Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 25, 2020
There is no special reason I am aware of for a special puzzle this weekend but, thanks to Julius, we have one. Here is the completed grid:
You may find it interesting that all four of the 12-letter answers around the perimeter are American.
Many of the clues are easy, the first (PRICIER) being a good example. A few however are tough, especially that for KNEVELL which is a variant spelling of a Scots word that I do not recall coming across before. But filling a grid like this must be very demanding so we must expect a difficult clue here and there. My favourites are YANKEE DOODLE, OARLESS, SARA LEE, DOROTHY and VESTIGE. Thank you Julius for what must have been a lot of work.
Here are the clues in the order published with answers and explanations:
More expensive spin doctor Eric taking over Independent (7)
PRICIER – PR (spin) + I (independent) in (taking over) anagram (doctor) of ERIC
Wood item to burn on the fire: 10¥ (about) (7)
XYLOGEN – LOG (item to burn on the fire) in (about) X YEN (10¥). I remember xylogen from biology class at school; it refers to a nascent form of wood.
Tense, excited, squiffy (7)
UPTIGHT – UP (excited) + TIGHT (squiffy)
Julius is depressed without a student to inspire (5)
IMBUE – IM (Julius is) + B[l]UE (depressed without a student)
Having been drinking, bishop left – had a leak (5)
OOZED – [b]OOZED (having been drinking, bishop left)
See here: behold United touring Asian capital short of time (4,3)
LOOK YOU – LO (behold) +[t]OKYO (Asian capital short of time) + U (united)
In Australia, Walker (former US president) greeting King & Queen(4,5)
BUSH HIKER – BUSH (former US president) + HI (greeting) + K (king) + ER (queen). My expert adviser in all things Australian confirmed something I suspected: that, while “bush hiker” is very plausible as an Australian expression, it is certainly not common usage there. “Bush walker” would be the common term.
An element of nickel, oxygen, bismuth, uranium casing (7)
NIOBIUM – NI (nickel), O (oxygen) + BI (bismuth) + U[raniu]M
One casually drawn to support remix of Kanye West’s second classic song? (6,6)
YANKEE DOODLE – anagram (remix of) KANYE + [w]E[st] + DOODLE (0ne casually drawn)
Joint warning – of course – to tease (4,3)
FORE RIB – FORE (warning of course, i.e. golf course) + RIB (tease). Fore Rib is a cut of beef.
Old city in Provence succeeded in being stuck up s**t creek? (7)
OARLESS – O (old) + ARLES (city in Provence) + S (succeeded). The definition here refers to the old saying of “being up a creek without a paddle”.
Whenever Japanese comic film screens opening scenes of yakuza terror (7)
ANYTIME – Y[akusa] T[error] in (screens) ANIME (Japanese comic film)
Some feel a raspberry upsidedown cake could be one of hers (4,3)
SARA LEE – reverse hidden words. I know Sara Lee as a long-established brand of cakes and other baking and baked products in the U.S. Is it known in the U.K. too?
Girl, American dad leave son in Pacific islands (9)
GALAPAGOS – GAL (girl) + A (American) + PA (dad) + GO (leave) + S (son)
Prize Open? No, the other way round! (6,3)
CLARET JUG – Open prize. The trophy given to the winner of the “British Open” golf championship is commonly known as the “Claret Jug”.
In Scotland, punch English Victor – saved by the sound of the bell! (7)
KNEVELL – E (English) V (Victor) together in (saved by) KNELL (the sound of the bell). My Chambers tells me that ‘knevell’ is a variant of ‘nevel’, a Scots word meaning to pound with fists. New to me, whichever way you spell it.
Hot rod crashed, finishing off Nosey Parker? (7)
DOROTHY – anagram (crashed) of HOT ROD + [nose]Y
Nelson, Ohio unfortunately has a traitor in its midst (7)
HORATIO – RAT (traitor) in (in its midst) of anagram (unfortunately) of OHIO
Trace item of underwear Nigel stripped off (7)
VESTIGE – VEST (item of underwear) + [n]IGE[l]
Socialist university vote presented in a new light (5)
REDUX – RED (socialist) + U (university) + X (vote)
Female vicar dusted off poker (4,4,4)
FIVE CARD STUD – F (female) + anagram (off) of VICAR DUSTED. Five Card Stud is a form of poker.
Visiting Ware to dance a Charleston here (4,8)
WEST VIRGINIA – anagram (to dance) of VISITING WARE. The better known Charleston is in South Carolina but there is one in West Virginia too. In fact it’s the capital of the state. And a place I have visited.
Patient chap’s recent struggles seeking workplace? (3,6)
JOB CENTRE – JOB (patient chap) + anagram (struggles) of RECENT
A modicum of froideur as I asperse a continental bloc (7)
EURASIA – hidden word
Spot that lady’s instruments (7)
ZITHERS – ZIT (spot) + HERS (that lady’s)
With which I observe nonsense? (2,3)
MY EYE – double definition
Question Rutter’s ears, skipping beats in common time! (7,5)
QUARTER RESTS – Q (question) + anagram (???) of RUTTERS EARS. “Quarter rests” are rest notes in music with the same length as a crotchet (or quarter note) and I suspect Julius is intending a reference to the English composer and conductor, John Rutter. However the clue seems incomplete in that there is no anagram indicator. Well, unless ‘skipping’ is supposed to do double duty which seems improbable.
Putting down sodium, finish off household pest (7)
TERMITE – TERMI[na]TE (finish off, putting down sodium)
My first time to tackle a grid of this sort – good thing it was the weekend edition – but as it was a Julius, I was determined to give it a go. A pencil was required, naturally, to work out the perimeter and it took quite a while to get going. I had ‘pull leg’, for instance, instead of ‘fore rib’ initially. I was also puzzled by ‘question Rutter’s ears’ but just assumed that ‘question’ was both anagram indicator and part of the wordplay.
DOROTHY (a favourite), PRICIER and MY EYE helped settle the placement of the outer clues. Then JOB CENTRE in the middle unlocked the next tier. For the third sally, I went through the alphabet systematically to fill in the gaps which yielded gems like ZITHERS.
KNEVELL and XYLOGEN were new and needed cross-checking. I enjoyed BOOZED, ANYTIME and IMBUE especially. Pete’s meticulous blog helped clear the few left unparsed like TERMITE (so obvious now!).
Though not entirely cheat-free for me, this was fiendish yet satisfying. Thanks very much, Julius.
Thanks, Julius and Pete!
This is the kind of fit-in-the-clues puzzle we have monthly in Harper’s (is it available in the UK?), which I’m glad is only monthly, because they take me several days when I can finish them at all. This took me three days to find a majority of the clues; then, when I started fitting them in, they came surprisingly easily.
Three I didn’t get were FORERIB, IMBUE and OARLESS – the latter partly because I mistakenly put QUARTER NOTES instead of QUARTER RESTS on the bottom, then found that didn’t work with BUSH HIKER.
I’m sure it does refer to John Rutter. Maybe “Question” is intended both as Q and as anagram indicator? I’ve sung in choruses under British conductors who will say “Crotchet” or “Quaver” and see our puzzled faces, then have to correct it, “Oh, you say quarter rests?”
And WEST VIRGINIA is just an acronym of VISITING WARE – no extra “A” required. Saying “a Charleston here” probably means correctly that WV has one of the two Charlestons in US.
Anagram, not acronym …
Diane, Thank you for your generous input and your appreciation. Much appreciated in return.
jeff@usa, Thank you for commenting. And, oh dear, I did make an error with the WEST VIRGINIA clue — now corrected. I am not familiar with Harper’s.
Thanks Julius — this took me several sessions to complete but it was worthwhile. I’m always amazed at this sort of construction and I’m always satisfied to complete such a crossword. Favorites included LOOK YOU, DOROTHY, and TERMITE. Thanks Pete for the write-up.
jeff@usa: Harper’s cryptic does take an investment of time and it’s the closest we have to the British crosswords; I’ve subscribed for years (it’s not available for free); I’d be happy to mail copies to anyone who’s interested. Anyhow, the most recent one was loads of fun but not particularly difficult.
I found this a steady solve, though I had more than half the clues jotted down before I felt confident about where any of them went. I carelessly wrote down XYLOGON, so I would not have qualified for a prize!
I was unsure of the parsing of TERMITE, because I had stupidly interpreted “putting down” as terminate (despite it being the wrong part of speech!) and then the indication for taking NA out didn’t make sense. Doh! This is my first time on the FT part of this site and I only came here because Julius comments below the line on the Guardian cryptic blog (as baerchen), and is often critical of what he sees as looseness in the cluing there.
In the clue for QUARTER RESTS I think the exclamation mark is to alert us to something fishy. So either skipping is doing double duty, or (less likely) question is. Clever clue, but would baerchen think that Julius had done enough to avoid criticism for looseness?
There was definitely an American slant to this puzzle (including what appears to be an American version of an Australian term!), which led me to do more post-solve checking than I would normally do, but the most obscure was the Scottish alternate spelling, though I was able to write in the answer from the word play and crossers before reaching for my Chambers.
Thanks Julius and Pete for the entertainment and the explanations.
I agree, a lot of American in this. I was stumped by “oarless” and Knevell” . I always have to do some cross-checking but am pleased with myself for almost completing this one.
When I think about it, an Araucaria alphabetical should actually be easier than this one because it gives away the first letter of each clue.
However, and I said this before, Julius’s style of cluing is so accessible that it’s not that hard [for me – sorry to those who think otherwise] to get half of the answers before entering something into the grid.
And when you’re at the point of entering something into the grid, the ball starts rolling quite smoothly.
Not sure Julius used the same grid last time [and I am someone who accepts any grid] but, hey, this was just perfect.
Wonderful alphabetical, ticked all the boxes for me (apart from Q).
sheffield hatter, Thank you for commenting. You lead me to realize that I did not pay attention to the question mark in the QUARTER RESTS clue. I cannot see it serving the definition so I suspect you are right in that it signals something unconventional.
On reconsideration, however, I am finding myself more drawn to the idea that ‘question’ does double duty in that clue.
Thanks Julius and Pete
Always enjoy these alphabetical puzzles and this one was no exception. Started off by seeing West Virginia first and needed to get 13 more clues out before the second F (FIVE CARD STUD) matched up with FORE RIB to get the grid fill started. After that it became a quicker solve with clues falling steadily.
I hadn’t heard of KNEVELL, NIOBIUM, REDUX or XYLOGEN and grinned at OARLESS when it’s penny dropped.
Struggled a bit with the QUARTER REST anagrind – but if one accepts that ‘beat’ in music means ‘the basic unit of time in music’, then does it matter if a note is actually played or can that time be occupied with silence (or a rest / quarter rest) ? If that was the case, then ‘beats in common time’ would suffice as the definition and ‘skipping’ as the anagrind.
Finished in my fourth sitting with that OARLESS and CLARET JUG as the last couple in.
Thank you for the blog, Pete, and thank you to those who have commented. I’m not a muso but the duration of a quarter rest – as I understand it – is equal to one beat in 4/4 time and that seems fair enough as a definition to me but I accept that if Mr Rutter is tuning in he might pooh-pooh it and, if so, I apologise for the inaccuracy