The Tuesday slot is one that is occupied by a wide variety of setters, and this Tuesday we have the pleasure of welcoming a (to me at least) new setter to the Indy fold.
When faced with an unfamiliar pseudonym, especially on blogging day, I always experience a mixture of excitement and apprehension: will (s)he be one of the easier or harder ones? Will I be able to get onto his (her) wavelength? Will I get the puzzle solved in time to write the blog? A sensation akin to stage fright, I would say.
In this particular case, I had to work really hard to get a foothold in this puzzle. My first perusal of the clues revealed no more than 4, 8, 14, 17, 18 and an unparsed 27. I then sat staring at the grid for quite some time before making inroads into the NW quadrant and ultimately the NE. My last one in was 12, which I didn’t know as a term, although I had twigged that it was a club you needed to get you out of a bunker in golf! The magazine at 1A was also new to me, not being a title I have ever subscribed to, while I knew “cringeworthy”, rather than “cringe-making”, at 15.
Overall, I enjoyed the puzzle very much, not least its topicality (at 26) and all the various political references dotted around the clues in this election year. Personally speaking, I tend to prefer clues that rely more on knowledge of language than on general knowledge (6, 25, etc) and can thus be fully parsed with the help of e.g. Chambers, but I suppose this is a matter of taste. In any case, I hope that I have parsed today’s clues satisfactorily.
My favourites today are 12 and 18, both for smoothness of surface, and 5, for its sheer ingenuity (and the sentiments expressed therein).
I look forward to solving – and perhaps blogging – further puzzles by Knut, and to seeing how his (her) style develops after this impressive debut.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | NUDITY | Fresh air heard to feature in Health and Efficiency
Homophone (“heard”) of “new (=fresh) ditty” (=air); Health and Efficiency is a magazine aimed at naturists, hence nudity is a feature of it! |
| 04 | SPITEFUL | Mean and horrid, terribly up itself
*(UP ITSELF); “terribly” is anagram indicator |
| 09/11/23 | NO MORE BOOM AND BUST | 17’s promise to halve oompah band trombone playing when touring America
US (=America) in *(OOM<pah> BAND TROMBONE); “to halve” means half of letters only are needed in anagram, indicated by “playing”; the reference is to former Chancellor/PM Gordon Brown’s economic policy, “prudence (=entry at 17) for a purpose” |
| 10 | INSECURE | Anxious about city cover
EC (=city, i.e. East Central) in INSURE (=(to) cover) |
| 12 | SAND IRON | The club to go to when splashing out
Cryptic definition: a sand iron (or wedge) would be used by a golfer trying to “splash out” of a bunker |
| 13 | ALPACA | Tegucigalpa cantina stocking lean meat
Hidden (“stocking”) in “TegucigALPA CAntina” |
| 15 | CRINGE-MAKING | Mad Germanic ruler is an embarrassment
*(GERMANIC) + KING (=ruler); “mad” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | SPINE-CHILLER | German writer pens long horror story
PINE (=long, yearn) in SCHILLER (=German writer) |
| 21 | EMIGRE | One leaving before fighter comes in
MIG (=fighter, i.e. aircraft) in ERE (=before) |
| 22 | BUDGETED | Made provision for spring growth to annoy Miliband
BUD (=spring growth) + GET (=to annoy, as in That really gets me!) + ED (=Miliband, i.e. Labour leader) |
| 24 | VENOMOUS | Move us on around four?
*(MOVE US ON); “around” is anagram indicator; venomous is a synonym for spiteful (=entry at 4) |
| 25 | GIDEON | Doing ecstasy drunk, George Osborne name dropped
*(DOING + E (=ecstasy, i.e. drug)); “drunk” is anagram indicator; George Osborne was originally called Gideon Osborne, a name he dropped at the age of 13 |
| 26 | SPARSITY | Tsipras – an unknown quantity to fix economic woe
*(TSIPRAS + Y (=an unknown quantity, in algebra)); “to fix” is anagram indicator |
| 27 | AT ONCE | 1/100 right now
TON (=100) in ACE (=1), if the figure is read as “one out of hundred”
|
| Down | ||
| 01 | NONESUCH | Unparalleled refusal of Geneva, Switzerland to host English-Speaking Union
ESU (=English-Speaking Union) in [NON (=refusal of Geneva, i.e. the French for “no”) + CH (=Switzerland)] |
| 02 | DEMENTIA | Ms Moore kept in hospital department with a degenerative illness
[ENT (=hospital department, i.e. ear, nose and throat) in DEMI (=Ms Moore, i.e. the American actress)] + A |
| 03 | TURNING UP TRUMPS | Upon arrival, casino owner’s doing well at cards
TURNING UP (=arrival) + TRUMP’S (=casino owner, i.e. American Donald Trump) |
| 05 | PINT | Get the measure of Nigel Farage, through a glass, darkly
Cryptic definition, alluding to the fact that Nigel Farage likes to be seen as an ordinary bloke down the pub, pint in hand, and to the fact that it may be hard for us now to see the real him (“through a glass, darkly”, from Corinthians) |
| 06 | THE CLUNKING FIST | Feared in Whitehall, huge skinflint dealt with Cabinet extremists
*(HUGE SKINFLINT + C<abine>T); “extremists” means first and last letters only are needed for anagram, indicated by “dealt”; “big clunking fist” is a nickname for former British Chancellor/PM Gordon Brown |
| 07 | FRUGAL | Loud woman playing at Twickenham possibly on the tight side
F (=loud, i.e. forte from music) + RU GAL (=woman playing at Twickenham possibly, i.e. a Rugby Union girl) |
| 08 | LEEWAY | Spooner’s Carpets offer room to negotiate
Carpets would tell their customers “Lee way (carpets)!”, rather than “We lay (carpets)!” |
| 14 | SKI CLUB | Its membership going downhill rapidly
Cryptic definition, alluding to downhill skiing |
| 16 | SLATTERN | Dirty female nurse guzzles milky coffee
LATTE (=milky coffee) in SRN (=nurse, i.e. State Registered Nurse) |
| 17 | PRUDENCE | Coppers arrested Rudi, I escaped caution
RUD<i> (“I escaped” means letter “i” dropped) in PENCE (=coppers, i.e. coins) |
| 19 | PELVIS | The King is after Prince: true or false?
P (=prince) + ELVIS (=the King (of Rock ‘n’ Roll), i.e. Elvis Presley); anatomically speaking, there is both a true pelvis and a false pelvis |
| 20 | VIENNA | City life in Paris revolted girl
VIE (=life in Paris, i.e. the French for life) + NNA (ANN=girl; “revolted” indicates vertical reversal) |
I think your spellchecker has turned “American” in to “Australian” in your parsing of 2d.
Thanks to Knut for an entertaining workout (I struggled to work out the anagram at 6dn even with all the crossers) and to RR for an excellent blog.
You appear to have got over your stage fright, RR, because this was a fine blog, which I needed to understand everything.
Not heard of the magazine at 1ac? You weren’t going through puberty in the 1960s, then. Unlike you, I didn’t like PINT. But the theme, for a political animal like me, was a delight. PRUDENCE was Gordon’s favourite word (and he was a good Chancellor, but a crap PM).
Well done for parsing PELVIS (I never knew that). I’ll just add that SPARSITY at 26ac is cleverer than you’ve perhaps given it credit for. Mr Tsipras is the new Greek PM, who has decided that he doesn’t want to pay back the loans given to Greece by the Eurozone and others to help them get out of their self-inflicted debt crisis. And he wants reparations from Germany for WW2 offences. I don’t think so.
I’ll get off my soapbox now and thank the setter and blogger.
Thanks Ian SW3 – I’ve corrected the blog accordingly!
I don’t understand the PINT clue.
This is quite good though.
I really enjoyed this puzzle. Count me as another who struggled to see 6dn even with all the checkers and it was my LOI. Re: K’s D@2’s point about Brown’s time in the Treasury, I think future historians will be much less kind to him once the full cost to the nation of PFI is known.
I am in the fortunate position of having seen many of this setter’s offerings. Without exception they are clever, witty and topical.
This, too, I found top notch and an excellent debut (too many good clues to list) I look forward to many more.
Many thanks Knut and nicely blogged RatkojaRiku.
Excellent entertaining puzzle – hard to believe it’s the work of the novice.
Agree with the blog preamble comments and my solving experience was similar. An unfriendly grid but the long answers which ran through more than one segment eased that quite a bit.
I particularly like topical allusions – especially political. It’s important not to grind political axes but every working pollie should be good for a leg-pull – I think Nige and Boy George can well stand what they got here.
Minor quibble – 25a I think I would have liked “name dropped” to have been hyphenated thusly:name-dropped – for a better surface (that’s how it’s normally written) and a more cryptic definition.
Great stuff – wit, nifty wordplays and some nice layers of allusion – what more can you ask for.
Great blog too – many thanks both.
Oops – first line – “the novice” s/b “a novice”
Good, isn’t it? Bravo, star pupil Knut!
Lovely puzzle, and splendidly blogged. Well done, both. So many good clues but I thought FRUGAL was neatly constructed.
Maybe STRONG for that F would have been better?
Looking back, I have to say I have technical issues at 1a, 9,11,23a, 10a, 24a (should be 4); 25a, 26a, 2d, 6d, 17d, 19d & 20d.
Well, if Boatman approves, need I say more- except more Knuts for the Inky! I remember H&E well- along with Tit Bits, Spic and span and other tillating morsels as a growing lad. A fine Euro/UK puzzle.
Poor old Gordon ( we are all good guys, just think of the General),still getting in the neck from Andy B and others. He did have a boss you know, Teflon-coated obviously.
Anyway, the puzzle. I found it quite hard because I misread the word lengths in 9 Ac. Plus having Nige and Gideon too close always acts as a18Ac. Got there eventually, with some help from RR, for which much thanks.
Still don’t get 6D. I think there’s less to him than meets the eye.
Thanks to Knut.
So is this by Boatman? It reminds me of his odd style.
Hoggy – Nay, not me: one of my masterclass graduates. The style and talent are all Knut’s own, though it’s interesting that you should detect parallels …
A school for compilers?
😀
£9000 per year?
😀
Hoggy – If only! But my one-day classes are remarkably reasonable, here … http://www.boatmancryptics.co.uk/index_files/CrosswordMasterclasses.html
An impressive debut – must admit that “THE CLUNKING FIST” was new to me and last in, but it dropped out from the fodder quite easily. Liked CRINGE-MAKING, SPINE-CHILLER, NUDITY and GIDEON.
Thanks to RR and Knut
Welcome to the dark side knut, not overly impressed by the CDs but they’re not easy to do. Corking debut. Thanks RR. Found the theme a bit too obvious tbh early on which spoilt it a tad, maybe tone it down but as a first professional job: Not bad at all. Bring on the next.
Happy with any puzzle which has a go at Gordon Brown (Pensioners’ Credit = let’s encourage all pensioners to spend, hide or give away their savings so that they can get a top-up from the state).
Lots of excellent clues and a good theme. Not too sure about the Farage clue, which seemed a little too strange, but that was minor blemish.
Well, I finished it, unlike yesterday, but it was tough going in the top right corner, not helped by not knowing 6dn, and even when I worked out the answer to the anagram, I didn’t believe it was right. And I didn’t even know you could eat the alpaca. Needed explanations for lots of the parsings, so thanks for that.
Came to this one a bit late, but would like to add my praise to that given. I found this pretty tough and was not familiar with all the references but managed to work them out from the wordplay. Favourite clue FRUGAL and also esp liked PINT though I certainly needed the crossing letters to see it. Many thanks also to the blogger who explained a few references that were new to me.