It’s Thursday and we have a Knut to solve and blog. No complaints today.
Knut sometimes includes topical themes but we cannot find anything going on here. Maybe the emphasis was to have a pangram instead.
Our only slight niggle was with 9ac which didn’t quite work. Rose Royce is an American soul and R&B band who had a hit with ‘Car Wash’ in the 1970s but the definition felt a bit ‘forced’. No doubt others were quite happy with it.
EPIGEAL was a new word for us but it was very clear from the wordplay.
We thought that 3d could be RUNE although it was stretching things a bit to define it as an obscure character. We found a footballer called Rune Borjesson, a Swedish footballer but he never played for Real Madrid. When we checked the players on the Real Madrid Squad, the penny dropped.
An anagram (‘mess’) of AUNT inside or ‘ringed’ by V (five) AU (gold)
tAXIs hOMe (cabs going back to my place – missing first and last letters or ‘unlimited’)
AXL (as in Axl Rose – a lead singer of Guns and Roses) and E (last letter or ‘finale’ of RoycE) – the axle on a car would be turning as it was driven into a car wash.
KEELE (Staffs uni town) twinned with DOVER (Channel port)
QUIRE (old word for choir – ‘singers’) in or ‘bolstering’ END (finale)
IE (that is) around or ‘entertaining’ NJ (New Jersey) and OK (Oklahoma)
W (wide) A (area) DubaI (first and last letters only or ‘evacuated’)
S E (‘points’ as in South and East) with UZI (machine gun) inside
C (Conservative) ITalY (European country) without or ‘alienating’ A L (large)
The symbol for copper is CU which sounds like SEE YOU
BOND (secret agent) reversed or ‘from the east’ around or ‘escorting’ OOR (Scottish for ‘our’) and K (king)
Cryptic definition – Scuba divers wear tanks and they often fall backwards into the water
jIFFY (second) missing J (judge)
SHIA (Muslim) around or ‘featuring’ V (verse)
E (English) PAL (friend) around or ‘receiving’ nIGEl (missing first and last letters or ‘naked’)
I (island) and an anagram (‘suffering’) of NURSE and CITY (18ac)
HAKE (white fish) around or ‘catching’ W (wife) + R (river)
Double definition – Jude Bellingham who plays for Real Madrid and ‘Jude the Obscure’, a Thomas Hardy novel
BAcK (support) without or ‘free’ of C (carbon) ELITE (first-rate)
G (golf) IROn (club) without or ‘needing’ N (new)
V (five) IX (nine) EleveN (11- first and last letters only or ‘gutted’)
MEAT (flesh) around or ‘being fed’ ERK (RAF slang for aircraftman)
uZbEk (alternate letters only or ‘occasionally’) inside DAD (pop)
JACK (sailor) on KNIFE (board cutter) D (died)
Hidden or ‘screened or ‘curtained’ by drAPER CUStomising
SCAR (mark) around or ‘sitting outside’ QUAD (yard)
cOURt (missing first and last letters or ‘uncovered’) ID (papers) around or ‘implicating’ K (Kelvin)
First letters or ‘starts’ to Order French Fries And Liver
GB (most of the UK) reversed or ‘upset’ around or ‘about’ RI (state as in Rhode Island)
VIE (struggle) W (with)
….and it’s a pangram!
I think the blogger mentioned that VJF @1
It’s a double pangram, in fact, with only the Z appearing just once but doing double duty as the crosser between two words – at the very centre of the grid, which I’m sure was no accident.
The early suspicion that it would be a pangram — due to all those Ks and Vs – didn’t help me much, because SQUAD CAR and DAZED came easily anyway; it may have helped with VIXEN though. But the suspicion that it would be a double pangram certainly helped me with ENQUIRED, AXIOM and MEERKAT.
Thanks both
Faves: AXIOM, SEE YOU and DAZED.
Thanks Knut and B&J.
[cont.] I liked SEE YOU, DOORKNOB, VIXEN and OFFAL. I needed the blog to parse MEERKAT, since I’ve nho ERK.
[An AXIOM in modern mathematics isn’t a self-evident truth but rather a proposed starting position from which to determine what posible theorems can be derived from it, a bit like setting out the rules for a game and then playing the game according to those rules and seeing what outcomes arise.
For less recent mathematians and philosophers, however, its probably fair to say that they were looking thinking in terms of self- evident truths. Trouble is, things that are “obviously true” in maths sometimes turn out to be false; the parallel postulate axiom in geometry which gives rise to the geometry of the plane or local flat earth turns out to be optional to the early geometrical framework that was trying to be achieved, and when other replacement axioms are used then navigators are treated with the geometry of the sphere and boffins are treated to hyperbolic geometry.]
Scintillating fun, loved this. Yeah, the definition for 9a is a bit cheeky but it’s worth it for the surface reading of the clue. LOI was 3d, which I took far too long spot considering I watched the game last night so he should have been fresh in my mind – he certainly was an obscure character at Anfield, eventually found hiding in Curtis Jones’ pocket.
A splendid pangram
Thanks to Knut and B&K
The clue for 9A went completely over my head, but fortunately AXLE was the only word that fitted, otherwise it would have been a DNF for me. Otherwise much enjoyed, so thanks Knut and B&J.
AXLE is certainly the one we’re all commenting on – assuming, that is, we got JUDE which I did from the obscure, I’m afraid. I am aware of the footballer but couldn’t have told you he played for Real Madrid. I think I agree with Widders: worth the dodgy def for the overall surface.
I liked the fresh treatment of VANUATU, the amusing surface for KEELED OVER, the neat deletion in CITY, the excellent choice of anagrind in INSECURITY, the neat assemblies and use of abbreviations etc in both GOLF and VIXEN and then the very smooth surface of JACKKNIFED.
Thanks Knut and B&J
[BTW I’ve mentally filed JACKKNIFING away alongside BOOKKEEPING, as an equally pleasing long word containing double K. The latter is especially fun due to its three consecutive doubles. English is an entertaining language!]
I enjoyed a lot of this puzzle, but too many wordplays didn’t quite click for me, albeit I solved them from the definition only.
EPIGEAL is a new one to me…….which I don’t mind, providing the clue is a good one, i.e. a crafty construction.
I can’t honestly say that “English friend receives Nigel naked” qualifies.
AXLE was a bit stretchy, but I applaud the idea.
JUDE nearly dummied me, though as Widdersbel @6 nicely notes, he didn’t make a dummy out of ‘Pool last night.
Given that the first definition was, indeed, going to be obscure for many solvers, I rather thought that “Real star’s a hardy character” might have been kinder……but of course, setters aren’t contracted to be kind.
cheers, Knut, + B&J