Independent 11,481 by Wire

by

Wire provides the challenge this Saturday.

All seemed pretty straightforward today although the chess player took longer to sort out than it should have done. We are not totally convinced about 10ac. The surfaces of all the other clues are smooth and often entertaining in themselves but this one seems a bit ‘clunky’. We think we have the parsing correct but if it is, we are not that impressed by it. Having said that, the rest of the puzzle was a fun challenge – no complaints.

Some Saturday puzzles have a theme, but if this has one, it has eluded us – are we missing something?

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Weed from last row gardener rolled (7)
RAGWORT

Hidden (‘from’) and reversed (‘rolled’) in lasT ROWGARdener

5. Calls cast about extremely puerile theatre opener (7)
SCALPEL

An anagram (‘cast’) of CALLS round or ‘about’ P E (first and last letters or ‘extremes’ of ‘puerile’)

9. Outline what may be on board in speech (5)
DRAFT

A homophone (‘in speech’) of DRAUGHT (‘what may be on board’ – as in the board game)

10. Moving to Carlisle from Newcastle, as is widow (9)
WESTBOUND

If you are moving to Carlisle from Newcastle you would be WESTBOUND. The only parsing we can come up with is that ‘widow’ is ‘BOUND’ by two ‘WESTs’. We are not that convinced about it though.

11. Strange dig up by abandoned library (9)
UNEARTHLY

UNEARTH (dig up) and LibrarY without the middle letters or ‘abandoned’

12. Figure of speech from English harbour recalled (5)
TROPE

A reversal (‘recalled’) of E (English) PORT (harbour)

13. Nebuchadnezzar overruns country without navy (4)
CHAD

Hidden in or ‘overrun by’ NebuCHADnezzar – CHAD, a country without a navy as it is landlocked.

15. Company that delivers pastries for parvenus (8)
UPSTARTS

UPS (company that delivers) TARTS (pastries)

18. Huge bolt made step unstable (8)
STAMPEDE

An anagram (‘unstable’) of MADE STEP

19. So right to be bolstered by self-confidence (4)
ERGO

R (right) inside or ‘bolstered by’ EGO (self-confidence)

22. Not fitting in with finals of gangsta rap contest (5)
INAPT

IN and last or ‘final’ letters of gangstA raP contesT

24. High Street chain has branch spinning lace (9)
BOOTSTRAP

BOOTS (High Street chain) and a reversal (‘spinning’) of PART (branch)

26. Brief greetings for both Rose and May in city (9)
HIROSHIMA

Greetings for the two ladies could be HI ROSe and HI MAy – both names missing the last letter or ‘brief’

27. Last bits of stuffing go into this fine bird (5)
GOOSE

Last letters or ‘bits’ of stuffinG gO intO thiS finE

28. Cockney crook twisting a left ear right off (3,4)
TEA LEAF

An anagram (‘twisting’) of A LEFT EAr missing R (‘right off’)

29. Couple of scoundrels having lost a wheel (7)
RATCHET

RAT and CHEaT (two scoundrels) losing ‘a’

DOWN
1. Sand pit regularly fenced by weird metal (6)
RADIUM

sAnD pIt (alternate or ‘regular’ letters only) inside or ‘fenced by’ RUM (weird)

2. Ammo plant supporting government filmed (9)
GRAPESHOT

RAPE (plant) under or ‘supporting’ G (Government) + SHOT (filmed)

3. Piscivore with too much energy essentially (5)
OTTER

OTT (too much) enERgy (middle or ‘essential’ letters only)

4. Pull husband inside new river building (4,5)
TOWN HOUSE

TOW (pull) + H (husband) inside N (new) OUSE (river)

5. Impudent American chess player taking pawn and knight (5)
SASSY

SpASSkY (chess player) without or ‘taking’ ‘p’ (pawn) and ‘k’ (knight?). Wire is being very crafty here – in chess, the abbreviation for knight is ‘n’ – ‘k’ is for king. Initially we thought this might be a mistake, but according to Chambers, ‘k’ can be an abbreviation for ‘knight’ (but not in chess!)

6. Judge initially authors rude piece on a different judge (9)
ARBITRATE

First or ‘initial’ letters of Authors Rude + BIT (piece) RATE (judge)

7. What is now termed a dwarf dog (5)
PLUTO

Double definition – PLUTO was formerly identified as a planet but was downgraded to a ‘dwarf’ planet in 2006

8. Record large tool that keeps borders trim (6)
LEDGER

L (large) EDGER (tool that keeps borders trim)

14. Small coffee with German fool wearing flower (9)
DEMITASSE

MIT (German word for ‘with’) ASS (fool) all inside or ‘wearing’ DEE (flower – as in the river)

16. Grouse sat around ‘terrible lizard‘ (9)
STEGOSAUR

An anagram (‘around’) of GROUSE SAT

17. Note bug egg atop the tailless insect (5,4)
TIGER MOTH

TI (note) GERM (bug) O (egg) on THe (missing last letter or ‘tailless’) Thanks KVa

20. Fashionable comedian elevated by success (4-2)
WITH-IT

WIT (comedian) over (‘elevated by’ – in a down clue) HIT (success)

21. Cheerful but knackered when changing positions (6)
UPBEAT

BEAT UP (knackered) with the two parts changing positions

23. Residents of Laos crash vessel (5)
AORTA

lAOs (middle letters or ‘residents’ only) RTA (‘crash’ – road traffic accident)

24. Short person perhaps close to dock (5)
BRIEF

Double defintion – the dock refers to one that you would find in a courtroom

25. View soldiers ascending tops of hidden turrets (5)
SIGHT

A reversal (‘ascending’) of GIS (soldiers) + first letters or ‘tops’ of Hidden Turrets

 

20 comments on “Independent 11,481 by Wire”

  1. Thanks, Wire and B&J!
    Liked WESTBOUND, HIROSHIMA, WITH-IT and BRIEF.

    I parsed Westbound as you did. Can’t think any better.

  2. A minor omission
    TIGER MOTH
    ‘egg=O’ left out.

    We see some animals and birds. Not sure about the theme.
    DE-ER, GOOSE, TEAL, RAT, APE, OTTER, ASS, TEG, TIGER, MOTH…

  3. I came to the same conclusion as our bloggers wrt WESTBOUND: having just commented on Paul’s Guardian Prize from last week, it strikes me it’s the kind of trick he would get away with – but it is slightly off the standard set by the rest of the puzzle. Likes included SCALPEL, UPSTARTS, STAMPEDE, BOOTSTRAP, GRAPESHOT, SASSY and WITH IT. My initial reaction to LEDGER was to think ‘if record is not LP or EP, it’ll probably be LOG’ and then I got the initial L. So the def is probably the tool. And yet, surely, the thing that keeps a lawn tidy is an EDGER: what else could this tool be? Doh, doh and triple doh!

    Thanks Wire and B&J

  4. Well, I thought WESTBOUND was brilliant! I agree with KVa that the animal kingdom is the theme, no doubt about it, so many that they are in a STAMPEDE! And I will add STEGOSAUR to KVa’s list – and there are two ASSes, and maybe PLUTO? Thanks Wire and B&J.

  5. Tatrasman@4
    In the 4th row, we have PENS between two I’s.
    Swans or animal enclosures. Both ways relevant.
    PLUTO: the guest of honour!

  6. Wire is drawing our attention to this:
    We think of Carlisle as being up near Scotland, Newcastle as being a long way from the border. WESTBOUND seems counter-intuitive.
    In fact Carlisle is slightly more southerly than Newcastle.

  8. BRIEF – thought it might be referring to this legal phrase:
    ‘dock brief – noun – English law : a brief from a prisoner in the dock who is unable to provide his or her own counsel
    also : the privilege granted such a prisoner at the discretion of the trial judge of selecting a barrister from among those present to represent the prisoner for a nominal fee’

  9. Apart from a slight hold-up in the SW corner – WITH IT and AORTA were our last ones in – this was all pretty staightforward, and we never thought of looking for a theme.
    No problems with WESTBOUND as either clue or answer. [Incidentally, the line of the border is quite convoluted; there are places where it’s possible to cross from Scotland into England by travelling north!]
    Thanks, Wire and B&J

  10. FrankieG@8
    While solving the puzzle, I did come across ‘dock brief’ but the clue says ‘person who is close to dock’.
    BRIEF in the sense of a lawyer seems a better fit (a lawyer may be close to the dock (in a court) as suggested in the blog by B&J).

  11. Thanks both. Enjoyed all of this, with just a couple of uncertainties, one being whether ‘knackered’ is ‘beat up’ colloquially rather than grammatically ‘beaten up’? The other was only partially parsing WESTBOUND, and I like the invention, but wonder if it could read “….as is bride, we hear, becoming widow’ therefore binding ‘I do’ in the two wests??

  12. Here’s a funny thing, Carlisle is east of Edinburgh. The menagerie alas was an unintended one. Thanks to all, have a good weekend.

  13. Thanks to Wire and B&J.
    I thought WESTBOUND’ a perfectly good clue – can’t see any problem with it. I tried checking whether ‘westerly widow’ was a thing before the penny dropped (it isn’t, but ‘westerly women’ is – relating to pioneers in the US).
    I was glad to hear from Wire that the theme I missed (as I almost always do) wasn’t spotted by the setter either.
    Good fun all round.

  14. It turns out that Spauncy was not an American chess player, but he did jog my memory about Spassky.

  16. Thanks Wire for a nicely crafted crossword. My top picks were STAMPEDE, ERGO, HIROSHIMA, GOOSE, TEA LEAF, OTTER, and DEMITASSE. I missed BOOTSTRAP and BRIEF. I got WESTBOUND because I hiked along Hadrian’s Wall from Carlisle to Newcastle a few years ago. Thanks B & J for the blog.

  17. Wire@12 – yes, I live in the southeast of Scotland and travel east to my in-laws in the northwest of England.
    Swansea is also (just) east of Edinburgh.
    I thought that clue was excellent.

  20. KVa@10
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dock_Brief
    ‘… (US title Trial and Error) is a 1962 black-and-white British legal satire directed by James Hill, starring Peter Sellers and Richard Attenborough, and based on the play of the same name written by John Mortimer (creator of Horace Rumpole).’
    Here’s how I parsed the clue. “Short person perhaps close to dock”
    BRIEF = short, and BRIEF = barrister (person) – you didn’t need to explain that to me – I’ve watched Rumpole of the Bailey – I’m a legal expert.
    In the phrase “dock brief’, the word BRIEF is “close to dock” – very close – it’s right beside it, in fact.
    In its meaning (see@8), the BRIEF(barrister) would have to be in the courtroom and sufficiently close to the dock for the defendant to pick her/him.
    I’m probably posting too late for anyone to notice – “She who must be obeyed” dragged me out on a long walk all day. 🙂
    Thanks W & B&J
    What does Leo McKern have in common with Rex Harrison and Elton John?

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