Financial Times 17,070 by Julius

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Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 17. 2022

Postscript added on April 27:  In case some readers have missed it, I want to let you know the very sad news came today that Neil Shepherd, our Alberich and elsewhere Klingsor, has died.  It was known that he had some health issues recently but I have no indication that he was near death.  He posted a comment on this blog only two weeks ago. RIP Alberich and thank you for many very fine puzzles.

As usual for Easter we have an alphabetical by Julius.  I found the clues to be very typical of an alphabetical but the process of fitting the answers to the grid more difficult than usual.

Here is the completed grid:

And here are explanations of the clues listed in the order published with positions added:

9dn. Get faint sense former partner detested going round the States (4,9)
FEEL EXHAUSTED – FEEL (sense) + EX (former partner) + US (the States) in (going round) HATED (detested)

22ac. Absorbing, loving cocktail containing French wine (9)
INVOLVING – VIN (French wine) in (containing) anagram (cocktail) of LOVING

24ac. Not upset getting pierced by aluminium claw? (5)
TALON – AL (aluminium) in (pierced by) anagram (upset) of NOT

7d. Run round slope drained tender (5)
NURSE – RUN (run) backwards (round) + S[lop]E

11ac. Senna could be this flawless, lapping Nürburgring’s tailender (5)
PURGE – [Nürburgrin]G in (lapping) PURE (flawless)

6dn. Airships heading back across Southern Nile and Zambia carrying PPE (9)
ZEPPELINS – PPE (PPE) in S (southern) + NILE (Nile) + Z (Zambia) all backwards (heading back)

20ac. After extra time, Hearts substitute served up rooibos (4,3)
BUSH TEA – AET (after extra time) + H (hearts) + SUB (substitute) all backwards (served up)

25ac. Explosive content of meeting I legitimately setup (9)
GELIGNITE – reverse (setup) hidden word (content of)

17dn. I hear Spooner searched for a broad location by the river (9)
WATERSIDE – Spoonerism of “sought a wide”

19dn. Alien language – language found in Kent, oddly (7)
KLINGON – LINGO (language) in (found in) K[e]N[t]

10ac. 50, I am taken on by Leeds side without restrictions (9)
UNLIMITED – L (50) + IM (I am) together in (taken on by) UNITED (Leeds side)

18ac. Stern supporting the German “dead-tree issue” (7)
DIEBACK – DIE (the German) + BACK (stern) with the surface reading presumably intended to refer to the magazine Stern.

26ac. Sticky butties (and Jim’s cashew nuts!) (3,10)
JAM SANDWICHES – anagram (nuts) of AND JIMS CASHEW

2dn. Vote cast, only hope it can be recorded and heard! (9)
XYLOPHONE – X (vote) + anagram (cast) ONLY HOPE

23dn. American soldier wearing Military Cross? That’s terrific! (5)
MAGIC – A (American) + GI (soldier)) in (wearing) MC (Military Cross)

3dn. Large Australian bird, rook, tree-dweller (5)
LEMUR – L (large) + EMU (Australian bird) + R (rook)

13ac. Bet that chap will shortly protest furiously (5,4)
RAISE HELL – RAISE (bet) + HELL (that chap will shortly)

12ac. Sports car touring – it’s a bit of a lark (5)
CAPER – PE (sports) in (touring) CAR (car)

15dn. Young residents of stable yard Salinger groomed (9)
YEARLINGS – anagram (groomed) of Y SALINGER

14ac. Bland alternative to a wink Yankee occasionally ignored? (7)
ANODYNE – A NOD (alternative to a wink) + Y[a]N[k]E[e]

22dn. Very old lake adjoining Georgia river (5)
VOLGA – V (very) + O (old) + L (lake) + GA (Georgia)

1ac. Lexicon on Suez set out no-go area (9,4)
EXCLUSION ZONE – anagram (set out) of LEXICON ON SUEZ

5dn. A strange person, strangely old-fashioned left alone, strangely (3,4)
ODD FISH – Anagram (strangely) of OLD FASHIONED with the letters of ALONE removed

20dn. Female movie director, single, regularly into cocaine (7)
BIGELOW – [s]I[n]G[l]E in (into) BLOW (cocaine) with the definition referring to Kathryn Bigelow, best known surely for The Hurt Locker.

4dn. Release Republican held by fixed charge (3,4)
SET FREE – R (Republican) in (held by) SET FEE (fixed charge)

16ac. Smoothe treatment for 60s musical hits on the radio? (4,3)
HAIR WAX – HAIR (60s musical) + WAX (homophone of “whacks”)

8dn. Rough son freed from liquefied ground, filthy (5,3,5)
QUICK AND DIRTY – QUICK[s]AND (sun freed from liquefied ground) + DIRTY (filthy)

23ac. Extra-special social customs (5)
MORES – MORE (extra + S (special)

 

My favourites here are KLINGON, BIGELOW and DIEBACK.  Thank you, Julius.

15 comments on “Financial Times 17,070 by Julius”

  1. That is sad news indeed, Pete. I’m very sorry to hear it and will certainly miss his puzzles. RIP, Alberich.

    Turning my thoughts to the Easter grid, I was delighted to see an alphabetical puzzle signed Julius. Fortunately, it didn’t take the entire holiday to complete! In fact, it was all over more quickly than expected but was still something to savour.
    Having solved around half the clues, I could start to fill the grid, of which the first was ZEPPELINS.
    The 13-lettered answers top and bottom were enough to get going and I progressed around the grid clockwise starting (and ending) in the NE. A lucky guess with the positioning of those lengthy answers, enabled me to enter a good chunk already solved; MORES/MAGIC, VOLGA/TALON and PURGE/NURSE.
    QUICK AND DIRTY was a fine penny-drop moment allowing me to finish at a canter; LOI, RAISE HELL.
    Just one not satisfactorily parsed: DIEBACK. I also thought of Stern magazine but couldn’t connect ‘back and ‘stern’.
    Initially, it might have been tempting to consider C was for CAMPION (rather than B for Bigelow), given this year’s Oscars, but that would have missed the point of one of the best clues here.
    Other favourites were the Spoonerism, the instrument, the ‘sticky butties’, the misleading laxative and the hair treatment.
    Thanks to Julius and Pete.

  2. Thanks Pete and Julius

    I really enjoy alphabeticals, possibly because the clues suit me, or maybe because they a little easier. I had a pretty high % of answers when I started filling the grid, although I confess I only had 2 of the 13 letter clues. Unlike our mentor Pete, it turned out to be smooth sailing for me.

    I had lots of favourites. I shared Pete’s like for KLINGON, a word that always reminds me of Frasier. I thought “sports car touring” for CAPER was brilliant, as was the reverse containment for GELIGNITE and the anagram for JAM SANDWICHES.

    I was thrown by “Smoothe” in the HAIR WAX clue and spent a long time wondering about the “e” at the end. I still do not get it.

    It took me a long time to work out the Spoonerism. Nevertheless, QUICK AND DIRTY was my last one in. I found a lot to admire in both clues once I managed to understand them.

    An enjoyable puzzle and a great explanation from the ever-reliable Pete. Thanks again to you both.

    Sad to hear the news of Alberich. I enjoyed his puzzles and always loved it when he participated in the discussion. Vale

  3. Thanks Julius, these random alphabeticals are among my favourite puzzles. Getting the 13 letter peripheral clues early in the game really helped with the placement. As usual there wasn’t a bad clue in the lot; I particularly liked KLINGON, DIEBACK, and INVOLVING.Thanks Pete for the blog.
    I am saddened by the news of Alberich’s death. I was on a flight in February and I was working a Saturday crossword of his; my seatmate, bored with his textbook, struck up a conversation about puzzles. He was not familiar with cryptics and I had fun explaining some of the clues. Of course, Alberich’s impeccable style made this a joy. I will miss him.

  4. Thanks for the blog Pete – just to confuse things I had QUICK AND DIRTY across the top and it all fitted. Seems there is more than one correct entry by reflection in the diagonal top left to bottom right.
    Thanks for the fun Julius – it really was.
    Not so much fun was the passing of Alberich – I really did enjoy his puzzles.

  5. Thanks for the blog, I will really miss Alberich puzzles , the one you mentioned two weeks ago was just lovely.

    I agree with Mystogre @4 for the grid, I spent a long time puzzling over which way. I think the clues for ZEPPELINS ( back) and BUSH TEA ( served UP ) give the correct version.

    Brilliant from Julius once again, I love this type of puzzle, reminds me of another much missed setter.

  8. That is both surprising and hilarious

    I did not even look at the grid when I commented earlier, and focussed solely on Pete’s explanations.

    It turns out that I, too, have QUICK AND DIRTY across the top. I have ZEPPELINS across in the SW corner and both BUSH TEA and GELIGNITE down in the SE corner. Thanks Roz and Mystogre for picking that up.

    I think we just doubled the fun!

  10. Thanks for the blog Pete and thanks to those who have commented.
    I’m very sorry indeed to learn of Neil Shepherd’s death. He was a wonderful compiler and clearly an inspiration to many in crosswordland.
    Regarding the jigsaw puzzle, it is the case that some – not all – of the grids I use for these puzzles are completely rather than partially symmetrical which means that there are two possible ways in which the entries fit. To get around this, I attempt to indicate in the wordplay which way round the entries go by use of words like going west, reversing, backing, supporting, upsetting, overturning, serving up etc although I accept that not every solver is attuned to these. Since the prizes are still not being distributed I think, it probably doesn’t matter anyhow.
    I’m very sorry for the mistake with the smooth/smoothe thing…no idea how that happened.
    Warmest regards to all, Rob/Julius

  13. Araucaria sometimes used grids with this diagonal inverting symmetry for his jigsaws.
    No answers on the perimeter but lots of first and last letters from answers. These would sometimes spell out words if you chose the correct entry. I remember ZENITH and NADIR once and also LEFT and RIGHT.

  14. Thanks Julius and Pete
    Should have done this when it came out over Easter, but only got to it yesterday with it spilling over until today. Think that this is one of the most enjoyable and testing alphabeticals that I have done for ages. Because I hadn’t worked out the two 5-letter and 7-letter clues with the same starting letter, the clue solving part stretched out until the last eight before was being confident enough to start with the grid fill.
    Had only EXCLUSION ZONE and JAM SANDWICHES of the perimeter clues and because of the symmetry of the grid, needed to create a trial grid to fill out. Luckily had put EXCLUSION ZONE across the top, so it worked out first time and this enabled me to get those final eight clues – FEEL EXHAUSTED, HAIR WAX and WATERSIDE.
    A different experience doing it that way and enjoyed it immensely.

  15. Late to the party as I finished this whilst away – or didn’t as I didn’t get ODDFISH or HAIRWAX I also copied the grid and tried it both ways, which worked of course. I think that the comments about various clues being “back” or “up” puts ” Quick and dirty” at the top rather than as shown – but who cares as it was fun anyway.

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