A themed puzzle from Qaos this morning.
Non-football fans may struggle witht his one, as some of the wordplay is difficult if you don’t know that you are looking for a club nicknmae, especially in the clues where ellipses are used.
As a football fan, I found it not too bad, although some of the nicknames are a little obscure. I have highlighted theme entries in the grid below.
As for the clues themselves, most were excellent, many were a little harder than average, but all were gettable. I didn’t like 14dn, but apart from that, I thought Qaos did well to get so many themed answers in and any awkwardness in the clues was due to this slef-imposed constraint.
Thanks, Qaos.
| Across | ||
| 1 | RED DEVILS | Display unit of wine and spirits (3,6) |
| RED (“wine”) and DEVILS (“spirits”)
The Red Devils are a parachute display team, and also Manchester United’s nickname. |
||
| 6 | LADS | Young men take pounds over promotion (4) |
| Ls (“pounds”) over AD (“promotion”)
Sunderland are known as the Lads |
||
| 8 | SEAGULLS | Guess all exotic birds … (8) |
| *(guess all) Brighton & Hove Albion are the Seagulls. | ||
| 9 | ROBINS | … on releasing 500 others (6) |
| *(on birs) where BIR(d)S is “others” relating to the previous clue, releasing D (500)
The Robins is a common nickname for teams that play in red (Bristol City, Charlton Athletic etc) |
||
| 10 | REBELS | Staggers around Britain to find revolutionaries … (6) |
| REELS (“staggers”) around B (Britian)
Slough Town are the Rebels (don’t think any major teams have that moniker) |
||
| 11 | CHERRIES | … collecting ’orrid skinless English fruit (8) |
| CHES (“revolutionaries”) collecting (o)RRI(d) E(nglish)
I can only think of one revolutionary named Che (Guevara), so I don’t think this clue works. AFC Bournemouth are known as the Cherries. |
||
| 12 | TEA SET | Crockery a setter used right away (3,3) |
| *(a sette) (A SETTE(r) with R(ight) away) | ||
| 15 | SADDLERS | They make seats for small snakes to carry 6 down (8) |
| S (small) ADDERS (“snakes”) to carry L (liberal) (the answer to 6 dn)
The Saddlers are Walsall. |
||
| 16 | PILGRIMS | Good girls excited to hug male travellers (8) |
| PI (“good”) +*(girls) to hug M (male)
The Pilgrims could be Plymouth Argyle or Boston Town. |
||
| 19 | RESIGN | Rule over Sweden then quit (6) |
| REIGN (“rule”) over S (Sweden) | ||
| 21 | ETON BLUE | Colour of letter turned down (4,4) |
| <=NOTE (“letter” turned) + BLUE (“down”) | ||
| 22 | SHREWS | After raising internal temperature, warders become animals (6) |
| SCREWS (“warders”) becomes SHREWS (“animals”) when the C (cold) of SCREWS becomes H (hot), so the “internal temperature” riases.
Shrewsbury Town’s nickname is The Shrews. |
||
| 24 | ANGELS | Advanced new colloids, they work wonders (6) |
| A (advanced) + N (new) + GELS (“colloids”)
Only example of Angels as a club nickname that I can find is Tonbridge Angels (never heard of them), so more of a contraction than a nickname. |
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| 25 | SLUMMING | Mum’s upset to wear medical support when roughing it (8) |
| *(mum) to wear SLING (“medical support”) | ||
| 26 | BEES | Social workers said to have outstanding knees? (4) |
| Refers to the BEE’S KNEES (something “outstanding”)
The Bees could be a few clubs, including Brentford and Barnet. |
||
| 27 | CLASSISTS | Could luxury tops help society’s snobs? (9) |
| C(ould) L(uxury) [tops] + ASSIST (“help”) + S(society) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | REEVE | Old official always rises outside, close to sunrise (5) |
| <=EVER (“always” rises) outside [close to] (sunris)E | ||
| 2 | DAGGERS | Iconic cricket commentator supports a large number of stickers (7) |
| AGGERS (nicknmae of ex-cricketer, now a commentator, Jonathan Agnew) supports D (500, so “a large number”)
The Daggers are Dagenham & Redbridge. |
||
| 3 | ELLIS | Doubly hard to leave diabolical island (5) |
| (h)ELLIS(h) (“diabolical” with H removed twice, ie “doubly H(ard) has left”)
Ellis Island is an island in New York where new immigrants to the US were processed until 1954. |
||
| 4 | INSECTS | Perhaps flies home etc recklessly within seconds (7) |
| IN (“home”) + *(etc) within SS (seconds) | ||
| 5 | SURRENDER | Posh, posh car breaks exhaust, losing power — Queen to give up (9) |
| U (“posh”) + RR (Rolls Royce, so “posh car”) breaks S(p)END (“exhaust”, losing P(ower)) + ER (“queen”) | ||
| 6 | LIBERAL | Generous party member … (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | DANCE DRUG | … plays dangerous CD, so drops an E, perhaps (5,4) |
| *(dangerus cd) (“dangerous CD” with “so’ dropped) | ||
| 13 | EXISTENCE | Being around 6 + 10 + 100 dividing 7 evenly? (9) |
| <=SIX (around 6)+ TEN + C (“100”) dividing (s)E(v)E(n) [evenly], so E(XIS-TEN-C)E | ||
| 14 | TRIPLE SEC | Drink in a twentieth of a minute? (6,3) |
| A twentienth of a minute is three seconds, which is roughly speaking TRIPLE SEC.
Not keen on this (clue leads to TRIPLE SECS rather than TRIPLE SEC) |
||
| 17 | GUNNERS | They fire doctor, ensuring I go (7) |
| *(ensurng) (ENSUR(i)NG after I goes)
Arsenal are commonly referred to as The Gunners. |
||
| 18 | SHEESHA | It’s smoked after playing the Ashes without test opener (7) |
| *(he ashes) ((t)HE ASHES without T(est) opener) | ||
| 20 | SHRIMPS | Puny people like seafood (7) |
| Double definition, although I don’t like the “like” as a link word.
The Shrimps are Morecambe. |
||
| 22 | SPURS | Special amount of money docked for incentives (5) |
| S (special) + PURS(e) (“amount of money” docked)
Tottenham Hotspur are the Spurs. |
||
| 23 | WINGS | First to last rock band (5) |
| SWING (“rock”) with its first letter (S) moved to last becomes WING-S (“band” of the 70s and 80s formed by Paul McCartney) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Qaos and loonapick
I didn’t enjoy this. No idea of the theme. A DNF, as I had DISCO DRUG instead of DANCE DRUG – apart from a missing I (given as “a”?) it works – so no chance with ROBINS and CHERRIES. I’d never heard of SHEESHA, but the anagram was obvious – one of several subtractive ones today.
AGGERS is pretty obscure GK!
There has been discussion about ellipses recently. Both uses here do mean the clues were linked (though, as I said, I wasn’t able to solve either second one).
Qaos very helpfully tweeted “you have to be on the ball…” and I saw it before looking at the crossword. My first In was Seagulls and being an avid football fan the rest was a kickabout in the park:)
Unlike Loonapick though, my favourite today was the drink at 14d.
Thanks all.
Thanks Qaos and loonapick
Wel,l I did enjoy this, finding it quite easy to begin with (5 across clues solved in the first run through). I spotted the theme , so a wiki list helped with a couple later on (ROBINS and CHERRIES, as it happens, muffin). Quite amazing Qaos has packed in so many teams.
LOI CLASSISTS, unknown to me.
I would have struggled with this if I was not familiar with football club nicknames, and found some of the parsing too complex to be fun.
Thought I’d warm up with the Quick Crossword first today but an editorial slip up meant that 14 ac there had the clue and the answer the wrong way round. A DNF therefore. Found this a trial too, though glad I had a bit of cricket knowledge and knew about Aggers at 2 down here…
Thanks both. Qaos could have found room for my local club, the Hornets – maybe 4d covers them
Thanks Qaos and loonapick.
I didn’t see the theme until I looked for one after completing the crossword, but it still didn’t seem all that hard for Qaos, who often defeats me. I hadn’t parsed ROBINS – thanks loonapick. AGGERS might be obscure if you don’t follow cricket, but the clue is pretty explicit (‘iconic cricket commentator’) so not difficult to solve if you have access to Google. Admittedly I’m in the camp of those who are happy with GK, even if obscure, in crosswords. I don’t agree with loonapick’s objection to TRIPLE SEC – you can, for example, refer to a triple measure (not measures) meaning 3 measures, so for me triple sec works for 3 seconds.
Thank you loonapick for the extra elucidation.
A couple I couldn’t get and missed the theme.
Pleased to have pieced together EXISTENCE so I’m making this my favourite
Didn’t spot the theme (I almost never do), which made it more of a struggle than it should have been. Eventually got 9ac from the crossers, but couldn’t parse it, and even with your helpful blog it seems a weird clue: “others” doing double duty as both definition and to indicate “birds” as an indirect anagram, and no anagram indicator that I can see? Or is it using exotic in the previous clue as the anagram indicator, and birds in the previous clue as the fodder? In which case is “Guess all” in the previous clue doing something here too, or are we just supposed to ignore that for the second clue?
Completely stumped.
I don’t follow football (soccer) closely but could still spot the theme easily enough. Thanks for explaining some of the more obscure nicknames. I suppose Jonathan Agnew is now an ‘Iconic cricket commentator’ though I remember when he was but a boy and was thinking first of John Arlott.
Missed the parsing of ROBINS and SHEESHA goes into the new words file.
Thanks to Qaos and loonapick.
Also WINGS 23d is the nickname of Welling FC , which together with Tonbridge Angels suggests that Qaos has some interest in S E England non-league football.
Thanks Loonapick – and thanks to Qaos for a spiffing workout (with one or two anomalous gimmes along the way). I think we could, at a pinch, add “blue” (21ac) to the theme as the word features more than once in UK team nicknames? Thought it was a bit unfair to designate classists as snobs (27 ac) but I should not quibble about such a clever piece of work.
Everything I know about UK football I’ve learned from doing Guardian crosswords–and that was definitely not enough for me to spot the theme or even realize that there was one. However, that didn’t really matter, since most clues stood up perfectly well on their own. The two exceptions were 1A and 2D, which required UK-specific general knowledge for both parts of the clue. In 1A, that didn’t bother me at all, since “Red Devils” is such a popular name for various teams that I figured it must be a display team somewhere. In 2D, with no idea about cricket or the themed answer, I didn’t get “stickers” as “something you stick into things” and so guessed DAGGERS as the only thing that would fit, but like beaulieu I don’t mind a little GK here and there. I really liked 8a, with a clue containing “exotic birds” ending up with something so ubiquitous!
Knew the aerialist team from previous cws but had no idea of the theme. The clues must be alright though because they all worked out. Slowest to get were shrews, shrimps (d’oh) and LOI angels which, knowing the colloid suspension but not the gel, was a bung in and look up. Harder than yesterday’s Vulcan, but no too. Thanks Qaos and Loonapick.
.. oh yes and being a cricket fan I know Aggers [and Tuffers, et al] tho daggers would be hard i you didn’t.
if you didn’t
Thanks, loonapick.
I recognised quite a few of the nicknames but not knowing the rest didn’t hinder the solve nor detract from the enjoyment.
I know I’ve given this link re AGGERS before but you don’t have to follow it and some may not have heard it.
Many thanks for the puzzle, Qaos – most enjoyable.
Peterborough ((nickname POSH) figure in the clue for 5d.
Wondered if there was a band called the TONES for 23d. Not a cricket fan, but AGGERS has been used in the past – 27661 by Picaroon last November.
Thanks Qaos and loonapick
2D is almost a double reference, as former cricketer, now commentator, Charles Dagnall is referred to as Daggers.
Not sure whether there is an actual medical or psychological condition that results in ‘theme blindness’, but I certainly had an attack this morning. Other than that I was a little confused by 1d as I seem to recall that the commentator Charles Dagnall is referred to as ‘Daggers’ by his colleagues. Whether he is as ‘iconic’ as Jonathan Agnew is perhaps debatable. Many thanks to Qaos for a relatively gentle workout and to Loonapick for what might be considered a slightly unhealthy knowledge of football club nicknames.
Sorry Simon S, obviously crossed
I missed the theme of course, though spotting it wouldn’t have helped as I don’t know most of the nicknames.
Some troublesome clues here:
‘Che’ is a slang term approximately equivalent to ‘man’ or ‘guy’. It’s very common in Argentina and Uruguay and has nothing whatever to do with politics. Ernesto Guevara was called Che by his friends because he was Argentinian, that’s all. CHES as a plural makes no sense whatever when clued as ‘revolutionaries’. It could make sense if it meant ‘Argentine lads’, but that would be rather obscure.
Hadn’t heard of ETON BLUE, and it’s not in Chambers.
Also, what is the anagrind in 9a?
I had no idea there was a theme to this puzzle. Football? I have no idea about it anywhere in the world.
I liked SEAGULLS because I thought it was funny to describe them as exotic birds. Parsing of CHERRIES was amusing.
New for me was Red Devils – never heard that phrase before, and could not find it in my dictionary.
I could not parse 7d, 9a, 25a, and failed to solve 2d, 21a, 17d.
Thanks B+S.
i didn’t notice the theme at all! I suppose that’s more likely if one knows nothing about football, though to prove I don’t discriminate against any particular sport, the only one I had a problem with was 2d…
I take it you mean Association Football?
Thanks to Qaos and loonapick.
As a 17dn fan I cottoned on to the theme pretty quickly. I thought briefly that 22dn might be Blues, but it was of course another London rival.
Even so, a lot of the nicknames were unknown to me, so I had to rely on the wordplay.
Thanks to Qaos and loonapick. As a follower of football (not necessarily avid) this was a very steady solve for me. I picked up on the theme early on which meant in places I knew the answer and just needed to work out why it was the answer. I found the bottome more tricky than the top half with Angels, shrews and wings last ones in. On reflection shares and wings along with Eton blue and Ellis were my favourite clues. Thanks again to Qaos and loonapick.
Completely failed to spot the theme, maybe because I have no interest in football, whether association, American, Australian, or rugby. Didn’t prevent me finishing and parsing a clearly clued crossword. I have no problem with TRIPLE SEC, in fact, to me, this seems to make more sense than “triple secs”. It is, after all, a single second that you triple.
As usual, many thanks to Qaos and Loonapick.
poc@23, the anagrind for both birds is exotic.
Found this a little tricky at first, but the theme definitely helped. Must be getting old if Aggers is considered iconic…
Thanks to Qaos and loonapick
Now John Arlott, he was iconic…
I understand Slough Town’s nickname “The Rebels” is a rejoinder to local rivals Windsor Football Club, who are known as “The Royalists”.
As a football fan I am embarrassed about how long it took me to spot the theme. Enjoyed it but needed help with parsing 5 dn. Aggers has reached iconic status IMHO.
English football and cricket are in territory unknown to me, so I didn’t know either Aggers or any of the team nicknames, but I got there anyway. I consider that an indication that the puzzle was well constructed. Several answers went in based on wordplay and crossers and sometimes from crossers alone, as I had to come here for the parsing of a few. The connected clues at 8-9a and 10-11a are pushing the envelope a bit (and no, “Ches” doesn’t really work), but fair nonetheless. Thanks to Qaos and Loonapick.
John@26
to prove how little I know about football in any shape or form, I do not even understand what Association Football is
Thanks to loonapick and Qaos
Good fun this, especially the linked 8 & 9a. LOI 22d which is odd, as I’m about to go and see them play 8a. Must dash.
Slow to the party today – busy working on the Easter special, so this was a nice change of pace. Not because it was easier (if anything, the clues in the Easter crossword were straightforward for the most part) but just a new way of thinking. A lot of these clues needed a second or third reading before I made any sense of them and then things clicked into place. I could not parse the ellipsis ones which were novel and, using the same method in both, I thought a fair and inventive way to con me. I feel happily beaten by those – though I guessed right answers from the crossers. I am another one who was not so bothered by the theme and just solved the clues.
Thanks Qaos – good to see you back on the numbers, and Loonapick for the unravelling.
I did this last night; I did see the football connection early on, but it was no help as I don’t really follow the sport. Due to saturation even in American sports media, I had of course heard of Red Devils, Gunners, and Spurs; I assumed that with all the other words ending in S, nearly all had to be football teams. Without the help of the theme, the puzzle was difficult but doable.
Over here, Angels in a sports context of course brings to mind the Anaheim nine, who are probably way more famous if the whole world is taken into account.
oh dear a sporting theme. I wondered if there were football references when I noticed SPURS and GUNNERS but I didn’t know the others. I could have googled but I simply couldn’t be bothered. I did spot dAGGERS despite disliking cricket even more than football. However,this was mostly enjoyable despite the above. I liked REEVE which was FOI. I remember learning that the term Shire reeve is the origin of the word sheriff. Amazing the trivia one retains.
Thanks Qaos.
[Michelle @36: Association Football is the full name of “football played by Association rules.” In English schoolboy slang, the “association” bit got shortened to soccer, in the same way that “football played by Rugby School rules” got shortened to rugger. There are two flavors of rugby–rugby league and rugby union, but that’s a topic for another day.
[American-style football is called, abroad, either American football or gridiron football. 125 years ago it looked a lot like rugby, but the games had diverged by the time the NCAA first wrote up its football rules.]
Agree with some of the criticisms. 9A was more than ‘outside the envelope’ IMHO it was in a letter to someone else entirely! Lost faith with this one and resorted to reveal. Themes are no good when the setter has to twist things that far.
Thanks both,
For once I spotted the theme, but it didn’t help much. My Cod was ‘existence’. 10 and 11 ac could have been fixed by using ‘revolutionary’s’ instead of ‘revolutionaries’. Perhaps a sub-editor is to blame.
Anyone else have HIGGLERS instead of PILGRIMS? Stupid of me – I did wonder about the resulting TREBLE SEC – but at least a new word for me
[Johncox @44, Miss Lou?]
Given how frequently imps seem to feature in cryptics, I’m surprised the newly crowned champions of Division Two didn’t make it in here. This crossword represents yet another example of me failing to spot what should’ve been an obvious theme.
Thanks to Loonapick and to Qaos. Amused to see some of my fellow setters still attempting a Qaos puzzle without realising there may be a theme !! Sadly I had no time at all yesterday and couldn’t afford more than an hour today – however once I had RED DEVILS and SEAGULLS it was obvious what the theme was going to be. Being a cricket addict, Aggers came easily too and DAGGERS was local knowledge from my formative years. Thank you Qaos for a slightly more accessible theme than recent ones !
I really didn’t like the cluing for 9ac. Not only is ‘birds’ required from 8ac as anagram fodder, but the anagrind is doing double duty from the other clue as well!