Comments on: Financial Times 13,288 / IO

By: verbose

verbose — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:12:29 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid. Even with the explanations, I find many of the clues here puzzling. 24,20D, for example, strikes me as more ingenious than satisfying.

13a: Why is ROO a “new” jumper?

By: uncle yap

uncle yap — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:13:21 +0000

Walled-off county for corn is as legitimate as deranged orange for the letter O (ala Araucaria) … my only grouse here is I do not know anybody by the name, Corin

Yes, I agree that John Henderson sometimes gets carried away by his cleverness (after all, he is a former Times Crossword champion)and forgets to inject some humour in his clues. Some of his Nimrod puzzles, whilst being extremely challenging, are almost bereft of humour.

John, if you are reading this; please remember solvers like to be challenged as well as entertained. So, get in your Spoonerism, the blue definitions and anything that will raise a wry smile here and there.

Otherwise John is a fantastic compiler and I owe him some mugs of Guinness Stout for the pleasure his puzzles have given me over the years.

By: Macca

Macca — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:42:48 +0000

Is ‘walled-off county’ really good enough for CORN ? I think not. Maybe for ‘minus walled’ but not ‘minus wall’. Then of all men’s names, Corin ? Is that common enough to be clued simply as ‘man’ ?

Cluing any old given name as ‘man/woman’ is pretty lazy, IMO. The setter shouldn’t have used it as an answer if that’s the best they can do.

By: JamesM

JamesM — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:07:37 +0000

Gaudfrid

Thanks for the blog. It was, I suspect, quite an undertaking!

I am sure that you are right re 24/20 down, particularly when “mother” is diametrically opposite to “father”!

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:50:36 +0000

Hi Mike04
I think you are right about ‘after lunch’ = ‘in the afternoon’. This didn’t occur to me whilst solving but with hindsight perhaps it should have done.

As for 25ac, perhaps ‘too far-fetched’!

By: Mike04

Mike04 — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:11:49 +0000

Thank you for the blog, Gaufrid.
Some of today’s clues were difficult to parse.

23ac POM
I thought perhaps O in PM ’round in the afternoon’ could be read as
’round after lunch’

25ac PAK CHOI
I agree with your interpretation. I wonder if the word cabbage is doing double duty here as an enveloper – as its leaves surround its heart.
Or is that just too far-fetched?

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:09:04 +0000

Thanks for the blog.

I found this rather odd. I managed most the answers and a few by guessing.
I can’t help with 24,20 dn it’s one I guessed but cannot see how it works
apart from ME must indicate MOTHER SUPERIOR with the rest of the cluing???
(a bit lose for my liking though).

I find Io a lot different than Enigmatist and not as much fun, but most Io
puzzles are dry I find.