Independent 8,797 by Hieroglyph

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All the time that I was doing this the answers seemed to be clear enough, all of a piece with 9ac, and I was telling myself that the meaning of CA would eventually appear. But it wasn’t until quite long after finishing that I realised that CA was 100 Acres, 100 Acre Wood, the place where Pooh and his friends live. I’m not an expert on W-the-P, having unfortunately missed out on it in my childhood, but over the years all the names have become familiar — except for 6dn.

I’ve only just realised (after writing a long paragraph saying that I couldn’t understand ‘would say’) that ‘CA would, say’ is a homophone of ‘CA wood’. Why 6dn has commas but the others don’t is a mystery, though.

But I still can’t see the connection with today. It doesn’t seem to be any significant Pooh anniversary. Is it a non-Christmas crossword? Or, which is far more likely, am I missing something?

A nice crossword from Hieroglyph. Perhaps there are rather a lot of letters indicated by the first or last letters of words, but then perhaps that is the devilish intention.

Definitions underlined.

Across

4 Inhabitant of CA would say Private Investigator originally got permit (6)
PIGLET
PI g{ot} let
6 Excitable kitten beginning to rile hobbyist (7)
KNITTER
(kitten)* r{ile}
9 Creator of CA would say befuddled animal tale’s ending (1,1,5)
A A MILNE
(animal)* {tal}e
10 New European government the French court have to ignore (7)
NEGLECT
N E g le ct
11 One-time carnivore‘s tense when returning game whilst on North American railway (11)
TYRANNOSAUR
t (RU as on NA ry)rev.
12 Inhabitant of CA would say that hurts loads at first (3)
OWL
“ow!” l{oads}
13 Inhabitant of CA would say, bizarrely, he went in around 1 – 16? Not half! (6-3-4)
WINNIE-THE-POOH
((he went in)* around i) pooh-{pooh} — the anagram indicator is ‘bizarrely’ and the inclusion indicator is ‘around’ — 16dn is POOH-POOH
18 Inhabitant of CA would say king’s withdrawn from castle (3)
ROO
roo{k} as in chess, although chess players (but not the dictionaries) would resent a rook’s being called a castle
19,20 Visitor to CA would say obscenely rich woman’s run over writer reversing outside bar (11,5)
CHRISTOPHER ROBIN
((rich)* her r o (nib)rev.) round stop
22 Perhaps a young 13, having polished off the ultimate in barbecue sauce (4,3)
BEAR CUB
(barbecu{e})* — 13 is the bear Winnie-the-Pooh
23 Old skillet, say, finally burned the last of sausages and mushrooms (7)
EXPANDS
ex-pan {burne}d {sausage}s
24 Spanish, Portuguese and English comprehended by one very naughty boy in film (7)
IBERIAN
(1 Brian) round E — the reference is to the Monty Python film ‘Life of Brian’, where Brian is called ‘a very naughty boy’
25 Provide a duplicate of piece about Paraguay (4,2)
COPY IN
co(Py)in

Down

1 Possibly covers Miliband policy in British newspaper’s leader (3,5)
BED LINEN
B (Ed line) n{ewspaper’s}
2 Inhabitant of CA would say start right away (6)
TIGGER
t{r}igger
3 Dry a lecturer’s Rottweiler (6)
BRUTAL
brut a l — Rottweiler as an adjective
4 Labour leader visiting underwear factories (6)
PLANTS
p(L{abour})ants
5 Individual who plays ragtime composition, having dropped a note (5)
GAMER
(rag{ti}me)*
6 Inhabitant of CA would, say, take part in Balkan Games (5)
KANGA
Hidden in BalKAN GAmes
7 Painter to draw explorer (7)
TIEPOLO
tie Polo
8 Inhabitant of CA would say extremely eligible old solver pockets gold (6)
EEYORE
e{ligibl}e y(or)e — the solver is ‘you’, which in old form is ‘ye’
14 Set apart, Hieroglyph dined, having caught the sun (7)
ISOLATE
I (sol) ate — Hieroglyph = I
15 Drive forward chicken crossing a road (6)
HASTEN
h(a st)en — I couldn’t see how ‘harden’ meant ‘drive forward’
16 Rings up to dismiss with contempt (4-4)
POOH-POOH
(hoop)rev. twice because it’s rings not ring
17 Nick Cage can stir porridge inside big house in the States (6)
PRISON
Quite a tour de force, this: it’s seven definitions: Nick = prison, Cage = prison, can = prison, stir = prison, porridge = prison, inside = prison, big house = prison (big house is an American term for prison)
18 Inhabitant of CA would say teacher’s on time (6)
RABBIT
rabbi t
19 Recurring element of conspiracy cliché (6)
CYCLIC
Hidden in conspiraCY CLIChé
21 13’s obsession initially held up northern city (5)
HUNNY
h{eld} u{p} N NY — Winnie-the-Pooh had an obsession with honey, which he spelled ‘hunny’
*anagram

7 comments on “Independent 8,797 by Hieroglyph”

  1. Loved the seven definitions in one clue. As a long time Pooh fan, I’d like to know how many other people wanted to put ‘Wol’ for 12a or was it just me?

    Thanks to both Hieroglyph and John.

    Season’s greetings to all.

  2. Thanks John and Hieroglyph.
    Best wishes to all.
    This from Wikipedia:-
    Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name on 24 December 1925, in a Christmas story commissioned and published by the London newspaper The Evening News. It was illustrated by J. H. Dowd.

  3. A lovely puzzle. I found most of this easier than the cryptic generally is, with more than half of the answers being write-ins, even for me! I had assumed this was an early Christmas gift from Hieroglyph but then there were the remaining clues which took a little working out. Loved 24A as a Python reference, and agree that all you can do with 17D is sit back in admiration and applaud.

    Not many puzzles leave me grinning like a fool but this one did, so many thanks to the setter and to the blogger too for a splendid job today.

    Happy Christmas, all. We have the (Northern European) in-laws with us so Christmas dinner is tonight and so are the presents!

  4. Thanks, John, especially for fully explaining the CA bit – I got Hundred Aker Wood, but couldn’t quite understand how it all went together. Good, fun, puzzle, but the problem with ones like this is that if you are a Pooh aficionado like me and CS, then all the themed clues are write-ins. No matter.

    And yes, WOL went in first for me too.

    Well done Prantles for explaining the reason that Dac was demoted from his usual Wednesday spot.

    Nadolig Llawen to all setters and bloggers.

  5. I can only say, “Hear, hear”, to all the above comments. I really loved this puzzle, with 17D being truly inspired.

    Thanks John especially for decrypting CA – I couldn’t see that at all.

    Thank you, Hieroglyph, for my silly smile which matched PJ’s @3

  6. Thanks HG and John, easy stuff once piglet feel and HA would became obvious. But good fun, thanks for the Christmas eve WTP link.

  7. If anyone’s reading this by now, which I doubt (as Eeyore might have said, gloomily), having saved this puzzle till after Christmas, I’ll add my thanks to Heiroglyph for some great entertainment. Yes, I too thought of ‘Wol’ for 12ac. And whilst double definitions are not uncommon and triple definitions encountered occasionally the sevenfold definition at 17dn must surely be a first in crossword history – and such a great surface too!

    And thanks, John, for the blog.

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