Independent 10,009 by Knut

by

The puzzle can be found here.

Hello!  It’s my great pleasure to join the Fifteensquared blogging team, and a great pleasure also to begin with this fun puzzle by Knut.

I found it fairly easy to get a good foothold, but then lost said footing somewhat and scrabbled around for a while.  So, a challenge for me in places, especially in parsing a couple of answers, but a very enjoyable one indeed.  I’ll be interested to hear how you found it.

My favourite clues were RADIOHEAD (13a), ASYMMETRIC (20a) and, most of all, the FIDGET SPINNER at 1a.  (The surface of that one put me in mind of a picture which I couldn’t resist including.)  Thanks Knut!

 

Across

1a   Something designed for small hands of crazy f_ing President? (6,7)
FIDGET SPINNER
An anagram (crazy) of F ING PRESIDENT.  The whole clue also works as a cheeky alternative definition.  What a way to get the ball rolling spinner spinning!

10a   Propeller has second failure; should they be worried? (7)
AIRCREW
AIR[s]CREW, an aircraft propeller, loses S (has second failure).  The definition needs to be read in the context of the entire clue

11a   Uncoded alien broadcast intercepted by leader of communist resistance (2,5)
EN CLAIR
An anagram (broadcast) of ALIEN containing (intercepted by) the first letter (leader) of Communist, followed by R (the symbol for electrical resistance)

12a   Mary, the geek on the equity derivatives desk (5)
QUANT
Two definitions: Mary Quant, the fashion designer; quant is also an informal finance term for a person who uses statistical models to predict fluctuations in the stock market

13a   Different hairdo each day for rock stars (9)
RADIOHEAD
An anagram (different) of HAIRDO, then EA (each) and D (day).  This band, who reached the height of their popularity when I was a teen

14a   Testing, Independent new style setter “good” (10)
INSPECTING
A charade of I (Independent), NS (New Style, new abbreviation for me) PECTIN, (setter, of jams and jellies rather than crosswords) and G (good)

16a   Clever lecturer forced out of China (4)
DEFT
DE[l]FT (china) with L (lecturer) removed (forced out)

18a   Ex-BBC boss: “Apres moi, le deluge!” (4)
DYKE
Greg Dyke was Director-General of the BBC, and a dyke is a flood defence, here cryptically defined by a literal interpretation of this quote attributed to Louis XV

20a   “Uneven, unstable” – May’s term in charge (10)
ASYMMETRIC
An anagram (unstable) of MAY’S TERM plus IC (in charge)

22a   Beset by vast ego, Sauron was a victim of Total Wipeout (9)
STEGOSAUR
Hidden in (beset by) vaST EGO SAURon

25a   It’s used to catch donkey in outskirts of Laredo (5)
LASSO
ASS (donkey) in the outer letters (outskirts) of LaredO)

26a   Loose-fit clothing used as hiking trousers (7)
DASHIKI
UseD AS HIKIng covers (trousers) this colourful garment (top, not trousers) worn in West Africa

27a   Ground-breaking field event? (7)
JAVELIN
A cryptic definition

28a   Regular payment instructions to keep one on one’s feet? (8,5)
STANDING ORDER
A straight definition and an alternative interpretation of the answer as an order to stay standing

 

Down

2d   Batting first, sounds like Cecil is making some headway (7)
INROADS
IN (batting) first, then ROADS, which sounds like (Cecil) Rhodes

3d   Choked, all upset, Frankie fails to finish first, thrown from nag (8)
GAROTTED
All reversed (all upset): (Frankie) DETTORi (with no last letter as he fails to finish) and nAG with the first letter removed (first thrown from nAG)

4d   Whitsuntide vacation in Glastonbury landmark building (5)
TOWER
WhitsuntidE‘s outer letters (i.e. its vacation) inside TOR (Glastonbury landmark)

5d   It’s used to conceal DUP’s money transfer (9)
PSEUDONYM
An anagram (transfer) of DUP’S MONEY

6d   North American firm importing hot food over the border (5)
NACHO
N (North) A (American) CO (company, firm) containing (importing) H (hot).  Food from Mexico, i.e. over the border from North America America, United States of

7d   It showcases Pretty Woman star, supporting Greek character (7)
ÉTAGÈRE
GERE (Richard, star of Pretty Woman) following (supporting) ETA (Greek letter)

8d   Libertine, revolutionary French resistance holds king down in river (7,2,4)
MARQUIS DE SADE
MAQUIS (French guerrilla resistance forces) contains (holds) R (king), after which we have SAD (down) inside DEE (river)

9d   Plastic card cut no ice; time to draw on this! (6,7)
CREDIT ACCOUNT
An anagram (plastic) of CARD CUT NO ICE plus T (time).  Another semi&lit

15d   According to the locals, Chiantishire lacks a fashionable current musician (9)
TOSCANINI
TOSCAN[a] (Italian name — so “according to the locals” — for Tuscany, known informally as Chiantishire!) lacks “a” from the clue, followed by IN (fashionable) and I (the symbol for electric current)

17d   Leek tip (4,4)
KEEL OVER
An inverse or wordplay-in-answer clue. KEEL reversed (OVER) gives “leek”.  I’d usually expect some kind of indication of funny business in this type of clue, so the penny-drop moment was extra clangy!

19d   Frankfurt, Essen, Karlsruhe all holding up legislature (7)
KNESSET
FrankfurT, ESSEN, Karlsruhe containing (all holding) in reverse (up) the national legislature of Israel

21d   Determination needed to start this all over again? (7)
RESOLVE
To do this crossword again you would need to RE–SOLVE it

23d   Sky feature no-nonsense Pretty Woman star (5)
ORION
Well, the other Pretty Woman star, should be Julia Roberts, right?  Wrong: we need Roy OR[b]I[s]ON, singer of the song, but with no BS (no-nonsense, abbreviation for BullSomething)

24d   Jack and I visit Ronnie’s brother to make a few changes (5)
REJIG
J (Jack) and I go inside (visit) REG (Kray, Ronnie’s brother)

 

21 comments on “Independent 10,009 by Knut”

  1. Welcome, Kitty! – and thanks for a super blog. You were certainly lucky to get such a great puzzle for your first one.

    I’m with you re your favourites and I had ticks for GAROTTED, PSEUDONYM and CREDIT ACCOUNT, too. I loved the clever exploitation of Pretty Woman.

    Many thanks, as ever, to Knut for the fun.

  2. How lovely to find you here, Kitty, and what a lovely puzzle for your debut as Fifteensquared blogger.   My experience pretty much mirrors yours – easy enough to get started and then a progressively harder challenge in order to finish.

    What a shame the setter didn’t use the cricketing Wilfred of that ilk (one of England’s greatest all-rounders – albeit around a century ago!) instead of Cecil for 2d to make the surface completely relevant.  Nevertheless it is still a great clue.

    I didn’t know the non-Mary quant in 12a, nor the loose-fit clothing in 26a.  I also needed Kitty’s help to understand the relevance of the Pretty Woman star in 23d.

    Choosing a favourite from such an excellent selection is not easy, but I’ll settle for 8d.

    Many thanks to Knut and to Kitty.

     

  3. Always enjoy Knut/Julius and there was a lot to like here.

    Unusually, I’m afraid to say, a lot I didn’t like as well, but that is, of course, a matter of taste.
    For example, I thought the clue for 11a was poor since the most obvious anagram of ALIEN + C followed by R is IN CLEAR meaning ‘uncoded’. The clue gives no hint to use the French form. This held me up in getting 7d and 5d.

    I also felt that there were too many obscurities (I’m sure many will disagree): QUANT (knew Mary), DASHIKI, KNESSET, TOSCANA (although all of these were easy to get).

    The definitions in 27a and 18a also didn’t appeal.

    Failed to parse ORION but felt this was an excellent clue.

    So, a reserved thanks to Knut and a hearty welcome to Kitty to the blogging team.

  4. Knut puzzles are invariably outside of my comfort zone but I had to knuckle down to this one with it marking the debut here of a blogger whose reviews I always admire.   It is so much appreciated when a reviewer goes the extra mile to include links to further information for those who may have encountered obscurities in clues.

    I liked the simple 28a & 17d in this one but nothing else particularly appealed despite my having eventually filled the grid.

    Thanks to Knut and a round of applause for Kitty!

  6. aquatarkus@5 the glib answer to your question is that Chambers says so but then the list of words Chambers has single letter abbreviations for never ceases to amaze me. In this case the setter could have chosen from over 20 possibilities, several even more obscure than lecturer. I know abbreviations are part of the setter’s armoury but used like this they always seem to me to be a bit sneaky. Actually the clue is doubly irritating because strictly speaking Delft is earthenware not china. Small points however in an otherwise excellent puzzle.

  7. Thanks for the blog to Kitty and to those who have commented. Sorry, Hovis…I hope for better luck next time. Jane, I just hope there’ll be a next time.

    I filled this grid on June 23rd 2017 while my son was playing with his 1a during Radiohead’s set at Glastonbury. I wanted to be the first to clue fidget spinner and was disappointed to see Punk beat me to it on 2.12.2017. Eimi replied to my bleat with the date-stamped evidence that Mr Halpern had indeed got there first.

    best wishes to all, Rob/Knut

     

  8. Finished Paul’s Prize in the Guardian and the Inquisitor in the i (apart from the end game) so I was looking for something else. My phone doesn’t usually cope with the independent site, but today it did!

    Now for the puzzle. Didn’t know MAQUIS or DASHIKI or KNESSET but guessed them all. I knew TOR only because it appeared elsewhere very recently.

    Thanks RJ and well done Kitty.

  9. My first Knut (and independent) crossword. Overall quite fun, but, like Hovis, I struggled having entered the entirely reasonable IN CLEAR for 11a – which, of course, crippled the anagram at 5d. ETAGERE and DASHIKI unknown and I failed to parse ORION, so thanks for that Kitty!

  10. @Hovis and @Johninterred

    I have never heard of “in clear”. “En clair” is in both Collins and Chambers as “uncoded”, whereas “in clear” is in neither. Rather like those bureaux de change at the airport are never called foreign exchange offices

  11. Found this one tougher than Knut usually is – FIDGET SPINNER is a lovely clue but I had never heard of it! I was also fighting the Indie software on the phone which doesn’t help and made me realise how much better the Guardian version is.

    Thanks to Knut, and welcome to the 225 stable Kitty

  12. Congratulations on your blogging debut, Kitty.  You certainly drew a nice one for it.

    Most of this went in smoothly although there were a number of answers we got but couldn’t parse.  But we were held up by first putting ‘in clear’ for 11ac which stymied us for 5dn and 7dn.  LOI was DEFT after getting 7dn.

    As for ‘in clear’ as an alternative to ‘en clair’, Nevil Shute’s novel, Landfall, about trials of a secret weapon in wartime has this exchange between two RAF officers:
    “Do you think we ought to let him know?”
    “Send him a code signal by radio, you mean? We can’t send that in clear.”

    A toss-up for CoD between 1ac and 20ac for their topical surfaces.

    Thanks, Knut and Kitty.

  13. Re 6d, I think you’ll find that Mexico is in North America, not over the border from it.  I think what must be meant if that it is over the border from America (i.e., the United States of), though I was confused by the geography implied in the clue when I came across it.

  14. Knut@10. It is in my Collins but not in my Chambers. My Collins is electronic, allowing a search. Otherwise, it may be hard to find at entry 19 under clear as adjective. Like allan@12, I have heard this in wartime sagas. A friend of mine, who knows a lot more about coding than me, has only heard en clair. Shame they are anagrams of each other.

  16. 1A had to be an anagram, but never having heard of an FIDGET SPINNER it was my LOI in this excellent crossword.

    Like Knut, I don’t think I have ever seen”in clear” in print other than as an explanation of en clair, so surprised to see the vastly greater number of entries for the translated (English) version when punched in the computer.  Not an expression I am ever likely to use, but if I did it would be the original (French) one, which is hardly, shall we say, indecipherable.

    Thanks to Knut for a wonderfully entertaining crossword and to debutante Kitty for the blog.

  18. Belated thanks for the welcome and comments.  I was out yesterday, so replying would have been a bit fiddly, but I did check in from time to time.

    Ian SW3 @13 – good point, of course you’re right.  I’ve amended the blog.  Thanks.

  19. Thoroughly enjoyed this; a big ‘thank you’ to Knut. Especially, of course, the cheeky 1a and 20a. I also started with ‘in clear’, but in my world either form is valid – I think I’ve heard both used in technical talk.

  20. Started this yesterday, completed today but then took daughter to go see A Star is Born, so only get to comment now.

    I had bunged in IN CLEAR but not through any massive coding insight. I didn’t know the equity derivatives geek, or Frankie, so thank you Kitty for the enlightenment. I have come across some fidget spinners and i did know Dashiki from a previous solve – nice clue.

    I think my favourite is PSEUDONYM, though like others i certainly enjoyed 1a and 20a. Great stuff, many thanks Knut.

  21. Welcome to the Fifteensquared world of blogging Kitty.

    We only started looking at the puzzle today over a cup of tea this afternoon. Marquis de Sade went in from the enumeration but took a while to parse. Orion went in as well without parsing – thanks for the explanation.

    Thanks to Knut and Kitty.

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