Comments on: Financial Times 13,818 / Mudd

By: Ferret

Ferret — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:50:53 +0000

sorry….1 should be !

By: Ferret

Ferret — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:50:27 +0000

Gaufrid….I’ve seen less cryptic clues from time to time1

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:38:34 +0000

Failed on
2d-never thought of heel =obey
8d I was convinced innings =score until I got 26a.
23d I was convinced it was some sort of sport associated with the head or carried on at a height.
15a Never heard of her and thought smallest room was going to be loo.
22a Didn’t spot the anagram

I’m happy with oyur blogging Gaufrid!

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:09:08 +0000

Hi Ferret
An interesting thought. Had this been a non-cryptic puzzle (ie just straight definitions), and had a space been omitted from the clue so that it became ‘American gunman’, I might be inclined to agree.

By: Ferret

Ferret — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:49:36 +0000

I think that PLEBE would also be a viable answer to 24ac?

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:14:00 +0000

Hi David @4
I take from your comment that you don’t like the style of my blogs!

Seriously though, for most of this year Shuchi has work commitments on the last Friday of each month which prevent her from blogging so I agreed to stand in for her until the situation changes. In addition, there may have been, like today, an odd occasion when she has been away but she will still have covered 75% of the Friday puzzles this year.

By: David

David — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:52:30 +0000

Given the original blogger is absent frequently, it will be nice to have a new blogger for Friday FT, I think.

By: MikeC

MikeC — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:24:56 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid and Mudd. I enjoyed this. For some time I was tempted by “football match” for “game” at 8d (which fitted the crossing letters I had at the time), so was held up in the SW. Once I googled Granth to get the S in 18a, things fell into place quite quickly.

25 is neat and economical. I agree that 2 is libertarian – but the combination of two “dog commands” is appealing.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:02:50 +0000

Thanks Mudd for a good deal of fun and Gaufrid for the blog. Favourite clues 9dn for the delightful anagram fodder and 26ac for a particularly apposite anagram indicator.

I was completely happy with 2dn. I think the definition for heel that Gaufrid has quoted fits “obey”: if not to an immediate command, then to the way the dog was trained.

By: jmac

jmac — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:56:02 +0000

Thanks for the blog Gaufrid, and thanks to Mudd, lLots of great clues. Re OBESITY, I think a dog that walks at heel is certainly being obedient, and as Chambers gives obedient as “ready to obey”, I think the clue is fair enough, although I agree that the terms are not precisely synonymous.