I thought this was a cracking puzzle from Knut. I don’t often see his offerings in my Monday slot, so was pleased when his name popped up this morning.
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 Gore as President could turn out to be an economic disaster
GREAT DEPRESSION
What a great clue and delightful surface to start us off. (GORE AS PRESIDENT)* with ‘could turn out to be’ as the anagrind.
9 Wild herb Jones discovered outside Baltic capital
ORIGANE
An insertion of RIGA, Latvia’s capital, in [J]ONE[S] The insertion indicator is ‘outside’. An alternative spelling to the more common OREGANO.
10 Face shock therapy, in a manner of speaking
DIALECT
A charade of DIAL and ECT for Electroconvulsive Therapy.
11 Wedge of cheese for starters served with German wine
CHOCK
A charade of C for the initial letter of ‘cheese’ and HOCK.
12 Mostly well-mannered dude taking over university committee
POLITBURO
A charade of POLIT[E] and an insertion of U in BRO. The insertion indicator is ‘taking over’.
13 Crassly name-drops one replacing old web designer
SPIDER-MAN
Knut is inviting you to replace the O in ‘name drops’ with an I and then make an anagram. (NAME DRIPS)* with ‘crassly’ as the anagrind.
15 Goddess has The King of Spain wearing absolutely nothing
FREYA
I liked this one specially too. An insertion of REY for the Spanish word for ‘King’ in FA for F**k All. The insertion indicator is ‘wearing’ and FREYA is a goddess in Norse mythology, from whom the day of the week Friday is derived, if you perceive her to be the same deity as Frigga.
16 Prosecute retired doctor arrested, put on board coach
EMBUS
An insertion of MB for ‘Doctor’ in SUE reversed. The insertion indicator is ‘arrested’. EMBUS to ‘put on a bus’? We’ll be deplaning next, heaven forfend.
18 Nitre swirling around – it’s a problem for the eyes
RETINITIS
A charade of (NITRE)* and IT IS. The anagrind is ‘swirling around’.
20 Ageing banker in Paris exuding Gucci’s latest perfume
SENESCENT
A charade of SE[I]NE and SCENT.
23 Producer of light sailing dinghy
LASER
A dd.
24 Popular guerrilla leader is a non-believer
INFIDEL
A charade of IN and FIDEL [Castro].
25 Back in Delhi, Tam sabotaged cash crop
BASMATI
Hidden reversed in DelhI TAM SABotaged.
26 Controversially re-elected on anti European peace initiative
ENTENTE CORDIALE
(RE ELECTED ON ANTI)* with ‘controversially’ as the anagrind.
Down
1 Time to visit our girls cheese rolling here?
GLOUCESTERSHIRE
An insertion of T in (OUR GIRLS CHEESE)* with ‘rolling’ as the anagrind and ‘to visit’ as the insertion indicator. A cad, and a very good one at that. That massively dangerous annual cheese rolling event is in Brockworth, Gloucestershire. This quote gives you a flavour: ‘Canadian competitor Delaney Irving won the ladies race in 2023, despite finishing unconscious, and only learning of her victory in the medical enclosure.’
2 Base swine exposing Ionic descendants from Theban war dead
EPIGONI
A charade of E for the mathematical ‘base’, PIG and [I]ONI[C].
3 Unappreciated, M Ryan’s sometime co-star is bored by the French
THANKLESS
An insertion of LES for one of the words for ‘the’ in French in T HANKS, who was M Ryan’s co-star in a number of movies.
4 Check out Hislop’s organ when excited!
EYE UP
I’m sure the team leader of Have I Got News For You (as well as the editor of Private Eye) might object to such a suggestion. A charade of EYE and UP.
5 Russian scheme to dominate alien world being explored
RED PLANET
A charade of RED PLAN and ET.
6 Sting – intelligent and stylish
SMART
A triple definition.
7 Rapper that might get into Coke as a means to chill?
ICE CUBE
A dd. ICE CUBE is a US rapper. Knut is getting down with the kids these days.
8 Idea floated by last government leaves NHS disheartened
NATIONAL SERVICE
NATIONAL [HEALTH] SERVICE. The idea didn’t gain a lot of traction, did it? Not least from Gen Z, who can’t be arsed about civilian life these days, never mind National Service.
14 5 sick in Eastern European port
MARSEILLE
A charade of MARS (the Red Planet), and ILL inserted into two Es, one for ‘Eastern’ and one for ‘European’. The insertion indicator is ‘in’. This is the French spelling; some authorities also allow MARSEILLES as an English spelling.
15 Completed almost all Sildenafil supply
FINALISED
(SILDENAFI[L])* with supply, read as ‘in a supple way’, as the anagrind.
17 Favour nurse in suit
BENEFIT
An insertion of EN for ‘Enrolled Nurse’ in BEFIT. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
19 Awful driver crossing street sustained by American snack
TOSTADA
An insertion of ST in TOAD followed by A. The insertion indicator is ‘crossing’. Referring to Toad of Toad Hall, who had a bit of a rep as being a less than careful driver.
21 Country hospital taking care of upper-class duke
SUDAN
An insertion of U and D in SAN. The insertion indicator is ‘taking care of’.
22 Licence to Kill Bill initially forbidden
TABOO
A charade of TAB and OO. TAB is a somewhat American English word for the bill in a restaurant, and the OO agents, like Bond, were ‘licensed to kill’.
Many thanks to Knut for the start to the Independent puzzling week.
What an excellent start to the week with great clueing and some amusing surfaces.
ORIGANE and EPIGONI were two new words for me but both were sympathetically clued. EMBUS is a hideous word.
I’m not sure why BASMATI is a “cash crop” rather than just a “crop”.
There are too many good clues to list them all, but SENESCENT was probably my favourite.
Many thanks to Knut and to Pierre.
According to Chambers, ORIGANE is ‘marjoram’.
Had to use Google to find LASER as a dinghy.
What an amazing crossword for anagram lovers. 1a, 1d and 26a are as good as they get.
Shame about EMBUS, such an ugly word.
Likes for TABOO, EYE UP, toad the bad driver, the trick with NHS, and CHOCK. Thanks Pierre for an excellent (and early) blog and Knut for a gentle and entertaining Monday puzzle.
Thanks for the clarification on ORIGANE, Hovis.
EMBUS is an ugly word, but even ugly words are allowed in crosswords …
Can I just say that Sildenafil in 15d kept me up all night! (fnarr, fnarr)
Thank you for your blog, dear Pierre, and thanks to those who have commented.
@Admin (5)….oooh you are awful. But I like you.
According to oed.com, ORIGANE is a variant form (late Middle English–1600s; 1800s) of “origan, n. Now rare or historical. ?1440–
Any plant of the genus Origanum; esp. wild marjoram or oregano, O. vulgare. In early use also: †wild thyme or pennyroyal (obsolete).”
They’ve also got this 1973 citation for BASMATI as a “cash crop”:
“This rice is grown in the foothills of the Himalayas… The best basmati is aged before it is cooked—and it is cooked only by the rich because it is also very expensive. M. Jaffrey, Invitation to Indian Cooking 230″
Splendid start to Monday morning.
Many thanks to Knut and Pierre
The perfect puzzle: just the right level of difficulty for me, no queries, and completed at the same time as I finished my breakfast, so thanks Knut and Pierre.
1ac GREAT DEPRESSION was a splendid start and got two big ticks – and then we had two more superb anagrams, with great surfaces, as picked out by Hovis, in GLOUCESTERSHIRE and ENTENTE CORDIALE.
Far too many other ticks to list – Knut’s on top form today – so I’ll limit myself to FREYA, in honour of my great granddaughter, born six weeks ago on a Friday – but the name was chosen months before. 😉
Many thanks to Knut for a super puzzle and to Pierre for a blog to match.
Anyone who sees this setter’s regular contributions to social media – or who does their FT News puzzles in particular – will not be surprised at encountering some cracking anagrams. I twigged the possibility of an &littish 1d and just had to rack the memory somewhat to recall the competition – and I right in thinking there are one or two other places where cheese are rolled? But GLOUCESTERSHIRE was, appropriately, delicious. That gave me the opening letter for GREAT DEPRESSION which is another cracker. And, as Eileen says, everything else was tickety boo too.
Thanks Knut and Pierre.
I’m always happy to see Knut appear. Others have adequately listed the cream of the clue crop which was certainly a rich selection, although my personal favourite was TOSTADA for the reference to Mr Toad! Technically a dnf for me as I mispelled FREYA as FREIA, it seems I confused Portugese and Spanish kings!
And thanks also to Pierre
I agree with all the praise for this fine puzzle.
Persuaded to try this after a friend reminded me that this setter also appears as Hudson in our DT Toughies. Glad that I did try it as it was most enjoyable despite having to investigate rappers and Theban war dead. Thanks to FrankieG for the info about BASMATI which had slightly puzzled me.
Think my favourite was SMART – lovely triple.
Thanks to Knut and to Pierre for the review – no birds for you AGAIN!
Agree with Pierre this was a cracker. Probably my favourite grid shape as well. Loved the surfaces for most of the clues: special mention to GLOUCESTERSHIRE- to get such a great surface with such a long anagram.
Weird how the mind works. My son has a SPIDER-MAN poster on his wall and could have sworn it wasn’t hyphenated. So much so I went to check and was quickly corrected.
Great start to the week. Thanks Pierre and Knut
@Staticman 1 (15)
Funny you should say that about SPIDER-MAN…it took three pairs of eyes to notice the (missing) hyphen!
I really enjoyed this, and am always motivated by this kind of grid with the full-length words on the edges. Lovely anagrams, but I think TOSTADA was my favourite, though TABOO had me thinking hard for the parsing.
My only quiblet is that Castro’s name is presumably derived from the Latin for “believer/faithful” (which became fiel” in Spanish) so INFIDEL has just a hint of repetition in it. Still, nothing to detract from a great puzzle.
Thanks both
@KnutCrosswords (16) Anybody else? Is this what they call a Mandela Effect?
[I didn’t do this – I find negotiating the entry and adblock unblock a bit tedious – but I’ll share this:
A few months ago we went to a Fairport Convention gig. At one point Ric Sanders, the fiddle-player, told us that his girlfriend now calls him Spider-Man. He asked if this because of his impressive musculature.
“No” she said “it’s because you can’t get out of the bath by yourself.”]
This was a phenomenally enjoyable puzzle, and a blog to match.
I’m especially appreciative of setters who manage to come up with things in my NHO list – like EPIGONI and ORIGANE – where I’m still able to get things from the wordplay. And a lot of parsing that’s been really helpful for skill development – I thought TOSTADA and SPIDER-MAN were good introductions to how to combine different types of clue.
Very well done, Knut and Pierre
Massively late today (rough day at work). Just wanted to mention that ICE CUBE had his first successes as a rapper while I was still in school, and I’m now 50. So…Pierre, it’s more like Knut is getting down with the middle-aged?
Very likely, mrpenney … 50 is the new 40, or something along those lines.