Knut provides our Thursday challenge today.
A few unfamiliar words, but there might be a reason for that (see next paragraph), and the wordplay is clear enough to make them mostly guessable. I think I’ve seen 19a (or something very similar) before but it’s still neat, and I liked the cryptic definition of 30a and the surface image of 25d.
The unchecked letters around the edge of the grid suggested we might have a Nina, and indeed we do: start with the A in the top row and go round clockwise. This of course also makes it a pangram, for those who like such things. In these circumstances it’s perhaps inevitable that Knut needed a few obscure words to make it all work, and they became easier to find when the pattern started to appear. Thanks Knut for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | IN ERROR |
Renoir upset king by mistake (2,5)
|
| Anagram (upset) of RENOIR + R (abbreviation for king, from Latin Rex). | ||
| 9 | HEAR OF |
Receive word about husband with open-ended 12 month break (4,2)
|
| H (abbreviation for husband) + [y]EAR OF[f] (12-month break) with the end letters removed (open-ended). | ||
| 10 | XENOPHANES |
Greek poet, old boy deported by those who hate foreigners penning article (10)
|
| XENOPH[ob]ES (those who hate foreigners) without OB (abbreviation for old boy = former pupil of a school), containing (pening) AN (a form of the indefinite article).
No, I hadn’t heard of him either: according to Wikipedia, he was a Greek philosopher and poet from the 5th century BC, and “not to be confused with Xenophon”. |
||
| 11 | JUNG |
Brilliant Swiss knight put in jail (4)
|
| N (abbreviation for knight, in chess notation) put in JUG (slang for jail).
Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and leader in analytical psychology. |
||
| 12 | WACO |
Wife promoted to head of a Jersey city? (4)
|
| A COW (perhaps a Jersey = a breed of dairy cows), with the W (abbreviation for wife) moved to the front (promoted to head).
City in Texas. |
||
| 14 | RITUAL BATH |
Organised Utah tribal ablution ceremony (6,4)
|
| Anagram (organised) of UTAH TRIBAL. | ||
| 18 | VEER |
English retired vicar coming round to swing (4)
|
| E (abbreviation for English), with REV (abbreviation for Reverend = title for a vicar) reversed (retired) coming around it.
Swing = veer = deviate from a straight path. |
||
| 19 | ISSUE |
Problem children (5)
|
| Double definition. Something that needs to be resolved; or as in “died without issue” = without any children. | ||
| 20 | RANI |
Queen administered India (4)
|
| RAN (administered, as in “he ran the company for 10 years”) + I (India in the radio alphabet).
South Asian title for a female ruler. |
||
| 21 | UP IN THE AIR |
Flying into the unknown? (2,2,3,3)
|
| Double definition. Airborne; or “up in the air” = phrase meaning “currently uncertain”. | ||
| 23 | HADJ |
Hospital radio host taking a trip to Mecca (4)
|
| H (abbreviation for hospital) + DJ (disc jockey = radio host), containing (taking) A.
Also spelled Hajj, or other variants: the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. |
||
| 24 | TOPS |
Kills 40 on board with a single arrow? (4)
|
| Double definition. Top, as a verb = slang for kill; or in the game of darts, where “double top” = a dart (arrow) in the “double 20” area at the top of the dartboard, scoring 40 points. | ||
| 26 | BACK-TO-BACK |
Northern terraces like this line from Amy Winehouse song (4-2-4)
|
| BACK TO B[l]ACK (Amy Winehouse song) without the L (abbreviation for line).
Back-to-back terraced houses, often associated with industrial towns in the North of England, were built with two rows of houses sharing a rear wall (without any garden or yard between them). |
||
| 29 | SENATE |
Film-maker Mack reported governing body (6)
|
| Homophone (reported) of SENNETT (film-maker Mack Sennett) – unfamiliar to me, but the homophone was guessable with the crossers, and especially after the Nina became obvious. | ||
| 30 | AVOCADO |
One found in a tree in Mexico, stoned (7)
|
| Cryptic definition, and nothing to do with the drug-induced confusion implied by the surface. A fruit with a stone, which grows on trees in Mexico. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | YITE |
Yellowhammer – in January, it escapes (4)
|
| Hidden answer (in . . .) from [januar]Y IT E[scapes].
Another name for a yellowhammer bird. |
||
| 2 | ZERO HOUR |
0-60 (min time for action!) (4,4)
|
| A good example of a clue where punctuation and non-alphabetic characters are best ignored. ZERO (0) + HOUR (60 min = minutes).
In military planning, the time at which an operation is due to start. |
||
| 3 | ARCHERFISH |
Chef Harris cooked tropical catch with spit (10)
|
| Anagram (cooked) of CHEF HARRIS.
Tropical fish that catch insects by spitting a jet of water at them. |
||
| 4 | BRAN |
Outlaw eating right source of dietary fibre (4)
|
| BAN (outlaw, as a verb = make illegal) containing (eating) R (right). | ||
| 5 | CHAS |
Disorder and mayhem without old Dave’s partner? (4)
|
| CHA[o]S (disorder and mayhem) without the O (abbreviation for old).
The late musician Charles (Chas) Hodges, one half of the duo Chas & Dave. |
||
| 6 | DAY JOB |
Filling in date of birth, Jay sorted out his main employment (3,3)
|
| Anagram (sorted out) of JAY, inserted into (filling in) DOB (abbreviation for date of birth). | ||
| 7 | EOIN |
Morgan for one regularly peeled red onions (4)
|
| Alternate letters (regularly peeled) from [r]E[d] O[n]I[o]N[s].
Irish male given name, used by (for example) the cricketer Eoin Morgan. |
||
| 13 | ATE UP |
Finished eight ahead I’m told (3,2)
|
| Homophone (I’m told = I hear) of EIGHT UP = eight ahead, in sports scoring. | ||
| 15 | TESLA |
Leaders of Sri Lanka invested in home-grown product, a key part of the 22 (5)
|
| First letters (leaders) of S[ri] L[anka] inserted into TEA (home-grown product: Sri Lanka is one of its major producers).
The US electric car company, one of the world’s most valuable companies, which features in the US stock exchange NASDAQ (22 down). |
||
| 16 | ABERRATION |
American baseball legend forced into error of judgement (10)
|
| A (abbreviation for American) + BERRA (Yogi Berra, legendary baseball player) + anagram (forced) of INTO. | ||
| 17 | TONED |
Looking fit, Mark somersaults expending last bit of energy (5)
|
| DENOT[e] (mark, as a verb = indicate), reversed (. . . somersaults = turns upside down, in a down clue), without the last E which is the first letter (a bit) of E[nergy].
Toned = showing well-defined muscles = looking fit. |
||
| 20 | REHOBOAM |
Note: before lunch tramp consumed the equivalent of six bottles (8)
|
| RE (a note in the tonic sol-fa musical scale do-re-mi . . .) + AM (abbreviation for Latin ante meridiem = before noon = before lunch), containing (. . . consumed) HOBO (tramp).
Name for a very large size of wine bottle, equivalent to 6 standard-size bottles. |
||
| 22 | NASDAQ |
New question about British supermarket stock listing in the US (6)
|
| N (abbreviation for new) + Q a(bbreviation for question), around ASDA (British supermarket chain).
Stock exchange in the US: in full, National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market. |
||
| 25 | OVER |
Dog runs off at first call from umpire (4)
|
| [r]OVER (supposedly a common name for a dog) with the initial R (abbreviation for runs, in cricket scoring) removed (runs off at first).
In cricket, the umpire calls “over” after a sequence of six legally-bowled balls, to indicate that the next bowler should start from the opposite end. |
||
| 26 | BEEP |
High-pitched sound, live, put on record (4)
|
| BE (live, as a verb = exist) + EP (abbreviation for extended-play record). | ||
| 27 | CIAO |
Italian greeting found in Chicago every now and again (4)
|
| Alternate letters (every now and then) in C[h]I[c]A[g]O.
Informal greeting in Italian, used for either “hello” or “goodbye”. |
||
| 28 | COOL |
Bill’s partner left with it (4)
|
| COO (Bill’s partner in the phrase “bill and coo”) + L (abbreviation for left).
Cool = with it = fashionable. |
Distracted start and struggled for progress so I switched to beermagnet’s link from yesterday’s comments section to Dave Gorman’s Best Ever Crossword Live on YouTube and watched Simon Anthony solve yesterday’s excellent Bluth puzzle. What really got me was the state of ‘discombobulation’ (his word) he got himself into when he had difficulties as he neared the completion of the puzzle particularly with DISPEL and DESCEND which was exactly what happened and happens to me. Experts also experience self-doubt and self-reproach during a cruciverbal joust. He was “incredibly annoyed’ with himself. “Why can’t I get that?” he says. “What’s wrong with my brain?”. I’m a novice and the same thing happens to me. It was cathartic viewing. Then I returned to Knut and chanced to glimpse an alphabetical sequence of letters in the top-right unches which continued around the grid and suddenly I wasn’t stupid after all. Even so, it was no write-in and the bottom-left gave me trouble for a while but eventually I completed and parsed everything and found myself in a good mood for the rest of the day. Thanks Knut!
A great set of clues. I liked BACK-TO-BACK and TOPS and the two different partners. Thanks, both.
Lots of lesser known words but once I spotted what was going on round the perimeter it didn’t take long to solve yet another splendid Knut crossword
Many thanks to him and Quirister
Thanks dear Quirister for your blog and thanks to those who’ve taken the time to post a comment. I remember filling this grid some time ago and as I recall I found it quite difficult to do the perimeter A-Z in alphabetical order, and used a few different starting squares on a trial-and-error basis. The puzzle features some daft words due to these constraints and has been sitting in Eimi’s inbox for a while, which probably tells a story in itself. So all in all, prob not a repeat. Onward.
Best wishes to all, Rob/Knut
Thanks both. Spotted the Nina early which helped greatly. In solving SENATE I did not know the director, and was not likely to have remembered XENOPHANES even if he had attended my wedding, but I do know EOIN Morgan who I loving refer to as ‘yo yo’ in a poor Irish accent. LOI was ABERRATION as the crossers tempted me towards Ruth as the baseball star….Berra is such a legend I have not come across him before, but I believe his friend BooBoo speaks very highly of him
Same comments as others re the helpfulness of the Nina in solving this. Still, seeing the Nina doesn’t parse the clues and I missed how TOPS worked till I came here. I liked the ‘baseball player’ not being the obvious one, who I admit I (figuratively) penciled in when faced with the R_T_ sequence early on.
Thanks to Knut and Quirister
Enjoyable solve over a postprandial cuppa. Nho Yite or Eoin Morgan but both well clued. Oops, didn’t spot the Nina till afterwards but was sure it was a pangram anyway. A commendable achievement by the setter! Thanks Q and K 🙂
The app started me off in 10a XENOPHANES – I detoured to read his Wikipedia page and correct a few typos there. :)!
Then I got 2d ZERO HOUR and had a look at 1d – it must be YITE, but I’d leave it for later.
Unfortunately the Nina was now obvious. I tried (and failed) to solve the rest without noticing what the answers had to begin or end with. Maybe someone else has cold-solved all the clues and can tell us what that was like.
Knew Magnum, Jeroboam, REHOBOAM…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_bottle#Sizes
…tells you all you’ll ever need to know about the other Biblical kings as well as Marie Jeanne(?) and McKenzie(??).
Just before the first lockdown my son came home from the pub with a half-full (or half-empty) 3 litre bottle (so a Jeroboam) of Campari. The landlord was giving stuff away rather than pouring it down the drain. We enjoyed it with lemonade.
Jeremy Clyde: “Were you truly wafted here from paradise?” | Lorraine Chase: “Nah, Luton Airport!”
Thanks R/K & Q – I didn’t see any “daft words” at all. It was fun.
Seemed like a very quick and easy entry at first, but got trickier as we went on… 24 and 29 took a bit of thinking about! Not so keen on 7 or 16, though I was able to dredge them out of the dim dark recesses of memory. 10a not a familiar name but clearly clued; similarly 20d : now there’s a party in the making. Cheers!
(Didn’t even spot the nina, as I wasn’t looking for one! O Mindfulness, where art thou?)
FrankieG@8 : I did not spot the Nina until reading the comments here just before I hit [Post Comment] … I honestly don’t think the self-imposed constraint added too much artificiality so tip of the chapeau to Knut for job well done.
Wasn’t the Lu’on Airport lass drinking Dubonnet, though?
Great fun puzzle, as it always is from Knut. I guessed early it was going to be a pangram but had nearly the whole grid filled in before I noticed the alphabetical order of the perimeter – it was spotting A B C in the top row that gave it away for me rather than the odd words ending in Q, J etc. Nhos for me were YITE and XENOPHANES (I’ve heard of Xenophon but it obviously wasn’t him) but both clues were clued clearly enough that I could enter the solutions confidently none the less.
Thanks, Knut & Quirister.
Correcting myself @10 – sorry, it was indeed Campari. With lemonade.
What a treat, two excellent Knut puzzles on the bounce, yesterday in The Telegraph and today here, both a lot of fun, with this slightly edging it for me.
I particularly liked WACO, TOPS, BACK TO BACK and CHAS.
Many thanks to Knut and Quirister (I think you’ve omitted the abbreviation for King in your hint at 8a)
Stephen L @13 – thanks, now corrected.
I really struggled with the SW and had to reveal, wishing that I had spotted the clever Nina. Even so this was an enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Rob and Quirister.
Somebody else here who didn’t spot the Nina until it was all filled in.
I first thought of Xenophon for 10ac, but it didn’t fit.
Thanks Knut for a most skillful crossword. I knew it was a pangram but I never saw that it involved a nina as well. Some of my top choices included HADJ, DAY JOB, ATE UP, and ABERRATION. Thanks Quirister for the blog.
[For those who solve the FT Julius (Knut) occasionally sets a random alphabetical crossword where each letter appears at least once at the beginning of the answer. There are no numbers in the grid. They are among my favourite puzzles.]