My heart sank when I first saw this, not least because I immediately realised that, due to the nature of the puzzle, I wouldn’t be able to use PeeDee’s excellent blogging software, and that I would have to do this blog the long-winded way, so please excuse any formatting issues, as I am not used to blogging this way.
The next challenge was solving the clues and fitting them in the grid. Normally when you get one of these jigsaw-type puzzles, the setter helps by either putting the clues in alphabetic order (by solution), or by having 26 clues, with each solution beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. Not so in this case – 28 clues in random order means that the solver has to work out which two letters have two solutions.
I tackled this by getting the answers to the longer entries first, placing them in the grid, and then working out the several 5- and 7-letter entries thereafter. I haven’t quite finished the puzzle because I can’t decide between SHOWMAN and SNOWMAN for the final entry – the wordplay has me beaten on that one.
This would have been a challenging puzzle if presented normally, but the solutions are gettable, and the clues are in the main excellent. I did have a couple of niggles though, with BELGIUM and NOMAD (see below)
Thanks, Julius, for blowing away some of the post-Xmas cobwebs.
So, the solutions in the order in which the setter placed them are:
Scotsman supporting United – first place, it doesn’t get any better than this (7) UTOPIA
U(nited) + TOP (“first place”) “supported by” IAN (“Scotsman”)
Over time, struggle upset soldier here (7) VIETNAM
VIE (“struggle”) + <=MAN (“upset soldier”) “over” T(ime)
Religious institution for the old Hindu deity (7) YESHIVA
YE (“the old”) + SHIVA (“Hindu deity”). A yeshiva is a school for Jewish students training to be rabbis.
An omission? Say it ain’t so! (7) ELISION
Cryptic definition
Evil corporate almost sacked star of Jurassic Park (12) VELOCIRAPTOR
*(evil corporat)
Spadework involvedin turning up legal literature (7) TILLAGE
Hidden backwards in “lEGAL LITterature”
CD players replaced old time technology (9) CLEPSYDRA
*(cd players). A clepsydra is an ancient water clock, so “old time technology”.
Networked, editing dailies (7) LIAISED
*(dailies)
Satellite screening Republican idiot (5) MORON
MOON (“satellite”) “screening” R(epublican)
Composed, softer, Ed Miliband finally warmed up (9) DEFROSTED
*(softer ed d), with the d being the last letter in Milliband
Release details of Ban’s NY address (5) UNZIP
UN (as in United Nations) and ZIP (code). The UN’s zip code would be used if you were writing to Ban-Ki Moon at his New York workplace.
Rum cocktails for those who find it difficult to sleep (7) ZOMBIES
Double definition
It enables one to have a stab at angling (4-5) FISH-SPEAR
Cryptic definition
Fairly democratic incoming Labour leader stitched up thus? (7) QUILTED
QUITE (“fairly”) + D(emocratic) with L(abour) “incoming”
Mother admitted: “sleep walking is a habit of mine” (5) NOMAD
MA in NOD. The clue wants us to admit NOD into MA rather than the other way round, though?
In Switzerland, elected government is moving very slowly (7) INCHING
In CH (“Switzerland”) + IN (“elected”) + G(overnment)
Family members first to embrace little sister – a natural impulse! (7) KINESIS
KIN (“family members) + E(mbrace) + SIS(ter)
One with ancient faith introduced to God in Istanbul (7) ODINIST
Hidden in “GOD IN ISTanbul”
Snap bones climbing painter (7) PICASSO
PIC (“snap”) + <=OSSA (“bones climbing”)
Its judges hear appalling submissions for military hardship payment (1-6) X-FACTOR
Double definition
$1000 ante; that’s an impressive launch (5,7) GRAND OPENING
GRAND ($1000) + OPENING (“ante”)
Successful recording groups, like The Killers (3,6) HIT SQUADS
HIT (“successful recording”) + SQUADS (“groups”)
Wet fish consumed at home (5) RAINY
RAY (“fish”) “consumed” IN (“at home”)
Merkel’s agreement to reshuffle kitchen cabinet a “surprise package” (4-2-3-3) JACK-IN-THE-BOX
JA (German for “yes”, thus “Merkel’s agreement”) + *(kitchen) + BOX (“cabinet”)
Impresario gives character in children’s Xmas show an extended run (7)
I think this is SHOWMAN, but SHOW appears in the clue, and I can’t see how you get SHOWMAN from SNOWMAN, unless the setter is indicating that an “h” is an “n” with an extended bit, but I imagine most of us write in answers block capitals?
Emcee Spooner announces Otis and McCartney’s backing bands (7,5)
Spoonerism of REDDING WINGS (Otis Redding and Paul McCartney & Wings). I think the setter gets away with this as you can use backing without the “bands” to indicate McCartney’s Wings, otherwise “bands” would be doing double duty.
Brilliant gallery used in film production (7) ACETATE
ACE (“brilliant”) + TATE (“gallery”)
Punjab noblewoman, about 50, invites me to see the country (7) BELGIUM
BEGUM (“Punjab noblewoman”) “about” L (“50”) and I (“me”). “I” and “me” are not synonymous, though, are they?
The final grid looks like this
I think the clue for NOMAD is fine: it’s NOD with MA admitted. I agree that BELGIUM is a bit iffy, though. I think it must be SHOWMAN from the structure of the clue, but either way it’s strange to have “show” in the clue.
Overall I really enjoyed this, even though it looked impenetrable at first, with the clues not being in the usual “alphabetical order of solutions”, making the cold-solving much harder than usual, and the huge preponderance of 7-letter answers. I thought there might be some kind of message in the initial letters, but I can’t see anything.
I almost gave up as soon as I saw that the clues were not numbered but I decided to have a go and finally made it (with SHOWMAN as a query) after about 2 hours of hard work. Quite apart from the novelty of the puzzle itself there were some fun clues such as X-FACTOR and UNZIP (now the parsing has been explained) and new words including ZOMBIES for a cocktail and CLEPSYDRA. I thought ‘I’ for ‘me’ in BELGIUM was OK.
Don’t know if ‘TRIO’ across the middle unches has any significance – probably not.
Thanks to Julius for making possible what at first appeared impossible and to loonapick.
@loonapick
Sorry you got the short straw with this!
The FT grid library has only three grids in it in which the last across light is numbered 26 (a pre-requisite for an alphabetical jigsaw) and all these have quite long perimeter lights. Therefore, it seemed much too easy to list the clues in the usual way since, by entering VELOCIRAPTOR and JACK-IN-THE-BOX, the solver gets 13 of the 26 starts.
So I jumbled the clues.
Regarding SHOWMAN, I am very disappointed to have used SHOW in the wordplay, clearly a blunder, especially as the chap who test-solved it for me pointed it out.
My bad, sorry.
A happy and peaceful 2017 to all.
warmest regards,
Rob/Julius
Thanks Julius and loonapick. One thing that made this not as difficult as it might have been is that neither GRAND OPENING nor WEDDING RINGS could go along the top row, nor could WEDDING RINGS go down the left hand side, without putting the same letter into two of the 26 squares where answers start.
Puzzles like this are great to solve with a partner in crime and i had the perfect one this evening.HIT PARADE looked iffy as there was a Q to go so that was settled.And I/we settled for SHOWMAN-it was getting too late to subject the clues to forensic science.
]A mighty puzzle bravely blogged.
Once we got the two V clues, the rest tumbled in comfortably. Showman is unfathomable but what the heck. It’s only a crossword.
Looked at this earlier today and thought that I’d never be able to do it. However, enforced rest this afternoon (recovering from a heavy cold) gave me time to look at it again & to my surprise I cracked it – enjoyed it too!
Thank you Julius & loonapick.
I thought this was great. I normally avoid alphabeticals (not really my cup of tea) but the grid looked friendly and having faith in the excellent Julius I was richly rewarded. Thanks Julius and Loonapick
Thanks Julius and loonapick
Certainly wasn’t expecting this mid-week, but what a great surprise in the middle of holidays !!! Liked the variation from the normal alphabeticals with the easier grid and no indication on what the solution to the clue began with. Think that I had about half the answers before I got that VELOCIRAPTOR clue to start entering them into the grid – really didn’t think that the other duplicate letter would have been U words.
Had ELISION more as a definition followed by an example of it. Agree that NOMAD seemed to be back to front in the wordplay, but maybe Andrew’s grammatical contortions make it work. Had bunged in SHOWMAN without working out the Christmas SNOWMAN – think that the extension of ‘n’ to ‘h’ is the logic – and that it is quite clever (don’t think that it matters how we write the letters into the grid – the fact that it works with lower case letters is the key).
The one that I originally did have a slight problem with was BELGIUM, a BEGUM being a Moslem noblewoman – until I remembered that the Punjab extends into Pakistan.
Eventually finished up with ACETATE (which I had initially written down as STATELY until I found the other S word after getting FISHING SPEAR), HIT SQUADS (not doing myself any favours by writing in HOT at first) and QUILTED as the last one in.
Great puzzle !
Loved it! Thanks for this.
If we gloss over SHOWMAN then this was a super puzzle. It was not as difficult to fit the solutions into the grid as I expected it to be. Getting started was the tricky bit, after that the solutions just fell into place by themselves. Spot on for the winter holidays. Thanks Julius and loonapick.
Started this on Thursday but couldn’t finish it – the rest made a lot more sense when I looked at it again this morning. Fine for a holiday challenge but a bit tough for a daily puzzle – my last 8 were all 7 letter lights and just working out which clue belonged to which set of crossers was pretty tricky, though admittedly some of these were straightforward once I read them the right way. As always with Julius there was plenty of entertainment and ingenuity.
Thanks to Julius and loonapick