Coot fills the Tuesday slot this week in the Indy.
We found this quite a challenge with some crafty definitions and tricky wordplay. However, it is Tuesday, so we were on the lookout for a theme. A few clues include references to prisons, and when we solved 6ac, we couldn’t help but think of Slade Prison as featured in ‘Porridge’, one of our favourite TV comedy series from a bygone era.
As we worked through the grid we recognised the warders at 11ac, then the lead character at 22ac, played by Ronnie 23ac, confirmed the theme. However, on completion of the grid we were disappointed that there were not more thematic entries (though we realised that Godber, Baraclough and McKay would have been difficult to define). However, on closer examination, we noticed the Nina across the middle and two other characters at 4d/25d and 21d. It’s a pity that Grouty didn’t make an appearance, but we really enjoyed the challenge and the eventual denouement.
MUSK, ELON (‘index entry of multi-billionaire’ Elon Musk) round or ‘acquiring’ M (25% of Mali)
Last letters or ‘terminals’ of computerS controL datA arounD officE – we hadn’t come across DELL=SLADE before
OUT (public) BACK (fund)
PO (post office) RooK (chess ‘board member’) missing the middle letters or ‘gutless’ + a homophone (‘told’) of PI (sanctimonious)
S (small) CREW (men) S (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of hopeless)
An anagram (‘restless’) of INMATES and L (first letter or ‘start’ to lodge)
A reversal (‘repulsed’) RA (artist) + MY (‘Coot’s’ – the setter’s) – soldiers wear ‘fatigues’
A FREE (not paid) HAND (worker)
An anagram (‘flabbergasted’) of L (left) and AUDIENCE
StEAL (nick) missing ‘t’ (time)
F (female) CHER (singer) with LET (permitted) inside
A ‘lift-and-separate’ anagram (‘dancing’) of BREAK + R (right)
S (first letter or ‘drop’ of Scotch) WIGGED (not bare-headed -13d)
GREET (welcome) in LAgOs (missing the odd letters)
Y (last letter or ‘end’ of poverty) rEaSsEsS (alternate or ‘periodic’ letters)
DATES (appointments) round or ‘penning’ O (love) MI (note) N (note)
MOONS (‘shows crack’ – no comment!) CAPE (promontory)
STIR (prison) with the middle letters or ‘heart’ reversed or ‘uplifted’ next to A
A reversal (‘upset’) of AIM (goal) + first or ‘initial’ letters of Our Wimpish Striker
fLUKE (unlikely success) missing the first letter or ‘opening’ – a reference to the third gospel in the New Testament
NAP (fuzz, as in the surface of a fabric) RING (call) round KIN (family)
S CRAM (Steve Cram, athlete rival to Seb Coe back in the day) MED (medicine)
A reversal (‘taken aback’) of PA (dad) PAGE (servant) round or ‘admitting’ END ( close)
brEWERS (beermakers) missing or ‘rejecting’ ‘br’ (bronze)
A homophone (‘voicing’) of BEAR (support) + ED (boss at paper) round or ‘protecting’ HEAD (nut) – a reference to the phrase ‘as bald as a coot’
rOCKERIES (areas of garden) with the first or ‘top’ ‘r’ (Republican) replaced by M (married)
A reversal (‘having mounted’) of RILED (bothered) + IOUS (debts)
An anagram (‘subject to disruption’) of BIG RACES
WAR (conflict) RE (concerning) N (new)
FISH (‘maybe trawl’) Y (middle letter or ‘centre’ of Croydon)
An anagram (‘carelessly’) of aNKLETs missing the first and last letters or ‘unwrapped’
WM (abbreviation of William – ‘perhaps the Prince of Wales’) round or ‘possessing’ A R (recipe)
Top faves: MUSK MELON (for the ‘index entry’), PORK PIE, ARMY (for the def), MOONSCAPE, SITAR (innovative WP), MOCKERIES and DELIRIOUS.
Some very nice surfaces all through.
Thanks Coot for the lovely puzzle and B&J for the great blog.
Discounting the April Fools’ Day 1973 pilot, the series began on 5 September 1974 (a 50th (Golden) anniversary).
Had to look up 6a SLADE = dell at oed.com – ‘A valley, dell, or dingle …’ It’s ‘Old English–‘, but not marked Obsolete. Latest citation:
‘1899 Over the slade they took their way, where the purple carpet was patterned with round hollows. A. Morrison, To London Town 5′
[Coot could have clued it with the band mentioned in oed.com’s entry for un-Christmassy:
‘2017 The DJ is firmly un-Christmassy—Slade hasn’t been played once. S. Kinsella, My not so Perfect Life viii. 115′
(They celebrate a 50th (Golden) anniversary at the end of this year, too.)]
Thanks C & B&J
…or the fine art school (now there’s a subject that would make for an interesting theme). Not a familiar meaning but clearly clued so all good. Enjoyable puzzle all round – particularly liked the clue for EUCLIDEAN, very neat. Thanks, Coot and B&J.
Nicely done puzzle with a neat nina. I’d agree with Widdersbel that EUCLIDEAN is the star of the show. I also enjoyed WARREN for the assembly and PORK PIE for the surface. NHO SCRAMMED and I wonder how many working FLETCHERs there are these days.
Thanks Coot and B&J
Very enjoyable… as per, the theme wasn’t an issue ( I didn’t spot it, n it wouldn’t have helped anyway).. altho I am very familiar with the excellent series. I’d agree with the blog, that Grouty and/or Godber, would have raised a suspicion. On reflection i did query the inclusion of a 14th century tradesman, but still the penny did not drop.. very neat clueing I felt, with no unnecessary words, which helped me to see SITAR, for example. Spent too long trying to fit S OVETT into 6d, but accept the other S was more logical. Thanks Coot n Bertandjoyce
I certainly wouldn’t call this gentle but smartly lovely as ever. Had to work, mind. Knowing it was Coot, I did look for a theme from the off. And, once I finally clocked it, it helped. A bit! MUSK MELON’s outrageous. MOONSCAPE made me smile, PORK PIE is a cracking surface, A FREE HAND is fun and SWIGGED was very pleasing. I’m delighted to see I wasn’t the only, one who tried, for an age, to shoehorn S Ovett into SCRAMMED. Hugely enjoyable, this. A corking Nina to boot. Many thanks to Coot and B&J.
Thanks both. I spotted the theme early which helped, but the central Nina not at all, and like others thought there might be more references, though LUKEWARM and WARREN are beyond my memory anyway. SCREWS therefore was an obvious answer, though I was unaware of it meaning mates – my initial research suggests this would be when you are borrowing money from them.
Very rewarding! Loads of clever goings-on which made for a very satisfying solve. Favs were MUSK MELON (lovely penny-drop moment when at long last, after getting the initial M checker, I figured out what index entry was likely getting at [nho the fruit]), PORK PIE, ARMY, EUCLIDEAN, MOONSCAPE, SITAR and NAPKIN RING. I also enjoyed BARKER for its cheeky lift-and-separate… I didn’t think the Indy did that kind of thing!
TFO@9 I think it’s referring to mating ;-). It was on the edge of vulgar, for my taste, but then again I properly laughed out loud at MOONScape…
The theme and lovely nina were, as usual, lost on me, though I too wondered what Fletcher was doing there, right next to Barker. I’m going to have to start making more effort!
Both SLADE and ARMY were very late entries for me, but as is often the case, once you have solved them you can’t for the life of you work out what could possibly take so long. I always panic when there’s too much going on in a clue for the length of entry required as it seemed to me there was in 6a.
A good workout, with nothing that should have been too taxing. I started the task at hand thinkg “Right, it’s Tuesday. Don’t forget the theme today”. Get in here and realise I’ve completely ignored it again. Not sure it would have helped anyway.
Thanks Coot & Bert and Joyce for a lovely puzzle and tip top blog as always.
Many thanks B&J for a great blog and to everyone who has solved/commented on the puzzle. Porridge was one of my favourites too; it’s hard to believe it has turned 50! I would have liked to accommodate more of the inmates and the 11a but, for the most part, their names made that very difficult – at least without making the theme too obvious. Hence I settled for a mix of thematic surfaces, solutions and the Nina.
A lesser spotted theme. For me. I hardly ever see them but for once I did.
LOI (M for R)ockeries. A device I rarely spot without all the crossers.
Thanks Coot and B&J.
Thanks Coot. Despite being in the dark about the theme I liked this just the same. It hit the sweet spot for me between too easy and too challenging. My top picks were PORK PIE, AILMENTS, ARMY, BARKER, LUKE, and NAPKIN RING. Thanks B&J for the blog.