Independent 9614 (Sat 05-Aug 2017) Knut

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Oh good. I get to crack a Knut,
and blog it.

Knut has made a name for including recent events in puzzles and this is no exception.
Also known for have a theme in the grid but writing clues that are solvable even if you do not know or even notice the theme, and that is not quite as true here if only for the presence of Michel Barnier occupying the left column. That might be a tricky clue if you don’t follow politics. Indeed, there is a lot about Brexit going on here especially in the longer answers. Looming over us all at 1A is Chris Patten’s view of it all as explained to Andrew Marr recently <link> (sorry to give you the Express version there but it was only 1 minute, whereas the other links I found were very long).

So this was a bit of fun. Thanks to Knut

Across
1 A DOGS BREAKFAST Stew of gar, skate, dabs – a fine kettle of fish! (1,4,9)
(OF GAR SKATE DABS)* AInd: stew. I spent some time using (GAR SKATE DABS A F[ine]) as the anagram fodder and found BREAKFAST – then wondered what is “A Gad’s Breakfast”
10 INVALID Batting helmet protecting Virginia declared ineffective (7)
VA (Virginia) inside IN (batting) and LID (helmet)
11 DETRAIN Delaware coach to go off the rails (7)
DE[laware] TRAIN (coach).  First One In (after failing to make any progress with the long answers)
12 HERB TEA Rocky the Bear leaves (4,3)
(THE BEAR)* AInd: rocky
13 FREEWAY Where there’s no stopping Spooner’s little brawl? (7)
Spoonerism: Wee Fray (little brawl)
15 LIEGE Noble home of Belgian Standard (7)
Double Def. the second one referring to Standard Liege football club
17 GO WHISTLE Doctor Who legs it, getting the message from Johnson (2,7)
(WHO LEGS IT)* AInd: Doctor.  The definition refers to that oaf Johnson’s recent “helpful” contribution to the Brexit shambles: <Link (Guardian)>
19 BRIGHTEST British Tory established to be most clever (9)
B[ritish] RIGHT (Tory) EST[ablished]
20 HOO-HA Yahoo hacks involving something of a fuss (3-2)
Hidden in yaHOO HAcks
22 ROLLMOP Bread to soak up pickled fish (7)
ROLL (bread) MOP (to soak up)
24 EURATOM Require art room regularly for core community project (7)
Alternate letters in rEqUiRe ArT rOoM.  Possibly the clearest example of why it is utterly stupid to think UK can survive without international co-operation: <Link (Independent)>
26 IMMERSE Dip partly responsible for swimmer’s ear? (7)
Hidden in swIMMER’S Ear
28 ICELAND Crystal meth network finally captured in the country (7)
ICE (crystal meth) LAN (network) [capture]D
29 RECKLESS GAMBLE Translate Merkel’s cables to convey German opinion of May’s snap election? (8,6)
(MERKEL’S CABLES + G[erman])* AInd: translate.  The most reckless gamble was by Cameron last year
Down
2 DIVORCE BILL What Hillary didn’t do, and what 9 19D insists he doesn’t have? (7,4)
Couple of Defs referring to the fact that Bill and Hillary Clinton are still married, and Michel Barnier (EU Chief for Article 50 negotiations) keeping shtum about the billions that the UK will have to cough-up if it goes through with this act of self-destruction
3 G FLAT Key for government apartment (1,4)
G[overnment] FLAT (apartment)
4 BEDRAGGLE Scruffy, barelegged leaving European soil (9)
(BARELEGGED – E[uropean])* Is the Def. Scruffy and Anagram indicator Soil, or vice versa?
Edit: See comments.  Def. soil AInd: scruffy.
5 END OF Brooking no dissent, issue red cards, dismissing wingers (3,2)
[s]END OF[f] issue red card – without the edge letters.
6 KITTENISH Playful little Christopher; born late summer 2007, I think (9)
KIT (little Christopher) TEN-ISH (about 10 years old)
7 AGA Turkish commander in range (3)
Double Def
8 TINTYPE Can print old-fashioned photograph (7)
TIN (can) TYPE (print)
9/19 MICHEL BARNIER I belch drunkenly, getting stuck into liqueur, ignoring grand Frenchman (6,7)
(I BELCH)* AInd: drunkenly, inside [grand] MARNIER (liqueur) Michel Barnier (EU Chief for Article 50 negotiations)
14 WITHOUT FAIL Only Fianna. Every time (7,4)
Ref. the Irish Republican party, Fianna Fail.  So if it is “only Fianna” it is “Without Fail”.  Beautifully concise.  My favourite clue in this puzzle.
16 EPHEMERAL For one day only, English pub on green closing early (9)
E[nglish] PH (pub) EMERAL[d] (green, closing early)
18 WITHERING Contemptuous comic disheartened 22 (9)
WIT (comic) HER[r]ING (via 22A: Rollmop, with middle removed) Slightly mislead into thinking that “comic” was a Ref to Richard Herring – especially as I got this answer (mainly from the def.) before getting 22. RH is known to do crossword’s occasionally, but is probably not as proficient a solver as Dave Gorman who won a prize for one of the Observer puzzles some years ago, and used the fact that he got a dictionary as a prize in his show as a joke.
21 ARMADA A jolly girl in the Spanish navy (6)
A RM (jolly – Royal Marine) ADA (girl)
23 PRESS Iron the newspapers (5)
Double Def
25 RHEUM Discharge reported from French Inspector’s chamber? (5)
Homophone ROOM if said by Inspector Clouseau (Probably.  Anything said by Clouseau could sound like absolutely anything, else)
27 MAC Non-PC elderly farmer blanks Trump (3)
Answer refers to an Apple Mac, thus “Non-PC”. Wordplay refs to legendary farmer “Old” MacDONALD minus DONALD (trump). Last one attempted and Last One In

23 comments on “Independent 9614 (Sat 05-Aug 2017) Knut”

  1. Hugely entertaining, with all Knut’s trademark topicality and wit well to the fore.

    Great start to the weekend. Lucky you beermagnet for getting this one to blog. And extra thanks to our Little Bear, Knut.

  2. @beermagnet
    Many thanks for the blog, but the homepage pre-amble is a tad spoilerish just for your info

  4. Don’t follow politics so had to google a bit to understand some of the answers. Thought 4d was a mistake since bedraggle means to make scruffy, but the definition must be ‘soil’ and ‘scruffy’ is the anagram indicator – clever. Liked 29a and 6d. Used google to check EURATOM and ‘Fianna Fail’. I knew of the place in Belgium for 15a, but don’t follow football so the ‘standard’ part was lost on me. Also didn’t know 9/19 but easy to guess then check. Good fun. Thanks to Knut and to Beermagnet for the needed explanations. On a side note, as well as the phrase at 1a, we talk of being dressed up like a dog’s dinner – are there any other culinary canine phrases?

  5. Thanks Gaufid. The preamble is now as I intended on the homepage. I assumed that the default “more…” comes after the first main paragraph.

    Hovis: I’m still in two minds about 4D. I reckon both scruffy and soil could be anagram indicators, soil as a verb, and bedraggle is much closer to scruffy in meaning than soil in my mind.

  6. Thought I’d best check my Chambers before replying. Bedraggle is defined as ‘to soil by dragging in the wet or dirt’ and ‘scruffy’ is only there as an adjective.

  9. Very enjoyable stuff. Pretty easy-end for a Saturday and I would’ve completed had it not been for the damned Frenchman and my lack of engagement in politics. No particular fave clue, just yer standard Knutty solve with loads of laughs and neat devices so thanks to The Bear for the fun and to The Ale Attractor for the blog (count me as another ‘gad’s breakfast’ Googler.)

  10. Many thanks to beermagnet for the blog and to those who have commented. The feedback here and on another site suggests this is on the easy side and I think some of this is due to the very solver-friendly grid in which the outside lights give lots of starts and all of the internal lights start with intersecting squares.
    The grid is a DIY job and once again thanks to Eimi not only for the flexibility in accepting DIY grids but also for turning the topical stuff round so quickly.
    warmest regards, Rob/Knut

  11. I hardly commented on Knut (or Julius) puzzles in the past few months if at all.
    But I did them all, don’t worry.

    This crossword I found very easy, solving it in less than half an hour (which is ‘fast’ for me – and certainly fast for a Knut, too).
    Not sure whether it was just because of the apparently friendly grid.
    The brilliant 17ac was first one in and many others followed more or less straightaway.

    So, yes, easy but also very very good!
    It felt like last Wednesday’s Julius crossword and today’s Knut were written by two completely different setters.
    Today’s clues showed more of a natural flow with surfaces outshining the clunkiness [sorry but that’s how I experienced it] of many of the Julius clues.

    Full marks for this what I thought was a superb puzzle.

    The only niggle I had was about 5d (END OF).
    As a non-Brit I could only understand the definition (‘Brooking no dissent’) after asking the help of Mrs Chambers.
    I assume that Knut used ‘Brooking’ to enhance the football surface?
    However, I think that ‘issue red cards’ should be ‘issue red card’ – singular.

    Thank you beermagnet for the blog.

    And ps, not so very long ago Kathryn’s Dad asked for the setter to use his setting name when commenting.
    I think rightly so, even though most of us know that Knut = baerchen.

  12. To Sil@11. Although I too found this more enjoyable than the previous Julius, I disagree with your red card comment. The surface says ‘dismissing wingers’ hence requiring red cards plural methinks.

  13. What I mean, Hovis, is this:
    END OF is clearly [s]END OF[f], so the ‘s’ and the ‘f’ are the ‘wingers’ that should be deleted.
    ‘To send off’ equals, in my opinion, ‘issue red card’.
    Never seen anyone being sent off with more than one red card.
    [btw, although I still think I have a valid point, it’s not a big thing for me]

  14. I see where you’re heading Sil, though I think I can make it work for me in that ‘issue red cards’ can mean ‘send off’ multiple people, as opposed to one red card which ‘sends off’ one person – so not using send/issue as the infinitive.

    I thought this was brilliant – highly entertaining, many thanks Knut! I finished it so it must have been one of Knut’s less difficult puzzles, which is just fine by me – loads of fun.

    Many thanks also beer magnet

  15. 6 a.m. I see it’s Knut (fun) but it’s Saturday (hard) so went back to sleep. Must be a wavelength thing but most across answers write-ins and a personal silver at 12 mins 50 (after a Phi somewhen, but he’s got his own back with today’s Listener). WITHOUT FAIL and DIVORCE BILL brilliant. Thanks to S&B

  16. I see what you mean Sil. It is a question of how you read the surface. I read it as issuing red cards plural because you are dismissing wingers plural.

  18. And I see now what you mean, Hovis.
    For the surface, ‘issue red cards’ (plural) is needed.
    And therefore Knut had no choice other than to use the plural.
    Still, ‘issue red cards’ = ‘send off’ doesn’t sit comfortably with me.
    That said, it is probably not wrong (see Dutch @14).
    “End of” 🙂

  19. This should have been the hardest Knut of all, for me, since I”m one of the least politically-savvy residents on the other side of the pond. But the cluing was so fair that I got most of it. (The site says I did 90% of it without help, but I only revealed 24a. The rest was because I had the “show errors” button turned on.) I think it’s a brilliant puzzle, especially now that I see the explanations of the themers that I didn’t understand. Thanks, Knut!

    Being even more clueless about sports than I am about politics, I’m going to hazard a possibly stupid comment about send off. Couldn’t an official issue red cards to two different players and send them off?

  20. Yes, Posterntoo, that is possible and that is why the clue ultimately works.
    However, it in real life it does not happen very often that two players are sent off at the same time.
    I associate ‘to send off’ with ‘to send someone off’ [singular], ‘issuing a red card’ [singular].
    That’s why it didn’t sit comfortably with me.
    But, in hindsight, this whole thing looks a bit like nitpicking.
    Did I say “End of” @18?
    Yes, I did. 🙂

  22. Finally got round to tackling this yesterday evening – I am not a fan of the Independent online interface and I only have access to a printer when I am in the office. As always this was entertaining and topical, also quite straightforward compared to some of Knut’s recent puzzles.

    Thanks to Knut and beermagnet

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