Comments on: Financial Times 13,780 by Aardvark

By: Lenny

Lenny — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:34:42 +0000

This was an elegant effort from Aardvark. I liked the clues for Pegasus, Retsina and Test Match. This was quite a quick solve but I spent a couple of minutes at the end considering every possible alternative answer to On the Nose before concluding that it was the only possiblility. Thanks to Conrad for explaining that. Does anyone else detest ‘Just the opposite’ clues or is it just me?

Thanks to PeeDee for explaining Obscene. I have never come across the river Ob before. I’m surprised that it is not used more often since Po is the only other 2-letter river in Crosswordland.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:52:00 +0000

Thanks Aardvark for a pleasant crossword and PeeDee for the blog. I parsed 17dn the same way as Conrad @1, with the definition being the single word “Precisely”.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:43:44 +0000

Many thanks PeeDee & Aardvark.

I struggled with 18a MISTHROWN after entering SUTTON HOE for 4d which looks as though it’s an alternative spelling:

http://homes.trovit.co.uk/sutton-hoe-pictures

I couldn’t see the sailor in 18a either.

By: Conrad Cork

Conrad Cork — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:48:00 +0000

PeeDee I think you are being a bit hard on Aardvark re 17d.
‘
‘Precisely at that time seaman is ‘then OS’, and ‘sole’ is ‘one’ which catches the seaman rather than the seaman catching him.

Quite chuckle-worthy IMHO.