Independent 10,804 by Wiglaf

by

[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

As the coolness of May comes to an end and flaming June is on the horizon, Wiglaf supplies the intellectual challenge today.

I found this a reasonably gentle workout – a nice amount of general knowledge made the puzzle more enjoyable too. Some ultra elegant surfaces across 9,14,21,23,26 down 3,6,10,15,22 all read flawlessly.

21 down was a new cryptic device for me – an interesting clue certainly.

Many thanks Wiglaf

Key * anagram; DD double definition; Rev. Reverse; underline definition

Across
1 Government-funded body gives Dame Mary reduced work (6)
Quant (Dame MAry) – t (reduced) + go (work) = QUANGO

4 Centrally heated room mostly being used for procreation (2,4)
at (centrally heated) + study (room) – y (mostly) = AT STUD

8 The bloke’s right-wing past (7)
His (The bloke’s) + tory (right-wing) = HISTORY

9 Killer stalks Frenchman in Spanish location (7)
M (frenchman) + in + orca (killer) = MINORCA

11 Yankee separates two poets with identical cuts in brawl (10)
Donne & Brooke (Poets) – e’s (identical cuts) around y (yankee) = DONNYBROOK

12 Top bishop has Father Ted defrocked (4)
pop (father) + e (Ted defrocked) = POPE

13 Stroke stomach before beginning on legs (5)
Craw (stomach) + l (beginning on legs) = CRAWL

14 One of Elgar’s variations incorporated into finale and added to (8)
end (finale) around (elgar)* = ENLARGED

16 Holy man bores posh couples on the next floor (8)
st (holy man) in u (posh) + pairs(couples) = UPSTAIRS

18 Bread making instruments (5)
DD MEANS

20 Type of music club (4)
DD BEAT

21 Dotty made love in Doha ending early phase of chastity (10)
(made o in Doh)* = MAIDENHOOD

23 Lively old air, inspiring finale of Beethoven’s ninth? (7)
(old air + n)* = ORDINAL

24 Ruddy German after making U-turn tailgates German car, I hear (7)
Rev. Rot (ruddy German) after Audi (German car) = AUDITOR

25 Government, say, obstructs the return of Arab ruler (6)
eg (say) in Rev. Emir (Arab ruler) = REGIME

26 Revolutionary part of Ptolemaic astronomy (6)
Hdden ptolemaiC ASTROnomy = CASTRO

Down
1 Split leftover capital (5)
split leftover = quit(left) + o (over) = QUITO

2 Anoint a Byzantine lady (7)
(anoint a)* = ANTONIA

3 Serviceman captures a foul-mouthed nationalist (9)
GI (serviceman) around a + ribald(foul-mouthed) = GARIBALDI

5 Slender king’s figure (5)
thin (slender) + k (king) = THINK

6 Old stager is a cavalryman? Sounds like it (7)
Homonym of Trooper (cavalryman) = TROUPER

7 Dicky perished after overwhelming century breaks (9)
(pershed + c)* = DECIPHERS

10 Wife’s so nimble during dance movement (6,3)
(w so nimble)* = WOMEN’S LIB

13 A saucer, perhaps from Ganymede? (9)
DD CUP-BEARER

15 America supports strike on Prince Edward Island (9)
usa (america) after lam(strike) p(prince) + ed (edward) = LAMPEDUSA

17 Giving a name to bird and fish (7)
tit (bird) + ling (fish) = TITLING

19 One lacking belief is given dabs of accessories to armed robbery (7)
a t (dabs of accessories to) + heist (armed robbery) = ATHEIST

21 Singular lame gags after raising a stink (5)
s(singular) in maim (lame) lower the a = MIASM

22 Architectural feature in Kosovo location (5)
Hidden kosOVO LOcation = OVOLO

14 comments on “Independent 10,804 by Wiglaf”

  1. Struggled this morning, but that was me and not the quality of the puzzle! Top half ok but really ran aground in the bottom half

    Also I can never remember that posh=U !

    POPE my favourite

    Thanks to Wiglaf and twencelas

  2. Bit annoyed about 18a Brass is what I’d put in and I still think is a better solution. Bah.

  3. My parsing for 21d is a reversal (raising) of S in MAIM. This spelling, without the A at the end, was new to me.

    My favourite was the simple POPE.

  5. Miasm: (in homeopathy) a supposed predisposition to a particular disease, either inherited or acquired. This is what I find in some dictionaries. Does Miasm also mean miasma?

  8. I’m having to solve this on a tablet, although I much prefer paper. I entered BRASS, which lit up in red, to my great surprise. Now I know to disable error checking. Enjoyed this very much apart from that.

  9. Our parsing of 1dn was that ‘split’ is an instruction to separate ‘leftover’ into ‘left’ (QUIT) and ‘over’ (O, as in cricket).
    An enjoyable solve. Thanks, Wiglaf and twencelas.

  10. Thanks to Twencelas for the blog and to many for their comments. Most of the parsing issues are now sorted, though there is still a slight problem with the parsing of 15 down.

  11. Yes, I parsed 1dn as allan_c and also missed the lam + p + Ed + USA mistake in the blog. I agree with others that BRASS is a nicer answer than MEANS but had some crossers before I got to it so that never occurred to me.

  13. 15 d is LAM + P(rince) Ed +USA. Another BRASS here. OVOLO was a guess then Google to check for me.

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