A nice random mix of stuff from Julius. I find his word-choices and clues less predictable than the more traditional setters. Thank you Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DIAZEPAM |
Cameron (ex-prime minister) leaving no10 injecting American drug (8)
|
| DIAZ (Cameron Diaz) Ex PM (ex-prime minister) missing X (the number 10) containing (injecting) A (American) | ||
| 5 | SQUASH |
Variety of marrow pulp (6)
|
| double definition | ||
| 10 | MUFTI |
Learned Muslim character from Greece heads two newspapers (5)
|
| MU (Greek letter, character) in front of (heads, leads) FT and I (The Financial Times and the i, two newspapers) | ||
| 11 | TAX RETURN |
Financial statement using extra spin (3,6)
|
| anagram (using) of EXTRA then TURN (spin) | ||
| 12 | THUMBNAIL |
Sample of photo is a handy feature (9)
|
| a THUMB NAIL is a feature of a hand | ||
| 13 | THERM |
Marines unit displaying heat (5)
|
| THE RM (the Royal Marines) | ||
| 14 | IN-TRAY |
Where work is to be done within year? (2-4)
|
| INTRA (within) and Y (year) | ||
| 15 | DROPPED |
Left out retiring actor Johnny, old, raddled, discontented (7)
|
| DEPP (actor Johnny) O (old) RaddleD (with no contents, dis-contented) all reversed (retiring) | ||
| 18 | CHEKHOV |
Oh heck! Poor Victor . . . . he died of TB (7)
|
| anagram (poor) of OH HECK then V (victor, phonetic alphabet) – author Anton Chekhov | ||
| 20 | JUMPER |
Cranking up REM following intro from Jerry Springer (6)
|
| anagram (cranking, turning) of REM UP follows Jerry (first letter, intro from) – something that springs | ||
| 22 | RUMBA |
Measure, say, Reading University business grad (5)
|
| R (one of The Three Rs, reading say) U (university) and MBA (business graduate) – a measure is a rhythm or dance | ||
| 24 | CRIES WOLF |
Crow flies around, winds people up (5,4)
|
| anagram (around) of CROW FLIES | ||
| 25 | CONSTANCE |
Lady Chatterley’s right-wing position (9)
|
| CON (Conservative, right-wing) STANCE (position) – Lady Constance Chatterly, from the D H Lawrence novel | ||
| 26 | EMEER |
HM receiving Julius, eastern ruler (5)
|
| ER (Elizabeth Regina, Her Majesty the Queen) contains (receiving) ME (Julius) E (eastern) | ||
| 27 | OPENER |
Specialist batsman no stranger to the bottle? (6)
|
| definition then cryptic definition | ||
| 28 | EYESHADE |
British passport used to feature this cover (8)
|
| I’m a bit stuck here. Best I can do is EYE (a window hole, British passport used to feature this) and SHADE (cover) – but where is the definition?
Old British passports used to include the eye colour (eye shade) of the holder |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DEMOTE |
Put down sample tape, having erased contents (6)
|
| DEMO (sample) then TapE missing the middle letters (having erased contents) | ||
| 2 | AFFLUENCE |
Rubbish, naff clue last in puzzle for “wealth” (9)
|
| anagram (rubbish) of NAFF CLUE with puzzlE (last letter) | ||
| 3 | EDINBURGH CASTLE |
Scottish keep punishing lads butchering English (9,6)
|
| anagram (punishing) of LADS BUTCHERING and E (English) – a keep is a stronghold | ||
| 4 | ACTUARY |
Number-cruncher helping to deliver assurance (7)
|
| cryptic definition – someone who calculates Life Assurance policies | ||
| 6 | QUESTION MASTERS |
Most equestrians, unfortunately, could be described as posers (8,7)
|
| anagram (unfortunately) of MOST EQUESTRIANS – those who pose questions | ||
| 7 | AMUSE |
Humour a daughter of Mnemosyne (5)
|
| A MUSE (one of the daughter’s of Mnemosyne, Greek mythology) | ||
| 8 | HANDMADE |
Sounds like Atwood’s tale-teller is her own work! (8)
|
| sounds like “handmaid” (Atwood’s tale-teller) – reference to The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood | ||
| 9 | EXILED |
Banished former partner (idle drunk) (6)
|
| EX (former partner) then anagram (drunk) of IDLE | ||
| 16 | PHENOMENA |
Catastrophe! No men allowed to host these amazing events (9)
|
| found inside (hosted by) catastroPHE NO MEN Allowed | ||
| 17 | SCIROCCO |
A! 10CC’s new stream is hot! (8)
|
| I’m stuck here. Best I can do is an indirect anagram (new) of COR (A!) IOCCS (10cc’s) – the Scirocco is a hot wind (stream). I have nothing against the odd indirect anagram myself but it seems unusual to see one in the FT. Is there another explanation that I can’t see here?
This is a misprint in the FT (pdf version at least), the clue should have read Cor! 10CC’s new stream is hot! |
||
| 19 | VACANT |
Upturned box containing a tin (empty) (6)
|
| TV (the box) reversed (upturned) contains A CAN (tin) | ||
| 20 | JOINERY |
Ms Adamson holding lion’s ear regularly, such skilful handiwork! (7)
|
| JOY (Ms Joy Adamson) contains every other letetr (regularly) of lIoN’s EaR | ||
| 21 | G-FORCE |
One of three notes beginning to explain Earth’s natural attraction? (1- 5)
|
| G, F OR C (one of three notes in music) then first letter (beginning to) of Explain. One could get nit-picky here and say that G-Force stands for Gravitational Force Equivalent, not a gravitational attraction to the Earth but a force of the same magnitude caused by some other means, eg by a pilot turning an aircraft. | ||
| 23 | MANSE |
Minister’s house servant cleaning out staircase (5)
|
| MAN (servant) then StaircasE (no middle letters, cleaned out) |
Hi PeeDee…I hope you’re on top form, dear sir. The clue for 17d as I submitted it read “Cor! 10CC’s new stream is hot! (8)”. I’ve no idea how it came to be corrupted.
Best wishes, Rob/Julius
Re 28a: Information in old British passports used to include the colour of the holder’s eyes (“eye shade”). The definition is just “cover”.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
28ac: Further to Tom_I at 2, I dug out my 1975 passport with a black and white photograph, but “eye shade” was no longer specified separately by then.
Another super puzzle from Julius.
My favourite clues today were 1ac DIAZEPAM (for the misleading surface and construction, 10ac MUFTI, 18ac CHEKHOV (for the surface), 3dn EDINBURGH CASTLE (brilliant anagram and surface), 6dn QUESTION MASTERS (ditto), 8dn HANDMADE, 16dn PHENOMENA (very cleverly hidden – it was HEN = no men allowed that initially caught my eye) and 20dn JOINERY, (for Joy Adamson and the lion).
Many thanks to Julius for lots of fun and for dropping in while I’ve been typing to explain SCIROCCO, which I parsed as PeeDee did. I was as puzzled as he was by EYESHADE, so thanks to Tom for sorting that out. I’d quite forgotten that feature of passports! Thanks, too, to PeeDee for the blog.
I do not think we have mentioned the pangram yet. I suspected it when I got 6dn, with the X and Z, and finished it when I got the K in 18ac.
Sorry, I posted comment 5 too quickly. I meant “with the X and Z already in place”.
Thanks to Tom_I for explaining EYESHADE and to Julius for explaining the mysterious A!
My experience was almost identical to Eileen’s, except that I was not at all aware that passports used to mention eye colour. I did spot the pangram though.
Suspected a pangram from my FOI which was QUESTION MASTERS and was convinced after solving just a handful which already produced most of the uncommon letters. It helped to land DIAZEPAM and prevented me from persisting with DAVE.
The unfortunate misprint didn’t obscure 17D as the crossers suggested only SCIROCCO but I failed on IN-TRAY.
Enjoyment levels were unsurprisingly high throughout with too many favourites to list (largely echoing those of Eileen and Hovis) but I will highlight JOINERY as it brought back fond childhood memories of watching “Born Free” at a cinema in Cornwall.
I was another unaware of the eye colour once featured in passports so, as ever, an illuminating blog.
Joyful thanks to Julius and PeeDee.
Meant to say what a shame it was that we missed out first time around on 17D’s winning surface.
Another fine crossword from Julius – I’m glad he explained 17d
Like others I have too many favourites to list so I’ll just thank Julius and PeeDee
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
An entertaining puzzle which caught me out in the end with SCIROCCO (not seen that spelling and had a version of the erroneous clue) and EYESHADE (where I had forgotten about the eye colour description – actually was able to find my 1979 passport – and sure enough, there it was along a very young-looking black and white photo). They were the last two in and had to use a word finder to get them both !
Picked the pangram early enough for it to help with DIAZEPAM and had the same initial experience as Eileen with the HEN being the early thinking with 16d until I saw the hidden.
Born Free and Living Free were lovely Christmas presents from my Nanna -still have and treasure them – so JOINERY would have to be my pick of the day.
Thanks for the blog, everything covered for me now. TAX RETURN reminded me of Araucaria, he once had a clue – Cox at me ( 6,3,6 ) – which is not strictly fair but did link to another solution which was Self Assessment.
Thanks Julius for another impeccably clued crossword. I did need a look-up for CONSTANCE and EYESHADE; I did not understand the latter until I read the blog. I needed a spell-check for SCIROCCO and I never got IN-TRAY as I’m more familiar with in-box. My favourites included DROPPED, JOINERY, and EDINBURGH CASTLE, the latter for both its surface and anagram. Thanks PeeDee for parsing.
Thanks, Julius and PeeDee. Agree with everything Tony said. DIAZEPAM was oh so clever in surface! In EMEER, “eastern” does a bit of double duty for E and the definition “eastern ruler”. I like those kinds of clues with an extra bit of meaning.
jeff@15 re 26ac: I would say no double duty here: “ruler” is a sufficient definition on its own.
Excellent puzzle as we have come to expect. It took me a while to get the clever 1a and LOI 14a (another sort of tray describes my reaction). Thank you Julius and PeeDee.
As Eileen@4 n Hovis@8 .. except I DIDN’T get the panagram… took a while but never felt like giving up… very happy about the explanation for 17dn from Julius, n thus I’m not going bonkers.. it had to be… a delight
Thanks Julius n Peedee
As soon as I saw the J I thought “funny!” and the rest of the cards fell.
Great fun as usual from the Sheffield lad
Thanks J and pee Dee