Financial Times 16,073 by JULIUS

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Hunt the theme in today’s Julius puzzle.

Actually, you don’t have to hunt too hard…

My knowledge of foxhunting is minimal as I have no interest in the practice, so I don’t know if today is a significant date in the foxhunting calendar.

The puzzle has several references to the “sport”, and a lot of general knowledge, most of which is not too obscure (Ko-Ko may be an exception).

I can’t fully parse BUDGE UP (any assistance would be welcome).

Thanks, Julius

Across
1 HUNT FOLLOWERS Future foreign secretaries excited by the thrill of the chase? (4,9)
  People following Jeremy Hunt as Foreign Secretary will be “future foreign secretaries”.
9 CYPRESS Tree common to Bar-le-Duc, Ypres, Somme (7)
  Hidden in [common to] “bar-le-duC YPRES Somme”
10 BUDGE UP Move Chancellor’s speech – time’s at an end (5,2)
  BUDGE(t) (“Chancellor’s speech”) + UP

Not quite sure how to parse this.  I assume the T that is missing from “budget” is linked to “time” in the clue?
11 SWORD Normandy beach where Yankee drops off, sleepy in retirement (5)
  Y (yankee) drops off <=DROWS(y) (“sleepy”, in retirement)
12 LATE RISER Scold Ms Minelli; Spooner says she spends half the day in bed (4,5)
  Spoonerism of RATE LISA (“scold Ms Minelli”)
13 WILD WEST Woman garlanded with Oscar vacating set location for Stagecoach? (4,4)
  W (woman) garlanded by (Oscar) WILDE + S(e)T [vacating]
15 JUDGES They try following Joshua (6)
  In the Old Testament, the book of Judges follows the book of Joshua.
18 YEMENI Arab chaps visiting the old island (6)
  MEN (“chaps”) visiting YE (“the old”) + I (island)
19 BERKELEY Angela blows her top, getting live coverage; it’s the end of Jeremy Hunt (8)
  (Angela) (m)ERKEL [blows her top], getting BE (“live”) coverage, + [the end of] (Jerem)Y

The Berkeley hunt is the oldest pack in England.
22 IDRIS ELBA Actor tucking into squid risotto and mussel basmati (5,4)
  Hidden in [tucking into] “squID RISotto” and “mussEL BAsmati”
24 PREEN Maintain quills, with which to write note (enclosed) (5)
  PEN (“with which to write”) with RE (“note”) enclosed
25 KENNELS Livingstone’s taking McCluskey round refuge in Battersea (7)
  KEN’S (Livingstone’s) taking <= LEN (McCluskey, round)
26 MOUNTIE Montana to release cop from over the border (7)
  Mo. (Montana) + UNTIE (“release”)
27 HARE AND HOUNDS Where to get a quick one followed by a few chasers? (4,3,6)
  HARE (“a quick one”) AND (“followed by”) HOUNDS (“a few chasers”) and &lit.

The Hare and Hounds is a common pub name in England.
Down
1 HACKSAW Tool hits a wife on the bottom (7)
  HACKS (“hits”) + A W(ife)
2 NO PROBLEM Edit blooper in new medium? Easy peasy! (2,7)
  *(blooper) in N (new) + M (medium)
3, 8 FIELD SPORTS New profits-led society organised shooting and fishing etc (5,6)
  *(profits led s), where S = society
4 LISTLESS Sluggish (unlike Ko-Ko) (8)
  In the Mikado, Ko-Ko is the Lord High Executioner who has a list of “people who would not be missed” (such as people who eat peppermint and puff it in your face, to which I may add Hunt followers)
5 ORBITS Circulates gold coins (6)
  OR (“gold”) + BITS (“coins”)
6 EIDER DUCK UK decried broken down supplier (5,4)
  *(uk decried)

The eider provides down for quilts.
7 SPECS Glasses picking up tiny bits of dust? (5)
  Homophone of [picking up] SPECKS (“tiny bits of dust”)
8   See 3
 
14 WIND SHEAR Turns to listen to explanation for turbulence (4,5)
  WINDS (“turns”) to HEAR (“listen”)

A wind shear is sudden change in the direction of a wind.
16 GALVESTON Georgia left underwear on in Texan resort (9)
  Ga. (Georgia) + L (left) + VEST (“underwear”) + ON
17 BECALMED Liberal Dem Cable in the doldrums (8)
  *(dem cable)
18 YOICKS Court jester’s run away? Come on you dogs; after him! (6)
  YO(r)ICK’S (“court jester” in Hamlet, with R (run) away)

Yoicks is a foxhunting cry
20 YONKERS New York’s north-eastern suburb? (7)
  *(york’s NE)
21 ALASKA Where’s Palin broadcast? I’ll inquire of that lady (6)
  Homophone (for some, I suppose) of [broadcast] I’LL ASK HER (“I’ll inquire of that lady”)
23 RANCH Switzerland supports managed agricultural land (5)
  CH (International Vehicle Registration for “Switzerland”) supports RAN (“managed”)
24 PLUTO Applaud Thom, regularly walking Mickey’s dog (5)
  (a)P(p)L(a)U(d)T(h)O(m) [regularly]

*anagram

28 comments on “Financial Times 16,073 by JULIUS”

  1. Got YOICKS and BERKELEY from wordplay-thanks loonapick for the hunt info. And thanks to Julius.In fact Hally To!(sis)

  3. I spotted the theme!  Well it was one even I ought to notice.   The usual enjoyable Julius crossword – I particularly liked 22a

    I too am not sure how 10a works but I’m sure someone else will come along and explain it soon

    Thanks to Julius and loonapick

  5. Managed to complete but came here to find some of the missing details which I didn’t bother to check.
    Didn’t know the Normandy beach, the Berkeley hunt or Ko-Ko list. YOICKS was also new to me but all of these were easy to get.

    Thought 17d was a gem of a clue and 20d was pretty nifty too.

    Thanks to Julius and loonapick.

  6. Thanks, loonapick. I just took ‘time’s at an end’ to mean ‘there’s no longer any time’; hence no  T on BUDGET. Anyway, lots of luscious clues. Thanks, Julius.

  7. Thanks, loonapick – and hovis for 10ac.

    Lots of smiles and lovely surfaces, as usual. Ticks for 1, 19, 22, 25ac and 2, 4, 6, 17 and 18dn.

    Many thanks, Julius, for once again brightening up a dull day.

  8. One small quibble re 26a: MT is the abbreviation for Montana, MO is that for Missouri. A lovely clue for 22a which I got but had never heard of Idris Elba. Thanks to both.

  9. Pleasant solve with a theme as a bonus. I didn’t know BUDGE UP as a term and parsed it as did Hornbeam @6, though I think Hovis’ ‘minus hyphen’ idea is more elegant.

    Favourites were HARE AND HOUNDS and YONKERS.

    Don’t know if it was intended, but there’s an RIP and DAC in different rows of the across unches.

    Thanks to Julius and loonapick

  10. I liked this very much (not too difficult either).

    I missed the Montana issue, just thought it had to be right – alas.

    Last one in was LISTLESS (4d), being more familiar with M&S than G&S.

    I wondered what ‘on the bottom’ and ‘walking’ were doing in 1d and 24d, respectively.

    In 13ac ‘Woman’ should have been ‘Women’ since W, as far as I know, is not a valid abbreviation for ‘Woman’.

    But hey ho, it was fun [although hunting isn’t].

    Many thanks to loonapick & Julius.

  11. Like Sil, I just assumed MO was correct. Thanks to John for pointing out the error (unless Julius knows something to the contrary). Have no problem with ‘on the bottom’ in 1d – W is on the bottom of the down clue. ‘Walking’ in 24d is hard to justify – maybe picture regularly walking through the initial words (bit of a stretch). W for ‘woman’ does seem to be wrong. Guess setters do use this but doesn’t make it right.

    These minor niggles aside, still an excellent crossword.

  13. Thanks, Julius and loonapick.    I’d a slight different thought re BUDGE UP – that ‘up’ = “at an end” is replacing ‘t’ = time.

  14. Thanks loonapick for the blog and to those who have commented.

    I think I had probably been irritated by either Jeremy Hunt or Liam Fox when I sat down with a blank grid and that this must have morphed into some sort of theme. I’m definitely neither interested in, nor approving of, hunting.

    I’m sorry about the MT/MO SNAFU which I feel sure I must have checked so can’t understand how I missed that one and also the woman/women oversight.

    @WordPlodder 9…I’m pretty sure dear Dac was still with us when I wrote this so that is just a coincidence

    @Sil

    I think to “walk” is OK for to leave….”if I don’t get a $5 million bonus this year I’m going to walk”

    warmest regards to all, Rob/Julius

    ps if anyone is interested, I have a puzzle in today’s Telegraph Toughie series

  18. Thanks to Julius and loonapick. Great fun. I needed help parsing BUDGE-UP, but I did know KO-KO and, even in  the US, managed to piece out BERKELEY, HARE AND HOUNDS, and HUNT FOLLOWERS. I was slow to finish because i started with wind storm, not WIND SHEAR.

  20. Managed to complete this tricky one bar YANKEES at 20d. This was harder than Nutmeg’s today.

  22. Thanks to loonapick and Julius

    I think Dan@21 has nailed the parsing of 1d but I do think when we are are asked to move a letter then some indication of movement ought to be given.

    I read the clue as giving WHACKSAW – a very useful combination of hammer and cutting tool but clearly not the answer. Perhaps TOOL HITS WIFE FROM TOP TO BOTTOM would work.

     

     

  23. I had ORKNEYS for 20d, and I’m the one who lives in America and has been through Yonkers (decidedly not what you think of as suburban, but it is in fact outside the city).

  26. Thanks, Julius and all.   I figured out some clues from squares but couldn’t parse.   LOI RANCH and KENNELS.   Liked the US clues (GALVESTON, YONKERS, ALASKA).

    A popular nonsense song has many variations but usually includes “What did Delaware?   I don’t know, but Alaska.”

  28. Thanks Julius and loonapick

    Good challenging crossword that brought about an error with 1a.  Not knowing Jeremy Hunt as the Foreign Secretary nor the HUNT FOLLOWERS term, I had bunged in an unparsed HAND FALCONERS.  Obviously the FOX HUNT theme blissfully passed me by as well.

    Was able to parse BUDGE UP, notwithstanding having not met the term itself before, but thanks to Dan@21 for shining the light on the parsing of HACKSAW.

    Lots of interesting clues with a bit of new learning along the way which kept me busy for well over an hour.

    Finished all over the shop with KENNELS, BECALMED and BERKELEY the last few in.

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