Independent 11,640 by Wire

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We have a Wire to solve and blog this week. Should be good ……….

… and it was

… and we have a pangram.

Thanks Wire.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Used item H&M originally embossed with blue (4-2-4)
HAND-ME-DOWN

H AND M (H&M) E (first or ‘original’ letter of embossed) DOWN (blue)

6. Suspect Yard follows in Fife at intervals (4)
IFFY

Y (yard) after In FiFe (alternate letters or ‘at intervals’)

10. Gold reflected by pale ash (5)
ROWAN

A reversal or ‘reflection’ of OR (gold) + WAN (pale)

11. Alluring General on vacation up for some action? (9)
GLAMOROUS

GeneraL (first and last letters only or ‘on vacation’) AMOROUS (up for some action?)

12. Deficiency in gear host fixed (8)
SHORTAGE

An anagram (‘fixed’) of GEAR HOST

13. Body part causes irritation when undressed (5)
ANKLE

rANKLEs (causes irritation) without first and last letters or ‘undressed’

15. Five in pool session replacing fellow’s drink (7)
AQUAVIT

AQUAfIT (pool session) with V (five) replacing f (fellow)

17. Beer knocked back by far ramp in dock (7)
SLIPWAY

PILS (beer) reversed or ‘knocked back’ + WAY (far) – we had to check this in Chambers – it’s listed under ‘way’ as an (adverb)

19. Told to do something neat (7)
ORDERED

Double definition

21. Left city on river without right cook (7)
NIGELLA

L (left) LA (city) after or ‘on’ NIGEr (river) without r (right) – a reference to the tv cook Nigella Lawson

22. Leaf picked regularly from oldest herbs around (5)
BETEL

A reversal (‘around’) of the alternate letters (‘picked regularly’) from oLdEsT hErBs

24. Releases Scottish isle’s urban music? (8)
UNSTRAPS

A whimsical notion of RAPS (‘urban music’) coming from UNST (Scottish Isle). We really enjoyed exploring Unst when we visited Shetland. Apart from having the northernmost distillery in the UK, it now has its own Spaceport.

27. Large gent tore off glasses (9)
LORGNETTE

An anagram (‘off’) of L (large) GENT TORE

28. Tricks 60% of country with empty euphemisms (5)
JAPES

JAPan (country – 60% only) + E S  (‘euphemisms’ missing the middle letters or ’empty’)

29. Runner jams broadcast (4)
STYX

Sounds like (‘broadcast’) of STICKS (jams). Styx is the river or ‘runner’ in the Underworld according to Greek mythology.

30. Just altered wonderful clothes worn by old star (5,5)
GRETA GARBO

GREAT (wonderful) ‘just altered’ to GRETA and GARB (clothes worn) O (old)

DOWN
1. Title of Austrian race announced (4)
HERR

Sounds like (‘announced’) of HARE (race)

2. Young channel acquiring hot reporter (9)
NEWSHOUND

NEW (young) SOUND (channel) around or ‘acquiring’ H (hot)

3. Upset some toddler on a mucky seat (5)
MANOR

Hidden (‘some’) and reversed (‘upset’) in toddleR ON A Mucky

4. Government vehicle crushed by Mark’s vehicle (7)
DOGCART

G (government) CAR (vehicle) inside or ‘crushed by’ DOT (mark)

5. Birds flew at last over eastern States (7)
WEAVERS

W (last letter of ‘flew’) over E (Eastern) AVERS (states)

7. Dress changing hands for lots of 5 (5)
FLOCK

FrOCK (dress) with L (left) replacing R (right) or ‘changing hands’. The ‘lots of 5’ refers to a ‘flock’ of weaver birds (5d).

8. Beatles number maybe overly extended in the past (10)
YESTERYEAR

Wire is asking you to imagine extending the time at the end of the famous Beatles number – YESTERDAY to a longer period of time (YEAR)

9. Grain brewed in mist as woodland activity (8)
FORAGING

An anagram (‘brewed’) of GRAIN in FOG (mist)

14. Seabirds the Greek ultimately raised in streams (10)
RAZORBILLS

ZORBA (the Greek) with the ‘ultimate’ letter (A) ‘raised’ in RILLS (streams)

16. Infectious game advanced with six in the lead (8)
VIRULENT

RU (game) LENT (advanced) with VI (six) at the top or ‘in the lead’

18. Screen background of jazz pianist entertaining Pulp (9)
WALLPAPER

WALLER (Fats Waller, jazz pianist) around or ‘entertaining’ PAP (pulp)

20. Thomas was this time put in taxi after party (7)
DOUBTER

T (time) in UBER (taxi) after DO (party)

21. Starting to develop article about fragrance (7)
NASCENT

AN (article) reversed or ‘about’ + SCENT (fragrance)

23. Slow yankee replacing final third of blue box (5)
TARDY

TARDis (‘blue box’ as featured in Dr Who) with the final third (‘is’) replaced by Y (yankee)

25. Make changes to steps at back of class (5)
REJIG

JIG (‘steps’ – dance) after or ‘at the back of’ RE (Religious Education – ‘class’)

26. London players raised zero capital (4)
OSLO

A reversal (‘raised’) of LSO (London Symphony Orchestra – ‘players’) + O (zero)

 

14 comments on “Independent 11,640 by Wire”

  1. Thanks Wire and B&J!
    A lovely puzzle and as usual an excellent blog!
    Liked UNSTRAPS (WAY too good!), YESTERYEAR and TARDY.

  2. Struggled to work out GRETA GARBO but it had to be that, and ‘aquafit’ is a new one on me. Should have spotted the pangram. Excellent puzzle, just right, so thanks Wire and B&J.

  3. Very nice as always. Smooth cluing, lovely surfaces and a wide range of references from the dated GARBO to the up-to-date Shetland rap. I did spot the pangram but quite late on in the day. NHO aquafit but the drink was the only one that would work with the crossers. HAND ME DOWN, GLAMOROUS, UNSTRAPS, HERR, NEWSHOUND, FORAGING and WALLPAPER were my faves in a most enjoyable workout.

    Thanks Wire and B&J

  4. I’m with Post Mark’s first two sentences and I’ll just add WEAVERS, RAZORBILLS and OSLO to his favourites.

    It still never occurs to me to even look for a pangram and I don’t think now it ever will.

    Thanks to Wire and B&J.

  5. Quite a struggle; but an enjoyable one.

    Had a red cross till flipping FROCK to FLOCK got me the yellow tick. I would have expected the changeable letter to be a crosser to avoid ambiguity; I have definitely seen clues use this format to give the other answer.

    But minor quibble aside – some beautiful surfaces and precise cluing.

    Thanks Setter and Blogger

  6. I always enjoy a Wire / Leonidas puzzle and this was no exception. Good to spot the pangram though it didn’t help me in solving. Maybe GRETA GARBO is slightly IFFY in that it is an indirect anagram of GREAT for ‘wonderful’ but I think it’s OK as Wire has helpfully indicated that not much letter rearrangement is required by having ‘Just altered’ as the anagram indicator.

    I especially liked JAPES and the GLAMOROUS NIGELLA.

    Thanks to B&J and Wire

  7. What Eileen said, especially the bit about pangrams. Plus AQUAVIT was another favourite for me. Thanks, Wire and B&J.

  10. The unofficial title of this puzzle is The Accidental Pangram. 75% into the grid fill, I realised I only needed 4 letters, so it seemed rude not to, really. Total fluke. Which is why a RAZORBILL landed close to the STYX. My first and last, I should think.

    Thanks to all for commenting and to B&J for the blog.

  11. Wire @10: your first and last, you should think? Your alpha and omega. Your A and Z. You just can’t let this pangram thing go …

    I’m quite glad RAZORBILLS made it into the puzzle – but hated STYX which I found really difficult and which was LOI. I was desperately searching for a homophone of jams. There is no reason at all why one of crosswordland’s tropes should not be applied to a mythical river but it meant it never entered my head when I was mentally flicking through the obvious suspects.

  13. PM@11 hopefully it STYX in your memory: it may crop up again.
    FD@12 sounds sore, you can get ointment for that, I think.

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