Independent 10,802 by Knut

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Thursday fun from Knut, who seems to be thinking of home today.

I gather that Knut was born in Sheffield, now South Yorkshire, but no longer lives there. Today’s puzzle is full of references to Yorkshire, starting with a nod to its division into North, South, East and West Yorkshire – helpfully placed in the correct geographic locations in the grid (1a, 27a, 17a). We also have various Yorkshire references along the way: the Southerner’s view of Yorkshire in 1a, a typical Yorkshire phrase in 4d / 22d, the locations in 3d and the wordplay for 14a, the football team suggested by 15d, a Yorkshire cricketer in the wordplay of 12a, and a bit of Yorkshire dialect in the wordplay for 14d.

Lots to like here, particularly the ingenious anagram at 1a and the confusing-looking but logical 22d. I also enjoyed the obligatory cricket reference at 12a: I know some solvers profess to hate the sport, but it’s just there for the surface and the clue works without knowing who Root is. I have to admit I don’t understand the definition for 23d, and have filled it in from the wordplay and the crossers: can anyone tell me what I’ve missed? Thanks Knut.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
1 IT’S GRIM UP NORTH
Hackneyed phrase heard in Hackney, falsely promising truth (3,4,2,5)
Anagram (falsely) of PROMISING TRUTH.

Hackneyed phrase used by some in Southern England (so for example in Hackney, London), expressing the stereotypical view of Northern England as an impoverished industrial wasteland.
9 OLYMPIC
Observers initially imply, wrongly, Charlie is like a legendary athlete (7)
Initial letter of O[bservers] + anagram (wrongly) of IMPLY + C (Charlie in the radio alphabet).
10 GAS RING
A feature of Saturn, it emits a flame (3,4)
Double definition. The planet Saturn is mostly gas, at least at the surface, although its “rings” consist of ice particles and bits of rock. Or gas ring = a heat source for cooking.
11 SKINNY
Pub invested in satellite TV, not doing enough food (6)
INN (pub = drinking establishment) invested in SKY (satellite TV broadcaster).

Skinny = thin, as if not eating enough.
12 POT ROAST
Poor Root, a prisoner of history, stewing for hours on 10 (3,5)
Anagram (poor) of ROOT, contained in (a prisoner of) PAST (history).

Pot roast = meat cooked slowly with liquid, usually in a pan on the stove top (hence the reference to 10a, a gas ring) rather than in the oven.

The surface suggests the Yorkshire cricketer Joe Root, who at times has found it hard to get a good score going; if he gets 10 runs and then doesn’t manage to score any more for a while, critics start talking about history repeating itself.
13/15 ASH WEDNESDAY
Rubbish, burnt out team from 27 making a fast start (3,9)
ASH (remains left after burning, so “rubbish burnt out”) + WEDNESDAY (short name for Sheffield Wednesday FC, football team from 27a South Yorkshire).

Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent, traditionally a fast (a time to abstain from certain foods).
14 TOWN PLANNER
Civic officer left Ann in charge of Newport revamp (4,7)
L (left) + ANN, contained in (in the charge of) an anagram (revamp) of NEWPORT. (There are many places in the UK and elsewhere called Newport; one of them is a village in Yorkshire.)
17 EAST AND WEST
Two points for partners at auction (4,3,4)
One-and-a-half definitions, I think, because the second is derived directly from the first. Two of the four cardinal points of the compass; or two of the four players in a game of auction bridge, who play as partners.
18 FOP
Raab’s department beginning to pester Rees-Mogg, perhaps (3)
FO (Foreign Office, Government department run by the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab) + beginning letter of P[ester].

Fop = a man overly concerned with his appearance, one who follows 18th-century styles of dress or mannerisms, or one who puts on an upper-class air. Jacob Rees-Mogg is a Conservative MP; Knut is suggesting that some or all of the above apply.
19 ACCRETED
Assistant Chief Constable (Retired) saving Euros built up (8)
ACC (abbreviation for Assistant Chief Constable) + RETD (Retd. = short for retired, in official titles), containing (saving) E (Anglicised form of the Euro symbol €).
21 OBERON
Honour King working a role in AMND (6)
OBE (Order of the British Empire = honour) + R (abbreviation for king, from the Latin Rex) + ON (working).

Character from Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream; the abbreviation wasn’t immediately familiar, but “a role in . . .” helped to suggest a play.
25 ICE-COLD
Frigid virago’s admission? (3-4)
A virago (originally a heroic woman, but the term is now usually used in a disparaging sense to mean “a stroppy woman”) might admit “I scold”. “Admission” here needs to indicate the homophone as well as just “something she says”; perhaps the question-mark is Knut’s admission that this is stretching the rules a bit.
26 FRASIER
Front of Ford Sierra hit US radio presenter (7)
First letter (front) of F[ord] + anagram (hit) of SIERRA.

Title character of the US TV comedy about a radio advice show host.
27 SOUTH YORKSHIRE
UK hero’s history novel The Fourth Riding? (5,9)
Anagram (novel = new) of UK HERO’S HISTORY.

A division of the historic county of Yorkshire. Long story short: Yorkshire was once divided into three regions called the North, East and West Ridings, where “riding” comes from an old word meaning “a third”. Several boundary changes later, there are now four areas: North, South, East and West Yorkshire (as referenced by the solutions at 1a and 17a along with this one). So South Yorkshire might be considered the fourth, though it was never called a Riding.
DOWN
1 IRONS
Would Woods’s woods be with these? (5)
Cryptic definition, referring to the golfer Tiger Woods, who might keep his woods (a type of golf club) with his irons (another type of golf club).
2 SKYLIGHTS
Small, tailless Aussie songbird starts to gently hover towards sash windows (9)
S (small) + KYLI[e] (Aussie songbird = the singer Kylie Minogue; tailless = last letter dropped) + starting letters of G[ently] H[over] T[owards] S[ash].

Windows built into a roof; probably not sash windows, which slide vertically.
3 RIPON
Upcoming noir showcasing quiet northern city (5)
NOIR reversed (upcoming = upwards in a down clue), containing (showcasing?) P (p = piano = musical term for quiet).

City in North Yorkshire.
4 MUCK
Dons’ home outside University College mess (4)
MK (short for Milton Keynes, the home of the football club MK Dons, which was originally based in Wimbledon before moving out of London), outside U (university) + C (college).

With 22d, a reference to the Yorkshire phrase “Where there’s muck there’s brass”, meaning that dirty or unpleasant activities can be an opportunity to make money, or “brass” in Northern English slang.
5 PIGEON PIE
Gee! I pop in after work for something from the oven (6,3)
Anagram (after work) of GEE I POP IN.
6 OBSERVANT
Watchful old retainer escorting bishop (9)
O (old) + SERVANT (retainer), escorting B (bishop).
7 TAIGA
Awkward gait when going over American forest (5)
Anagram (awkward) of GAIT, before (over, in a down clue) A (American).

Conifer forest in snowy northern latitudes (further north than Yorkshire, before you ask).
8 AGITPROP
Isn’t this Soviet spin pervading? Tag it properly (8)
Hidden answer (pervading . . .) in [t]AG IT PROP[erly].

Soviet-era Russian term for the promotion of political ideas; an abbreviation derived from the Communist Party’s “Department for Agitation and Propaganda”.
13 AVE MARIA
A very English mass song/prayer (3,5)
A + V (very) + E (English) + M (mass, in physics symbols) + ARIA (song).

Latin name for the Roman Catholic prayer, “Hail Mary” in English.
14 THAWED OUT
No longer 25, in 27 you got married off (6,3)
THA (Yorkshire dialect for “you”, so “you” in 27a South Yorkshire) + WED (got married) + OUT (off = not on target).

Reference to 25a ICE-COLD; thawed out = no longer frozen.
15
See 13 Across
16 NEFERTITI
“Flipping hit it ref!” English Queen gulped (9)
Hidden answer (. . . gulped), reversed (flipping), in [h]IT IT REF EN[glish].

Queen in Ancient Egypt. The order of the elements in the clue is a little odd, with wordplay on both sides of the answer, but it makes some sort of sense.
20 CREDO
Statement of principles: firm is in the red (actually, the opposite) (5)
RED in CO (short for company = firm). The wordplay says we need the opposite of CO in RED, so RED in CO.
22 BRASS
Leader of supporters supporting supporters in part of orchestra (5)
Leading letter of S[upporters], after (below, in a down clue = supporting) BRAS (supporters).

Trumpets, horns, and all that. Also the second part of the phrase referenced in 4d.
23 NURSE
Run round second base (she’ll never strike) (5)
RUN reversed (round), then S (second) + E (e = base for logarithms in mathematics).

I have no idea about the definition. Does it mean that nurses (medical staff) don’t go on strike (industrial action)? Or that a nurse (child carer) isn’t supposed to use corporal punishment? No doubt there’s some obvious explanation that I’ve missed.
24 AFAR
Discover big game trip from a great distance (4)
[s]AFAR[i] (big game trip), with the outer letters removed (dis-covered).

19 comments on “Independent 10,802 by Knut”

  1. Knut made us work hard today for our cruciverbal satisfaction. As enjoyable as ever with two many clues I liked to select just one for favouritism

    23d I think nurses could strike if they wanted to but don’t so I think the definition may be more corporal punishment related

    Thanks to Knut and Quirister

  2. I parsed NURSE as someone who wouldn’t take industrial action, but crypticsue @1 may be right, or there could be even more to this, as you say.

    It was good to have the Northern theme with the correct geographic locations in the grid (though ‘west and east’ for 17a would have been even better) and I learnt something about the Yorkshire Ridings – I always assumed there were four. OBERON entered via wordplay alone though I should have twigged to the acronym.

    Thanks to Knut and Quirister

  3. Thanks for the blog dear Quirister and thanks to those who have commented. I’m afraid there’s not much more to be said for the clue for NURSE other than the generally accepted understanding that although industrial action is possible, it’s unlikely to be taken in reality.
    27 across is a bit of a liberty I’m afraid. A “riding” comes from “thriding” (third) and there can therefore only be three. Winifred Holtby wrote a novel called South Riding in 1936 which couldn’t have existed at the time so I thought if I used a sneaky question mark I might get away with it.
    Best wishes to all, Rob/Knut

  4. Super puzzle and super blog – huge thanks to both.

    1ac inevitably brought to mind Victoria Wood’s snooty TV continuity announcer, played my Susie Blake: ‘We’d like to apologise to our viewers in the North. It must be awful for them’. (I’ve looked in vain for a link to it – it’s delicious.)

    I remember seeing Winifred Holtby’s book in the school library and being intrigued by the title but I never read it.

    With Araucaria and Puck’s frequent references to the play, AMND is a familiar abbreviation on Guardian blogs.

  5. Eileen @4. Thanks for reminding me of that. It also reminds me of the Catherine Tate Northern Nanny sketch. Worth looking up on YouTube if you haven’t seen it.

  7. I meant to mention earlier that the intention with the clue for NURSE was to make the definition gel with the baseball terms in the wordplay (run round second base) hence the use of strike

  8. It was fun coming from a Brummie puzzle which featured several US spots-back to the land of MUCK and BRASS.
    Gradely!

  9. 14d THAWED OUT is genius

    Really enjoyed this, after Ash WEDNESDAY I was looking for a UNITED/BLADES answer but it’s clear where Knut’s allegiances lie…

    Thanks a lot to Knut and Quirister

  10. Damn! Someone mentioned Winifred Holtby before I could show off my knowledge. Still, it WAS Knut himself, so that’s ok, I suppose? . Really very enjoyable. Fabulous anagram at 1a and agree with Tombsy @9, Thawed Out is genius. As a point of interest (or not), although there are now four official Yorkshire areas, we still live in a Riding, our really rather good local authority being the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. Thanks to Knut and to Quirister for the fine blog.

  11. This was a lot of fun, though I found it tough in a few places. It was relief, and a big smile, when I realised 2D didn’t rely on my very limited knowledge of ornithology. 14D was my LOI – never twigged it was THA for YOU. (And I am a Yorkshireman myself – born in the West Riding, grew up in Humberside and now in the East Riding, all without moving house thanks to boundary changes, so I should know better!)

    Too many candidates for me to pick one favourite – thanks to Knut and Quirister.

    And for Eileen @4 here’s a link to the Victoria Wood ref https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AijNCV_JWMs

  12. Many thanks, Sheepish @11 – I really did search and found lots of references but no youtube link.

  13. Very nice Knut. [Have you ever done a Sheffield themed crossword? My kids are skeptical that the Four Yorkshiremen sketch is true.] Thanks Quirister

  14. @Haggis, 13…
    I cobbled something together for Mr Henderson last time I was in York; it’s not specifically “Sheffield” but there is the odd mention. I ought to warn you that the dodgy homophone in 6d almost caused a serious incident at the event. The link to Sil van den Hoek’s blog is here (the link to the puzzle itself is also there somewhere I think) : http://www.fifteensquared.net/2019/10/26/s-b-york-2019-knut/

  16. Thank you, Knut and Quirister. I really enjoyed this and even recognised the theme. 18A made me laugh but I think that is quite a polite description of Jacob Rees-Mogg.

  19. Once again a blog where one of the commenters gave away something of what was going elsewhere.
    I just don’t understand that.

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