Comments on: Financial Times 13,564 / Alberich

By: scarpia

scarpia — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:57:33 +0000

Thanks smiffy.
Super puzzle from Alberich
My favourite was MADHOUSE and,like you,was not keen on D – deserted in 8 down,but a quick check shows it listed as that in Chambers,so no quibble from me.This use of obscure abbreviations is something more often found in barred puzzles.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 21:51:24 +0000

Lovely crossword (again).
So precise and so many great surfaces [the only one I didn't understand was 15ac where 'taking' went beyond me, but that's perhaps my fault].

I made two mistakes, one of which prevented me to find 28ac.
In 23d I entered FLIES (I in SELF*), but you can hardly call them ‘jumpers’ – with BLUEBILL (a duck …) instead of BLUEBELL. Thought that perhaps ‘ill’ was referring to a word like ‘ill-measured’.
In 24d I had CRASH, ‘rash’ perhaps being ‘a series of unpleasant occurrences’ (misfortune), but a CRASH is not really a counteract then, more one to make things worse ….

I needed the blog to fully understand IDIOM, which apart from the first I consists of only abbreviations, very unusual.

My Clue of the Day [hard to choose]: WELLINGTON (11ac), because of the originality of the surface (where one usually gets a Duke, as smiffy [TA!!] points out).

By: shuchi

shuchi — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 18:54:31 +0000

Thanks smiffy. Alberich is such a delight to solve.

My favourite clues were for words with a personal connection – BANGALORE (where I live) and REBOOT (which my old laptop needs too much of nowadays). Loved the clue for AMMO too.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:16:33 +0000

Yes, this was very good and not too hard at all. Favourites AMMO and MADHOUSE. Thanks for the blog, smiffy, and Alberich for the puzzle.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:39:51 +0000

dreadnought
Chambers gives ‘oner’ as an informal term for “a big lie” (as in being economical with the truth).

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:24:42 +0000

Many thanks, Smiffy, and Alberich, for a very entertaining puzzle – a real treat, as usual.

Some lovely surfaces – 12, 23, 27, 21ac, 23dn and – favourite of all [close to home!] – 14dn.

Orlando [Cincinnus] gave us THERMALS in the Guardian puzzle yesterday!

By: dreadnought

dreadnought — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:04:27 +0000

Thanks for the blog; as you said, a very enjoyable outing today. Laughed at 7D, got 8D despite “deserted = d” controversy as you pointed out. Spent ages on 23D. And decided against Washington for 11A.

However I am still puzzled by 26A. The only “oner” I know of (i.e. c.1970) is a conker that has either (depending on local rules) just been stringed or has smashed another virgin conker. (Sadly, as I live in Singapore I cannot demo this to my son.) So why “a lie = oner”? Is it golf or summat?