Comments on: Financial Times 13731 Courtier

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:50:18 +0000

Thank you very much for that, niloci – it’s very interesting to know. I well remember John Barrett, both as a player and as the BBC commentator who succeeded Dan Maskell.

So, thank you for the puzzle, Courtier – I look forward to next year’s!

By: niloci

niloci — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:26:40 +0000

Courtier is happy to be revealed as John Barrett, Davis Cup and Wimbledon player in the 1950s and 1960s, TV commentator for the BBC and other networks, now retired, author of several books on tennis and for many years the FT’s tennis correspondent.

By: niloci

niloci — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 07:05:06 +0000

Nice blog. I have directed Courtier towards it and asked him if he wishes to be unmasked…

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:44:12 +0000

Thanks nmsindy@6, you’re right. I was misled by the container indicator into joining “following” and “year”.
Thanks also, all commenters.

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:34:13 +0000

I don’t usually do themed crosswords but I stumbled into this by accident. Once it was clear that there was a theme, I started looking out for tramlines, hawkeye, topspin etc.
Got most of it out but would still be trying to get 12a,21a ,27a & 24d.
Also couldn’t get 5d & 7dbut maybe I should have.

By: walruss

walruss — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:58:31 +0000

The excellent blog again from scchua, very pretty. So who is this once-a-year man?

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:46:32 +0000

Thanks, scchua. I think that in FEALTY the F (following) and Y (year) are being used separately rather than as an FY abbrev.

By: Ferret

Ferret — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:08:04 +0000

Thanks to setter and blogger. I arrived at 3D in a slightly different way – AT (first of “at tennis”) with TAIN ( a town in Scotland where I played golf many years ago). I prefer your version scchua!

By: eimi

eimi — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:54:40 +0000

Yes, Hamilton’s right – he’s not one of the regulars and this is his only puzzle each year.

On the same subject, can I recommend the tweets of Twitmericks. They are topical limericks that can be contained in the format of a text message or tweet, created by Mick Twister, which I believe is another pseudonym of the setter Indy readers know as Morph. Here’s his latest:

A Wimbledon winner called Venus
Got taken, this year, to the cleaners
Beat by Pironkova
Her tournament’s over
And so is her sister Serena’s

OK, beat isn’t great English, but rhyming Venus with Serena’s is brilliant, I think.

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:49:02 +0000

Very enjoyable – nice theme and some good clues too. Thanks to Courtier and scchua too.