Raich seems to be appearing regularly again midweek.
I solved this one fairly steadily working down the grid.
When I completed the grid, the top and bottom row of unchecked letters struck me as plausible words in another language. It turns out that EINHEIT KANZLER translates from German to English as ‘unity Chancellor’. The entry at 21 across refers to Helmut KOHL, the German Chancellor from 1982 to 1998 who played a major role in the re-unification process. Unity Day in Germany is 3rd October and KOHL was neither born nor did he die on 27th February, so Iam a confused why this puzzle is published on 27th February. The only link to this data that I find is that the Debt Relief Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and its creditors was signed on 27th February 1953. The Wikipedia article on the treaty makes no mention of Helmut KOHL.
The clue to 1 down refers to German reunification.
Most of the words in the grid were well known, but the nina in the top and bottom rows probably influenced the appearance of INHAULER, ENCLOTHE, IRRUPT and UNBIDDEN which are not the most common of words.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
8
|
Sadly untrained, not seeing river flood (8)
|
Anagram of (sadly) UNTRAINED excluding (not seeing) R (river) INUNDATE* |
INUNDATE (flood)
|
|
9
|
Lacking vision, managed in wrong way; dispute follows (6)
|
RAN (managed) reversed (in the wrong way) + ROW (dispute) NAR< ROW |
NARROW (contracted in mind or outlook; lacking vision)
|
|
10
|
Country workers’ group have high opinion of, when finishing early (6)
|
TU (Trade Union; workers’ group) + VALUE (have high opinion of) excluding the final letter (when finishing early) E TU VALU |
TUVALU (Country in the Pacific Ocean)
|
|
11
|
Producer of filth? River, lakes – unfortunately true (8)
|
PO (river in Italy) + (L [lake] + L [lake] to give lakes) + an anagram of (unfortunately) TRUE PO L L UTER* |
POLLUTER (producer of contamination or filth)
|
|
12
|
Loved one not working, you say? (4)
|
IDOL (sounds like [you say] IDLE [not in operation; not working]) IDOL |
IDOL (loved one)
|
|
13
|
Cite tax due – amazing precision (10)
|
Anagram of (amazing) CITE TAX DUE EXACTITUDE* |
EXACTITUDE (correctness; precision)
|
|
15
|
Lots of money needed by cashier – he’s forward looking (7-6)
|
FORTUNE (large amount of money) + TELLER (clerk whose duty it is to receive and pay money, especially in a bank; cashier) FORTUNE–TELLER |
FORTUNE-TELLER (person who professes to predict your future; he’s forward looking)
|
|
18
|
Angry with second-rate instrument that’s from different sources (10)
|
CROSS (angry) + B (second-rate) + REED (an instrument) CROSS B REED |
CROSSBREED (offspring of two different BREEDs of animal)
|
| 21 | Keynotes of his life primarily revealing statesman (4) |
KOHL (first letters [primarily] of each of KEYNOTES, OF, HIS and LIFE) KOHL |
KOHL (reference Helmut KOHL [1930 – 2017], former Chancellor of Germany 1982 – 1998]) |
|
23
|
With love list the German shrub (8)
|
O (zero; love score in tennis) + LEAN (list) + DER (one of the German forms of ‘the’) O LEAN DER |
OLEANDER (evergreen shrub)
|
|
25
|
Join a new sailor (6)
|
SEAM (join) + A + N (new) SEAM A N |
SEAMAN (sailor)
|
|
26
|
Article on small, extremely costly, tool (6)
|
S (small) + CY (outer letters [extremely] of COSTLY) + THE (definite article) S CY THE |
SCYTHE (tool with a large curved blade and wooden handle, for mowing or cropping by hand)
|
|
27
|
Catch here – inexperienced learner in shelter flipped (5,3)
|
(RAW [inexperienced] + L [learner]) contained in (TENT [shelter] reversed [flipped]) T (RAW L) NET< |
TRAWL NET (open-mouthed bag-net for dragging along the seabed to catch fish)
|
|
Down |
|||
|
1
|
Seen rebuilding, united internally, Germany succeeded (6)
|
(U [united] contained in [internally] an anagram of [rebuilding] SEEN) + D (International Vehicle Registration for Germany) ENS (U) E* D |
ENSUED (followed; succeeded)
|
|
2
|
Starts to inculcate new habits and use latest excellent rope – this one? (8)
|
INHAULER (first letters of [starts to] each of INCULCATE, NEW, HABITS, AND, USE, LATEST, EXCELLENT and ROPE) INHAULER |
INHAULER (rope or line for HAULing in something, eg a sail)
|
|
3
|
The wild disposition (6)
|
NATURE (all the natural phenomena created by the power that regulates the world, including plants, animals, landscape, etc as distinct from people; the wild) NATURE |
NATURE (character; disposition) double definition
|
|
4
|
Pile inexpensive when roofless! (4)
|
CHEAP (inexpensive) excluding the first letter (roofless) C HEAP |
HEAP (pile)
|
|
5
|
In from France, reluctant to be seen in Church cover (8)
|
EN (French for ‘in’) + (LOTH [reluctant] contained in [to be seen in] CE [Church {of England}]) EN C (LOTH) E |
ENCLOTHE (cover with a garment)
|
|
6
|
Quickly enter Irish game associated with Physical Training (6)
|
IR (Irish) + RU (Rugby Union; game) + PT (physical training) IR RU PT |
IRRUPT (break in; carry out a sudden invasion or incursion; quickly enter)
|
|
7
|
Fighter ran with a stick raised (8)
|
TORE (ran) + A + ROD reversed (raised; down clue) TORE A DOR< |
TOREADOR (bullfighter)
|
|
14
|
Up to it hugging English tree
|
ABLE (competent; up to it) containing (hugging) E (English) AB (E) LE |
ABELE (white poplar tree)
|
|
15
|
Strand crowd drinking mineral (8)
|
FLOCK (herd; crowd) containing (drinking) ORE (mineral) F (ORE) LOCK |
FORELOCK (strand of hair on the forehead)
|
|
16
|
Work Ben undid without being asked (8)
|
Anagram of (work) BEN UNDID UNBIDDEN* |
UNBIDDEN (without being asked)
|
|
17
|
Resembling 14 after central character left – pleasing (8)
|
LIKE (resembling) + ABELE (entry at 14 down) excluding (left) the central character E LIKE ABLE |
LIKEABLE (pleasing)
|
|
19
|
Pole cheers for City (6)
|
SPAR (pole) + TA (thankyou; cheers) SPAR TA |
SPARTA (prominent city-state in ancient Greece)
|
|
20
|
Gloomy investigator’s hit done over (6)
|
DI’S (Detective Inspector’s; investigator’s) + LAM (hit) reversed (done over) DIS MAL< |
DISMAL (gloomy)
|
|
23
|
Try to incorporate note that brings warmth (6) |
HEAR (try, reference a HEARing in court) containing (to incorporate) TE (note of the tonic sol-fa) HEA (TE) R |
HEATER ( a device that brings warmth(
|
|
24
|
Hotelier, last character to follow instruction to slow down? (4)
|
RIT (ritardando; ritenuto, both of which are musical terms that denote a slowing down) + Z (last character of the alphabet) RIT Z |
RITZ (reference César RITZ [1850 – 1918], Swiss hotelier)
|
most enjoyable. There’s also EUROPA as a NINA in row5.
Ausgezeichnet Raich, and thanks to duncanshiell for the usuall excellent blog
This was back on planet Earth after Boatie!
Thanks duncanshiell and Raich.
And thanks @ baerchen
Being Tuesday helped in spotting the (top and bottom unches) Nina – missed the other one – and once translated the key clue was obvious. Never heard of an INHAULER and there were a few other “quaint” words as pointed out.
Overall, nothing too difficult though had to guess SPARTA, after being stuck on S for ‘Pole’. Liked TUVALU, not exactly the first country to spring to mind.
Thanks to Raich and Duncan.
Being a regular like WordPlodder, I was at least partly on the lookout for a theme, and when KOHL was solved and KANZLER looked likely in the bottom row I used that to help complete the lower half; then EIN and HEIT looked likely German words, so there was help available in the upper half as well.
The usual sound stuff from Raich, with TUVALU – my LOI – favourite this morning.
Thanks to him, and to Duncan for the usual excellent explanations.
Tuvalu is well-known (in some quarters) as having made a fortune from its .tv Internet domain code.
Remarkably gentle for a Tuesday, we solved this quite quickly. INHAULER was the only new word for us, needing checking in Chambers, although we’ve probably only encountered ENCLOTHE in crosswords. We spotted the nina and googled ‘Kohl’ but all we could find that might be relevant was that Kohl was awarded the Charlemagne Prize in 1988 – not that that seems a very significant annversary.
Thanks, Raich and Duncan.
INHAULER new to me as well. Spotted the Nina, but very late on.
All nicely clued and pleasant enough, though don’t really want to be able to finish a Tuesday Indy in 13:34.
Thanks to Raich and duncanshiell.
Interesting puzzle. Some quite unusual grid entries but everything was clued very straightforwardly. I almost entered HEARTH for 22d but soon corrected.
I saw the top and bottom Nina quickly and connected to 21a, but needed Baerchen to see Europa.
Many thanks raich and Duncan
An enjoyable puzzle with only INHAULER, my LOI, unknown, but gently clued. 23a was a shrub I actually knew. The SE held me up briefly, but the whole thing was done in under 25 minutes unlike my almost an hour slog with the Times this morning. Like Dutch I tried to shoehorn HEARTH into 22d. Totally missed the theme, as usual! Thanks Raich and Duncan.
Many thanks, Duncan, for the excellent blog and also to all who commented. All thematic material has been noted. The exact day of the puzzle’s appearance was not significant – intended to mark his passing during the course of last year. A few less familiar words were forced in by the thematic material – I tried to give them fairly easy clues and it seems to have worked out that way.