Julius is the setter in today's FT.
Although the majority of clues in this puzzle were fairly straightforward, there was enough entertainment in the clues to keep me interested as I solved it, assisted by the little bits of general knowledge (FRENCHMAN'S CREEK, A1(N) etc. I also discovered I'd been spelling DIKTAT wrong all my life. I was interested to see Julius use both type of misleading capitalisation (a capitalised NICK meaning nab, and a non capitalised JERSEY to equal cow). Crossword convention says that the former is acceptable and the latter is not, although I'm not sure of the reasoning behind such a distinction.
Thanks, Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CHEW THE FAT |
Argue over something that Jack Sprat would never do (4,3,3)
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In the nursery rhyme, Jack Sprat could eat no fat. |
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| 7 | PICT |
Old northerner selected for the team, according to the radio (4)
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Homophone [according to the radio] of PICKED ("slected for the team") |
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| 9 | BRAE |
Scottish bank daring? Not very (4)
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BRA(v)E ("daring", not V (very)) Up here in Scotland, a brae is a hill or incline. |
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| 10 | NOEL COWARD |
Christmas jersey commercial featuring Romeo, a witty Englishman (4,6)
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NOEL ("Christmas") + COW ("Jersey") + AD ("commercial") featuring R (Romeo, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) This clue breaks standard crossword convention as it's normally OK to use false capitalisation to add a capital letter to a word in a clue (see Nick in 24dn), but not the other way around, as Julius has done with jersey here. |
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| 11 | PSALMS |
Starts to play Sting’s charity songs (6)
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[starts to] P(lay) S(ting's) + ALMS ("charity") |
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| 12 | CUL-DE-SAC |
Accused criminal accepting trial ultimately is a dead end (3-2-3)
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*(accused) [anag:criminal] accepting (tria)L [ultimately] |
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| 13 | CARDAMOM |
American mother chasing a comical chap? That’s quite seedy (8)
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A (American) + MOM ("mother") chasing CARD ("a comical chap") Mom is an American word, but the American in the clue has to represent A for the clue grammar to work. |
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| 15 | KANT |
Philosopher, king, soldier (4)
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K (king) + ANT ("soldier") |
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| 17 | NOUS |
Absence of American intelligence? (4)
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NO US ("absence of American") |
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| 19 | NAVIGATE |
Drive a vintage Rolls (8)
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*(a vintage) [anag:rolls] |
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| 22 | CELERIAC |
Stew of rice, ale and cold vegetable (8)
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*(rice ale c) [anag:stew of], where C = cold |
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| 23 | RUNWAY |
Members of group regularly yawn, lying around part of airport (6)
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[members of] (g)R(o)U(p) [regularly] + <=YAWN [lying around] |
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| 25 | SLIPSTREAM |
Indy car might make use of this 11 tire compound (10)
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*(psalms tire) [anag:compound] where PSALMS is the answer to "11" across. |
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| 26 | WAFT |
Western newspaper catching a scent (4)
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W (western) + FT ("newspaper") catching A |
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| 27 | SPAR |
Knocks over box (4)
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<=RAPS ("knocks", over) |
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| 28 | TAKEN ABACK |
Shocked Spooner reports assault on painter Francis (5,5)
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According to the Rev. Spooner, TAKEN ABACK may have been BACON ATTACK ("assault on painter Francis") |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | HARISSA |
Farquhar is sampling somewhat spicy paste (7)
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Hidden in [somewhat] "farqHAR IS SAmpling" |
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| 3 | WHEEL |
Turn left following a thrilling exclamation (5)
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L (left) following WHEE ("a thrilling exclamation") |
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| 4 | HANDSOME |
Good-looking husband? Not half! (8)
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H (husband) + AND SOME ("not half!") |
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| 5 | FRENCHMAN’S CREEK |
Revise, refer, check Mann’s 1941 novel (10,5)
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*(refer check manns) [anag:revise] Frenchman's Creek was written by Daphne du Maurier. |
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| 6 | TICKLE |
Lightly touch punctilious person having removed clothes (6)
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(s)TICKLE(r) ("punctilious person", having removed clothes (i..e outer layer (letters))) |
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| 7 | POWDER KEG |
Explosive Colditz inmate placed above the German Kommandant’s head say? (6,3)
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POW (prisoner of war, so "Colditz inmate") placed above DER ("the" in "German") + K(ommandant) ['s head] + e.g. ("say") |
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| 8 | CURTAIN |
Furnishing lorry almost overturned on the road to Edinburgh (7)
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<=TRUC(k) ("lorry", almost, overturned) on A1(N) ("the road to Edinburgh") The A1(N) runs south to north from London to Edinburgh. |
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| 14 | DISTEMPER |
Senior detective’s upset Met over a whitewash (9)
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DI'S (Detective Inspector's, so "senior detective's") + [upset] <=MET over PER ("a") |
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| 16 | EVERYMAN |
Still bored by Mary, terribly ordinary person (8)
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EVEN ("still") bored by *(mary) [anag:terribly] |
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| 18 | OVERLAP |
Partly extend across completed Grand Prix circuit (7)
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OVER ("completed") + LAP ("Grand Prix circuit") |
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| 20 | TRAFFIC |
Trade vehicles in transit (7)
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Double definition |
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| 21 | DIKTAT |
Order child to turn over shabby clothes (6)
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<=KID ("child", to turn over) + TAT ("shabby clothes") |
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| 24 | NAWAB |
Muslim prince introducing a wife to Nick (5)
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NAB ("nick") introducing A + W (wife) An example of the acceptable use of false capitalisation. |
Thought this was a lovely puzzle with a good variety of very clear clues.
Favourites included NOEL COWARD, WHEEL, DISTEMPER, TICKLE, NOUS, CARDAMOM, POWDER KEG
Thanks Julius and loonapick
The joyfulness of clues like 3D is what makes a Julius puzzle so appealing. Other picks were KANT and the Spoonerism in 28A.
Thanks Julius – fun while it lasted! And cheers to Loonapick.
Best Spoonerism I have seen for a long time. A fun crossword.
I did take 5mins mentally checking my list of Thomas Mann’s works to see if Julius had managed an amazing self-referential 15 letter anagram. But once I dropped that everything went in quickly.
Thanks Julius and loonapick
Re the jersey/Jersey issue, I can’t say it bothered me on this particular occasion; indeed, I rather liked it but perhaps there are other examples where it would not pass muster.
New to me: HARISSA. Good puzzle; TAKEN ABACK elicited a smile.
Thanks Julius and loonapick!
CARDAMOM: Agree with the observation in the blog about MOM (didn’t notice it while solving the puzzle).
NOEL COWARD: The ‘j’ didn’t trouble me but the absence of an example indicator did.
Top faves: RUNWAY, TAKEN ABACK and TICKLE.
Splendid crossword
Many thanks to Julius and loonapick
Much enjoyed this. Julius seldom fails to please.
Thanks Julius and loonapick
What crypticsue said – great day for crosswords today!
As we know, it’s takes all sorts: I was mildly irritated by the de-capitalisation, mainly because we have a top notch and highly experienced setter here so I am surprised the idea entered his head. But I was completely unfazed by MOM: whilst the ‘American’ is certainly indicating A, it gives context to the rest of the clue and MOM was the synonym that came immediately to mind as a result. Which is not the ‘American’ serving double duty so works fine for me. KANT, TAKEN ABACK, HANDSOME, TICKLE, CURTAIN and EVERYMAN were my favourites.
Thanks Julius and loonapick
Postmark@10
CARDAMOM
Your reasoning is quite convincing.
Another way to look at it: American mother could be ‘a mom’ instead of ‘A mom’. Does it work?
Thanks for the blog, dear loonapick, and thanks to those who have commented.
I’m sorry about the absence of capital letter in Jersey in the clue for NOEL COWARD – that is my mistake.
Best wishes to all, Rob/Julius
Julius has done it again with FRENCHMAN’S CREEK: another brilliant anagram plus excellent surface. And so many other clues to like. Top favourites were NOUS and KANT (elegant constructs with similarly great surfaces).
On CARDAMOM – Julius obviously agrees with me that the FT is a global paper, so no indicator is needed for the American MOM. On the spoonerism: I have said Bacon and TAKEN to myself about 20 times and I still cannot convince myself they rhyme. I guess Julius must mumble. I did not know CHEW THE FAT means argue – I always thought it means share like thoughts / reminisce. And I knew temper is a paint, not DISTEMPER.
Thanks Julius for an enjoyable puzzle and thanks loonapick for a quality blog
Martyn @ 13 Are you thinking of tempera as the paint? Distemper is less of a paint per se than a limewash – it’s water-based but generally thinner than emulsion.
Thanks to Julius and loonapick
Thanks Julius for an excellent crossword with CUL-DE-SAC, NAVIGATE, TAKEN ABACK, HANDSOME, TICKLE, and EVERYMAN being my top picks. I never heard of NOUS for intelligence so I missed that one. I solved 10a by ‘Christmas’ alone and so I paid little attention to ‘jersey’ in my hasty after-the-fact parsing. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
Thanks Julius and Loonapick
13ac: Some interesting suggestions above about the indication for MOM, but I think the simplest explanation is to note that Collins 2023 marks mom as “chiefly US and Canadian“, so no special indication is necessary. Note that Collins is the most up to date of the single volume dictionaries.
Thanks for the blog, really enjoyed this after yet another dreary Guardian theme puzzle .
All my favourites have been mentioned. I see Gordius has owned up for the capital .
Personally I do not like fake capitals or actual capitals not shown. Agree with the blog that the first is “allowed” and the second frowned upon but I do not really see why.
MOM is certainly used in some parts of the UK and Mam in other parts.
Big thumbs up for me. Very enjoyable and generally breezy solve until I dropped a clanger with Nous and put in the unparseable and inexplicable Loss.
Doh
Beautifully crafted clues, many with perfect sentences.
Thanks to all.
Simon S @14 – ah, tempera it is! Thanks
Really enjoyed this one. Thank you.