A fiendish puzzle from Julius today. Thanks Julius.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COUNT DRACULA | Conservative cult around, bizarrely, a bloke never featured in The Mirror (5,7) |
| C (Conservative) then anagram (bizarrely) of CULT AROUND and then A | ||
| 8 | OREGANO | Herb, going past Ohio, turned his ass around (7) |
| O’ER (over, going past) O (Ohio) contains (turned???) NAG (a horse, his ass) all reversed (around). Not a very convincing explanation, can anyone do better? | ||
| 9 | PUB GRUB | “Back up, bub” clutching good recipe for chicken in a basket (3,4) |
| UP reversed (back) then BUB containing G (good) R (recipe) | ||
| 11 | TRIUMPH | One featured in president Hoover’s first victory (7) |
| I (one) in TRUMP (president) then Hoover (first letter of). For a change, Trump is not one of the villains today. | ||
| 12 | SULPHUR | Totally rejected ruthenium, hydrogen + another element (7) |
| RU (Ru, Ruthenium) H (Hydrogen) and PLUS (+) all reversed (totally rejected) | ||
| 13 | RATED | Breastfeeds regularly, yet is criticised! (5) |
| bReAsTfEeDs (every other letter, regularly) | ||
| 14 | CARTRIDGE | With which Charlie’s blowing head off game bird? (9) |
| C (charlie, phonetic alphabet) then pARTRIDGE (game bird) with first letter (head) missing – read definition as “with which…” | ||
| 16 | EVIL-DOERS | I resolved to transform characters like the 25s (9) |
| anagram (to transform) of I RESOLVED – character like those lying in the outer part of the grid | ||
| 19 | VEGAN | One refusing to accept meat in transit, say? (5) |
| VAN (a Transit perhaps) contains (in…) EG (say) | ||
| 21 | YAPSTER | Somewhat revolting, Margaret spayed dog (7) |
| found inside (somewhat) margaRET SPAYed reversed (revolting) | ||
| 23 | STAUNCH | Stop silly aunt visiting school (7) |
| anagram (silly) of AUNT inside (visiting) SCH (school) | ||
| 24 | LULLABY | The King and I actor invites dance ensemble round for a song (7) |
| YUL (Yul Brynner, actor in The King and I) contains (invites) BALL (dance ensemble) reversed (round) | ||
| 25 | OUTLIER | A peripheral figure to unmask reputedly dishonest character (7) |
| OUT (to unmask) and LIER sounds like (reputedly) “liar”(dishonest character) | ||
| 26 | FRANKENSTEIN | Honest, intense work by Shelley (12) |
| FRANK (honest) then anagram (work) of INTENSE – novel by Mary Shelly | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHEVIOT | I’ve served up stuffing for cold and hot lamb (7) |
| I’VE reversed (served up) inside (stuffing for) C (cold) and HOT – a breed of sheep | ||
| 2 | UNARMED | Lacking a piece (like Milos’s Aphrodite) (7) |
| a piece is a gun, the statue has no arms | ||
| 3 | TOOTHACHE | Honk horn, at first long- suffering (9) |
| TOOT (honk) Horn (first letter of) then ACHE (long) | ||
| 4 | ROPES | Experts know these guys (5) |
| double definition – to “know the ropes” | ||
| 5 | COBBLER | Sole trader in fruity drink (7) |
| double/cryptic definition – the sole of a shoe | ||
| 6 | LURCHED | Having suddenly changed direction, enticed to take in Switzerland (7) |
| LURED (enticed) contains (to take in) CH (Confederation Helvetica, Switzerland) | ||
| 7 | DOCTOR JEKYLL | Lab engineer of histamide prescribed orally by Spooner (6,6) |
| “histamide” is a Spoonerism (prescribed orally by Spooner) of Mister Hyde, an alter ego of Dr Jekyll. Hyde was created (engineered) by Jekyll in his lab. I can’t find “histamide” in the dictionary, is it a real word? | ||
| 10 | BURKE AND HARE | Massage upset involved naked seraglio getting bottom pinched; such wicked men! (5,3,4) |
| RUB (massage) reversed (upset) then anagram (involved) of NAKED and HAREm (seraglio) missing final letter (getting bottom pinched) – pair who murdered their lodgers to sell the corpses | ||
| 15 | REST STOPS | Engineer on route sees northbound services (4,5) |
| RE (one serving in the Royal Engineers) on ST (street, a route) then SPOTS (sees) reversed (northbound, upwards on a map) | ||
| 17 | See 19 | |
| 18 | DETRAIN | Evacuate carriage, finding alien in tube (7) |
| ET (alien) in DRAIN (tube, medical) | ||
| 19, 17 | VLAD THE IMPALER | He introduced fifty to grisly primeval death (4,3,7) |
| L (fifty) inside (introduced to) anagram (grisly) of PRIMEVAL DEATH- read the definition as “he who introduced…” | ||
| 20 | GENTIAN | For information, Italian turned over an alpine flower (7) |
| GEN (information) then IT (Italian) reversed (turned over) and AN | ||
| 22 | RHYME | Frost Report seen at 9? (5) |
| sounds like (report) of “rime” (frost) – PUB GRUB is an example of a rhyme | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
So many 12 letter baddies – good spot.
Onager is the ass in 8.
It didn’t occur to me that histamide might not be a word – don’t care one way or the other. Yapster’s a great word, though google doesn’t seem to have heard of it except as an ageing hipster. Other favourites RHYME, RATED, COUNT DRACULA, CARTRIDGE satisfyingly violent.
Thanks Julius, PeeDee
Finished this quite quickly but couldn’t parse 7d for the life of me. Now I see the answer I feel like banging my head repeatedly against the wall. How could I miss that!? Thanks to Julius and PeeDee.
Thanks for a great blog, PeeDee and many thanks for ONAGER, James. How could I have missed the crossword classic ass?
How does Julius keep on producing such wonderful puzzles? This was sheer delight, from beginning to end.
Far too many favourites to list – there’s not a dud clue among them. I’m not a fan of Spooner clues but this one was great – and I didn’t bother to look up histamide, either.
I thought for an awful moment or two that there was a mistake. I already had 13ac RATED but when I got to the down clues, that didn’t fit with ARMLESS [2dn]. I should have known better. 😉
Huge thanks again, Julius – I loved it.
Thank heaven for 12a (and Chambers)
And hail Julius!.
I dont care if histamide is in any dictionary. Its a hoot . End of.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Quite a brilliant puzzle from Julius made a little easier when I twigged to the peripheral ‘bad guys’ after seeing the excellent Spoonerism at 7d that was quickly followed by COUNT DRACULA across the top. The other two immediately followed.
Although having the perimeter was filled, there was still work to do, particularly in the parsing of the other entries. Don’t think that there was one clue that I didn’t like !
Finished in the SW corner with YAPSTER (a new term and cleverly hidden), DETRAIN and EVILDOERS (which I needed the blog to get the 25 connection … and then a head-slapping doh moment!) were the last few in.
A fine puzzle. Unfortunately I Googled the unfamiliar histamide and inadvertently saw the solution thanks to this blog. Took me a while to see REST STOPS which was last in.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
Once again, a great challenge from Julius. Glad I’m not the only one to mistakenly enter armless for 8d. Histamide did puzzle me but its a great clue so don’t mind. Thank you Rob and thanks to PeeDee and James for onager.
Thank you dear PeeDee for your blog and to those who took the time to comment on the puzzle.
Regarding “histamide” – a gag I found impossible to resist – it does seem to exist as a compound according to my admittedly rudimentary research. I took the view that it’s not really necessary for a word featured in the word-play to be in Chambers “as long as it gets the job done”. If that view isn’t shared by others, I’m sorry.
I had the very great pleasure of meeting the crossword ed. of the FT and his wife yesterday, who are down here in southern Germany on a trip to take in Wagner’s Ring in Karlsruhe.
There’s even a snap of us on the local mountain (1284m) on my Twitter feed @KnutCrosswords in case anybody cares.
Best wishes to all, Rob/Julius
I always enjoy the wit, innovativeness, and often topicality associated with Julius puzzles – I’m a big fan.
I missed the parsing of doctor Jekyll, not quite sure why we need “prescribed orally” which seems redundant to me in a spoonerism. Thought chicken in a basket needed a dbe indicator, “for” in 20d appears to be for surface only, and 26 is cute but it doesn’t work for me with both a grammar error (imperitive after fodder, would be ok before) and ‘work’ doing double duty, although politely omitted from the definition by the blogger. I don’t really believe in inventing words. Others may not care, but I find myself wishing Julius would pay more attention to such details. And hey, I hope he will criticise me in turn.
Having said that, I enjoyed every single clue, as usual. Many thanks Julius my friend, I hope you think my comments are fair, and thank you PeeDee.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee. Great fun. I missed OREGANO-onager and was not sure about YAPSTER, but did get the bad guy outliers (though I took a long time seeing DOCTOR JEKYLL-histamide).
Hi Julius – I’m quite happy with histamide. I just wondered, out of curiosity, if it was a “real” word.
A great puzzle. At first reading I thought it was going to be very hard but it gradually revealed itself quite beautifully. The only thing that slightly spoilt it for me was that once FRANKENSTEIN went in, COUNT DRACULA became a gimme. No problem with histamide – not being a chemist I just revelled in the spoonerism and thought it a contender for clue of the month. Thanks S & B.
This was, overall, one of the funniest puzzles I’ve ever solved. So much silliness in the surfaces! For me none of the slightly questionable constructions detracted in any way.
I had never heard of Burke And Hare and the wordplay eluded me until I did a bit of googling, with guessing based on the crossers as the starting point. So they were the last EVILDOERS I brought to justice.
RHYME came first and helped with PUB GRUB.
Is LURCHED a reference to Lurch, the monstrous Addams’ Family butler?
No one will read this but I just wanted to add more words of praise. Julius is in a different class. I had to come here for the parsing of 7d. Brilliant. At first I thought I’d get absolutely nowhere but then confidentally wrote in ‘armless’ at 2d. I take comfort that the great Eileen did the same.