Comments on: Financial Times 13,872 / Bradman

By: malc95

malc95 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:34:06 +0000

If anyone is still around -

I had LARNE (river in NI) for 24a, ie LARiNE which refers to seabirds & in particular gulls. Oh well, how wrong can you be?

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:57:49 +0000

I have just recently taken to supplementing my Grauniad puzzle habit with some of the recent FT offerings.

Enjoyed this one immensely, for a bit 6d had me thinking we might be looking for dances (REEL), but I found LOIRE and AVON very early on, both worked well and had something in common, so in they went in pencil. As I slowly cracked the regular clues and some more rivers, I took care to highlight the thematic answers’ locations, suspecting there would be symmetry involved.

Embarrassed to not have figured out STRESS, but that came from not being able to parse CURTNESS, so not writing it in and taking the R seriously.

I had RAFT at 27 – it’s a river in Idaho and Utah, and sort of fits the clue. But not very well.

3 is *definitely* OISE and not OUSE. A tortoise is a legendary slow mover. A dormouse, as a little rodent, would be anything but.

I really enjoyed many aspects of this puzzle – the theme, the difficult grid (four corners and a center with only the long answers checking them), the way the long answers were technically easy but came so slowly… and the device at 13! Excellent.

Thanks for the blog, shuchi, explaining some of what I missed, and BRADMAN for the joyful romp!

By: shuchi

shuchi — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:03:47 +0000

Thanks Bradman for dropping by and clearing up 3d.

By: Jan

Jan — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:17:20 +0000

Thanks Schuchi. I was frustrated by this puzzle: guessing 4 and 5 lettered rivers, anywhere in the world, and making the clues fit. I’m not familiar with the Italian one so I was not going to get it.

I also had AFLOAT at 7d (until I got OCHREOUS). It does work.

A fellow (AF) needing to cross a river can be read as river needing to cross a giving LOT (French river) around A …

… AF LO A T … = ready to sail.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:24:46 +0000

Re 24 – I wondered if Marnie was gullible in the film… I wish I’d taken more time over 3d. I had Ouse, but Oise is much better!

I spotted the rivers early but still found this very challenging. I was also haunted by the possibility that half of them might turn out to be FLOWERs…

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:36:38 +0000

Thanks Don for a fun puzzle and shuchi for the blog. Fortunately I spotted (or at least guessed) early on that the unclued entries were all in the 4-5-4 rows and columns. Nice device at 13ac.

I too had OISE at 3dn, but OUSE works.

By: Bradman

Bradman — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:33:15 +0000

The DORMOUSE never occurred to be as the epitome of slowness, and the COD calls it agile despite the derivation of its name. One for the exam panel to decide on methinks. Thanks for comments.

By: shuchi

shuchi — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:21:04 +0000

Hi Eileen

Your answer for 3d does fit well. I thought of [Dorm]OUSE and since that seemed to work, stopped at that…but I guess Bradman meant [tort]OISE, too.

Have updated the blog for 28a, 8d. Thanks.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:42:39 +0000

Hi shuchi and thanks for the blog.

An enjoyable puzzle, as you say.

I had OISE [half of tortOISE] for 3dn and since I had LOIRE and MARNE, I thought they were all going to be French rivers. Then I was deligted to see SOAR, which flows through my home town!

[By the way, you've omitted 28ac and entered the wrong answer for 8dn - although you've implied the correct one! ]

Thanks to Bradman for the puzzle.