This is my first blog since the Indy clocked up its 10,000th cryptic crossword puzzle yesterday. I remember the very first Indy crosswords back in the eighties, when I was first discovering the delights of the cryptic crossword. It is hard to believe that such a milestone has now been reached, and I am sure that the next 10,000 will continue to stretch and entertain us solvers in the decades to come.
On the subject of stretching and entertaining solvers, Wiglaf’s latest puzzle came up trumps in both departments. There were quite a few longer entries in this grid, which can mean that either lots of squares get filled in quickly or that lots remain unfilled for a long time – for me, the latter was true, and I needed to have a couple of goes at this puzzle before it revealed itself to me. In the end, I was left with 5 and 8 unsolved and needed to search Chambers to find 8. I am still not convinced that I have solved and parsed 5, 13 and 21 correctly, and I would thus appreciate confirmation or otherwise from fellow solvers.
My favourite clues today were 15, for raising a smile; 16, for concision and smoothness of surface; and 17, for originality.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | IN THE RAW | After work I want to hold that woman out of habit
HER (=that woman) in *(I WANT); “after work” is anagram indicator; “in the raw” means naked, hence cryptically “out of habit (=clothing)” |
| 08 | GARRET | Wild West lawman can be heard in the small room
Homophone (“can be heard”) of “(Pat) Garrett (=Wild West lawmen, killer of Billy the Kid)” |
| 11 | IDAHO | A section of Florida Hospital is in a different part of America
Hidden (“a section of”) in “FlorIDA HOspital” |
| 12 | OVULATION | University student breaks into applause as a type of release
[U (=university) + L (=student, i.e. learner)] in OVATION (=applause); egg cells are released during ovulation |
| 13 | HIT LIST | A group of people targeted and almost emptied high street bank
HI<gh stree>T (“almost emptied” mean all but one of the middle letters are dropped) + LIST (=bank, tilt, of aircraft) |
| 14 | LEE SIDE | Shelter or else die in storm
*(ELSE DIE); “in storm” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | BALEARIC ISLANDS | Radical lesbians in play areas for holidaymakers
*(RADICAL LESBIANS); “in play” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | TITLARK | Singer from Bristol having a frolic
TIT (=Bristol, i.e. Bristol City in Cockney rhyming slang) + LARK (=frolic, caper) |
| 20 | GRIDDLE | Poser giving pride of place to German kitchen feature
G (=German) + RIDDLE (=poser, teaser) |
| 22 | OCTAGONAL | Coat with unusual design on sports girl of a certain shape
*(COAT) + [ON in GAL (=girl)]; “with unusual design” is anagram indicator |
| 23 | BWANA | African boss making billions with an American
B (=billions) + W (=with) + AN + A (=American) |
| 24 | SODDEN | To hell with study, being dulled by too much booze?
SOD (=to hell with, as exclamation) + DEN (=study) |
| 25 | SCARIEST | One actress in Frenzy is most frightening
*(I (=one) + ACTRESS); “in Frenzy” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 01 | DISINHIBITIONS | Daughter is in public events, not once showing the effects of alcohol and drugs?
D (=daughter) + IS + IN + <ex>HIBITIONS (=public events; “not once (=ex-)” means letters “ex” are dropped) |
| 02 | AT LAST | Mountain range close to Rabat in the end
ATLAS (=mountain range) + <raba>T (“close to” means last letter only) |
| 03 | VERONICA | Woman‘s niece regularly employed in Italian city
<n>I<e>C<e> (“regularly employed” means alternate letters only) in VERONA (=Italian city) |
| 04 | WAY OF THINKING | King of New York with a different mindset
*(KING OF + NY (=New York) + WITH A); “different” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | MADAME | She could get pulled in after palming a little money
[A + M<oney> (“little” means first letter only)] in MADE (=pulled in, earned); the whole clue could be read as a cryptic definition for a brothel madame |
| 06 | FRUITION | French film for all the family, one without sex getting close to completion
{IT (=sex, as to do it) in [FR (=French) + U (=film for all the family, in film classification) + I (=one)]} + ON (=close to, beside) |
| 09 | TENNESSEE WALTZ | State dance tune
TENNESSEE (=state, in the US) + WALTZ (=dance); Tennessee Waltz is a popular country song, by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King, released in 1948 |
| 10 | BUILDING BLOCK | An element in Dublin knocked around with big rugby player
*(DUBLIN + DIG) + LOCK (=rugby player); “knocked around” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | LATITUDE | Endless clichés in play
<p>LATITUDE<s> (“endless” means first and last letters are dropped); “play” is leeway, room for manoeuvre, hence “latitude” |
| 17 | LAID BARE | Artificial intelligence apparently explained?
<l>AI<d>; “bare” indicates first and letters are dropped; AI is Artificial Intelligence; here, the solution is a cryptic clue to part of the clue proper! |
| 19 | ANGLER | Fisher King getting point of view over
ANGLE (=point of view) + R (=king, i.e. rex) |
| 21 | DIAPER | Ravel pirated timeless rag from one of Gershwin’s early movements
*(PIRA<t>ED); “time (=T) –less” means letter “t” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “ravel (=tangle)”; the cryptic definition refers to an American (=Gershwin) nappy (=rag) to collect (bowel) movements! |
Sheesh, that was tough. Fortunately, a lot of the longer solutions somehow came to mind, more by luck than cleverness. I did a google search of Wild West lawmen to find Pat Garrett and then found that ‘garret’ was a small room.
Failed to get DIAPER. Didn’t think of ‘ravel’ as an anagram indicator. Great clue though. Finished with MADAME, although I wasn’t entirely convinced by ‘made’ for ‘pulled in, but see that the meaning of earning money for the latter is in my Collins.
Wasn’t keen on the ‘almost empty’ construction in 13a.
Thanks to Wiglaf for the challenge and RatkojaRiku for the explanations.
21d is even wittier as George Gershwin was of course a composer of ragtime music.
Thanks Wiglaf and RR
As well as the tangential reference spotted by trenodia, in 25 Frenzy was a film by Alfred Hitchcock, making it an eminenty suitable anagrind for ‘One actress’.
I liked the device in LAID BARE and the witty def. for DIAPER. I parsed 5d as a cryptic def (as you mention) with ‘She’ = MAME and ‘a little money’ = AD, but I’m not convinced.
Not as hard as I’ve found Wiglaf can be, but still a very satisfying solve.
Thanks to Wiglaf and RR
We too were left with 5 and 8 to finish. For the latter a wordfinder came up with GARRET as a small room and then the penny dropped, and MADAME was then the obvious answer to 5 but we weren’t too happy with the parsing. When we eventually unravelled (pun intentional) 21dn we thought the surface was quite apt since Gershwin wanted composition lessons from Ravel, but Ravel’s reply was “Why be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?”
Thanks to Ratkojariku, and to Wiglaf although we weren’t too happy with the grid having only three links between the right and left sides.
Has anyone else had trouble with the grid not appearing on the website? I’ve tried disabling pop up blockers and ad blockers, but I still just get a list of the clues and no grid. I’ve tried Edge Chrome and Firefox!
PS it all worked ok yesterday without disabling anything…
John Dunleavy
I’ve just tried (Win10Pro/Chrome) and had no problems, the interactive version loaded as normal.
Gaufrid @8
Thanks Gaufrid, I’ve managed to get it running on my laptop but had to mess around with ad blocking and pop ups. Still not sure what’s going on. I enjoyed the puzzle once I got it running. Liked LAID BARE. DIAPER caused an ugh! Thanks Wiglaf and RR
A bit too tough for me to find this enjoyable, and I couldn’t get 5dn and 21dn. Nor parse several.
Didn’t have any trouble getting the puzzle from the website, but I did have an oddity when I tried to print it off. The clues overlapped the bottom two rows of the grid, and superimposed over the clues was what seems to be a message from my password manager. (Edge in W10.) Switched off the password manager and it printed OK.
I didn’t rate this at all highly. Far too many clues could only be solved by guessing at a potential answer and finding a way to justify it, rather than building the answer from the wordplay.