Turbolegs going AWOL today has given me the chance to cover this cryptic, set by a welcome addition to the FT stable – Skitnica (aka Tramp & Jambazi).
This is the first of what will probably be several puzzles celebrating the anniversary of England’s only success in the football World Cup fifty years ago. I have no interest whatsoever in the round ball game (my school played rugby union and the only goalposts on the playing fields were H shaped) but even I had heard of the team members that Skitnica has used as part of the wordplay in eight of the clues.
Despite being in my mid-teens at the time, I didn’t watch the match (I was probably playing tennis instead) but so much of it has been repeated, time after time, over the years that the highlights(?) have become indelibly ingrained in the subconscious. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle, thanks Skitnica. If I had to select one clue out of the many good ones I think it would be 9ac, or perhaps 27ac, or perhaps …
Across
1,19 Home team primarily cry – Moore and Hunt wave . . . . (6,7)
MOTHER COUNTRY – an anagram (wave) of T[eam] CRY MOORE HUNT
4,24 . . . . Cohen and Stiles left to dance: do they have shirts on? (7-5)
CLOTHES-LINES – an anagram (to dance) of COHEN STILES L
9 Ball part of this? German with English, new World Cup winners? (9)
GENITALIA – G (German) E (English) N (new) ITALIA (World Cup winners)
10 Captains make call in decider? (5)
HEADS – double def.
11 Some open email offering treatment (5)
ENEMA – hidden in (some) ‘opEN EMAil’
12 A unit of 11 torn to pieces? (9)
NANOMETRE – an anagram (to pieces) of ENEMA TORN
13 Leisurely Wilson’s back goes running: that’s enough! (7)
SLOWISH – an anagram (running) of WILSO[n] plus SH (that’s enough)
15 Ties lost (international matches) (6)
LASHES – L (lost) ASHES (international matches)
17 Right note sent back for recording device (6)
REVERB – R (right) BREVE (note) reversed (sent back)
22 Drunk’s personality wanting spirit – time before turning bad? (5,4)
SHELF LIFE – SHELF how a drunk would pronounce ‘self’ (personality) LIFE (spirit)
26 Crowd missing start, Germany moved slowly (5)
EDGED – [w]EDGE (crowd missing start) D (Germany)
27 Fantastic Hurst ultimately is an icon; he led players (9)
TOSCANINI – an anagram (fantastic) of [hurs]T IS AN ICON
28 Study country and its continent with lecturer (7)
PERUSAL – PERU (country) SA (its continent) L (lecturer)
29 Ask the man, Ken, to drop pants with this problem? (6)
ASTHMA – AS[k] TH[e] MA[n] (ask the man, Ken, to drop)
Down
1 They draw match, briefly reflecting on scores (7)
MAGNETS – GAM[e] (match, briefly) reversed (reflecting) NETS (scores)
2 Stretch and tip over goal, Banks to save (5)
TENSE – NET (goal) reversed (tip over) S[av]E (Banks to save)
3 Minutes in match that’s run over? (5,4)
EXTRA TIME – EXTRA (run over) M (minutes) in TIE (match) &lit
5 Ancient characters try to get up – hard in the morning (5)
OGHAM – GO (try) reversed (to get up) H (hard) AM (in the morning)
6 Moment of courage: overcome (9)
HEARTBEAT – HEART (courage) BEAT (overcome)
7 Nurse to help, not when time’s short (6)
SISTER – [as]SIST (to help, not when) ER[a] (time’s short)
8 Stand and drink around student hour (6)
PLINTH – PINT (drink) around L (student) plus H (hour)
14 Desperate as each German chases balls (9)
OVEREAGER – EA (each) GER (German) after (chases) OVER (balls)
16 Protection for players in sack – pulls out (9)
SKULLCAPS – an anagram (out) of SACK PULLS
18,4 Main feature of 24 – Charlton brothers initially playing (7,7)
BRISTOL CHANNEL an anagram (playing) of LINES CHARLTON B[rothers]
19 Endlessly support, watch and smile! (6)
CHEESE – CHEE[r] (endlessly support) SE[e] (endlessly watch)
20 Sure a virus enters Jewish school (7)
YESHIVA – HIV (virus) in (enters) YES (sure) A
21 One strips off, runs back out (6)
ASLEEP – A (one) PEELS (strips off) reversed (runs back)
23 Peters and football people leave half cut (5)
FADES – FA (football people) DES[ert] (leave half cut)
25 No 2 to No 8 cry coming from field? (5)
NEIGH – N (No) EIGH[t] (no 2 {tense} to 8)
Thanks Skitnica and Gaufrid.
I found this tough, especially in the SW, and was glad that no specialist knowledge of the theme was required.
Neil has posted on twitter that there’s a Jambazi on the same theme in the Indy tomorrow.
Thanks, Gaufrid – and welcome, Skitnica!
I spent longer over this puzzle than I have for a long time – but what a delight! Such clever use of the players’ names – and no need to recognise any of them [but so much more fun if you did].
I’ve a similar problem to Gaufrid in picking favourites: I’d certainly go for his [perhaps 27ac is at the very top] – and also 1,19 and 4,24 and… I laughed at Ken dropping his pants, too [nice that it wasn’t an anagram indicator this time].
[I hope Rishi did this puzzle, in view of his comment on Vigo yesterday. 😉 ]
Huge thanks to Skitnica – I absolutely loved it. I hope we’ll see you over this side again.
9 across was my favourite too. I don’t generally like themed crosswords, since the price of fitting in the theme solutions is that the setter usually ends up having to use some obscure words, but in this case the theme was a total misdirection, and it was excellent.
Only just got round to printing this; what a joy…9a!(how much time wasted trying to fit “mit” into the answer?!) If Jambazi is going to top this tomorrow, we’re in for a treat!
Thanks to Skitnika and Gaufrid
Hi baerchen @4
“(how much time wasted trying to fit “mit” into the answer?!)”
Me too! – one of the reasons for my taking so long. One of my last in, so the pdm was all the sweeter.
Many thanks Gaufrid for the superb blog and thanks to everyone for the kind comments.
I originally wrote two 1966 World Cup-themed puzzles but The Guardian already had one. I asked Colin Inman if he would use it and he kindly agreed. Thanks Colin. The Indy one is in tomorrow.
3d should be parsed:
(M in TIE) that has EXTRA (run) over (i.e. above
Neil
Mahler 3 on the Proms now
Bit late but thanks the serbo Croat cousin of jambazi. Good fun. Looking forward to the Indy tom.
I started this crossword halfway the afternoon and was very annoyed that I could get only two or three solutions in the first half hour or so.
It was clear that Skitnica was either another pseudonym for someone we probably know or a joint venture.
If someone had asked me which setter I thought of, I would certainly not have come up with Tramp/Jambazi.
I found this an extremely difficult crossword, with a tightness of clueing somewhat uncharacteristic for our beloved setter.
To help myself a bit further on the way I used an anagram solver for the three long ones.
It felt like cheating but I did not want to bin the puzzle.
Then I found a few more and, in the very place where I started solving some 8 years ago (The Orchard, Grantchester), I managed to finish the lot in complete isolation – sitting in a deckchair long after closing time.
I couldn’t parse 25d so many thanks for that, Gaufrid (and for the rest, of course).
Looking back at the crossword, I can only admire Skitnica’s achievement.
Superb puzzle.
Solvers will surely have fun with Jambazi too!
Meanwhile I wonder who will bring back memories to 1966 in tomorrow’s Guardian.
Perhaps, Enigmatist? [even if he was not even ready for the kindergarten when it all happened]
ps, I was curious where Skitnica came from but flashling made it all clear at 7.
[with this system of choosing pseudonyms the world is really yours, Neil!]
[but be careful – some might see you as ‘another Eastern European taking one of our jobs’]
Brilliant – real slow burner – kept on delivering right to the end. Didn’t know it was Tramp. Nice that you didn’t need to know anything about the subject.
Not good at dates, kings, queens etc but it’s easy to remember the real key moments in English history 1066, 1566 (Fire of London), 1966.
Had me going in spirals and circles. But brilliantly challenging and I did not finish it. Many elegant clues but my favourite is 25 across which I did not solve.Thanks for the clues and the answers.
Fire of London 1566? What do they teach them down under?
Don’t blame us – the swagman is a British expat.
Typo – fat fingers – s/b 1666.
Takes a fairly obsessive troll to dine out on such obvious typos.
Against my better judgement I just did today’s Guardian prizer, themed on the same subject – amateurish by copmarison.
s/b comparison – can’t be too careful these dyas.
Late, but I’ve just done the same setter’s Jambazi puzzle on the World Cup theme in the Indy today. I think this was the harder of the two and like Sil van den Hoek @8, I had very few in early on. Eventually finished after who knows how long, being close to throwing in the towel a few times. Another fan of 9 and also liked ASTHMA and SHELF LIFE.
Thanks Skitnica / Jambazi for a couple of terrific puzzles and to Gaufrid.
JS@13 – how childish!!
Late to this party I’m afraid, but thoroughly enjoyed this challenge – almost gave up after struggling through a couple of answers but perseverance ultimately paid off.
Thanks to Skitnica for a great puzzle and Gaufrid for the blog.
I parsed 25d a little differently, as N[o]EIGH[t]. That is, “No 8” spelled out, with the letters “t” and “o” removed (No 2 to No EIGHt…), although there was no homophone indicator, so maybe I am wrong. Even if I am wrong, I don’t quite understand Gaufrid’s parsing.
Thanks Gaufrid and welcome (and thanks) to Skitnica.
This took a long time to get going with just a couple falling to the first run through.
Of course I laughed at 9ac – that is now my new nickname for the England team!
Thanks too to Skitnica for coming back to explain 3dn which I couldn’t see as being more than a fairly weak cryptic which didn’t fit with the overall style – one reason why I wondered if this were a collaboration.
The parsing of 25dn was also beyond me so really appreciate the explanation Gaufrid.
Entertaining.
He’s a clever lad our Neil! Thanks to a comment here on a G puzzle, was alerted to his appearance in the Pink (which I don’t often do – though it was my daily staple many years ago). Very nice, though I felt a bit of a cheat as I had to resort to the dictionary for YESHIVA. That apart, a reasonably straightforward solve. I do wonder if I’d found it tougher had I not known it was a Trampish alias; my mind was already open to the possibility of a 29ac type clue.
Many thanks Skitnica and Gaufrid
Thanks Skitnica and Gaufrid
Found this tough to fill in the grid and even tougher to correctly parse a number of them. Had an error with HEARTBEAT (had HEARTFELT – not fully parsed obviously and had to slap my head when I saw the correct answer). Couldn’t parse EXTRA TIME or NEIGH at all and there were a couple of others where I made slight errors in the parsing.
Most enjoyable all of the same and as a not an aficionado of the round ball code, missed who all of the names that were thrown around in the clues were.
Appropriate timing for me to solve and have the ASHES clue sitting there – although was embarrassed as to how we carried on in the ceremony following the match – (our Cricket board has a lot to answer for in many facets of their job).
Puzzles like this whet ones appetite to get back into the Guardian crosswords again … but there are only so many hours in the day to be spending on them unfortunately. So long after the event, it is very evident that this was only a cameo appearance by Neil with no follow up puzzles being published by him here.