A fun rigorous workout from WANDERER today. As is the norm for him, some very witty surfaces and red herrings in the clues. Needed some help from the internet with a couple of unfamiliar names for people and novels.
I got excited about a pangram seeing Z, W, Y on the grid but then couldnt spot a Q or an X .
FF: 9 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | PEG LEG | Prosthetic primarily for one taking on artificial limb (3,3) |
| P (Prosthetic, primarily) EG (for one) LEG (on, cricket terminology) | ||
| 4 | HERBARIA | A female’s song about a billion collections of dried plants (8) |
| [HER (a female’s) ARIA (song)] about B (billion) | ||
| 10 | NEIGHBOUR | Sit next to Happy Hour binger briefly (9) |
| HOUR BINGEr* | ||
| 11 | AS YET | Unoriginal simple film, so far (2,3) |
| eASY (unoriginal = without origin, i.e. without starting letter) ET (film) | ||
| 12 | LOST | Completely mislaid or misplaced, essentially? (4) |
| explansion of L (mispLaced, essentially) | ||
| 13 | CORDON BLEU | My double “n” is wrong, according to top-class cook (6,4) |
| COR (my) [DOUBLE N]* | ||
| 15, 16 | PINCHER MARTIN | One that’s swiped flyer for novel (7,6) |
| PINCHER (one that’s swiped) MARTIN (flyer) | ||
| 19, 21 | DOCTOR ZHIVAGO | Novel virus found in bones, unknown in the past (6,7) |
| HIV (virus) in [ DOCTOR (bones) Z (unknown) AGO (in the past) ] | ||
| 23 | INHERITORS | People left stuff at home – or it’s gone off with her indoors (10) |
| {IN (at home) [OR ITS]* } containing HER | ||
| 25 | BIAS | Going both ways, when leaning (4) |
| BI (going both ways) AS (when) | ||
| 27 | TONIC | Provider of lift one in a hundred caught (5) |
| I (one) in [TON (hundred) C (caught) ] | ||
| 28 | LOCAL CALL | After separation, barring communication with someone fairly close (5,4) |
| cryptic def; splitting the word barring = BAR (local) RING (call) | ||
| 29 | NODULOSE | Lumpy leftover custard ultimately no use: needs throwing out (8) |
| [ L (left) O (over) D (custarD, ultimately) NO USE]* | ||
| 30 | LAWYER | Barman weary by start of Last Orders? (6) |
| WEARY* after L (start of Last) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1, 22 | PENELOPE WILTON | Actor and writer run off together, reaching different town around 1.50 (8,6) |
| PEN (writer) ELOPE (run off together) [ TOWN* around I (1) L (50) , both roman numerals ] | ||
| 2 | GLISSANDO | Sings do and la, after playing a slide of notes between them? (9) |
| SINGS DO LA* | ||
| 3 | ECHO | Nymph in bed after stripping off (4) |
| nato phonetic alphabet for E (bEd, after stripping off) | ||
| 5 | EARLDOM | Title made lord almost reform (7) |
| MADE LORd* | ||
| 6 | BRAIN DRAIN | Support independent artist, one with new ongoing loss of talent? (5,5) |
| BRA (support) IND (independent) RA (artist) I (one) N (new) | ||
| 7 | ROYAL | Like a Prince of Troy, allegedly (5) |
| hidden in “..tROY ALlegedly” | ||
| 8, 18 | ARTHUR KOESTLER | Author of 2 Kings outside Stoke, terribly lost (6,8) |
| ARTHUR ER (2 kings) outside [ STOKE* L (lost) ] | ||
| 9 | HONOUR | Pay public respect to the Queen? (6) |
| triple def; queen referring to terminology from the card game bridge | ||
| 14 | RHETORICAL | Response initially confused a clothier not expecting an answer? (10) |
| R (Response, initially) [A CLOTHIER]* | ||
| 17 | IMAGINARY | Pretend Wanderer bumps into Madonna, holding a drink (9) |
| [I (wanderer) MARY (madonna)] containing A GIN (drink) | ||
| 18 | See 8 | |
| 20 | RATTLES | Jingles upset starlet (7) |
| STARLET* | ||
| 21 | ZURICH | Provider of cover in zone that’s posh and well-to-do (6) |
| Z (zone) U (posh) RICH (well-to-do), referring to the insurance company | ||
| 22 | See 1 down | |
| 24 | HONED | Highly developed fetish one documentary’s covered (5) |
| hidden in “..fetisH ONE Docmentary..” | ||
| 26 | FLEA | A jumper is regularly folded away (4) |
| alternate letters (regularly) of FoLdEd Away | ||
*anagram
An enjoyable crossword but definitely one where you need to know ‘stuff’
Thanks to Wanderer for the entertainment and Turbolegs for the blog
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs. I knew the novels, the actress, and KOESTLER (though I did not find any connections among them), but I needed a lot of help parsing other items, especially LOST and LOCAL CALL.
Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.
Fortunately, like acd, today I did know the stuff.
Amused by NODULOSE [memories of abominable school dinners] – and the story behind IMAGINARY – enjoyed working out DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, CORDON BLEU, ECHO and RHETORICAL, delighted to see one of my favourite female actors at 1,22. Just momentarily disconcerted to see ER for once meaning ‘king’.
I missed the ‘hidden’ indicator in 7dn.
Once again, I have to record my appreciation of Wanderer’s characteristic ‘running on’ of multiple clues, rather than having to chase them all over the grid.
Many thanks to Wanderer, as ever – most enjoyable.
Puncher Martin and The Inheritors (23a) both written by William Golding
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Another entertaining puzzle by Wanderer, albeit done much later than the publication date. Found it quite difficult taking just under the hour to get it out and even then with a couple of clues not fully parsed. Baulked at ER for king for ages … but having seen it here, remembered that the kings Edward would have been referred to as Edward Rex (ER) and couldn’t think of ECHO as the code letter for E which was the stripped off ‘bed’.
Didn’t know the PINCHER MARTIN novel nor the actress PENELOPE WILTON but both were gettable from the word play. Did remember ARTHUR KOESTLER for his “The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe.” which I had to study in a History of Science elective as a part of my degree back in 1975.
Finiished in the SW corner with TONIC, INHERITORS and HONED as the last few in,