Independent 9,234 / Scorpion

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Scorpion has provided today’s lexical challenge. It has been a while since it has fallen to me to solve/blog one of his puzzles.

Scorpion has chosen to mark a special achievement with this puzzle, i.e. Leicester City winning the Premier League. The team, its manager, a current player and a former player figure in either the clues or the solutions. There are also sundry football references in the clues, even ones whose solutions have nothing to do with the sport, e.g. 12, 21 and 26. Furthermore, Leicester’s university appears at 8. There are perhaps other allusions to the city and its football team that I have missed and that other solvers may have spotted along the way.

Although I know very little about football, this is a gentle theme that does not exclude solvers who are not die-hard football fans – thank you, Scorpion! Leicester City’s win has featured prominently in the news recently, and the wordplay allows solvers who are not football aficionados to arrive at the answers with a fair degree of confidence and confirm answers on Google – indeed, this was my experience at 24.

As for my favourite clues today, I very much appreciated both 11, for its smooth but misleading football-related surface, and 1, for its cheeky, unorthodox definition.

(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
07 SOAR Gunners and others gutted, reflecting rise to new heights?

RA (=gunners, i.e. Royal Artillery) + O<ther>S (“gutted” means all but first and last letters are dropped); “reflecting” indicates reversal
     
08 DE MONTFORT Energetic type possibly drying out clothes for university

DEMON (=energetic type) + [FOR in TT (=drying out, i.e. of alcoholic)]; De Montfort University is located in the city of Leicester
     
10/28 LEICESTER CITY Street cycle one repeated repaired for team

*(STREET CYCLE + II (=one; “repeated”=x2)); “repaired” is anagram indicator; Leicester City has, against all the odds, recently won the Premier League
     
11 LANE Some of penalties missed, turning over channel

Reversed (“turned”) and hidden (“some of”) in “pENALties”
     
12 CREATIVE Showing leadership, Claudio Ranieri at one in evening’s formulating ideas

C<laudio> R<anieri> (“showing leadership” means first letters only) + [AT I (=one) in EVE (=evening)]
     
15 FOXES Relations belonging to rejected animals

SEX (=relations) + OF (=belonging to); “rejected” indicates reversal
     
16 LINEKER Sports presenter’s craft involves constant energy

[K (=constant, i.e. Boltzmann or velocity) + E (=energy)] in LINER (=craft, i.e. vessel); the reference is to former footballer and current BBC sports presenter Gary Lineker (1960-), who is from Leicester and played for Leicester City in his early career
     
17 FILBERT Avoiding front, operettist meets female nut

F (=female) + <g>ILBERT (=operettist, i.e. of Gilbert and Sullivan fame); filbert is the nut of the cultivated hazel
     
20 FOSSE Roman way of switching direction

FO (OF; “switching” indicates reversal) + SSE (=direction, on compass); the Fosse Way was a Roman road linking Lincoln with Exeter
     
22 UPHOLDER Everyone accepted local senior champion

U (=everyone accepted, e.g. to see a film) + PH (=local, i.e. public house) + OLDER (=senior)
     
23 SCOW Boat business found in Cornwall area

CO (=business, i.e. company) in SW (=Cornwall area, of England)
     
24 TINKERMAN Tattoo artist, male wearing leather, seeing manager fiddling

[INKER (=tattoo artist) + M (=male)] in TAN (=leather, thrash, as verb); the reference is to Claudio Ranieri, manager of Leicester City, known during his time at Chelsea as the Tinkerman, for all the changes he made to the team line-up
     
27 JAMIE VARDY Press first raved about unknown member of 10/28

JAM (=press, squeeze) + I (=first) + *(RAVED) + Y (=unknown, in algebra); “about” is anagram indicator; Jamie Vardy (1989-) is a striker for Leicester City (=entry at 10/28)
     
Down    
     
01 WOOL Outskirts of Lincoln, say, with two roundabouts attracts learner

W (=with) + O O (=two roundabouts, i.e. pictorially) + L (=leaner); a Lincoln is an English sheep breed, hence “wool” is its “outskirts”!!
     
02 IRRITATE Nettle tea ruined by stirring centrally over time

T (=time) in [<st>IRRI<ng> (“centrally” means central 4 letters only) +*(TEA)]; “ruined” is anagram indicator
     
03 ADZE There’s confusion, with lawyer switching cutting tool

DAZE (=confusion, bewilderment); “with lawyer (+DA) switching” means letters “da” are switched around
     
04 SMOTHER After second test on car, lady’s seeing smoke

S (=second, i.e. time measurement) + MOT (=test on car) + HER (=lady’s); in Chambers, smother as a noun is “smoke, thick floating dust”
     
05 ONER Banknote somewhere in Nevada handed over

RENO (=somewhere in Nevada, famous for its casinos and wedding chapels); “handed over” indicates reversal; a oner was a £1 note
     
06 EFFLUX Discharge from around Lake Superior very loud at first

[FF (=very loud, i.e. fortissimo) + L (=lake) + U (=superior, i.e. upper-class)] in EX (=from)
     
09 RINGS TRUE Piece of jewellery found on street (French street) – sounds typical

RING (=piece of jewellery) + ST (=street) + RUE (=French street, i.e. the French word for street)
     
13 RE INFECTA With business unfinished, restrict time in fancy café

REIN (=restrict, curb) + [T (=time) in *(CAFÉ)]; “fancy” is anagram indicator
     
14 IRENE Woman’s fury extremely negative

IRE (=fury) + N<egativ>E (“extremely” means first and last letters only)
     
15 FAITH Maybe Scientology fad is the last to disappear

FA<d> I<s> TH<e>; “last to disappear” means last letter of each word is dropped
     
18 BULIMICS Those with food-related illness in coach? About 51 – bug perhaps

[LI (=51, in Roman numerals) + MIC (=bug perhaps, i.e. hidden microphone)] in BUS (=coach)
     
19 QUINARY Parisian who rushed, returning last of money in fives

QUI (=Parisian who, i.e. the French word for who) + NAR (RAN=rushed; “returning” indicates reversal) + <mone>Y (“last of” means last letter only); quinary means fivefold, in or by fives, cf. binary
     
21 SAW FIT Watched match and thought it OK

SAW (=watched) + FIT (=match, suit, as verb)
     
24 TIVO Digitally record action – savour middle bits

<ac>TI<on> <sa>VO<ur>: “middle bits” means central letters of each word only are used; TiVO is a system for the digital recording of television programmes on a hard disk
     
25 ENYA Irishwoman who sings in French agreed to intend

EN (=in French, i.e. the French word for in) + YA (=agreed, informally); the reference is to Irish singer of e.g. Celtic music Enya (1961-), formerly of Clannad
     
26 NETT Final goal, seventh for Leicester

NET (=goal) + <leices>T<er> (“seventh for” means seventh letter only is used)
     
   

11 comments on “Independent 9,234 / Scorpion”

  2. Thanks for a great blog, RR, and Scorpion for the chance to bask further in the glory of my home city. 😉

    To fill in some gaps: the River SOAR runs through Leicester [and what a great surface the clue has!] as does the FOSSE Way. The team’s original name was Leicester Fosse and they played at FILBERT Street, before moving to the King Power [formerly Walkers] Stadium. They are known, of course, as the FOXES and Filbert Fox is their mascot.

    It was very clever to include so many references in both clues and answers – I particularly liked 12ac. I might have got 1dn, which completely baffled me – along with 24dn – if Scorpion had clued it with Robert Bakewell’s Leicester sheep, which I know from O Level History, rather than the Lincoln, which I’d never heard of – but the Fosse connection was rather neat.

    And one of my favourite singers, too! Many thanks again, Scorpion, for a great puzzle – it was a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it. [Now we just have to wait to see 16ac fulfil his promise / threat. 😉 ]

  3. Agree with everything that has been said. I think Scorpion missed a trick though in not topping and tailing with Leicester in both 1 down and 26 down. Just my $0.02 worth.

    And I am really impressed RatkojaRiku that you got the references.

    Scorpion, there is a curry on the Golden Mile in it for you should you ever appear in these parts.

    (And if there is any chance of 16ac fulfilling his threat, I may have to leave the country.)

  5. Got the theme early on, and most of the thematic references, but had to resort to trial and error for 1dn, 24ac and 25dn. DE MONTFORT is not only one of Leicester’s universities (I studied for a while there long before it became a university) but also the name of its concert hall.

    Like the picture, sidey. Conjures up a mental image of an Old English sheepdog trying to round up Lincolns – could either the sheep or the dog see where they were going?

    Thanks, Scorpion and RatkojaRiku

  6. Leicester City have won the Premiership. Whoopee chuffing do. Folk who previously had no interest in football have adopted them as their trophy team. Can we have less footie in the Indy crosswords, please? If we must have themes, then golf next week would be favourite.

    Thanks to S&B.

  8. And FWIW I spent the last fifteen or so years of my career teaching both jazz and database design.

  9. oops – in Leicester Poly through its change onto DMU.

    Golf K’s D? Have you finally lost it? I speak as a concerned friend, honest.

  10. I’m a football ignoramus from far away but even I had heard of Leicester’s feat and I could therefore pick up on at least some of the references. I think there’s also been a Leicester themed crossword elsewhere in the last few weeks. Guessed a few such as DE MONTFORT (never heard of the university though vaguely remember the name Simon de M. from school history) the term RE INFECTA and defeated by the def. of TINKERMAN. Liked EFFLUX and the themed FOXES especially.

    Thanks to Scorpion and RatkojaRiku

  11. I’m delighted for the Foxes, of course, and for the city as well. It was wonderful to see such a diverse place celebrate together. I withdraw my comment about golf themes. I was a bit overcome.

    Oh, and I liked the puzzle too. You could just about get there without knowing anything about the beautiful game.

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