We’re back in the UK after three weeks away with very limited internet access, and Knut provided us with a lovely challenge for our return. Thanks to Gaufrid for standing in for us.
We suspected there might be a theme when we solved 5d very early on. As we worked through the puzzle, various connections came to light in the clues and the solutions – we especially liked the 14/15 down combination – no references to the individuals involved of course!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Pare nails back (4) | |
| SNIP | PINS (nails) reversed or ‘back’ | |
| 4 | Seat blames poor, cheap materials used in production (4,6) | |
| BASE METALS | An anagram of SEAT BLAMES – anagrind is ‘poor’ | |
| 9 | Successfully gets seed through exercises at Wimbledon (6,2) | |
| KNOCKS UP | KNOCKS UP is a slang term for ‘makes pregnant’ – or ‘successfully gets seed through’, and is also a term for the warm-up session before a tennis match | |
| 10 | Wheel trim grips earth (6) | |
| SHEAVE | SHAVE (trim) round or ‘gripping’ E (earth) | |
| 11 | Spooner reportedly bought the shopping centre as a perfect fit (4,3,3,4) | |
| MADE FOR THE PART | A Spoonerism of PAID FOR THE MART | |
| 12 | Ricard’s aperitif edges out Italian wine (4) | |
| ASTI | ||
| 13 | Train Bury football team informally (9) | |
| INTERCITY | INTER (bury) CITY (informal name used by locals and fans for a number of football clubs | |
| 17 | A fellow teacher sprinkles school with gold (9) | |
| COLLEAGUE | COLLEGE (school) with A U (gold) inserted separately or ‘sprinkled with’ | |
| 18 | The French way to get fat (4) | |
| LARD | LA (‘the’ in French) RD (road, or ‘way’) | |
| 20 | Inconsistent, dodgy Blair’s recollection has lots redacted, removed (14) | |
| IRRECONCILABLE | An anagram of B |
|
| 23 | August the 1st, French government brought in American guinea pig (6) | |
| AGOUTI | AOUT 1 (August 1st in French) with G (government) ‘brought in’ | |
| 24 | Spiro’s working in pub, behind bars (2,6) | |
| IN PRISON | An anagram of SPIRO (anagrind is ‘working’) in INN (pub) | |
| 25 | Scruffy nurse guzzles milky coffee, extremely loudly (10) | |
| SLATTERNLY | SRN (State-registered nurse) round or ‘guzzling’ LATTE (milky coffee) + first and last letters or ‘extremes’ of L |
|
| 26 | Frenchman lying in grubby vest (4) | |
| YVES | Hidden or ‘lying’ in grubbY VESt | |
| Down | ||
| 2/3 | Service gagging order? (2,5,2,4,5) | |
| NO NAMES, NO PACK DRILL | Cryptic definition – A phrase used in the Armed Services to suggest that if no-one owns up to a misdemeanour (NO NAMES) no-one will be punished with PACK DRILL | |
| 4 | Take care deleting content of Blue Peter (2,4) | |
| BE SAFE | B |
|
| 5 | Ban on reporting Jesuitic nun porn being circulated (15) | |
| SUPERINJUNCTION | An anagram of JESUITIC NUN PORN – anagrind is ‘being circulated’ | |
| 6 | A byword for trouble, Bond may be a Commander, but … (8) | |
| MISCHIEF | To complete the James Bond reference in the clue…..M IS CHIEF | |
| 7 | Game over for joint venture (3-2) | |
| TIE-UP | TIE (game) UP (over) | |
| 8 | Partner, 50+ (5) | |
| LOVER | L (Roman numeral for 50) OVER (plus) | |
| 14 | One listed building’s west wing laid in haste (9) | |
| CELEBRITY | B (first letter or ‘west wing’ of ‘building’) in CELERITY (haste) | |
| 15 | Here’s a gooseberry crumble, see mother? (9) | |
| THREESOME | An anagram of SEE MOTHER – anagrind is ‘crumble’ | |
| 16 | Sloe gin, a complex distillate (8) | |
| GASOLINE | An anagram of SLOE GIN A – anagrind is ‘complex’ | |
| 19 | Careless agent sustains cut (6) | |
| SLOPPY | SPY (agent) round or ‘sustaining’ LOP (cut) | |
| 21 | Gareth’s debut in Madrid XI “of the highest class” (5) | |
| REGAL | G (first letter or ‘debut’ of Gareth) in REAL (Madrid football team) | |
| 22 | Blow up neat tritium (5) | |
| ERUPT | PURE (neat) reversed or ‘up’ + T (tritium) | |
Very Nice.
Neat. Rare to get a a puzzle so straightforward with a mischievous theme brought in.
As to the redacted/removed theme in 20a: there was some spiky debate in my blog for the FT puzzle yesterday about ‘composite/subtractive’ anagrams. Some purists evidently believe that if the elements to be removed don’t appear exactly as written in the ‘master’ word, then the clue should indicate this. I don’t think so myself, but Knut has evidently hedged his bets.
Thanks to him for the fun. What COULD he be talking about?
Sorry, that was TUESDAY’S FT. It’s archived, if anyone’s bothered. They’re quite serious bunch over there…
And thanks to Bert and Joyce. Welcome home!. I’ll shut up now.
Thanks B and J – lucky you to get such a great welcome home!
A brilliant romp! SUPERINJUNCTION promised a lively theme and the chortles soon started. I solved THREESOME first and put a tick against the clue for the ‘gooseberry crumble’ but then getting the juxtaposed CELEBRITY was a real laugh out loud moment.
Ticks also for 20ac – and 9ac. I think the exercises at Wimbledon would be called KNOCK-UPS but I’m not complaining – the surface is just wonderful!
Looking forward to Knut’s next topical puzzle already – huge thanks to him.
Great stuff from the Knutster. I can’t believe how long I spent trying to justify Made for the Pall/Paul/Pawl.
Nice solve – lighter touch than previous Knutsters I thought – plenty of smiles.
I was hoping for a Nina – wonder what the legal implications of that might have been. Funny how just about everyone knows yet the lawyers keep hammering away at it.
In Yorkshire “knocking up” means waking someone up in the morning – in Australia it doesn’t – although there’s a possible overlap.
Many thanks both – oops – all three.
BTW – not wanting to be a pedant – but the current hoo-hah isn’t about a superinjunction – it’s just a plain gagging order – otherwise we wouldn’t know about the order itself – theoretically at least; it’s just the people’s names that we (theoretically) don’t know.
Good fun. Never heard of NO NAMES NO PACK DRILL, but got there eventually. SHEAVE could be said to be a bit obscure when there were other better known words available.
But SUPERINJUNCTION was funny, and KNOCKS UP was priceless (but I think Eileen’s right that the clue leads to KNOCK UPS). If I’m having another quibble, the French don’t actually say AOUT 1 for 1st August, but that’s a nanoquibble.
The theme passed me by, of course, but to answer Grant’s question, it’s about David Furnish, who had a bit of a 15dn instead of cuddling up with Reginald. Must go – I hear heavy knocking at the door …
Bravo, Knut, and thanks to Egbert and Joyce for the blog. Good to have you back.
Re KNOCKS UP. Read “exercises” as a verb – not a plural noun.
Good fun. Thanks to Knut & B& J. I don’t often see the separate insertion device as in 16 across but like buses you get 2 one after the other (see Monk yesterday 16 across).
K’D @ 9, I think you need to redact part of your comment – after all it is subject to a court order.
Thanks, JollySwagman @10. Of course, how obvious – but the surface was so smooth I just went along with it! Sincere apologies, Knut – the clue’s even better thanI thought it was. 😉
Made heavy weather of this but got there in the end – as entertaining as ever from Knut. It does seem to be an open secret – we were even asked to identify the alleged couple in a pub quiz a few weeks ago.
Thanks to Knut, thanks and welcome back to B & J
Hi folks,
Thanks to B&J for the blog and thanks for the comments.
I wrote this quite a few weeks ago and the fact that the story is still front page news is quite astonishing; I wonder if the petitioners feel that the fees have been well spent…
Warmest regards from Lucca,
Rob /Knut
I echo every word of Copmus @1
Reference 9 across, ‘successfully gets seed through’ may not result in ‘makes pregnant’, as many couples will advise, and also where things like SWINGS BY are in reality SWING BYS, I don’t buy KNOCKS UP as a plural form. I think some contributors have been generous, acting without careful aforethought.
In 20 across, the compiler, the crossword editor, and some contributors, have not understood how compound anagrams work. This was not a very good puzzle.
Re #16, I think in line with the dictum a clue has to say what it means, that Knut gives fair instructions. He’s saying, I think, to remove the letters LOTS (redacted – as they are in a different order within the anagram material) and then make an anagram of the rest. Unusual approach certainly but solvers have found the answer and understood why.
@Metatron
Thanks for commenting; I’m sorry you didn’t like the puzzle.
I think the wordplay “successfully gets seed through” quite clearly suggests a desire to procreate, and a happy outcome, so I’m happy with that.
I really don’t see any problem with (s/he)”exercises at Wimbledon”= (s/he) “knocks up”.
Regarding the compound anagram, this is the first one I have used (I tend not to like the “machine-generated” suggestions – I spotted this opportunity to chide Mr. Blair myself). As I understand it, the compiler is required to offer the large fodder (with an anagram indicator) then a subsidiary indicator (for the subsidiary fodder) and an instruction to remove it.
In this regard, I don’t see how I have failed.
best regards,
Rob/Knut
@Metatron (again) and @B&J
Just to clarify the point regarding the clue for IRRECONCILABLE, the subsidiary anagram indicator is “redact” (which doesn’t mean “remove”, as any continental film fan will tell you).
I should have made this clear yesterday, but I was abroad without any access to wi-fi and was only able to scan the comments on my wife’s phone.
I don’t care about the editor’s job (9)
Some people, notably barred-grid people, would advise that where the job can be done with one indicator, you should dispense with any other. One possible anagram of ‘Blair’s recollection’ is IRRECONCILABLELOTS, so the job can be done as suggested.
Respectfully, I would offer ‘corrupt’ as the anagrind, and ‘missing’ as the subtractor, re Chilcot.