Excellent crossword today from Knut, which occupied me for quite a while until its secrets were revealed, but that’s just my incompetence: everything was fair and there were plenty of very nice clues.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
Well I’ve looked, but I can’t see anything special happening here. Is it a straight crossword?
| Across | ||
| 1 | PASS THE BUCK | Dodge to overtake another old Detroit car (no longer independent) (4,3,4) |
| pass the Bu{I}ck | ||
| 9 | RINGGIT | Call Umunna’s people about Asian cash (7) |
| ring (TIG)rev. — the ringgit is the currency of Singapore and TIG stands for The Independent Group; Chuka Umunna was a Labour MP who resigned to form TIG | ||
| 10 | RISOTTO | Gentleman returned extravagant starter of opulent rice dish (7) |
| (sir)rev. OTT o{pulent} | ||
| 11 | NEOCON | A right winger, Sebastian’s taken aback by Macron’s rejection (6) |
| (Coe)rev. in non, no as a Frenchman like Macron would say | ||
| 12 | ADHESION | Tackiness of commercial featuring that bloke clutching Oscar (8) |
| ad (he’s i(O)n) — if a film or play etc features that bloke, he’s in it | ||
| 14 | EVANGELIST | Zealous believer of Everlasting King taken out and shot (10) |
| (Eve(R)lasting)* | ||
| 15 | USES | Takes 22 tablets (4) |
| US E’s, 22 being American = US | ||
| 17 | CAKE | It might have layers of cracknel occasionally (4) |
| c{r}a{c}k{n}e{l} | ||
| 19 | WAGE FREEZE | Austerity at work, with a dodgy geezer squeezing European head of finance? (4,6) |
| w a *(geezer) round (E f{inance}) — at work in the sense of at one’s place of work | ||
| 22 | AMERICAN | From across the pond, a chap touring Morecambe … (8) |
| A m(Eric)an — I wonder if in 100 years Eric Morecambe and Seb Coe (above) will be as forgotten as Herbert Beerbohm Tree | ||
| 23 | BENGAL | … Bay area with British nurse girlfriend (6) |
| B EN [Enrolled Nurse] gal — Bay of Bengal | ||
| 25 | GIMMICK | 1000 plus 1, 2001, 100, 1000; it’s all a stunt! (7) |
| G [grand] 1 MMI C K — 1000 can be K, M or G | ||
| 26 | BITCOIN | Used old-fashioned method to validate new money (7) |
| bit coin — an old-fashioned method of validating the purity of a gold coin: one version at least has it that the teeth leave slight marks in pure gold | ||
| 27 | MISS THE MARK | Fail to get nostalgic for former currency (4,3,4) |
| 2 defs, the second one referring to the Deutschmark | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PANDORA | Shipping line registered a toxic container carrier (7) |
| P&O R a — referring to Pandora’s box | ||
| 2 | ST GEORGE | A cross chap, small-time director Nicolas gets upset over empty gesture (2,6) |
| s t (Roeg)rev. g{estur}e — a cross chap in that he gave his name to a cross | ||
| 3 | TATE | Rubbish English gallery (4) |
| tat E | ||
| 4 | EURO DISNEY | Brussels is probing Trotter’s Mickey Mouse business (4,6) |
| EU Rod(is)ney — Del Trotter’s brother in Only Fools and Horses is called Rodney | ||
| 5 | ULSTER | Mogul’s territory includes historically trouble province (6) |
| Hidden in MogUL’S TERritory — everything I can see says ‘trouble’ when you’d expect ‘troubled’ — my guess is that this is just a slip. If so, then oh dear. | ||
| 6 | KITTIES | Christopher secures pooled funds (7) |
| Kit ties | ||
| 7 | FRANK EXCHANGE | Diplomatic row rumoured to be something to do with Swiss trade (5,8) |
| “franc exchange” — I don’t quite see why a frank exchange is a diplomatic row: I thought it was a euphemism for the very opposite, an angry row | ||
| 8 | POUND STERLING | Tender Ezra’s curly ringlet (5,8) |
| Pound’s [as in Ezra Pound, the poet] *(ringlet) — tender as in legal tender | ||
| 13 | FLEA MARKET | Rock/metal freak selling old albums here? (4,6) |
| *(metal freak), with some &littery | ||
| 16 | GREEN TEA | Leaves awkward teenager … (5,3) |
| *(teenager) — tea leaves | ||
| 18 | KEEP MUM | … to take care of mother (don’t mention it) (4,3) |
| keep [take care of] Mum | ||
| 20 | EGG YOLK | 17 ingredient non-starters for long-legged people? (3,4) |
| 17 being cake, the definition is ‘cake ingredient’ — {l}eggy {f}olk | ||
| 21 | SIRIUS | Russia endlessly struggling to attract international star (6) |
| I in (Russi{a})* | ||
| 24 | OBOE | Old Alfie’s instrument (4) |
| o Boe, ref. Alfie Boe, although I confidently and early entered Bass, thinking of the Bootsie and Snudge of my youth | ||
*anagram
Around the edges we have:
Pass the BUCK
Miss the MARK
FRANK [sic] exchange
POUND Sterling
.. and a few others elsewhere in the grid.
“Frank exchange of views” is a euphemism for a blazing row, so might be a “diplomatic” way of describing it.
Thanks to Knut for an enjoyable crossword – I noticed the ’round the edge’ theme quite early on too
Thanks also to John
Thanks for a good blog, John.
I thought to begin with that this was a straight crossword but had already noted it as one of the best Knut puzzle I’ve solved, for the sheer classiness of so many of the clues, for their construction, which I had great fun in deconstructing, or their surfaces, or, in many cases, both.
I particularly enjoyed working out RISOTTO, NEOCON, EVANGELIST, ST GEORGE and POUND STERLING and EURO DISNEY and EGG YOLK made me smile. I think PANDORA is my top favourite, for its surface and clever definition.
I didn’t know RINGGIT but Knut played fair and clued it straightforwardly.
Many thanks, Knut – I loved it!
[In case you missed it, anyone who enjoyed this puzzle might be interested in this announcement from last week. ]
Much as Eileen said although I had EGG YOLK and BITCOIN as my top favourites and I did know RINGGIT but didn’t get the TIG bit.
Maybe it’s been discussed before but does anyone else find the Indy clue layout difficult to read? And why do the repeat linked clues (like 10/26 yesterday) after each other and out of sequence? It’s the reason I leave the Indy until last (unless it’s a Klingsor Eileen 🙂 ).
Thanks to Knut and John.
Whiteking@5: Yes, I find the layout difficult to read, so much so that I copy and paste the clues into my wordprocessor and re-format them. As for the repetition of linked clues – it’s because of the rubbish software the Indy uses.
I liked the theme, particularly BITCOIN and the BU{I}CK in PASS THE BUCK. I’m another to have confidently entered ‘Bass’ for 24d, remembering the days of B&W TV. I’m afraid I’d NHO Alfie Boe so something learned for the future.
Thanks to John and Knut
Entertaining crossword; I particularly liked the cross chap.
WhiteKing @5 and allan_c @6; I don’t have any problems reading the clues on a PC – are you using tablets?
Thanks Knut and John.
Robi@8 – I print it off from a pc, and I probably didn’t word my comment clearly. I can read it ok, it’s just that the layout of 6 narrow columns rather than 2 half page ones makes it harder to absorb rather than read the clue. Maybe it’s just the way my brain works – and if it bothers me enough I’ll adopt allan_c’s solution.
Thank you, Knut and to John for the blog. A great puzzle! My favourite is Pandora, very clever.
I noticed the currency theme and having got 27ac early it helped with the others round the edge. Just couldn’t see 1dn without a word search. And I was held up with 9ac by getting Umanna mixed up with Oumuamua , the interstellar space rock that was in the news a while back.
Eileen @4, my copy of Knut’s nifty book arrived this morning and it looks like it’s going to be great fun.
Thanks to all.