Comments on: Financial Times 13,680 / Gaff

By: lenny

lenny — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:00:53 +0000

I came to this late after doing the Times’s sycophantic themed puzzle and the Indy’s slightly more irreverent one. Thanks to Gaff and the FT for trumping them both in celebrating the great Lonnie’s eightieth.
I don’t know if this would be of any help to new solvers but, whenever I see a 50-odd letter anagram, I write out the phrase as a series of dashes on a separate piece of paper. Doing this today, I recognised the song after getting only four checking letters. It’s quite an achievement for Shuchi to finish this without knowing the song, even with the aid of a Google.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:56:49 +0000

I found it.
2 May 2009, Enigmatist: http://fifteensquared.net/2009/05/09/guardian-24689-sat-2-mayenigmatist-by-gum/
Also an anagram as one can see.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:48:53 +0000

Well, shuchi, this 53/54 thing was exactly why I started to doubt about the device being a full anagram.
Luckily, after I found ‘chewing-gum’ and ‘bedpost’ I remembered another puzzle from a while ago in the Guardian [probably an Araucaria or Paul] with the same song in it.
So, there we were.

I think there’s a lot to admire in this crossword.
Clues like 1ac (TEARS OF GRIEF), 15ac (EASTERTIDE), 28ac (THE PROVINCES), 3d (ROSETTES) ['rise' is not really a problem for me], 14d (AT THE NADIR) are all very well written and contenders for my Clue of the Day.

Despite the words “A celebratory crossword” there is no real theme on The Wedding going on, but references to it in the surfaces of several clues give us just enough.
Exactly that what I hoped Paul would do today (and which he did not).

Thank you Gaff and shuchi.

By: shuchi

shuchi — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:35:04 +0000

Thank you for your comments. Should have got 1A and 3D; 1A is very clever!

@Conrak Cork: Thanks for the info on the song, I’ll edit the blog to refer to your comment.

@mike04: Whoa. What a faux-pas! I wonder how many solvers noticed it. I guess most of us thought of the answer first and assumed the letters would fit. That’s what I did!

By: mike04

mike04 — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:32:26 +0000

Many thanks shuchi

That 53-letter anagram appears to come from a 54-letter word group.
The extra R? I think it floated up from “peserve” in 2dn!

By: Conrad Cork

Conrad Cork — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:19:59 +0000

Donegan wasn’t the composer of the song. ‘Composition’ is the anagram indicator surely? The song is ‘by’ him in the sense that he recorded it, changing the word ‘spearmint’ in the 1920′s original to chewing-gum, presunably so as not to advertise and get banned from the BBC playlists.

I enjoyed this so much that I want to buy Gaff a drink.

By: jmac

jmac — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:09:40 +0000

And thank you Schuchi, I failed to get 14 dn and welcomed your explanation. Also thanks to Gaff for a very entertaining puzzle with a lovely misdirection at its heart – brought back childhood memories.

By: jmac

jmac — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:52:50 +0000

Sorry we crossed DL. Agree with you about 3Dn.

By: jmac

jmac — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:51:26 +0000

Hi Schuchi,

I think 1ac is Tears of Grief (anagram is after forge).

24 ac ithought was because Kate Middleton ends in on, i.e end on.

By: DL

DL — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:49:11 +0000

alternative answers?

1A Tears of grief. anagram: Is after forge.
3D Rosettes. Setter (I) backwards with OS (oversize – great) in the middle.