A Brexit themed puzzle from Julius, and I’m not going to comment any further on that subject! Thanks Julius and congratulations/commiserations to you as appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ASPIC | Glaze a special ice cream for starters (5) |
| A S (special) and Ice Cream (for starters, first letters of) | ||
| 4 | TONY BLAIR | Ex-PM flying to JFK second last in economy, going for a pound (4,5) |
| TO NY By AIR (flying to JFK) with L (libra, a pound) replacing economY (last letter of) – |
||
| 9 | UTRILLO | Endless gutrot claims sick Montmartre painter (7) |
| gUTROt (endless) contains (claims) ILL (sick) – Maurice Utrillo, born in Montmartre | ||
| 10 | ID CARDS | Leading Brexiteer “entertaining comedian” – papers (2,5) |
| IDS (Ian Duncan Smith) contains (entertaining) CARD (comedian) | ||
| 11 | A TISSUE OF LIES | EU “falsities” so besmirched much of the campaign rhetoric (1,6,2,4) |
| anagram (besmirched) of EU FALSITIES SO | ||
| 14 | CLEF | Key section of Article 50 (4) |
| found inside (section of) artiCLE Fifty | ||
| 15 | EXECUTION | Old forerunner of the Euro made Toni a killing (9) |
| EX (old) ECU (European Currency Unit, forerunner of the euro) then TONI anagram=made | ||
| 18 | IN THE BUFF | Has nothing on international hard drug expert (2,3,4) |
| INT (international) H (hard) E (ecstasy, drug) and BUFF (expert) | ||
| 19 | WHOA | Easy Rider’s direction? (4) |
| cryptic definition – a horse rider’s call (direction) to slow, or “easy” | ||
| 21 | BUYERS REMORSE | Regret at having made investment purchase; error seems careless (6,7) |
| BUY (purchase) then anagram (careless) of ERROR SEEMS | ||
| 24 | ENGLISH | People determined to leave his glen ravaged? (7) |
| anagram (ravished) of HIS GLEN | ||
| 26 | LET IT GO | Nigel, losing his head, over-the- top, barking? Time to move on (3,2,2) |
| anagram (barking) of nIGEL (missing head) and OTT (over-the-top) | ||
| 27 | SEVERABLE | Half-hearted crowd follows famous golfer, vulnerable to the cut? (9) |
| RABbLE (crowd, half hearted) follows SEVE ballesteros (famous golfer) | ||
| 28 | STRAD | Dashes back to get precious instrument (5) |
| DARTS (dashes) reversed (back) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | See 23 | |
| 2 | PERMANENTLY | Punishing repayment loan; contents lost forever (11) |
| anagram (punishing) of REPYMENT and LoaN (no middle, contents lost) | ||
| 3 | CALAIS | Held up in Tunisia, lacking port (6) |
| found reversed inside (held up in) tuniSIA LACking | ||
| 4 | TROUSSEAU | Where bride drops her underwear in 3? (9) |
| cryptic definition – a bride might drop her underwear into her wedding dress (trousseau) on her wedding night. This seems a bit tenuous to me, can someone do any better? | ||
| 5 | NOISE | Top of the charts is Adele’s latest cacophony (5) |
| NO I (number one, top of the charts) then iS adelE (last letters of, latest) | ||
| 6 | BACK FOUR | Defence of a ruck developing under Boris’s leadership (4,4) |
| OF A RUCK* anagram=developing following Boris (leading letter of) – defenders in football team | ||
| 7 | AIR | A number left outskirts of Egyptian capital (3) |
| cAIRo (Egyptian capital) missing outside letters (outskirts left). at first I mistakenly entered YEN: Y (a number, in an equation) before (to the left of) EgyptiaN (outside letters) – Japanese money, capital | ||
| 8 | ROSE SUNDAY | Pink paper takes 24hrs; that’s fast! (4,6) |
| ROSE (pink) SUN (newspaper) and DAY (24 hours) – the fourth Sunday in Lent and the third Sunday in Advent. Splitting hairs here, but according to Wikipedia these are the days when the fast can be broken, so technically not actual fast days? | ||
| 12 | IRISH SETTER | I support Hibernian; I must be barking (5,6) |
| SETTER (I, the setter of this puzzle) follows (supports in the grid) IRISH (Hibernian) | ||
| 13 | SCRIBBLERS | Self-catering rooms vacant, water included, for hacks (10) |
| SC (self catering) and RoomS (vacant, no middle letters) contain (with…included) RIBBLE (water, a UK river) | ||
| 16 | EN FAMILLE | At home, relatively speaking, in 3 (2,7) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 17 | HEARTIER | Try Thai-sounding recipe that’s more wholesome (8) |
| HEAR (try) then TIE sounds like Thai and R (recipe) | ||
| 20 | BRUTUS | Dry American who helped to finish me off? (6) |
| BRUT (dry) and US (American) – helped to kill Julius (me) Caesar | ||
| 22 | REHAB | How some cure habit? (5) |
| found inside (some of) cuRE HABit | ||
| 23, 1 | SOLD A PUP | Retiree, inviting Liberal Democrat out for drink, is mugged (4,1,3) |
| OAP (retiree) contains (inviting) LD (Liberal Democrat) all inside (out for?) SUP (drink) – I’m not sure about “out for” | ||
| 25 | GOV | Leading Brexiteer “pointless, common politician” (3) |
| GOVe (leading Brexiteer) missing E (east, a point of the compass) | ||
*anagram
definitions underlined
Great stuff as usual.Particularly liked 20.
4ac: TO NY BY AIR has two Ys, and Julius tells us to replace the second one.
I think in 5d (NOISE) the S is coming from ‘S.
Not that it makes a huge difference but even so.
Sil – Do you mean ‘S as an abbreviation for IS or the ‘s on the end of Adele? ‘S as an abbreviation for IS would work.
Otherwise if “Adele’s latest” is “the last letter belong to Adele” then the ‘S has been used already. It can’t also be a literal.
What I meant is: Top of the charts is = NO 1’s, and then plus [adel]E.
Why the apostrophe on NO 1’s? It neither indicates possession nor any missing letters. It is a straight plural. Is this not like adding a spurious apostrophe on potato’s or tomato’s as one sometimes sees on signs on market stalls etc?
Well, PeeDee, I cannot follow it anymore, I’m afraid.
As you say, Top of the charts = No 1.
And my interpretation of ‘s is the same as writing it’s instead of it is.
Seeing I,S as coming from ‘latest’ [with multiple fodders] as you do in the blog, absolutely fine.
For some reason, however, I find it less elegant.
Let’s leave it there.
In the end it doesn’t make much difference.
Thanks PeeDee, but since you declined to comment further, allow me to congratulate Julius on another highly topical (heartfelt even) masterpiece.
I liked the clue at 6down (how true it is as we speak), and the wonderfully discovered anagram fodder leading to an entirely apposite solution in 11 across.
FWIW the art student son of a pianist I used to work with described Utrillo as a ‘tubist’. He had a point there IMO.
Hi Sil – I understand you now. “No 1’s” means “top of the charts is”. That works.
I think Julius is a great addition to the FT stable – a stimulating, steadily unfolding “Goldilocks” puzzle for the morning commute. Thanks J & PeeDee (& Sil for the parsing of 4 ac).
In what sense is a gov a common politician? I suppose it could be a written contraction of governor, as in a state governor, but it doesn’t strike me as common or informal and wouldn’t be used in speech.
david – I am inclined to agree with you, I can’t fond any supporting references. When writing up the blog I just took Julius’s word that it is so. Perhaps we have all missed something here?
Re 10 & 11. Chambers (13th ed) gives “gov” or “guv” as a slang abbreviation for governor. If you take governor as a politician (as in the U.S.A.) and slang as having some sort of equivalence to common, then the clue seems to work fine. However I could be completely wrong.
Entertaining and topical as always, but probably the easiest Julius we have seen so far, since the trickier parsings were all easy enough to guess first and parse later. On gov, I just assumed it was an alternate spelling of guv and thought no more of it, but I’m sure the man himself will enlighten us.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
jmac – I saw that too.
My reading was that when meaning a politician gov is a straightforward abbreviation. The slang (common) meaning is given as “father, chief or master” usually in a kindly or ironical sense, but not a politician.
@14 PeeDee I know exactly what you mean about the usage of the word. I just kind of assumed that in crosswordland it was o.k. Maybe just one of those rare FT clues that causes a kerfuffle!
I agree with beery in that this was a more gentle Julius, but just as witty and topical. Buyers Remorse and Rose Sunday both new to me. Good stuff.
Meanwhile, although a good and very accessible crossword, although, I think, we should forget about this theme for a while.
(after masterpieces of Knut, Picaroon and Hob, and a fine one from Imogen)
You know what, it is time to forget about that thing called Brexit anyway.
Don’t know why I said this because we shouldn’t have political discussions here – indeed, PeeDee and thanks for your blog.
However, I do think that setters like the ones I mentioned above perhaps used their crossword skills to also make a statement.
Top clue today for me: 4ac – wonderful construction.
Thanks PeeDee and Julius.
I enjoyed this. As Sil says, great construction at 4ac.
I too share reservations already voiced about 8dn which is otherwise known as REFRESHMENT SUNDAY and GOV which is normally only seen in email addresses.
I think TROUSSEAU is equally a future bride’s bottom drawer rather than just her dress so works for me.
Very late to the party: I hope necro-posting is not a sin here at 15^2.
Possible overexplanations for the two French answers:
For 4d and 16d, the “in 3” represents “in CALAIS,” or “translated into French.”
An English lass might drop her underwear into the bottom drawer, which translates literally to TROUSSEAU.
“At home” and “relatively” (the way relatives would do it) “speaking in 3” both translate to EN FAMILLE.
… I think?
Oh, and “SOLD A PUP” sounds a lot like “soda pop” to me, maybe that explains the “for a drink”?
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Another great puzzle completed at the relaxing part of the holiday on Langkawi island. With the theme more relevant back in 2016, some of the players had fallen off my radar a bit and not knowing / remembering IDS caused an error with ID CARDS.
Gotta say that I much prefer the blog interpretation of NOISE which is how I had parsed it. Thought that the TONY BLAIR clue was excellent and a pity that I hadn’t fully worked it out for myself. The BRUTUS one was just about as good ! It was unusual to see the self reference in a couple of clues in the same puzzle but IRISH SETTER gave a slightly different outcome.
Finished in the SW corner with BUYERS REMORSE, SCRIBBLERS (hadn’t heard of that river before) and the clever CLEF the last few in.