I haven’t blogged a Knut for some time, maybe for too much time. There were several anagrams in the clues, which made it less demanding than I remember things being in the past.
Definitions in goldenrod, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics. Actually goldenrod is rather pale and you may have trouble reading the definitions. But too late now. My apologies.
Is there a military theme (SNAFU, AWOL, top brass, unit)? Probably not, but there seems to be something going on.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BRASSED OFF | Fed up with money leaving, putting the squeeze on education (7,3) |
| brass (ed) off — brass = money, off = leaving | ||
| 7 | AWOL | American wife over 50 having done a runner? (4) |
| A w o L — an army expression standing for ‘absent without leave’ | ||
| 9 | ETNA | Italian hot-head rejecting opening stake (4) |
| (ante)rev. — the volcano Etna | ||
| 10 | ESTRANGING | Cutting ties with European throttling missing pupil (10) |
| E strang{L}ing — I have seen criticism of L = learner driver = learner = pupil, but it’s quite widespread | ||
| 11 | OFQUAL | Bombproof quality insulating regulator (6) |
| Hidden in BombproOF QUALity — Ofqual (The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation) is the regulator that is supposed to make sure that qualifications are up to standard | ||
| 12 | TACK ROOM | Nail to secure back bit of stable (4,4) |
| tack (moor)rev. — tack = nail | ||
| 13 | CASHES IN | Exploits cricket’s principal trophy when batting (6,2) |
| c{ricket} Ashes in — Ashes = trophy; the fact that it’s arguably cricket’s principal trophy is irrelevant to the wordplay | ||
| 15 | TALL | High temperature? Totally (4) |
| t all | ||
| 17 | FAIL | Feasible, occasionally, to come up short (4) |
| f{e}a{s}i{b}l{e} | ||
| 19 | INHUMANE | Drone – boring, senseless, cruel (8) |
| in(hum)ane — hum = drone, which is boring (ie going inside) inane [senseless] — some might say that it’s boring senseless rather than boring, senseless, but then others say that in a clue we should ignore punctuation | ||
| 22 | GET WRONG | ERG: nowt affected Gavin’s first blunder (3,5) |
| (ERG: nowt)* G{avin} — is something going on here that I fail to see? It seems that ERG stands for European Research Group, whose connection with Gavin is a mystery to me | ||
| 23 | MOULTS | Doctor, last month, son loses hair (6) |
| MO ult s — in all my long years I have never come across ‘ult’ in a business letter (only in crosswords), but it means last month as opposed to this one or the next | ||
| 25 | DEATH KNELL | The King enters: “Let Handel composition be the last notes I’ll hear” (5,5) |
| (Let Handel)* round K — and in line with what I said at 19ac we need to ignore the colon | ||
| 26 | UNIT | One upper-class idiot (4) |
| U nit | ||
| 27 | TSAR | Sailor transporting Saint Nicholas to Russia? (4) |
| t(S)ar — ref Tsar Nicholas of Russia | ||
| 28 | PUT ASUNDER | Unhappily, Ant pursued intention to divorce (3,7) |
| *(Ant pursued) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | RATAFIA | Betray Cosa Nostra, having ripped off leader’s liqueur (7) |
| rat {M}afia | ||
| 3 | SNAFU | Usual chaos of university supporters getting upset (5) |
| (u fans)rev. — as I said in a blog only the other day, it euphemistically stands for ‘Situation Normal, All Fouled Up’ — another army expression | ||
| 4 | EYEGLASS | Lens used to observe ocular prosthesis having exchanged components (8) |
| glass eye with the two words exchanged — a glass eye is an ocular prosthesis | ||
| 5 | OUTSTANDING DEBT | Brilliant teacher turned up on time, which attracts interest (11,4) |
| outstanding (B.Ed)rev. t | ||
| 6 | FIASCO | Grand Prix race track in Berkshire unfinished? What a debacle! (6) |
| F1 Asco{t} — the race track in Berkshire is a horse race track in Berkshire | ||
| 7 | ALGORITHM | Might oral be getting reviewed because of this? (9) |
| (Might oral)* — sort of &lit. | ||
| 8 | OWN GOAL | Error that hurt Logan, unfortunately (3,4) |
| ow! (Logan)* | ||
| 14 | HOLD WATER | Novel Dahl wrote to stand up to examination (4,5) |
| *(Dahl wrote) | ||
| 16 | SHAMBLES | Quiet stroll on small street in York (8) |
| sh amble s — this is The Shambles | ||
| 18 | A-LEVELS | Five English large beers outside? A challenge for 18 year-olds! (1-6) |
| ale(V E l)s | ||
| 20 | NITRIDE | I gather Bevan tasted chemical compound (7) |
| “Nye tried” — ref Aneurin Bevan (Nye Bevan) | ||
| 21 | COCK-UP | Terrible mistake getting into flipping cheap UK cocaine (4-2) |
| Hidden reversed in cheaP UK COCaine | ||
| 24 | U-TURN | U-boat evacuated vessel making a sudden change of course (1-4) |
| U{-boa}t urn | ||
I noticed a number of clues indicating failure: FAIL, GET WRONG, SNAFU, COCK-UP etc etc, so I thought this might be the theme, but don’t know if they’re meant to refer to the exam related clues A-LEVELS and OFQUAL.
Not too demanding but RATAFIA was new and I had to guess OFQUAL from ‘Ofsted’ which has appeared before. I was too lazy to bother much about the anagram fodder for 22a but looking at it, I don’t know what ERG is meant to indicate. Favourites were the ‘Nicholas to Russia?’ def for 27a, the surface for A-LEVELS and the NITRIDE homophone, my last in.
Thanks to Knut and to John
I didnt know of OFQUAL but the clue held my hand to guide me
Same with SHAMBLES-and here you are with a great pic.
I liked Nye tried-very cool clue
It was all enjoyable
Thanks to John and Sheffield Lad
The theme is clearly the A LEVELS FIASCO with lots of related solutions: SNAFU, ALGORITHM, COCK UP, OFQUAL, SHAMBLES, U TURN and, perhaps, OWN GOAL, GET WRONG, HOLD WATER, INHUMANE, BRASSED OFF (many of which may well have been said in relation to this fiasco).
Thanks for blogging, John (yes, the colour you’ve chosen is too pale to be easily legible).
I’m not great with theme spotting, but it was evident pretty quickly that the recent omnishambles with the exam results was to the fore here. And it’s not unknown for Knut to wade into the political field in his crosswords. I think A-LEVELS and OFQUAL give you the context; then you could include COCK-UP, SNAFU, FAIL, GET WRONG, FIASCO, ALGORITHM, OWN GOAL and U-TURN as being part of the bigger picture.
It should have resulted in the DEATH KNELL (professionally at least) for Gavin Williamson, but the idea of ministerial responsibility seems an alien concept in a government led (I use the word in its broadest sense) by Mr Johnson.
Great puzzle – really enjoyed it, and the theme. Thanks to Knut too.
Hovis beat me to it by a nanosecond (or should we get an algorithm to decide who came top in the comments race? I’m from a less well-off background and went to state school).
Let’s call it a draw, KD 🙂 Your post was longer than mine so you probably started first.
Hovis and K’s D – between you, you’ve done a great job and covered everything, I think: an honourable draw.
Knut has excelled himself, I think – and that’s saying something. I’m afraid the full brilliance of this puzzle might be lost on non-UK solvers but it might be worth their while to look up some background to the omnishambles.
I have ticks against more clues than not, so no hope of listing them all but I would like to pick out DEATH KNELL and TSAR, both excellent construction and surfaces. The clue for EYEGLASS looked daunting but I laughed when the penny dropped.
Huge thanks to Rob for getting this out with such speed and for going some way to mitigating the tragedy – and thanks for the blog, John.
As Eileen says, as the master of topical themes, Knut has really excelled himself with this one. The clue for eyeglass not only made me laugh but ended up as my top favourite in a long list of potential winners
Thanks to Knut and to John
Thanks to commenters, who pointed out the obvious. But I don’t think anyone mentioned that Gavin Williamson is referenced in the anagram fodder for the ERG clue. Now someone just has to point out what ERG really means.
Was it really a great pic of The Shambles in the Wikipedia article? Or did copmus@2 mean to have a link which disappeared?
Good fun on a theme that definitely wasn’t. I enjoyed AWOL BRASSED OFF TSAR and CASHES IN especially. Failed to parse the teacher, so thanks to John, and of course to Knut.
Didn’t see the theme until I’d finished the grid with BED> my last bit in as the reversal for teacher in 5dn. Even with A LEVELS, OFQUAL, COCK UP, U TURN etc. etc. When I looked at the end it obviously absolutely smashed me in the face. Not an inkling until then though.
I did notice SNAFU appearing again after an outing from Serpent, which it turns out John also blogged.
Lovely, clever crossword and entertaining blog as always from John. Thanks to both he and Knut.
Brilliant puzzle – thanks Knut.
John – ERG stands for European Reform Group. Bert is trying to think of a polite name for the ‘dinosaurs’ in the Tory party whilst Joyce is typing but he still hasn’t come up with something that will be accepted on the blog.
Everything else to commend the puzzle has been said already.
Thanks John and Knut – keep ‘em coming please! Bert wanted me to type keep ‘em Cumming but I refused.
Many thanks for the blog, John and thanks to those who have posted. I was surprised to see the comment in the intro about anagrams – I’ve sinned much more lavishly than this, I can tell you – but I suppose there is a little consecutive squirt of them at 7,8 & 14 down. ERG in the anagram fodder for GET WRONG in fact stands for European Research Group and is the name for the anti-EU rump of backbench Tory MPs. Nobody quite knows precisely what it is they research. I wanted to shoe-horn in a ministerial reference which accounts for the G of Gavin (Williamson) although I flirted with the idea of using the NG for the initials of his hapless sidekick Nick Gibb.
I watched a bit of Good Morning Britain earlier which featured a Zoom discussion in which guests Isabel Oakeshott, Kevin Maguire & Andrew Neil discussed this issue with Piers Morgan and I was quite pleased to hear A-Levels, fiasco, shambles, debacle, and cock-up all get a look in. I apologise to overseas solvers who probably didn’t enjoy this much.
warmest regards to all,
Rob/Knut
Very enjoyable – thanks, Knut and John.
Enjoyed this very much, the topicality particularly appreciated. Loved Algorithm, made me laugh, what shambles indeed. My son has his a-levels next year. Is a new government too much to hope for?
And great minds, etc, pleased to see 26a (see 9545)
Many thanks Knut, and thanks john
Agreed on all points and let me add to the praise. Came at this in two bites; once just before popping out and again just now with a beer on the patio in the warm evening rays having done actual, proper work in the garden (literally in the sweat of my brow!).
Spotted the theme early which made getting ALGORITHM particularly pleasing.
One wrong turn: I had in my head that 9a was DIVA for Italian hot head, and somehow linking [Lady Go]diva = fiver for a monetary stake.
That knackered RATAFIA for me (new to me in any event) which I had half-parsed but clearly my beer was clouding me.
A great pleasure throughout. Thanks Knut, John and all.
A toast to the class of 2020 – cheers!
Enjoyable puzzle to while away 10 minutes – my favourite was 4d.
The theme might have been more complete if one of answers had been “Teachers inflated top grades by 40% and that was a large part of the problem”. Perhaps it might not fit on the grid. Or with political affiliations.
Thanks to John and Knut
Excellent
25a there is a figurative “harbinger of doom” sense to “death knell” but its original meaning was of a bell rung to signal that a death had occured so “first notes I don’t hear” might be more accurate.
28a I don’t understand the “intention” part of the def