Julius is today's FT compiler.
At first glance, I thought this was going to be a tough solve. I eventually completed the left-half of the puzzle with hardly anything on the right side. Then I saw CLEARANCE SALE and the rest slotted in fairly quickly. There was a lot to like, with a good range of artifice on show.
Thanks, Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SKYLINE |
Small Australian songbird crossing northern horizon (7)
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S (small) + KYLIE (Minogue) ("Australian songbird") crossing N (northern) |
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| 5 | PIGEON |
Maybe Homer’s gone out to chase one of his letters (6)
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*(gone) [anag:out] to chase PI ("one of his (i.e. Homer's) letters") |
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| 8 | CHAMELEON |
Julius invited to tea with Trotsky, a fickle person (9)
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ME ("Julius", the setter of the puzzle) invited to CHA ("tea') with LEON (Trotsky) |
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| 9 | ANTIC |
Caper 14 (ignoring fast bits) (5)
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(f)ANT(ast)IC (solution to "14", ignoring F + AST (bits of fast)) |
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| 11 | NONET |
Group without access to the web (5)
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If you have NO NET, you have no "access to the web" |
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| 12 | SACRIFICE |
Offering to swap cars in the event of slippery roads? (9)
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*(cars) [anag:to swap] + IF ICE ("in the event of slippery roads") |
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| 13 | REDEFINE |
Come up with a new word for “thin- sounding, slender” (8)
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Homophone [sounding] of REEDY ("thin") + FINE ("slender") |
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| 15 | AUTHOR |
Writer Thomas Hardy’s first impressions given gold covers (6)
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T(homas) H(ardy) ['s first impressions] given Au/OR (both "gold") covers |
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| 17 | ASCENT |
Climb American Sierra a bit? (6)
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A (American) + S (Sierra, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + CENT ("a bit", in the US) |
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| 19 | BEN ELTON |
Big name in Italian fashion left for a time to become a comedian (3,5)
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BENE(t>L)TON ("big name in Italian fashion") with L (left) for a T (time) |
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| 22 | IMPLANTED |
Firmly established, as the boss of Gardener’s World might describe himself? (9)
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The boss of Gardener's World might describe himself as I'M PLANT ED(itor), although it's a magazine h's editing, not a plant… |
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| 23 | PIXIE |
Fairy daughter of the south replaced by papa (5)
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The D (daughter) of DIXIE ("the south") replaced by P (papa, in the NATO phonetic alphabet), giving P-IXIE |
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| 24 | GIANT |
Massive soldiers? (5)
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GI (American "soldier") + (soldier) ANT |
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| 25 | PHOENICIA |
Old country pub, one I renovated by Langley? (9)
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PH (public house on a map, so "pub") + *(one i) [anag:renovated] by CIA ("Langley") Langley, Virginia is the HQ of the CIA, the (not at all ironic) George Bush Centre for Intelligence. |
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| 26 | SNO-CAT |
Alas, no catering on board winter transport (3-3)
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Hidden in [on board] "alaS NO CATering" |
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| 27 | GOODBYE |
Farewell item secured at the 10 did you say? (7)
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An item secured at the clearance sale (solution to 10dn) could be a "good buy", a homophone [did you say?] of GOODBYE |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SECOND READING |
Bill might get this Home Counties Tory fearful (6,7)
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SE (South East, so "Home Counties") + CON (Conservative, so "Tory") + DREADING ("fearful") |
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| 2 | YEARNED |
Longed for money, finally obtained fair and square (7)
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(mone)Y [finally} + EARNED ("obtained fair and square") |
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| 3 | INERT |
Find Perth essentially dead (5)
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(f)IN(d) (p)ERT(h) [essentially] |
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| 4 | EVENSONG |
I must log out of game during, say, vespers (8)
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I must log out of VEN(i)SON ("game") during E.G. ("say") |
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| 5 | PANICS |
In pieces regularly after dad loses it (6)
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(i)N (p)I(e)C(e)S [regularly] after PA ("dad") |
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| 6 | GRATITUDE |
Appreciation of playing guitar with Ted (9)
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*(guitar ted) [anag:playing] |
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| 7 | OSTRICH |
Leave starter of most savoury layer of eggs (7)
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[leave starter of] (m)OST + RICH ("savoury") |
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| 10 | CLEARANCE SALE |
Key to French Arsenal ace moving here for a bargain (9,4)
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CLE ("French" for "key") + *(arsenal ace) [anag:moving] |
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| 14 | FANTASTIC |
Aficionado beginning to taste Italian wine cold – wonderful! (9)
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FAN ("aficionado") + [beginning to] T(aste) + ASTI ("Italian wine") + C (cold) |
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| 16 | HEADLONG |
A kind of rush to build Donegal Hospital at the start (8)
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*(Donegal) [ang:to build] + H(ospital) [at the start] |
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| 18 | CAPTAIN |
Officer suitable to probe notorious murderer (7)
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APT ("suitable") to probe CAIN ("notorious murderer") |
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| 20 | TAXICAB |
Vehicle temperature about 11C, starts to apply brakes (7)
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T (temperature) + A (about) + XI (11) + C + [starts to] A(pply) B(rakes) |
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| 21 | STOP IT |
Don’t press top Italian trousers (4,2)
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Hidden in [trousers] "presS TOP ITalian" |
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| 23 | PANTO |
Slate opening of terrible old theatre piece (5)
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PAN ("slate") + [opening of] T(terrible) + O (old) |
I agree that this was not as tough as it appeared at first. CLEARANCE SALE was my foi too. To be picky about 22a, it is Gardeners’ World, a magazine and television programme. Perhaps the setter had a reason for choosing Gardener’s? I had never heard of Ben Elton so dnf.
Anyway nice start to the day and thanks to both .
Thats two belters this week from the Sheffield-Freiburg connection.
I lived the 11C-but the Australian songbird got my pick
Teen weeny niggle about TOP being in clue and Answer
Otherwise Hail Julius and thanks loonapick
Where is everyone.?
As a (now-retired) keen snow skier, my last one in was 26A. I was aware of a snowcat but did not recognize the trade name without the “w”.
1A stumped me for a while as I guessed “Small Australian songbird” as “Kylie” – she’s only 152 cm (that’s 5 feet in the old measurements) after all – and it took a while to work out that the missing “s” came from the first word of the clue.
Please don’t tell me that the UK is really considering abandoning the metric system!
Fresh from Trotsky in today’s Guardian puzzle, my first one in was CHAMELEON, which earned a tick straightaway. Other ticks followed thick and fast – a super puzzle.
I was particularly chuffed to work out 25ac: with PH OENI in place, the answer had to be PHOENICIA but I wasn’t aware of the CIA / Langley connection, so was delighted to find that it was a thing.
Other favourites were SKYLINE, PIGEON, REDEFINE, AUTHOR, BEN ELTON. GIANT, SECOND READING, EVENSONG and the FANTASTIC ANTIC combination. I decided today to list them all.
Many thanks to Julius for a really enjoyable and interesting puzzle and to loonapick for a great blog.
As Eileen mentioned, Trotsky appears in today’s Guardian, as does ‘venison’. Even though coincidences like this happen very often, it never ceases to amaze me. I wondered whether there was a missing ‘the’ before ‘French’ in 10d, with C being the ‘key’ – never thought ‘cle’ could be a word.
Thanks for the blog, dear loonapick, and thanks to those who left a comment.
@SM…heard of any other Eltons? 🙂
Best wishes, Rob/Julius
V. enjoyable. Managed to parse everything, including the appropriately iffy 13a homophone. My picks were the ‘Australian songbird’ at 1a, the tricky parsing for EVENSONG and the original ‘A kind of rush’ def for HEADLONG.
Thanks to Julius and loonapick
Quite enjoyable. I was unaware of French for key in 10d. Couldn’t associate cent with bit in 17a, nor Langley with CIA in 25a. 1d was difficult for an Antipodean.
Thanks for your comment Julius. My fault that I had never heard of Ben Elton. Only one I know is Elton John which would not fit. But it was a fun puzzle .
@SM
My comment was too, er, cryptic…
There is a tiny ghost theme around The Bard of Pinner. I bought a copy of 1A 5A when I was still wearing loon pants
Julius and Serpent in one day! Great stuff.
Earlier comments have covered all bases but I’ll add my appreciation for SKYLINE, CHAMELEON and BEN ELTON.
Thanks to Julius – it was short but sweet – and Loonapick for the blog.
Hovis @5,
You’re probably more familiar with ‘clef’ than ‘clé’, the latter being used more these days, perhaps.
Two small quibbles re the blog. Inn the US, “ two bits is a quarter since i bit was used to denote 1/8th of a dollar. UK usage referred to any small coin. The comment on the CIA building name its not pertinent since it was named for George Herbert Walker Bush, not his son. Like SM @ 1, I had never heard of Ben Elton so DNF. Thanks Julius and loonapick.
Thanks Julius for another fine crossword with PIGEON, GIANT, and FANTASTIC my top choices. Overall I found this on the easier end of the Julius spectrum and certainly easier than the last Knut crossword I attempted. Thanks loonapick for the blog despite the confusion about the Bushes.
To be clear, there was no confusion in my mind about the Bushes, but the CIA maybe should make it clearer that the centre was named after the slightly more intelligent of the father/son combo.
Loonapick @15: Why make such a gratuitous remark about either Bush anyway? CIA was the relevant part of 25a. I found it a bit offensive.
TS@16 It was intended as a joke…
We too found this easier than it looked at first, and most enjoyable. No favourites today as there was hardly a dud clue anywhere. We didn’t understand the ‘Langley’ reference in 25ac but that was simply due to a gap in our GK.
Thanks, Julius and loonapick.
Thanks to Julius and loonapick.
I managed to get the Elton John connection after 1A and 5A.
With 12A being one of his hits, I associated 11A to perhaps mean No net sacrifice (too cryptic?).
I suspect there were other references but would need Julius to clarify!
Simply delightful. Thanks Julius and Loonapick.
Julius
That is a very smart connection which it took me ages to twig. Learn a little every day. Thanks
Great fun – thanks Julius.
AUTHOR raised the biggest smile for me as I hadn’t seen it before.
Thanks for the explanations Loonapick.
I neglected to mention that G.H.W.Bush was once Director of the CIA.
Thanks Julius and loonapick
Did most of this over lunch yesterday and what seemed a little inpenetrable gradually became not so. Lots of lovely clues as have been pointed out with two that I didn’t properly parse – not separating the ED from the I’M PLANT bit at 22a and not knowing CLE was a French word for ‘key’ in 10d.
Thought that the definition of KYLIE Minogue was very clever and the construction of CHAMELEON was also good. Read and seen enough spy movies to know that the CIA headquarters were in Langley, Virginia – didn’t know that George Bush snr was involved with it though.
Finished down the bottom with PHOENICIA (which, like Eileen, was chuffed to piece together from the word play), STOP IT (crafty hidden) and SNO CAT (even craftier hidden).