Comments on: Financial Times 13,685 / Alberich

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 05 May 2011 20:27:58 +0000

And we ended up (as we do frequently) in the NW.
The place where ORPHEUS was the solution we entered with me having Morpheus in mind and with us both having no clue what it was all about.
So, thanks smiffy!

Alberich’s crosswords are always a joy to solve as I feel great affinity with his cluing style.
Usually, my PinC and I do the Guardian together after work, but Alberich is one of the few setters that overrule this daily routine of ours. Sorry, Shed!

Yet, I think this wasn’t Alberich (fully) on top form.
Don’t get me wrong, it was very good, but I missed the extra amount of misdirection and deviousness. And the ‘lift & separate’ device too. That said, it was there in eg the very clever AGEISM. Maybe, I’m getting too used to his style.

While we didn’t jump for joy after finding GRATIN, TACK, ACCOUNT, TEETOTAL and OCH, we did appreciate many other clues.
As there were, for example, 15ac (AGEISM), 26ac (OUTCAST), 29ac (ALLNIGHTER), 2d (AT PEACE), 3d (EYELESS AT GAZA) and above all the fantastic VAN DER POST (14d).
Just brilliant.

By: Bracoman

Bracoman — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:45:20 +0000

Mine was also a game of two halves, but in this case it was the bottom half first and then the top. I did like 14d.

By: malc95

malc95 — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:22:09 +0000

Forgot to mention 23a -
“Former union returned” NUR (National Union of Railwaymen, now the RMT) = RUN as well as being a hidden answer.

By: malc95

malc95 — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:01:07 +0000

Thanks Alberich and smiffy.

Missed 15a (I had AVERSE, but clearly couldn’t parse it), and couldn’t fully parse 21d.
Loved 14d, but my c.o.d. was 12a.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:14:13 +0000

Van der Post is a classic! Literally made me laugh out loud. Unfortunately, I’m at work…

By: jmac

jmac — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:54:31 +0000

Thanks for the blog Smiffy, particularly for explaining ORPHEUS. My experience was similar to yours, with the east side falling quite quickly, and the west side proving trickier. VAN DER POST eventually sorted it out for me. Too many great clues to mention,so only left to say thanks Alberich for a most entertaining puzzle.

By: Jezza

Jezza — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:47:26 +0000

Thanks to Alberich for the puzzle – I really enjoyed this one, and to smiffy for the review.
I also liked the wordplay in 2d.

By: Alberich

Alberich — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:37:43 +0000

Thanks for the nice blog, Smiffy. It was Sod’s Law that I wanted to print off as many crosswords as I could today to pass the time while dealing with Czech officialdom, only to find the FT was one of mine! A couple of points of interpretation: 17 down was meant to indicate VAN + RED< + POST (what the van contains) – though I can see that this was perhaps ambiguous. 21 was supposed to be an &lit – AC (current)+ COunt (count on, bank on) though on revisiting the clue I can see it looks like a (not very good) cryptic definition.

I hope I haven't butted in too early – I'm not sure of the form on these matters.