Independent 9,678 by Knut

by

Thursday, and something difficult was to be expected. But most of this went in easily enough, although in the end I did take a bit longer than usual over this very pleasant crossword from Knut.

Something is going on and I can’t quite capture it properly: twice we have three across answers which are anagrams of each other (litotes, toilets, T S Eliot and Cremona, Cameron and romance); further, the last six letters of one of the across answers (Aristotle) are in the first set. Along the top the unches are mostly S, and along the bottom they read ‘ONLY …’. But I can’t finish it off. Perhaps someone can.

Across
9 IKEBANA Arranging flowers for retired UN boss, garlanded by Swedish institution (7)
IKE(Ban)A — Ban Ki-moon stepped down in 2016
10 LITOTES Toilets revolting; and that’s an understatement (7)
(Toilets)*
11 LEA Field illegal regular members (3)
{i}l{l}e{g}a{l}
12 CREMONA Conservative Brexit protester speaking in the city (7)
C “remoaner”
13 CAMERON E. Macron turned out to be a political failure (7)
(E. Macron)* — maybe David Cameron won’t go down in history as one of the great Prime Ministers, but a failure? OK Enoch Powell said that all political lives end in failure, and Cameron’s did, but to go from that to calling him a failure …
14 MORECAMBE National treasure second to record an honour (9)
mo. rec. a MBE — Morecambe as in Morecambe and Wise; 25dn helped with this
17 EPSOM Mopes about the place, having the downs (5)
(Mopes)* — Epsom Downs
18 SECURED Having collateral tied up? (7)
2 defs
21 TROUPES Very French publisher entertained entertainers (7)
tr(OUP)es
23 ISLAM Faith doctrine sweeping across Louisiana (5)
is(La)m
24 ARISTOTLE Clever Greek dramatic serial about little kid (9)
tot in (serial)*
28 ESSENCE German city destocked cologne, eau de parfum (7)
Esen c{ologn}e
29 T S ELIOT Art working hard in retirement as poet (1,1,5)
(toilest)rev. — ‘art working’ is the old-fashioned way of saying ‘are working’
31 AXE Close down X-ray in casualty department (3)
A(X)E — the casualty departmenmt is A&E, and X is X-ray in the Nato alphabet
32 TOILETS Ladies, perhaps it’s time Stelios returned down south (7)
t (Stelios – s [the second one])rev.
33 ROMANCE “Fabulous bird grabs bloke” – English love story (7)
ro(man)c E
Down
1 SITCOM Tech firm getting into bondage could be worth a laugh! (6)
S(IT co)M
2 METEOR Space traveller was introduced to The Queen, holding top of orb (6)
met E(o{rb})R
3 SAGO Indian spinach over Oriental palm starch (4)
sag [= Indian spinach] o
4 SALAAM Greeting mother, sadly upset (6)
(ma alas)rev.
5 SLACKEST Earl wearing trousers, tailored initially to be most loose (8)
slack(E)s t{ailored}
6 STAMPED OUT Dampest could be eliminated (7,3)
dampest could be (stamped)*, or stamped out
7 STARTS UP Begins with s-sour drink (6,2)
s-tart sup
8 TSUNAMIS Miss aunt making waves (8)
(Miss aunt)*
15 OWE Be in the red, having zero points (3)
0 W,E
16 COROMANDEL Graeco-Roman delivers imported wood (10)
Hidden in GraeCO-ROMAN DELivers — I was a little bewildered, thinking that the word appeared in some poem; sure enough, it does, here; coromandel (rather than Coromandel) is this
18 STILETTO Fight, getting fired up, packing knife (8)
s(til)et-to, the til being (lit)rev., the inclusion indicator being ‘getting’
19 CALFSKIN Hide North Korean leader’s fiscal irregularity (8)
(N K{orean} fiscal)* — it didn’t end in Kim, as I wanted it to
20 DEAD EASY Numb, free from pain, no problem at all (4,4)
dead [= numb] easy [= free from pain (?)], or is this a CD?
22 EEL Skin headless fish (3)
{p}eel
25 INTERN Apprentice international partner for 14 (6)
int. Ern — Ernie Wise; once I had rid myself of the silly notion that it was in + tern, that in. was somehow an abbreviation for international, and that I was looking for a bird at 14ac, all was well
26 TRIUNE “Three in One” melody about Queen and Empress (6)
t(RI)une — RI stands for Rex Imperator, or, as with Queen Victoria, Regina Imperatrix
27 EITHER Tie up that woman, given the choice (6)
(Tie)* her
30 EMMY Topless prize award! (4)
{j}emmy — prize = the more usual I think prise

*anagram

17 comments on “Independent 9,678 by Knut”

  1. Thanks John – there’s also STILETTO in of the first set of “partial anagrams”, and MORECAMBE in the second, but I couldn’t make any more of it.

    (IMHO Cameron was not so much of a failure as an utter disaster, thanks to his stupid referendum.)

  3. Thanks John, Knut
    Great puzzle. There had to be a good reason for TSELIOT being in there, so for once I managed to take a step back early on and see (part of?) what was happening, which added to the fun.
    COROMANDEL also contains CAMERON.
    First one in was [h]IDE, instead of [p]EEL, but quickly corrected.
    I liked EPSOM – there’s a rollercoaster road along the east (I think) side of the race course which as kids we used to call the ‘ups’n downs’.

  4. Excellent puzzle, enjoyable and also challenging. Favourite clue was COROMANDEL, holding me up for ages.
    To John, thanks. To Knut, danke schön und alles Gute!

  5. Gosh, he’s clever, isn’t he? I just love his puzzles!

    E.MACRON excellent – Knut seems to be the first one to have spotted it.

    COROMANDEL is a lovely word – and what a great clue!

    Thanks for a great blog, John and Knut for another stunner.

  6. Thanks for the blog, John.

    I’m never sure whether to expect ‘the hard one’ on a Thursday in the Indy any more. Sometimes it is; sometimes it isn’t. This one I found pretty straightforward, and pleasing. Some nice touches, the E MACRON anagram being up there (when the league table of political failures for the early part of this century is finally published, I think his successor will finish several places above him). CREMONA was cringe-worthy and topical.

    I saw the ‘theme’ but made nothing more of it than has so far been pointed out. No-one so far has mentioned the significane of 26dn – TRIUNE. The ‘three-in-one’ reference is there for a reason, I think.

    Goed gedaan, Knut (my German’s pretty ropy these days so this is the nearest I can get).

  7. Just to add, the last part of ARISTOTLE is an anagram of TOILETS also. Shame first part of MORECAMBE just fails to be an anagram of ROMANCE.

  8. Yesterday we thought the Thursday – and therefore difficult – crossword might have been slipped in by mistake; now we wonder if there is a reason for today’s ‘theme’ (if that’s what it is) and hence the appearance of the difficult one yesterday.

    Well, Wikipedia informs us that T S Eliot’s first collection of poems was published in 1917 (although some had appeared earlier in magazines), and there was a posthumous volume published in 1967. But we can’t help with Cameron.

    Certainly a lot easier than yesterday, we got it all without help in two passes even if it wasn’t quite 20dn. CAMERON was our favourite (the clue not the political failure!) We liked IKEBANA too.

    Thanks, Knut and John

  9. Mostly at the easier end of Knut’s range, though TRIUNE took a bit of remembering, and IKEBANA might have caused problems had the clue not been generous. Agree that CAMERON was very good (the clue that is!)

    Thanks to Knut and John

  10. Thanks Knut, really enjoyable. I spotted the two anagram triplets but missed the larger near-anagrams.
    My favourite clues are, of course, the political / topical ones, but the whole thing was fun.

    Thanks also john

  11. Fun solve as always and easier-end which is good for my meagre solving skills (or lack thereof). Didn’t notice the themey thing as was too busy enjoying meself. Fave clue out of many was 10a so thanks to The German for the puzzle and to Mr J for the blog.

  12. Many thanks to John for the blog and to those who have commented.
    I filled this grid a couple of years ago and clued it as a chain of anagrams. When I’d finished it, I thought it looked rubbish and re-wrote it completely recently.
    @Maysie
    Hallööööchen!
    @K’s D
    That looks suspiciously like Dutch to me (as in the language)…
    regards to all,
    Rob/Knut

  14. Not a difficult Thursday. This was the easiest for me so far this week. Managed to get it all without help, although there were several I couldn’t parse.

  15. All good fun – we noticed the anagrams, but not the partial ones. The CAMERON clue was excellent, but lots more to enjoy. We’d never come across 16d before but, once we had a few crossers, it was clear enough – no checking needed.

    Thanks for the fuN Knut and thanks for the blog John

  17. Late to the party and only just done this but was had by 22d (h)IDE which delayed things a bit. Thanks John and the Bear.

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