Independent 11,591 / Knut

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Knut has provided us with a very topical crossword for our entertainment this Tuesday.

This puzzle must have been set fairly recently, since there are numerous references to the (now ex-) UK home secretary at 3 and her controversial views, e.g. at 1A, 6 and 10. One can only admire Knut’s skill in incorporating so much thematic content into the puzzle.

I am not sure that I have fully understood the wordplay at 13 or the definition at 26, for which any input would be welcome.

My favourite clues today were 10, for topicality and its unexpected definition; 18A, for topicality and surface; 21, for the delayed penny-drop-moment, since I was thinking about other Charlies for a long time, not the obvious one.

*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues

Across    
     
01 CAMPSITE Temporary accommodation frowned on by 3, affected hearing vision

CAMP (=affected, of behaviour) + homophone (“hearing”) of “sight (=vision)”; former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman (=entry at 3) frowned upon the refugee camps in Northern France, say
     
05 ALWAYS A small sailing boat put back in constantly

LWAY (YAWL=sailing boat; “put back” indicates reversal)] in [A + S (=small, in sizes)]
     
09 ILL TEMPER Knut will soften spleen

I’ll (=Knut will, i.e. our compiler) + TEMPER (=to soften, tone down)
     
11 FYTTE When retired, Betty Ford pens a classic song

Hidden (“pens”) and reversed (“when retired”) in “bETTY Ford”; fytte is an archaic (“classic”) word for a song
     
12 INCEL Single male reluctantly jailed endlessly

IN CEL<l> (=jailed); “endlessly” means last letter is dropped; an incel (or involuntary celibate) is a man who is reluctantly single
     
13 NOT A SCRAP Zip slightly less rubbish?

zip is nothing, zero (in American English); “not (quite) a scrap” might mean “slightly less rubbish”
     
14 TOLBOOTH On top of that, acquiring large hotel building on turnpike

[L (=large, of sizes) in TO BOOT (=on top of that)] + H (=hotel)
     
15 YEARN Long to make some money after end of study

<stud>Y (“end of” means last letter only) + EARN (=make some money)
     
17 TESLA Steers clear – occasionally volatile firm run by an odd dude!

<s>T<e>E<r>S <c>L<e>A<r>; “occasionally” means alternate letters only are used; the reference is to the automotive company Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk
     
18 RISKED IT Poor Keir’s adrift, regularly gambled

*(KEIR’S) + <a>D<r>I<f>T (“regularly” means alternate letters only are used); “poor” is anagram indicator
     
21 CANNELURE Charlie and his sister left Midge in the groove

C (=Charlie, in NATO alphabet) + ANNE (=sister of Charlie, i.e. King Charles!) + L (=left) + URE (=Midge, i.e. UK singer); a cannelure is a groove, e.g. around the cylindrical part of a bullet
     
22 HYENA Carnivore longing to occupy an area of land

YEN (=longing, desire) in HA (=area of land, i.e. hectare)
     
23 A-TEAM 1st XI took food before noon

ATE (=took food) + AM (=before noon)
     
24 HITS IT OFF Gets along well with this weird, initially irritating nob

*(THIS) + I<rritating> (“initially” means first letter only) + TOFF (=nob, person of high standing); “weird” is anagram indicator
     
25 OUTING Trip over uniform object husband left

O (=over, in cricket) + U (=uniform, in NATO alphabet) + T<h>ING (=object, article; “husband (=H) left” means letter “h” is dropped)
     
26 FREE BEER Landlord’s sardonic next-day offer to deliver better times scrapped

FREE (=to deliver, rid of) + BE<tt>ER (“times, i.e. 2 x T=time, means both t’s are dropped)
     
Down    
     
01 CRISIS About Sunak’s lacking height: it’s a major problem

C (=about, i.e. circa) + RIS<h>I’S (=Sunak, i.e. UK PM; “lacking height (=H)” means letter “h” is dropped)
     
02 MALICIOUS INTENT Falsely claim debts in 19 on 1A? That’s wickedness!

*(CLAIM) + IOUs (=debts) + IN + TENT (=shelter (=entry at 19) on campsite (=entry at 1A))
     
03 SUELLA BRAVERMAN Heroine of the far right – a sort of smaller Eva Braun

*(SMALLER EVA BRAUN); “a sort of” is anagram indicator
     
04 TAP INTO Break in/half tame a piebald nag

TA<me> (“half” means two of four letters only are used) + PINTO (=a piebald nag)
     
06 LIFESTYLE CHOICE Long sentence technique inherently echoic, e.g. 8 18D for 3

LIFE (=long sentence, in prison) + STYLE (=technique) + *(ECHOIC); “inherently” is anagram indicator; according to Suella Braverman (=entry at 3), “sleeping (=entry at 8) rough (=entry at 18D)” is a lifestyle choice!
     
07 ALTERNATIVE VOTE Enter Tel Aviv, to a new way of expressing democracy

*(ENTER TEL AVIV TO A); “new” is anagram indicator
     
08 SLEEPING Oozing a bit of liquid injected when unconscious

L<iquid> (“bit of” means first letter only) in SEEPING (=oozing)
     
10 RETCH Starts to read extremely tasteless Conservative homeless gag

R<ead> E<xtremely> T<asteless> C<onservative> H<omeless>; “starts to” means first letters only; to gag is to retch, to strain as if to vomit
     
16 STACCATO Instruction to players to set up musical whip round

STAC (CATS=musical, by Andrew Lloyd Webber; “to set up” indicates vertical reversal) + CAT (=whip) + O (=round, circle)
     
18 ROUGH Trump sounding coarse

Homophone (“sounding”) of “(to) ruff (=(to) trump, in cards)”
     
19 SHELTER Housing – very steep housing – for subaltern

LT (=subaltern, i.e. lieutenant) in SHEER (=very steep)
     
20 LAFFER US economist famous for his curve sounds, like, 22

The reference is to US economist Arthur Leffer (1940-), famous for devising the Laffer curve; homophone (“sounds like”) of “laugher (=hyena, entry at 22)”
     

 

24 comments on “Independent 11,591 / Knut”

  1. I think 13 is a pun on NOT A SCRAP = Zip_American and NOT AS CRAP = Less Crappier ( less rubbish ).
    Thank you Knut & RR

  2. 13: Knut is inviting us to split the words as “NOT AS CRAP” for slightly less rubbish

    26: Just the publican’s version of “jam tomorrow”

    I’d never heard of midge or the groove, so 21 defeated me

    Thanks both

  3. FREE BEER
    I think it’s just a joke: “FREE BEER tomorrow’ (and tomorrow never comes. So a sardonic offer).
    Landlord is a beer brand?

  8. Cleverly — MP for Braintree — another towering intellect after Sue Ellen. His latest idea: let’s make it impossible for care homes to get staff.
    Great crossword. Thanks K & RR.

  9. After five minutes of this I almost gave up as I couldn’t see what any of the clues were getting at, but kept dipping into it in between Teams meetings, over tea, lunch etc and amazingly solved it other than cannalure – not a word I’d come across and could not think who Charlie’s wife could be. Had to use the dictionary for trump, to find out that one of its meetings was ruff. A number of other words I didn’t know such as fytte that I had to check in the dictionary to confirm clues were right.

    3d was brilliant and thought there were quite a few other clever ones such as 1dn. Amused that Braverman has featured in the last two Indie crosswords.

    Thanks RR & Knut

  10. KVa @3 Landlord is a beer brewed by the mighty Tim Taylor. I think it’s the beer that’s won Camra’s best beer award the most number of times, although by today’s APA/IPA standards it’s a little tame to win awards now. It’s still a massive favourite up in our neck o’ woods though.

  11. Late to the party, but had to add my two penn’orth on this brilliant crossword, which I’m very glad I found time to do when I arrived home after another busy day.

    Knut is an absolute genius for anagrams. 3dn, my top favourite today, is just wonderful – and what a surface! 7dn is another excellent one.

    Other favourites were 26ac FREE BEER, 6dn LIFESTYLE CHOICE, and 10dn RETCH. I’m just sorry for Transatlantic and Antipodean and other non-UK solvers, who perhaps couldn’t appreciate the full wit and cleverness of the references. I liked your ‘Cleverley’ comment @7, Petert: I love the Guardian’s John Crace’s nickname (Jim Dimly) for James Cleverley).

    Things I learned today: FYTTE, CANNELURE (meticulously clued – ANNE was the first one I thought of for Charlie’s sister and Midge Ure sprang readily to mind) and TOLBOOTH as one word, with only one ‘t’.

    I got off on the wrong foot with my first entry (ILL humour) at 9ac but the former Home Secretary soon put me right.

    Huge thanks to Knut and to RR.

  12. Thanks both. I wonder is TOLBOOTH informing us it is an American variant spelling by using ‘turnpike’ in the clue? Re MALICIOUS INTENT the CAMPSITE element reminded me of James Herbert’s novel about a disastrous camping holiday….Portent!

  13. TFO @12
    Both Collins and Chambers have TOLBOOTH as an alternative – not American – spelling.
    I wasn’t aware of the specific American meaning (toll road) of turnpike. Turnpikes ( barriers put across a road to prevent entry without payment of a toll) were in use in Britain from the mid-17th century to the late 19th – hence ‘turnpike roads’. See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll_roads_in_Great_Britain

  15. Eileen. I very nearly entered ILL HUMOUR as well but decided to wait for some crossers. I had a quick look at my copy of “Phantom Tollbooth”, which has the LL spelling, so I also checked in Chambers.

  16. An ingenious theme but not a pleasant solve being constantly reminded of the odious views of our repellent ex-home secretary.

  17. allan_c @ 16 – yes, it did feel very weird to pronounce 3dn as my top favourite.
    (But such a clever clue.)

  18. Thanks for the blog, dear RatkojaRiku, and thanks to those who have kindly commented. I think I wrote this on November 6th and as is so often the case with recent governments things have moved on at a fair clip since then and we have yet another Home Secretary who is in Rwanda today. The puzzle was written as a result of SUELLA BRAVERMAN’s suggestion that ROUGH SLEEPING was for some a LIFESTYLE CHOICE…a notion which attracted sharp criticism from the charities CRISIS and SHELTER. I don’t do as many of these topical politics things as I did a few years ago because things are quite depressing and I want to produce something entertaining wherever possible.
    Best wishes to all, Rob/Knut

  21. 3d must be a candidate for Clue Of The Year – absolutely wicked (the clue and also the clued).
    I was fascinated to see that TOLBOOTH was widely used historically in Scotland – I had just assumed it was another American variant spelling.
    Masterful stuff as ever. I take your point, Knut, about these being depressing times – and yet there is still a place for stand-ups, satirists, columnists and crossword compilers to point out the inanities (my keyboard offered me ‘onanities’ at first) of the donkeys in charge.

  22. Bert really didn’t want to write in the letters to 3d. We spotted the rest of the themed entries – how can one forget her comments on rough sleeping?

    We did enjoy the puzzle though Knut – despite finding the present situation so depressing.

    Thanks to Knut and RatkojaRiku.

  23. Dear B&J “How can one forget her comments on rough sleeping?” ?? – or any other of her egregious comments?

    All power to your elbow, Rob!

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