Financial Times 16,934 by JULIUS

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A feast of fun from Julius…

…as long as you like general knowledge to play a large part in your solving experience, which I personally do.

I enjoyed solving this crossword, despite some of the answers, such as DATE, ADAM SMITH, ROTTER and POGO being write-ins. There were some clever long anagrams in SPIRAL STAIRCASE, which had me looking for an actress for a while, and LAURENCE OLIVIER.

I don't think there's a theme, but if there is, I missed it.

Only slight quibble – the use of "contracted" in two clues (PECK and IN LOVE), something that an editor should have spotted.

Thanks, Julius

ACROSS
9 SPIRAL STAIRCASE
One might wind up this actress as April 1 lark! (6,9)

*(actress as April i) [anag:lark]
10 APPAL
Horrify adult resident of N Scandinavia heading west (5)

A (adult) + <=LAPP ("resident of N Scandinavia", heading west, i.e. from right to left)
11 UNION JACK
Standard trade association card (5,4)

UNION ("trade association") + JACK ("card")
12 WRESTLING
Putting up a fight with Sterling playing (9)

W (with) + *(sterling) [anag:playing]
14 SHARP
Small stringed instrument not perfectly tuned (5)

S (small) + HARP ("stringed instrument")
16 LAURENCE OLIVIER
Left, waving “au revoir, Nice” le superstar de Cannes? (8,7)

L (left) + *(au revoir nice le) [anag:waving]

Not aware of any particular link between Cannes and Olivier, but according to the Cannes Festival website, five of his movies have been presented at the Festival.
19 EMBER
One raked by fire? (5)

Cryptic definition
21 ADAM SMITH
Pah! Tim’s mad – angry, reactionary, grasping Scottish economist (4,5)

Hidden backwards in [reactionary, grasping] "paH TIM'S MAD Angry"
23 PRETTY BAD
Weak power – battery unfortunately died (6,3)

P (power) + *(battery) [anag:unfortunately] + D (died)
25 MILLS
British inventor of bomb factories (5)

Double definition, the first referring to William Mills, inventor of the Mills bomb, the hand grenade used by the British during the First World War.
26 GOLDEN RETRIEVER
One in mourning embraces aged, retired man’s best friend (6,9)

GRIEVER ("one in mourning") embraces OLDEN ("aged") + Ret. (retired)
DOWN
1 OSCAR WILDE
Old Sierra Ford, roomy, transporting Pound (a great poet) (5,5)

O (old) + S (Sierra, in the phonetic alphabet) + CAR ("Ford") + WIDE ("roomy") transporting (i.e.carrying) L (pound)
2 DIMPLE
Hollow, faint pulse regularly taken (6)

DIM ("faint") + P(u)L(s)E [regularly taken]
3 RACLETTE
Swiss speciality car rolled, upsetting German driver (5 down) (8)

<=CAR [rolled] + [upsetting] (Sebastian) <=(v)ETTEL ("German (F1) driver", with V (5) down, i.e. dropped)
4 ESAU
Hirsute chap’s son taking a dip in water in Dieppe (4)

S (son) taking a dip in EAU ("water in Dieppe")
5 BAKING SODA
NaHCO 3 an ingredient of Nacho? (6,4)

Double definition?
6 URANUS
University controlled American body in space (6)

U (university) + RAN ("controlled") + US (American)
7 NAGASAKI
Ask again about Fat Man’s goal (8)

*(ask again) [anag:about]

"Fat Man" was the code name for the type of nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.
8 PECK
Muscle contracted on King Gregory? (4)

PEC(toralis) ("muscle", contracted) on K (king)
13 IN CHAMBERS
Where solvers are encouraged to seek counsel? (2,8)

Cryptic definition, with the Chambers in question being the crossword solver's favourite dictionary, rather than the judge's room at court.
15 PURCHASERS
Those buying tea consumed by ships’ officers (10)

CHA ("tea") consumed by PURSERS ("ships' officers")
17 UMBRELLA
Something to keep you dry? Let me see, Brother Fitzgerald (8)

UM ("let me see") + Br. (brother) + ELLA (Fitzgerald)
18 INSOMNIA
Island mansion being renovated – the cause of long, exhausting nights (8)

I (island) + *(mansion) [anag:being renovated]
20 ROTTER
River mammal – basically a rat (6)

R (river) + OTTER ("mammal")
22 IN LOVE
Smitten, I have contracted to cover Nelson occasionally (2,4)

I'VE (I have, contracted) to cover N(e)L(s)O(n) [occasionally]
23 POGO
Leaders of punk’s oldest groups organised a dance (4)

[leaders of] P(unk's) O(ldest) G(roups) O(rganised)

This takes me back to my teens; the pogo was a "dance", which basically involved jumping up and down, associated with punk music.
24 DATE
Daughter consumed fruit (4)

D (daughter) ATE ("consumed")

19 comments on “Financial Times 16,934 by JULIUS”

  1. Funnily enough, the phrase “in chambers” isn’t in Chambers. Couldn’t parse 3d (didn’t know Vettel) and don’t remember seeing “Fat Man” before, but that’s probably just my poor memory. My poor GK didn’t hamper me with this due to the impeccable clueing.

  2. A lovely treat of a crossword from Julius – lots to enjoy as usual, my top favourite being 13d. I did know the GK, even the Fat Man

    Thanks to Julius and loonapick

  4. I don’t think 5d is a double definition. I’ve looked at the ingredient list on a packet and it does not include baking soda. I think Julius is having fun Na, C, H and O are the elements of sodium bicarbonate! Thanks Julius for a puzzle I completed and parsed all; great clueing. Thanks also loonapick

  6. According to Google, many people use baking soda in their tortillas… I accept that Julius is having fun with Na, C, H and O, but the cryptic grammar to identify what he wants us to do with it is missing.

  7. Funnily enough nacho, as a word that could be made from the letters for the chemical formula of baking soda, was a University Challange question this week! Fun solve today, favourite was 3d.

  8. A POGO to me brings to mind a stick, not ‘a dance’, but sounds like both involve jumping, so they may be related. I parsed BAKING SODA as a probable double def, but didn’t really understand it.

    Knew most of the required GK, except RACLETTE, my last in, which I entered from wordplay. I liked IN CHAMBERS, a trusty friend indeed.

    Thanks to Julius and loonapick.

  9. This puzzle illustrates why Julius is such a popular setter. I’m also a fan as the GK required in his puzzles at least tend to play to my strengths: to whit, RACLETTE, which is not only delicious but appeals to this F1 fan, and POGO, a gimme certainly but also a throwback to my youth – minus the safety pins!
    SPIRAL STAIRCASE was fabulous. Thanks to Julius and Loonapick.

  10. A Julius crossword is always a treat. My favourites included LAURENCE OLIVIER, URANUS, PECK, IN CHAMBERS, ROTTER, and the very simple DATE. I missed one, NAGASAKI, not knowing the reference to Fat Man. Thanks Loonapick for the blog.

  11. Thanks for the blog , lots to enjoy here, too many clever clues to list.
    FAT MAN was in contrast to THIN MAN the original name for the Uraniium 235 bombs, although the one used at Hiroshima was renamed Little Boy.
    POGO always makes me think of Plastic Bertrand.

  12. I once asked a friend of mine who spoke French if she could understand the lyrics to ca plane pour moi by Plastic Bertrand but no joy.

  13. What’s the problem with 5dn? The question mark surely indicates that BAKING SODA might be an ingredient in nachos so it’s simply a double definition. That was one of our favourite clues, along with SPIRAL STAIRCASE, RACLETTE and IN CHAMBERS. A great puzzle all round.
    Thanks, Julius and loonapick.

  15. Alerted to this one by a post from CrypticSue elsewhere. I did enjoy it despite not knowing the F1 driver or the Scottish economist.
    Favourite has to be 13d – the holy grail!

    Thanks to Julius and to loonapick for the review.

  16. Thanks Julius and loonapick
    The first puzzle that I’ve been able to do in my favourite cafe since lock down in Melbourne has been lifted (again!) – took all of a toastie, coffee and then some to complete it ! Very enjoyable solve with most of the general knowledge within my ken – but had to check on the Mills bomb, RACLETTE and that ‘Fat Man’ was the bomb dropped on Nagasaki (only knew ‘Little Boy’ by name). [Read a novel last year “A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding” by Jackie Copleton which was a very touching story based on this event].
    Lazily wrote in Lawrence without checking the anagram fodder at 16a, which caused a bit of a delay in getting UMBRELLA as my last one in a bit later. Scratched my head a bit with the second part of BAKING SODA and IN CHAMBERS raised a grin.

  17. I’m not sure this qualifies as a theme, but roughly one-third of the solutions were proper nouns.
    Thanks to Julius for a very fun solve and to Loonapick for clarification for a couple of answers I wasn’t certain about.

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