A fun and witty offering from JULIUS today.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | RING PULL |
Telephone order for delivery of clay and tin opener (4,4)
|
| RING ( telephone ) PULL ( ~ order for delivery of clay ?) | ||
| 8 | ACCENT |
Grave discovered in Bergerac centre (6)
|
| hidden in “..bergerAC CENTre” | ||
| 11 | ADAGE |
Saw daughter‘s article in Time (5)
|
| [ D ( daughter ) A ( article ) ] in AGE ( time ) | ||
| 12 | BIPARTITE |
Having two halves of revolting bitter, sampled pale ale (9)
|
| [ BITTER ]* containing IPA ( pale ale ) | ||
| 13 | HOLY SEE |
Savoy princess left vacation to visit Rome (4,3)
|
| HOLidaY ( vacation, without IDA – savoy princess, referring to the gilbert and sullivan opera ) SEE ( visit ) – needed the internet to help parse the first part | ||
| 14 | TRIPOLI |
Troy to tear apart crude oil port on the Med (7)
|
| T ( troy ) RIP ( tear apart ) [ OIL ]* | ||
| 15 | NOTHING PERSONAL |
Vote against spare doctor for New Orleans purely on business grounds (7,8)
|
| NO ( vote against ) THIN ( spare ) GP ( doctor ) [ ORLEANS ]* | ||
| 18 | SISTERS |
“US first!” The Pres. regularly declared (just like Ivanka and Tiffany) (7)
|
| “uS fIrSt ThE pReS..”, regularly i.e. alternate letters | ||
| 20 | A BAD JOB |
Sailor Bill – a patient bloke – trying to make the best of it? (1,3,3)
|
| AB ( sailor ) AD ( bill ) JOB ( patient bloke, bible ) | ||
| 22 | ARCH ENEMY |
A Republican ex-Veep introducing Mike Moriarty? (4-5)
|
| A R ( republican ) [ CHENEY ( ex-veep, dick ) containing M ( mike ) ] | ||
| 23 | RENEW |
Wenger retired, rejecting Gazidis’ overture to sign another contract (5)
|
| reverse of [ WENgER ] without G ( Gazidis’ overture i.e. first letter ) | ||
| 24 | EARFUL |
Weepy, tense, ducked telling-off (6)
|
| tEARFUL ( weepy, without T – tense ) | ||
| 25 | DABCHICK |
One flying fish caught by yokel (8)
|
| DAB ( fish ) C ( caught ) HICK ( yokel ) – didnt know this meaning of ‘DAB’ | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BREATHING SPACE |
Craft beer as nightcap in relaxing environment (9,5)
|
| [ BEER AS NIGHTCAP ]* | ||
| 2 | ENTAIL |
Trouble supporting English conservationists’ estate management strategy (6)
|
| AIL ( trouble ) under [ E ( english ) NT ( conservationists, National Trust ) ] | ||
| 3 | APRES SKI |
Sparks fly around eastern Italy; could it be the office party? (5-3)
|
| { [ SPARKS ]* around E ( eastern ) } I ( italy ) ; is ‘office’ here part of the cryptic def or does it have anything to do with the tv show, the office? | ||
| 4 | FLABBERGASTED |
Fat mountain spreading; East Germany shocked! (13)
|
| FLAB ( fat ) BERG ( mountain ) [ EAST D ( germany ) ]* | ||
| 5 | OCTROI |
French King supports old court levy (6)
|
| ROI ( king, in french ) under [ O ( old ) CT ( court ) ] | ||
| 6 | DEMIJOHN |
Mojahedin throwing a broken bottle (8)
|
| [ MOJaHEDIN ( throwing A i.e. without A) ]* | ||
| 9 | THE BIG LEBOWSKI |
Film his GT bike crashing, sustaining dislocated elbow (3,3,8)
|
| [ HIS GT BIKE ]* containing [ ELBOW ]* | ||
| 10 | APOTHECARY JAR |
Career Tory chap keeps ecstasy in open medicine bottle (10,3)
|
| { [ TORY CHAP ]* containing E ( ecstacy ) } in AJAR ( open ) | ||
| 16 | TEST CARD |
Screenshot of the Ashes scoreboard? (4,4)
|
| cryptic def; ashes referring to the iconic cricket test match series between eng and aus | ||
| 17 | SHAMROCK |
Sandwich of Hovis, ham, rocket leaf (8)
|
| hidden in “..hoviS HAM ROCKet..” | ||
| 19 | EREBUS |
Online puzzle depicting the prince of darkness? (6)
|
| E ( ~online, electronic ) REBUS ( puzzle ) | ||
| 21 | JUNKIE |
User dropped 500g in a month (6)
|
| KI [ half of 1 KIlo, 500g ] in JUNE; trying to remember if i have seen KI clued this way before |
@turbolegs In the pastime of clay pigeon shooting, PULL is the command to release the target ‘pigeon’ – so yes, PULL = order for delivery of clay. Thanks as ever for the blog.
Thanks for the blog, I was racking my brains for pull and now I see it above, thank you.
OFFICE I think is OFF ICE, the party after the skiing.
What a super crossword, not even going to begin listing clues. So many clever references as well.
Amazingly I knew the football references for RENEW , my older sister knew Ivan Gazidis when they were students.
Nice puzzle. 25a, 2d & 5d were new to me.
Successfully completed and learned a few things along the way. OCTROI was a new word for me and hadn’t met the legal meaning of “entail” before. Favourite was the nice anagram for 1d but also liked 17d for obvious reasons.
Roz @ 2!
Off ice: Thought so too.
My favs: RING PULL, APRES SKI, TEST CARD and JUNKIE
Thanks, J & T!
Thank you to Julius for cheering up a very grey, damp and chilly morning with another most enjoyable crossword
Thanks also to Turbolegs
Thanks for parsing of APOTHECARY JAR(Not in my Chambers)
Nice puzzle
Along with all those who’ve already commented, I thoroughly appreciated this fine puzzle from Julius in which every clue was a treat to figure out.
The clues are always multi-layered with this setter so beyond their surface appeal, there are slowburn gotcha moments too as with ‘pull’ and ‘off-ice’ (thanks Roz).
Not surprised you liked 17d, Hovis. As for ‘entail’, this made me think instantly of Austen and Trollope.
A tough call for a favourite today in such a roll-call of goodies but possibly ARCH-ENEMY or THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Many thanks to Turbolegs and to Julius – The Dude Abides!
I completely agree that this was a great puzzle and full marks to both setter and blogger. Dabchick is a term used in Sussex and Kent.for the moorhen. We had some on the pond in my chlldhood home. Not so many around now.
Thanks Julius for a superbly crafted crossword. My lack of GK was the blame for missing both TEST CARD and ARCH-ENEMY but all else fell into place without problem. Favourites included 1d, ACCENT, EARFUL, and EREBUS. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
What a great puzzle! 15a was my fave, and 7a went in without parsing PULL. Many thanks, Julius and Turbolegs.
Belated thanks to Julius and Turbolegs.
Totally support all comments – great puzzle.
9D has prompted me to watch the film!
Thanks for the blog, dear turbolegs, and thanks to those who have commented. I’m not sure what happened with this puzzle…it was written a few years ago and must have been lurking in the ed’s inbox ever since. I can’t find my copy in my files any more, but the clues in my database are date-stamped October 2017. I only mention this because it seems odd now in December 2021 to find a clue featuring Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis!
Best wishes to all, Rob/Julius
Late to the party but thanks for this, Julius. DNK octroi, and ‘entail’ as a noun is a new one for me. I liked the patient bloke , and when i saw ‘personal’ I was trying to cram ‘strictly’ into seven letters..
“Successfully completed and learned a few things along the way.”
Oh dear – I hope that isn’t a setter speaking
There are very few things in here I’d want setters to copy …
“Office” puzzled me at 3d, and still does, Roz’s (correct, I’m sure) explanation notwithstanding. Skiers ski on snow most of the time, and would stay off the hills if they were ice. Wouldn’t an office party be an APRES SKATE? Or am I missing something.
Nevertheless, I too found this an excellent puzzle, and I learned a few things along the way even though not successfully completed. (I missed 25 DABCHICK; not being familiar with the bird, and the fish not coming to mind, I guessed GARCHICK.)
RR@15, I too would not want setters to copy things from this puzzle. I would prefer them to try to be as original as possible, rather than stealing from Julius’s creative and engaging cluing.
Thanks Julius and Turbolegs
Agree with the majority of comments that this was a very good puzzle that I only got to finish post Christmas after making an earlier start, putting it away with very little done. Needed another half hour to get on to the wave-length and finish it without really understanding the ‘office’ at 3d (thanks Roz), the PULL at 7a (thanks Spooner’s catflap) and missed the second I in the anagram fodder and hence didn’t see IPA at 12a.
So correctly filled grid with some missing why’s !!
Finished with APOTHECARY JAR, SHAMROCK and DABCHICK.