Independent 11719 / Wiglaf

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A puzzle by Wiglaf today, a setter I find quite challenging.

 

 

 

Thursday sometimes has a theme and this is the case today.  We had Suzi Quatro as a theme on Tuesday  Today there is another rock music theme with NINE INCH NAILS taking centre stage.  I must admit to having no knowledge about this group before attempting to solve this puzzle.  However, by one of those coincidental quirks, one of the guest panellists on last Friday’s Have I Got News For You was introduced as a fan of NINE INCH NAILS.  Independent bloggers get access to the crosswords up to a week in advance, so I had solved this puzzle by lunchtime last Friday, so the reference in the programme meant something to me.  Twice in one day I came across a mention of a group I had never heard of before.

Other than the name of the band, there doesn’t seem to be much thematic material in the grid.  There is REZNOR, the lead singer and driving force behind the band plus, I think, names of three of the band’s tracks – PIGGY, HURT and CLOSER.  Fans of the group may see more in the grid than me.  I wondered if SAN BERNARDINO would be relevant, but I found that the band was formed in Cleveland.

There were a few cross references between grid entries.  I liked the linking of 20, HUNDREDWEIGHT and TON.

Literature is not my strong point so I needed a bit of research to understand the Eloi allusion in the clue to 27 across, but after the research, the entry was clear.

For those who prefer a different type of music to that provided by NINE INCH NAILS we had the classical composers Leo DELIBES and Samuel BARBER in the wordplay and grid.

For me, the wordplay was more useful than the definitions today, particularly in relation to DELIBERATIONS, ACADIA and GLUTAEUS (I had to check the spelling before entry) and NONAGE (I thought this would be something to do with the age ninety before I checked the dictionary).

No Detail
Across  
7/8/9 Square creep catches group of 19 (4,4,5) 

NINE INCH NAILS (American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent REZNOR [entry at 19 across] was the only permanent member of the band until his frequent collaborator, Atticus Ross, joined in 2016)

NINE (9 = 3 squared; square) + INCH (move by slow degrees; creep) + NAILS (catches)

NINE INCH NAILS
11 British unit did get 26 endlessly when at sea (13) 

HUNDREDWEIGHT (in Britain, a unit of weight equal to one twentieth of a ton.  A HUNDREDWEIGHT refers to a different weight in the USA)

Anagram of (at sea) DID GET and HURT (entry at 26 across) excluding the final letter (endlessly) T and WHEN

HUNDREDWEIGHT*
12 Naughty pair I let in zoology class (8) 

REPTILIA (zoological class of cold-blooded scaly vertebrates that breathe through lungs and typically lay eggs on land)

Anagram of (naughty) PAIR I LET

REPTILIA*
14 After drinks journalist tripped (6) 

LAPSED (tripped)

LAPS (drinks) + ED (EDitor; journalist)

LAPS ED
15 French composer takes part in formal discussions (13) 

DELIBERATIONS (formal discussions and debate) [Collins dictionary included the word ‘formal’ in the definition])

DELIBES (reference Léo DELIBES [1836 – 1891], French composer) containing (takes) RATION (part)

DELIBE (RATION) S
19 Ezra Norton loses 20 11 on River Trent? (6) 

REZNOR (reference Trent REZNOR [born 1965], American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, composer and lead vocalist of NINE INCH NAILS [entry at 7/8/9 across])

R (river) + EZ (Ezra) + NORTON excluding (loses) TON [20 HUNDREDWEIGHT {entry at 11 across}])

R EZ NOR
21 German chancellor presents small business model in speech (8) 

BISMARCK (reference Otto von BISMARCK [1815 – 1898], first Chancellor of a unified Germany from 1871 – 1890)

BISMARCK (sounds like [in speech] BIZ (abbreviation {small} for business) MARK or MARQUE [model])

BIS MARCK
24 Barons unhappy with a dinner in US city (3,10) 

SAN BERNARDINO (city in California; US city)

Anagram of (unhappy) BARONS and (with) A DINNER

SAN BERNARDINO*
25 Greedy sort of bank in Paraguay hacked by current German government (5) 

PIGGY (a PIGGY bank is a money box; type of bank)

PIGGY [greedy) another definition

PY (International Vehicle Registration for Paraguay) containing (hacked by) (I [electric current] + G (German] + G [government])  so wordplay and two definitions

P (I G G) Y
26 Actor once a day gets tense in the back (4) 

HURT (reference Sir John HURT [1940 – 2017], English actor)

THUR (Thursday, a day of the week, with the T (tense) moved to the end [in the back] to form HURT)

HURT
27 One of the Eloi after losing heart comes back again (4) 

ANEW (again)

WEENA (the only named member of the Eloi [the leisure class]  in HG Wells novel, The Time Machine) excluding the central letter (losing heart) E and then reversed (comes back)

ANEW<
Down  
1 Concoction full of Argentinian fruit (6) 

LICHEE (Chinese fruit, a nut or berry with a fleshy aril)

LIE (concoction) containing (filled with) CHE (reference CHE Guevara [1928 – 1967], Argentinian Marxist revolutionary)

LI (CHE) E
2 Anne plays with a lot of babies (8) 

NEONATAL (relating to the newly born; of babies)

Anagram of (plays) ANNE and [with] A LOT

NEONATAL*
3 Irish republican breaking law over in Merseyside location (6) 

WIRRAL (The WIRRAL Peninsula, is located in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about 15 miles long and 7 miles wide, and is bounded by the Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east, and Liverpool Bay to the north)

(IR [Irish] + R [Republican]) contained in (breaking) LAW reversed (over)

W (IR R) AL<
4 Anita oddly cuddles rotter in Canadian region (6) 

ACADIA (former name for part of Eastern Canada including Nova Scotia and New Brunswick)

AIA (letters 1, 3 and 5 [oddly] of ANITA) containing (cuddles) CAD (rotter)

A (CAD) IA
5 End the call for inhibition (4-2) 

HANG-UP (end the phone call)

HANG-UP (an inhibition)  double definition

HANG-UP
6 American with ale gut developed fundamental muscle? (8) 

GLUTAEUS (any of three muscles of the buttock and hip [‘fundamental’ part of the body], the outermost of which is the gluteus maximus)

Anagram of (developed) US (American) and ALE GUT

GLUTAEUS*
10 Drink for the French lieutenant bottles of Irish wine (6) 

MERLOT (a light bodied red wine produced from a grape of the same name)

MER (French word for sea; in English, drink is an informal term for the sea) + (LT [Lieutenant] containing [bottles] O‘ [Gaelic or Irish abbreviation for ‘descendant of son of’])

MER L (O) T 
13 Cover up topless swimmer (3) 

IDE (a fish of the same family as the carp)

HIDE (cover up) excluding the first letter (topless) H

IDE
15 Delivered baby’s family needs material for garments (8) 

DEERSKIN (material used for garments)

DEER’S KIN (sounds like [delivered] DEAR’S [baby’s] KIN {family])

DEERS KIN
16 He composed Sweeney Todd? (6) 

BARBER (reference Samuel BARBER [1910 – 1981], American composer, probably best known for Adagio for Strings)

BARBER (Sweeney Todd was a men’s hairdresser, BARBER)  double definition

BARBER
17 One flighty brute, not sick of Proust (3) 

ANI (tropical American bird, a black cuckoo; one flighty)

ANIMAL (brute) excluding (not) MAL (MALadie, French [Proust] word for ‘sickness’)

ANI
18 Instruments needed for getting into car in Asia (8) 

OCARINAS (fluty-toned wind instruments)

OCARINAS (hidden word in [needed for] INTO CAR IN ASIA)

OCARINAS
20 The years of immaturity, say, soon will be over (6) 

NONAGE (legal infancy, minority; a time of immaturity generally)

(EG [for example) + ANON [soon]) all reversed (will be over)

(NONA GE)<
21 Intensely study book to get ahead of others (4,2) 

BONE UP (to study intensively or collect information about a subject)

B (book) + ONE UP (advantage or lead one others)

B ONE UP
22 Beds used by active working girls when retiring (6) 

STRATA (layers; beds)

(A [active] + TARTS [prostitutes; working girls]) all reversed (when retiring)

(STRAT A)<
23 Not so far from Cork? (6) 

CLOSER (nearer; not so far from)

A cork is a stopper or CLOSER for a bottle   double definition

CLOSER

16 comments on “Independent 11719 / Wiglaf”

  1. Beaten by nho REZNOR – I do not know the band and had no idea Ezra was abbreviated to Ez – and needed the dictionary for nho ANI and the unfamiliar spellings of GLUTAEUS and LICHEE. I certainly could not recall the name of the Eloi (full marks to Wells for his original thinking with that one!) and I did not spot the trick in HURT (duncan, I think ‘once’ is part of the definition, there) Everything else made sense but it was not the easiest of rides. Faves inc NONAGE, CLOSER, DEERSKIN and MERLOT.

    Thanks Wiglaf and duncan

  2. Loved REZNOR, MERLOT, HURT and BONE UP.

    Thanks Wiglaf and duncan!
    CLOSER: Is the ‘from’ required to be included in the def?
    BONE UP (ahead of others=ONE UP. Do we also use ONE UP as a noun?)

  3. Never liked NINs but liked Reznor’s soundtrack to dragon tattoo although the original Swedish film was the better
    Familiar with Proust but it might as well been Macron or Nancy
    Not familiar with ANI
    And CLOSER s a Joy Division album
    So I found the puzzle a stotinka short of a lev
    Thanks Duncan

  4. Thanks both. Also beaten by ANI which in my view could only be reverse-engineered, so would require one to have heard of the answer, as well as REZNOR – is EZ just a shortening or an official abbreviation? and ANEW by which time I’d lost a sense of direction but also lacked the general(?) knowledge required. I correctly entered DEERSKIN but I still don’t fully understand the parsing – are dear and baby synonyms as terms of endearment, and what does the word ‘needs’ achieve? Thankfully I did know the band, and the song Hurt – there is an interesting cover version by Johnny Cash.

  5. Loi 19a REZNOR
    1. Start with someone you’ve never heard of “Ezra Norton” – Australian newspaper baron – (But you didn’t need to know that, so Googling was no help at all.)
    2. Call him by his diminutive name Ez. The only Ezra you’ve ever heard of is Pound
    (You’re too old to have heard of George Ezra, and he’s been going 10+ years already).
    [Did Pound’s friends call him Ez? Yes, Joseph Fetler Malof wrote, “Ez Pound, inc.”, in “Ezra Pound perspectives : essays in honor of his eightieth birthday”]
    3. Subtract the TON (assuming you’re old enough to have had UK Imperial units drummed into you in childhood – 16oz=1lb, 14lb=1st, 8st=1cwt, 20cwt=1t.
    4. ‘lift and separate’ “River Trent” to get an “R” and the first name of someone you’ve never heard of. The answer is his surname.You’ve never heard of that either.
    [I’d solved 7/8/9a quite early on, having vaguely heard of the band name, so by this time I’d forgotten the “group of 19”, adding an extra degree of it difficulty.]
    Simple, eh?

  6. PostMark @1. I took the definition in 26a to be ‘Actor once’ (since he sadly died) but you can read the clue as saying you get HURT once the T in THUR is moved to the end, so Duncan’s parsing works also, I reckon.
    I felt REZNOR was too niche for inclusion in a crossword but, if I’d bothered to google NINE INCH NAILS I would have found several aids in solving. The clue for ANEW was beyond me also.

  7. Postmark @ 1
    Hovis@ 6

    Yes, I think ‘once’ is likely to be part of the definition, given that Sir John is no longer with us.

    KVa @ 2

    I think the definition works with or without ‘from’

    TFO @ 3
    FrankieG @ 5

    Ez is in both Chambers and Collins as an abbeviation for the Book of Ezra in the Old Testament.
    I didn’t consider Ezra Norton as a real person, as I reckoned the name was simply there for the word play, but it’s interesting to know there was a real Ezra Norton.
    I’m old enough to know that 20 Hundredweight equals 1 Ton, but I agree that my children and grandchildren might not know.
    As a blogger, I frequently have to do some research to write a blog. Today I had to look up Nine Inch Nails, so Reznor Trent came up fairly quickly. I also checked on Bismarck’s time as Chancellor, the Eloi and the history of Acadia. I always enjoy learning new information from crosswords.

  8. Following on from my comment at 7, there is an interesting editorial in the latest edition of the Magpie crossword magazine written by Mark Goodliffe (multiple winner of the Times Crossword Championship) where he sets out his view os ‘obscure’ knowledge required to solve some crossword clues in many publications.

  9. Never quite as enjoyable when Google is glowing n warm to the touch… difficult to imagine solving this without Mr G or insider knowledge .. I happily substracted TON from 17ac once I’d actually solved 11ac, but that didn’t help, also I can report there are no towns ending -NOR on the River Trent, which I kind of knew, but desperation had set in by then..
    Thanks Wiglaf
    n excellent job from duncansheill..

  10. Yes, another one feeling unhappy in desperate Googling. ANI, REZNOR, ACADIA…
    However I was momentarily cheered by seeing my favourite grape.

    Thanks for putting me out of my misery, duncanshiell

  11. Like Suzi Quatro the other day, I’d heard of the band but knew nothing about them. Several I couldn’t get.

  12. Thanks duncanshiell@7 – “Ez.” from the OT – Of course! – I didn’t thnk of that – D’oh! – ‘I always enjoy learning new information from crosswords’, too.
    Didn’t realise the significance of Johnny Cash’s Hurt – Thanks TFO@4 – Great song…

  16. More than a week late, but thanks to the setter for daring to set clues based on one of my favourite bands, despite it being rather obscure for the mainstream punters/solvers.

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