Comments on: Financial Times no.14,180 by Redshank

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 02:29:29 +0000

verbose, Chambers tells us that “paralytic” can mean (informally) ‘helplessly drunk’.

By: verbose

verbose — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 02:23:04 +0000

Thanks Ringo. I don’t understand 10d. I get the wordplay, but why is “under the table” a definition for “paralytic”?

By: Redshank

Redshank — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:03:16 +0000

Sorry, but I’ve just now visited and seen the confusion and I’m not surprised! Don’t ask me how it happened – I don’t know. Perhaps compound anagrams are now automatically banned?

Here’s the clue I wrote for 26A:

With grant, this could make negotiators redundant (6)

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:36:34 +0000

Indeed, in 26ac something must have gone wrong. Anax is right about “No Clue” appearing in Crossword Compiler when there’s no clue yet. I was hoping to get a stunning clue here, but I wondered about the capitalisation of ‘Clue’ rightaway. Never mind.

Apart from that, it was once more a great puzzle by Redshank who has become a real threat to his alter egos in the Indy (Radian) and the Guardian (Crucible). In a way I find Redshank crosswords a tad more sparkling because of being free of ninas, themes and over-cleverness [but Duggie, I like those too! ].

If I have to single out clues, they would be:
9ac (because of separating mountain/range), 21ac (great definition), 10d (fine surface) and 15d (although I needed the blog and Thomas99 for help).
12ac, though easy enough, was quite original too.
And as always a (kind of) subtraction anagram which some still find ‘unusual’, in 6d.
Oh, and 5d – fine too, alluding to two meanings of ‘radical’.

Really satisfying crossword.

By: mike04

mike04 — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:51:25 +0000

Oh dear, in comment 7 the radical sign has come out as a question mark.
Sorry about that. Every question mark should be a ‘square root’ sign!

By: mike04

mike04 — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:46:14 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Ringo.
Re 5dn: According to Chambers, a radical is a root, in any sense.
No-one else seems to have taken up your challenge – so here goes!

A radical in mathematics is the root of a quantity as indicated by the sign ?
(the radical sign).
A number (the index) placed to the left of the sign shows the type of root.

For a Cube Root, the number is 3: 3? (the second 3 should be smaller!)
eg 3?8 = 2 because 2 x 2 x 2 =8.
For a Square Root, the number is 2, but the number is usually omitted: ?
eg ?9 = 3 because 3 x 3 =9.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:35:28 +0000

Hi Ringo. I do not think you need double duty in 12ac. The clue can be parsed as AW (starts [of Arthur Wellesley]) followed by (and) RY (ends [of Arthur Wellesley]).

By: anax

anax — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:54:50 +0000

Additional (with apologies!) – should have pointed out that No Clue only appears when you export the clues into a Word or similar document. It doesn’t appear in the list of clues within Crossword Compiler.

By: anax

anax — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:52:17 +0000

I can’t speak for all setters, but I guess the majority supply puzzles in Crossword Compiler. The default setting – if a clue remains unwritten – is for the text No Clue to appear in the clue list. Seems to be the case here, especially with the absence of enumeration and the capitalisation of the initials of both words.

By: AID

AID — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:38:15 +0000

For 26a, I went for stooge being one without a clue.