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Wiglaf has provided today’s cruciverbal entertainment. It is a long time since it has fallen to me to blog a puzzle by this compiler.
I would definitely put this towards the harder end of the Indy spectrum of difficulty. I think that I am fairly satisfied with my parsing, but I would appreciate confirmation of 19 (does “penning” indicate a container-and-contents clue?); 26 (is it a semi- & lit.?); and 25 (is it a genuine double definition?).
My favourite clues today were 1 and 24, both for sauciness; 5, for the inclusion of a dot in the anagram; and 7, for smoothness of surface. I would also like to thank Wiglaf for broadening my general knowledge at 8, 9 and 11.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | LAYWOMEN | Some non-clerical types behave like Casanova
Cryptically, if they behave like Casanova, then they might lay women! |
| 06 | SCRAPE | Jam provides little energy
SCRAP (=little, small amount of) + E (=energy); a scrape is a jam, a tight spot |
| 09 | SEXTON | Keep sending risqué messages to Blake?
Cryptically, to sext on would be to keep sending risqué (text) messages; the reference is to the British comic strip detective Sexton Blake |
| 10 | TROUBLED | Ill at ease, Irish MP eats bread in Moscow
ROUBLE (=bread, i.e. money, in Moscow) in TD (=Irish MP, i.e. Teachta Dála) |
| 11 | SITE | Place Daisy Ashford’s “visitors” centrally
The middle letters (“centrally”) of “viSITErs”, from the title of the 1919 novella “The Visiters”, by English writer Daisy Ashford (1881-1972), written when she was just nine years old, hence the misspelling |
| 12 | CHANGE GEAR | Drop down into second? That could create rage
“rage” is an anagram of “gear” |
| 14 | CONSTRUE | Kids so understand
CONS (=kids, fools, deceives) + TRUE (=so, as in That is so) |
| 16 | IOTA | A bit of audiotape
Hidden (“a bit of”) in “audIOTApe” |
| 18 | ECHO | Italian semiotician rings hot nymph
H (=hot, e.g. on tap) in ECO (=Italian semiotician, i.e. Umberto Eco); Echo was a nymph in Greek mythology |
| 19 | ISHIGURO | Writer penning one roguish novel
I (=one) in *(ROGUISH); “novel” is anagram indicator; the reference is to Japanese-born British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro (1954-) |
| 21 | MAINLANDER | Major blow for Athenian resident as viewed by a Corfiot?
MAIN (=major, principal) + LANDER (=(heavy) blow) |
| 22 | RARE | The opposite of 28 // is seldom seen
Double definition: “rare” is the opposite of “overdone (=answer at 28)” AND seldom seen |
| 24 | HEN PARTY | Male member displayed in New Year do
HE (=male) + {PART (=member) in [N (=new) + Y (=year)]} |
| 26 | SCURVY | Old scourge of seamen, primarily with bends
S<eamen> (“primarily” means first letter only) + CURVY (=with bends); semi- & lit. |
| 27 | DRY RUN | Air show rehearsal
DRY (=(to) air, of wet clothes) + RUN (=(to) show e.g. a film at a cinema) |
| 28 | OVERDONE | Cooked too much ham once using even slices
OVERDO (=(to) ham, when acting) + <o>N<c>E (“using even slices” means even letters only are used) |
| Down | ||
| 02 | AZERI | Extremists’ rage upset Caucasian
A-Z (= “extremists”, i.e. in alphabet) + ERI (IRE=rage, anger; “upset” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 03 | WITHERSPOON | American actress ill-disposed to ownership
*(TO OWNERSHIP); “ill-disposed” is anagram indicator; the reference is to US actress Reese Witherspoon (1976-) |
| 04 | MANICURE | One about to get covered in dung? There’s grooming on hand
[I (=one) + C (=about, circa)] in MANURE (=dung); cryptically, a manicure offers grooming on (one’s) hand! |
| 05 | NOT TAKE KINDLY TO | React unfavourably towards a kinky lot getting involved with .net
*(KINKY LOT + DOT (=.) NET); “getting involved with” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | STOOGE | “I love tipples on vacation” reflected Patsy
EGO (=I) + O (=love, i.e. zero score) + T<ipple>S (“on vacation” means all internal letters are emptied out, i.e. dropped); “reflected” indicates reversal |
| 07 | RIB | Guy caught coming out of knocking-shop
<c>RIB (=knocking-shop, brothel); “caught (=C, on cricket scorecard) coming out of” means letter “c” is dropped; to guy is to rib, tease |
| 08 | POETASTER | Some of ‘The 23’, say, featured in McGonagall?
Cryptically, some of The Raven (=entry at 23)” could constitute an Edgar Allan Poe taster, referring to his 1845 poem! William McGonagall (1825-1902) was a poor Scottish poet, hence “poetaster” |
| 13 | GOING AROUND | Iron God shot with a gun in circulation
*(IRON GOD + A GUN); “shot with” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | ONCE A YEAR | Acting Chancellor agreed to go to Arabia regularly
ON (=acting, i.e. on stage) + CE (=Chancellor, i.e. Chancellor of the Exchequer) + AYE (=agreed) + AR (=Arabia) |
| 17 | PHARISEE | Hare pie’s dire? That’s humbug
*(HARE PIE’S); “dire” is anagram indicator; a pharisee is a humbug, a hypocrite |
| 20 | BARREN | Outspoken bigwig is unproductive
Homophone (“outspoken”) of “baron (=bigwig)” |
| 23 | RAVEN | Jet contravening safeguards
Hidden (“safeguards”) in “contRAVENing”; jet, raven both mean black in colour |
| 25 | PER | A //Scandinavian?
Double definition: PER means a, each, as in £5 a kilo AND is a common male forename in e.g. Sweden |
I agree with your analysis of 19&25d but I can’t justify a semi &lit in 26a RR
Like StephenL, I can’t see a role for ‘bends’ in SCURVY. A few tricky ones in here, both in the solutions and in the clues. I liked the RAVEN POETASTER combo and the remarkable anagram fodder for WITHERSPOON.
Thanks Wiglaf and RR
Very enjoyable but concur with RR in that it was definitely chewy.
I particularly liked LAYWOMEN, the reverse anagram CHANGE GEAR and MANICURE but could have mentioned several more.
Many thanks to Wiglaf and RR for a top puzzle and blog.
Thanks RatkojaRiku and Wiglaf.
Wow, my selection is the same as yours RR! And for the same reasons.
Sauciness, surface, dot and GK…
plus
TROUBLED (GK – TD for Irish MP)
ONCE A YEAR (nice charade)
PER (simplicity)
WITHERSPOON (cool anagram)
ISHIGURO (neat, &lit?)
More Wiglaf, please.
You could argue that the two medical problems that primarily affect seamen are SCURVY and the bends, but I think I prefer to see “old scourge” as the definition and seamen primarily with bends as the wordplay.
We ground to a halt with most of the right hand side filled and most of the left side blank. But with a bit of help we got going again and eventually finished, although SITE remained unparsed – nho Ms Ashford or her novella. SEXTON, AZERI and PHARISEE were among our favourites.
Thanks, Wiglaf and RR.
Thanks both. I commented yesterday about an almost unprecedented level of difficulty, but this (un)comfortably went off the scale – I resorted to research as much as solving. Unknowns included Daisy Ashford, McGonagall if not at Hogwarts, POETASTER, Corfiot, crib in that sense which I only knew as US slang for house…..I could go on – it didn’t feel like an entirely fair battle today but at least an anagram webpage offered WITHERSPOON albeit as two words, which saved a deeper search of the entire history of Hollywood
I certainly found this tricky, and was pleasantly surprised at my eventual success, having had no hope of parsing SITE.
I loved the wordplay for POETASTER, although it was a new term to me, as well as LAYWOMEN, AZERI, and WITHERSPOON.
Thanks RR, and wiglaf for the workout – sadly it doesn’t absolve me from heading to the gym now.
Well, not as hard as yesterday, but I still didn’t finish. However, I have read The Visiters and The Buried Giant by Ishiguro, not to mention several poems by McGonagall. The Tay Bridge Disaster is one of those poems that is so bad, it’s good.