Comments on: Financial Times no.13,811 by HAMILTON

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:06:06 +0000

Seems noone can explain 1a . Funnily enough I thought of timber as soon as I saw Forestry but didn’t write it in as I could see absolutely no connection with Commission .

I did twig that it was themed and got a few more out.

I have decided that I’m just not interested in themed crosswords.

By: Ringo

Ringo — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:05:17 +0000

Ah – thanks, Pelham, for the clarification of 17dn (though I still find it a little troublesome, as to “woo” is surely to seek the support of, not for; I suppose one has to simply view the “of” as a linking word.

Yes, I found conservation to be hardly more than a half-anagram (for vaguely similar reasons, I wasn’t keen on “entrance” as a clue-word for “entree”, either).

Crypticsue – glad I wasn’t the only one!

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:50:26 +0000

Thanks Hamilton for the crossword and Ringo for the blog.

Like crypticsue @1, I got the theme without solving 1ac, which was one of the last ones in for me. Full marks to Hamilton for getting so many timbers into the grid, but I think 1ac deserved a better clue.

Ringo, I am not quite sure why you do not like 18ac – are you dissatisfied because the letters VATION stay together?

In 17dn, I think you can take all of “seek support for” as the definition of WOO. D for director on its own has the authority of Chambers.

My grumble is with 25ac. I am not happy with “timeless” as an instruction to remove one of two Ts from a word. I am getting used to it as a solver, and it could be justified by the device of splitting the clue word into “time less”, but I do not like that device either.

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:16:22 +0000

I don’t think its you Ringo – I struggled with this one – I even worked out what the One related to without getting 1a until nearly the end. Now that you have explained 15d, that has to be clue of the day.