Independent 7615 by Glow-Worm

by

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism

After last week’s digression into the world of music, the Indy was back on more familiar territory this week with – you’ve guessed it – football. The answer manumission parsed as Man-U mission came up in a Morph puzzle (7545) some time ago and Glow-Worm has taken it up to a new level by using it as a way of getting the names of a host of Manchester United players and managers (past and present) into the grid. They were all clued as on being “one on Man U mission”. Most of the names were fairly well known, even to non-football fans like me, so the subject matter wasn’t too much of a drawback. Noel Cantwell was the only one who was completely new to me. There was a good mix of lively and interesting clues, some of which took quite a lot of working out.
 

Across
1 Manumission: The theme clue. &lit – (us minions ma[y])*.
9 Waste bin: Bets< in wain.
10 Rooney: Roy (as in Roy of the Rovers) around one (the goalkeeper’s team number).
11 Ova: Leading letters of “on valiant athletes”.
12 Stun: Nuts<.
13 Law: Hom of “lore” – I think this one is Denis Law.
14 Lean-to: Toena[i]l*. I think that was probably my favourite clue, with a nice deceptive use of shed.
15 Heroic: Her (=girl’s) + [st]oic[ism] (stoicism losing holy man=st, is and first letter of monastery=m). Def is “brave”.
16 Sixpence: X pen in [A]si[a] + CE.
18 Globally: [Go]ogly* around (smothering) ball. Another excellent clue.
20 Earwax: Ear + wax.
22 Gauche: I think this is a hom of “go sh”.
24 Keg: [Cas]k + e.g.
25 Nile: I think this is hidden in “penniless”, although it’s not the most clear-cut containment indicator I’ve ever seen.
26 Rio: Odd letters of Rhinos – a reference to Rio Ferdinand.
27 Siphon: Si(mon) + phon[e].
28 Disallow: Di + sallow. Di still making an appearance, although not clued this time as Princess.
29 Embarking on: Em (from an em-dash) + Barking (last station on railway line) + on. Looking at tube maps, Barking doesn’t seem to be the last station on any of the tube lines, but is the last station on the London overground.
Down
2 Antonio: Hidden, reversed in koi not naturally.
3 Umbilical hernia: (Chum i[nternational] ballerina I)*.
4 I know: I(ndependent) + wonk<.
5 Sir Alex Ferguson: (Lax foreigners us)*.
6 Obovate: OB (old boy) + te around ova. Obovate is the inverse of ovate (egg shaped).
7 Cantwell: Cant (=tip) + well.
8 Best: CD referring to George Best.
16 Soy: Boy with b(lock) replaced by s(ingular).
17 Charlton: Char + t(ime) in Lon[don].
19 Beckham: Burn (=small river = beck) + ham.
21 Ronaldo: Doorna[i]l*.
23 Akin: A(ustralia) + K(ing) + in.
24 Kodak: Kod[i]ak. Kodiaks are a sub-species of brown bear from Kodiak Island in Canada.

10 comments on “Independent 7615 by Glow-Worm”

  1. Thanks for the blog, Neal, and Glowworm for an interesting puzzle.

    Favourites were 17D CHARLTON, first of the ManU’s that I got, 22A GAUCHE and 16A SIXPENCE. I think there’s a typo in 15A HEROIC, it’s [st]OIC[is m] with “st” and “is” and “m” taken out. 16D SOY could also be read as “block” = “head”, ie. “knocking off” [b]OY’s head.

  3. Oh dear. I can hear a few rants being prepared.

    I quite liked it, more for the non-themed clues, several of which were inventive. I liked SIXPENCE and GLOBALLY in particular. Once the theme became apparent, if you are interested in football it was just a question of ‘what fits?’ for the players’ names.

    If you were being picky, you could say that for 10ac, goalkeepers in the modern game seldom wear number one any more.

    Thanks for the blog, Neal.

  4. I quite enjoyed solving this, once I had ‘got’ the theme and it did help having No2 son who is a MU fan home for the weekend.

  5. I thought this was excellent, the theme put together very cleverly. Though interested in football, did not see the theme for ages. Some excellent clues. Re SOY, just another nuance, I thought it was s = singular for b in boy ie lad’s block = head (first letter).
    I think Noel Cantwell was captain when Man Utd won the FA Cup in 1963 which was the first trophy for the post-Munich team of Law, Best, Charlton etc that finally won the European Cup in 1968. He played for Ireland in both football and cricket, later went into management.
    Thanks, NealH, for the blog and Glow-worm for the puzzle.

  6. I think of certain bloggers who will be less than delighted the theme but to each his own. My first 1 on a 1 was Rio which has a few possibilities as far as links go. Last was Cantwell who I had to look up as I didn’t know him.

    As Quixote hasn’t posted here, please check his comment on my most recent IOS blog for some sad news.

  7. Loved this. I thought we were looking at some fairly formal I/a/an etc variants at first. Got into the theme via progress in the north east which gave three letters of Fergie’s Alex. I enjoyed 15 for its mass deletions; 22; and 16.

  8. Found this very difficult to get into compared with any of last week’s and not just because of a complete lack of knowledge or interest in football teams. Sir Alex was the breakthrough – welled up from the subconscious somehow as I even failed to grasp the significance of 1ac straight away. Also failed to get Beckham of all people – forgot he played for MU in the dim and distant past! But thanks to Glow-worm for a challenging puzzle with lots of good clues otherwise. And many thanks to NealH for confirming 25ac NILE, which I agree is not the clearest of wordplays.

  9. Not my favourite. Couldn’t figure out the ‘one on one’ references for ages, and then failed on 16a having hastily put ‘alec’ instead of ‘alex’ in 5d.
    Also got ‘obovate’ in 6d but didn’t quite follow the clue as Chambers defined it as ‘egg-shaped in outline with the narrow end next to the base’. Does that make it inverted? Depends which Lilliputian party you support, I suppose.

  10. One of the other definitions of obovate is given as “inversely ovate”. I suppose it’s effectively an upside-down egg shape.

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