Independent 9639/Knut

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A themed and cross-referenced puzzle for the Monday Indy slot? What’s occurring?

 

 

 

 

Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

 

Across

1 Elected government engaging firm working undercover
INCOG
A charade of IN for ‘elected’ and G for ‘government’ with CO inserted. Not an abbreviation I’d come across before, but it couldn’t be much else.

4 Where the natives aren’t restless?
OYSTER BED
A whimsical reference to the fact that one species of the mollusc is the Native Oyster; so if it is lying quietly in its bed, it won’t be ‘restless’. There are some things in life that you end up doing only once, and for me that includes putting an oyster in my mouth. (It didn’t get as far as my oesophagus.) However, there’s an R in the month now, so for those that do enjoy them, bon appétit.

9 Backbone shown by South-East Asian
CHINESE
A charade of CHINE and SE. A CHINE is the backbone of an animal prepared for cooking; it’s also a word for a steep river valley in the South of England. English is wonderful.

10 NASA possibly putting Buddy in a moonshot’s launch
ACRONYM
An insertion of CRONY in A and M for the first letter of ‘moonshot’.

11 Age in US State prison
RIPEN
A charade of RI for Rhode Island and PEN. RI is the smallest state in the USA, if it ever comes up in a quiz near you.

12 Team‘s arrogance
SIDE
A dd. ‘He’s got no side, that Knut character.’

13 18d’s base, despicable character
HEEL
A dd. Apparently a NIBLICK has a HEEL. Fascinating.

15 Torremolinos, and we’d get to take in a groovy club!
SAND WEDGE
Hidden in TorremolinoS AND WED GEt. SAND WEDGES have grooves in them and they’re clubs. This puzzle gets more fascinating by the minute.

17 Domesticated cat finally made a mess
TAMED
A charade of T for the last letter of ‘cat’ and (MADE)*

18 Irons forged? Absolutely not!
NO SIR
(IRONS)*

19 No. 11 (not 10) spreading nationalism
LAST MAN IN
(NAT[IO]NALISM)* with the answer referencing a proper sport played with a ball.

21 Wait to make an offer to Europe
BIDE
A charade of BID and E.

22 Man, maybe I repelled Ernie!
ISLE
A charade of I and (Ernie) ELS reversed. He’s 47, so must be retiring soon. What will setters do then?

24 Mia Farrow withdraws far right catty remark
MIAOW
MIA [FARR]OW. Clever clue.

26 Routine operation during pregnancy
IN UTERO
(ROUTINE)* Another clever clue.

27 Wine container sent back, unopened
RETSINA
A reversal of [C]ANISTER. Another thing I only put in my mouth once.

28 Vital employee in the typing pool?
KEY WORKER
A cd. I was helping a friend with the quick crossword in the i the other day and this was enumerated as (9), which I found odd.

29 Genuine-sounding Arab money
RIYAL
A homophone of REAL. It’s the currency in Saudi Arabia.

 

Down

1 Failed Tory leader “entertaining comedian” – papers
ID CARDS
Failed Tory leader? So much choice. I suspect the setter is giving us a nod to BoJo here in the surface; but in fact it’s Ian Duncan-Smith, or IDS with CARD inserted.  I liked this, but then I’m a sucker for clues involving contemporary politics.

2 Busy road needing a diversion after approaching green Cotswolds town
CHIPPING SODBURY
A charade of CHIPPING and (BUSY RO[A]D)* You have to take ‘needing’ as ‘lacking’ and the anagrind is ‘diversion’.

3 Feminist tours New South Wales, Australia sustained by Dutch grass
GREENSWARD
If you’re going to plump for a ‘feminist’, then Germaine GREER is your woman: it’s NSW and A inserted into that, all supported or ‘sustained’ by D for ‘Dutch’.

4 Faces the 20 championships synonymous with 5
OPENS
Too many sports going on here.  It’s a dd: if you ‘open’ in cricket, you will face the NEW BALL; the second bit is to do with the name given to games played at 5.  No idea why they’re called OPENS: the venerable institution only voted to admit women in 2014, in its 260th year of existence.  That doesn’t sound very open to me.

5 Rising leader of Scottish Nats tied, bound in famous club for swingers
ST ANDREWS
An insertion of DREW for ‘tied’ in S NATS reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘bound in’.

6 Pound regularly invested in geezer mag
EZRA
The even letters of gEeZeR mAg give you the American poet EZRA POUND.

7 Defensive paranoia requiring positive application of 15?
BUNKER MENTALITY
A cd, because you’d need a 15 to get out of a BUNKER.

8 Having little depressions, like one rolling along the 5 3?
DIMPLED
A cd cum dd. Here’s the obligatory Pierre bird[ie] link.

14 One evaluating the Greens party leader during busy term times
STIMPMETER
P inserted into (TERM TIMES)* I learnt a new word today. It’s one I won’t be making any effort to commit to long-term memory. I might have fancied an apostrophe in the surface: Greens’ party leader.

16 Fraud investigators left to probe one threatening to exterminate north country residents
DALESFOLK
A well-constructed surface and my favourite clue this morning. It’s SFO for Serious Fraud Office and L inserted in DALEK. Exterminate! Exterminate! Such an imperative could perhaps be extended to cryptics themed around a good walk wasted.

18 Turn up in Beatles’ first beat club
NIBLICK
The setter is inviting you to make a charade of IN reversed, B and LICK for ‘beat’. Good surface; if you know nothing of the theme, or care less, then you might have struggled with the answer.

20 Modern dance launched on the 1st. at 5?
NEW BALL
A charade of NEW and BALL, but I genuinely don’t understand what this is about, except that a new g*** ball would be hit from the first tee at 5.

23 Fear taking time off could be a mistake
ERROR
[T]ERROR. Might have seen this before, but there’s no rule in Crypticland against recycling.

25 Topless women mounted Verne’s adventurer
NEMO
I hope they (and he) enjoyed it. A reversal of [W]OMEN gives you Captain NEMO from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island.

 

Many thanks to Knut for this morning’s puzzle.

16 comments on “Independent 9639/Knut”

  1. Sheesh! I like golf but struggled with this. Kicking myself for failing to parse DALESFOLK. Never heard of STIMPMETER but it was the obvious guess. CHINE rings a bell – think it was in a crossy not too long ago. Didn’t know ‘native oyster’ so 4a not fully parsed. Thought IN UTERO was a nice anagram but MIAOW wins my vote as best clue. Thanks to Knut for a challenging start to the week and to Pierre for the explanations.

  2. My dear Pierre,

    Thank you for your blog.
    I refer you to comment 5 (and some subsequent remarks) beneath Punk’s Indy 9588 of July 6th.
    I am sorry this has teed you off; rough luck.
    The puzzle’s appearance today is not entirely coincidental.
    with warmest regards, Rob/Knut

  3. Knut, I expect Pierre will want to get you at playtime. Pierre, well done for putting this one down so well in the circs.

    If Mark Twain never in fact described the game as a good walk spoiled, IMHO he should have.

  4. Well, I don’t know which I enjoyed more, the puzzle or the blog – they both made me laugh a lot.

    Favourite clues – IN UTERO [an absolute gem] and 14dn: I didn’t know the word but I enjoyed the surface and the wordplay led me to it. And, of course, I loved DALESFOLK.

    Thanks for the obligatory picture, Pierre – and my reaction to both oysters and retsina totally matches yours.

    Huge thanks to both for all the fun. [I’d like to be there to watch at playtime. 😉 ]

  5. I didn’t parse “Dalesfolk” and the capitalised “Buddy” misdirected me for a while. Being a lapsed golfer definitely helped. I don’t normally do the Indy but quite enjoyed this one.

    Thanks

  6. Posting from the 19th, I have to say that this was quite something.And great blog too.14 had me scratching my head until I saw the anagrind-unaware of it-all the more fun. loved 16, Just up ‘road from Sheffield?
    13 had me stumped for a bit as I was trying to see 18’s base as K but nothing came to mind so I wrote in HEEL.Loved the cricket crossover. Accompanying music should have been the Village Green thingy by The Kinks.Thanks Knut and Pierre.

  7. Miaow!

    Well you (nearly) achieved the impossible, Knut: a g**f-themed crossy that I (mostly) really enjoyed.

    I surprised myself by getting most of it but cheated a bit at the end. Found the DIMPLED and NEW BALL defs a bit meh but loved lots, especially ACRONYM, DALESFOLK and, of course, MIAOW.

    Many thanks to Knut and Pierre for the glorious entertainment to bring cheer to a dimpled (def 1) morning.

    P.S. I liked the birdie link but this one might perhaps have been more appropriate!

  8. Wot Eileen said @4 chimes with me – fun puzzle and fun blog working in harmony to provide an all-round chortlefest.

    This was my first crossie after a solving break and I did extremely well only missing 9a and 2 and 18d. As usual with Knut lots of laughs and invention and a Pierre-led themer to boot! Really enjoyed it with the theme helping tremendously. Fave clue was also ‘miaow’.

    Thanks to The Knut for the puzzle and The Pierre for the blog (oh how I wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall of Pierre Towers at the time of his solve!).

  9. So much more enjoyable than actual golf, which induces huge depressions. Great blog, too.
    Niblick is one of the silliest words in English. How’s your game?:
    Compiler in Germany showing he’s in a different league, although not for today’s sport (6)

  10. Didn’t give me too much trouble, but with 14dn I thought it might be an anagram but when I looked at the possible fodder and the crossing letters, I was so convinced that STIMPMETER could not be a word, I dismissed my initial thoughts. It took a word search to convince me that it actually existed.

    I really liked 16dn. I’m of an age to have hidden behind the sofa when the Daleks first appeared on Dr Who.

  11. It is understandable that a blogger would mention his/her unfamiliarity with a theme, but to dismiss it out of hand is presumptuous and condescending.

  12. Not quite sure how we managed to get all the theme references unaided (apart from 14dn which we worked out from the anagram fodder but had to check in Chambers that there is such a thing) but we did. Unlike Eileen we definitely enjoyed the blog and comments more than we did the puzzle. But having said that we enjoyed quite a few clues in the puzzle. MIAOW and DALESFOLK were our favourites.

    Thanks, Baerchen and Pierre.

  13. Many thanks Knut

    I quite like oysters and retsina, but I stay well away from golf. Nonetheless, I managed to fill the grid. Most enjoyable, with some excellent clues already mentioned. And – complete with a namecheck.

    I didn’t manage to parse 2d, 4d & 16d, so many thanks Pierre for the enlightenment.

    I feel a bit more educated now.

  14. Sasquach @13, I fancy that Pierre was doing deadpan on this one and playing along with things – he does the amusing grump pretty convincingly so it can easily be missed – no harm done or intended on his part at all, I think. 🙂

  15. Indeed, Sasquach, don’t make a fuss of it.

    In comment @2 Knut made clear that, apparently, he knew that Pierre was today’s blogger and that (as some of us know) he isn’t the world’s biggest fan of that thingy.
    I just wonder (a) how Knut knew that Pierre was going to blog, and (b) what role Eimi played in giving him this Monday spot.
    Some research needed, methinks.
    Pierre’s blog is, I think, wonderful, especially with that bird(ie) link!

    As we’ve come to expect from Knut, the puzzle as such was very entertaining.
    I’m not a golfer but I got everything right today, including STIMPMETER which had to checked (of course).
    Did I say ‘course’?

    Some old chestnuts to get you going (RETSINA, ERROR, ISLE), that’s fair enough.
    DALESFOLK wasn’t one of my favourites, it was actually the only one I didn’t understand.
    As a ‘foreigner’ I am not familiar with SFO and – believe it or not – I’ve never seen a full episode of Doctor Who!
    By the way, the answer is not in any of my dictionaries …

    My Clue Awards are going to MIAOW (24ac), NO SIR (18ac) and IN UTERO (26ac) – all relatively simple but oh so effective.
    In the latter, Knut shows once more that he likes nounal indicators, something not always shared by me.
    That said, they’re all anagram indicators here and then I am generally fine with it.

    Only exception, the indicator in 17ac: ‘a mess’ is not my cup of tea.
    One should either use ‘mess’ or ‘in a mess’.

    In 21ac E seems to stand for Europe.
    Nobody cares (and for me it was clear enough, too) but it’s an abbreviation not supported anywhere, as far as I know.
    Nice surface, though, we’re all waiting …

    I hadn’t a clue how to pronounce RIYAL (29ac).
    I’d expected the Homophone Police to show up today.
    They’re still on holiday, though.

    Thanks Pierre & Knut.

  16. Did this on Monday evening but forgot to comment. I agree with everything Kitty says – for me golf is a sport I can happily ignore, but on the very rare weaker moments I start watching it, I can find myself still there several hours later. None of the golfing references were unfamiliar…

    Thanks to Knut and Pierre

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