Eccles, one of the more recent additions to the Indy compiling team, has produced this week’s Wednesday puzzle.
I found this to be a highly entertaining crossword to solve, at the easier end of the Indy spectrum in terms of difficulty.
I am fairly confident about the parsing of the clues but would appreciate confirmation of 7 and 12. My favourite clues today were 13 and 23, both for their surfaces and for making me laugh out loud. 10 was a word that I didn’t know but that I could enter with confidence thanks to the wordplay.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | WRAPPED | Covered with torn paper by daughter
W (=with) + *(PAPER) + D (=daughter); “torn” is anagram indication |
| 05 | AMBUSH | Surprise attack, the first from military vehicle I see outside
[M<ilitary> (“first from” means first letter only) + BUS (=vehicle)] in AH (=I see!, as exclamation) |
| 08 | TAPER | Spill drop of Ribena on cassette
TAPE (=cassette) + R<ibena> (“drop of” means first letter only); a taper is a long thin waxed wick or taper |
| 09 | ADVOCAAT | Lawyer finishing early invites American in for drink
A (=American) in ADVOCAT<e> (lawyer; “finishing early” means last letter is dropped) |
| 11 | RANCOROUS | Organised my home endlessly, getting resentful
RAN (=organised) + COR (=my!, as exclamation) + <h>OUS<e> (=home; “endlessly” means first and last letter are dropped) |
| 12 | SHEAR | Reportedly thin fleece
Homophone (“reportedly”) of “sheer” (=thin, fine, of material); to shear is to fleece, i.e. remove the fleece or coat from |
| 13 | NOOK | Niche sex that is banned
NOOK<ie> (=sex); “that is (=i.e.) banned” means letters “ie” are dropped |
| 14 | PRODIGAL | Urge single girl to be reckless
PROD (=urge, push) + I (=single, i.e. one) + GAL (=girl); “prodigal” is reckless, wasteful, in use of resources |
| 18 | HANDSOME | Attractive labourers ring Eccles
HANDS (=labourers) + O (=ring, pictorially) + ME (=Eccles, i.e. today’s compiler) |
| 19 | BRIG | Arrangement of sails on British ship
B (=British) + RIG (=arrangement of sails) |
| 22 | LADLE | Boy and girl finally getting together before the start of Emmerdale for big spoon
LAD (=boy) + <gir>L (“finally” means last letter only) + E<mmerdale> (“start of” means first letter only) |
| 24 | STRONG-ARM | Show aggression towards gran and storm off
*(GRAN + STORM); “off” is anagram indicator |
| 25 | PANTRIES | Stores ladies’ underwear to entertain rector
R (=rector) in PANTIES (=underwear); pantries are food stores, larders |
| 26 | ASHEN | Pale, like chicken
AS (=like) + HEN (=chicken) |
| 27 | CHOSEN | Decided cotton skirt must cover tights
HOSE (=tights) in C<otto>N (“skirt” means first and last letter only are needed) |
| 28 | YEREVAN | Asian capital stashed when lawyer and evangelist meet
Hidden (“stashed”) in “lawYER + EVANgelist”; Yerevan is the capital of Armenia |
| Down | ||
| 01 | WATERING HOLE | Worried gang is boring entire pub
[ATE (=worried) + RING (=gang, as in drugs ring)] in WHOLE (=entire) |
| 02 | ALPENHORN | Instrument planner fiddled with around house
HO (=house) in *(PLANNER); “fiddled with” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | PARDON | What is an average round of golf by Trump, in short?
PAR (=average round of golf) + DON<ald> (=Trump; “in short” indicates abbreviation); “what?” is a rather less polite way of saying “pardon?” when something hasn’t been heard properly |
| 04 | DRAGON | Become boring and fierce type
DRAG ON (=become boring, of e.g. meeting) |
| 05 | ADVISORY | Recommending topless woman wears sunscreen? On the contrary
VISOR (=”sunscreen”, i.e. flap on car windscreen to shade driver from sun) in <l>ADY (=woman: “topless” means first letter is dropped) |
| 06 | BACKSIDE | Support team that’s bottom
BACK (=support, as verb) + SIDE (=team); one’s bottom is one’s backside! |
| 07 | SHAVE | Quiet welcome for plane
SH (=quiet) + AVE (=welcome); to plane is to shave (off), to smooth |
| 10 | PROLEGOMENON | Professional working to conserve plastic figures in preliminary discussion
[“LEGO MEN” (=plastic figures)] in [PRO (=professional) + ON (=working)]; a prolegomenon is a critical or discursive introduction to a book |
| 15 | GORBACHEV | Former Union leader and governor describing appalling breach
*(BREACH) in GOV (=governor); “appalling” is anagram indicator; the reference is to Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-), former president of the Soviet Union, the “Union” of the definition |
| 16 | ASBESTOS | 6 American houses, highest quality, first to offer fire resistant insulation material
[BEST (=highest quality) + O<ffer> (“first to” means first letter only)] in ASS (=backside (=entry at 6) American, i.e. a US term for “backside”) |
| 17 | EMISSION | At first, molecule ionises catastrophically, resulting in leak
*(M<olecule> (“at first” means first letter only) + IONISES); “catastrophically” is anagram indicator |
| 20 | GRISLY | Unpleasant girls vandalised capital of Yorkshire
*(GIRLS) + Y<orkshire> (“capital of” means first letter only); “vandalised” is anagram indicator |
| 21 | UNFAIR | Not just pretty faces, the United Nations
UN (=United Nations) + FAIR (=pretty) |
| 23 | DEATH | Passing wind? Eat Haribo bears
Hidden (“bears”) in “winD EAT Haribo” |
I too laughed out loud at some of the clues in this very enjoyable crossword. I agree with your parsings of 7 and 12 and that the wordplay for 10d was particularly helpful for a word I’ve never heard of and will probably now forget
Thanks to Eccles for the fun and RR for the explanations
Oh… and I meant to ask… when downloading the crossword from the Indy site, does anyone else find that the window you need to click on to see the puzzle once the advert has finished, flashes in a manner than really ought to have a warning for anyone likely to be affected by flashing images??
I wasn’t very sure about the use of ‘faces’ in 21d and might have been tempted to hedge my bets over the ‘is it in Europe or Asia’ debate regarding 28a but those, along with the unknown 10d were the only issues encountered in this one.
Top two for me were 13 & 14a.
Thanks to Eccles and to RR for the blog.
Bravo, Eccles. Plastic figures= Lego men, chortle.
Thanks to S&B
Even though I’d never heard of the word I was annoyed to miss PROLEGOMENON, specifically the LEGO bit (I put ‘logo’) which is so obvious now.
I too parsed SHEAR and SHAVE as you did. Hadn’t come across ‘spill’ as a TAPER before. I took ‘faces’ in 21d as meaning ‘is up next to’.
It was my first in, but DEATH was a beauty, both for the surface and the not obvious hidden.
crypticsue @2, I haven’t noticed the ‘flashing’ problem you mention but the ads themselves warrant a health warning in my view! Yes, I know, the crossword is free thanks to the ads and I shouldn’t complain, but…
Thanks to Eccles and RR
crypticsue and WordPlodder: simple solution – install an ad blocker!
I did know 10dn and entered it without stopping to parse it. Just as well I had checking switched on as it turned out I didn’t know how to spell it.
Conversely, I’d never heard of 28ac but it was easy to deduce from the word play.
I have to admit I have an adblocker. The site always tells me to whitelist it, but it still brings up the puzzle when I dismiss the message.
We solved this fairly quickly this evening, having been out all day. We weren’t sure where YEREVAN is the capital of, but it was the obvious answer to 28ac. PROLEGOMENON was our LOI after we realised “plastic” wasn’t an anagrind for “figures”. We couldn’t parse RANCOROUS – must remember in future about “cor!” for “my!”. As for 16dn, the use of ASBESTOS is now prohibited in the UK but presumably not in Crosswordland.
The surfaces of 13, 18, 22 and 25 raised smiles.
Thanks, Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
Super puzzle, which I found myself completely in tune with. Was happy to get YEREVAN and PROLEGOMENEGOMENEGOMENON from the wordplay.
Thanks Eccles and RatkojaRiku.
The only answer that I couldn’t get without looking it up was PROLEGOMENEGOMENEGOMENON ….. [quite a lot of EGOs actually]
But yes, a really nice puzzle from a setter who knows how to write a proper clue.
Many thanks RR & Eccles.