It is Knut who is providing our cruciverbal workout this morning, a compiler whose puzzles I get to solve and blog only occasionally.
And full marks to Knut and his editor for topicality! This puzzle must have been compiled in the last fortnight, since the expression at 1 would have meant nothing to anybody before that. I take it that Knut asked for this puzzle to be published as soon as possible after submission, while the scandal was still in full swing.
1 was one of the last clues that I solved, although I twigged early on that the (shady) world of finance and overseas investment was to feature quite prominently in the puzzle. It was only once I had all the crossing letters in the first word of 1 that I realised that the puzzle was so very up-to-date.
Overall, I found this quite a challenging puzzle, and I certainly didn’t know the fish at 18, the lemur at 3 or the particular derivation of a fairly common word at 22. I needed to search Chambers to find 18, and only once I had the answer did I understand the wordplay. It is clear what the answer at 2 is from the definition, but I have no idea about the wordplay whatsoever – please help!
My favourite clue by some margin was 17, for being such an original spot – and being a cricket fan and from Yorkshire myself, I was, of course, happy to see both figure in a clue.
Thanks to fellow solvers for helping to clarifying 2 and 20 – I have added to the blog accordingly.
(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | PANAMA PAPERS | Old airline appears to have sprung a leak
PAN AM (=old airline, i.e. Pan American World Airways) + *(APPEARS); “to have sprung” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the recent revelations surrounding the use of offshore companies for tax avoidance purposes |
| 09 | SEIZE UP | Jam singing The Tide is High …
Homophone (“singing”) of “sea’s up” (=the tide is high) |
| 10 | DEEP SEA | … where speculators fish for stocks well under water?
Cryptic definition: the reference is to fish stocks rather than stocks and shares |
| 11 | MONEY LAUNDERING | Having a grumble about a Yen/Pound financial crime
[ONE (=a) + Y (=yen) + L (=pound, as in LSD)] in MAUNDERING (=having a grumble) |
| 12/13 | FUND MANAGEMENT | Asset allocation to raise money for the bosses
FUND (=to raise money for) + MANAGEMENT (=the bosses) |
| 16 | NETTLESOME | Galling for Spooner to pay the bill, in a state of shock
A spoonerism of “settle (=to pay the bill) + numb (=in a state of shock)” |
| 18 | OPAH | Chatty woman binned head of rotten fish
OP<r>AH (=chatty woman, i.e. US talk show host Oprah Winfrey); “binned head of r-otten”, i.e. the letter “r” is dropped; the opah is the kingfish, a large sea-fish with laterally flattened body |
| 21 | LIMITED EDITIONS | Old identities I’m using for special books
*(OLD IDENTITIES I’M); “using for” is anagram indicators |
| 24 | LAY DOWN | Record Song Sung Blue
LAY (=a song sung) + BLUE (=down, i.e. depressed); to lay down is to record, write down, register |
| 25 | SHELL COMPANY | Chap solemnly screws brassplate
*(CHAP SOLEMNLY); “screws” is anagram indicator; a brassplate / shell / letterbox company is one which is registered in a given place, often because of favourable tax provisions, but which does little or no business there |
| Down | ||
| 02 | AVIGNON | A bookie’s margin declined in this old Papal city
A + VIG (=bookie’s margin, an abbreviation of “vigorish”, in US slang) + NON (=declined in Avignon (=this city), i.e. the French word used to say “non”, to decline an offer); seven popes resided in Avignon from 1309 and 1377 |
| 03 | AYE-AYE | Madagascan resident’s on-board agreement
An aye-aye is an arboreal, squirrel-like Madagascan lemur; “aye aye” is a way for sailors “on board” a vessel to express agreement |
| 04 | ALPHA RAYS | Emissions to jump “sharply” – American Airlines
*(SHARPLY + AA (=American Airlines); “to jump” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | ADD-ON | Something extra from dad? Do nothing!
Hidden (“from”) in “dAD DO Nothing” |
| 06/23 | EBENEZER SCROOGE | Tightwad, dodgy geezer Osborne (CE)
*(GEEZER OSBORNE CE); “dodgy” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the miserly character in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – and perhaps to some of the tax dodgers embroiled in the Panama Papers affair?! |
| 07 | SISTINE | Is German function about to refer to Pope Sixtus?
IST (=is German, i.e. the German word for is) in SINE (=function, in trigonometry); the Sistine Chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus, who commissioned its restoration |
| 08 | CAUGHT THE SUN | Got pink paper out first!
CAUGHT (=out, e.g. in cricket) + THE SUN (=(news)paper) |
| 09 | SEMI-FINALIST | A 7 film shot 1 of the last 4
*(A + SISTINE (=entry at 7) + FILM); “shot” is anagram indicator; a semi-finalist is one of the last four competitors in a knock-out competition |
| 14 | ARMADILLO | Lilo drama at sea for American landlubber
*(LILO DRAMA); “at sea” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | FLAT NOTE | It sounds iffy; even Eton backtracked!
EVEN (=flat, level) + NOTE (ETON; “backtracked” indicates reversal) |
| 17 | TIMBRES | Yorkshire all-rounder misses his grandmother; such sound qualities!
TIM BRES<nan> (=Yorkshire all-rounder, i.e. cricketer); “misses his grandmother (=NAN)” means letters “nan” are dropped |
| 19 | PRONOUN | President Reagan initially opposed the United Nations; it could be personal
P (=President) + RON (=Reagan, i.e. former US President Ronald Reagan) + O<pposed> (“initially” means first letter only) + UN (=United Nations); there are personal pronouns – he, she, it, etc – in grammar |
| 20 | STAY UP | Don’t go to bed, thereby avoiding the drop
Cryptically, if a football team doesn’t get relegated, it avoids the drop and stays up, i.e. in its current division |
| 22 | DWELL | Germany’s spring break for engineering industry
D (=Germany, in IVR) + WELL (=spring, for water); a dwell is a pause or hesitation in the working of a machine, in engineering |
Great puzzle. i was perplexed by 9a as “snarl up’ neither fitted nor parsed. And the “play the puzzle” on the site tends to freeze up -or as i now see it “seize up”
Beaten by a Sheffield lad!
And I missed the parsing of 17.
Sorry to hear about Otterden.
Liked the “shady deal” clues as well as TIMBRES.
For 2d, AVIGNON is A(=A) + VIG (=bookies’ margin) + NON (=declined in this old Papal city, ie NON is ‘no’ in French) with ‘old Papal city’ again as the def.
No, I didn’t know either but I looked it up after getting the clue from the def. A VIG is “The interest to a loan on the street or through a bookie.”
Yes, sorry to hear about Otterden.
Thanks to Knut and RatkojaRiku
Thanks RatkojaRiku and to Knut, once again proving his mastery of the topical. Quite a work out.
I was held up slightly by wondering if 15 down was ‘just note’, since after about 3 sharps or flats, just intonation sounds iffy. (Sorry to be an anorak but I did write a book covering just intonation inter alia some 30 plus years ago.)
A witty and, for me, educational puzzle from Knut. Vig Brassplate and Opah all unfamiliar to me. Some lovely surfaces, 14 in particular.
RIP Otterden and thank you to Tom Johnson for the obituary.
Yes, entertaining and topical as ever, and educational too, though all of the obscurities were easy enough to check once the crossers were in place. I was half expecting to see MOSSACK FONSECA somewhere but maybe that would have tested our memory too much. Favourite was TIMBRE (Castleford lad…)
Thanks, RR, for blogging.
This one had me beat in the end, because I couldn’t see PANAMA PAPERS and I’d put in the wrong answer for 9ac, which didn’t help with AVIGNON. But what I did get I enjoyed: I thought CAUGHT THE SUN was a lovely misdirection, and TIMBRES made me smile when I got it (but what non-cricket folk thought of it will be another matter …)
Well done, Knut. Keep them coming.
I think football fans may see 20D STAY UP as referring to a successful battle against the drop i.e. relegation.
I can’t imagine which team you are referring to, nms …
Thanks Knut for a proper Thursday challenge. We were defeated by some of the pasings, partly because we came here rather than check a couple in the dictionary as we only finished the last few this morning.
We didn’t know the cricketer but guessed the correct answer from the definition.
So many thematic clues – what an achievement.
Thanks RR – without the blog we would still be puzzling.