An excellent puzzle from Julius, as we have come to expect. Thank you Julius.
I struggled to concentrate on the puzzle this morning as I am feeling more than a little depressed that Brexit has now happenned. I shudder to think of what economic confusion might follow. Absolute madness.
Having got FALLING POUND etc early on I thought for a this was going to be a Brexit puzzle, but it seems that was just a minor diversion.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ANTIPOPE | Appoint new European leader based in Avignon, perhaps (8) |
| anagram (new) of APPOINT then E (European) – Pope Clement VII and subsequents who opposed the election of Pope Urban VI in Rome. Leader could also be part of the wordplay. | ||
| 5 | SO WHAT | Broadcast endless spite; see if I care! (2,4) |
| SOW (broadcast) and HATe (spite, endless) | ||
| 9 | THE BRONX | Palestinian community in Texas famous for producing raspberries (3,5) |
| HEBRON (Palestinian community) in TX (Texas) – to blow a raspberrry is also know as to make a Bronx cheer | ||
| 10 | MERLOT | A Red Sea department, where everything’s French? (6) |
| MER and LOT are “sea” (in French) and a department (of France) – a red wine | ||
| 12 | ROACH | Covent Garden welcomes a contralto, one with plenty of scales! (5) |
| ROH (Royal Opera House, aka Covent Garden) contains A C (contralto) – a fish | ||
| 13 | ILLOGICAL | Not being rational, I tamper with international call log (9) |
| I then anagram (tamper with) of I (international) CALL LOG | ||
| 14 | SLOPES | Blackthorns cover Portugal hillsides (6) |
| SLOES (blackthorns) containing P (Portugal) | ||
| 16 | CHOPPER | Constable arrests Henry The Mad Axeman (7) |
| COPPER (constable) contains H (henry) | ||
| 18 | PONTIFF | Avignon had one across – if loud – he opposed the one across in Avignon! (7) |
| PONT (Avignon had one across, Sur le Pont D’Avignon…) with IF F (forte, loud) | ||
| 20 | APNOEA | Chap – no earplugs – part of the problem in sleeping? (6) |
| found inside (part of) chAP NO EArplugs | ||
| 22 | HAPPY HOUR | That time when one’s spirits are low? (5,4) |
| cryptic definition – when the price of spirits is low. What an excellent and contrary definition! | ||
| 23 | BOMBE | Dessert that may go off, we’re told (5) |
| sounds like (we’re told) “bomb” (something that may go off) | ||
| 24 | USURER | He’s taking interest in United, growing more confident (6) |
| U (united) with SURER (growing more confident) | ||
| 25 | BREZHNEV | Cold war Russian bishop never wanders outside Zürich’s boundaries (8) |
| B (bishop) then anagram (wanders) of NEVER containing ZuricH (boundaries, outside letters) | ||
| 26 | TIDDLY | Drunk neat (about 100ml) (6) |
| TIDY (neat) contains DL (100ml) | ||
| 27 | APOLLYON | He destroyed an election over there (8) |
| A POLL (election) YON (over there) – Greek name for Abaddon, bringer of destruction | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ASTERN | It’s behind a leading German magazine (6) |
| A with STERN (leading German magazine). A simple clue, but difficult to see the wood for the trees. | ||
| 2 | THE FALLING POUND | Pole halting fund transfer as a result of Brexit? (3,7,5) |
| anagram (transfer) of POLE HALTING FUND | ||
| 3 | PERCH | One living with 12, might have 27 (5) |
| you might find A POLLY (parrot) ON a perch | ||
| 4, 19, 21 | PENNIES FROM HEAVEN | Potter’s musical girl is a gift from God, I’m told (2 or 7?) (7,4,6) |
| PENNIES sounds like (I’m told) “Penny’s from heaven” (girl is a gift from God) – musical by Dennis Potter and two bonus cryptic definitions | ||
| 6 | OVERGROWN | Balls’ audible whinge, having put on weight (9) |
| OVER (six balls, cricket) with GROWN sounds like (audible) “groan” (whinge) | ||
| 7 | HELICOPTER MONEY | It’s thrown overboard to relieve peril the economy is suffering (10,5) |
| anagram (is sufferinf) of PERIL THE ECONOMY – a form of quantative easing. I don’t really understand what Helcopter Money is but you can read about it yourself here… | ||
| 8 | TUTELARY | Acting as guardian for boy king, knocking off early (8) |
| TUT (Tutankhamun, boy king) with anagram (knocking off) EARLY | ||
| 11 | BLOC | Say the EU say “stop”? (4) |
| sounds like (say) “block” (stop) | ||
| 15 | PRIVY SEAL | Loo to close – it’s official (5,4) |
| PRIVY (loo) with SEAL (to close) | ||
| 17 | UPTHRUST | Lift required by 16? (8) |
| double definition? cryptic definition? Just a definition? | ||
| 19 | See 4 | |
| 20 | AIRDROP | Charity work from Sky using 16 perhaps? (7) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 21 | See 4 | |
| 23 | BEZEL | Maybe Zelda features this setting (5) |
| found inside (features in) mayBE ZELda | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
In 5ac I think ‘broadcast’ = SOW and ‘endless’ is applied only to ‘spite’. So my question is why have you written ‘SOWn’ as there does not seem to be any tail deletion there.
Off topic but not too off topic, perhaps.
It so happened that a headline that hit my eye after I moved away to another website after I posted the above Comment was:
Brexit Happened: So What?
Rishi – that was just a mistake, fixed now.
The top was harder than the bottom but I enjoyed the fight
Thanks to Julius and PeeDee too
MERLOT was a cracker- probably a big ask to fit Chateauneuf du Pape into a grid.
Loved the connection of the long ones.
Was there a theme, I wonder. Well anyway I couldn’t see one. I loved the variety of the completed grid, and of course the puzzle itself. Favourites were BEZEL,PRIVY SEAL,TIDDLY, the fishy ones, the musical girl, the bridge at Avignon, really so many good ones. I can’t be sure about the degree of difficulty, as being without a printer I started solving the odd clue ‘in my head’ and was hooked into finishing. So yes, it WAS b****y hard!
Many thanks, Julius, and you too, PeeDee, for an excellent blog. I share your apprehension re- Brexit.
A bit harder than I’m accustomed to from Julius but well worthwhile.
Is 7 dn an &lit as well as an anagram?
Agree that HAPPY HOUR and MERLOT were both excellent but less than enchanted by the the triplet of 16 ac and 17 & 20dn which all seemed a bit weak. Thanks Julius and PeeDee.
The motley crew over at the Grauniad think of Big Julie as one of our own and are bound to be kindly disposed, but this was good in its own right. I liked the bridgework, and as for the “raspbery” .. parfait!
Another fine puzzle from Julius, one that I didn’t find too hard.
The pennies dropped quite quickly from heaven, including THE FALLING POUND and HELICOPTER MONEY, a term I didn’t know.
The latter indicates one of the things I find perhaps the most difficult about Julius’ puzzles.
As an EU immigrant (as opposed to Julius’ situation) I am sometimes not familiar enough to terms and names etc he uses in the surfaces.
For example, 1ac (ANTIPOPE), no problem to find it but I had no idea what Avignon had to do with it.
In the accompanying 18ac, again no problem whatsoever to find the solution but the definition as such eluded me.
Also, not sure whether the first “across” adds to a better surface, although I see the misdirection.
“The Mad Axeman” was also a term that I hadn’t come across.
Googling taught me there is a link with the Kray Brothers.
A pity that The Mad Axeman was called Frank and not Henry.
Finally, again not being a Brit, the second part of 3d went beyond me, as did the definition of 9ac.
Blame it all on me.
The crossword was to a high standard and eminently solvable.
So, many thanks to Julius.
And to PeeDee, of course.
I don’t know how you feel as one living in Scotland but, in my opinion, this was indeed a bad day, especially for the UK’s future generations.
And I am afraid, it will turn out to be like that in due course.
As Stoke City chairman Peter Coakes said, weeks ago, on Question Time: yes, it was the will of the British people but that doesn’t mean they are right.
I can say a lot more about it but let’s leave it there.
Thanks Julius and PeeDee
A complex puzzle in which there seemed to be many-layered definitions and word plays throughout it. It provided some interesting education on the run of antipopes based at Avignon – a part of history that was new to me – even knowing of the term antipope. (from my reading, it seems that the bridge is called Pont d’Avignon with “Sur le pont d’Avignon” being the song written about it).
Had not heard of the term HELICOPTER MONEY and having read the Wiki article on it, it is not a lot clearer as to what it is now – it appears to be gifts of ‘base money’ bestowed upon individuals – but it is not clear to me where this ‘base money’ ultimately comes from … maybe it IS expected to come from heaven !!! Talking of which, I didn’t know the Dennis Potter BBC musical series (an example of the world play complexity mentioned above – the answer was imminently gettable, but there are the two (or three) word plays involved).
Ended up with the two fish in the NW corner to complete a very enjoyable puzzle that required a lot of hard work and after coming here see that I had not done all of that work !
Hi Sil,
I would agree that continental Europeans are at a disadvantage completing British crosswords, and I am very impressed that anyone manages to solve them at all in a second language. But in the case of Sur le Pont d’Avignon: it is a traditional French song, no reason that a Dutch person should be any less aware of it?
Yes, PeeDee, ‘le pont’ of Avignon is, I fear, the only thing I know about Avignon.
It helped me to find PONT/IFF but the combination “antipope” / “leader based in Avignon, perhaps” did not ring a bell.
In this case, it wasn’t my lack of Britishness that stood in the way but a gap in my general knowledge.
However, in some other clues (the ones I mentioned) it did.
And not for the first time whilst solving a Julius/Knut puzzle.
Perhaps, it is inherent to his style which features many elements of modern culture and politics.
(which, by the way, I like)
“Le Pont” is about the only thing I knew about Avignon too. I did know about the Anitpope(s) but not the exact location of their seats of power, that was just a guess. I’m normally on Julius’s wavelength with regard to general knowledge: except for his Donald Trump references. He leaves me way out in the cold there!
Thank you PeeDee for the blog and to those who have taken the trouble to comment. I first heard the term HELICOPTER MONEY a few years ago; I believe it was an expression, er, coined by Ben Bernanke before he became chair of the US Federal Reserve. More recently it was suggested as a practical solution for the dearth of cash in remote Indian cities caused by the government withdrawing high denomination rupee notes from circulation in an effort to crack down on tax avoidance.
The bridge in Avignon is alas ruined and stops halfway across the river which accounts for the past tense in the wordplay.
Warmest regards, Rob/Julius
Baerchen@14 I fixed your sentence for you: “More recently it was suggested as a practical solution for the dearth of cash in remote Indian cities caused by the government withdrawing high denomination rupee notes from circulation in an effort to crack down on tax avoidance … PARKLIFE!” 🙂
Chortle
See, that’s exactly what eludes me all the time.
For me, Parklife is Blur and nothing else.
Have your fun, guys!
Sil, wouldn’t want to keep you out of the fun and it is Blur. To give a postmodern and &littish example of what is going on:
The meme is that a longish and complex sentence with a certain rhythm is almost interchangeable with the spoken lyrics in … Parklife!
So the idea, of which I think you’ll find you now understand, is that when someone writes a sentence of this sort you can add … Parklife!
And by doing this the interposition of the initially unrelated complex sentence is then read by the reader in the musical cadence of … Parklife!
Hope that helps. 🙂
No, it doesn’t.
Probably, I never understood what that song was all about?
It was 1994 and long before I came to the UK and lyrics were just lyrics.
That said, now it’s time for Question Time.
To witness, without doubt, once more someone who knew exactly what he was voting for last year.
That politicians didn’t have a clue (and still haven’t) doesn’t make any difference, does it?
I shall explain in more detail at the Nottingham do, Sil. Can’t help you with the politicians as try to avoid that lot … catch you next time. 🙂
TL;DR;
It’s Friday now and things are still going over my head.
PeeDee @21, what is that?
And Harry, David or whoever: looking forward to Nottingham!
TLDR stands for Too Long Didn’t Read. It came into my mind while reading Hoskin’s explanation of the Internet meme used by Baerchen in his sentence in the explanation of Juluis’s clue for etc… Parklife!
The semicolons just make it more geeky, which with my being a computer programmer just comes naturally.