Independent 12023 by Coot

by

Coot – a new name for me to blog. As the premiership season begins.

The vast majority of clues weaved in a premiership team and all teams get a mention – some more obvious than others 10ac names one whilst 30ac refers to a manager of one. An impressive feat of construction though personally there is one team I would always omit from any team list following their inglorious past. As a Newcastle fan I am glad to see Sunderland back in the premier league club list again.

Thanks Coot highly enjoyable – being a fan of the subject matter helps – I think I got all your references – nothing unfair to non football people either, I don’t think.

Key * anagram; Rev. reversed; DD double definition; underline definition

Across
1 Unfairly treats Tottenham, switching kick-offs in Premier League(5)
Spurs (Tottenham) swapping an l for the p (kick offs in Premier League) = SLURS

4 Elland Road revamped after Environment Agency’s leaked letter (8)
(elland road – ea)* = LANDLORD

10 Former court specialist running Merseyside district (7)
Evert (Former court specialist – as in Chris) + on (running) = EVERTON

11 French side secures title in small home venue (7)
cote (French side) around tag (title) = COTTAGE (Craven cottage – Fulham’s home)

12 Premier League champions in 19 & 24? (4)
19 and 24 are both shades of red = REDS

13 Inspiration found by Brentford initially, before inclement weather (10)
b(Brentford initially) + rain storm (inclement weather) = BRAINSTORM

15 Second to bid and not backing spades or clubs (5)
i(second to bid) + Rev nor (and not) + s (spades) = IRONS (West Ham)

17 Continue to provide for an idiot (4,2,2)
keep(to provide for) + a tit (idiot) = KEEP AT IT

20 Steam train maybe beating metro back to Snyder, NY (8)
(metro + r + ny)* = RETRONYM

23 Virginia sick, stuck in holiday home (5)
Va (Virginia) around ill (sick) = VILLA (Aston Villa)

25 Case of ales going round cast disturbs writers of farce (10)
as (case of ales) around (disturbs)* = ABSURDISTS

27 Sunderland exhausted admits assistant, danger sign missed (4)
sd(sunderland exhausted) around pa(assistant) = SPAD

30 Pep a revolutionary providing continental fare (7)
brio(pep) + che(revolutionary) = BRIOCHE

31 Trendy seaside resort to the east of Britain (5-2)
brighton (seaside resort) – b (east of Britain) = RIGHT ON

32 Fruit that woman fed to hawks (8)
her(that woman) in cries (hawks) = CHERRIES (Bournemouth)

33 Aggressive opponent showing hunger at the Bridge? (5)
Cryptic definition TROLL

Down
1 Admits to office small error hemming dress (6,2)
s(small) + sin (error) around wears (dress) = SWEARS IN

2 Turn over depleted Palace, stuffing faceless reserves (5)
pe(depleted palace) in fund (reserves) – f (faceless) = UPEND

3 Underground network station announced (4)
Homonym of set (station) = SETT

5 Vault that is holding Wolves’ no.4’s record collection (7)
arch(vault) + ie(that is) around v (Wolves’ no. 4) = ARCHIVE

6 Selection of tweed at establishment occasions (5)
Hidden tweeD AT EStablishments = DATES

7 Rising register Coot slipped into test of public speaking (9)
Rev. rota (register) + i (Coot) in oral (test) = ORATORIAL

8 ‘Lovely’ doctor disreputable removing top (6)
dr(doctor) + seamy (disreputable) – s(removing top) = DREAMY

9 Waterproof article fine for Gunners to wear (6)
an (article) + ok (fine) Around ra(gunners) = ANORAK

14 Addict‘s plan that’s cunning, top to bottom (4)
ruse(plan that’s cunning) moving r to end = USER

16 Appalling if English person starts a fight (5,4)
(if e person)* = OPENS FIRE

18 Antipodean PM taking motorhome over to the south of Australia (4)
rv (motorhome) + o (over) after A(Australia) = ARVO (afternoon)

19 Number 1? He’s picked Pope! (8)
DD CARDINAL

21 New ‘first class’ medic joining Spain shows inexperience (7)
n(new) + ai(first class) + vet (medic) + e (Spain) = NAIVETE

22 Angrily rate start of Man United’s season (6)
(rate + mu)* = MATURE

24 Give funny order to “be calm and get wine” (6)
(be calm)* = MALBEC

26 One running Forest’s midfield wheels round (5)
Rev. re(Forest’s midfield) + car(wheels) = RACER

28 At one bathing in river that backs onto house (5)
at i (at one) in Po (river) = PATIO

29 Diverse group of leaders in Burnley’s team get lads playing (1,1,1,1)
(btgl)* {leaders in Burnley’s team get lads} =LGBT

20 comments on “Independent 12023 by Coot”

  1. Quite an enjoyable puzzle. Nice blog.
    Thanks Coot and twencelas.

    Liked SLURS, IRONS, RIGHT ON, TROLL, SWEARS IN, CARDINAL and RACER.

    A couple of minor points:
    SWEARS IN
    small=S, error=SIN, dress=WEAR
    PATIO
    I think the def should include ‘that’.

    MATURE
    Does ‘start’ work all right in the cryptic reading?

  2. An impressive tour de force to include references in some way to all 20 Premiership clubs on the opening day of the new season.

    I took the anagram fodder for MATURE to be rate + start of M(an) + U.

    Very well done and thank you, Coot. Thanks too to twencelas.

  3. Agree with @1 & @2. I’ll add that in 31a, the ‘b’ is just ‘Britain’ and ‘east of’ refers to the fact that ‘right-on’ would follow it.

  4. I took REDS to be an &lit as they were champions in 19/20 and 24/25. I was relieved that Coot avoided the usual Manure for the United clue. Impressive all round.

  5. Popping in early to thank twencelas for a great blog and to respond to Petert@4 – I had been aiming for deception in the clue to REDS rather than &lit since the champions in 18/19 and 23/24 were in fact CITY!

  6. I’m glad that I wasn’t put off by the introduction to the blog, nor the surface of the first couple of clues, because, although I was oblivious to many of the niceties of the theme, there were many witty and ingenious clues to keep me interested and I really enjoyed the solve.

    My favourites were LANDLORD, EVERTON, RETRONYM, ABSURDISTS, BRIOCHE and MALBEC.

    Thanks to Coot and to twencelas.

  8. Dnk a couple of PL-relateds — that Fulham’s home is Cottage or that West Ham are the Irons. And nho the SPAD acronym. But yes, pretty cool marking the kick-off with a team themer, ta Coot and twencelas.
    [PS sorry Spurs didn’t give Ange another season. Showbiz, I guess]

  10. Not my sport but hard not to recognise a clutch of the teams and to admire the ability to get them all in to the surfaces/solutions. I had the whole of the left hand side completed before realising how few links there are with the right where I effectively had to start again. RETRONYM was new to me and I don’t think I’ve encountered ABSURDISTS in a puzzle before. Interesting challenge.

    Thanks both

  11. My knowledge of the theme is very sketchy but I still found this a very enjoyable solve with a couple of new things to learn – RETRONYM & SPAD. My only quibble is that whilst anoraks are invariably windproof they are not designed to be waterproof. Favoured clues here were those for TROLL & DREAMY with a mention for my favourite wine, MALBEC.

    Many thanks to Coot and to Twencelas for the review.

  12. Many thanks for all the kind comments, and once again to twencelas.

    Retronym was a new word for me too. I rather like it. I might have used ‘snail mail’ as the example for the definition but ‘steam train’ was easier to work with.

    PM@10 – yes, the grid is slightly less connected than would be ideal. I considered joining 17a to 20a to make an additional 3-letter light, but that would have changed the clue numbers and thereby ruined the deceit in the clue for REDS, as explained in my earlier comment.

  13. Admirable to have a football-themed puzzle where you don’t need to know the first thing about football to solve and enjoy. (I recognize the team names and some of the stadiums, but I don’t really follow the sport.) Thanks to Coot.

  14. It was a shame, though, that the puzzle didn’t use a town in New York that is actually served by the Metro-North Railroad. (Brewster would have worked.) But then I’m probably the only person who would have noticed.

  15. mrpenney@14 – I tried to do my research but maybe I didn’t do it very well. The metro referred to in the clue is the Buffalo Metro Rail in upstate New York, which, it looked to me, goes almost as far as the small residential area of Snyder.

  17. Nho retronym is such a useful thing to learn! Why I love crosswords. Great fun. Not a big footie fan, but I live with one, so I know much more than I ever intended, so got may of the references. Thanks to both

  18. Late post. Not a great football fan but picked up most of the thematic entries. I liked the surface for DATES and the REDS clue. RETRONYM was appropriately a new word for me as well.

    Sorry for the late query, but could someone kindly explain TROLL? Probably me being thick, but I just can’t understand the ‘hunger at the Bridge?’ (maybe it’s football related) bit.

    Thanks to twencelas and Coot

  19. WordPlodder @18 in the fairytale The Three Billy Goats Gruff, the goats are trying to avoid a hungry troll that lives under a bridge they want cross. There’s a refrain that the troll won’t let them cross the bridge but will eat them up.

    The Bridge is Stamford Bridge and Chelsea’s ground and, when I used to live out that way, to be well avoided around home games – the Shed Boys meant regular fights.

    I am another who looked at this and thought football knowledge, not my bailiwick, but it was brilliant. Thank you to Coot and twencelas.

  20. Thanks Shanne. I have to admit to being completely ignorant about the fairytale (Norwegian I see) so thanks for enlightening me. I did wonder about the Stamford Bridge reference, helped by the capitalisation.

    Thanks again.

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