Comments on: Financial Times 13,290 / Gozo

By: verbose

verbose — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:41:36 +0000

Thanks Shuchi. I thought 20a was very cute indeed; it’s rare that I laugh out loud when cracking a clue.

Here are two others that did. One from the FT in August or September 2007: “Semibalding ‘usband might vanish into … ? (3, 4)” Alas, I don’t remember the setter.

The other was in the Times of India over 20 years ago: “Express disgust over bad weather in the gulf (7).” I think, but am not sure, that the ToI used to republish the FT crossword at that point. The setters weren’t named.

By: shuchi

shuchi — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:18:48 +0000

Thanks for your comments. I’ve made updates to include them in the main post.

@Richard: you’re right about 30ac. Re: 4ac, my comment was about the surface meaning of ‘Twice, a newspaper brought back jelly’, which doesn’t seem to make sense if I don’t read like a cryptic clue.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:01:37 +0000

4ac seems to make perfect sense, A (RAG)< twice. I read 30ac as I (one) in MINSTER (church).

By: Tom_I

Tom_I — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:58:29 +0000

Re 17ac, those of a certain age will remember “Drinka pinta milka day”, which was an advertising slogan widely used by the Milk Marketing Board in (I think) the 1960s.

By: C. G. Rishikesh

C. G. Rishikesh — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:06:18 +0000

And 30ac, I would think is &lit or “all in one” rather than a CD.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:21:02 +0000

Hi Shuchi
I had 11ac as *(ARTICLE) rather than dd and 15dn as ELEVEN (cricket team) PLUS (and) again instead of your indicated dd.

In 27ac, as you say, it is INSUL[ar} IN, the ‘in’ being given by ‘because of’ (see Chambers).

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:15:18 +0000

I think 9d is TO KEN = FOR LIVINGSTONE, as in Ken Livingstone ex mayor of London.