So far as I can see Maize has appeared twice before. You wouldn’t know that he was fairly new, though, since this is a quite outstanding puzzle. On the hard side but more often than not once the answer became clear I was inwardly congratulating Maize rather than grumbling. There are some marvellous clues and I hope we see plenty more of this setter.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
The theme, as will bring joy to many solvers, is football teams and their nicknames. They appear all over the place, often no doubt without my registering them. I won’t attempt to point them out: it will be an enjoyable activity for some. As Beryl Reid used to say in some radio sitcom of my childhood, “Lovely, if you like that sort of thing”.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BEAUTIFUL | Really pretty futile, but not quite a disaster (9) |
| (futile bu{t} a)* — the anagram indicated by ‘disaster’, a noun; some don’t approve of this, but it’s fine with me and increasingly, I hope, with solvers generally | ||
| 6 | GAME | Willing to empty garbage outside before noon (4) |
| g(a.m.)e, the ge being g{arbag}e | ||
| 8 | BLACK CAT | Ominous sign of cricketer about to miss century (5,3) |
| b(lack c)at | ||
| 9 | ROBINS | Garden birds beginning to repopulate old ditches (6) |
| r{epopulate} o bins | ||
| 10 | MAGPIE | Power for Thatcher’s second government? It’ll mean sorrow for some (6) |
| Maggie with its second g{overnment} replaced by p — ref the magpie nursery rhyme | ||
| 11 | SEASIDER | Puff the magic dragon, say, resides with a surrealist (8) |
| (resides a)*, the anagram indicated by ‘surrealist’, new to me but rather good — Puff the magic dragon lives by the sea | ||
| 12 | HOOP | Magic target: to split housework (4) |
| If you split housework you get house work, or ho op — the definition refers to Magic Johnson the basketball player, whose target is a hoop | ||
| 14 | SWANS | Was changing partners in order to get partners for life? (5) |
| (Was)* NS [partners in bridge] — swans are said to have the same partners for life | ||
| 15 | SPUR | Driver‘s wrong to ignore debts (4) |
| Spur(ious) | ||
| 16 | STAG | Lay on predominantly male party (4) |
| stag{e} | ||
| 18 | EAGLE | Darwin’s ship loses prow, the result of almost hitting an albatross? (5) |
| {B}eagle — in golf an albatross is 3 under par while an eagle is merely 2 under | ||
| 20 | DONS | Puts on half loved tubular scarf back to front (4) |
| (sno{o}d)rev. — half loved in that there is only one o rather than two | ||
| 21 | TERRIERS | Judges locking up Queen’s best friends? (8) |
| t(ER)riers — the dogs, man’s best friends | ||
| 22 | TOFFEE | Sweet beverage initially taken for cold (6) |
| coffee with t{aken} instead of c | ||
| 24 | POTTER | Expert at tables and he’s a natural speller (6) |
| 2 defs, referring to snooker and to Harry Potter | ||
| 25 | COTTAGER | Get actor performing as rural labourer perhaps (8) |
| (Get actor)* | ||
| 26 | BEES | Building society engaging phone company workers (4) |
| B(EE)S — BS is Building Society, or is it bs, and the phone company EE | ||
| 27 | WEDNESDAY | Midweek match time sees Ding become ‘born leader of snooker’ (9) |
| wedding [= match] day [= time] with ding replaced by né s{nooker} ref Ding Junhui, the Chinese snooker player | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BALSA | Wood put up by way of workshop (5) |
| (as lab)rev. — as = by way of, something that may well fit a pair of sentences but I can’t think how | ||
| 2 | ALCOPOP | Coppola’s apocalyptic concoction (7) |
| (Coppola)*, ref Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now | ||
| 3 | TICKETS | Put mark on spaceship driver’s travel permits (7) |
| tick ET’s | ||
| 4 | FAT | Overindulgent pasta chef ends up so? (3) |
| ({Overindulgen}t (past}a {che}f)rev. — a sort of &lit. | ||
| 5 | LARIATS | Short boy climbing steps and ropes (7) |
| la{d} (stair)rev. | ||
| 6 | GOBLINS | Nearly lose one’s sight encountering first of Sauron’s Orcs (7) |
| Go blin{d} S{auron} | ||
| 7 | MANNEQUIN | Noise of crazy pub still poses challenge (9) |
| “manic inn” — referring to 2016’s ‘Mannequin Challenge‘, where people struck poses standing still — reading all this on Wikipedia makes me feel increasingly old and out of touch | ||
| 11 | SEA EGGS | Picture including a horse with earliest of street urchins (3,4) |
| se(a)e GG s{treet} — a term new to me | ||
| 13 | ON THE DOLE | Claiming to be single, he told fanciful lies inside (2,3,4) |
| one round (he told)* the word ‘lies’ is simply saying that (thedol) lies inside one | ||
| 17 | GYRATES | Granny on vacation charges for twerks? (7) |
| G{rann}y rates | ||
| 18 | EYEBROW | Outspoken cockney intellectual, one raised to show scepticism (7) |
| “‘ighbrow” — one raises an eyebrow to show scepticism | ||
| 19 | ENTITLE | Part of parliament – it legislates to grant authority (7) |
| Hidden in parliamENT IT LEgislates | ||
| 20 | DEFRAUD | Government department used banks for swindle (7) |
| DEFRA u{se}d — Department for Environmant, Food and Rural Affairs — some might say that it should be used’s banks | ||
| 23 | ENEMY | Pennies oddly lacking – the writer’s nemesis (5) |
| {P}e{n}n{i}e{s} my | ||
| 25 | COD | Payment terms for school members (3) |
| 2 defs, one of them referring to cash on delivery, so arguably I’m wrong and the first one is the wordplay, since it is given as ‘(3)’ | ||
*anagram
I agree with every word of your preamble John. Another wonderful puzzle from Maize
What he said! This was great. Took me a while to cotton on to the theme, but it made the puzzle all the better once I had. Some great things on show too. Don’t think I’ve ever seen ‘on vacation’ as a middle deletion indictator before, but I liked that a lot. 24A is also lovely. Thanks to Maize and John
In case no one else points this out, all the other across clues are names or nicknames of sides playing the 1-2.
This was I think my fave puzzle of the year so far.
Too many great clues and novelties to list, but More Maize Please.
Correction: ‘playing the 1,6’. Duh. My only disappointment was the lack of a throstle among all those other birds.
A very challenging solve, but so satisfying. Failed to clock the theme though spotted a few birds. Agree wholeheartedly with the appreciation of Maize as a setter……a very welcome addition.As for the clues, they are all favourites.
Thanks to John and Maize.
A variation on your quote, John;
“For people who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like”. (Muriel Spark, ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’)
Yes, excellent stuff though a real challenge and took ages to get clues such as SEA EGGS which I’d never even remotely heard of. Great to have a theme as well, with 1a and 6a as a lead, even if I couldn’t identify all the teams. Favourite, hardest and last in was SEASIDER. Frolicking in the autumn mist? There’s a thought.
Thanks Maize and John.
Lovely stuff from Maize. In contrast to some, I found the great majority of this straightforward – helped by remembering the theme format from last time out – however, the puzzle did toughen up in the last third and finally beat me by 11d, 11a and 7d. Lots of nice stuff here, but my clue honours go to the definitions of 11a and 7d which proved too good for me, and to the theming. Thanks to Maize for a great puzzle and to John for the enlightenment.
Thanks Maize and John
I found this an excellent puzzle: the theme completely evaded me as I have no interest at all in football, so plaudits to Maize for making that knowledge completely irrelevant to the solve. Mark of a good puzzle and setter.
To vary Simon@8 very slightly, an excellent puzzle: the theme completely evaded me as I have no great interest in football, so plaudits to Maize for making that knowledge completely irrelevant to the solve. Mark of a good puzzle and setter. Now, snooker’s another matter so I liked 24 and 27.
Thanks, Maize and John.
Brilliant puzzle – challenging and very satisfying.
Congratulations Maize,
Another superb puzzle. Beautiful game indeed. Loved everything, but especially BEAUTIFUL, TOFFEE, FAT, GOBLINS, GYRATES, EYEBROWS, ENEMY.
I missed 12a and I didn’t know snood, but got the rest. I’ve probably missed some of the theme.
Amaizing stuff as always
Thanks and keep at it – and thank you John for enlightenment
Way beyond my pay grade today – only managed about half of it. Maybe because I only started it an hour or so ago and my crossword brain goes into stall mode after noon. Glad others have enjoyed it, and pleased to see that the BLACK CATS were further up the table than the MAGPIES.
Poor John – a football puzzle to blog, but thank you anyway.
Many thanks to John and to all commenters.
Pelé is the person most strongly associated with the phrase ‘BEAUTIFUL GAME’, in good measure because of his autobiography My Life and the Beautiful Game.
In case anyone was wondering, these are the teams I had in mind for the nicknames in the across lights:
BLACK CATS – Sunderland FC (of the Premier League)
ROBINS – Bristol City FC (Championship)
MAGPIES – Newcastle United FC (Championship)
SEASIDERS – Blackpool FC (League Two)
HOOPS – QPR FC (Championship)
SWANS – Swansea City FC (Premier League)
SPURS – Tottenham Hotspur FC (Premier League)
STAGS – Mansfield Town FC (League Two)
EAGLES – Crystal Palace FC (Premier League)
DONS – Milton Keynes Dons FC (League One)
TERRIERS – Huddersfield Town FC (Championship)
TOFFEES – Everton FC (Premier League)
POTTERS – Stoke City FC (Premier League)
COTTAGERS – Fulham FC (Championship)
BEES – Brentford FC (Championship)
WEDNESDAY – Sheffield Wednesday FC (Championship)
Thought this was brilliant!
Many thanks to Maize and John.
An amazing grid fill – but then, you are rather good at that sort of thing
A lovely puzzle from Maize. I thought I was in trouble when my first in was 18ac, but I gradually worked my way up from the SE corner to finish pretty quickly. It was only when I got 1ac that I spotted the theme, promptly filled in 6ac, and filled in some others dotted round the grid that had eluded me until that moment. Football’s pretty much a foreign language to me, but thankfully I’d picked up enough over the years to get those last few. 🙂 More from Maize please.
We found this tough – had we noticed the theme it may have helped. Actually, probably not as neither of us are keen on the beautiful game!
Having said that, very impressive and worth the effort.
Thanks to Maize and John.
I am a bit (very) late to the party but I would like to echo(ooo) all the positive comments made above.
That said, I couldn’t finish the puzzle but often that means it was a goody.
Unfortunately, I did not notice the nicknames – if I had it might have helped me to completely fill the grid.
But hey!
This was sheer excellence.
Not so very long ago I said at this place that the real stand-outs among ‘new’ Indy setters, for various reasons and in any order, were Knut, Hoskins and Serpent.
Maize should be added to that list (as should be Anglio).
I hasten to say that the vast majority of others are good value too.
It may sound arrogant but like Genesis once, ‘I know what I like (and I like what I know)’.
Chapeau, Maize!
And many thanks to John too.
Even later to the party and SvdH has pretty much said it for me. I came here without 12a and 26a done – it seems a poor show when I can’t get 4 letter clues with 2 crossers in! Maybe it’s just too late. I didn’t get the parsing for 7d and missed the brilliant theme completely until I got here – but it was blindingly obvious once pointed out. Even my limited football knowledge could have helped me. High five to Maize and John – thank you.
And another thing. I did this crossword because of John’s introduction. I sometimes read them before tackling a crossword and went for the Indy as the intro to the FT said “very straightforward from Dante”. I really appreciate the bloggers starting with a comment which doesn’t give the game away but does give some sense of what sort of experience is in store. Thank you John.
Another, very late, thumbs-up for this excellent puzzle, which I only got around to last night. Some really imaginative cluing. More please!
What a super puzzle, Maize! I really enjoyed it although the theme completely evaded me. Alas, I am not into football at all. There was just one clue that had me stumped — 8a. My appreciation to John for the enlightenment of both it and of the theme.
Many thanks to Maize and John.