Wire takes over from Phi this Friday with an enjoyable puzzle to end the week.
We’ve enjoyed Wire’s previous challenges and this was no exception.
We felt that the definitions in 25ac, 27ac and 23d were a little loose, and we struggled for a while to parse 7d and 20d, but that didn’t unduly affect our enjoyment.
Across
1 Close to closing capital with workers’ action (2-4)
GO-SLOW
G (last letter or ‘close’ to ‘closing’) OSLO (capital) W (with)
4 Female friend returned sailor’s biscuit (8)
FLAPJACK
F (female) PAL (friend) reversed or ‘returned’ JACK (sailor)
9 Spooner’s nosey lover finds utensil (6,3)
FRYING PAN
A Spoonerism of PRYING (nosey) FAN (lover) – we don’t normally like Spoonerisms, but this is a good one!
11 Wear perhaps clothing stolen from golf clubs (5)
RIVER
dRIVERs (golf clubs) without the first and last letters or ‘clothing’
12 Food in Britain? Nothing left after spring (4,3)
SPAG BOL
GB (Britain) O (nothing) L (left) after SPA (spring)
13 Issue with first of puppies in mongrel litter (7)
TRIPLET
P (first letter of ‘puppies’) in an anagram of LITTER – anagrind is ‘mongrel’
14 He went outside and picked up breakfast (5)
OATES
A homophone (‘picked up’) of OATS (breakfast) – a reference to Captain Lawrence ‘Titus’ Oates, the Antarctic explorer in Scott’s fateful expedition to the South Pole, who, suffering from gangrene and frostbite, famously announced that he was ‘going outside’ of the tent in a blizzard – seen as an act of self-sacrifice to avoid compromising his colleagues’ chances of survival
15 Vegetable slice mostly cold and brown (8)
CUCUMBER
CUt (slice) without the last letter or ‘mostly’ C (cold) UMBER (brown)
18 Cross section around hidden entrance (4,4)
TRAP DOOR
ROOD (cross) PART (section) all reversed or ‘around’
20 Nervous as sweater becomes sweaty? (5)
JUMPY
A ‘sweater’ becomes ‘sweaty’ by replacing the ‘er’ with ‘y’ – so a ‘jumper’ (sweater) becomes JUMPY
22 Cover exotic giraffe changing hands (3,4)
FIG LEAF
An anagram of GIrAFFE with the ‘r’ (right) changing to L (left) or ‘changing hands’ – anagrind is ‘exotic’
24 Small number by road regularly on call (7)
NOMINAL
NO (number) MI (road) + alternate or ‘regular’ letters of ‘oN cAlL’
25 Minor angina confines treehouse builder (5)
ORANG
Hidden or ‘confined’ in ‘minOR ANGina’
26 Noveau Riche uses garden item that’s dear (9)
CHERISHED
An anagram of RICHE (anagrind is ‘nouveau’) + SHED (garden item)
27 Second judge on record to reveal stitch-up (8)
TAPESTRY
S (second) TRY (judge) after or ‘on’ TAPE (record)
28 Thickening of skin? Do get in touch (6)
CALLUS
CALL US (‘do get in touch’)
Down
1 Store image file with technician’s initial report (4,4)
GIFT SHOP
GIF (image file) T (first or ‘initial’ letter of ‘technician’) SHOP (report)
2 MI6 chief : ‘Troubled PM stays very exposed’ (9)
SPYMASTER
An anagram of PM STAYS (anagrind is ‘troubled’) + vERy without the first and last letters or ‘exposed’
3 Refuse collector into wrestling raised volume (7)
OMNIBUS
BIN (‘refuse collector’) in SUMO (wrestling) all reversed or ‘raised’ (in a down clue)
5 In France, guilt tainted those with extreme views (7,6)
LUNATIC FRINGE
An anagram of IN FRANCE GUILT – anagrind is ‘tainted’
6 Daily hair option plugged by short health program (3,4)
PER DIEM
PERM (‘hair option’) round or ‘plugging’ DIEt (‘health program’) without the last letter or ‘short’
7 Block evil man swapping places prior to beheading (5)
ANVIL
eVIL and mAN without the first letters or ‘beheaded’ and swapped
8 Sport of Kings consumed across America (6)
KARATE
K and R (two abbreviations for ‘king’) ATE (consumed) round A (America)
10 Bugs from rice scuttled under edges of potato peeler (6,7)
POLICE OFFICER
LICE (bugs) OFF (from) + an anagram of RICE (anagrind is ‘scuttled’) after or ‘under’ (in a down clue) P O (first and last letters or ‘edges’ of ‘potato’)
16 Space crew model ship’s AI to make cheese (9)
EMMENTHAL
EM (space – in printing) MEN (crew) T (model, as in Model T Ford) HAL (‘ship’s AI’ – the name of the computer with a human personality in ‘Discovery One’, the spacecraft in ‘2001 – a Space Odyssey’)
17 Racers maybe traverse deserted arid Aegean feature (8)
CYCLADES
CYCLES (‘racers maybe’) round or ‘traversing’ AriD without the middle letters or ‘deserted’
19 Priest sitting on shelf finally bans donations (7)
PLEDGES
P (priest) LEDGE (shelf) S (last or ‘final’ letter of ‘bans’)
20 Island play essentially has Caliban attacking Miranda (7)
JAMAICA
JAM (play – as in a ‘jam session’) + the middle or ‘essential’ letters of hAs calIban attaCking mirAnda
21 Buoyant duck aboard a leaky tyre (6)
AFLOAT
O (duck) in or ‘aboard’ A FLAT (‘leaky tyre’)
23 Holiday exhausted girl losing map (5)
GLAMP
GirL without the middle letters or ‘exhausted’ + an anagram of MAP – anagrind is ‘losing’
A quick solve but lots of wonderful clues. ANVIL was cleverly constructed and 5d is a marvellous anagram. JAMAICA was my LOI – another great clue.
To be a little picky, I wasn’t keen on “uses” in 26a or “losing” as an anagram indicator in 23d.
Thanks to Wire and Bertandjoyce.
This was a lot of fun with many excellent and clever clues.
For me only 12a & 23d disappointed. The answer to 23d is a horrible recent concoction which thankfully hasn’t made it yet into Chambers, and, as Hovis says, “losing” is not a convincing anagram indicator. I was however surprised to find 12a’s ugly abbreviation in Chambers.
It’s too difficult to pick a single favourite from the rest of a very fine collection.
Many thanks to Wire and to B&J.
Agreed, packed with great clues (save 23d, not keen on exhausted (it doesn’t imply anything spatial to me) or losing)
10d is brilliant – four elements in the wordplay, including an anagram, lovely picture, hidden def, all in only 9 words. OATES & SPAG BOL also cute.
Thanks Wire, B&J
I was very happy with this having already tackled a PHI. So was it Wireday?
I really enjoyed this one, with some v. good clues, especially the ‘He went outside’ def for 14a, SPAG BOL (in Chambers – well I never) and the original device for JUMPY. Thank goodness that then gave the first letter for JAMAICA which even so took some working out.
Hard enough to be satisfying to solve and one of my favourites for this week.
Thanks to Wire and B&J
This took a bit of thought but we got it all. We struggled, though, with 24ac: our first thought was ‘seminal’ – s(mall) + e (the well-known number that is the base of natural logarithms) + M1 + al (as above) except that we couldn’t see any definition and even when we realised it was NOMINAL we took ‘small number’ to be ‘no’ and still couldn’t see any definition as we were thinking of the ‘in name only’ meaning rather than as, e.g. ‘a nominal sum’.
For the rest, though, it was all enjoyable. We found EMMENTHAL to be a bit of a write-in; ‘space’ suggested EM and ‘cheese’ immediately gave the game away – parsing didn’t take long either, but we took a while to parse one or two others.
Thanks, Wire and B&J
Didn’t find this one a quick solve by any means but, for the most part, it was a very enjoyable solve.
Taking the moral stance, (which I often seem to do as a solo effort on this site!) I found 14a somewhat distasteful which somewhat detracted from my overall impression of the puzzle.
Many thanks to Wire, who has come on in leaps and bounds, and to B&J for the comprehensive review.