I thought this a great puzzle, one of the best I have solved for a while. If you have some spare time today I recommend having a go. You can get a printable copy here.
Thanks Julius!
| Across | ||
| 1 | BOSCH | British old school painter (5) |
| B (British) O (old) and SCH (school) | ||
| 4 | BRACKETED | Grouped together, making lots of noise between the sheets! (9) |
| RACKET (lots of noise) inside BED (between the sheets) | ||
| 9 | SHIN PAD | It guards quiet flat with fashionable interior (4,3) |
| SH (quiet) PAD (flat) containing IN (fashionable) | ||
| 10 | THEBAIC | Chap enters, to be announced in charge of ancient Egyptian city (7) |
| HE (a chap) inside TBA (to be announced) than IC (in charge) – relating to Thebes. Incidentally, I had not realized there were two Thebes, one in Egypt and one in Greece. | ||
| 11 | BRIDGES THE GAP | Provides filler for tricky game; St. Helens’ first appearance on back page (7,3,3) |
| BRIDGE (tricky game, in which one wins tricks) ST then Helen (first letter of) on PAGE reversed (back) | ||
| 14 | NILE | Infielder regularly carries 10 water (4) |
| regular selection of letters from iNfIeLdEr | ||
| 15 | AUTOGRAFT | Made one’s mark, reportedly, in skin transplant (9) |
| sounds like (reportedly) autographed (made one’s mark) | ||
| 18 | LATITUDES | Left oddly situated? These will help you find your bearings (9) |
| L (left) and SITUATED* anagram=oddly | ||
| 19 | PSST | Knock back teaspoonful of sulphur? I say! (4) |
| a TSP (teaspoon) full of S (sulphur) all reversed (knocked back) | ||
| 21 | BASSO PROFUNDO | He’ll give you the lowdown on British Airways’ soundproof design (5,8) |
| anagram (design) of BA’S SOUNDPROOF – someone who will give you the low notes | ||
| 24 | TOEHOLD | Purchase storage on ship heading eastbound (7) |
| HOLD (storage on shp) following (with…at the head) TO E (eastbound) | ||
| 26 | RETYPED | Made manual key corrections in Jaguar E-type drivetrain (7) |
| found inside jaguaR E-TYPE Drivetrain | ||
| 27 | RIGHT FOOT | Fought to oust unionist creating disturbance outside – it might kick off! (5,4) |
| anagram (creating) of FOuGHT missing Unionist (leading letter of) inside RIOT (disturbance) | ||
| 28 | PERIL | High-level programming language has one in danger (5) |
| PERL (high-level computer programming language) contains I (one) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BASH | Violent blow following blunder (by 1 across, as the saying goes?) (4) |
| BASH following BISH (blunder) by BOSCH (1 across) gives the saying “bish-bash-bosh”, a job quickly and efficiently done. I wanted this to be blunderBUSS, but it was not to be. | ||
| 2 | SHIBBOLETHS | Allowed in using “bish bosh” – the group passwords (11) |
| LET (allowed) inside anagram (using) of BISH-BOSH | ||
| 3 | HIPPIE | Drop-out seen in fast-food joints (6) |
| the answer will be seen inside cHIIPPEs (fast food joints) | ||
| 4 | BODYGUARD | Playing rugby, dad wears nothing for protection (9) |
| anagram (playing) of RUGBY DAD contains (wears) O (nothing) | ||
| 5 | ANTIS | They’re against 8; one who prays? (5) |
| mANTIS (one who prays, decapitated) | ||
| 6, 7, 12 | KNEE HIGH TO A GRASSHOPPER | Partially developed blurred photograph enrages Sheik (4,4,2,1,11) |
| anagram (blurred) of PHOTOGRAPH ENRAGES SHEIK – marvellous! | ||
| 8 | DECAPITATE | Top secret (a tip ace detective comes up with) (10) |
| found reversed inside (comes up with) secrET A TIP ACE Detective – a super clue! | ||
| 12 | See 6 | |
| 13 | ANKLE BITER | Bleak winter hasn’t started to trouble little ‘un (5-5) |
| anagram (to trouble) BLEAK and wINTER (not started) | ||
| 16 | TOSS FOR IT | Call for heads, possibly, to roll with trouble in store (4,3,2) |
| TOSS (to roll, like a ship) and FOR IT (with touble in store) | ||
| 17 | STOOD OUT | Well-built, wearing spectacles, Penny was easy to spot (5,3) |
| STOUT (well-built) containing (wearing) OO (looks like a pair of spectacles) with D (penny) – normally I would question “wearing” indicating the container rather than the contained, but in this case the visual image works well | ||
| 20 | INSTEP | This month’s record ball striker (6) |
| INST (this month) and EP (extended-play record) – part of the foot that hits a football | ||
| 22 | RADIO | Part of the media, Bill’s in the Olympic venue (5) |
| AD (advertisment, bill) in RIO (the Olympic venue) | ||
| 23 | IDOL | One much admired, Labour leader supports union agreement (4) |
| Labour (leading letter of) following (supports, underneath in a down clue) I DO (union agrement, a marriage vow) | ||
| 25 | EGG | It hit Prescott, ex-deputy PM, leaving Sri Lanka (3) |
| Nick clEGG (ex-deputy PM) missing (leaving) CL (Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon) – John Prescott, like many politicians, was once hit by an egg. Unlike many politicians he punched the egg thrower in the head. | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
I might go out on a limb and suggest that there could a theme ….
Muffyword – I got the feeling there was a theme all the way through solving, but I couldn’t put my finger on what is was at the time. There were several candidates that looked promising and then petered out.
I think Muffyword has set a challenge for bad puns here, anyone else prepared to have a go?
Thanks, PeeDee – I agree entirely with your preamble.
I was helped enormously by seeing – goodness knows why – the answer to 6,7,12 immediately, from the enumeration, which gave me a considerable opening and I got 8dn from 5dn, before seeing the very clever wordplay – a super clue, indeed.
In fact, lots of super, innovative clues, including the deft manoeuvrings with bish bash bosh in the top corner.
I’ve really enjoyed this setter’s puzzles, since he burst onto the scene fairly recently, and I’m delighted that he has found a slot in the FT. Next stop the Guardian? [I won’t hold my breath.]
Re Thebes – I knew there were two but not that the adjective pertaining to the Egyptian one was THEBAIC, as opposed to ‘Theban’ for the Greek one [as in Sophocles’ marvellous Theban plays].
Many thanks, Julius – keep them coming!
Eileen – it would indeed be great if Julius got a slot in the Guardian. [put on armoured suit before I write this next bit…] I would also say that it would be good if some Guardian solvers came over and visited the FT once in a while. Reading the latest outpourings of frustration it amazes me that more people don’t try a different puzzle once in a while.
Once again, PeeDee, I agree with you entirely! These folk miss a bunch of excellent Guardian setters – Arachne, Philistine, Crucible, Shed, Orlando, etc. It must be very dispiriting for both setters and bloggers. Maybe your giving the link will help.
PeeDee & Eileen : Some of us do. In my case both G &FT + Indy + Times.
I think it’s the people who like to solve the Guardian on-line who shun the FT.
Hello Meic – Indeed, I’m sure there many people like you who try more than one puzzle. It seems to me that is those who don’t that are the unhappy ones.
My thought would be that it is those who solve only in the printed paper who get the most frustrated. A puzzle lands on the doormat in the morning and if it does not suit then there is nowhere else to go. Once one breaks the printed paper habit and starts to go online for a puzzle then finding other puzzles is only a small step away.
PeeDee: I never solve on-line. I print the puzzles off in the small hours when I have to get up for the usual reason, take them back to bed, and solve them in comfort. One puzzle is usually enough to reset my brain for more sleep, FT & Times at normal waking time, Indy when I get up (as that’s put on the website later).
When I started solving in the 1970s the Guardian had a setter called Julius, whose clues were quite easy but very fair and accurate, comparable with the Everyman. I assume that was a different setter.
I may have the same idea as Muffyword@1, but does it have legs?
(Now which is connected to what, did the song say?)
I agree that this was a great crossword. Thanks Julius and PeeDee.
Eileen @ 5: not to mention Alberich, Aardvark, Artexlen, Loroso, Monk, Tees, Wanderer, etc., etc., who don’t appear in the Guardian. In Sil’s recent post about the difficulty or otherwise of Guardian puzzles I did suggest that some of the aggrieved solvers might give the FT a go, as the puzzles here are often (not always) a bit less demanding but I was a voice in the wilderness. I also suspect there are Guardian solvers who wouldn’t come here on principle (capitalism, mammon, and all that).
Another fine puzzle as we have come to expect from Julius. Found this a little tricky in places. Thanks for parsing Sri Lanka which I couldn’t see. Ticked too many to list them all. Regular readers of the Guardian comments page are aware of Knut/Julius/baerchen because he is a regular commenter there – I agree that he would make a fine addition to the Guardian roster…
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee
Merc- exactly so. It is he printed newspaper I am talking about in my comments, I don’t make that very clear. Printing puzzles from online sources is a very good idea and, as jmac suggests at @10, it would relieve much frustration if only more people would give it a go.
Does anybody have a way of printing the FT crossword that uses less black ink? I would do more of them but I can’t find the time for more than one or two crosswords a day, so which ones I do in addition to the Guardian are very dependent on the setter!
Thanks to PeeDee and Julius.
I agree that this is an absolute cracker of a puzzle. Full of humour and clever little twists like Sri Lanka. I’ve started to go further afield than the Guardian recently and puzzles like this make it well worthwhile.
BH @13.
I do my best by setting the print quality to ‘draft’. Doesn’t look much different but it prints a lot quicker (which at least proves something is different).
>> I can’t find the time for more than one or two crosswords a day
I’m so sad I do seven.
Which ones Conrad?
OK PeeDee, if you really want to know.
Indy, Guardian, FT, Times, Telegraph Cryptic, Telegraph Toughie, the ‘i’ (usually in that order).
Many thanks to PeeDee for the very generous review and of course for the kind comments below the line.
My last job in the city (2005) was in the trading room at D***sche Bank which contained 1,250 people and I was known for being the sole Guardian reader.
But surely the crossword world cuts across these divides, doesn’t it?
regards to all, Rob
Interesting, thank you Conrad. In the summer I often don’t even manage a crossword every day. I make up for it in the winter when it’s dark and rainy here for weeks on end.
@18, Julius again many thanks for affording me so much innocent pleasure! I only mentioned the political aspect as otherwise I am at a loss to understand why so many commentators on the Guardian section of this site, whose comments suggest they would have a good time doing the FT, don’t . I agree that Eileen & Peedee’s alternative suggestion also contributes.
@13, Beeryhiker, I print with an Epsom printer which gives an option to print in greyscale but I guess that not all printers do so.
Thanks PeeDee and Julius. Great puzzle and great blog!
Solve Guardian setters at FT too, though started my xwd solving habit as a print subscriber of FT.
Saw +ve remarks on Julius at Guardian and 225. Not at all disappointed! Thanks for dropping by.
Love to see more of you, whereever!
The number of comments on this puzzle is quite a bit higher than usual for the FT puzzle on this site. The blogger has helpfully posted a link to (a printable copy of) the puzzle. Not impossible that these facts are in some way connected. Would just like to say that anyone can do this every day by going to the FT website (as I do). I’m an interested party as GURNEY setting there though I’m not a Guardian setter…
Julius, aka baerchen, has a big following on the Guardian Cryptic Crossword site, hence the number of comments. I only wish I was capable of solving more than one or two crosswords each day, I would love to have found the time for this.
Hi nmsindy @23 – well said!
I posted a comment on my Guardian blog this afternoon, making PeeDee’s point @4 and recommending today’s Julius puzzle, pointing out PeeDee’s link. I’ve always felt for FT setters and bloggers, who, obviously, put in just as much effort as us Guardian / Indy folk do but for such comparatively little reward.
I’m a decades-long Guardian buyer and solver, so that’s always my first crossword of the day – in the paper, of course. It was only after discovering this site that I found that I could also get puzzles online from the Indy and FT and so I reckon to try at least one of those a day, according to the setter[s]. I would never miss any of those that I listed @7 above or [most of] jmac’s selection @10. I would love to see as many comments as this on this thread every day!
Thanks to those of you directing frustrated G solvers to the FT. small hours now and wide awake so I looked at this puzzle. It is very very attractive. Thanks for the tip – I am up and running so to speak. Incidentally what do others make of the New Statesman offerings? I usually enjoy the Friday challenge and appreciate the (small ) variety of setters.
I did see the theme but it was late at night and I didnt want to put my foot in it!
Ken @26
Tom Johnson is Anorak at the New Statesman, so the standard is what you would expect from him, namely very high.
Conrad @28 – this has a certain irony for those of us who saw Ken’s reaction to Tom Johnson as Maskarade last week!
Thanks for the printing tips – when I print, it tends to be in the office, so I feel a bit guilty about ink consumption, and the FT crossword looks much blacker than the Indie and the DT Toughie, which are the other two I print on a semi-regular basis.
beery-hiker @29 – I remember Tom Johnson producing an omitted-three-letter-sequence puzzle for the FT too. It might be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Tom’s tribute puzzle in the FT for Araucaria’s 90th stands as one of the all-time masterpieces, including getting you to enter 90 in figures!
His last week New Statesman one was a jigsaw.
Conradcork@31
And very enjoyable too.
Is that 90th anniversary puzzle archived anywhere?
beeryhiker@29
A dreadful irony I agree. I had no idea. What other names does he masquerade under?
Ken
The FT doesn’t seem to have an archive, so perhaps someone can help.
As for his other names, look him up at http://www.bestforpuzzles.com/people/ there are too many to detail here.
He wrote a book about the buses of Gozo, hence Busman and Anorak. 🙂
Ken @32
“What other names does he masquerade under?”
See: http://bestforpuzzles.com/people/j.html#Tom-Johnson
@Ken
In addition to the link provided by Conrad and Gaufrid, Alan Connor featured Tom Johnson in his “Meet the Setter” series in The Guardian.
It can be found here
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2013/jul/11/crossword-blog-meet-setter-otterden
(don’t be decived by the “Otterden” reference in the link)
Many thanks for your help everyone!
Don’t normally do the ft but was alerted to this puzzle from another site.
I am very impressed with the very clever integrated use of anagram fodder, and the surfaces in general. Glad I did this
Many thanks Julius and reviewer
I was very surprised that not one of the 37 (extraordinary for an FT!) comments mentioned your deliberate omission in the parsing of STOOD OUT – the D (“Penny”). I thought the D might have been “Penny was” in the clue and how nice that was, not realising in my haste this would mean the “was” doing double duty. It’s a pity you chose to omit that part of the parsing (to ensure we were awake I know) as I’d have been interested to know your view on D for Penny without some indication that it’s a pre-15th February 1971 Penny and the “was” could have been just that. Am I making sense?
I was tempted to this by a comment in a Guardian puzzle blog’s thread and I agree Julius is a lovely find with a natural use of creativity (not unlike that aspect in Paul, Arachne, Tramp, Screw et al.). Years ago the FT was my staple crossword for a little while and good fun too but recently I’ve found them disappointingly easy, but I must admit this was a most pleasant, if sadly too swift, solve.
Many thanks Julius and Pee Dee.
Hello William,
I have fixed the deliberate mistake, always satisfying for me when some spots it.
You raise an interesting point regarding the abbreviation for old penny. Personally I don’t have any issue with this. My thinking is that before decimalisation D was an abbreviation for the word “penny” or “pence”. After decimalisation it continued to be so. The abbreviation did not cease to exist the moment a new coin was introduced.
If the coin in question had been an obscure ancient Greek or Roman coin then an indication of age might be in order, but old pennies are living memory for many of us.
On the down side, adding OOD rather than OO to the middle of STOUT makes it look less like the word stout is wearing spectacles. It is now STDOUT that is wearing the spectacles, which no longer fits the clue very well.
PeeDee – Thank you for taking the trouble to reply. I completely agree with your view. I shouldn’t have linked the “d” with the “was”; I must learn that just because a puzzle can be solved quickly is no excuse for not reading the clues properly!
Warm wishes – thanks again.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
Wow … what a puzzle and what a response to it here in the blog !! Only 2 years late to the party (my third last backlog puzzle from 2016). Just such a variety of clue devices that were used throughout. !
There were a couple that I wasn’t able to parse properly TOSS FOR IT and HIPPIE (where I had a weird explanation of HIP PIE as being from a fast food joint – CHIPPIES is not really a term used down here). The term ‘Bish Bash Bosh’ and BASSO PROFUNDO were new terms for me and had to google ‘egg’ and ‘Prescott’ to fully appreciate what was going on with 25d (an extremely clever clue, once understood!).
Last few in were ANTIS, PSST and that BASH.