Independent on Sunday 1,735 by Coot

by

Unbelievable ….

COOT’s debut will no doubt have infuriated sport and especially Football loathing solvers. This puzzle is a tribute to Jeff Stelling who is finally leaving Sky’s football/sports show. Lots and lots of sport and football and Stelling catchphrases all over the shop in clues and grid entries although not much football knowledge actually required. Too many thematics to highlight in the grid and some will have gone over my head. Thanks and congratulations on the debut Coot.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
9. Wartime fighter in regular display of dumb loyalty (1-4)
U-BOAT

Alternate letters of dUmB lOyAlTy

10. Freak loves to become absorbed in fighting manuals (9)
ANOMALOUS

Two Os – loves inside a fighting MANUALS*

11. Good to watch: Terry Butcher in Greece skipping about (9)
TELEGENIC

TEL short for Terry & [IN GREECE]* skipping about or possibly butchered but I think that’s just padding for the surface. Thematic.

12. Royal couple touched by Jack Nicholson’s core wit (5)
JOKER

J(ack) & middle – core of (nich)O(lson) & K(ing) & E.R. – late queen

13. Cut short noisy party beside a tree (7)
AVOCADO

It’s unusual to see them defined as trees, still they must grow somewhere. A & most of VOCA(l) – noisy & DO – party

15. Reels off transfers for audience (7)
RECITES

Sounds like re-sites. Thematic

17. Water tube cutting out the supply (5)
CATER

THE removed from CA(the)TER

18. Fine follows – concerning for whistle-blower (3)
REF

RE – concerning & F(ine) Thematic

20. Cheeky devil lying about the French press (5)
IMPEL

IMP & LE “the French” reversed – about

22. Opera left English with an accurate perspective (2,5)
TO SCALE

The opera TOSCA & L(eft) & E(nglish)

25. Cover provided until the soldiers arrive? (3-4)
EGG-COSY

Cryptic def

26. Degree students essentially rehashing nonsense (5)
BALLS

BA – degree & LL – students & essentially (reha)S(hing)

27. Controlled German repulsed by wild adult popping ecstasy (9)
REGULATED

GER(man) reversed – repulsed & E(cstacy) inside a wild ADULT*

30. Churchgoing sad anachronism in small country (3,6)
SAN MARINO

CH(urch) removed from a sad [ANA(ch)RONISM]*

31. Silky sequence of passes at Internazionale (5)
SATIN

Hidden in passeS AT INternazionale, Thematic

DOWN
1. “Simply thunderous shot! Unbelievable Jeff – leaders turned over!” (4)
JUST

If the surface means nothing then don’t worry, it’s a certain over-excitable football commentator Chris Kamara in the way he talks to studio host Jeff Stelling. Leading letters of T(hunderous) S(hot) U(nbelievable) J(eff) reversed – turned over

2. Aim to publish supportive column (8)
GOALPOST

GOAL – aim & POST – publish. Thematic

3. Alpha male Stelling’s outside receiving thanks (4)
STAG

TA – thanks inside the outside letters of S(tellin)G. Thematic

4. For Spooner, really tedious American’s an easy target (4,4)
BARN DOOR

Spoonerism of a DARN BOOR

5. A sport broadcast hit – entertaining revelry, principally (6)
SOCCER

SOCC – sounds like – broadcast SOCK – hit & principal letters of E(ntertaining) R(evelry). In the US maybe, here it’s football. Thematic

6. Compassionate giant’s visitor admitted violent theft (10)
CARJACKING

JACK – he of the beanstalk inside CARING

7. Music on alien spacecraft (6)
ROCKET

ROCK – music & setter’s favourite alien E.T.

8. Dismiss account from person blaming addict (4)
USER

ACC(count) removed from (acc)USER

13. Sir Alex Ferguson? He’s one for the races! (5)
ASCOT

Well Sir Alex is A SCOT, Thematic

14. Sky veteran, alarm disguised, keeps quiet after broadcast (3-7)
AIR-MARSHAL

AIR – broadcast & SH – quiet – inside a disguised ALARM* Jeff Stelling has been at Sky for years. Thematic

16. Offensive Aunt open to criticism? (5)
SALLY

Double def. Thematic – Stelling catchphrases

19. Animated old Jeff, outwardly lacking ego, bringing joy (4-4)
FEEL-GOOD

[OLD (j)EF(f) – outwardly lacking – EGO]* animated. Thematic

21. Pundits supported by gallery’s fluid production system (8)
PROSTATE

PROS – professionals, pundits usually are ex ones on footie shows & TATE – gallery. Thematic

23. Excited goons taking in football – finally it’s farewell (2,4)
SO LONG

End of (footbal)L in an excited GOONS* Stelling is finally retiring. Thematic

24. Secretly monitor creepy-crawly (6)
EARWIG

Double def

26. Delight in sport having rejected ballet dancing (4)
BASK

BASK(ETBALL) the sport without BALLET* dancing. Thematic

28. Son, consumed by circumstances, vanished (4)
LOST

S(on) inside LOT – circumstances, that’s your lot

29. European recalled Grenadier Guards (4)
DANE

Hidden – guarded by – reversed – recalled – in grENADier

 

18 comments on “Independent on Sunday 1,735 by Coot”

  1. Thanks, Coot and flashling!
    Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog!

    TELEGENIC
    TEL+In Greece* (anagram of, butchered) skipping (avoiding) RE (about).
    TEL+GECEIN*

  2. Cleaned up a bit…
    TEL+anagram of (butcher) “‘in gREece’ avoiding (skipping) RE (about)”
    TEL+INGECE*

  3. Also secondarily thematic is Jeff Spellings upcoming Football March on Spetember 23 2023 in support of those suffering from Prostate Cancer after his mate Bill Turnbull – maybe he was an air marshal – sucumbed to it hence clues or words in clues such as Catheter, Prostate and Balls. Ouch! Doesn’t feel good at all. Thanks Coot.

  6. Good debut puzzle. Theme pretty much lost on me but solved without any problems. Interesting construction for 26d – I think it works only because you don’t need to do much for the anagram of BALLET. I turned off ‘autocorrupt’ in my Safari settings a little while back and have yet to regret it.

  7. Congratulations Coot,

    Super debut puzzle although the theme meant nothing to me and mostly sailed over my head but that didn’t stop me solving. A lesson for others there. Every clue must be solvable by the theme blind and here it was so. Big kudos for that. Favourites were EGG COSY (nho so needed a few crossers but a great pdm) and BASK.

    A fine addition to Eimi’s stable.

  8. Congratulations to Coot on a nice debut puzzle. The theme passed me by – nho Jeff Stelling but worked out that he was a sports pundit. I am sure there will be many references that I did not clock as a result. Favourites included ANOMALOUS, RECITE, SAN MARINO, SATIN, BARN DOOR, ROCKET, BASK and DANE.

    Thanks Coot and flashling

  9. Sorry about telegenic not sure what happened in my head for that. Good spot sofamore re Bill Turnbull I’d forgotten about that.

  10. Dropping in early as I’m about to head out for the day. Thanks very much for the blog and comments. Flashling, that was a great job at spotting the thematic material! SALLY, ROCKET and FEEL-GOOD are all Stelling catchphrase references. And TELEGENIC JOKER in row 4 was also meant to describe the great man. Stelling is a Prostate Cancer UK ambassador and has walked over 30 marathons for the cause. But Sofamore@3 – I can assure you that any link between CATHETER, BALLS and PROSTATE was totally unintentional!

  11. Just as well I didn’t need to register the theme – the Jeff in question is totally unknown to me but then so are most things to do with football!
    Well done to our setter for balancing the puzzle to include all of us solvers.
    Clues I particularly enjoyed were TO SCALE, EGG COSY, GOALPOST & ROCKET.

    Thanks and congratulations on your debut, Coot, and thanks to flashling for the review and theme enlightenment.

  12. 5d, when did soccer become football. I remember as a boy, back in the 70s, soccer and football were pretty much interchangable and you heard both.
    Soccer as a derivative of association football as rugger is of rugby football, don’t hear rugger anymore either or do I just move in the wrong circles?

  13. Big congrats on a delightful debut, Coot! I’m on in the nho-theme camp but as Blah said you’ve constructed this very satisfyingly, and I enjoyed catching up on all the thematic richness here, so thanks also to Flashling for the blog. I particularly liked TO SCALE, BALLS, EGG COSY, SATIN, BARN DOOR, ROCKET and SO LONG

  14. Lovely stuff and welcome to big school, Coot! I know enough of Jeff Stelling to have picked up most of the references, but as others have said, no special knowledge was needed, which is as a themed puzzle should be.

    Favourites were EGG COSY, ROCKET, and TELEGENIC, which I figured out from the definition but took me ages to parse…

    Thanks Coot & flashling.

  15. A lovely puzzle. I liked knowing I was being misdirected in some clues but it still a while to tease out exactly how. Not being a big football follower (or someone who knew of Jeff Stelling) didn’t detract from the pleasure of solving as the theme was clear and lots of the references are fairly common knowledge. I did not, however, get all the layers of thematic connection and have really enjoyed reading posters comments…particularly the ‘streets of Raith’ allusion, a clip of which I have now sent to various chums.

    So many things learnt today and I look forward to more from this setter. Huge thanks to Coot and flashling.

  16. …and it doesn’t have to be thematic. Always an intriguing addition but I enjoyed the wordplay.

  17. Well done on a very fine debut Coot, nice to see someone who cut his teeth on the Big Dave website here.
    Lots to like, my favourite was definitely TELEGENIC with BARN DOOR, CARJACKING and GOALPOST also appealing. Good stuff.
    Thanks and thanks to flashling.

  18. Thanks Coot and congratulations.

    An enjoyable debut with a hidden theme which we were completely unaware of!

    Hope to see more of you.

    Thanks flashling.

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