Independent 10,631 by Wiglaf

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I always find Wiglaf’s puzzles to be on the hard side, and this grid is one of those where it feels like 4 mini crosswords one in each corner.

So although I was pleased to get about half filled in after the first pass of the clues, I was not surprised to see one corner looking ominously blank – the bottom left.  Of course when I finally did some inroads there, I found at least a couple of clues that I should have solved more quickly – I’m looking at Redcar and Abroad.
There are some new words to me in here, e.g. Novitiates.  That would have been last one in except there was still 5a unsolved.
Lack of general knowledge held me back from solving that one till I was driven to look up Panama City on Wikipedia where I found Balboa used to be the administrative centre of the Panama Canal Zone and is now the region containing the Port of Panama City.  I thought that answer was very obscure until I was given the nudge that a Balboa is the Currency of Panama – that kind of capital.  Anyway, I had completely misconstrued the clue and was trying to get a P in the answer.

Little bit of cross-referencing going on, to 27a Standard from two other answers with similar meanings, 3d Normal and 16d Everyday.  But not enough to count as a theme, so I stopped myself from saying something like “pretty ordinary puzzle today”.

Favourite clue: 4 for the anagram that should become a classic

Wordplay help requested on: 14

 

Across
1 SURINAME Revisited Sumerian land (8)
(SUMERIAN)* AInd: Revisited
5 BALBOA British gangster stole capital from Panama (6)
B[ritish] AL (Capone, gangster) BOA (stole)   Last one in.
I thought Panama’s capital was Panama City and it is.  Turns out Balboa is Panama’s currency – that kind of capital.
9 LEG-IRONS Organised religions? I dispensed with such restraints (3-5)
(RELIGIONS – I)* AInd: Organised. First one in after failing with row 1 and column 1
10 PEANUT Fish European Parliament rejected as a food item (6)
TUNA (fish) E[uropean] P[arliament] all reversed
11 MORIARTY Napoleon of crime affected by opinion pollsters (8)
MORI (opinion pollsters) ARTY (affected)
12 ST PAUL Letter-writer makes typo oddly when entering his other name (2,4)
T[y]P[o] in SAUL.  Good clue
14 RED HERRING A swimmer smoked something to divert the attention (3,7)
A herring is a swimmer, but I am not sure why smoking it makes it Red?
18 NOVITIATES They’re starting on about going to Mars (10)
ON< , VITIATES (mars, dictionary.com definition) All crossing letters needed plus speculative dictionary lookup.
Penultimate written in
22 ABROAD Article written by US woman overseas (6)
A (Article) BROAD (US woman)
23 DOMINATE Party that’s popular in China could get to rule (8)
DO (party) IN (popular) in MATE (China, Cockney Rhyming “China plate” / mate)
24 REDCAR King raced around racecourse (6)
(R[ex] (king) + RACED)* AInd: around  One of the last to fall but should-a-got-it-earlier
25 NICHOLAS Parsons maybe going commando when preaching (8)
Homophone “Knickerless”  HInd: when preaching,   Def. ref Nicholas Parsons
26 DRYDEN Poet laureate on the wagon train finally crosses Delaware (6)
DRY (on the wagon)  [wago]N around DE (Delaware)
27 STANDARD Ordinary song (8)
Double Def.
Down
1 SALOME Young lady wanting head, veiled in part (6)
Reference to Salome doing the dance of the seven veils and requesting John the Baptist’s head
2 REGARD Consider changing gear en route (6)
(GEAR)* AInd: changing, in RD (Road, en route)
3 NORMAL Marilyn once bared all? That’s 27 (6)
NORMA (Ref. Norma Jeane Mortensen, Marilyn Monroe) then [a]L[l] (all, bared)
4 MIND THE GAP Underground cave men dig path up (4,3,3)
Cave in its Latin meaning “beware”.  (MEN DIG PATH)* AInd: up
6 APERTURE A saucy virgin doesn’t open mouth (8)
A PERT (a saucy) [p]URE (virgin, doesn’t open)
7 BENJAMIN A youngest son from African country going round block (8)
BENIN (African country) around JAM (block) Ref.  Benjamin  youngest son of Jacob
8 ANTILOGY The number whose logarithm is y produces a contradiction (8)
antilog(y)  Another needed checking but written in early on as I was pretty sure there was such a word – certain there is such an antilog
13 THRENODIST Sad song writer has kebab brought over during this time (10)
DONER< (kebab, brought over) inside THIS T[ime]
15 UNMARRED Maiden I whipped is in spanking condition (8)
UNMARRIED (maiden) – I
16 EVERYDAY Folksy song by Buddy Holly? That’s 27 (8)
Double Def.
17 STEARATE Chemical compound, say, receiving attention (8)
EAR (attention) in STATE (say)
19 WITHIN English saint shaves head inside (6)
[s]WITHIN Ref. St Swithin – English saint
20 DAHLIA Had trouble with each rising flower (6)
HAD< AIL<  both parts (each), reversed  (rising)
21 VERSED Skilled in metrical patterns? (6)
Double Def.

 

22 comments on “Independent 10,631 by Wiglaf”

  1. Thanks for the blog, beermagnet.  I don’t always get to the Saturday puzzle but was pleased I tackled this one.  Took a bit of teasing out, and the grid wasn’t a big help.  But I liked the range of subject matter and some clever wordplay – especially for MIND THE GAP, which I thought was worth the ticket price alone.

    Can’t help you with RED HERRING, I’m afraid – I came to the blog early to see how that worked.  Someone will explain it, I’m sure.

    Bravo, Wiglaf, for a pleasing and enjoyable cryptic.

  3. A couple of weeks ago, I watched a Rick Stein programme where he showed a RED HERRING which was a type of herring smoked in a particular way which made it red, apparently a favourite in Jamaica.

  4. Bruised, beaten and battered. Didn’t like the grid and gave up on the SW. Did get ABROAD, REDCAR & STEARATE but abandoned the rest. Pleased to get MORIARTY which led me to guess and check SALOME. I feel that BENJAMIN for “youngest son” has been in a previous cryptic but was pleasantly surprised to find it in Chambers so no biblical context is strictly needed.

    Unlike beermagnet, BALBOA was my foi. Agree that 4d was the pick of the bunch with a lovely definition. Remember meeting THRENODY in a cryptic so 13d wasn’t a problem. So quite enjoyable overall but with a few exceptions primarily due to my lack of knowledge (didn’t know “vitiates” and know very little about poet laureates (or is it poets laureate) or Buddy Holly songs). Thanks to Wiglaf and beermagnet.

  5. I think Side-salad has it right with regard to RED HERRING.  The clue is a double definition.

    I parsed SALOME as [(G)AL = young lady wanting head]  [contained within = veiled in]  [SOME = part] with the whole clue defining the answer.  &littish?  And about as clever as MIND THE GAP and ST PAUL.  Three absolute gems in amongst a chestful of other treasures.  Lots to like.  Other favourites included DAHLIA, UNMARRED and DRYDEN.  Though I was defeated by NOVITIATES, STEARATE and ANTILOGY.  I also realise I would naturally spell SURINAME without the E and have to confess to looking up Panamanian currency which I suspected would solve BALBOA (which is another superb clue).  I found this really quite tough but hugely rewarding.

    Thanks to Wiglaf and Beermagnet

  6. I usually find Wiglaf quite hard and this fitted the bill. I was tripped up by BENJAMIN, which I’d never heard of and only half-parsed a few others such as RED HERRING. Lots of good clues and interesting words such as THRENODIST but I agree that the ‘Underground cave’ for MIND THE GAP was the highlight and worthy of ‘classic clue’ status.

    Thanks to Wiglaf and beermagnet

  7. PostMark @5. Loved your parsing for SALOME. Missed that but you are clearly correct and it does make a superb &lit.

  8. I also parsed 1d as PostMark did. Agree with the general view that that clue, 4d, 5a and 12a were top notch in an altogether excellent crossword. Got 8d only from the crossers and wondered where the ‘ti’ came from, so learned something there. Many thanks to Wiglaf and beer magnet.

  9. Great stuff, so full of interesting references and clever word-play too. Round of applause for underground cave.

    Last two in were NOVITIATES, which I revealed and thought was very hard, but that may be because I’ve never known what vitiate means, then UNMARRED which I got, while being slightly unconvinced by whipped.

    Thanks Wiglaf, beermagnet

  10. well learned some more new words today, THRENODIST, ANTILOGY, BALBOA, VITIATES.. no bad thing I suppose. I only shared the enthusiasm for 4d after solving as I was looking for an obcscure subterranean tourist attraction, possibly Welsh, for quite a long time until MORIARTY gave the game away.. so my fave was shared between 19d and 12ac with St Paul taking the trophy

    clever stuff … thanks Wiglaf and Beermagnet

  11. Yes, lots of clever stuff here. Managed to finish with a few guesses helping me get footholds – a big advantage of an interactive grid, but something that doesn’t really help when I do the Guardian in the newspaper! I assumed BALBOA was Panamanian currency, once I’d accepted AL for gangster. Interesting that VITIATES (clued by Mars) and UNMARRED were in close proximity, but not cross-referenced.

    The Buddy Holly song is EVERY DAY in the lyrics (as acknowledged by the ? in the clue), but was mistitled EVERYDAY; this misuse is often followed unwittingly in advertising copy and on A-boards outside pubs, for example, proudly proclaiming that they have “ordinary meals”.

    Loved the Underground cave!

  13. Thanks to beermagnet for the blog, and to Wiglaf for the, er, challenge.  Would have commented earlier, but the SW corner took several goes to complete.

    Is 16d a triple definitiion, or is it a “folksy song”?  It’s not one I know.

    $d raised an appreciative laugh here too – but it does seem to rely on cave (which I take to mean “beware”, as per the blog) meaning “warning”, or something similar – have I understood that right?

  15. DavidO @13 &14: you deserve a reply though I’m not entirely sure what is unclear to you, given the blog. Cave is Latin for warning or beware, “Mind the gap” is the classic warning recording on the London Underground. Giving you ‘underground cave’’. Hope that helps.

  16. Thank you PostMark @15.  Sorry I didn’t make my point clear.  Cave means beware, and “mind the gap” is a warning.  Does that make the first a definition of the second?  I’ve heard of a caveat, which is indeed a warning, but is there such a thing as “a cave” being a warning?  And does it matter?

  17. DavidO @16. I think you may be trying to read too much into it. Wiglaf has used underground cave as a cryptic definition of, or allusion to, the well-known warning at tube stations. There doesn’t have to be “a cave”, underground or otherwise. It’s just meant to be an amusing hint, or a pointer if you like. The penny-drop moment for me was when I started to think that underground cave was a strange expression, as nearly all caves are, by definition, underground, and I then recalled the Latin cave, meaning beware (as in cave canem – warning: beware of the dog).

  18. DavidO @13. Is Everyday by Buddy Holly folksy? I think quite a few Buddy Holly songs were folksy in that he picked up on little idioms or catch phrases that he heard people using. I assume that’s what Wiglaf had in mind, because the song itself isn’t in a folk music or country groove.

    Well, all right.

    That’ll be the day (written after seeing John Wayne in The Searchers).

    Oh boy!

    Maybe baby.

    Think it over.

    It’s so easy.

    Take your time.

  19. sheffield hatter @18. The first definition of “everyday” in Chambers is “folksy”, so the clue is a triple definition as suggested by DavidO.

  21. I added this puzzle to my regular platter of weekend puzzles on a tip-off (thanks, PostMark). I have encountered Wiglaf twice before, although not in the Indy.
    I found this to be a quality puzzle, with good, precise clues, and two gems that stood out above the rest: MIND THE GAP and ST PAUL. I queried only the use of ‘whipped’ to mean ‘taken out’ in the wordplay to UNMARRED: I suppose ‘whipped out’ was implied.
    In the clue to MIND THE GAP I saw ‘cave’ as an exclamation giving a warning – having exactly the same function and meaning as ‘mind the gap’ (in its context).
    Thanks to Wiglaf and beermagnet.

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