Always a pleasure to solve and blog a Knut puzzle. A wide range of interesting references, with some politicians (natch), the natural world, some bands, authors, directors and actors. All life is here.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Politician recycling trite remarks, wasting a bit of time
KEIR STARMER
Wouldn’t be a Knut puzzle without some political animals appearing. The Leader of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition is created from ([T]RITE REMARKS)* with ‘recycling’ as the anagrind. A cad? Sir Keir, certainly not; but the clue? Depends on your political leanings, I guess. Apart from having a first name that breaks the ‘i before e except when it isn’t’ rule, his main achievement seems to have been to persuade folk that he’s not Jeremy Corbyn. We get that now. Tell us more.
7 Regular departures from Kennedy terminal
END
The even letters of KEnNeDy.
9 Horny individual‘s New Year in the French style
NYALA
A charade of N and Y for ‘New’ and ‘Year’ and À LA gives you the spiral-horned antelope.
10 One’s used to shift clothes cool model collected
GEAR STICK
A charade of GEAR for ‘clothes’ and T for the original Ford ‘model’ inserted into (‘collected’) SICK. SICK for ‘cool’ is youth-speak. Keep up. We haven’t used ‘groovy’ since the 59th Bridge Street Song in 1966.
11 No longer tied up, ex-husband Jeremy went fishing
UNTANGLED
More politicians, this time of the blue variety. A charade of Jeremy [H]UNT and ANGLED. Jeremy Hunt’s main achievement was when he was culture secretary and was the source of James Naughtie’s most embarrassing moment on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. If you enjoy a live Spoonerism and aren’t offended by seriously bad language, it’s here.
12 2’s back to take over Sunday lunch
ROAST
The reference in 2dn is to TSAR. Put O in it and reverse the whole thing and you’ve got everyone’s favourite Sunday lunch. The reversal indicator is ‘back’ and the insertion indicator is ‘to take’.
13 Kraftwerk, REM, Lindisfarne touring Russian venue
KREMLIN
Hidden in KraftwerK REM LINdisfarne. Lindisfarne would never have gigged there because there wouldn’t have been any Newcastle Broon available in the then USSR.
15 He’s often out on the tiles
ROOFER
A cd.
17 Roughly beat silver leaves in this
TEA BAG
A charade of (BEAT)* and AG.
19 Zeppelin songs? Cool!
AIRSHIP
A charade of AIRS and HIP.
21 Golfer Rory admits blunder
ERROR
Hidden in GolfER RORy.
22 Famous American Model T vehicle
MARK TWAIN
The Model T making its second appearance. A charade of MARK for ‘model’, T and WAIN for ‘vehicle’ (think Constable’s The Hay Wain). The author and humorist, purported to have described golf as ‘a good walk spoiled’. There is no evidence to suggest he actually was the originator of this phrase, but it is so true that I am not going out of my way to disabuse people of the idea.
24 His band shot to fame where Isherwood lost his head
ROBIN HOOD
He and his merry men strutted (and shot) their stuff in Sherwood Forest, which you get if you decapitate [I]SHERWOOD.
25 Dance coach from Germany endlessly pirouetted, with Anton’s lead
POLKA
The Indy is never short of clues based on the beautiful game. The ‘coach’ here is Jürgen KLOPP, currently i/c at Liverpool FC. So it’s KLOP[P] reversed, with A for the initial letter of ‘Anton’. The reversal indicator is ‘pirouetted’ and the removal indicator is ‘endlessly’.
26 Colour to fade, reportedly
DYE
A homophone of DIE.
27 “Deport them!” ordered Farage, finally entering likely to blow his top
HOT-TEMPERED
Politicians to bookend the acrosses. An insertion of E for the last letter of ‘Farage’ in (DEPORT THEM)* The anagrind is ‘ordered’ and the insertion indicator is ‘entering’. Certainly an extended definition here, since the gift that keeps on giving whose name is Nigel Farage has a track record for, shall we say, not encouraging immigration.
Down
1 24’s friend visiting coffee producer (not a place for bourbon)
KENTUCKY
Robin Hood’s marra was the corpulent Friar TUCK. Insert him in KENY[A] and you’ve got your answer. The insertion indicator is ‘visiting’.
2 The first Tsar? I haven’t a clue
IVAN THE TERRIBLE
The first Tsar was indeed IVAN THE TERRIBLE. It’s a reverse anagram thingy, since (IVAN THE)* with ‘terrible’ as the anagrind is a clue for ‘I haven’t’.
3 Male escort Ewan stripped in a den of vice
SWAIN
An insertion of WA for the central letters only of ‘Ewan’ in SIN. SWAIN is a literary word for ‘young lover or suitor’.
4 African director Lee arranging loan
ANGOLAN
The ‘director’ referred to is Ang Lee, so it’s a charade of ANG and (LOAN)*
5 Near bloody revolting snake
MEANDER
Great concise clue with misdirection that only English can give you. A charade of MEAN and RED reversed. The reversal indicator is ‘revolting’ and one of the meanings of ‘near’ is ‘tight’, ‘stingy’ or ‘mean’.
6 21, I’ve swum across small lake
RESERVOIR
21 is ERROR, so it’s an insertion of S in (ERROR IVE)* The anagrind is ‘swum’ and the insertion indicator is ‘across’.
7 Working at The Ritz, all obey a Hollywood legend
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
(THE RITZ ALL OBEY A)*
8 A bit upset, OK, about packing an old crate
DAKOTA
The setter is asking you to reverse OK and insert it into A TAD, also reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘packing’ and the two reversal indicators are ‘upset’ and ‘about’. CRATE is a slang word for an aeroplane, and a DAKOTA is an old version of one.
14 Los Angeles Times runs international hotel complex
LABYRINTH
A charade of LA, BY for the mathematical ‘times’, R for the cricketing ‘runs’, INT and H for the phonetic alphabet ‘hotel’.
16 As Sánchez drops rising, inside political adviser
SPANIARD
An insertion of RAIN for ‘drops’ reversed in SPAD, which is an acronym for ‘special adviser’. Think the other gift that keeps on giving (or in fact, not, since he’s resigned), the visually-challenged Dominic Cummings.
18 Okra on table; first impressions – it’s rubbery
GUMBOOT
A charade of GUMBO and OT for the first letters of ‘on’ and ‘table’. Okra seems to be used to thicken gumbo, but the references I looked at didn’t seem to suggest they were the same thing. Someone who is into Cajun cuisine can perhaps enlighten us.
19 Contract card game (ace high)
ABRIDGE
A charade of A and BRIDGE.
20 Got very hot water in the Middle East when cycling
SEARED
A ‘cycling’ or reversal of the elements of RED SEA.
23 Charge leaders of teachers organisation planning unauthorised protest
TOP UP
The initial letters of the last five words of the clue.
Many thanks to Knut for a sick Sunday puzzle.
Just about the right amount of thought required for a Sunday puzzle. I couldn’t parse the ‘ex-husband Jeremy’ in 11a (thanks for the link) or the ‘political adviser’ bit of 16d. I know zilch about Cajun cuisine but Chambers and the OED both have ‘okra’ as a meaning of GUMBO which can also mean “A soup thickened with the mucilaginous pods of this plant” (OED).
Lots of enjoyable clues, especially the ‘old crate’ (affectionately I hope!) for DAKOTA, the def for ROBIN HOOD and KENTUCKY, where ‘burgoo’ (not GUMBO) is apparently one the signature dishes. Maybe one for future puzzles.
Thanks to Knut and Pierre, including for introducing me to the term ‘marra’.
Another treat from Knut – too many favourites to list
Thanks to him and Pierre
Lovely straightforward crossword for a Sunday. A little bit of headscratching – I had the same query re GUMBO, I started off with director Spike Lee and I had to scour the memory banks for DAKOTA (the nearest opportunity for a bird picture we got today?).
SEARED is very neat, as is AIRSHIP. I enjoyed the anagramming: ELIZABETH TAYLOR is lovely if not too difficult to get, the reverse for IVAN was nice and KEIR STARMER rather cheeky. For me, COTD was a toss up between UNTANGLED and HOT TEMPERED for both construction and surfaces.
[Pierre – the other definition of golf that makes me smile is “trying to hit the small ball without hitting the big one.”]
Thanks Knut and Pierre
very enjoyable canter through this… some parsing problems for me as highlighted already.. but all very do-able.. the sheer simplicity of cluing of 24ac was particularly delightful! just wondering if 11ac was clued like that to reflect possible misspelling of the setters name…? I missed the original Radio4 spoonerism.. thanks for sharing..
thanks
Knut n Pierre
Thanks to Knut for a fun Sunday solve and to Pierre for the bright and breezy blog. Didn’t parse gear stick. Not down with the kids, me.
Another lovely puzzle from Knut.
I can’t resist naming favourites today: KEIR STARMER, HOT-TEMPERED, ELIZABETH TAYLOR, LABYRINTH and UNTANGLED – great constructions and surfaces all round.
I can’t believe the naughtie Spoonerism was so long ago.
Many thanks to Knut and Pierre.
Great Sunday breakfast material-I particularly like Kloppo in a dance.
Thanks
Lots of name-dropping here, in both clues and answers, which always provides plenty of opportunities for fun. Thanks Knut and Pierre.
Great crossword, thank you Knut. Loved Jeremy and the Russian music festival line up! Sadly I haven’t yet found a way of making okra into anything other than something from the Alien make- up box.
Thanks Pierre also.
For 8d, ‘A tad’ backward does make more sense, but I saw ‘OK’ backwards inside ‘DATA’ and looked no further.
Forgot to say extra stars for 2d (FOI) and 1d (lovely punctuation obfuscation). And 27a – who doesn’t like a bit of Nigel in their crossword?
Knut is always enjoyable. Loved Pierre’s comment on 1A. Thank you, Rob and Pierre.
Not convinced by Mark = model. I was thinking ‘marque’ but that’s closer to make than model. Or am I overthinking it?
Mr Aphid, I did have a moment’s hesitation about that when I solved the puzzle, but Chambers has ‘type model, issue’ as its fourth definition, so I think it’s sound. Probably the closest usage is in Mark I, Mark II, Mark III, and so on.
Terrific puzzle with inventive clueing. Particularly liked Keir Starmer, Farage, ex- husband Jeremy, the German dance coach and Isherwood losing his head.
Thanks to Knut and Pierre.
What Jim T said.
Thanks Pierre and knut. A fantastic puzzle.
Recently I learned that Knut is Julius so I thought I’d give this crossword a try. I’m glad I did. This was excellent. Favourites were many including KENTUCKY, LABYRINTH, and AIRSHIP. Thanks Pierre for helping me fully understand what I “figured” had to be a number of answers.