (6) |
| parse E | ||
| 23 | ICE FIELDS | Paddy’s abandoning run in frozen areas (3,6) |
| {r}ice field’s — a paddy is a paddy field | ||
| 25 | TWIGLOO | Catch on 26 in a temporary shelter (7) |
| twig [= catch on] loo since 26 is LOO — I didn’t know this word for a temporary shelter, but the wordplay made it likely enough | ||
| 27/14 | ARSENIC AND OLD LACE | As with vintage Conran bonkbuster, it starred Cary Grant (7,3,3,4) |
| Arsenic [= As — its chemical symbol] and [= with] old [= vintage] Lace [the bonkbuster by Shirley Conran] — a film starring Cary Grant | ||
| 28 | EAGLEWOOD | Old women ogled naked men dancing round a tree (9) |
| (o w ogled {m}e{n})* round a — not a tree that was all that familiar to me | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MISLEADS | A Yorkshire beauty queen, when speaking, is beguiling (8) |
| “Miss Leeds” | ||
| 2 | GOA | Leave American Indian territory (3) |
| go A | ||
| 3 | BOOB TUBE | Top former pupils, sitting face to face, when going on the Underground (4,4) |
| OB OB but with the first OB reversed so that it is BO OB, then Tube [= London Underground] | ||
| 4 | TONG | Island kingdom bans a secret society (4) |
| Tong{a} | ||
| 5 | SATIRISING | Making fun of one and staring is rude (10) |
| (1 staring is)* | ||
| 6 | PEDALS | Hawks broadcast in cycles (6) |
| “peddles” | ||
| 7 | LYCEES | Latin, bit of chemistry and English, parts of course in some French schools (6) |
| L yes [= of course] round (c{hemistry} E) — parts a transitive verb | ||
| 9 | WILDERNESS | Desert queen stops swindles in corrupt state (10) |
| ER in (swindles)* | ||
| 13 | ADULTERESS | One cheating criminally resulted in appeal being rejected (10) |
| (resulted)* in (SA)rev. | ||
| 14 | See 27 Across | |
| 17 | TREATISE | Study a model lying back aboard plane? (8) |
| (a (sit)rev.) in tree | ||
| 18 | ASTEROID | A chemical that can produce a stronger body, and a heavenly one (8) |
| a steroid | ||
| 20 | URINAL | For some, it’s de rigueur in a 26 (6) |
| Since 26 is LOO, this is a hidden in rigeUR IN A Loo — I’m not absolutely clear about the ‘de’: is it just there as part of the term ‘de rigeur’, so strictly speaking it shouldn’t be but allowance can be made for the fact that ‘de rigeur’ is a sort of single word? — there is a sort of overall &littish definition | ||
| 21 | SKINNY | Lean‘s film that’s extremely naughty (6) |
| skin n{aught}y — nothing to do with David Lean | ||
| 24 | STAG | Speculator after a quick buck or deer (4) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 26 | LOO | Game of Throne (3) |
| 2 defs | ||
*anagram
Thanks Wiglaf and John
I enjoyed the challenge this presented, with both uncommon words and some tricky parsings.
In 20D, I did wonder whether was used in the French sense of ‘from’, hence as the embed indicator, but that then raises a question mark about “For some”. Not sure, really.
Enjoyed most of this but, overall, it was too hard for my taste.
Failed to get AREAWAY, which I’ve never heard of, and bunged in an unparsed ‘archway’. Also failed to get PEDALS & IT SEEMS. Would never have thought of ‘see’ for ‘escort’. Other new words for me were: GRISAILLE, TWIGLOO & EAGLEWOOD. Have met PARSI but not PARSEE before. Ended up using a word fit to get this (and also to get 9d). I also found the clue to 20d a little suspect. I guessed URINAL, which led to me seeing 26 began with L and then needed to check LOO was a game.
Phew!
Phew, indeed.
This was hard and, for me, the NE was even harder.
All very well clued though (with the exception of 20d, perhaps).
Like Simon S @1, I enjoyed the challenge although that particular aspect ate too much into my overall enjoyment.
I’m probably still not fully on Wiglaf’s wavelength.
Good but a touch ‘too serious’? Dunno.
Many thanks to John & Wiglaf.
Yes, quite hard but we managed it – just about. We found AREAWAY in Chambers (under ‘Area’) but not TWIGLOO; not in our Collins, either, although googling it turned up a reference to Collins. But we only got IT SEEMS from Chambers Word Wizard, though having got it we were able to parse it. We got ARSENIC AND OLD LACE from a few crossing letters and the enumeration without bothering to parse it. It also took us far too long to get WILDERNESS.
Favourites were MEGABYTES and GRISAILLE.
Thanks, Wiglaf and John.
The left side went in fairly quickly but then I hit a brick wall. Needed a hefty dose of cheating to get any further, and I couldn’t get 6dn either. On the whole, too much cheating was needed for it to be enjoyable.
I liked all of this. I’ve only done a few Wiglafs but they’ve all had the same great mix of weird words and tough clues.
I don’t really understand Sil’s too serious criticism, but then I don’t rely on jokey clues to enjoy crosswords. Anyway, I thought all the loo clues were funny, along with IT SEEMS, UTENSIL, and the arsenic one, though I didn’t stop to unravel it.
Thanks Wiglaf, John
James, I was so much focused on unravelling what was going on in every clue that many surfaces disappeared a bit beneath the, er, surface.
Altogether I found it too much hard work. I missed some kind of lightness of touch (whatever that is), not especially ‘jokey’ surface readings.
In that sense, I agree with you. I don’t rely on such clues either to enjoy the experience. On the other hand, I am not a great fan of laddish humour/loo clues, in general.
Ah well, don’t know what it was today but I couldn’t get much of a smile on my face.
Or is the heat?