Financial Times 18,061 by JULIUS

28 comments on “Financial Times 18,061 by JULIUS”

1. Very elegant puzzle; I didn’t read much Just William so can’t add to the theme identification (this is where we miss FrankieG!). Almost every clue could have been ticked imho.

   I think the abbreviation needed for barrels is BBL which goes into PEE.

   What an imaginative name the BVI came up with for their capital!

   Thanks Julius and kenneth

2. William is WILLIAM BROWN, and has a dog, JUMBLE. He appears in various books of short stories – JUST WILLIAM, WILLIAM the PIRATE, WILLIAM the DETECTIVE, WILLIAM the BOLD. ICE CREAM appears at lots of parties given by Hubert Lane’s mother, trying to end the feud, and with Violet Elizabeth Bott’s threat to “thcream and thcream until I’m thick” (we, my next sister down and I babysat for a child that did this, once).

   I could be making this up, but I think he’s variously described as an IMP and a TYKE.

   Nope didn’t see the theme until it was pointed out, but read the books as a child, and to my daughter. Also lots of adaptations by Martin Jarvis on Radio 4

   Another smooth crossword from Julius and thanks to Kenneth for the blog

3. There’s William The Detective, William The Bold and I think he is called William Brown. There are also two other authors who have written for children, but, unfortunately, it’s Harry, rather than William who you could describe as The Little Prince. Lovely puzzle as usual from Julius. Shanne has remembered more and quicker, I see.

4. Apparently, his surname is BROWN, and his dog’s name is JUMBLE. NHO this series, although they sound charming. The usual high-caliber fare from Julius. A VESTA or vesta case is apparently a matchbox, new to me. Thanks for the blog. I see I crossed with some others here.

5. Another treat from this setter two days running (with yesterday’s Indy).
   Among some wonderful surfaces, DAHL’s was particularly seamless while OSCAR WILDE, BRIGHTEST and WILLIAM (apt surface for his brother) all earned ticks. I missed the theme on this occasion!
   JUMBLE made me laugh and I enjoyed the fact that ‘nice’ (22) was not Nice! I also liked the connected pair of double definitions at the centre (15, 17), the copshop loo charade and the well camouflaged SLOVENIA.
   Thanks, Julius, for your customary élan and Kenneth.

6. Thanks to Shanne and Peter for the additional information. I certainly remember Violet Elizabeth and might just have landed the theme if she’d made an appearance!

7. Top faves: OSCAR WILDE, JUMBLE, ROAD TOWN, PEBBLE, BRIGHTEST and GAZPACHO.
   Excellent puzzle and great blog.
   Thanks Julius and Kenneth.
   PEBBLE: Parsed as PM@1

   A couple of minor observations:
   ANTISEPTIC
   loo out of order—>loo* (Some say the second anagram indicator is redundant in ‘such’ cases).
   policestation* lacking loo*

   RICHMAL CROMPTON
   Should the def be ‘books produced by her’ (meaning ‘A woman who produced books’)?

8. Turbolegs had one or two technical problems so we posted as my alter ego and it has now been put right.

   Hence any reference to “kenneth” (above) should be “turbolegs”

9. Ah, that makes sense and explains why Turbolegs’s DD and FF ratings still featured. Thanks Legs!

10. I read the Just William books as a child but despite solving 5 down quite early failed to spot any of the links to other clues. I had never heard of the Lincoln Imp or Road Town but both relatively accessible from the rest of the clues. Nothing truly exceptional but all good fun

11. I have just seen KVa’s comment @7 re RICHMAL CROMPTON and agree ‘books produced by her’ is the def. Missed that when reading the blog earlier.

12. This were gradely
    But where was Carl Perkins who wrote Matchbox
    Great that the Beatles recored a couple of his songs

13. Thanks for the blog, dear Turbolegs, and thanks to those who have commented. Usual apologies for having to fill the grid with stuff like the LINCOLN IMP and LADRONE but theme-related corner-painting, so to speak.
    Best wishes to all, Rob/Julius

14. It has been many a decade since I last read a Just William book but I did enjoy finding the themed solutions in the grid

    Thanks very much to Julius for another lovely crossword and to Turbolegs for the blog

15. I loved the Just William stories as a child and I always enjoy revisiting them through repeats of Martin Jarvis’s readings.

    There’s a clutch of stories about the Lincoln Imp, too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Imp – it’s fun hunting for him in the Cathedral.

    I had lots of ticks, as usual but I’ll whittle them down to BRIGHTEST, WILLIAM, OSCAR WILDE, for incorporating real people and the splendidly ironic CELEB. A neat clue for RICHMAL CROMPTON too.

    Many thanks to Julius for the lovely fun puzzle and to Turbolegs (and Ken) for the blog.

16. This took longer than it should have to finish after speeding (by my modest standards) through much of the puzzle. While I got the author quickly I knew none of the other connections.

17. Thanks for the blog and to Shanne and Peter for all the extras , great set of clues , OSCAR WILDE a very neat spot .
    MATCHBOX , I took the definition as Vesta’s here – where you keep a match (a vesta) .
    To complicate things, as Cineraria@2 says , vesta also used to mean matchbox . especially antique silver ones , very popular at auctions .
    LINCOLN IMP – I am reliably informed that the Lincoln City Diving team is known as The Imps .

18. I was unaware that a vesta was a box where you keep matches. But MATCHBOX came readily because Swan Vestas were matches widely used in the fifties and sixties when I was growing up and were often simply referred to as vestas. They were made (and still are I believe) by the Swedish Match Company, were slightly shorter than other matches, came in a larger box than most other matches, and were billed as the smoker’s match. They were easily identifiable by the large white swan on the front of the box.

    Regrettably, I cannot fine a usable picture.

19. Should barrels be BBL, not BB?

20. Looks like
    B or bbl stands for barrel/barrels
    BB is billion barrels

21. Thanks Julius. I had no idea there was a theme as I’m not familiar with ‘Just William’. Nonetheless I thought this was a great set of clues with my top picks being BOLD, OSCAR WILDE, ICE CREAM, BRIGHTEST, DETECTIVE, UNCANNY, WILLIAM, and BROWN. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

22. Well, I loved this, because I loved the Just William books.
    I’m thinking….60 years ago? Read every one, and the local library got fed up with me asking for them to get more.
    Long-lost, more innocent days.
    I am dumb over a couple of clues, i.e. solved by default.
    23(ac) BBL in PEE?
    25(ac) Too much going on? Barking and(out of order) and (lacking), and etc. There’s a finite clue in there somewhere, but it’s a convoluted path to the solution.

    16(d) GASPACHO, is simply a weak effort, but the clever clues more than compensate for it.
    Enjoyable and entertaining, J + T

23. E.N.Boll&@22
    PEBBLE
    Please see PostMark@1.
    BBL in PEE seems to be the intended parsing.
    ANTISEPTIC
    I think we can parse it in two ways
    1. Earlier (@7) I thought: (policestation)* lacking (loo)* (with barking applied to policestation and out of order
    applied to loo)
    2. Now I think there is another way to look at it: (policestation – (loo)*)*

24. It does not look like RICHMAL COMPTON or her books are much known outside the UK. I am another non-Brit who has not heard of either.

    There seemed to be a lot of deductions today. Favourites were JUMBLE, no no noel, and the surface of WILLIAM

    I had no idea what LINCOLN IMP was about and had to reveal IMP. Thanks Julius @13 for the apologies on that one

    Thanks Julius and Turbolegs

25. bbl = barrels held me up for too long. It’s not an abbreviation I know.

    I asked ChatGPT for its origin and below is the answer I received.

    (Caveat: ChatGPT is astonishing but does hallucinate…..)

    The abbreviation “bbl” for barrels is commonly used in the oil industry and has a few theories behind its origin, though there’s no single definitive answer. The most widely accepted explanation is:

    Standard Oil and the “Blue Barrel”
    • In the 19th century, the Standard Oil Company, founded by John D. Rockefeller, used blue barrels to standardize and distinguish their oil barrels.
    • The “b” in “bbl” is thought to stand for “blue”, making “bbl” shorthand for “blue barrel.”
    • Over time, the term became a standardized unit for measuring oil: 1 bbl = 42 U.S. gallons.

    Other theories (less supported):
    • Typographic conventions: Some suggest the double “b” was used to avoid confusion with other abbreviations or because early typographic styles sometimes doubled letters for plural forms (though this is not commonly documented).
    • Multiple barrel sizes: Before standardization, barrels came in various sizes. The extra “b” might have been a way to refer specifically to the standardized 42-gallon barrel.

    Despite these alternate ideas, the “blue barrel” explanation remains the most widely accepted in historical and industry circles.

26. Late to this but glad I got round to it – as a lifelong fan of the William books (they still make me laugh out loud) this was right up my street. Thanks for the fun, Julius.

27. Even later then widddersbel but wanted to say thank you Julius for this trip down memory lane. I’m sure I read every one of the battered William volumes in the prep school library. Just occasionally caught Martin Jarvis on Radio 4 reading the stories and they were superb. Great fun, and thank you TL for the blog.

28. Unfortunately for me.. I’ve never heard of just William and thus missed out much of the fun (and many of the clue answers along with!) but thanks all

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