Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 3, 2021
Julius marks the Easter Weekend with an Alphabetical. Here is the completed grid:
Thanks to Julius for setting it and an acknowledgement to the late John Graham (“Cinephile”) who invented the alphabetical.
And here are the clues explained:
A Player tackling bad guy regularly pulled muscle (8)
ABDUCTOR -B[a]D [g]U[y] in (tackling) ACTOR (player)
B Taleban quoted captured general (6)
BANQUO – Hidden word
C Word game beginning to captivate Stallone’s hero (6)
CRAMBO – C[aptivate] + RAMBO (Stallone’s hero)
According to Wikipedia Crambo is more a rhyming game and one that was popular in past centuries.
D Doctor No rejected Grammy at first, then Oscar – the idiot! (6)
DRONGO – DR (doctor) + NO (no) backwards (rejected) + G[rammy] + O (Oscar)
Drongo is an Australian term for an idiot.
E English gin ruined mother – it’s a mystery (6)
ENIGMA – E (English) + anagram (ruined) of GIN + MA (mother)
F Company battle over electronic read-only program (8)
FIRMWARE – FIRM (company) + WAR (battle) + E (electronic)
‘Firmware’ is a term that is difficult to define without being very technical. It is low-level software that is baked into the hardware of a computer’s processor.
G Island generating US energy (8)
GUERNSEY – anagram (generating) of US ENERGY
H Elevated growth rate of Covid-19 is key, reportedly, in the order of things (9)
HIERARCHY – homophone (reportedly) of “higher R key”
I Murdoch’s one held by US tax authorities (4)
IRIS – I (one) in (held by) IRS (US tax authorities)
J In Paris I have left the Bastille, famously (4)
JAIL – JAI (in Paris I have) + L (left)
J Psychiatrist having starter of jerked wildebeest sent back (4)
JUNG – J[erked] + GNU (wildebeest) backwards (sent back)
K King Canute upset with kin from a US State (10)
KENTUCKIAN – anagram (upset) of K CANUTE KIN
L A bit of pork fat Romeo fed to boy when working (6)
LARDON – R (Romeo) in (fed to) LAD (boy) + ON (when working)
M Famous Roman philosopher introduced to poor Roman boy at last (4,6)
MARK ANTONY – KANT (philosopher) in (introduced to) anagram (poor) of ROMAN + [bo]Y
N Nullified crowd in north-east derby at the start (7)
NEGATED – GATE (crowd) in NE (north-east) + D[erby]
O Prepare instrument minster features off and on (8)
ORGANISE – ORGAN (instrument) + [m]I[n]S[t]E[r]
P 568ml (about) in artist’s material (5)
PAINT – A (about?) in PINT (568ml). I think I am missing something here. P.S. Please see Julius’ comment (#5).
Q Ran antique trade in isolation during pandemic (10)
QUARANTINE – anagram (trade) of RAN ANTIQUE
R Type of skirt getting boisterous reception? (3-3)
RAH-RAH – double definition. The rah-rah skirt was new to me.
S Civil War general succeeded that lady’s partner (7)
SHERMAN – S (succeeded) + HER (that lady’s) + MAN (partner)
William Tecumseh Sherman was a general in the American Civil War. The Sherman Tank that was widely used in the Second World War was named after him. A fascinating aspect of this, which I only just learned, is that this name was given to the tank by the British!
T One comes round in the afternoon with a cuppa (3,4)
TEA TRAY – cryptic definition
U June whinges endlessly to drive you mad! (7)
UNHINGE – [j]UN[e] [w]HINGE[s]
V Rio’s off – had a fake fag outside, disappeared into thin air (9)
VAPORISED – anagram (off) of RIOS in (had…outside) VAPED (had a fake fag)
W Wife/husband couple late returning material for jewellery (5,5)
WHITE METAL – W (wife) + H (husband) + ITEM (couple) + LATE (late) backwards (returning)
X Mum comes in to kiss son – it’s a special time of year (4)
XMAS – X (kiss) + MA (mum) + S (son)
Y Bet poor Kanye West is moving to the other side (6)
YANKEE – anagram (poor) of KANYE + E (west is moving to the other side)
A “Yankee bet” is a complicated affair described in this article from the Daily Telegraph.
Y Gold-coloured Wolseley overturned leaving the outskirts of Stoke (6)
YELLOW – WOL[se]LEY (Wolseley leaving the outskirts of Stoke) backwards (overturned)
Z In retirement, regular bezique entertained an African resident (5)
ZEBRA – reverse (in retirement) hidden word (entertained)
I imagine this must have taken Julius a long time to put together. For me, it was thoroughly enjoyable.
I managed to solve most of the clues before starting on the grid. That took two attempts due to me originally having TEA LADY, rather than TEA TRAY.
Lots of new discoveries – yankee bet, crambo and lardon were all new words to me, and I now know GNU is just another name for wildebeest. Thanks to Pete, too, for some new facts on the Sherman tank
I do not understand what function “pulled” plays in A, nor “of Covid 19 is” in F. Can anyone comment? As always, I am sure the explanation is simple.
Finally, when I was small, the lady a few doors down drove a gold-coloured Wolseley. And, yes, she somehow managed to flip it completely onto its roof. With that in mind, Y for YELLOW was my favourite clue.
Thanks Pete for the solutions and additional commentary. And thanks Julius for a great puzzle
I was delighted to find an alphabetical jigsaw signed Julius to keep me occupied over Easter. In the event, it went in quicker than expected and was highly entertaining on all fronts.
Pretty sure I was meant to proceed with the double Js and Ys in the SE but because I persisted with VARNISHED for some time and YELLOW wouldn’t fit, it’s where I finished with JUNG.
New things for me included SHERMAN and CRAMBO (pretty sure it couldn’t be CROCKY!).
Lots of inventive and witty wordplay as ever but I was especially tickled by the RAH RAH skirt. Remember those?
Thanks Julius and to Pete for a particularly detailed blog.
Thanks Julius, this is why I like crosswords so much. What seemed daunting at first gradually came together in a very satisfying way. JUNG, ORGANISE, and XMAS were favourites but there were really no bad clues in the bunch. Thanks Pete as always.
Martyn @1: An ABDUCTOR is a muscle that can be “pulled” (or injured) by an athlete. The surface needs the word “pulled” to work but it’s not extraneous; “regularly” can be seen as doing double duty so the definition of an ABDUCTOR can be seen as a “regularly pulled muscle.” It’s actually a very clever clue.
Thanks for the blog. The Araucaria version was always my favourite, sometimes in rhyming couplets. Martyn @1 , Covid-19 refers to the R number , higher R key, something none of us had heard of a year ago.
P is a bit of a mystery ? is it meant to be… 568ml is A PINT and then an anagram ( about ) of this ?
Thank you for the blog Pete, and thanks to those who have commented.
The clue for PAINT is supposed to be “pint” (568ml) with a=about (it’s in Chambers although why I’m not sure) “in”. Not my finest work, it’s fair to say.
@Roz – I miss Araucaria too
best wishes to all, Rob/Julius
Thank you Julius, I was rushing this morning so forgot to say this was a splendid effort.
Like Martyn @1, I (unusually) managed to get all the answers bar five before starting on the grid. I thought that might mean that the bother would come in working out where to place them but no, that turned out to be more straightforward than usual, too. With the Js and Ys clearly signalled, it all fanned out north eastwards from there at a most enjoyable and satisfying rate.
Lots of lovely clues with interesting story-telling surfaces. I particularly liked the mother’s ruin in ENIGMA, the ‘Roman philosopher’ in MARK ANTONY, the whingeing June in UNHINGE, the nod to Julius’ Indy pseudonym in KENTUCKIAN, the topicality – and construction – of HIERARCHY and QUARANTINE and the car accident in YELLOW (enlarged upon by Martyn).
Huge thanks to Julius for a lot of fun (I’ll even forgive A = about 😉 ) and to Pete for a great blog.
[Over on the Guardian side, we call these puzzles ‘Araubeticals’ [© Muck]) – and the name has made it into John Graham’s Wikipedia entry.]
Thanks to Tony, I realized that I made a mistake with the ABDUCTOR clue. The definition should be “pulled muscle” not “muscle” as I had originally.
Thanks Tony and Pete for help with ABDUCTOR. As is often the case, I did think of your parsing and then dismissed it. I also looked up abductor to find it is a muscle that works by contracting. But, thought I “a pulled muscle is different to a muscle that pulls or can be pulled”. Perhaps I am too literal-minded for crosswords?
I wonder how I could have missed the R number. Thank you Roz for the steer
A less common meaning of pull is to tear, hence the injured muscles of athletes that Tony described. Pulled pork had a bit of a moment two years ago.
I thought I’d nip in to explain that the clue for ABDUCTOR was intended to be parsed as Pete had it originally; ie with “regularly pulled” intended to be the removal indicator and “muscle” as the definition. I used “pulled” (as in extracted) simply because it looked like a good match with muscle. But not a big deal at all really
Oh dear! I got it wrong the second time. Sorry. And thank you again, Julius. Correction corrected!
On that Saturday I persuaded Ms B (my crossword partner) for once to go for this puzzle instead of the Guardian’s.
I am happy she agreed, and … she liked it!
As I said on earlier occasions, there are Araucarian alphabeticals and those I call Julian.
Nowadays, I enjoy the ones by Julius really a lot more than the ones by Araucaria or his followers (Paul included).
The clueing is rather lightweight but has more of a ‘now’ feeling, not torturous at all.
And so, the whole thing can be done within reasonable time.
‘Today’s’ alphabetical was different from how Julius usually does them – this one included all the starting letters.
We were OK with A = ‘about’ but weren’t very keen on the way Julius used the brackets or ‘in’ in P.
However, as to latter, some setters do it and solvers seem to be fine with it.
Great fun (although the infamous nitpicker in me cannot be sidelined).
My main objection is the use of ‘is’ in H – I cannot see why it’s there.
But hey, I am looking forward to the next one.
Hope I can get my solving partner over the line once more!
All in all, many thanks to Pete & Julius.
Hi Sil, thank you for commenting. I see your point about the HIERARCHY clue.
Thanks Julius and Pete
Always look forward to an alphabetical style puzzle and although the two J’s and two Y’s were the first four clues that were solved it was BANQUO / QUARANTINE that allowed me to start filling the grid, much earlier than normal.
Although there were a few new terms – CRAMBO, LARDON, WHITE METAL and that R (reproduction number, that wasn’t used down here that I heard for COVID) – the clueing was such that they presented no problems. Enjoyed a lot of the word constructions and the clever surfaces in many of the clues. Finished up with TEA-TRAY (needing all the crossers to get the second bit), HIERARCHY (due to that pesky R) and FIRMWARE (where I embarrassingly resorted to a word-finder for a term that is a common word in my field of work).
Thanks, Julius and Pete. This was easy and fun for an unnumbered puzzle. I got most of the clues before entering in the grid and it was pretty simple to figure out where they went. The J’s and IRIS/XMAS ending in S gave the corner clues that started it out. Had to look up CRAMBO, DRONGO and LARDON – new words are fun to learn!