A delightful puzzle from Wire to start the week. Soundly constructed clues and a variety of interesting references. Bravo.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Unattractive artist’s brief from Greta Thunberg?
NO OIL PAINTING
Whimsically, the young Swedish activist might commission an artist to paint a picture discouraging further extraction of the fossil fuel.
9 A seven-day period with crumbs for bird
GOSHAWK
A charade of GOSH (a substitute for ‘Crumbs!’) and A WK. And an interesting choice for the obligatory Pierre bird link, which I don’t think I’ve been offered before. An elusive, high-speed hunter which was once on the brink of extinction but whose numbers have recovered well. It will take as prey other birds, squirrels, rabbits and hares. Its name comes from the Old English goshafoc, from gos ‘goose’ and hafoc ‘hawk’.
10 Mistake working to contain hot jet
TYPHOON
An insertion of H in TYPO and ON. The insertion indicator is ‘to contain’.
11 Craft invading deserted eighth planet
EARTH
An insertion of ART in E[ight]H. The insertion indicator is ‘invading’.
12 Drug scored and badly cut
LACERATED
A charade of LACE and RATED.
13 Prohibition of make-up by government? Exactly
SLAP-BANG
A charade of SLAP BAN (which might be a call to outlaw make-up) and G.
15 Follow funds mostly linked to bloc in revolution
PURSUE
A charade of PURS[E] and EU reversed.
18 Fluster half of venomous reptiles
RATTLE
RATTLE[SNAKES]
19 Meat caked in grass given away
REVEALED
An insertion of VEAL in REED. The insertion indicator is ‘caked in’.
22 Trail around shops in light conversation
SMALL TALK
An insertion of MALL in STALK. The insertion indicator is ‘around’.
24 Reportedly visits sites for those bound to land
SERFS
Aural wordplay (‘reportedly’) for SURFS.
25 Large number of skinned cats next to factory
MILLION
A charade of MILL and [L]ION[S]
26 I have no idea why insect circles new mast
BEATS ME
An insertion of (MAST)* in BEE. The anagrind is ‘new’ and the insertion indicator is ‘circles’.
27 PM meeting castaway and cartoonist
HEATH ROBINSON
[Sir Edward] HEATH makes the acquaintance of ROBINSON [Crusoe]. They could have talked about escape yachts, perhaps. The cartoonist responsible for drawings like this, and whose name has become common parlance for an over-elaborate contraption with an element of having been cobbled together.
Down
1 Raised weapon acquires valuable titbits
NUGGETS
A charade of GUN reversed and GETS. The reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue, is ‘raised’.
2 Devout old helper binding book
OBSERVANT
An insertion of B in O and SERVANT. The insertion indicator is ‘binding’.
3 Fish heads from lake offloaded at Caen harbour
LOACH
The initial letters of the last five words of the clue.
4 Basic resetting of ankle limits boxer
ALKALINE
An insertion of ALI in (ANKLE)* The anagrind is ‘resetting of’ and the insertion indicator is ‘limits’. The chemical definition of ‘basic’, referring to the opposite of ‘acidic’.
5 Number attached to note on church clock
NOTICE
A charade of NO, TI for the seventh note of the sol-fa and CE. ‘I hadn’t clocked that Wire was the setter today.’
6 Trump on island excited English press
IMPORTUNE
A charade of (TRUMP ON I)* and E. The anagrind is ‘excited’.
7 Good to replace surface of European coin once
GROAT
Wire is inviting you to replace the first letter of CROAT with a G for ‘good’. Worth 4d in old money, a third of a shilling. Its origin has nothing to do with its meaning as a hulled grain, but is derived from words for ‘big’: ultimately from Denarius Grossus, or big penny, and strongly related to the Dutch Grootpennig, meaning the same thing.
8 Nervous individual periodically dogged
ON EDGE
A charade of ONE and DGE for the odd letters of DoGgEd.
14 Instrument a research room set up on cosmonaut?
BALALAIKA
A reversal (‘set up’, since it’s a down clue) of A LAB and LAIKA, who as regular pub quizzers will know, was the first vertebrate animal to orbit the earth, aboard the Sputnik mission in 1957. It did not end well for her.
16 Hardening bone clogs spinning slicers
SCLEROSIS
An insertion of OS in (SLICERS)* The anagrind is ‘spinning’ and the insertion indicator is ‘clogs’. OS is the Latin word for ‘bone’, used mainly in anatomy, but also finding its way into words like OSSIFY and OSSUARY.
17 Game pie without filling cook flipped with eggs
PEEKABOO
A charade of P[I]E, BAKE reversed and OO for two ‘eggs’.
18 Proceed with fifth maths problem maybe after class
RESUME
A charade of RE for the school subject and SUM E, which could be the ‘fifth maths problem’ after SUM A, SUM B …
20 Officers atop scientific facility make out
DISCERN
A charade of DIS and CERN, Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire based in Geneva. The European Council for Nuclear Research in English.
21 Magazine featuring one central spread
PAUNCH
An insertion of A in PUNCH. A magazine no more: Punch was forced to close in 2002 after 161 years of publication.
23 Everybody I see follows God
ALLAH
A charade of ALL and AH.
24 Mystic perhaps crawled over top of India
SWAMI
A charade of SWAM and I for the first letter of ‘India’. The reference is to the swimming stroke, the crawl.
Many thanks to Wire for the start to the week of Independent puzzles.
Mostly straightforward but with a definite sting in the tail. My last 4 took longer than the rest put together (REVEALED, SCLEROSIS, SERFS & PURSUE). I reached for a word fit a couple of times but managed to get the answer before needing it.
Splendid puzzle. Beaten by PURSUE – I could make no sense of the bloc – my bad. And by SCLEROSIS which I wrongly thought was defining a bone disease rather than containing OS. Medical conditions are a bit of a gap for me – fortunately!
Everything else was delightful with plenty of interesting references as Pierre observed. SLAP-BANG, SMALL TALK, SERFS, MILLION, OBSERVANT, ALKALINE, NOTICE and PEEKABOO were my faves today.
Thanks Wire and Pierre
Excellent!!… despite one or two slightly dodgy surface reads. Lots of clever misdirection without resorting to obscurity, which is just how it should be. I couldn’t fully parse SCLEROSIS and struggled to justify OBSERVANT for devout but I’m sure Wire can. Lots of ticks on my page including TYPHOON, SLAP-BANG, IMPORTUNE, PEEKABOO and PAUNCH (lol).
Many thanks Wire and Pierre for a top puzzle and blog.
Some quirky clues and definitions as usual from this setter but no less enjoyable for that. Thanks Wire and Pierre.
Delightful, splendid, excellent – to echo comments above. A lovely start to the week.
My favourites were NO OIL PAINTING, GOSHAWK, SLAP-BANG, which made me laugh, SERFS, MILLION, NOTICE, BALALAIKA, PEEKABOO and DISCERN.
StephenL @3
Collins – ‘observant: adhering strictly to rituals, ceremonies, laws, etc.’
Oops! – many thanks to Wire and Pierre.
Thanks both. A busy weekend caught up with me right at the end, falling just short on the intersecting SWAMI which was unknown and didn’t unpick ‘crawled’ and SERFS for which I had surfs, having decided to see it as a double definition given a surf-boarder is land-bound once on the board – I accept that doesn’t quite follow the clue, but since when has that been important?!
Thanks Wire and Pierre.
Superb!
1a is a beauty, though it says otherwise!
Held up in the SE corner – we knew we were looking for something meaning ‘hardening’ for 16dn but just couldn’t think of the word so had to resort to a word finder for SCLEROSIS. PURSUE and SERFS then fell into place.
An enjoyable solve, all the same, with the bonus of the bird link.
Thanks, Wire and Pierre.
Thanks Wire for a stellar start to the week. There was a multitude of good clues, RATTLE, SERFS, PEEKABOO, and HEATH ROBINSON among them. I had a few parsing gaps in NO OIL PAINTING, BALALAIKA, and PAUNCH but thanks to Pierre my questions were answered.
Best puzzle of the day for me and the others were good too. Great blog, too. Thanks.
Upper part mostly went in reasonably quickly then I got really bogged down. Cheated on peekaboo and then had another spurt.
My favourites were 1ac, thought that was great, 18a, was really looking at that the wrong way for ages, 10 and 22.
LOI was also pursue for me. Funny that one seemed to flummox so many. Unlike PM I got the EU bit, but just couldn’t see purse for funds.
First time I’ve seen Wire for ages, enjoyed it.
Many thanks Pierre and Wire.