Financial Times No 15,819 by Julius

by

As this was a jigsaw-style puzzle I was unable to use the usual blogging software, so apologies for the layout of today’s blog, and for the lateness of the post.

The puzzle was a bit of a mixed bag with a few very easy clues, and a few harder ones, with two of the shortest answers being difficult to parse, although with a little help from a colleague, I got there in the end.

Once I had a handful of the answers including the three long ones, the rest of the jigsaw fell into place very easily, and the whole puzzle probably took 15-20 minutes to solve.  I think it’s going to take me longer than that to blog it, so here goes.  The solutions below are given in the order they were printed.

1 Professor Calculus turned up to take in a game (8)

     LACROSSE

          Hidden backwards in “profESSOR CALculus”

2 Better-looking sailors over the sea in France (9)

     HANDSOMER

         HANDS (“sailors”) + O(ver) + MER (“the sea” in France)

3 Oddly, Joan Baez “friendless”, an unknown in this musical genre (4)

JAZZ

          JoAn + (bae)Z (“friendless = without bae, which according to Chambers, is an American world for a boyfriend or girlfriend) + Z (“an unknown”)

4 The old sultanate’s royal servant (6)

     YEOMAN

          YE (“the old”) + OMAN (“sultanate”)

5 Tutus, then burqas, tailored for one with yellowy skin (9,6)

BUTTERNUT SQUASH

          *(tutus then burqas)

6 Ms Lupino returned to Brussels to say farewell (5)

     ADIEU

          <=IDA (“Ms Lupino”, returned) + E.U. (European Union, so “Brussels”)

7 Potentially dangerous parcel leads to central York street being evacuated (4)

     CYST

          C(entral) + Y(ork) + S(tree)T

8  Do its passengers wear platform shoes? (8,7)

     ELEVATED RAILWAY

Cryptic definition

9 Virginia sends guacamole back; perhaps it’s lacking in flavour (5)

     VAPID

          Va. (“Virginia”) + <=DIP (“guacamole”, back)

10 Material Girl finally visits northern Canadian province having left UK (5)

     NYLON

(gir)L in N + Y(uk)ON

11 Mostly bizarre water feature (4)

WEIR

WEIR(d) (mostly, “bizarre”)

12 Insecure leaders of United need Sir Alex Ferguson’s energy (6)

     UNSAFE

Leaders of “United Need Sir Alex Ferguson’s Energy”
13 To strip away her dignity, I shame nude model (10)

     DEHUMANISE

  *(I shame nude)

14 Like Aegean lamb served in bitesized pieces? (10)

     MANAGEABLE

*(Aegean lamb)
15 An element of Cologne university I’m taking over (9)

     GERMANIUM

GERMAN (“of Cologne”) + U in I’M
16 She’s beginning to cry, taking time over each flower (5,3)

     SWEET PEA

S(he) + T(ime) in WEEP + ea.(ch)
17 Bring to mind prayer following scripture lesson (9)

     RECOLLECT

COLLECT (“prayer”) following R.E. (“scripture lesson”)
18 A month to snog one special Levi endlessly? (6)

     KISLEV

KIS(s) (“to snog”, with only one S(pecial)) + LEV(i) (Kislev is the third month of the civil Hebrew calendar)

19 Taunt diva, a fan of The Eagles? (8)

     TWITCHER

TWIT (“taunt”) + CHER (“diva”)
20  Old boy in Phoenix going crazy over a fear of outsiders (10)

XENOPHOBIA

O.B. (“old boy”) in *(phoenix) + A

21 I use rude words about flipping Scottish region (4)

     FIFE

I in <=EFF (“use bad words”, flipping)

22 Tory content to support a corrupt, dodgy financial agent (10)

     PROCURATOR

*(a corrupt) + (t)OR(y)

23 I flog Led Zeppelin’s first selfie, shot in revue on Broadway (8,7)

     ZIEGFELD FOLLIES

*(I flog led z selfie)

24 Pole on board ship winches overboard fat fellow (4-5)

     JACK-STAFF

JACKS (“winches”) + <=FAT + F(ellow)

25 In a strangely old-fashioned way, queen isn’t commonly leisurely on vacation (8)

     QUAINTLY

QU(een) + AIN’T (“isn’t”, commonly) + L(eisurel)Y

26 Fashionable clock face turned, decorated with marquetry (6)

     INLAID

IN (“fashionable”) + <=DIAL (“clock face”, turned)

27 France spurned earlier alternative name for abalone (5)

     ORMER

(f)ORMER (“earlier”, with F spurned)

9 comments on “Financial Times No 15,819 by Julius”

  1. A friendly grid helped to make this delightful Easter fare.

    So cool having two J’s (I meant the letters!)

    KISLEV was either new or gathering cobwebs in the back of that garage trying to function as a brain.

    Thanks er Rob and loonapick.

  2. Thanks both. It was fun, but took me a lot more than 10-15 minutes! In the blog,  23a it is ziegfeld.

  4. Yes, “I got there in the end” too, but I’m ashamed to admit I had to add a zero (that’s at the end) to the time of our highly respected blogger. True. Still, didn’t stop me enjoying this and feeling a sense of achievement when it was all in.

    KISLEV was new and the ‘unknown’ in the JAZZ clue was more ‘bae’ than Z. Not in my Chambers by the way and I must say I don’t miss its absence.

    Not difficult, but I thought the ‘Sir Alex Ferguson’ clue was a beauty.

    Thanks to Julius and loonapick

  5. Thanks Julius, Loonapick

    Pleased to work out the revue with only a few crossers, having never heard of it, though I assume it’s quite well known as it must have been an early inclusion in the puzzle.  On the other hand, completely diddled by Professor Calculus.  Even better than tossed salad.

     

  6. Did about half of this earlier and finished as a collaborative effort in the pub. Quite tough but my hunch about where the 15 letter ones went made the jigsaw fairly straightforward. All very entertaining and KISLEV was the only unfamiliar one.

    Thanks to Julius and loonapick

  7. From the very first moment Knut / Julius entered the world of published crosswords, it was clear that he wasn’t a one-hit wonder. His topical style, sometimes close to that of Tramp, was different from what we usually see in a crossword.

    It hit the right spot with me and, perhaps because of that, I could get really annoyed when – too often – some of the exciting surfaces were taking over from the ultimate precision. One should know that I am very sensitive, right or wrong, when setters use the past tense when they need to use the present tense (or a past participle). Same when nounal indicators turn up in a way that it only works because I know what the setter means. And on top of that comes the use of the word ‘for’ meaning ‘+’ , which I don’t like (surely only a matter of taste) and fortunately banned by the majority of compilers. Not Julius, though. End of rant.

    It was clearly a special week for the Man from the Black Forest, an interview on the Guardian website and two puzzles today!

    Every now and then Julius writes an alphabetical and they are different from the ‘normal’ ones in a sense that clues do not give away the starting letters of the answers. It should make these puzzles slightly harder but it doesn’t. Perhaps, Julius’s cluing is conventional enough to give us, mortal souls, a chance [more than Araucaria sometimes did!]. I needed 18 answers before I had a go at the grid. The Q was my key letter after which all my 18 answers could be entered! And the rest is history.

    Never heard of ‘bae’, so I couldn’t explain JAZZ (my first one), and I’d never heard of KISLEV either. The latter had to be something like that, I used a dictionary but still couldn’t fully parse the clue. I cheated on ZIEGFELD FOLLIES too, had to be an anagram.

    Earlier I mentioned ‘technical flaws’ (did I say ‘end of rant’?) but I really think they are quickly dying out in Knut /Julius’s output. There was nothing serious here today (nor in the Indy puzzle).

    Personally, I wouldn’t have been happy with the wording  in FIFE:  ‘…. about flipping ….’ but ultimately it’s fine.  And strictly speaking, the definition of DEHUMANISE doesn’t need ‘her’ (the surface does). I think I would have left out ‘Like’ at the beginning of MANAGEABLE – the clue doesn’t need it and the construction becomes cleaner.

    Last question: is ‘overboard’ a suitable reversal indicator in an Across clue (see JACK-STAFF)?

    Despite / Because of what I said, a tremendous achievement.

    Famous people will keep on dying, Knut / Julius’s crosswords should keep on coming …. 🙂

     

     

     

  8. Having been warned of the dangers of seafood, I should have been more careful with the abalone.  Had I referred to Wiki instead of a dictionary, I’d have been aware of the British “ormer.”  As it was, my eye drifted to “mother of pearl” and my thoughts to “nacre,”  which happened to be an anagram of a leaderless “France.”  Cruciverbia can be a cruel place.

  9. Thanks Julius and loonapick

    Late to do this one as I was away from internet / printing facilities over the Easter period.   Do enjoy these alphabetical puzzles and this one was no exception and it did take about an hour and a quarter over three separate sessions.  Had to get about a third of the clues before the J words provided the gateway into filling the grid, quickly followed by the long ones.

    Had most trouble with the parsing of JAZZ (hadn’t seen the ‘bae’ term before) and how to deal with ‘spurning France’ to get ORMER.

    The last clue I got was TWITCHER.

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