Comments on: Financial Times 13,601 by ALBERICH

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:59:24 +0000

Thanks PeeDee.
Unlike Sil,I have no reservations in using superlatives to describe this puzzle – super,excellent etc.
If I had to find a fault it would be with 18 down,ONUS and ONEROUS are,perhaps too similar.
So many good clues that it is hard to pick a favourite but special mention must be given to 13 across.I knew from check letters that it must be CHUCKLED or CHORTLED but took ages to twig the wordplay and yet it was so simple!
ELSAN I’m afraid is too familiar to me,we didn’t have a flushing toilet at home until I reached 16.Still remember having to take my turn at emptying our Elsan!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:45:29 +0000

Thank you PeeDee for your magnificent blog (and I do like the fact the explanation part is no too expansive).

Although I haven’t finished yet the recent Klingsor puzzle of the same setter, I was pleased to see his name on the bill today.
It was a good crossword, but I will not speak in terms of ‘superlatives’ as some people might think I’m biased.
My PinC, though, mentioned quite a few times the word “clever”.

We weren’t sure about 17ac and had – like others – to check the rightness of BUGLOSS (8d), a word that was perfectly guettible [which means guessible or gettable].
We knew that 26ac had to be to obvious ELAN, but couldn’t explain it. Another case of using a brand name as (part of the) answer. To be honest, I’m not particularly keen on these things – on the other hand using brand names in the clue itself is OK for me.

PeeDee, you have your doubts about the ellipsis.
Indeed, there’s no relation between the solutions of 9 and 10ac, but I think the two dó make a proper sentence with a football surface: … footballers, [to be found] mostly [on the] outside right, [are bound] to draw …

Not the trickiest of Alberich’s puzzles, but many fine clues.
Agree with walruss that ON THE SLY (4d) was one of the best.
And agree with PeeDee about TSAR and CONDUCTOR.
And let’s not forget the splendid CHUCKLED (13ac), the nice surface of 20d and the effectiveness of the wording in 25ac.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:48:46 +0000

Why are there elipses linking 9ac and 10ac?

Encourage footballers, mostly . . .(4)
. . . . outside right, to draw game with Wiltshire town (10)

The clues don’t join into a coherent sentence, ‘footballers’ is plural but ‘outside right’ is singular. The ansers are not related and the clues are not interdependent.

By: bamberger

bamberger — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:56:27 +0000

Didn’t have much to show for an hours graft though mostly down to my failings.
15a Thought there might be a hidden word but hadn’t come across esse.
17a Excellent misdirection -went through all the cuts I could think of but didn’t think of the other meaning of beef.
8d Not something I’ve ever come across. Well done anyone who got that one.
14d Another “never heard of ” for me-ditto for 5/8 colleagues.
26a as for 14d. As someone put it -you don’t run marathons or have a caravan so why would you know that. 2/8 had heard of that -one a camper and one a marathon runner. Is it really that well known?

By: walruss

walruss — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:56:16 +0000

No problem, Gaufrid. Thanks for responding!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:20:29 +0000

Emjoyable puzzle, quite tough in places but all clear at the end. Esp liked CHUCKLED, ON THE SLY, RABBIT. Re Tony Welsh’s point at #5, crossword convention is that abbreviations are not normally indicated – they would of course be abbrevs that appear dicts like n = new and t = tenor here. Thanks PeeDee for the incredible blog (but thanks also Gaufrid for making it clear it won’t become the standard – I’d never have the time!) and thanks Alberich for the puzzle. For those outside the UK, maybe it should be explained that Spurs is short for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from North London.

By: Tony Welsh

Tony Welsh — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:07:30 +0000

Thanks,PeeDee. I found this hard too, but top right rather than. Did not get 17a though, and while I finally guessed 6d and 13a I did not understand the wordplay, so thanks for that.

Favorite clue was 14d. For along time thought 13a had something to do with Lake Chad! Never heard of BUGLOSS or ESSE but looked them up.

My usual beef with 20d: what indicates that New Tenor was to be abbreviated? (Alberich could have used the old favorite, “books” for New Testament here.)

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 12:41:07 +0000

Hi walrus
Not everyone has the time to prepare posts in a similar manner to Duncan (some of the bloggers have to work for a living!) so I am not going to be prescriptive regarding the content, style and layout.

I can see a benefit in having the clues included in a prize puzzle, when the blog appears a week or more later, since some people may no longer have the original puzzle. There is also more time available for writing these blogs so more scope for additional detail.

However, for daily puzzles there are greater time constraints and, if someone doesn’t have a hardcopy of the puzzle, the clues can always be viewed by opening the relevant paper’s webpage in another window or tab.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 12:37:12 +0000

OVENT – Oops! How could I not see that?

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 12:29:16 +0000

Hi PeeDee
The wordplay you have given for 24dn leads to ‘ovent’ rather than the required EVENT.

I parsed this one as E (Orient) VENT (opening) with the definition simply ‘fixture’.