Financial Times 16,375 by JULIUS

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Today’s FT puzzle is brought to you by Julius.

I am normally a fan of Julius’s puzzle, but this one will have to go down as an exception, I’m afraid.  There are too many things in the clues that I personally don’t like.

Let’s start with 1dn, with a refernce to two celebrities, one of whom is dead and the other now in his 90s.  Neither of them are likely to be high in the consciousness of anyone under the age of 35 or non-Brits.

I think 7ac is probably breaking the rules as there is nothing to indicate that the homophone is not in the answer, but in the clue.  22ac has a weak defintion, and the word “leader(s)” is used twice to indicate initial letters (12ac and 18ac).

The setter did get a nod in to the editor of the FT with LIONEL BARBER appearing across the second row, but if there is any other theme going on, I can’t see it.

Not all of the clues were bad, and some like MUDLARK were very good, but in my opinion, this puzzle could have done with a wee bit of editing.

Thanks, Julius.

Across
7 LIONEL O’Neill play sounding messy (6)
  *(oneill) [anag;play]

Refers to MESSY sounding like (Lionel Messi), the footballer, however, it is the clue that is the homophone, not the solution?
8 BARBER Held in Zagreb, rabid retired chap wielding scissors (6)
  Hidden [held] backwards [retired] in “zagREB RABid”
10 BRIO Life story packed with editor’s ultimate vigour (4)
  BIO (“life story”) packed with (edito)R [‘s ultimate]
11 REPUBLICAN One scoffing at The Crown, run by English taverner (10)
  R (run) by E (English) + PUBLICAN (“landlord”)
12 NEWTON Modern leader of Tories speaking about early day motion specialist? (6)
  NEW (“modern”) + [leader of] T(ories) + ON (“speakeing about”)

Refers to Isaac Newton
14 SCRATCH Withdraw shilling (“Bob”) from Dickens at Xmas – it’s gone (7)
  S (shilling) + CRATCH(it) (“Bob from DIckens at Xmas”, with IT gone)

Bob Cratchit was a clerk who worked for Scrooge in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
16 THIGH Time off to get some chicken leg? (5)
  T (time) + HIGH (“off”)
18 ARK Leaders to appoint Roula Khalaf as a response to climate change? (3)
  [leaders to] A(ppoint) R(oula) K(halaf)
19 FEMUR Iron Man’s first, original 16 component (5)
  Fe (chemical symbol for “iron”) + M(an) [‘s first] + UR (“original”)

Definition refers to the answer to 16 ac (thigh)
22 SOBER UP Too much 5? Cry pure tears (5,2)
  SOB (“cry”) + *(pure) [anag:tears]

Definition refers to the solution to 5dn (absinthe), but is a bit weak in my opinion.
23 ULSTER Paul’s terylene-lined coat (6)
  Hidden in [lined] “paUL’S TERylene”
25 ARCTIC SEAL Fisher up north’s very cold water lake (6,4)
  ARCTIC (“very cold”) + SEA (“water”) + L (lake)
27 EROS Lover boy’s painful back (4)
  <=SORE (“painful”, back)
29 SEXTET Group intercourse “offensive” (6)
  SEX (“intercourse”) + TET (Offensive)

The Tet Offensive was a significant attack by the North Vietnamese on around 100 South Vietnamese targets during the Vietnam War.
30 GROOVE Dance track (6)
  Double definition
Down
1 BLUR Britpop band 7 introduced by Cilla Black? (4)
  Cliila Black, being a Liverpudlian, would have pronounced Lionel (answer to 7ac) Blair as Lionel BLUR
2 LOG OUT Yobbo concealing attempt to leave network (3,3)
  LOUT (“yobbo”) concealing GO (“attempt”)
3 TERRINE Tailless dog eating new dish (7)
  [tailless] TERRIE(r) eating N (new)
4 LAMBERT Subaltern carrying light warning Swiss polymath (7)
  Lt. (lieutenant, so “subaltern”) carrying AMBER (“light warning”)

Refers to Johann Heinrich Lambert (18th century Swiss mathematician, physicist and logician)
5 ABSINTHE Drunken Thebans consuming island booze (8)
  *(thebans) [anag;drunken] consuming I (island)
6 ARIA Song mentioning Taormina regularly (4)
  (t)A(o)R(m)I(n)A [regularly]
9 APOSTROPHES Soap broadcast awards I misplaced in Eastender’s and Neighbour’s? (11)
  *(soap) [anag:broadcast] + TROPH(i)ES (“awards” with I misplaced)

The definition should probably include “misplaced”, but then it would be doing double duty.
13 ETHOS Distinctive character of those cycling? (5)
  (E)THOS(e)

(Imagine the word “those” written as a circele (on a wheel, say) and then “cycle”, so the E becomes the first letter rather than the last.)
15 HOUSE Home below source of Hudson River (5)
  (River) OUSE below [source of] H(udson)
17 GO BY TAXI Yankee on duty in desert to eschew public transport (2,2,4)
  Y (yankee) on TAX (“duty”) in GOBI (Desert)
20 BRACKEN Brother Livingstone infiltrated by a Conservative plant (7)
  Br. (brother) + KEN (Livingstone) infiltrated by A + C (Conservative)
21 MUDLARK Poor lad in the gloom garnering bank deposits (7)
  *(lad) [anag;poor] in MURK (“the gloom”) and &lit.
24 SEE YOU Failing eyes, old, start to utter farewell (3,3)
  *(eyes) [anag; failing] + O (old) + [start to] U(tter)
26 RASP Head of government failing to understand file (4)
  (g)RASP (“to understand” with [head of] G(overnment) failing, i.e. lacking)
28 OWEN Be in debt to northern Welshman (4)
  OWE (“be in debt”) to N (northern)

*anagram

31 comments on “Financial Times 16,375 by JULIUS”

  1. Nothing wrong with clues but due to the nature of this puzzle the setter was slightly restricted from delivering his usual full monty

    Hail Caesar.

  2. Didn’t share loonapick’s objections but it is true to say that many setters assume knowledge that younger solvers will struggle with. I did spend too much time getting 3d. Need to think of a 7 letter dog with only 2 letters given by crossers with the very loose “dish” as definition. Can’t object since I did get it without needing a word fit.

    Thanks to Julius and loonapick.

  3. Lionel Barber retires as FT Editor today. Roula Khalaf replaces him. Lambert, Owen and Newton are the surnames of previous editors. There’s a Nina across the bottom.

  4. OK, that explains the restrictions that Julius was working under, but I still think that my criticisms are valid in the crossword sense.

  5. …Bracken, the founder of the FT is also there.

    Thank you for the blog, Loonapick, and well done with parsing everything.

    I did like 9dn, but little else. I still don’t understand 23ac, and 1dn was dreadful!

  8. hi @Loonapick

    The idea of setting a specialist themed puzzle only works if it’s a good solve for the non-specialist punter, so clearly it looks like I’ve laid a bit of an egg with this one – sorry.

    It was my intention to try and hide the theme a bit – at least until 18a – hence the slightly unorthodox clue for LIONEL. MUDLARK was a longstanding FT column. Better luck next time, I suppose.

    best wishes, Rob/Julius

  9. Apart from Grumpy, other commenters disagree with my criticism, so don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s still a better puzzle than I could have created.

  11. I’m in Oz, have only the vaguest awareness of the existence of Blur and no idea where they’re from or what style of music they play; have just heard of Lionel Blair but don’t know who or what he is; haven’t the faintest what Cilla Black sounds like, but I solved and parsed 1d and it made me smile.

    I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle too.

  12. @Louise – Blur and Cilla Black are one and the same person. They’re an ambient punk combo from Chipping Slowdown. Lionel Blair was a famous mime artist.

    Hope that helps.

  13. I thought it was just me being grumpy, and then loonapick said exactly what I was thinking. However, the clues that I wasn’t grumpy about were up to Julius’s very high standard, and I completed the Crossword feeling content and replete. Thanks, Julius — but I can’t forgive you BLUR. Well done, loonapick — very diplomatic.

  14. I get the age-related objections to 1d. But the gag is deliberately intended to be excruciatingly bad,so…
    Generally speaking, I try to be inclusive and always make an effort to use newish vocab wherever poss.
    I admit this has been a bit of a retrospective week for me following the Neil Innes puzzle in Tuesday’s Indy.

  15. I enjoyed this and didn’t care about the quibbles, it was all fine with me.

    The theme was certainly for those “in the know” but the retirement of the editor is a major event for a newspaper and its staff, it is quite appropriate to have a crossword as a tribute.  If you don’t buy the FT then there is no reason you would know the editor, but they gave you the crossword for free so what have you got to complain about?

  16. I seem to remember Arachne turning Blair into Blur (via Liverpudlian accent)-Can anyone recall the actual clue-it were wicked.

    I saw PINKUN but alas was unaware of FT editors.

    I did see the possibility of SCRATCH THIGH FEMUR being the warm up act for the Chipping Slowdown combo

     

  18. Never heard of any of the FT editors, not even the new one, so the theme flew straight over my head. However, I completed the crossword easily enough, and I enjoyed it.
    Thanks, Rob.

  19. If comments refer to solvers being too old to know about Blur and too young to recognise the Tet Offensive, then I guess we’re getting it about right!

  21. Thanks Loonapick for revealing the very clever theme which was way over my head here in the States. Nonetheless, BLUR is a band I know and TET is an offensive I remember but the latter was no help to me as I never got SEXTET. Thanks Julius for a stimulating crossword.

  22. I googled O’Neill plays but it was a wild goose chase before the penny dropped for LIONEL (MESSI), a bit unximenean but I don’t care, let us cut setters some slack sometimes.

  23. Well apart from the nina at the bottom the theme was lost on me, but I enjoyed this one.

    Thanks to Julius and loonapick

  24. Clever and impressive, though theme somewhat lost on idiots like me. Note to self: learn everything, including FT editors

    theme theme – there is also the rest of the puzzle. I really liked the drunken thebans. and my son is called Owen. nothing like finding your kid’s name in a puzzle. Really, it’s very special. Of course, my name would be better – hint?

     

    thanks friends

     

     

  25. Like others I missed the theme completely (my second miss today!).
    But I had no trouble whatsoever the finish the crossword..
    BLUR was clear from the definition alone but there it stopped.

    As I said a few days ago when Knut wrote a tribute to Neil Innes, sometimes there is a bit of GK needed.
    Today it was not too bad (1ac, 14ac, 1d, 20d – most of them in my comfort zone).

    Somehow, 9d (APOSTROPHES) felt like a missed opportunity.
    Clue of the Day? Very difficult to choose one.
    Good crossword.
    Many thanks to loonapick & Julius.

  27. Brilliant, loved it.  Even more when the full beauty is revealed in this chat.  9D I think my favourite clue … not just today, but EVER. (Because, of course, I’m a grammar pedant.)

  28. I liked Julius’s reference to Roula Khalaf, the new FT editor, who replaces Lionel Barber  at  Bracken House, where the FT offices recently returned.

  29. Thanks Julius and PeeDee. BLUR was definitely beyond me and like Tony, I should have gotten TET (I remember the event!) so I’m embarrassed. Appropriate tribute to editors and the PINKUN was clever.

  30. Blur released their first album 29 years ago. If we assume that people generally become ignorant of pop music at 35, you’d have to be over the age of 64 to not know who Blur are. I don’t think the clue was too obscure, though the Cilla Black reference probably tipped it over the edge for Americans…

  31. Thanks Julius and loonapick
    A challenging puzzle in places for me although the Liverpudlian pronunciation of someone I didn’t know went over my head. Had to learn the band from Wiki to substantiate the guesswork.
    Did used to regularly read a copy of the FT that the bank I used to work for received a copy in the 1990’s and enjoyed Lionel Barber’s column. Hence I recognised the name but had no idea of his leaving, his replacement or past editors and founders.
    Enjoyed the solve overall.

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