Financial Times 17,273 by JULIUS

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A fun workout with a mini theme from JULIUS today!

FF: 8 DD: 8

 

Several clues tie back to Winnie the Pooh.

ACROSS
1 WARLOCK
Wizard’s revolting green strand of hair (7)
WAR ( green = RAW, reversed ) LOCK ( strand of hair )
5 RABBIT
Bugs possibly to produce plenty of gas? (6)
cryptic def; referring to bugs bunny
8 NO OFFENCE
Stolen property handler’s number? I didn’t mean to be rude … (2,7)
cryptic def; read as NO OF FENCE ( number of fence – stolen property handler )
9 NEATH
Children eat ham sandwiches down below (5)
hidden, reversed in “childreN EAT Ham..”
11 INFER
Conclude Fleming’s doctor must leave wildfire (5)
INFERno ( wildfire, without NO – referring to dr.no, ian fleming’s doctor/villain in the james bond series )
12 AVUNCULAR
A Vulcan mutant crushing universal resistance (but kindly) (9)
[ A VULCAN ]* containing [ U ( universal ) R ( resistance ) ]
13 TALK SHOP
Discuss business, speak terribly posh (4,4)
TALK ( speak ) [ POSH ]*
15 DIMPLE
Elected politician unfortunately lied about depression (6)
[ LIED ]* around MP ( elected politician )
17 EATERY
Cafeteria looking more tidy having cleared away New Year (6)
nEATER ( more tidy, without N – new ) Y ( year )
19 PASADENA
US city as soon as possible sent back unruly Dane (8)
PASA ( As Soon As Possible, ASAP, reversed ) [ DANE ]*
22 ONION RING
One gets battered … leg, groin in torment (5,4)
ON ( leg, cricket reference ) [ GROIN IN ]*
23 SPEAK
Say “Liverpool suburb” out loud (5)
sounds like SPEKE ( liverpool suburb )
24 HEGEL
Contemptible person arresting German philosopher (5)
HEEL ( contemptible person ) containing G ( german ) ; could have just marked philosopher alone as the definition but hegel was german so ..
25 LUNCH HOUR
Threaten to restrict UN children’s hospital meal time (5,4)
LOUR ( threaten ) containing [ UN CH ( children ) H ( hospital ) ]
26 CREDIT
Believe the King turned tide (6)
CR ( king, ref new royal cypher in uk ) { reverse of TIDE }
27 SCA FELL
Mount small ring inlaid with iron (3,4)
[ S ( small ) CALL ( ring ) ] containing FE ( iron )
DOWN
1 WINNIE THE POOH
Whoopee! Ninth out, India’s opener, caught Milne – put that in the book! (6-3-4)
I ( India, starting letter ) in [ WHOOPEE NINTH ]*
2 ROOMFUL
Plenty of people get married in 5dn I gather (7)
sounds like M ( married ) in RUEFUL ( answer to 5dn )
3 OFFER
Present chest when going topless (5)
cOFFER ( chest, without starting letter )
4 KANGAROO
Jumper made in Australia having a pocket at the front (8)
( not so ) cryptic def
5 RUEFUL
Sorry-looking 4 got stuffed by the sound of it (6)
sounds like ROO ( 4d, kangaroo ) FULL ( stuffed )
6 BONE CHINA
Bravo mate, netting one in Dresden? (4,5)
[ B ( bravo ) CHINA ( mate, cockney slang ) ] containing ONE
7 IN A FLAP
Panicking, getting awful pain touring Florida (2,1,4)
[ PAIN ]* around FLA ( florinda ) ; i would have normally gone with FL for florida but i cant make this work any other way
10 HORSE MACKEREL
Fish tart, just a little bit, as ordered by 1dn? (5-8)
i could use help with this; my parsing is somewhat ribald – sounds like, initial part being a synonym for tart ( prostitute ) and the latter being SMACKEREL ( a poohism to denote just a little bit )
14 SPRINKLED
Having showered Kelvin in Pilsner when drunk, departs (9)
{ K ( kelvin ) in [ PILSNER ]* } D ( departs )
16 TANGENTS
Sun-bronzed chap’s touching lines? (8)
TAN ( sun-bronzed ) GENT’S ( chap’s )
18 TRIGGER
Set off, run into 1dn’s friend (7)
R ( run ) in TIGGER ( 1dn’s friend, winnie the pooh )
20 EYESORE
Monstrosity in France? Yes (or England) (7)
hidden in “..francE? YES (OR England)”
21 PIGLET
Its meat occasionally sampled in spring, al dente? (6)
alternating letters of “..sPrInG aL dEnTe”
23 SCHWA
US stockbroker Charles’s clipped vowel sound (5)
SCHWAb ( charles schwab is an american stockbroking company ); learnt a new word today

24 comments on “Financial Times 17,273 by JULIUS”

  1. HORSE MACKEREL

    The first two parts could be WHORE SMACK (‘tart’ and ‘just a little bit’)-‘ ordered’ is the homophone indicator.
    Left with EREL or REL ….Winnie the Pooh or some other book (biblical?) …
    Thinking…

  2. As usual, I stumbled through the puzzle but got all the right answers anyway. Not a clue about how horse mackerel or onion ring worked, but they must be right! And once again, I’m afraid I didn’t see the hidden eyesore until after I biffed it. It is an anagram of Eeyore plus S, so it’s surprising it wasn’t clued that way. At least I had no trouble with Schwab, not my brokerage, but they advertise all the time over here.

  3. Well…found this:

    For those of you who may not be “in the know” with all Poohisms, Smackerel is a word he uses to describe a snack or small amount of honey.

  5. Thanks Julius, that was enjoyable. Great clueing as usual with WARLOCK, INFER, CREDIT (nice surface), IN A FLAP, and TANGENTS being noteworthy. I failed with SCA FELL, and couldn’t parse HORSE MACKEREL but generally this was on the easier end of the Julius spectrum. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  6. I always enjoy a Julius puzzle and this one had an added layer of amusement given that the theme is deemed subversive in my neck of the woods.
    Besides appreciating the clever way famous furry friends were woven into the grid, I also particularly liked 11a and 23d, though there were more.
    Thanks to Julius for cheering me up and Turbolegs.

  7. Thanks for the blog, always good to see Julius, I agree with Diane for INFERNO , the missing doctor is clever. I was glad that SCHWA had three letters in the grid.
    I agree with vinyl1 @2 that Eeyore could have made an appearance.
    Florida is FLA in Chambers , I think the modern version for states is 2 letters ??
    US contributors could help out here.

  8. Another who couldn’t parse 10d or 23d. Didn’t know “speke” either but an obvious guess. Found the rest comparatively easy for a Julius. I guess the idea for 1d is that from “Milne” onwards forms the definition. I’ve seen FLA for Florida in other crosswords, so that wasn’t an issue.

  9. Good to have the mini-theme although I had no idea about HORSE-MACKEREL, my last in. I missed the EYESORE hidden as well. Was the Monday Guardian setter being referred to in 12a? I’ll choose to go with the def and answer, rather than the wordplay, to describe him.

    I’m another who liked Dr. No leaving the ‘wildfire’ in 11a.

    Thanks to Julius and Turbolegs

  10. As an Australian, I must agree with Turbolegs that the clue at 4D sounds more like a normal crossword clue than one in a cryptic. Also, their usual movement is hopping rather than jumping. I know that’s close enough in crosswordland but I’m a pedant.

  12. Brilliant, as crypticsue says.

    I smiled at 26ac, with its nod to Julius’ alter ego Knut. 😉

    Many thanks to him and to Turbolegs.

  13. RABBIT is also a character in Winnie-the-Pooh. The Eeyore anagram did not jump out at me until I was checking over the blog post. I assume WARLOCK was the result of an unsuccessful attempt to include Owl somewhere?

    FLA or Fla. was an older official postal abbreviation for Florida. The USPS switched to two-letter abbreviation for every state about 60 years ago, including FL, but this innovation did not really take hold until the 1980s or so, when my generation started entering the work force. The older state abbreviations are still prevalent in non-postal contexts, or even on mail, too.

    I like the device of concatenated clues, such as 4D-5D-2D . . . fun when I get them, and maddening when I cannot crack them.

  14. Thanks Julius and Turbolegs
    Small point on the parsing of 2dn: Should it not be M in homophone (I gather) of RUEFUL?

  15. Further to 14: Sorry, I missed the “sounds like” on the beginning of the parsing. I would, however, still suggest that the M does not have to be part of the homophone – the clue could be taken either way.

  17. Thanks, Julius & Turbolegs. Really enjoyed this – nice level of difficulty, substantial enough to chew on but not excessively taxing, and I loved the way the theme was worked in. T, your ribald parsing of 10d looks spot on to me. Took me a while to remember that particular Poohism, but it came to me eventually. Been a few years since I read the books.

    I hesitated to write in the obvious answer for 4d until I had most of the crossing letters because it seemed just a little bit too obvious. I like it, though – an enjoyably silly clue.

    The only general knowledge gap for me today was the US stockbroker, but I’m familiar with the term for the vowel sound so that didn’t hold me up unduly.

  18. Always enjoy this setter’s wit and puzzles elsewhere and enjoyed this one too.
    I thought RUEFUL trumped the preceding linked clue by a distance and I liked RABBIT and INFER too.
    Many thanks Julius and Turbolegs

  19. Andy@16: I too regard Scafell (one word) as the correct spelling. When I looked earlier today, the Wikipedia page for Scafell gave Sca Fell (two words) as an alternative that has been used, so perhaps we can give the setter some leniency on that.

  20. Thanks for the blog, dear turbolegs, and thanks to those who have commented. I was recently on holiday in À Coru?a – seafood heaven – and was served some horse mackerel and the Pooh “smackerel” idea came into my mind. I did check the Sca Fell vs Scafell thing so apologies to any Lakeland experts I’ve offended.
    Best wishes to all, Rob/Julius

  21. My first ever FT puzzle online & very enjoyable it was too. Loved the theme. Just beaten by SCHWA – didn’t know it was a vowel sound & though I knew the company (from golf sponsorship) name didn’t know they were stockbrokers.
    Thanks both

  23. I normally love Julius’s crosswords and look forward to them – so I was very very disappointed to see his high standards slipping by the inclusion of two really dreadful clues here – 10dn & 23dn.

  24. Clarence @23: I do not see much wrong with 10dn: perhaps the allusion to the theme is a bit obscure, but the answer was obvious enough. As to 23dn, remember that this crossword is published in the Financial Times.

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