Julius's turn to provide an FT challenge.
The top half of the puzzle went in really quickly, assisted by getting all of the four long answers around the perimeter. The bottom half held me up little, but once TABLEWARE and MACADAMIA were in place, the rest slotted in nicely, with ACROBATIC being my last one in, and the one whose parsing held me up the most. Julius's clues can be a little convoluted, but are generally fair.
Thanks Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | KEEP NOTHING BACK |
Fully commit to Cenotaph being renovated in 2000? (4,7,4)
|
|
*(cenotaph being) [anag:renovated] in KK (2 x 1000, so "2000") |
||
| 9 | UPSIDES |
Winning teams’ advantages (7)
|
|
UP ("winning") + SIDE'S ("team's") |
||
| 10 | GASTRIC |
Getting a stricture? Cramps? That’s to do with the stomach (7)
|
|
Hidden in [cramps] "gettinG A STRICture" |
||
| 11 | KINDLIEST |
Silent kid turned out most pleasant (9)
|
|
*(silent kid) [anag:turned out] |
||
| 12 | MIAMI |
Religious scholar in retirement bored by island beach location (5)
|
|
<=IMAM ("religious scholar", in retirement) bored by I (island) |
||
| 13 | ELECT |
Vote for Leslie Scott every now and again (5)
|
|
(l)E(s)L(ie)E (s)C(o)T(t) [every now and again] |
||
| 15 | ADMITTING |
Fessing up – unmitigated disaster leaving EU (9)
|
|
*(nmitigatd) [anag:disaster] where NMTIGATD is (u)NMITIGAT(e)D with EU leaving |
||
| 17 | ACROBATIC |
Lissom, nimble naked French president shaking – a bit cold (9)
|
|
[naked, i.e. without covers] (Emmanuel) (m)ACRO(n) ("French president") + *(a bit) [anag:shaking] + C (cold) |
||
| 19 | RECAP |
Step back following Republican review (5)
|
|
<=PACE ("step", back) following R (Republican) |
||
| 21 | DRAKE |
Doctor Baker’s stuffing a bird (5)
|
|
Dr. (doctor) + (b)AKE(r) ['s stuffing] |
||
| 22 | TIDEMARKS |
21 mist formed stains left on the harbour wall (9)
|
|
*(drake mist) [anag:formed], DRAKE being the answer to "21" across |
||
| 24 | IMITATE |
Copy note found in international art gallery (7)
|
|
MI ("note") found in I (international) + TATE (art gallery) |
||
| 25 | MARTINI |
Olive might be in this westbound streetcar in Italy (7)
|
|
[westbound] <=TRAM ("streetcar") + IN + I (Italy) |
||
| 26 | HAMMERHEAD SHARK |
Big fish horror film studio bosses listen to? (10,5)
|
|
HAMMER ("horror film studio") + HEADS ("bosses") + HARK ("listen") |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | KNUCKLE SANDWICH |
Dunk chicken tossed with slaw which packs quite a punch (7,8)
|
|
*(dunk chicken slaw) [anag:tossed] |
||
| 2 | ESSENCE |
Heart and soul of German city church (7)
|
|
ESSEN ("German city") + CE ("church" of England) |
||
| 3 | NADAL |
North American boy, rising tennis star (5)
|
|
N (North) + A (American) + <=LAD ("boy", rising) |
||
| 4 | TESSERACT |
Maths figure cares about entering exam (9)
|
|
*(cares) [anag:about] entering TEST ("exam") |
||
| 5 | INGOT |
Some heavy metal number I acquired touring (5)
|
|
I + GOT ("acquired") touring N (new) |
||
| 6 | GASOMETER |
New megastore’s energy supplier (9)
|
|
*(megastore) [anag:new] |
||
| 7 | AIR TAXI |
Vehicle for hire taking the flyover to avoid the traffic jams? (3,4)
|
|
Cryptic definition |
||
| 8 | KICKING UP A STINK |
Robbing Ray Davies at gunpoint, according to Spooner, is creating a fuss (7,2,1,5)
|
|
If expressed by Spooner, STICKING UP A KINK ("robbing Ray Davies at gunpoint") might have come out as KICKING UP A STINK |
||
| 14 | TABLEWARE |
A tranche of fine, raw Elba tuna served up on this? (9)
|
|
Hidden backwards [a tranche of… served up] in "finE RAW ELBA Tuna" |
||
| 16 | MACADAMIA |
Blacktop on A1 knocked over tree (9)
|
|
MACADAM ("blacktop") on <=A1 [knocked over] |
||
| 18 | REALISM |
Ingres on vacation introduced to the country a style of painting (7)
|
|
I(ngre)S [on vacation] introduced to REALM ("country") |
||
| 20 | CORSICA |
Isaac is rock climbing around part of France (7)
|
|
Hidden backwards in [climbing… around] "isaAC IS ROCk" |
||
| 22 | TEETH |
Choppers initially taxi eastward exiting the heliport (5)
|
|
[initially] T(axi) E(astward) E(xiting) T(he) H(eliport) |
||
| 23 | MORES |
Customs, additional checks, finally (5)
|
|
MORE ("additional") + (check)S [finally] |
Another corker from Julius which was an amusing jaunt – albeit an ephemeral one.
Snagging three of the four excellent perimeter clues (8d, 1d and 26a) at first, I was well on the way. Of these, the Spoonerism was my favorite.
Also enjoyed the neat linkage of 21/22 but there was much else besides.
4d was my LOI, a lucky guess (thought of tesselation though I don’t know if they’re connected) with all the crossers in place by then.
Thanks to Julius for the customary fun and to Loonapick for the write-up.
Deprived on my usual fix of Grauniad first thing because their crossword wasn’t where it was supposed to be, I had a go at this one. What fun. I have long maintained that the more outrageous a Sopoonerism or homophone, generally the better, and STICKING UP A KINK was as good as I have ever seen.
I wasn’t familiar with TESSERACT but I don’t mind obscure words when the wordplay is this clear.
15ac made me grin ruefully. How true.
Thanks both.
Three ‘meetings’ with one of my favourite setters in one week – what a treat!
This didn’t take long to solve but what fun, especially the Spoonerism in 8d
Thanks very much to Julius and loonapick
Knut here and Julius in the Indy today and v. happy to tackle both. I’m embarrassed to admit I missed the parsing of TEETH, trying to make it far more complicated than it was and not knowing who ‘Ray Davies’ was, I missed the meaning of the Spoonerism at 8d.
Favourites were the TABLEWARE reverse hidden and like NeilH @2, the surface for 15a. Now I know what a TESSERACT is – very appropriate that it was 4d!
Thanks to Julius and loonapick
Having finished Knut in the Indy I thought I’d check out the Graun only to find a No Show
So here we were-Freiburg v Sheffield
Both very enjoyable
I thought it was 3-3 so i eventually found the answer to that when someone alerted me to a PDF of Phil
Fun start to the day.
Anybody else do Cyclops 728 in Private Eye yesterday and now experiencing deja vu?
Thanks Julius, I always enjoy your crosswords and this was no exception. I too loved the Spoonerism in 8d. Other favourites included 1d, DRAKE, and MARTINI. I needed a word finder to get TESSERACT; I got stuck thinking that I needed a synonym of “cares” and not “cares” itself in the answer. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
In 4d, I wondered if ‘about’ might refer to a reversal rather than any old anagram.
Thanks for a brilliant crossword, Julius. I loved 15ac and 8 down – very good sop-based poonerism.
Thanks for the blog, dear loonapick, and thanks to those who took the trouble to post a comment. It is the case (Hovis @8) that the insertion of *cares* into *test* in the clue for TESSERACT is intended as a reversal – not that it makes much difference of course, but I have a tendency to use too many anagrams in my puzzles so I didn’t count that one.
I’m intrigued by Timothy Beecroft’s comment @6…I subscribed to Private Eye for many years but shortly after moving to Germany I cancelled it so haven’t seen Cyclops’s latest puzzle, but I’ll keep an, er, eye open for the blog.
Best to all, Rob/Julius
Re Timothy Beecroft @6, I had never heard of the word before and it crops up twice in as many days!
Many thanks to Julius and loonapick.
For this humble solver, this was a magnificent example of the crossword setter’s art. Not so hard as to be impenetrable, scrupulously fair and wonderfully clued. Loved the Spoonerism. Was expecting a K
in the bottom left hand corner but that didn’t hold me up too long.
Loi. Acrobatic.
Thanks to all
We found this quite easy after tackling the Indy by Julius’s alter ego, Knut. Maybe it was a bit easier or maybe we were still on his wavelength. We liked the KK device in 1ac (although we weren’t sure till we untangled the rest of the clue if it wasn’t going to be MM or even MK or KM).
Others we liked were ACROBATIC and the DRAKE/TIDEMARKS connection. And the surface of 15ac is sadly topical and only too true.
Thanks, Julius and loonapick.
Thanks Julius and loonapick
A puzzle that took right on my average time to finish in what was a much more than average crossword. Only got the KNUCKLE SANDWICH early with the rest of the perimeter clues holding out until around mid-solve, so had to work a bit harder to get there.
Had to check out ‘Ray Davies’, HAMMER Film Productions and actually needed a word finder for TESSERACT (didn’t come across it in my Maths degree). Macadamias must be one of our best exports – delicious ! Did have to recall MACADAM for the road surface though.
Finished with the intersecting ACROBATIC (one of my favourite clue constructs), ADMITTING (neat surface) and that TESSERACT the last one in.
Probably a tad easier than average, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and didn’t get badly stuck on any clues. No obscure Britishisms!
Yes, pity about the missing last corner k! 8d no idea what a kink was in this conrext.
hi all, great puzzle for us too! wonderfully fun to solve and not sooooo difficult. It was only because my 90-year-old mum was aware of the existence of Macadam-ized Roads that we were able to finish the whole puzzle, perhaps a first time for me. however, she knew nothing of the Kinks. A pleasure to play for her that lilting tune, we are two halves of a perfect coconut. Cheers to Julius and you lot.