Independent 10,367 by Wiglaf

by

The puzzle can be found here.

Hello and Happy New Year.  I hope you enjoyed the festive period whether or not you spent it in festive fashion (I did and didn’t, respectively) and look forward to meeting the challenges of 2020.

Thanks to Wiglaf for a puzzle which I found very enjoyable and mostly not too hard, though there were a few things which were unfamiliar to me.  I found myself staring at the last handful of clues for a while and had to dig out the Roman fort and the king of Babylonia.  I particularly liked TEA, ABBOT and NAGS, which I used in my project to interest colleagues in cryptic crosswords.  It’s going well!

 

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

9a    Maiden with bum hair ordered to entertain a king of Babylonia (9)
HAMMURABI
An anagram of (… ordered) M (maiden) with BUM HAIR containing (to entertain) A (from the clue)

10a   He deployed pen to inspire American independence (5)
PAINE
PEN anagrammed (deployed) containing (to inspire) A (American) and I (independence), semi-&lit

11a   What could give a female science graduate a swelling? (7)
ABSCESS
Whimsically , a lady with a BSc might be described as A BSC–ESS

12a   In need of more laundering, Dutch bank accepts Irish investment (7)
DIRTIER
D (Dutch) plus TIER (bank) has inserted into it (accepts … investment) IR (Irish)

13a   Regulars in the bar having a drink (3)
TEA
Regular letters of (regulars in) ThE bAr

14a   Spilled blue dye over outside toilet? It’s a dreadful hole of course (6,5)
DOUBLE BOGEY
An anagram of (spilled) BLUE DYE plus O (over) around (outside) BOG (toilet), the dreadful hole being on a golf course (of course)

17a   Soppy jerks for false-flag attack? (5)
PSYOP
SOPPY is anagrammed (jerks)

18a   Male ‘n’ female (3)
HEN
HE (male) + N (‘n’)

19a   Senior cleric has adult books alongside holy books (5)
ABBOT
A (adult) goes next to (has) B B (books, two copies of the abbreviation for book) alongside OT (holy books, Old Testament)

21a   Financial institution‘s book list (7,4)
RESERVE BANK
RESERVE (book) + BANK (list, lean)

23a   Female punching Kanye West (3)
EWE
The sheepish female is found inside (punching) KanyE WEst

25a   Prime minister with a large rod (7)
WALPOLE
A charade of W (with), A (a), L (large), and POLE (rod)

27a   A little bit of Irish whiskey left for treating inflamed finger? (7)
WHITLOW
WHIT (a little bit), then an anagram (… for treating) of O (O’, of Irish), W (whiskey), and L (left)

28a   Called for restraint in Irish county (5)
LAOIS
Sounds like (called for) LEASH (restraint)

29a   Satirist setting light to old £1 note (9)
LAMPOONER
Setting LAMP (light) next to O (old) + ONER (£1 note) gives us our satirist

 

Down

1d    Floozy wraps husband and wife in foil (6)
THWART
TART surrounds (wraps) H (husband) and W (wife)

2d    Wasted year framing young female agent (8)
EMISSARY
An anagram of (wasted) YEAR surrounding (framing) MISS (young female)

3d    Prudes working at university? I’m not sure that’s so marvellous (5-5)
SUPER-DUPER
PRUDES anagrammed (working), then UP (at university) and ER (I’m not sure)

4d    Horses and hounds (4)
NAGS
Two definitions, the second a verb

5d    Five during assault capture a Roman fort (10)
VINDOLANDA
A charade of V (five), IN (during), DO (assault), LAND (capture), and finally the A from the clue

6d    Timber Sycamore promoted arming rebels at the front (4)
SPAR
Initial letters of (… at the front) Sycamore Promoted Arming Rebels

7d    China arrests party member in office for underground activity (6)
MINING
MING (china) contains (arrests) IN (party member in office)

8d    A guy less content with books about English drama (4,4)
PEER GYNT
The combination of PER (a) and G[u]Y without the inner letter (less content) with NT (books, New Testament) goes around (about) E (English)

15d   Henry ended yule tipsily, without anyone taking any notice (10)
UNHEEDEDLY
H (Henry) and ENDED YULE anagrammed (tipsily)

16d   Spinner providing Boycott with opportunity? That’s not new (5,5)
BLACK WIDOW
BLACK (boycott) with WI[n]DOW omitting (that’s not) N (new)

17d   Schoolwork over? Then go by foot to see arresting event (4,4)
PERP WALK
PREP (schoolwork) reversed (over), then WALK (go by foot)

20d   Prominent British gentile misrepresented (8)
BEETLING
B (British) + GENTILE anagrammed (misrepresented)

22d   Bar in Alabama opening shortly (6)
SALOON
AL (Alabama) inserted into (opening) SOON (shortly)

24d   Sketch of French revolutionary fellow (6)
EDWARD
DRAW (sketch) + DE (of, French), all reversed (revolutionary)

26d   Name of famous auteur finally expunged? More or less (2,2)
OR SO
ORSO[n] (Name of famous auteur, Orson Welles) without the last letter (finally expunged)

27d   First home or last home? What’s first, not what’s last (4)
WOMB
[t]OMB (last home) with the first letter of What (what’s first) replacing (not) the last letter of whaT (what’s last)

 

7 comments on “Independent 10,367 by Wiglaf”

  1. Thanks Wiglaf, Kitty

    Great puzzle, favourite of the year.

    Wasn’t sure about how to get the LOW of WHITLOW, seemed like rather a lot of work for a three letter anagram, but that must be it.  Embarrassed to have never heard of LAOIS, had to look that one up.  The surface for SPAR seemed odd so I looked up Timber Sycamore and found that it was a CIA weapons supply and training program.  I presume Wiglaf must have known that already, which I find worrying.

    So many good clues: SALOON NAGS THWART EWE LAMPOONER, etc.

  2. Found this too hard a slog to enjoy it but that’s my lack of knowledge and skill to blame. Learnt a lot and marvelled at the many excellent and witty surfaces. For some reason, my Collins insists that “psyops” only exists in the plural (my Chambers doesn’t).

    Thanks to Wiglaf and Kitty.

  3. I found this a rather strange mix of clever clues and clues I find cringing (abscess and whitlow particularly poor in my view). A lot of new words learnt though.

  4. Vindolanda sprang to mind straight away, as I visited it last year, but I couldn’t parse it. Then I dragged Hammurabi from some dark recess of my memory, so that was a good start. At 7D I don’t understand how ‘in’ = party member in office. Thanks Wiglaf for a great puzzle and Kitty for the entertaining blog.

  6. I struggled with my printer printing only the grid, finally realising i needed black ink, and muttered that I hoped the puzzle was worth it. It was. I found this particularly well done with highly readable surfaces, though some new stuff for me and I thank kitty for the roman fort. I did manage to find the king, but had no idea how to pronounce the county. I thought IN (7d) was fine in terms of its definition but mildly unfortunate as said definition contains IN.

    I was particularly taken with the bar clues (13a and 22d), and PAINE and THWART were excellent. Plenty more to like, though WOMB made my head spin.

    Many thanks Wiglaf and Kitty, all great stuff

  7. Thanks to Kitty for another excellent blog and to all who commented. Vindolanda appeared in an online general knowledge quiz for British citizenship!

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