An enjoyable puzzle from Knut today.
However, there are a couple of clues we are concerned about. Judi who appears in 17ac is Judi Dench but she does not spell her name with an ‘e’ at the end. Also in 1d we are not sure about the way that ‘biting’ is used. Are we missing something?
Double definition – Carrie Simmonds is the PM’s current partner. Eileen – you are quite right, Joyce should have referred to Carrie as Ms Symonds. Kathryn’ Dad is correct too – Carrie is the PM’s fiancée.
The Madrid coach is Diego SiMEONE with I changing to O
G (good) RIDDLE (puzzle)
GO OFf (make one turn) missing last letter or ‘almost’ + UPS (parcel firm)
Hidden or ‘covered’ and reversed or ‘retro’ in bUY UK IKea
An anagram of ANNE IS SO – anagrind is ‘excited’
First or ‘beginning’ letters of Second Wave Of Really Dangerous and an anagram of FLOODS CAME – anagrind is ‘terrible’
Bruce BANNER or the Hulk may have had wrinkles or LINES on his HEAD or furrowed brow. We guessed the answer but needed a google search to confirm the link between the Hulk and Banner.
We think this is a reference to M IS JUDiE – the boss in the James Bond movies missing i (not one) around G (key – as in music) but unfortunately the actress spells her name as JUDI DENCH – without the E.
I (current) BERIA (Lavrentiy Beria was chief of the Soviet security and secret police under Stalin during World War II)
COL (colonel – senior officer) LATE (no longer with us)
TEMP (short term worker) in AT &T (US telecom giant)
Hidden and reversed or ‘going west’ in the clue FranK ROY WENdy
Double definition
This appears to be OR (men) inside CGI (animated as in ‘computer-generated imagery’) but the inclusion indicator ‘biting’ feels as if the OR should be outside rather than inside – ‘men bitten by animated dog’?.
An anagram of RUN DRY REJECT ALL – anagrind is ‘suspect’. This made Joyce laugh as she grows redcurrants but often used to have loads left over in the freezer. After a few years she used to make redcurrant jelly to use them up. After another few years, she had so much jelly she gave jars away! Bert suggested that she just got rid of some of them after picking to save all the hassle (or not grow them!). However, we now use them to make our favourite fruit drizzle cake so we don’t have many spare!
ILL (sick) H (husband) U (upper-class) and MOURinho (as in Jose Mourinho – missing half)
hOBOES (tramps) without H (hospital)
An anagram of FISHERMEN CAN NET – anagrind is ‘flounders’
rESENt hOPPINg missing first and last letters or ‘naked’ and reversed or ‘about’
VIN (wine from Bordeaux) DIES (finishes) EL (the in Spanish)
WE (you and I) ARISE (get up) with OM (Oman) inside or ‘boring’
An anagram of TIMID WREN – anagrind is ‘flying’
DExTER (Colin Dexter, crime writer) without or ‘blowing’ X (kiss)
I’M (Knut’s as in Knut is) and alternate letters of PaLlY or ‘every now and again’
Gradely! As per usual.I loved DETER-and the Madrid coach which brought back memories of a pivotal match.
Thanks Knut and B&J
Gradely indeed [I love that word.]
Lack of football knowledge stopped me from parsing SOMEONE [but I did manage ILL HUMOUR].
Like copmus, I loved DETER – and SWORD OF DAMOCLES [great definition], NIPPONESE, MIDWINTER [for the surfaces] and MISJUDGE [despite the spelling – incidentally, Carrie is Ms Symonds 😉 ]
Many thanks to Knut and B and J. [Loved the redcurrant anecdote.]
“Biting” can mean penetrating (as in a biting wind) so I think CORGI can work.
Didn’t know SIMEONE so that was a punt. That Russian guy at 19a was another guess. Strangely, I cannot find GOOF-UP in either of my dictionaries (goof on its own is there).
Couldn’t see where the E came from in 17a and never even considered a misspelling.
Thanks to Knut and Bertandjoyce.
I forgot to say that I’m pretty sure I’ve seen ‘biting’ as an inclusion indicator in the last couple of weeks but I can’t remember where. Hovis’ interpretation works for me.
Thanks, both.
Entertaining puzzle from Knut with a nice contemporary feel. I like footie enough to be missing it right now, but I had to do some online research to understand SOMEONE. DETER was pleasing if only to remind me that Colin Dexter was a keen cryptic crossword fan (as was his creation, Inspector Morse).
And our great leader would want me to point out that Ms Symonds is his fiancée and not just his ‘partner’. Such distinctions are important for a man who’s sired x different children with y different partners.
Bravo, Knut.
Thanks to B&J for the blog and to those who have commented. I’m really sorry for the, er, goof-up with Dame Judi’s name. I’ve no idea how that happened; it isn’t as if I don’t know that her name is spelled like that. The clue was a re-write of an iffy reference to Eric Morley which Eimi rightly rejected, so not my finest hour really.
warmest regards to all from the Black Forest,
Rob/Knut
I’ll join in with ‘gradely’ – as Eileen says, such a splendid word
Thanks to Knut for the usual fun – I did mark on my piece of paper “splendid anagrams” 13a being a fine example
Thanks also to B&J – I’ll swap you some redcurrant jelly for some of the jars of peach jam – I have to make tons of the blooming stuff, and chutney, as early peach tree blossom is much appreciated by Mr CS’s bees
crypticsue – when we have the next S&B in London, I will bring some jelly for you! I like apricot jam but the chutney sounds great!
I was stumped by 4 SIMEONE, despite having all the crossers. I even resorted to gooling Real Madrid to find its coach, little suspecting there was also an Unreal Madrid. I would much prefer it if GK were limited to sensible things like opera. Otherwise, quite enjoyable. Thanks.
A fairly high proportion of proper nouns and adjectives (can you have proper adjectives?), I thought, and surprised nobody has complained about the need for football knowledge, but I found it very entertaining anyway, so thanks Knut and B&J.
We only got SOMEONE, our LOI with the aid of a wordfinder and then guessed at the parsing. And we only got GOOF-UPS after google directed us here. Incidentally, Knut’s alter ego in the FT had ‘parcel firm’ for UPS and ‘wine from Bordeaux’ for VIN, in his puzzle there yesterday. Leaving aside 17ac, we were a bit doubtful about ‘gather’ for COLLATE; to us collating is what you do with your information once you’ve gathered it – but Chambers has ‘to bring together for comparison’ so we’ll let it pass.
Otherwise, a pleasant enough solve. Thanks, Knut and B&J
Well, this is the first time I have completed a crossword on paper without resorting to cheating. My lockdown is complete.
I can’t say I parsed all of the clues.. 17 (obviously), 19 (no idea on the police chief), 1d I was thinking maybe co(mpany) for men but was nowhere near. I parsed 3 but didn’t know the definition, and didn’t spend long enough on trying to work out 7. I’m pretty sure I’d have got there with enough chin rubbing though.
I’ve never been able to resist the urge to just jab random guesses in on the online version before but obviously the manual method requires an amount of certainty to scribble down a character.
I can enjoy my afternoon in the sun now.
I didn’t/don’t mind the footy entries generally because I’m a fan, but I do understand that it must be irksome to quite a few.
Thanks to the setter for the fun, and the blogger for the explanations I missed.
1d: Knut refers to “anmated” as in CGI -animation script used in film making etc. Men being “OR”. Could be said to be the wrong way round, although I had no problem with it.
I, too, did not realise there were two football teams in Madrid and couldn’t parse 4ac (got with a word search).
When I got 16ac, I burst out laughing. Amusing fact. The seventies TV series, the character’s name was David Banner. Urban legend has it the producers thought the name Bruce was too gay.
Look out for the film The Death of Stalin in which Simon Russell Beale gives an amazing performance as Beria. A really nasty character.
Apart from the Judi[e] Dench mistake this was all fine.
I found this crossword slightly more demanding than yesterday’s Julius in the FT.
That is perhaps because this was one of those Knut puzzles that used quite a bit of GK.
SOMEONE (4ac) was my last one in.
For a while, I couldn’t even see a word.
But when Diego Simeone – immensely popular in Madrid – sprang to mind, the penny dropped.
I am not sure whether the clue exactly tells me what to do but I got the idea (which was appealing).
Nice spot by allan_c (and his ‘apprentice’?), the reappearance of ‘parcel firm’ and ‘wine from Bordeaux’.
I would much prefer it if GK were limited to sensible things like opera (Ian SW3 @9).
There was only one football related clue in this crossword and therefore I found this statement a bit too strong. To each their own, though.
I did not have a problem with the ‘biting’ device like it was used here.
However, I agree with those who prefer it the other way round.
Some containment indicators apparently work either way.
It all comes down to the imagery that goes with it.
Many thanks to Bertandjoyce & Knut.
I agree with you Ian SW3, but I fear you and I are very much in a minority 🙁
For every Knut puzzle with elements of what some call ‘lower culture’, there is a Radian crossword with references to ‘the classics’ or Shakespeare.
For every Tyrus puzzle with political digs, there is a clean Klingsor crossword with references to the world of classical music.
And so it should be, in my opinion. They should co-exist.
What strikes me in Ian’s remark is the wish to have the GK of crosswords being ‘limited to sensible things’. A wish to ideally reject this co-existence.
For a huge part of the population sports events and pop(ular) music are really important.
Whether you like it or not, they are part of today’s Society.
It’s the eternal battle between lower and higher culture – which shouldn’t be a battle (in my opinion). And certainly not in the world of crosswords.
In that sense, I think, The Independent does a great job.
Of course there should be a mix of the esoteric and the popular, Sil. I suspect that Ian’s final remark wasn’t intended to be taken absolutely seriously. I know mine wasn’t.
Still can’t stand football, though…
Sil and 15 and 17
I totally agree with you but, just for the record, there are two football-related clues in this puzzle [4ac and 3dn] but, as I said @2, even I knew the second.]
got to this late, missed the football references but i would have missed any opera too. I think that makes me centrist.
Many thanks Knut, at least you know I got around to it. Kikuyu brought back memories of Kenya. where i lived as a child, and i remember the grass (not that kind)
and thank you B&J