Financial Times 15,599 / Julius

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I don’t know what’s happened to PeeDee today, but something has prevented him from being with us, so here is a quick analysis of the clues.

With 1ac and 1dn being my first two entries, I had plenty of starting letters which made solving some of the other clues that much easier. My sole trip to the dictionary today was to confirm 10ac as I had previously only known the term in its scientific sense. An enjoyable solve, thanks Julius.

Across
1 Elderly, overweight, the harem’s flogged to London banker (3,6,6)
OLD FATHER THAMES – OLD (elderly) FAT (overweight) plus an anagram (flogged) of THE HAREM’S

9 One pursuing / index-linked investment strategy (7)
TRACKER – double def.

10 Defining verbal arguments in archival encylopaedia (7)
VALENCY – contained in ‘archiVAL ENCYclopaedia’

11 Heather withdrew books from adult section (5)
ERICA – ER[ot]ICA (withdrew books from adult section)

12 Work in garden walled by Marsh Arab’s paradise (9)
MARRAKESH – RAKE (work in garden) in (walled by) MARSH

13 Fleet casts adrift a sick old animal (9)
ARMADILLO – ARMAD[a] (fleet casts adrift a) ILL (sick) O (old)

15 Daily Mail’s leader is sort of offensive! (5)
CHARM – CHAR (daily) M[ail] (mail’s leader)

16 Backing chess federation, having a yen to improve the mind (5)
EDIFY – FIDE (chess federation) reversed (backing) Y (a yen)

18 “Not speaking clearly in German, mother. In German!” (9)
MUTTERING – MUTTER (in German, mother) IN G (German)

20 Get the cricket ball, then fall over; it means a day off school (5,4)
FIELD TRIP – FIELD (get the cricket ball) TRIP (fall over)

23 Mike embraces American artform (5)
MUSIC – MIC (mike) around (embraces) US (American)

24 Eastern apes go outside – they hang from trees (7)
ORANGES – ORANGS (apes) around (go outside) E (eastern)

25 One from Mexico getting stoned before dinner (7)
AVOCADO – cryptic def.

26 Under-appreciated, FT ranked “great” (no change) (5,3,7)
TAKEN FOR GRANTED – an anagram (change) of FT RANKED GREAT NO

Down
1 Classic film theatre now getting revamped facade (2,3,10)
ON THE WATERFRONT – an anagram (getting revamped) of THEATRE NOW plus FRONT (façade)

2 Mud-slinging about boxer’s philosophy of good and evil (7)
DUALISM – MUD reversed (slinging) around (about) ALI’S (boxer’s)

3 Ring road with walkway built in clumsy fashion (9)
AWKWARDLY – RD (road) in (ring … with) an anagram (built) of WALKWAY

4 King of Tyre entered their realms regularly (5)
HIRAM – [t]H[e]I[r] R[e]A[l]M[s] (entered their realms regularly)

5 French bank to bar trade in floating asset (5,4)
RIVER BOAT – RIVE (French bank) plus an anagram (trade) of TO BAR

6 Sweet prince has the support of Victoria and Albert (5)
HALVA – HAL (prince) VA (Victoria and Albert)

7 Freedom fighter inspiring Zuma led Namibian rising (7)
MANDELA – hidden (inspiring) reversal (rising) in ‘zumA LED NAMibian’

8 How to get a request granted, / eg “Abracadabra”? (3,3,5,4)
SAY THE MAGIC WORD – double def.

14 Italian red meat company goes round Russia (9)
LAMBRUSCO – LAMB (meat) CO (company) around (goes round) RUS (Russia)

15 Pessimistic lawgiver in camera turned to drink (5,4)
CREAM SODA – SOD (pessimistic lawgiver) in an anagram (turned) of CAMERA

17 Henry leaves chickpea soup – it’s cold! (3,4)
ICE PACK – an anagram (soup) of C[h]ICKPEA (Henry leaves chickpea)

19 A second batting statistic features Notts opener (7)
INSTANT – IN (batting) STAT (statistic) around (features) N[otts] (Notts opener)

21 Strengthened fortification of the French spirit (3,2)
DUG IN – DU (of the French) GIN (spirit)

22 Papa was responsible for government crash (5)
PRANG – P (Papa) RAN (was responsible for) G (government)

11 comments on “Financial Times 15,599 / Julius”

  1. All as entertaining as we have come to expect from Julius, VALENCY in that sense was new to me too but for the most part this was fairly straightforward, possibly because the grid is very friendly.

    Took me a while to parse CREAM SODA and Googling Sod + lawgiver found this one:
    Orlando 25985: Lawgiver needs a drink (4)

    Thanks to Gaufrid and Julius

  4. Thank you for the blog Gaufrid; I do hope all is well with PeeDee.
    @BeeryHiker
    I’m glad you thought this was a bit easier…that was the intention (as I mentioned when I sent it to the ed). I hadn’t used this grid before and it is as you say quite solver-friendly. I’d noticed a couple of comments about some of my puzzles having got a bit harder lately and this wasn’t a conscious decision, so I thought I’d attempt to redress the balance.
    Don’t want to get typecast!
    best wishes,
    Rob/Julius

  5. Thanks Gaufrid, for stepping in and Julius for another splendid puzzle.

    Lots to admire and to smile at, as ever. Ticks for CHARM, MANDELA and ICE PACK, particularly for their surfaces and I also liked the flogged harem, the conscientious librarian /bookseller Heather and the pessimistic lawgiver.

  7. I too enjoyed this puzzle very much. Not too hard but extremely witty.

    I took some time parsing 15d after I found the answer. I remembered Draco from my schooldays (who certainly was a lawyer but not necssarily what would be called pessimistic except for his victims) and whose name is hidden in the answer and I spent too long in working on that. As they say “A little learning”.

  8. In the blog of last week’s Knut, copmus commented: “My tolerance of any imperfection in any of the clues [is] in direct proportion to the amount I was chuckling”.
    It sounds like a difficult way to express what I often feel too.
    I like Knut/Julius’ style very much as it is about ‘the now’ and frequently features what some call ‘minor culture’.
    At the same time, I sometimes can’t stand certain indicators (often nounal – not today, though!) or things that are perhaps only a matter of taste.
    For example, in this puzzle I didn’t like the past tense Julius uses in both 11ac and 4d.
    But I am not a purist and so it didn’t spoil the fun – great fun, by the way!

    Like others I found this relatively easy.
    Three of the four long ones fell into place almost straightaway, quickly opening up the puzzle.

    The thing that impressed me most was Julius using quite a few imaginative (and therefore less obvious) definitions.
    I counted 7 of them, notably in 1ac, 12ac, 15ac (a favourite – and my FOI), 20ac, 24ac, 5d (another favourite) and 17d.

    As I said before, all great fun (even if I do not have an antenna for a cd like 25ac (AVOCADO)).

    Thanks Gaufrid for stepping in for PeeDee – hope he’s well.
    And to one of the most talented Schwarzwalder Bub’n in Crosswordland.

  10. Thank you Gaufrid for covering for me today. I am fine, just on holiday driving down to France at the moment but for some reason outgoing emails from my account do not seem to be arriving at their destinations so no one knows I have gone. I am relieved that Geoff is OK too as I was a little concerned about not receiving the usual courteous and timely response. Sadly I did not get to try the puzzle as Julius is one of my favourites.

  11. Thanks Julius and Gaufrid

    A very friendly offering from this setter with the long 1a ‘gimme’ providing the opportunity for a flying start with the initial letters of the first 8 down clues. It was certainly my quickest solve of a setter whom I usually find quite testing.

    Still there was enough interest in the puzzle to make it enjoyable. ON THE WATERFRONT was one of my last entries – films being a consistent weak spot. FIDE was new to me as well.

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