Puzzles from Wire are appearing about once a month in the Independent series at the moment and today we have the August one.
Wednesday is usually a theme free day and I think that tradition is continued today, although I did look to see if there were any IRON MAIDEN album or track titles in the grid. The first 5 unchecked letters in row 2 spell LIDAR which, among other things, is a technology used in land surveying for determining ground heights and contours, but I think that is just a coincidence.
For a while I had BARGE rather than NUDGE at 11 across, using BARE rather than NUDE, but I wasn’t convinced. I was quite pleased when TANTAMOUNT came along to invalidate BARGE
Wire made quite a lot of reference to the way down entries are written into the grid with the wordplay in three clues using ‘shouldering’, ‘supporting’ and ‘beneath’ , to describe the relative positions of component parts.
TUBERCLE was a new word for me, but the wordplay was very clear.
I have seen AH for ‘I see’ many times in the last few weeks and it was used today in the wordplay for BLAH
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Bird following outline of Signora’s vehicle (6) SALOON (motor car with two or four doors and enclosed compartment for driver and passengers; vehicle) SA (outer letters of [outline of] SIGNORA) + LOON (any of an order of northern diving birds) SA LOON |
| 4 |
Hard to get muscles? Attempt endless exercise (8) ABSTRUSE (difficult to understand; hard to get) ABS (abdominal muscles) + TRY (attempt) excluding the final letter (endless) Y + USE (exercise) ABS TR USE |
| 10 |
Middle of foamy brook swallowing rabid old animal (9) ARMADILLO (American mammal with long snout, tubular ears and large front claws; animal) A (central letter of [middle of] FOAMY) + (RILL [small stream; brook] containing [swallowing] MAD [rabid]) + O (old) A R (MAD) ILL O |
| 11 |
Push government into revealing statue (5) NUDGE (push) G (government) contained in (into) NUDE (revealing statue) NUD (G) E |
| 12 |
Green Party leaders in separate hustings (4) DOSH (money; green can be defined as money, especially in reference to dollar bills) DO (party) + SH (first letters of [leaders in] each of SEPARATE and HUSTINGS) DO S H |
| 13 |
Rome upset with Indian band (4,6) IRON MAIDEN (heavy metal band) Anagram of (upset) ROME and (with) INDIAN IRON MAIDEN* |
| 15 |
Dread splitting children’s crispy starter (7) SEAWEED (reference crispy SEAWEED, a starter made from spring greens and often served in Chinese restaurants) AWE (dread) contained in (splitting) SEED (children) SE (AWE) ED |
| 16 |
Sandwich maybe £25 in space (6) EPONYM (a person, real or mythical, from whose name another name is derived; The Earl of SANDWICH gave his name to the well-known snack) PONY (slang for £25) contained in (in) EM (an m-sized space in printing terminology) E (PONY) M |
| 19 |
Month before Mum’s uncovered part of nose (6) SEPTUM (partition or dividing structure in a cavity, tissue, such as that between the nostrils; part of the nose) SEPT (September; month) + MUM excluding the first letter (uncovered) M SEPT UM |
| 21 |
Flag exercise navy twice presented to six-footer (7) PENNANT (long narrow flag) PE ([physical] exercise) + N (navy) + N (navy), hence twice + ANT (insect with six feet) PE N N ANT |
| 23 |
Attire essential on day prior to match (6,4) MONKEY SUIT (attire) MON (MONday; day of the week) + KEY (essential) + SUIT (fit in with the requirements of; match) MON KEY SUIT |
| 25 |
Device that secures film footage (4) CLIP (device that secures) CLIP (short extract of a film) double definition CLIP |
| 27 |
Smear part of Seattle billboard facing west (5) LIBEL (defame; smear) LIBEL (reversed [facing west] hidden word in [part of] SEATTLE BILLBOARD) LIBEL< |
| 28 |
Predator mostly solo by deserted Inca region (9) CATALONIA (region of Spain including Barcelona) CAT (type of predator, especially big CATs) + ALONE (solo) excluding the final letter (mostly) E + IA (letters remaining in INCA when the central letters NC are removed [deserted]) CAT ALON IA |
| 29 |
Doddery brute with scalpel oddly missed bit of bone (8) TUBERCLE (any small rounded nodule or elevation, especially on the skin, on a bone) Anagram of (doddery) BRUTE + CLE (letters remaining in SCALPEL when the letters at positions 1, 3, 5 and 7 are removed [oddly missed]) TUBER* CLE |
| 30 |
Decent hospital is in order (6) CHASTE (decent and pure in taste) H (hospital) contained in (in) CASTE (social class) C (H) ASTE |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Disorderly mates turning on race (8) SLAPDASH (in a careless or disorderly way) PALS (mates) reversed (turning) + DASH (run fast; race) SLAP< DASH |
| 2 |
Ascend shouldering fruit and fur (9) LIMESCALE (LIME crust formed by hard water in boilers; fur can be defined in a similar way) LIME (fruit) + SCALE (climb) – as this is a down entry the letters in LIME ‘stand on the shoulders’ of the letters in SCALE LIME SCALE |
| 3 |
Chances of verses using Dutch not English (4) ODDS (chances) ODES (poems; verses) replacing (using… not) E (English) with D (Dutch) ODDS |
| 5/21 |
Cake and ale perhaps receiving zero credit (7,6) BROWNIE [POINTS] (notional good mark; credit) BROWNIE (kind of rich, chewy chocolate cake) + PINTS (ale is often served in PINTS) containing (receiving) O (character representing zero) BROWNIE P (O) INTS |
| 6 |
Beat the army originally on horse or equivalent (10) TANTAMOUNT (equivalent) TAN (beat) + TA (first letters of [initilly] each of THE and ARMY) + MOUNT (a horse that is ridden) TAN T A MOUNT |
| 7 |
Top half of pants setter had loosened (5) UNDID (loosened) UND (first three letters of [top half pf] UNDIES [pants]) + I’D (setter had) UND ID |
| 8 |
Direction to leave former version of tune (6) EXEUNT (direction to go out or leave the stage) EX (former) + an anagram of (version of) TUNE EX EUNT* |
| 9 |
Great king invested by order flamboyantly on ascension (6) ALFRED (reference ALFRED the Great [848-899], King of the Saxons) ALFRED (reversed [on ascension; down entry] hidden word [invested by] ORDER FLAMBOYANTLY) ALFRED< |
| 14 |
Peter briefly supporting George’s commercial success (10) BESTSELLER (a commercial success) BEST (reference George BEST [1946-2005], footballer who lived a rather chequered life) + SELLERS (reference Peter SELLERS [1925-1980], English actor and comedian who also lived a chequered life) excluding the final letter (briefly) S BEST SELLER |
| 17 |
Young creatures with grey nails treated (9) YEARLINGS (young racehorses) Anagram of (treated) GREY NAILS YEARLINGS* |
| 18 |
Strike bottom of feckless attendant in charge? (8) STOPPAGE (a cessation of work such as a strike) S (last letter of [bottom of] FECKLESS) + TOP PAGE (attendant in charge) S TOP PAGE |
| 20 |
Show university to be blocking false claims (7) MUSICAL (a show) U (university) contained in (to be blocking) an anagram of (false) CLAIMS M (U) SICAL* |
| 21 |
See 5 [BROWNIE] POINTS |
| 22 |
Smuggler taken in by hollow alchemist’s charm (6) AMULET (charm worn to ward off evil, disease, etc) MULE (drug smuggler) contained in (taken in by) AT (letters remaining in ALCHEMIST when the central letters LCHEMIS are replaced by spaces [hollow]) A (MULE) T |
| 24 |
Rich person from Scottish town brought up British (5) NABOB (any person of great wealth) OBAN (town on the west coast of Scotland) reversed (brought up) + B (British) NABO< B |
| 26 |
Rubbish left beneath base of shrub, I see (4) BLAH (bunkum; nonsense) B (last letter of [base of] SHRUB) + L (left) + AH (I see) – as a down entry the L of left is entered in the grid beneath the B B L AH |
Thanks, Wire and duncanshiell!
Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog (quite elaborate and colourful).
SEPTUM
A minor point:
I thought…
mums (ignoring the apostrophe) uncovered=UM.
Enjoyed. Liked UNDID because it’s funny, ABSTRUSE for the def, DOSH for the misdirection, AMULET for the mule, and BLAH. Agree with KVa @1 re MUM’S uncovered but maybe it works both ways. Didn’t quite understand TOP PAGE but I do now. Thanks Duncan. Thanks Wire.
I think UNDID is funny because it’s clever but also because pants is trousers here and when the penny dropped it got a laugh.
Thanks Duncan for explaining Monkey Suit. Even after I revealed it couldn’t parse. I certainly didn’t wear a dinner suit the day before my wedding. (Well maybe I tried it on).
I had SEPTUM as KVa. Good fun and not too taxing. At one point, I checked if there was a vehicle ‘carook’ but 2d soon put me on the right track.
Hovis @5: you are not alone. Though I didn’t start with a C. My two hopeful checks in Chambers were for ‘sarook’ and ‘sacoot’!
Nice puzzle, all cleanly clued and a full parse which is hugely satisfying. UNDID for humour, LIMESCALE for the unusual def and TANTAMOUNT because it’s a lovely word are my podium.
Thanks Wire and duncan
Wonder if anybody looked up ‘sacrow’? 🙂
Yup!
Another great puzzle from one of my favourite setters.
I didn’t know the money meaning of ‘green’, so couldn’t get DOSH but it has now earned a tick, along with about a dozen others, which I’ll reluctantly reduce to 4ac ABSTRUSE, 16ac EPONYM, 28ac CATALONIA, 29ac TUBERCLE, 5/21 BROWNIE POINTS, 6dn TANTAMOUNT, 7dn UNDID, 9dn ALFRED, 14dn BESTSELLER and 20dn MUSICAL.
I struck lucky first time with the bird at 1ac. 😉
Many thanks to Wire for the fun and Duncan for the blog.
A very good puzzle, and great fun to solve.
Parsed SEPTmUMs as KVa@1
Is it a rook? – Is it a coot? – Is it a crow? – No, it’S A LOON – Cue gratuitous off-topic ornithological link…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loon#/media/File:Gavia_immer_-Minocqua,_Wisconsin,_USA_-swimming-8.jpg
Thanks W&d
I had D-INNER SUIT for MONKEY SUIT until AMULET put me right. I agree with Eileen about the top clues, but would add STOPPAGE to the list.
At risk of being anecdotal, my boss used to earn brownie points by accompanying his wife to see musicals so he could spend time in the saloon (bar) of the local pub.
Excellent puzzle with an equally excellent blog. Nothing too complex to work out on the parsings, everything beautifully and concisely clued.
In a strange field I’ve chosen to highlight MONKEY SUIT, UNDID and STOPPAGE as my top three.
Many thanks to Wire & DS
Thanks Wire for a top drawer crossword. I’ll second everyone’s favourites because everything was good. Thanks Duncan for the blog.