We see Independent puzzles from Wire about once a month, so today’s the day for May.
I suspect this puzzle won’t generate as many comments at yesterday’s offering by Bluth, although we do have a German word today. Most of the entries are words in the day to day vocabulary of many solvers, or are words they will have come across in crosswords before.
NEMATODES are well know inhabitants of crossword world. I’m more aware of FORMALDEHYDE than I am of ALDEHYDE, but the entry was fairly obvious. I did wonder about ‘cure’ as an anagram indicator, but a quick look at a Thesaurus showed many synonyms relating to fix, correct, restore etc.
I’ve never been 100% sure about the city that is capital of The Netherlands, given that The Hague is the seat of government, but, after a bit of research, I’m now clear that AMSTERDAM is the capital.
I liked the misdirection towards chickens in the clue for PEDAL.
In a recent crossword I blogged, there was a comment about the use of ‘trousers’ as a hidden word indicator. Today we have ‘trousers’ in its traditional meaning.
As I finalised this blog, I noticed there were fewer container & contents clues and fewer anagram clues than is the case with other setters. Wire is keen on wordplay which references individual or pairs of letters in constituent words in the clue.
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| Across | |||
| 8 |
Fracturing a hip seems to give you stress (9) |
Anagram of (fracturing) A HIP SEEMS EMPHASISE* |
EMPHASISE (stress) |
| 9 | Record company name left with guy in Genesis (5) |
L (left) + ABEL (son of Adam and Eve referenced in the Book of Genesis) L ABEL |
LABEL (the piece of paper on a record, cassette, compact disc, etc giving the maker’s production company’s tradename) |
| 11 | Earth footage beginning to explain rare event (7) |
E (earth) + CLIPS (footage from films or other visual media) + E (first letter of [beginning to] EXPLAIN) E CLIPS E |
ECLIPSE (the total or partial disappearance of a heavenly body by the interposition of another between it and the spectator; example of a rare event) |
| 12 | Requirement to return key was irritating (7) |
NEED (requirement) + DEL (DELete key on a keyboard) reversed (to return) NEED LED< |
NEEDLED (was irritating) |
| 13 | Government on Hawaii has evacuated schools (5) |
HI (Hawaii) + G (government) + HS (letters remaining in H HI G HS |
HIGHS (HIGH schools) |
| 14 | Loud 60s band hoards top-notch moisturiser perhaps (4,5) |
(F [forte; loud] + CREAM [1960s supergroup; band formed by bassist Jack Bruce, guitarist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker]) containing (hoards) ACE (top-notch]) F (ACE) CREAM |
FACE CREAM (example of a moisturiser) |
| 16 | Despise cod art as vulgar – it’s often crude (7,8) |
Anagram of (vulgar) DESPISE COD ART AS SEASIDE POSTCARD* |
SEASIDE POSTCARD (the pictures or, more commonly, the cartoons on some SEASIDE POSTCARDs are often crude) |
| 19 | Mark is amongst sailors retreated for worms (8) |
(DOT [mark] contained in [is amongst] SEAMEN [sailors]) all reversed (retreated) (NEMA (TOD) ES)< |
NEMATODES (parasitic worms) |
| 21 | Coop came good finally with single large clutch? (8) |
PED (last letters of [finally] of each of COOP, CAME and GOOD) + A (single) + L (large) PED A L |
PEDAL (reference the Clutch PEDAL in a car with a manual gear box) |
| 22 | Pioneer in Western, a person without prospects (7) |
W (western) + A + GONER (person dead or ruined beyond recovery; person without prospects) W A GONER |
WAGONER (pioneers travelling to open up the west of America were WAGONERs) |
| 23 | Population theorist originally had useful states on cereal (7) |
MALT (barley or other grain steeped in water, cereal) + HUS (first letters of [originally] each of HAD, USEFUL and STATES) MALT HUS |
MALTHUS (Thomas Robert MALTHUS FRS [1766 – 1834] was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography [study of population]) |
| 24 | Preliminarily examine lessons by Catholic church (5) |
RE (Religious Education [lessons] + C [Catholic] + CE [Church {of England}]) RE C CE |
RECCE (reconnoitre; preliminarily examine, originally for military purposes) |
| 25 | ‘airy thing maybe hopping about capital (9) |
‘AMSTER (‘airy creature;hairy with both clue and constituent part dropping the opening H) + MAD (hopping) reversed (about) AMSTER DAM< |
AMSTERDAM (capital of the Netherlands according to the Constitution of the Netherlands, although the States General and the Executive Branch have been situated in The Hague since 1588, along with the Supreme Court and the Council of State) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Captain perhaps losing a pipe and navy trousers (10) |
LE LEDER HOSE N |
LEDERHOSEN (short leather trousers) |
| 2 | Ex-drinkers accepting sweet soldier’s defence (8) |
AA (Alcoholics Anonymous; ex-drinkers) containing (accepting) (POLO [example of a {mint} sweet] + GI [American soldier]) A (POLO GI) A |
APOLOGIA (written defence or vindication) |
| 3 | College zone parking south of river outside of undertakers (6) |
CAM (river that flows through Cambridge) + P (parking) + US (first and last letters of [outside of] UNDERTAKERS) CAM P US |
CAMPUS (university or college grounds) |
| 4 / 22 | Energetic character and yours truly on stage? (4,4) |
LIVE (of the theatre, etc, concerned with living performance as distinct from filming, broadcasting or televising; on stage) + WIRE (setter’s name; yours truly) LIVE WIRE |
LIVE [WIRE] (person of intense energy or alertness) |
| 5 | Destructive prince blasted over written promises (10) |
Anagram of (blasted) PRINCE + IOUS (I owe yous; written promises) PERNIC* IOUS |
PERNICIOUS (destructive) |
| 6 | Both uninitiated, Stacy and Bella mounted animal (5,3) |
( (ALLE Y CAT)< |
ALLEY CAT (stray CAT; animal) |
| 7 | Pleased when surgeon ultimately leaves thyroid? (4) |
GLA GLAD |
GLAD (pleased) |
| 10 | Boy cut all gorging, ankles progressively swelling (5) |
BULGE (letters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 successively [progressively] of each of BOY, CUT, ALL, GORGING and ANKLES) BULGE |
BULGE (swelling) |
| 14 | Test specialty model Den brought back (5,5) |
FIELD (specialty) + T (reference the Model T Ford car) + LAIR (animal’s den) reversed (brought back) FIELD T RIAL< |
FIELD TRIAL (test in practice, as distinct from one under laboratory conditions) |
| 15 | Interfering with tally of awards picked up (10) |
MEDDLE (sounds like [picked up] MEDAL [award] + SOME (sounds like [picked up] SUM [tally, thereby describing more than one MEDAL [wards]) MEDDLE SOME |
MEDDLESOME (interfering unnecessarily)) |
| 17 | Clint and Emmanuel hiding together (2,6) |
IN TANDEM (hidden [hiding] phrase in CLINT AND EMMANUEL) IN TANDEM |
IN TANDEM (together) |
| 18 | Compound of lead cured doctor’s inner demon (8) |
Anagram of (cured) LEAD + HYDE (reference the book Dr Jekyll and Mr HYDE, by Robert Louis Stevenson, where HYDE is the Dr’s inner demon ) ALDE* HYDE |
ALDEHYDE (a compound differing from an alcohol in having two fewer hydrogen atoms) |
| 20 | Mean Grinch regularly spoilt enchantment (5) |
MAGIC (letters 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 [regularly] of MEAN GRINCH) MAGIC |
MAGIC (enchantment) |
| 21 | Draw alien creature with a beak (6) |
PULL (draw) + ET (extraterrestrial; alien) PULL ET |
PULLET (young he; creature with a beak) |
| 22 | See 4 |
See 4 WIRE |
[LIVE] WIRE |
| 23 | Pulp tour across frozen country (4) |
MUSH (pulp) MUSH |
MUSH (a journey on foot with dogs over snow; tour across frozen country) double definition |
I couldn’t parse NEMATODES and knew nothing about MALTHUS apart from having vaguely heard of his name, but otherwise this went in steadily without too many hold-ups. Lots of clues I liked though, including the SEASIDE POSTCARD anagram (My favourite: :”Women who are at first too conservative, then too liberal, usually end up in labour” – accompanied by the expected naughty illustrations of course) the ‘progressively’ device for BULGE and HYDE for the ‘doctor’s inner demon’.
Maybe not quite up to the ‘Amunsden’s forwarding address’ clue mentioned by someone here a few weeks ago, but MUSH was good too, and educational as well as I’d only known it as a verb used in the imperative rather than in the sense of a noun here.
Thanks to Wire and Duncan
A pleasant solve which didn’t tax us too much. We worked out MALTHUS from the wordplay and crossing letters befire remembering thar we had heard of him.
To expand on the description of ALDEHYDE, an aldehyde not only differs from an alcohol in having two fewer hydrogen atoms, but differs structurally as well.
We liked ALLEY CAT and the ‘progressive’ device for BULGE.
Thanks, Wire and Duncan.
Thank you Wire. Well constructed clues that made us work a bit here and there. Enjoyed the solve.Thanks Duncan for a quality blog.
I liked this a lot, though ashamed I failed to parse Nemotodes. 10D was a brilliant device. Thanks Wire and Duncan