The puzzle can be found here.
Hi all. It’s been an excellent week for Indy puzzles! Thanks to Wiglaf for this one. As is often the case I enjoyed the cheekier parts, like 2d, but the main thing which stood out for me today was the satisfaction of piecing together things I didn’t know from the rest of the clue. Your outstanding features may differ.
Knowing that I can find Wiglaf on the tough side, and having stalled midway, I did let my Chambers app UNRAVEL an anagram for me. (I really am this at anagrams.) So that was how I found the GIRAFFOID. I mean, really! What other ruminant has a double eff in … ?
My last in, on a prayer, was LUREX but that wasn’t the only entry for which I had to trust the wordplay. I was quite surprised to find I had everything correct.
While solving I did notice a generous helping of letters from the more exotiq parts of the alphabet (not to mention the kind of grid in which I would be grumpy not to find a nina or extra of some sort), and had made a note to myself: “how many pangrams?” The answer is that we have a double. EDIT: it’s more than that! Thanks to Phi for pointing out in comment 7 that this is a rare reverse alphabetical jigsaw with every answer ending in a different letter. Wow!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.
Across
7a Judges drink beyond capacity (5,2)
SIZES UP
SUP (drink) after (beyond) SIZE (capacity)
8a Chinese city, formerly claimed to be exciting (7)
PIQUING
A sound-alike (… claimed) of PEKING (Chinese city, formerly)
10a French composer reduced tempo as intended (10)
DELIBERATE
DELIBEs (French composer) without the last letter (reduced) + RATE (tempo)
11a Quatrain, oddly, rejected in Middle Eastern country (4)
IRAQ
QuAtRaIn, odd letters only (oddly), reversed (rejected)
12a Guru Angad keeps backing island republic (5)
NAURU
gURU ANgad contains (keeps) in reverse (backing) this island republic
13a Cleaners and tea ladies (9)
CHARWOMEN
CHAR (tea) + WOMEN (ladies)
15a State prison involved in corrupt activity (7,4)
VATICAN CITY
CAN (prison) contained in (involved in) an anagram of (corrupt) ACTIVITY
19a Crackpots and nuts defending lawsuit (9)
HEADCASES
HEADS (nuts) containing (defending) CASE (lawsuit)
20a In the way that this writer’s keeping women afloat (5)
ASWIM
AS (in the way that) + I’M (this writer’s, this writer is) containing (keeping) W (women)
23a Being possessed of musical tone, I sing (4)
ALTO
Being contained by (being possessed of) musicAL TOne
24a Arachne, out of energy, fell badly causing podiatric problem (6,4)
FALLEN ARCH
ARACHN[e] without (out of) E (energy) and FELL, all anagrammed (badly)
25a Not very bright room refurbished nicely? Not half (7)
MORONIC
ROOM anagrammed (refurbished) followed by NICely without the second half (not half)
26a Weird-looking boy dressing very loudly to be “in” (2,3,2)
BY WAY OF
An anagram of (weird-looking) BOY containing (dressing) WAY (very) + F (loudly)
Down
1d Scottish angler, elderly one wearing black and white primarily, turned up (4-3)
WIDE-GAB
AGED (elderly) and I (one) inside (wearing) B (black) and the first letter of (… primarily) White, all reversed (turned up). Scottish name for the angler fish, a pair of which are shown below in the process of making more angler fish
2d Around ten I notice Esther’s backside is more attractive (6)
SEXIER
Around X (ten) + I (from the clue), we have SEE (notice) and EstheR’s last letter (backside)
3d Draw on unknown fabric (5)
LUREX
LURE (draw) preceding (on, in a down answer) X (unknown)
4d Shock crew with a sick joke (9)
WISECRACK
Make an anagram of (shock) CREW with A SICK
5d Short attractive girl wants to solicit? Desist! (3,2,3)
CUT IT OUT
All but the last letter of (short) CUTIe (attractive girl) + TOUT (to solicit). Another surface which made me smile
6d Decipher a French prayer found in reference library (7)
UNRAVEL
UN (a, French), then AVE (prayer) found in RL (reference library)
9d Political adviser in Luxembourg alive after accident at very high speed (11)
MACHIAVELLI
L (Luxembourg) + ALIVE anagrammed (after accident) by (at) MACH I (very high speed)
14d Frigid oaf moves clumsily like a particular ruminant (9)
GIRAFFOID
FRIGID OAF is anagrammed (moves clumsily)
16d Soviet leader who could make one fall asleep in the auditorium (8)
ANDROPOV
AN (one), then DROPOV, which, at least in an appropriate accent, sounds like (… in the auditorium) DROP OFF (fall asleep)
17d A lot of capital given to Australian musician (7)
BERLIOZ
All except the last letter of (a lot of) BERLIn (capital) next to (given to) OZ (Australian)
18d James Cagney’s opening line shows racial discrimination (3,4)
JIM CROW
JIM (James), Cagney’s first letter (opening), and ROW (line)
21d Gunners in Spielberg thriller about Indian independence (6)
SWARAJ
RA (gunners, Royal Artillery) in JAWS (Spielberg thriller) reversed (about). With -ARA- in the answer, it works whether the RA is inserted before or after the reversal. Nice to see a Spielberg film other than E.T. featured!
22d Kelvin meets Irish singer in African country (5)
KENYA
K (Kelvin) goes next to (meets) ENYA (Irish singer)
Phew! Lots of checking my Chambers app. At least no actual cheats using word fits so all good. I noticed the double pangram which helped me get my LOI, SIZES UP, still needing the second Z at that stage. Is that a Turkish Van cat in the blog? They like to have a swim.
Thanks Wiglaf and Kitty.
Hovis @ 1 – I’m pretty certain it is. The visible markings are just right for a Van.
Missed 26A – cannot accept “way” = “very”, nor the By WAY OF is accurately indicates by “in”.
Don’t have a problem with WAY = VERY though I’ll probably leave it to the youth who say things like “that’s way good”. Wasn’t sure about the “in” bit but “in” can have so many meanings that I felt one of them must work. Maybe somebody can supply a good example.
By way of / In apology?
That works for me.
WIDE-GAB, GIRAFFOID, SWARAJ, ASWIM: Too many obscurities/archaisms for us. We did get there in the end but only with wordfinder and anagram solver help, and only got BY WAY OF because it couldn’t be anything else.
Thanks, Kitty, and muted thanks to Wiglaf.
It’s actually a reverse alphabetical jigsaw with every answer ending in a different letter. The additional pangram of non-terminal letters is just a bonus but it may explain some of the more recondite vocabulary.
Thanks Phi. Good spot. Never seen this construction before. Very clever.
Hovis @ 8
There was an alphabetical jigsaw in the graun a year or two back where the alphabet was the final letters of the solutions. Can’t remember who set it, I’m afraid.
Thanks to Kitty for the excellent blog with the wonderful pictures and unmuted thanks to all who commented. And a special thanks to Phi for stopping by to clarify the theme.
Thanks Simon. Must have done that and forgotten about it. Bet IRAQ was one of the answers.
Had a little more time to think about this, Hovis. Maskarade came to mind, aquick search here, and it was his easter double alphabetical 27471 in 2018. I have a vague memory that there may also have been a non-alphabetical that turned out to have a final-letter pangram, but am even less sure of the setter. Picaroon, or possibly Serpent in the Indy? It’s the sort of puzzle that wouldn’t be out of place in their portfolio.
Hovis @1 & Goujeers @2 – yes, it’s a Turkish Van. That’s what I ended up searching for as I wanted to try and make sure I used a picture of a cat who was swimming voluntarily and happily! I have thought before that if I ever won the lottery (a bit difficult when I don’t play) I would get myself a Turkish Van (named Ludwig) and a pool.
Phi @7 – Thanks for that information. I’ll add a note to the body of the blog. A very impressive construction, and now I’m left wondering what this would have been like to solve as a jigsaw.
Wiglaf @10 – Many thanks for your comment. 🙂
Thanks again Simon. That explains why I didn’t remember it. I don’t like Maskarade’s puzzles so don’t even attempt them any more. Gave them in years ago.
Thanks Wiglaf, Kitty
So many pd not to mention wtfm’s. 18 out of 26 solutions with less than half crossers was unfriendly too, but as Kitty said, it was fun working out the unknowns from the bits and pieces. I thought it was another perimeter pangram for a while, then when two A’s appeared I stopped looking for something else. Very neat.
There was a spate of them in the Guardian, I think. Pretty sure Paul did one as well as Maskarade, possibly Philistine. I remember finding it surprisingly helpful being given the last letters.
Can’t find one by Paul, but there are two by Philistine: 27136 and 27669. A minispate.
Thanks, Kitty. I’ve been supplementing my usual Times Crosswords with those from Guardian, Independent and FT this week as additional practice for next Saturday and this was the only one of today’s that took me over my target time. Like others, I baulked a little at the obscurities of WIDE GAB and SWARAJ which required a dictionary look-up to confirm. Iwas unconvinced by BY WAY OF, which seemed a bit clumsy, but enjoyed the rest. I wonder who Esther with the sexy backside is? Great blog and I loved the pictures.