Julius provides this morning’s challenge in the FT.
I started slowly this morning, with my first pass of the across clues giving me very little, but I soon got into my stride and finished the puzzle quite quickly in the end, with EGG WHITE and BORROWED being my last entries. Parsing of some of the clues took a little while (FOREIGN EXCHANGE took longer than I’d like to admit!).
The clues themselves were a mixed bag. Among some beauties such as that for BLITHERING IDIOT, there were a couple where we were given too many letters from the answer and just had to fill them in the grid (GRIMACED and MONORAIL come to mind). The definition for EGG WHITE was also a bit loose.
Thanks, Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | MONORAIL | Flipping liar! Yoko beginning to mime single track (8) |
| [flipping] <=(RAIL + (Yoko) ONO + [beginning to] M(ime)) | ||
| 9 | RHODES | Cecil longing to leave horrible Shoreditch (6) |
| ITCH (“longing”) to leave *(SHORED)(itch), leaves anagram fodder for RHODES [anag:horrible] | ||
| 10 | METRIC | System of Imperial succession? (6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 11 | TIME LOCK | Magazine’s second row security system (4,4) |
| TIME (“magazine”) + LOCK (“second row”, in rugby union) | ||
| 12 | EGG WHITE | Say Bush Jr attacked Spain; how slimy is that? (3,5) |
| e.g. (“say”) + G.W. (Bush Jr) + HIT (“attacked”) + E (IVR code for “Spain”) | ||
| 13 | CHROME | Human Resources arrive outside to put a shine on things (6) |
| HR (Human Relations) with COME “(arrive”) outside | ||
| 14 | HEADS OF INDUSTRY | Dishonesty, fraud, corruption . . . they are our business leaders! (5,2,8) |
| *(dishonesty fraud) [anag:corruption] | ||
| 17 | OCTAVE | Future Emperor trades Scotsman for English series of notes (6) |
| OCTAV(ian>E) (“future Emperor”) trades IAN (“Scotsman”) for E (English)
Octavian = future Emperor, because he changed his name to Augustus before becoming Emperor. |
||
| 19 | GO ADRIFT | Provoke split and lose one’s bearings (2,6) |
| GOAD (“provoke”) + RIFT (“split”) | ||
| 21 | PARDONED | American partner 1d forgave (8) |
| PARD (“American” word for “partner”) + ONE (1) + D | ||
| 22 | ICE AXE | Diamond cut accessory for alpinist (3,3) |
| ICE (“diamond”) + AXE (“cut”) | ||
| 23 | IGNORE | Spurn developing region (6) |
| *(region) [anag:developing] | ||
| 24 | OUTBOUND | Unconscious, tied up (only one leg) (8) |
| OUT (“unconscious”) + BOUND (“tied up”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FOREIGN EXCHANGE | Counterfeit swap involving alternative currency transaction (7,8) |
| FEIGN (“counterfeit”) + EXCHANGE (“swap”) involving OR (“alternative”) | ||
| 2 | BORROWED | “Libor row” editorial feature came from outside source (8) |
| Hidden in [feature (of)] “liBOR ROW EDitorial” | ||
| 3 | TAI CHI | Spooner’s leafy herbal beverage is a Chinese art form (3,3) |
| CHAI TEA (“leafy beverage”) may have been pronounced “tai chi” by Spooner. | ||
| 4 | BLITHERING IDIOT | Merry band turning up to identify one muppet (10,5) |
| BLITHE (“merry”) + RING (“band”) + <= (TO ID (“identify”) + I (“one”)) [turning up] | ||
| 5 | GRIMACED | I’m aboard; Grace Darling initially pulled a face (8) |
| I’M aboard GRACE + D(arling) [initially] | ||
| 6 | BOILER | European Libor manipulation? Cry foul! (6) |
| *(e libor) [anag:manipulation] where E is E(uropean)
Difficult to highlight exactly what the definition is, as it is a homophone of FOWL, as indicated by [cry] FOUL, a “boiler” being a fowl only good enough to be used as stock. |
||
| 7 | BENCHMARK FIXING | Judges note malpractice; its credibility is shot on the 1s (9,6) |
| BENCH (“judges”) + MARK (“note”) + FIXING (“malpractice”)
Benchmark fixing is a term relating to foreign exchanges and potential manipulation that can be carried out in a one-minute window every day, but that’s as far as my understanding of it goes. |
||
| 15 | OCEAN BED | Deacon Blue gutted, sick to be bottom of the charts (5,3) |
| *(deacon be) [anag:sick] where BE is B(lu)E [gutted] | ||
| 16 | SURVEYOR | Very sour, miserable building inspector (8) |
| *(very sour) [anag:miserable] | ||
| 18 | AND HOW | An Arabic vessel? I’ll say! (3,3) |
| AN + DHOW (“Arabic vessel”) | ||
| 20 | ARISTO | Noble Onassis dubiously let off (6) |
| ARISTO(tle) (Onassis) with *(let) [anag:dubiously] off | ||
Julius makes a welcome return after what seems a long absence.
Really liked the surface of 14a, along with 4b – my favourite – and 18d.
I parsed 6d as you did, Loonapick, but it took a while. Only knew ‘pard’ner’ for 21a but didn’t see what else it could be.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks for the blog, dear loonapick. This puzzle was my original sample sent to the FT in July 2015, almost a year before my first published puzzle, themed around EU referendum day. This explains the references in the clues to the LIBOR fraud trials, which were going on at the time, as were investigations into manipulation in the foreign exchange markets by a few traders at megabanks, who co-ordinated their market rigging through a Bloomberg chat room with the subtle title of “The Cartel”. (I had the idea that sending a financial markets puzzle to the FT was bound to be a winner. Not my first misjudgement in this game)
I suspect not every clue is as I would write it today…normal service will be resumed shortly
best wishes, Rob/Julius
A few bits I couldn’t understand such as the ‘Future Emperor’ at 17a, the subtleties of BENCHMARK FIXING or the ‘Libor’ references, but otherwise most answers were parsed and went in steadily enough. I liked the surface for HEADS OF INDUSTRY too and the parsing for BLITHERING IDIOT.
I probably have things the wrong way around myself, but in the explanation for for TAI CHI, did you mean “TAI CHI may have been pronounced “chai tea” (leafy beverage) by Spooner.”?
Thanks to Julius – and for dropping in (yes, I imagine 14a went down well at the FT) – and to loonapick
Julius’s explanation @2 explains a lot about this crossword
I did enjoy the solve but would have to admit that I gave up with 7d
Thanks to Julius and loonapick
Finished this with 17a (didn’t know what future was doing) and 28d (with a groan because it had stumped me for a while until all the crossers were in place).
Rob’s explanation does explain a lot.
Thanks for the challenge Julius. EGG WHITE and BOILER were favourites. I failed at BLITHERING IDIOT (apropos I guess) and could not fully parse TIME LOCK since I know little about rugby. Thanks Loonapick for the blog.
Enjoyable solve. Monorail and Grimaced seemed spot on to me??
Ah, I see what you’re getting at now. Well, you were given all the letters in sequence for Borrowed 🙂
Thanks Julius and loonapick
Entertaining puzzle as to be expected from this setter with a good variety of clue devices and some new learning along the way. Got off to a good start by immediately seeing the returning MONORAIL but did have to work my way through the rest with some tricky terms such as 7d and some trickier parsing. Particularly enjoyed unravelling 12a, 21a, 4d and that 7d.
Finished in the SW corner (again) with OCTAVE and AND HOW as the last couple in.
Thanks both – I really enjoyed this one, despite not finishing. Kicking myself for not seeing the first part of 1d and missing 17a despite having parsed it correctly and having all the crossers but I couldn’t recall the name of the emperor I was looking for.