A few of today’s clues struck me as innovative, perhaps bordering on unconventional . . .
. . . but I am willing to concede that maybe the wit was just flying over my head. (It wouldn’t be the first time.) I enjoyed the clues that I did fully understand, so, well done, Julius. I trust that we will sort it all out in the comments.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CAPITAL GAINS TAX |
Italian probes AAA giant PLCs hit by revenue charge (7,5,3)
|
| IT. (Italian) inside (probes) anagram of (hit) AAA GIANT PLCS + X (by) | ||
| 9 | BLACKEN |
Defame Fern after changing sides (7)
|
| B[R]ACKEN (fern), with the R (right) changing to L (left) or “after changing sides” | ||
| 10 | PIRANHA |
Stop Iran harbour catching fish (7)
|
| Hidden in (catching) [STO]P IRAN HA[RBOUR] | ||
| 11 | EARTH |
Planet core hot to the east (5)
|
| HEART (core), with H (hot) moved all the way to the right (“to the east”) | ||
| 12 | REAR-ENDED |
A red deer going out around noon hit from behind by a car (4-5)
|
| Anagram of (going out) A RED DEER around N (noon) | ||
| 13 | EYELASHES |
Look carefully at opener for Lord’s Test series — they might bat (9)
|
| EYE (look carefully at) + first letter of (opener for) L[ORD’S] + [THE] ASHES (Test [cricket] series) | ||
| 15 | CYNIC |
Pessimist starts to cancel yearly National Insurance contributions (5)
|
| First letters of (starts to) C[ANCEL] Y[EARLY] N[ATIONAL] I[NSURANCE] C[ONTRIBUTIONS] | ||
| 16 | ÉCLAT |
Brilliance of chapter in revolutionary tale (5)
|
| C (chapter) inside (in) TALE reversed (revolutionary) | ||
| 18 | MIDSUMMER |
Halfway through some basic maths, by the sea in France when it’s hot? (9)
|
| MID-SUM (halfway through some basic maths) + MER (the sea in France, i.e., in French) | ||
| 20 | IN CIRCLES |
Like orbiting fashionable society groups? (2,7)
|
| IN (fashionable) + CIRCLES (society groups), or altogether might be read as a cryptic/double definition | ||
| 23 | DUCAT |
Tube accepts American money (5)
|
| DUCT (tube) around (accepts) A (American) | ||
| 24 | IGNOBLY |
Lobbying corruptly to have a bishop sacked in an ungentlemanly way (7)
|
| Anagram of (corruptly) LOB[B]YING minus (to have . . . sacked) B (a bishop, i.e., one of the two “bishops”) | ||
| 25 | ART DECO |
Educator sadly leaves university design movement (3,4)
|
| Anagram of (sadly) ED[U]CATOR minus (leaves) U (university) | ||
| 26 | NICOTINE PATCHES |
With which those hoping to kick the habit get plastered? (8,7)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CABLE TELEVISION |
Which might show live celebs at No1 behaving badly? (5,10)
|
| &lit and anagram of (behaving badly) LIVE CELEBS AT NO I (with “1” standing in for “I”) | ||
| 2 | PRAIRIE |
Runs into couple that is plain (7)
|
| R (runs) inside (into) PAIR (couple) + I.E. (that is) | ||
| 3 | TAKE HEART |
Gain courage from the karate chop? (4,5)
|
| Anagram of (chop) THE KARATE | ||
| 4 | LONER |
Solitary character extended golf breaks (5)
|
| I think this parses as: when G (golf) is inside (breaks) LONER, the result is LONGER = extended | ||
| 5 | APPRAISED |
Rated dad getting up changing diapers (9)
|
| PA (dad) inverted (getting up) + anagram of (changing) DIAPERS | ||
| 6 | NORSE |
Spanish chap cycling from Scandinavia? (5)
|
| SEÑOR (Spanish chap), with the SE “cycling” to the end | ||
| 7 | TUNED IN |
Listening to radio song — terrible noise! (5,2)
|
| TUNE (song) + DIN (terrible noise) | ||
| 8 | XMAS DECORATIONS |
They hang around the house until early January (4,11)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 14 | HIMALAYAN |
Hay animal chewed is from the highest mountains (9)
|
| Anagram of (chewed) HAY ANIMAL | ||
| 15 | COUP D’ÉTAT |
Caught up-to-date broadcast — it’s a revolution! (4,5)
|
| C (caught) + anagram of (broadcast) UP-TO-DATE | ||
| 17 | LACONIC |
Secular Tory is boring, terse, to the point (7)
|
| CON (Tory) inside (is boring [into]) LAIC (secular), with a redundant definition(?). For a plausible alternative parsing, see KVa@2. |
||
| 19 | MACBETH |
Scottish King introducing an honour to American subject (7)
|
| CBE (an honour) inside (introducing . . . [in]to) MATH (American [school] subject) | ||
| 21 | ROBOT |
Carry off old time machine (5)
|
| ROB (carry off) + O (old) + T (time) | ||
| 22 | SCAMP |
Rascal removing tail from Dublin Bay prawns (5)
|
| SCAMP[I] (Dublin Bay prawns) minus last letter (removing tail) |
This was enjoyable, with no sticky moments.
I don’t think of pessimists and cynics as quite the same thing. And while I might have seen people bat an eyelid, is it possible to bat an eyelash? Apparently. Upon googling I see that the latter is a fairly common expression, so I’ll stand corrected before anyone takes me to task.
Thanks Julius & Cineraria.
Thanks, Julius and Cineraria!
Enjoyable puzzle and an equally enjoyable blog.
All parsings seem good to me. In a couple of cases, you have posed some questions.
LONER (my take)
Extended=LONGER (the same as you parsed), G (golf) breaks=G leaves.
Your parsing seems more correct.
IN CIRCLES
Agree with the blog.
LACONIC
Parsed it as you did.
Just trying something different (call it a stretch):
secular=LAY, Tory=CON, (is) boring=NICE (a nice guy is
a boring guy on social media. I recall that there was
some discussion to this effect some days ago).
LA(y)CO(n)NIC(e) is LAY CON NICE terse.
This puzzle was a ray of sungloomy day.
Much to like, as always with Julius, including those “batters” (13a), a lovely surface which, mercifully for the uninitiated, had nothing to do with cricket at all. GDU, “batting your eyelashes” (or fluttering them) is considered flirtatious behaviour.
Also liked IGNOBLY, LONGER and COUP D’ETAT in particular, the perimeter entries in general.
Thanks to Julius and Cineraria.
Oops, of course, I meant ray of sunshine on a gloomy day.
I parsed LONGER as did KVa but Cineraria’s version is neater. Both seem fine but Julius will perhaps elucidate.
I thought of IN CIRCLES as a double def but, again, it’s open to interpretation.
LACONIC as per the blog though KVa’s thoughts are interesting.
I was probably getting confused with eyebrows, which would be hard to “bat”.
Browbatting is not possible. Browbeating is. 🙂
Thanks for the blog , really enjoyable puzzle with good clues throughout. I think Julius used a similar grid last time , every entry has the first letter crossed which does make life easier. I liked the precision of “American subject” for MACBETH .
For me eyelids are batted and eyelashes fluttered, but I think the terms can be swapped over.
Geoff@5 eyebrows are raised.
I’ve only ever heard of batting in the negative, such as “It was such an anticlimax, no one batted an eyelid.” Raised eyebrows happen when one is suspicious of something. And no, browbatting is not possible, thanks KVa.
I agree with Diane’s assessment of the puzzle – I rather liked ‘sungloomy’. 😉
The very friendly grid made the solve pretty straightforward but highly enjoyable. My favourites were 9ac BLACKEN, 13ac EYELASHES, 18ac MIDSUMMER, 5dn APPRAISED, 14dn HIMALAYAN, 15dn COUP D’ÉTAT and 19dn MACBETH and, top of the list, the brilliant 1dn CABLE TELEVISION.
Many thanks to Julius and Cineraria.
A splendid surprise on a warm and sunny morning
Many thanks to Julius and Cineraria
Thanks for the blog, dear Cineraria, and thanks to those who have commented. I try and rotate the grids I use from the FT library although I notice this one uses the same very solver-friendly grid as my last puzzle. By a strange coincidence, I also set today’s Times cryptic and one of the grid entries in this puzzle is in that one too (fortunately for me clued completely differently, phew).
The puzzles were set months apart – funny old game.
Best wishes to all, Rob/Julius
Very enjoyable and not too taxing
Capital gains tax is a tax on capital profits, not revenue profits.
Thanks to all
Thanks Julius and Cineraria
1ac (CGT): I think “revenue charge” refers to the agency (HMRC) which administers the charge.
4dn (LONER): I took this one (directly) as KVa@2, with “breaks” meaning “departs”. To parse (inversely) as “which would become LONGER if G were added” needs some sort of indication of the words I have put in italics.
Re 4a, I could not parse and decided “extend golf breaks” was merely there to stop it being a write-in (non-cryptic at that).
22d – SCAMPI – I Liked the !rish reference to “Dublin Bay prawns”
Loved the eyelash batting and the cynic, and the use of ‘by’ in 1a. ‘Coup d’etat’ did not leap out at first, took a minute to spot it in the (4,5) enumeration. Great puzzle, thank you Julius and Cineraria.
Most of what I planned to write has been mentioned already, so I will be brief. I loved the great surfaces and anagrams. Favourites have been well covered (including sungloomy).
I had a different interpretation of NORSE, but, I like yours better. Did not understand LONER, so thanks for the explanation
Thanks Cineraria and Julius
[ When you are depressed, feeling sorry for yourself and in need of a good wallow, a sunny day can make it worse – a real sungloomy day. ]
I especially liked 12&13a, REARENDED and EYELASHES, for their excellent surfaces.
Thanks Julius and Cineraria for the enjoyable puzzle and blog, and Diane@3 for the great new word.
Julius, my favourite setter; the one most on the same wave-length as myself.
20ac made me smile, reminding me of Dorothy Parker’s description of the Bloomsbury Group : ‘They lived in squares, moved in circles, and loved in triangles’.
[Ha ha, in the immortal words of Oscar the Grouch, “Don’t let the sunshine spoil the rain”!]
It’s been a busy day for me but I can’t let a Julius crossword get ignored so I solved this in bit and pieces and I liked every bit and every piece. Thanks to both.