Wire provides a typical Tuesday Independent crossword
Tuesday is usually a theme day and today clearly focused on the other side of the world with many references to Australia or Australian culture. Even the wordplay got in on the Australian act with the reference to Dame EDNA Everage at 24 across.
Often with themed crosswords, the theme entries are confined to across or down entries. Wire has gone further by distributing his theme words throughout both the acrosses and the downs.
The theme words I detected are illustrated below. One or two of the other entries could be attributed to Australia but they are not specially Australian.
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 1 | Naturalist sketch almost having repelled artist (6) |
DRAWIN D (AR<) WIN |
DARWIN (reference Charles DARWIN [1809 – 1882], English naturalist best known for his development of the theory of evolution. The city of DARWIN, capital of Northern Territory in Australia is named after the naturalist) |
| 4 | Small German greeting a female informally (6) |
S (small) + HEIL (German greeting meaning ‘hail’ in English) + A S HEIL A |
SHEILA (Australian informal term for a young girl or woman) |
| 8 | Bill might be ready for a singalong (7) |
IN VOICE (in good condition for singing; ready for singing) IN VOICE |
INVOICE (bill for goods ordered) |
| 9 | Threw up on street. Blimey! (7) |
ST (street) + an anagram of (up) THREW ST REWTH* |
STREWTH (most dictionaries just define the word as oath, short for God’s truth but it also well known as an Australian slang term, similar to the somewhat more popular "Crikey!"; blimey) |
| 11 | Agent has individual book every surfing hotspot (5,5) |
BOND (reference Agent 007, James BOND) + I (oneself; individual) + B (book) + EACH (every one separately considered) BOND I B EACH |
BONDI BEACH (a beach frequented by surfers in the suburbs of Sydney) |
| 12 | Insects originally exterminated snakes (4) |
ASPS |
ASPS (snakes) |
| 13 | Most awful meat reported by some (5) |
WORST (sounds like [reported by] WURST (large German sausage of several types; meat) WORST |
WORST (most awful) |
| 14 | Criminal is led out in isolation (8) |
Anagram of (criminal) IS LED OUT SOLITUDE* |
SOLITUDE (absence of company; isolation) |
| 16 | Fitting vocal work after hollow choral bilge (8) |
CL (letters remaining in C CL APT RAP |
CLAPTRAP (meaningless nonsense; bilge) |
| 18 | Couples pop by tax department in USA (5) |
PA (father; pop) + IRS (Internal Revenue Service, the American tax department) PA IRS |
PAIRS (couples) |
| 20 | Head left periodically for a swift one? (4) |
HALF (letters 1, 3, 5 and 7 [periodically] of HEAD LEFT) HALF |
HALF (a HALF pint is often drunk quickly as a swift one [a quick drink take in a hurry when you don’t have much time but would like to be sociable – either at the end or the start of a night) |
| 21 | 10 creatures from lake a boar’s ravaged (5,5) |
Anagram of (ravaged) LAKE A BOARS KOALA BEARS* |
KOALA BEARS (Australian MARSUPIALs [entry at 10 down, singular] like a small bear) |
| 23 | 1000mm3 found in car? Blow into this (7) |
I [Roman numeral for one] + CC [cubic centimetre] [1 cubic centimetre = 1000 cubic millimetres]) contained in (found in) POLO (model of Volkswagen car) P (I CC) OLO |
PICCOLO (small wind instrument; blow into this) |
| 24 | Animal character from Greece captured by Dame (7) |
(CHI [letter of the Greek alphabet; Greek character]) contained in (captured by) EDNA (reference the character Dame EDNA Everage, created by Australian comedian Barry Humphries) E (CHI) DNA |
ECHIDNA (member of the genus ECHIDNA of Australian toothless, spiny, egg-laying, burrowing monotremes, also called spiny anteater. |
| 25 | City strategy damn easy – all to be evacuated (6) |
SY (letters remaining in S SY DN EY |
SYDNEY (Australian city) |
| 26 | Imbecile split on doctor working (6) |
DR (doctor) + ON (working) + GO (leave; split) DR ON GO |
DRONGO (Australian slang for a nitwit or no-hoper; imbecile) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Guarding ostrich, guarding dog (5) |
DINGO (hidden word in [guarding] GUARDING OSTRICH) DINGO |
DINGO (tawny-coloured wild dog of Australia) |
| 2 | Instrument missing middle note? Choose again (7) |
RE REORDER |
REORDER (choose again) |
| 3 | Safe place for eggs on island hill (9) |
IN CUBA (on the island of CUBA) + TOR (rocky height or hill) IN CUBA TOR |
INCUBATOR (apparatus for hatching eggs by artificial heat; safe place for eggs) |
| 5 | Devise mark with intersecting lines (5) |
HATCH (devise or concoct a plan) HATCH |
HATCH (mark with fine, usually diagonal, lines) double definition |
| 6 | Not quite right in previous performance (7) |
IN + EX (former; previous) + ACT (performance) IN EX ACT |
INEXACT (not precisely correct) |
| 7 | Southern Climes article with hints about poetry (9) |
AN (indefinite article) + (TIPS [hints] containing [about] ODE [poetry]) AN TIP (ODE) S |
ANTIPODES (for Britain, Australia and New Zealand, as being diametrically opposite to Great Britain or Europe on the surface of the globe) |
| 10 | One with a pouch to cook pilau under ruins (9) |
MAR (damages; ruins) + anagram of (cook) PILAU As this is a down entry the anagram of PILAU is positioned under the letters of MARS MARS UPIAL* |
MARSUPIAL (animal with a pouch) |
| 13 | Team of leaderless infants lifting barrier (9) |
WALL (barrier) + WALL ABIES |
WALLABIES (name given to the Australian national Rugby Union team) |
| 15 | Pal craned awkwardly to see club worker (3,6) |
Anagram of (awkwardly) PAL CRANED LAP DANCER* |
LAP DANCER (night-club stripper who dances close to clients and sits briefly on their laps) |
| 17 | Humourless fellow meets expert in school (2-5) |
(F [fellow] + ACE [expert]) contained in (in) POD (school of whales) PO (F ACE) D |
PO-FACED (humourless) |
| 19 | From Spain maybe tailless goat fled across Italy (7) |
IBE IBE R (I) AN |
IBERIAN (Spain is part of Iberia, so a Spanish native can be described as an IBERIAN) |
| 21 | Boy finally stops dancing like Dannii’s sister? (5) |
Y (last letter of [finally] BOY) contained in (stops) an anagram of (dancing) LIKE K (Y) LIE* |
KYLIE (reference KYLIE Minogue [born 1968] Australian singer, sister of Dannii Minogue [born 1971]) |
| 22 | Circular piece of wood Norwegian put up (5) |
RONDO (hidden word reversed (put up) in WOOD NORWEGIAN) RONDO< |
RONDO (piece of music in which a refrain is repeated between episodes: often constitutes the form of the last movement of a sonata or concerto; circular piece) |
G’day! Thanks Wire – that was, er, bonzer.
Sadly, the fun was over all too quickly. After we had discussed whether SHEILA should have been indicated as an Australian term, we then got STREWTH and immediately recognised the theme. Knowing the theme, some answers (e.g. BONDI BEACH) were write-ins.
Our favourite clue was the unthemed CLAPTRAP.
Thanks also to duncanshiell for blogging.
Enjoyed that, STREWTH and DRONGO were my way into the theme (mispent youth watching Neighbours came in handy)
ECHINDA and ANTIPODES my favourite today
Thanks Wire and duncansheill for explaining some of the write ins for me
A very easy but fun puzzle. It’s Australia Day, apparently.
Thanks to S&B
Tempted to say I felt transported by this but it’s probably politically incorrect so I won’t. I share the general opinion – OK, three comments so far – that this was a bit of a giveaway once the theme was obvious and, with DARWIN and DINGO the first two in, it wasn’t going to be long before the penny clicked. I found myself working down the left hand side to begin with which threw up BONDI BEACH and then a team that might begin with WALL – which took me longer to get than it should have. And then we were off. CLAPTRAP was good as DavidO said, I enjoyed both STREWTH and INVOICE and I’m grateful to Wire for – I hope – providing me with a way to remember how to spell ECHIDNA in the future. It’s a cruciverbal animal, popping up like Gnu and Elk every once in a while and I can never remember the right ordering: EDNA might be the key!
Interesting minor point on INCUBATOR: in another blog recently the point arose that one typically lives or stays ‘on’ an island rather than ‘in’ one but ‘in Cuba’ felt quite right. I wonder if the distinction is between islands that are part of a nation state versus those that are countries/states in their own right. I’m in Jamaica, Greenland, Iceland, Sri Lanka; I’m on Skye, the Isle of Wight, Nantucket, Rhodes… Just a thought.
Thanks Wire and duncan
Just as I started this puzzle, Petroc Trelawney on Radio 3 said it’s Australia Day today, so being Tuesday I was on the lookout straightaway for this theme. Serendipity or what? Very enjoyable, so thanks Wire and Duncan.
Being a night owl I started this just after midnight, with a BBC 4 collection of Australian pop on the tv, so I solved 21D while listening to her in the background.
I didn’t find it too hard, but took a while thinking of metric unit prefixes and equivalents of 1,000 mm3 before 23A clicked, and I never worked out why Wallabies = team, but overall fun.
When I glanced at the date on my phone this morning I realised the connection to Australia Day, which was fortunate as it’s a close relative’s birthday which I would otherwise have forgotten. So you could say me rememberig to send her an ecard was down to the Wire…
PostMark @4 I think size of the island is also part of what makes in or on feel right. I can’t imagine saying I was “on Australia” (in as far as it’s an island rather than a continent) and “in Tasmania” feels right.
We hadn’t realised it was Australia Day (must have missed that bit of Petroc’s programme) but we soon twigged the theme. We didn’t think of STREWTH as particularly antipodean but saw all the other themed entries. Incidentally, WALLABIES isn’t just the name of the Rugby Union team – wallabies are also Australian MARSUPIALs.
Away from the theme there’s a bit more to the clue to 13 – in German, W is pronounced as V so we think the ‘by some’ in the clue means that some people (i.e. non German-speaking) may pronounce ‘wurst’ as WORST.
A nice satisfying solve. Thanks, Wire and Duncan.
Straight forward and enjoyable.
Thanks to Wire and Duncan.
Thanks to Wire for an enjoyable puzzle. I was in a hurry today so this was perfect once the theme became apparent. Perhaps a shame that the wordplay, which was quite clever, could be bypassed for several themed clues.
Very late to respond but a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle with plenty of smiles