It’s well over a year since we last blogged a Raich, so we really looked forward to this opportunity, especially knowing that, being a Tuesday, it was likely to be a themed puzzle.
Unfortunately, it didn’t really float our boat – partly because of the football manager theme, but also because the grid created a ‘crossword of four quarters’ with single clues connecting the four corner grids. We feel this might be justified if there were more thematic entries, but there are only four (plus the three ‘gateway’ clues).
We’re afraid we also found some of the surface readings rather ‘clunky’.
Anyway, back to the theme…. as non-football fans, we had only heard of two of the four 31 24 11s. We initially thought that 1ac was the American golfer (we’re not golf fans either, but we had heard of him!), but he could hardly be called a ‘league’ champ. For those who may be more interested than we are, Google revealed the information included below about the four thematic managers in the grid. Google also revealed that two of the managers won the League four times and one five times – so why include ‘double’? Are we missing something given our lack of interest in football?
Sorry Raich – not our cup of tea – but we’re still looking forward to the next one!!
| Across | ||
| 1 | 31 24 11 Tom was not mistaken (6) | |
| WATSON | An anagram of WAS NOT – anagrind is ‘mistaken’. This Tom Watson was apparently manager of Sunderland when they won the League championship in 1892, 1893 and 1895 and of Liverpool FC when they won it in 1901 and 1906. | |
| 4 | Law enforcer, small, went about work (5,3) | |
| SPEED COP | S (small) PEED (‘went’, as in ‘urinated’) C (about) OP (work) | |
| 9 | Plaintive legal ace I fancy (9) | |
| ELEGIACAL | An anagram of LEGAL ACE I – anagrind is ‘fancy’ | |
| 11 | Best bite (5) | |
| CHAMP | Double definition | |
| 12 | 31 24 11 Herbert’s rewritten 11 article (7) | |
| CHAPMAN | An anagram of CHAMP (11 across) – anagrind is ‘rewritten’ + AN (article). Herbert Chapman was apparently manager of Huddersfield Town when they won the League championship in 1924 and 1925 and of Arsenal when they won it in 1931 and 1933. | |
| 13 | Coming back, do bathroom up maybe first for superior type (7) | |
| ELITIST | TILE (‘do bathroom up maybe’) reversed or ‘coming back’ + IST (first) | |
| 14 | Club overcoming Everton’s outside threat (6) | |
| MENACE | MACE (club) round or ‘overcoming’ E |
|
| 16 | Partly missing urban term for joking (6) | |
| BANTER | Hidden in (‘partly missing’) ‘urBAN TERm’ | |
| 19 | 31 24 11 Brian at first cited Neagh maybe (6) | |
| CLOUGH | C (first letter of ‘citing’) LOUGH (Lough Neagh is a lake in Northern Ireland). Brian Clough was manager of Derby County when they won the League championship in 1972 and of Nottingham Forest when they won it in 1978. | |
| 21 | Blemish by church rarely seen (6) | |
| SCARCE | SCAR (blemish) CE (church) | |
| 25 | Home mostly lacking interest, say – brought over drink? (7) | |
| INDULGE | IN (home) DUL |
|
| 26 | Omit old crossword feature to accommodate daughter (7) | |
| EXCLUDE | EX (old) CLUE (crossword feature) round or ‘accommodating’ D (daughter) | |
| 28 | Key mixer (5) | |
| TONIC | Double definition | |
| 29 | In which player’s accompanied wrong female – almost gone off (4-5) | |
| SING-ALONG | SIN (wrong) GAL (female) + an anagram of GON |
|
| 30 | 31 24 11 Kenny glad to go back at 51. Scottish? Extremely (8) | |
| DALGLISH | GLAD reversed + LI (51 in Roman numerals) + S |
|
| 31 | At party strange blue drink, large (6) | |
| DOUBLE | DO (party) + an anagram of BLUE – anagrind is ‘strange’ | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Difficult parting from lively woman? About right (6) | |
| WRENCH | WENCH (lively woman) round R (right) | |
| 2 | Support on course horse, English, seven years (7) | |
| TEENAGE | TEE (support on (golf) course) NAG (horse) E (English) | |
| 3 | Dislike dais – heading off (5) | |
| ODIUM | ||
| 5 | About to get in rage over pinch (6) | |
| PILFER | RE (about) FLIP (‘get in rage’) all reversed or ‘over’ | |
| 6 | Eunice oddly greeting fellow with a Mexican dish (9) | |
| ENCHILADA | EuNiCe (odd letters) HI (greeting) LAD (fellow) A | |
| 7 | Disturbance after drink in vehicle (7) | |
| CHARIOT | RIOT (disturbance) after CHA (drink) | |
| 8 | Postscript about Reformed pastor’s musical favourites (3,5) | |
| POP STARS | PS (postscript) round an anagram of PASTOR – anagrind is ‘reformed’ | |
| 10 | Reportedly win horse chestnut (6) | |
| CONKER | A homophone (‘reportedly’) of CONQUER (win) | |
| 15 | Good to get involved in new alliance? Very good! (9) | |
| ANGELICAL | G (good) in anagram of ALLIANCE – anagrind is ‘new’ | |
| 17 | Certificate Heath maybe’s written in advance (8) | |
| SCRIPTED | SCRIP (certificate) TED (Ted Heath, former PM) | |
| 18 | Like flier following ship? (6) | |
| ASTERN | AS (like) TERN (flier) | |
| 20 | Referring to some numbers Adrian regularly used in exam (7) | |
| ORDINAL | ADrIaN (alternate or ‘regular’ letters) in ORAL (exam) | |
| 22 | Starts off creating original unit leaving other measures behind – this one? (7) | |
| COULOMB | First letters or ‘starts’ of Creating Original Unit Leaving Other Measures Behind. A coulomb is a measure of electric charge. | |
| 23 | After hearing, understand America’s head count (6) | |
| CENSUS | A homophone (‘after hearing’) of SENSE (understand) + US (America) | |
| 24 | Competition distance once used (6) | |
| LEAGUE | Double definition | |
| 27 | Some reach a country plain (5) | |
| CHACO | Hidden in (‘some’) ‘reaCH A COuntry’ | |
He’s Gurney isnt he?
I liked it anyway.
Soccer (football) isn’t really my thing either, but I quite liked this. I wonder if the DOUBLE refers to the managers having won the Championship with 2 clubs, rather than to the number of separate Championships they won, which doesn’t really make sense as you point out. I too wondered about Tom WATSON of the golfing variety, but it didn’t seem to fit. I did not know this before, but looking it up now on Wikipedia, I see that the 4 named managers are the only ones to win the Championship managing 2 clubs. I’ve no idea if this really is correct or not – blame it on Wikipedia if I’m wrong!
Liked SPEED COP and the ‘seven years’ which I don’t think I’ve come across as a def. before.
A double dose today. Off to do the Gurney in the FT.
Thanks to Raich and B&J
Thanks WordPlodder. If that is the case, it makes far more sense – far more than the game itself!
Well, we’re not football fans either, but we found this quite an accessible puzzle as the theme didn’t really get in the way; 31 24 and 11 were all clued straightforwardly enough, and the 31 24 11s were all easily got from the wordplay. Lots of non-themed clues to enjoy, including SPEED COP, PILFER, ELITIST and SING-ALONG. But CONKER was one of our last ones in – we were trying to be too clever and lift and separate ‘horse’ and ‘chestnut’.
Thanks, Raich and B&J.
I’m with WordPlodder and allan_c. A light sprinkling of theme, with those words clued in such a way that I’d expect them to be gettable by those who only had “pick a random surname” for the definition. As it was, for me the names did all ring bells of various sizes (mostly very little ones). Having, somewhat improbably, seen The Damned United also helped. (Otherwise my woeful geographical ignorance may have prevented CLOUGH from hitting the target.)
While I noticed the grid, I found entry points in all corners, so that wasn’t a problem either.
I enjoyed SPEED COP, CHAMP, MENACE, EXCLUDE and DOUBLE (always!). PILFER was last in by a long way – no idea why – and I had the same experience as allan_c with CONKER. Wasn’t actually sure about seven years as a definition for TEENAGE, but it was an enjoyable penny drop.
Thanks to Raich and Bertandjoyce.
Yes, I confirm that the theme was the four managers who have won the League title with two different clubs. Many thanks for the blog and to all who commented.
Well, it all went in fairly smoothly and quickly. Another not a football fan here, and I’d only heard of two of the managers, but the other two were guessable, as was 27dn, which I don’t think I know.
Couldn’t parse 25ac, so thanks for the explanation.
16ac was my LOI; took me ages to see it.
I enjoyed the puzzle, though I quickly realised there was no way I would get the double league champs. So I came here to find those, then finished the puzzle. I struggled with some of the definitions (in which players accompanied, seven years, following ship). I didn’t know the plain.
Favourite clue probably 8d, though surface is a weird story
Many tanks raich and bj
Re comment#6 above, I should have added the the managers appear in the grid in date order of their achievement.