Knut has set our Thursday teaser this week. It has been a while since I last blogged a puzzle by this compiler.
I found this to be towards the easy end of the Indy spectrum and I made swift progress through it, having a lot of fun along the way. How often do you get references to Looney Tunes figuring in cryptic crosswords like they did today?!
I didn’t know the red wine at 19, but it could be worked out from the wordplay, and I needed Google to understand the linkage between 23, 1A and 18. As for my favourite clues, I particularly liked 8, which made me smile, and which I hope that I have parsed correctly; 10, for smoothness of surface; and 11D, for the ingenious misdirection around Dahl.
I hope that I won’t have to wait as long for my next outing with Knut.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are underlined; a break in underlining separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| ACROSS
|
||
| 1 | WILE E COYOTE |
Playing it cool, we eye would-be serial killer (4,1,6)
|
| *(IT COOL WE EYE); “playing” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the Looney Tunes cartoon character, who repeatedly tries but fails to catch the Road Runner, hence “would-be serial killer”! | ||
| 7 | GYM |
Exercise my back after golf (3)
|
| G (=golf, in NATO alphabet) + YM (MY; “back” indicates reversal) | ||
| 9 | GATED |
Grand daughter had dinner inside, unable to leave the building (5)
|
| ATE (=had dinner) in [G (=grand, in money) + D (=daughter)]; to gate is to impose a curfew on or to confine to (school) premises | ||
| 10 | PROPELLED |
Driven forward, rugby player screamed when losing yard (9)
|
| PROP (=rugby player) + <y>ELLED (=screamed; “when losing yard (=Y)” means letter “y” is dropped) | ||
| 11 | RENOWNED |
Famous Nevada resort wife Kelly, notorious gangster (8)
|
| RENO (=Nevada resort) + W (=wife) + NED (=Kelly, notorious gangster, in Australia in 1800s) | ||
| 12 | OGRESS |
Monstrous female pair denied promotion (6)
|
| <pr>OGRESS (=promotion, advancement); “pair (=PR)” denied” means letters “pr” are dropped | ||
| 14 | ABSCESS |
Science grad in A&E suffers drained sore (7)
|
| [BSc (=science grad, i.e. Bachelor of Science) in A + E] + S<uffer>S (“drained” means all middle letters are dropped) | ||
| 16 | OUTCRY |
Dismissed, caught, last pair from Canterbury protest (6)
|
| OUT (=dismissed, in cricket) + C (=caught, on cricket scorecard) + <canterbu>RY (“last pair” means last two letters only) | ||
| 17 | IVY |
One very exhausted climber (3)
|
| I (=one) + V<er>Y (“exhausted” means all middle letters are dropped) | ||
| 19 | BAROLO |
Knock back a bit of Aperol, or a bold red (6)
|
| Hidden (“a bit of”) and reversed (“knock back”) in “aperOL OR A Bold; a Barolo is an Italian fine red wine | ||
| 20 | ASCETIC |
Austere person having starter of squid with vinegary dressing (7)
|
| S<quid> (“starter of” means first letter only) in ACETIC (=vinegary) | ||
| 22 | UPROOT |
Forcibly remove winning Test captain (6)
|
| UP (=winning, in the lead) + ROOT (=Test captain, i.e. English cricketer Joe Root) | ||
| 23 | DYNAMITE |
Something sticky 1A got from 18? (8)
|
| Cryptic definition: the “sticky” refers to sticks of dynamite, such as Wile E Coyote (=entry at 1A) would acquire from the Acme Corporation (=entry at 18) in the Looney Tunes cartoon! | ||
| 26 | NEOLITHIC |
Ethnic oil works from the Stone Age (9)
|
| *(ETHNIC OIL); “works” is anagram indicator | ||
| 27 | DIVER |
Knut’s punched doctor who’s always tanked up at work (5)
|
| I’VE (=Knut’s, i.e. our setter has) in DR (=doctor); the “tanked up” of the definition refers to the oxygen tanks worn by divers! | ||
| 29 | RAN |
Published Observer’s last article (3)
|
| <observe>R (“last” means last letter only) + AN (=article, in grammar) | ||
| 30 | SPECTROGRAM |
Scientific image detailing ghost repelled Mrs Leadbetter (11)
|
| SPECTR<e> (=ghost; “de-tail-ing” means last letter is dropped) + OGRAM (MARGO=Mrs Leadbetter, played by Penelope Keith in The Good Life; “repelled” indicates reversal); a spectrogram is a visual representation of frequencies of a signal as it varies over time | ||
| DOWN
|
||
| 1 | WIG |
Starts to wash incredibly grimy rug (3)
|
| W<ash> I<ncredibly> G<rimy>; “starts to” means first letters only are used | ||
| 2 | LET ONE’S HAIR DOWN |
Have some fun with Lee Anderson popping over for an E (3,4,4,4)
|
| *(WITH L<e>E ANDERSON + O); “over (=O) for an E” means an “o” is added to, and an “e” dropped from, the anagram, indicated by “popping”, i.e. exploding | ||
| 3 | ENDOW |
Provide finance for space on the US stock market (5)
|
| EN (=space, in printing) + DOW (=the US stock market, i.e. the Dow Jones index) | ||
| 4 | OPPRESSION |
Papers replacing popular section of comment? That’s tyranny (10)
|
| OP<in>ION (=comment); “papers (=press) replacing popular (=in) section of” means letters “press” replace “in” | ||
| 5 | OBOE |
Reed regularly broken/not broken (4)
|
| *(<n>O<t> B<r>O<k>E<n> ); “regularly” means the alternate letters of these two words are used in anagram, indicated by “broken” | ||
| 6 | ENERGETIC |
Lively quote grand Frenchman served up (9)
|
| CITE (=quote) + G (=grand, in money) + RENE (=Frenchman, i.e. a male forename); “served up” indicates vertical reversal | ||
| 7 | GOLDEN RETRIEVER |
Devon terrier with leg cocked – classic dog! (6,9)
|
| *(DEVON TERRIER + LEG); “cocked” is anagram indicator | ||
| 8 | MEDUSA |
Old Greek woman well able to throw a hissy fit? (6)
|
| Cryptic definition: the reference is to the Gorgon sister in Greek mythology, who had snakes for hair, hence “hissy”! | ||
| 11 | ROAD |
Way last bit of lentil gets removed from Dahl? (4)
|
| ROA<l>D (=Dahl, i.e. the children’s writer, not the Indian dish; “last bit (=last letter) of lentil” gets removed” means letter “l” is dropped) | ||
| 13 | ROYAL YACHT |
In which Andrew Mountbatten Windsor sailed close to the wind? (5,5)
|
| Cryptic definition: the word “sailed” can be understood to refer literally to sailing on the yacht as well as to any dubious behaviour | ||
| 15 | ECONOMICS |
English comedians bored by working money matters (9)
|
| E (=English) + [ON (=working, not off) in COMICS (=comedians)] | ||
| 18 | ACME |
Highest point arrived with Charlie in second place (4)
|
| CAME (=arrived; “with Charlie (=C) in second place” means letter “c” moves to second position in the word) | ||
| 21 | RUNNER |
Head of Royal Arsenal discovered smuggler (6)
|
| R<oyal> (“head of” means first letter only) + <g>UNNER<s> (=Arsenal, i.e. the football team; “dis-cover-ed” means first and last letters are dropped) | ||
| 24 | AUDIO |
German car: ordinary, sound (5)
|
| AUDI (=German car) + O (=ordinary, as in O levels) | ||
| 25 | GHEE |
Fat geese periodically fed husband (4)
|
| H (=husband) in G<e>E<s>E (“periodically” means alternate letters only are used) | ||
| 28 | RUM |
Strange content from President (3)
|
| <t>RUM<p> (=President, of US); “content from” means middle letters only are used) |
A very enjoyable puzzle. Loved the cartoon references.
The Wile E Coyote/Roadrunner cartoons were always my favourite of the Looney Tunes as a kid, so I was pleased to see both of them turn up in the grid, along with ACME which I assumed when I was younger was just a made-up name, but I learnt a few years back that it was an actual word
I’d also never heard of BAROLO but it was fairly gettable from the wordplay
Favourite clues were MEDUSA and DYNAMITE for their cryptic definitions
My only tiny gripe was that our setter used G for grand in more than one clue, but I’m probably being pedantic
A thoroughly good puzzle from Knut – thanks to them and RR. Only 9 more Indys to go 🙁
Thanks both. Noting that ROAD and RUNNER appear in the grid, that would exhaust my knowledge of the subject, however I feel WILE E COYOTE has received something of a bad press here, and would suggest he’s more of a serial would- be killer than as described!
Didn’t spot ROAD RUNNER in column 1 until I looked at the grid after finishing.
Decent puzzle, no shockers… the killer took a little time to work out, but there aren’t too many with E as their middle name… doubted ENDOW for a while, which was FOI… enough to challenge me at least, altho I definitely know the wine…
Thanks Knut and RatkojaRiku
Saw the coyote show out the corner of an eye as our kids watched, but no details, so bung and shrug for acme and dynamite. Dnk the other tv character at all [liked P Keith in TTMB]. All good fun though, thanks Knut and RR.
Despite having to guess ROOT and DYNAMITE, the puzzle felt relatively straightforward. Not sure I fully understood the wordplay in ROYAL YACHT, especially the “close to the wind” part. GOLDEN RETRIEVER is a great anagram. Thanks Knut and RR!
I wasn’t overly impressed by the wordplays for either MEDUSA or ROYAL YACHT, I appreciate that humour was intended, but they miss the mark as CDs for me.
For OBOE, 5(d), I didn’t see an anagram, simply that the two words “nOtBrOkEn” are broken regularly. Not terribly good.
Overall, a very good puzzle, not too testing, I enjoyed it.
Thanks, Knut & Riku
Knut has posted that this is his last puzzle for the Independent. Sad to hear.
Thanks Knut. This was enjoyable as expected and relatively easy to parse. However, I did miss the significance of ‘hissy’ in MEDUSA but thanks to RR I can now add it to my list of favourites along with IVY, RAN, GOLDEN RETRIEVER, and RUNNER. Even though Knut in the Indy might be gone we can can still enjoy his work as Julius in the FT.
I am of an age where Road Runner, Wile E Coyote, and the Acme Corporation were a key part of childhood Saturday mornings. Acme is poorly named, because their products (which for some reason also included anvils?) often backfired.
One quibble: the Dow (Dow Jones Industrial Average, also DJIA for short) isn’t the US stock market, but an index of it. It’s been years since I cared, but they average the performance of (IIRC) 50 index stocks chosen to represent large companies in key sectors of the economy. So it’s meant to serve as a bellwether of the market without the noise. Other similar indexes exist, though that’s the best-known.
Thanks for all yr puzzles Knut. I liked them.
To all the fans of the Looney Tunes bit, may I recommend Ian Frazier’s classic New Yorker article “Coyote v. Acme.” It was a scream when I first read it, and now, finally, it has been made into a movie. Haven’t seen that yet, but am looking forward to it.