Comments on: Financial Times 13,661 by IO

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:39:39 +0000

Very late to the party.
Just as I (must say: we) liked the recent Enigmatist, I enjoyed this crossword very much too.
Finished it only tonight – saved it for ‘later’ (which was today).

It is only recently that I find that there is something about John H’s puzzles that hits the right note for me.
Clever, fiendish, smiling and certainly nót as chilly as I once thought.
In the blog of ‘that’ Enigmatist (which we didn’t find very hard … (tackled it within the hour – sorry folks)), I made a remark about the fact that my view on crosswords probably has changed through the (not so many) years.
Precision in combination with adventurous and original cluing (whatever that’s worth in a country where bookshops literally have Walls of Crossword books) are high on my agenda nowadays.
This puzzle didn’t disappoint, with perhaps 27ac and 3d as my favourites.

Very challenging crossword, very satisfying to solve.
One may find this crossword too hard, not one’s cup of tea or whatever, but saying “not good” (post #8) is IMO out of order.

Many belated thanks to JH & PD!

By: Dave H

Dave H — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:55:27 +0000

Late posting due to being away fron a computor since Wednesday. I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle completing without any aids over a couple of hours and a couple of pints but thanks for the explaination of Estate which I could not parse.Good chalenge with precise clueing and some of IO,s usual tricks and deviousness which is all the more enjoyable when the penny finally drops.

By: John H

John H — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:53:02 +0000

EB.

Yeah, go on…

By: Tilsit

Tilsit — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:28:14 +0000

Yes the 109 comments many were not exactly unfavourable but consisted of childish pathetic jokes.

Most of the comments, like Richard’s, didn’t actually give a lot of reasoning why they didn’t like the puzzle, other than it was too hard for their little brains.

By: flashling

flashling — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:23:54 +0000

@IO/EB with the number of Nimrod’s I’ve suffered I deserve a beer or two! Is this the same Richard who commented “horrible” on one of my blogs and then ran, not saying why?

By: EB

EB — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:04:36 +0000

@John H/IO

Can I pretend I didn’t like it?

By: John H

John H — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:54:20 +0000

If you didn’t like it Richard, any chance of knowing why/not?

I’m happy to discuss – maybe over a pint?

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:43:23 +0000

Not good.

By: bamberger

bamberger — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:04:47 +0000

Got about 3/4 out and quite enjoyed it. Can’t believe that I thought of mo and uss for 2d but couldn’t make the jump to mousse.
28a was too hard for me and didn’t know 20d.

By: walruss

walruss — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:06:35 +0000

Like a lot of them I think this compiler takes his foot off the gas for the more complex FT audience. That’s what they’ve called it here, anyway! But the E from ESTATE is not a good bit of defining for me. That’s the only thing I didn’t like.