It is ages since I blogged a puzzle from Julius, great fun! Thank you.
I get the impression that a formal theme is not intended here, Julius just threw in a few fruits as he was filling the grid. And why not?
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ORANGE MARMALADE |
Pop cuddling mom with both hands entwined? That’s rather fruity! (6,9)
|
| ORANGEADE (pop, fizzy drink) contains (cuddling) MAMA (mom) entwined with R and L (both hands) | ||
| 9 | CORRECT |
Mark – my vicar – leaving Oregon (7)
|
| COR (my, exclamation) then RECTor (vicar) missing OR (Oregon) | ||
| 10 | DUSTPAN |
Collector of rubbish Dutch puns at work (7)
|
| anagram (work) of D (Dutch) PUNS AT | ||
| 11 | INCAN |
From old Peru, visiting US lavatory (5)
|
| IN (visiting) CAN (lavatory, US) | ||
| 12 | FRUIT GUMS |
Smurf going round eating regular chunks of vintage UK sweets (5,4)
|
| SMURF reversed (going round) contains (eating) every other letter (regular chunks of) vInTaGe Uk | ||
| 13 | AUTHORIAL |
Gold hot new Iranian coin produced by 8? (9)
|
| AU (Au, Gold) then anagram (new) of HOT followed by RIAL (Iranian coin) – as produced by an author, Ernest Hemingway say | ||
| 15 | TEETH |
They’re used to biting temperature (the east winds) (5)
|
| T (temperature) then anagram (winds, turns) of THE E (east) | ||
| 16 | LEMON |
French paper putting down Germany and Spain in pithy article (5)
|
| LE MONde (French newspaper) missing (putting down) D (Deutschland, Germany) and E (Espana, Spain) | ||
| 18 | ON TOP FORM |
Superior class functioning brilliantly (2,3,4)
|
| ON TOP (superior) and FORM (class) | ||
| 20 | EUROPEANS |
Super, A-one, amazing people from the continent (9)
|
| anagram (amazing) of SUPER A ONE | ||
| 23 | ATE IN |
Had dinner at home – starter of escabeche (preserved) (3,2)
|
| Escabeche (first letter, starter) inside A TIN (preserved, kept in a tin) | ||
| 24 | ORIGAMI |
Working with paper Boris undressed good friend in Paris (7)
|
| bORIs (undressed, no outer letters) then G (good) and AMI (friend in French, in Paris) | ||
| 25 | SWALLOW |
Bird down (7)
|
| double definition | ||
| 26 | NORTHANGER ABBEY |
It followed Emma (3) at baby shower (10,5)
|
| anagram (shower, in an inept way) of GREENHORN (3 down) with AT BABY – novel by Jane Austen following Emma and preceding Persuasion | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ONCE IN A BLUE MOON |
British involved in stirring up EU malice? No, no, no . . . . hardly ever (4,2,1,4,4)
|
| B (British) inside (involved in) anagram (stirring up) of EU MALICE NO NO NO | ||
| 2 | APRICOT |
Something similar to 21 put into cheap ricotta (7)
|
| found inside (put into) cheAP RICOTta – similar to a PEACH (21 down) | ||
| 3 | GREENHORN |
Learner’s environmentally friendly instrument (9)
|
| GREEN (environmentally friendly) and HORN (instrument) | ||
| 4 | MOTIF |
Concept car test turning Grand Prix on its head (5)
|
| MOT (car test) reversed (turning) then FI (Formula One, Grand Prix racing) reversed (on its head) | ||
| 5 | RED MULLET |
One looking green about the gills? Quite the opposite! (3,6)
|
| cryptic definition – red is the opposite of green in a subtractive (paint) colour palette, so the opposite of one looking green about the gills (cheeks) would be one looking red about the gills (cheeks), so someone having a red haircut (red mullet).- and a Red Mullet (fish) has, as the name suggests, red rather than green gills. | ||
| 6 | ASSET |
Cash found in grandma’s settee (5)
|
| found inside grandmA’S SETtee | ||
| 7 | AMPOULE |
Vessel from which a pack animal is injected with polonium (7)
|
| A MULE (pack animal) contains (is injected with) PO (Polonium) | ||
| 8 | ERNEST HEMINGWAY |
In West Germany, he got drunk (he adored Margaux) (6,9)
|
| anagram (got drunk) of IN WEST GERMANY HE – adored granddaughter Margaux Hemingway | ||
| 14 | ISOLATION |
Quarantine no.1 hit featuring three consecutive notes (9)
|
| anagram (hit) of NO I (no. 1) containing (featuring) SO LA TI (three consecutive notes) | ||
| 15 | TOP BANANA |
CEO: the pick of the bunch? (3,6)
|
| double definition – slang for the boss and a bunch of bananas | ||
| 17 | MERRIER |
Like Robin’s men when they’ve been at the mead? (7)
|
| cryptic definition – they were Merry Men before they started drinking, they were merrier men afterwards | ||
| 19 | ONE CLUB |
Old north-eastern football side tabled weakest possible bid (3,4)
|
| O (old) NE (north-eastern) CLUB (football side) – at the Bridge table | ||
| 21 | PEACH |
Pub stocking chaser, oddly revolting flavour of schnapps (5)
|
| PH (public house, pub) contains (stocking) every other letter (oddly) of ChAsEr reversed (revolting) | ||
| 22 | SUSIE |
Hotel out of Japanese food beginning to exasperate girl (5)
|
| SUShI (Japanese food) missing H (hotel) then first letter (beginning to) Exasperate |
Thanks for a very interesting blog, super crossword with many neat clues. A bit of a colour theme as well as fruit.
1D …… hardly ever – Not really true but fair enough for a crossword.
Very minor typo 14D SO LA TI
8D is just brilliant.
I’ll leave it to somebody else to point out the typo in blog for 14d – whoops, now I’ve done it. I admit I plumped for FEATHER initially in 25a but soon saw the error of my ways.
Hah, you beat me Roz.
A typically playful solve from Julius with 1a (amusing surface) providing a most helpful hint…which almost seduced me into writing GREENGAGE for 3d. Besides the occasionally ovetlapping fruit/colour themes, the plentiful food and drink references were enough to make me hungry.
With the entertaining perimeter clues snagged early on, the rest fell quickly. Just had a few questions over parsing which PeeDee has now cleared up for me.
Favourites included 1d (surface),14, 25 and 26 among a great crop overall.
Thanks to Julius for brightening the day and PeeDee for a super blog.
Oops, overlapping: peach, orange, lemon…
Another great crossword from Julius who was definitely 18a today
Thanks to him and PeeDee
I really was going to say just what crypticsue said!
I thought 8dn was particularly brilliant because it seemed for all the world as if an anagram of HE ADORED MARGAUX was going to give a place in West Germany.
Huge thanks to Julius for a super start to the day and thanks to PeeDee for a fine blog
Agreed, Cryptic Sue. I just wanted to add that the proximity of GUMS, TEETH, ATE IN and SWALLOW was very neat.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
1ac: There is a typo here; ORANGEADE has acquired some extra letters.
5dn: I took red and green as opposites in the “stop/go” sense.
Lovely puzzle and gridfill. I think Margaux would have been around 7 when her grandad died,
I remember the Every Blothers hit “Wake up little Sushi”
Thanks Julius and Pee Dee
Pelham@9
Your way works fine though as the grid contains other colours too, ‘opposites’ on the colour wheel as PeeDee suggests, (red/green, yellow/purple, blue/orange) seem more fitting.
Thanks for highlighting the typos everybody. Fixed now.
Couldn’t get 14d because of missing 18a. In the US we say “in top form“ rather than “on …”.
Otherwise a very enjoyable puzzle. I particularly liked 1d, my FOI. Thanks to PeeDee for the blog; all the typos were fixed by the time I got to it.
I’ll join in the plaudits for this. It’s the first crossword I can remember with three semi-linked (mini) themes.
I liked RED MULLET (watching “Frost” on the box at the moment) and particularly the clue for ERNEST HEMINGWAY. I thought I remembered hearing about this before and have since confirmed it from primary sources (ie Wikipedia) but Margaux Hemingway changed her name from Margot after learning she had been conceived the night after her parents (her father was Ernest’s son of course) drank a bottle of Château Margaux.
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee. Great fun from my favorite FT setter. I was anticipating the usual struggle but instead I finished very quickly with the long items falling into place rapidly and the parsing of CORRECT my LOI.
24 across could have been more at home in a Cyclops Private Eye Xword, and Bojo may be more at home in this Parisian occupation than working with paper{s}.
Brilliant puzzle, I particularly liked my last one solved, 16A, pithy article indeed. Thank you, Julius and PeeDee.
On the easier end of the Julius spectrum but no less admirable in its craftmanship — loved 8d — the surface reads very well and it’s relevant to the answer — I can’t ask for more from a cryptic clue. PEACH amused me as well — again, a wonderful surface with “revolting” doing double duty at least in my brain. I failed to get CORRECT and could not parse MOTIF or FRUIT GUMS, the latter because I thought the definition included “vintage UK,” so thanks PeeDee for the blog. Thanks Julius.
What a PEACH of a puzzle, thanks Julius and peedee.
Yes, a PEACH of a puzzle with the setter ON TOP FORM – certainly not a LEMON.
Actually we parsed 18ac slightly differently. We took ‘superior class’ to be ‘top form’ and ‘functioning’ to be ‘on’ so that the definition was simply ‘brilliantly’
Just a small point about 9ac from Pedants’ Corner: Strictly speaking a vicar is not the same as a rector (it’s to do with how they’re appointed to a parish) but these days ‘vicar’ has passed into colloquial usage to describe any clergyman – even if not C of E – so we can’t really complain and it doesn’t detract from the excellence of this crossword.
Thanks, Julius and PeeDee.
I agree with every single word of Allan_C’s comment.
I initially parsed 23a as per the blog but wasn’t happy with it, so I decided the definition was just “had dinner”, being AT IN(home) with the E inserted (preserved)
Just a rider to my comment above and the reference to ‘clergyman’: I should have added ‘(or woman)’.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
In lockdown, but still finding time hard to come by for puzzles. Really enjoyed this one and thought it was a ghost theme of colours, which helped get 4 or 5 of the answers. Thought that the long perimeter clues were special.
Finished in the SW corner with ATE IN (must really pay more attention to the enumeration), TOP BANANA (where the fruit co-theme would’ve helped) and NORTHANGER ABBEY (probably my clue of the day whenthe penny dropped).