Financial Times 17,359 by JULIUS

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Julius provides entertainment on this wet Thursday morning.

As long as you know your literary characters (Heep and Nemo) and your TV peers (Sugar), this is a fairly straightforward puzzle. The long anagram down the middle helped open up the grid, with only the north-east corner providing any real resistance. I thought the clue for ANTE was ambiguous and was disappointed by TUMMY ACHE.

Thanks, Julius.

ACROSS
1 MAGNIFICAT
FT 1ac: “Nag I’m flogging for a song” (10)

*(ft 1ac nag im) [anag:flogging]
7 CAMP
Party discharging Chelsea politician (4)

[discharging] C(helse)A + MP (Member of Parliament, so "politician")
9 OMEN
Warning submariner to head west (4)

<=NEMO ("submariner" in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) [to head west]
10 SASH WINDOW
An old-fashioned opener, India’s Ashwin downplayed nets (4,6)

Hidden in [nets] "indiaS ASHWIN DOWnplayed"
11 ENZYME
Eastern Kiwi sending back Julius’s English protein (6)

E (eastern) + NZ (New Zealand, so "kiwi") + [sending back] MY ("Julius's") + E (English)
12 ETRUSCAN
Turkey in the European Union? Read about old civilisation (8)

TR (Turkey) in EU (the European Union) + SCAN ("read")
13 PASTRAMI
Romeo’s into Italian noodles, I’m about the spicy meat (8)

R (Romeo, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) 's into PASTA ("Italian noddles") + <=I'M [about]
15 GLEN
Gold erne regularly flies here in Scotland (4)

G(o)L(d) E(r)N(e) [regularly] and &lit.
17 SKIM
Quickly scan phone card loaded with a grand? (4)

SIM ("phone card") loaded with K (1,000, so "a grand")
19 SHAMROCK
Symbol of Irish-American Republican found in Barnet? (8)

Am. (American) + R (Republican) found in SHOCK ("barnet", as in hairdo)
22 VERY DEAR
New year: derv costs a fortune (4,4)

*(year derv) [anag:new]
23 PEBBLE
Billions visiting legendary Brazilian stone (6)

BB (billions) visiting PELE ("legendary Brazilian" footballer)
25 BLACK SHEEP
Bans Uriah, a disreputable member of the family (5,5)

BLACKS ("bans") + (Uriah) HEEP (character in David Copperfield)
26 NOEL
Chap deleting verse from work of fiction (4)

V (verse) deleted from NO(v)EL ("work of fiction")
27 ANTE
Sicilian hothead withdrew bet on the poker table (4)

<=ETNA ("Sicilian" volcano, so "hothead", withdrew)
28 DRY AS A BONE
Collagen finally injected into various body areas? No sweat! (3,2,1,4)

(collage)N [finally] injected into *(body areas) [anag:various]
DOWN
2 ARMENIA
Country song about soldiers (7)

ARIA ("song") about MEN ("soldiers")
3 NINNY
Simpleton sitting in Crown Inn, York (5)

Hidden in [sitting in] "crowN INN York)
4 FOSSE WAY
Old Road Movie actor Bob’s style? (5,3)

("movie actor") (Bob) FOSSE + WAY ("style")

Bob Fosse is much more famous as a dancer and choreographer than as a movie actor.

The Fosse Way was a road from Exeter to Lincoln built by the Romans.
5 COSMETIC SURGERY
Conservative/Tory ERG miscues work which implements superficial cuts (8,7)

*(c tory erg miscues) [anag:work] where C = Conservative
6 TAWDRY
Tyler – revolting, humourless, vulgar and cheap (6)

<=WAT (Tyler, revolting) + DRY ("humourless")
7 CANE SUGAR
Crop with which to spank TV peer on the bottom? (4,5)

CANE ("with which to spank") with (Sir Alan) SUGAR ("TV pier") on the bottom
8 MOORAGE
Motor yacht leaves mega-roomy flipping berth! (7)

MY (motor yacht) leaves <= (m(EGA ROOM)y, flipping)
14 TUMMY ACHE
Uncomfortable gut feeling? (5,4)

(barely) cryptic definition
16 BAGPIPES
Instrument case, piano turning up September 1st (8)

BAG ("case") + P (piano, in music) + [turning up] <=1 SEP (September 1st)
18 KREMLIN
Mr Klein demolished a government building (7)

*(mr klein) [anag:demolished]
20 COLLEEN
Senior officer left born, raised Irish lass (7)

Col. (colonel, so "senior officer") + L (left) + NEE ("born", raised)
21 TEASED
Odd characters in The Nag’s Head subjected to banter (6)

[odd characters in] T(h)E (n)A(g)S (h)E(a)D
24 B AND B
Group two pension on the continent? (1,3,1)

BAND B ("group two", as in second level below group one/group A)

A pension is a French boarding house, so a kind of B&B

20 comments on “Financial Times 17,359 by JULIUS”

  1. Any Antipodean who got all of this out deserves a bonus point. I did, despite never having heard of Wat Tyler, Fosse Way, Bob Fosse (OK, he’s American), barnet or TV peer Sugar. No idea how the clues for SHAMROCK & GLEN worked, and didn’t know Colleen is Irish. But despite these little impediments, most of which were overcome after a few intersecting clues, I finished reasonably quickly and found it quite satisfying and enjoyable, thank you Vulcan.

  4. Not too taxing but lots of fun. Some lovely clues – TEASED, MAGNIFICAT, TAWDRY among my favourites. I also thought ANTE/ETNA was ambiguous but 14d soon resolved it. Thanks, Julius and Loonapick.

  5. To have three crosswords from this setter in one week is a real treat

    I really enjoyed the solve but will agree with others about the Etna/ante ‘problem’

    Thanks very much to Julius and Loonapick

  6. A real treat, indeed, crypticsue!

    As Widdersbel says, some lovely clues: I ticked 1ac MAGNIFICAT, for the surface and clever anagram, 28ac DRY AS A BONE and 5dn COSMETIC SURGERY, ditto, 10ac SASH WINDOW, cleverly hidden, 12ac ETRUSCAN and 25ac BLACK SHEEP for the surfaces, 13ac PASTRAMI, for the construction and surface, 19ac SHAMROCK and 4dn FOSSE WAY, both for the ‘lift and separate’ and the latter also for it being the road that runs through my home city.
    The top right corner held out longest for me, too: my last in were 7ac and 7dn.
    Many thanks to Julius and to loonapick.

  7. I second many of Eileen’s favourites such as DRY AS A BONE, FOSSE WAY and SASH WINDOW (yes, well hidden). I also liked COLLEEN and SHAMROCK as a nod to the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day and VERY DEAR for its apt surface.
    Thanks for the consistent entertainment, Julius, and Loonapick.

  8. Thanks Julius and Loonapick

    27ac: The intended answer uses “withdrew” as an intransitive verb, ending the wordplay as a complete clause, followed by the definition as a noun phrase. However, “withdrew” could also be a transitive verb, starting the wordplay which could form the predicate of a sentence whose implied subject would be “the answer”. Thus I agree that the clue is ambiguous. Fortunately I already had both checked letters when I read this clue – one would of course have been enough.

    [12ac: I am sure a few people reading this will already know, but it is credibly reported that when Josiah Wedgwood founded a new suburb of Stoke-(up)on-Trent, he deliberately called it Etruria so that he could claim he was selling “genuine Etruscan pottery”.]

  9. Thanks Julius for a satisfying crossword. There was a lot to like such as the cleverly hidden SASH WINDOW, the anagram in KREMLIN, and the surface for ANTE. The crossing letters cleared up the ambiguity regarding ETNA/ANTE so the solution became obvious unlike the course/coarse issue a few days ago. (I know there are purists who think every clue should stand alone but this is a “crossword” after all.) I couldn’t parse SHAMROCK and I hadn’t heard of SUGAR as a TV peer so thanks Loonapick for explaining.

  10. I also liked 4d for the misdirection which initially had me thinking of Bob Hope and his ‘Road Series’ movies.

  11. Steve@10 Me too. I’m sure that was intended. I thought GLEN was referring to the midges which plague parts of Scotland, but the &lit makes more sense. Have we seen a little too much of Nemo and Etna?

  12. I did not quite understand the parsing of CAMP, GLEN, or CANE SUGAR, so thanks for the clarifications on those.

  13. I don’t understand the issue with Ante/Etna – ‘withdrew’ is surely a pretty simple indication of backwards or reverse, isn’t it? Given that sometimes in these puzzles one is supposed to know that the first letter of a word in the clue is part of the answer e.g. A for Always, S for Society, and that sometimes one has to find a synonym for a word in the clue and then use that synonym, or part of it, or reverse it, and then do a handstand while drinking a cup of tea. . . Anyway, I thought Ante/Etna was easy-peasy. But I can’t parse CAMP.

  17. Eric Eric@13

    The ambiguity comes from what’s being reversed. Without crossing letters, the clue could be asking us to reverse ANTE to get ETNA or vice versa.

    Also, initials are not random. They have to be an established abbreviation, preferably in their own right, rather than as part of a larger acronym or abbreviation, and ideally appear in a dictionary under the entry for the relevant letter(s), so your example of A = always is invalid. On the other hand, if you look up S in the dictionary you will find Society alongside abbreviations such as Sabbath, Saint, soprano, sun etc and symbols such as sulphur and second.

    As to CA in CAMP, if you discharge something, you empty it out, leaving only the outside, in this case the outside of C(helse)A.

  18. A relatively gentle workout after today’s Indy. Favourites were MAGNIFICAT and ENZYME.
    Thanks, Julius and loonapick

    [Pelham@8: There are also districts of Stoke called Dresden and Florence, although as far as I can gather the names were adopted after Wedgwood’s time.]

  19. Thanks for the blog, always enjoy a Julius puzzle. I was born and raised in Florence and educated in Dresden and Etruria.

  20. Eric Eric@13,14,15,16
    ‘…one has to find a synonym for a word in the clue and then use that synonym, or part of it, or reverse it, and then do a handstand while drinking a cup of tea…’
    Yes, that describes it pretty well! Welcome to CrosswordLand! 😉

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