Puzzle from the Weekend FT of December 14, 2024
Another gem from Julius crowned by the snorter of 12 (INSURANCE). I also like 25 (JOHNSON) and 26 (HUM). Thank you Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HEADLAMP |
Light blow to the skull? (8)
|
| HEAD (the skull) + LAMP (blow) | ||
| 5 | STRIKE |
Refuse to work small child’s plaything (6)
|
| S (small) + TRIKE (plaything) | ||
| 10 | SLAMMER |
Prison bars might produce one (7)
|
| Double definition. I originally had this as a cryptic definition but now I am satisfied that it is a double. Thanks. | ||
| 11 | SURGEON |
Ship’s doctor voided operation following great tidal wave (7)
|
| SURGE (great tidal wave) + O[peratio]N. A medical officer in the Royal Navy is called a surgeon. | ||
| 12 | INSURANCE |
Julius Was Archbishop of Canterbury claims crazy Sun cover (9)
|
| I (Julius) + anagram (crazy) of SUN in (claims) RAN CE (was Archbishop of Canterbury). This clue brings to mind that a recent Archbishop of Canterbury was named Runcie. I wonder if he ever saw the almost pun. | ||
| 13 | ISSUE |
Problem child (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | ATHOS |
Swordsman shot, injured after onset of attack (5)
|
| A[ttack] + anagram (injured) of SHOT. Athos being, of course, one of The Three Musketeers | ||
| 16 | HABANERA |
Being retired, Karen — a Bahamian — hosts a Caribbean dance (8)
|
| Reverse (being retired) hidden word (hosts) | ||
| 19 | ATTORNEY |
Lawyer attending jousting competition has forgotten uniform (8)
|
| AT (attending) + TO[u]RNEY (jousting competition has forgotten uniform) | ||
| 20 | SWEEP |
Cry following son being forced into Victorian labour (5)
|
| S (son) in (being forced into) WEEP (cry) | ||
| 21 | MACAW |
Bird having wings of cicada stuck in gullet (5)
|
| C[icad]]A in (stuck in) MAW (gullet) | ||
| 23 | KNOWLEDGE |
Learning Dutch during weeklong exercises (9)
|
| D (Dutch) in (during) anagram (exercises) of WEEKLONG | ||
| 25 | JOHNSON |
“No NHS job will be scrapped” — ex-British PM, unforgettably (7)
|
| Anagram (will be scrapped) of NO NHS JO[b] | ||
| 27 | GENERAL |
Officer classes beginning to leave (7)
|
| GENERA (classes) + L[eave] | ||
| 28 | ROMMEL |
Wartime leader breaks from melancholy (6)
|
| Hidden word (breaks) | ||
| 29 | ONE-SIDED |
Biased… indeed so corrupt! (3-5)
|
| Anagram (corrupt) of INDEED SO | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HOSPITAL |
Clinic initially planned in hot, very large country unfinished (8)
|
| H (hot) + OS (very large, i.e. out-sized) + P[lanned] + ITAL[y] (country unfinished) | ||
| 2 | ANAESTHETIC |
Theatre number (11)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 3 | LAMBRUSCO |
Lady Caroline runs American firm in the red (9)
|
| LAMB (Lady Caroline) + R (runs) + US (American) + CO (firm). Lady Caroline Lamb was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist, best known for Glenarvon, a Gothic novel. | ||
| 4 | MIRIN |
Unbottling Emirs’ fine wine for cooking (5)
|
| [e]MIR[s] [f]IN[e] | ||
| 6 | TARSI |
Island rodent turned up bits of skeleton (5)
|
| IS (island) + RAT (rodent) all backwards (turned up) | ||
| 7 | IKE |
Former President upset Peking somewhat (3)
|
| Reverse (upset) hidden word (somewhat) | ||
| 8 | ERNIE |
Chap regularly partaking of beer an’ wine (5)
|
| [b]E[e]R [a]N [w]I[n]E | ||
| 9 | ASSEMBLY |
Council efficiently getting to grips with mounting litter (8)
|
| MESS (litter) backwards (mounting) in (getting to grips with) ABLY (efficiently) | ||
| 14 | SURRENDERED |
Gave up when turret discovered in Dresden exploded (11)
|
| [t]URRE[t] in anagram (exploded) of DRESDEN | ||
| 16 | HONG KONG |
Honourable medal King introduced to former Crown territory (4,4)
|
| HON (honourable) + K (king) in (iritroduced) GONG (medal) | ||
| 17 | NESTLINGS |
North-eastern rock icon’s providing sanctuary for fifty young birds (9)
|
| NE (north-eastern) + L (50) in (providing sanctuary for) STINGS (rock icon’s) | ||
| 18 | APPEALED |
Tech giant stocks each day looked attractive (8)
|
| EA (each) in (stocks) APPLE (tech giant) + D (day) | ||
| 21 | MAJOR |
Very serious traffic queue heading north over Reading, perhaps (5)
|
| JAM (traffic queue) backwards (heading north) + O (over) + R (reading perhaps) | ||
| 22 | WASTE |
Crossing a street? We refuse (5)
|
| A (a) + ST (street) together in (crossing) WE (we) | ||
| 24 | ORGAN |
Newspaper leader coming from former Murdoch editor (5)
|
| [m]ORGAN (leader coming from former Murdoch editor) | ||
| 26 | HUM |
Smell from rubbish not OK (3)
|
| H[ok]UM (rubbish not OK) |
Thanks Julius and Pete. A couple of small omissions from the parsing:
12ac: The initial I is given by “Julius” at the start of the clue.
17dn: The final S comes from “icon’s” in the clue.
Just what I wanted for my Saturday entertainment over coffee.
IKE was first in and progress came smartly in a clockwise direction ending with SLAMMER.
Aside from the neat alliance of ex-leaders in the SW corner, 25 was brilliant. As was 12. And yes, Pete, INSURANCE was up there!
23 made great use of ‘weeklong’, 13 was a nicely pithy double definition, 4 a clever idea and 16D close to my heart.
Thanks for a lovely grid, Julius, and for your blog, Pete.
Thought this was a lovely puzzle.
Favourites included: INSURANCE (of course), HEADLAMP, LAMBRUSCO, HOSPITAL, NESTLINGS
I thought 10a was a double definition since SLAMMER is slang for prison and can also be a drink produced in bars such as a tequila slammer
Thanks Julius and Pete Maclean
Thought the same, Fiona, re SLAMMER.
Thanks Julius for an excellent set of clues with my top picks being ATTORNEY, ROMMEL, ONE-SIDED, TARSI (liked ‘bits of skeleton’), ASSEMBLY, APPEALED, MAJOR, and WASTE. I couldn’t fully parse INSURANCE or HUM — thanks Pete for the help.
I am going to swim against the tide a bit. I found this difficult and not as enjoyable as Julius’s usual puzzles.
I ticked GENERAL, HABANERA, JOHNSON, ROMMEL and ONE SIDED. All across clues, no ticks for the downs rather strangely
I do have a few questions: 11 why is “ship’s” there? The clue would work without it 19 Ditto – why is “jousting” there? 23 why is Dutch = D with no head selection indicator? 21 Why is Reading perhaps = R?
I originally had OFF for 26 as a DD. Obviously it did not work. I did not like that both the clue and the answer to LAMBRUSCO needed specialist knowledge.
Thanks Julius and Pete
20ac: The wordplay here is just S + WEEP. I took the definition as starting with “being” (as a noun).
23ac: D for Dutch is in Chambers 2016 p 388.
21dn:Chambers p 1283 has “the three R’s reading, writing and arithmetic”, referring to the most fundamental parts of education.
Martyn,
‘Ship’s’ (11) aids the surface, as well as being the correct usage: [naval] surgeon. Neater with than without, I feel.
A ‘tourney’ (19) is a tilt, or jousting tournament – think Henry VIII – though it has acquired wider usage these days.
The three Rs. I did not think of that. Very well spotted.
D=dutch – another one to learn.
I still think ships and jousting are superfluous. But certainly not incorrect.
Thanks PB and Diane
Julius on absolutely top form, with a HUMdinger of a puzzle. I go along with Pete’s top three – INSURANCE and JOHNSON are brilliant – and would add KNOWLEDGE, SURRENDERED, LAMBRUSCO and ATTORNEY, which would have taken me a while to see without ‘jousting’: I knew ‘tourney’ only as a mediaeval contest but I see now that Chambers (but not Collins) also has ‘a modern sporting tournament (chiefly N Am)’.
I knew of Lady Caroline from her description (‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’) of Lord Byron, with whom she had an affair.
The ‘specialist knowledge’ that I lacked was MIRIN, the wine for cooking.
Many thanks to Julius and Pete.
Many thanks for your blog dear Pete, and thanks to those who have left a comment.
@Martyn…a ship’s doctor was specifically referred to as the surgeon – it’s an old Navy term and is supported by both Chambers & Collins.
There is a bit of a ghost theme with this puzzle which accounts for the presence in the grid of the surname of the former Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
General Johnson – soul/R&B fans might recall – was not only the lead singer of The Chairmen of the Board but also gave us the immortal single entitled Shaggin’ the Night Away.
Best wishes to all. I’ll be back this coming Sunday with the December news puzzle.
Rob/Julius
There’s Shagging on the Strand too!
Thanks for alerting us to this pastime, Julius 😉
We kept this for Sunday and it proved to be a pleasant afternoon diversion. We liked INSURANCE although we had a problem parsing it at first – we thought this might be one of those very rare clues with the definition (claims?) somewhere in the middle, but the correct parsing soon dawned on us.
We agree with Fiona and Diane that 10ac is a double definition.
Thanks, Julius and Pete.
Rather late to this today and haven’t got into the rhythm of the Monday blog – though it does mean the puzzle is fresher in the mind for sure. HEADLAMP, INSURANCE, ATHOS, KNOWLEDGE, LAMBRUSCO, ASSEMBLY, APPEALED and WASTE my faves from the puzzle.
Thanks Julius and Pete M
Having at last recognised a theme, we came too late to the party! A large number of the answers can be used with GENERAL to make phrases, ROMMEL, ASSEMBLY, STRIKE ,ANAESTHETIC, ATTORNEY KNOWLEDGE HOSPITAL IKE ISSUE SURGEON MAJOR and WASTE. – maybe more!
Great crossword even if we hadn’t spotted theme
Thanks Julius, always a favourite.
Thanks Peter too
Panthes@15: Good spot. Thanks.
Loved this one. Julius can always be counted on for smooth and witty surfaces, with 25a JOHNSON qualifying for consideration as the best surface of the year.
I share others’ admiration for the brilliant clue for 12a INSURANCE.
Thanks Julius and Pete for the excellent diversion.