Financial Times 13,207 / Cinephile

6 comments on “Financial Times 13,207 / Cinephile”

1. For today’s After Work Session, we decided to do the Cinephile and not the Guardian one by Arachne (sorry).
   Normally we find Cinephile a kind of Araucaria-lite (and more Ximenean than Mr Graham’s alter ego), but today’s delivery of the Rev was more Araucaria-like – with fine storytelling clues like 1ac, 28ac and 14dn+27ac.

   Apparently, Cinephile was in a cut-off mood.
   There were 9 clues (out of 27) with that technique – a bit of an overkill.
   We didn’t get 7dn (TEKTITE), but guessed it might be TEKTIVE, a ‘detective’ being intoxicated (cut-off again …).
   We still don’t fully understand 6dn (IRONS).
   At one point we even thought that ‘Fetter’ was an anagram indicator for S (of Fetters) IN OR. What is the link between IRONS and ‘after fire’?

   Some cut-offs we didn’t like – we thought PERU was rather weak.
   In 17dn cutting off ‘wild’ was not really elegant.
   And we had some trouble with anagrinds, like in the aforementioned 17dn: ‘sends’?
   In 8dn: ‘that’s how … would (like)’ as the anagrind?

   Although we understand that it reads better that way, we found ‘cuts his tongue’ for LING[o] rather misleading: ‘his’?

   But, in the end, we enjoyed it (Greatest: 1ac because of the surface, and 15ac (nice homophone)).
   And certainly a lot better than last Saturday’s Araucaria which wasn’t really up to the normal standard of this setter.
   But more about that later.

2. Hi Sil

   Yes, I did this one today, too – I can never resist a Monkey-puzzle, wherever it appears. I did do the Arachne, too: a strange mixture of very good clues and some surprisingly weak ones.

   I share your admiration of the story-telling clues and your puzzlement over the second part of IRONS. I was hoping that this might dawn on me while typing, as often happens – but it hasn’t!

   Re 17dn: you’re most probably too young but I remember, as a teenager, claiming to be ‘sent’ by a film / pop star: Collins: ‘send: to move to excitement or rapture’, so I thought that was acceptable as an anagram indicator – but I share your reservations re 8dn.

   But – like you, I enjoyed it!

3. Hi Eileen,

   Didn’t hear/see you that often in the last few weeks.
   I am ‘probably too young to remember’?
   Well, to be honest, I am far beyond 50.
   But indeed, I don’t know the word ‘send’ in this context, for, as you can guess, the obvious reasons – not being a Brit.

   By the way, I forgot to mention in my post the fact that I am pretty sure
   that Our Friend did the ‘games’-thing before.
   Wasn’t it something with EG (English Games) or BG (British Games)? Also in the FT.

4. Hi again, Sil

   I was on holiday last week.

   I don’t recognise the puzzle you refer to but, at eighty-odd, He’s bound to have repeated some themes, isn’t He?

   [And I could still give you a few years – but not so many as Rev John. :-)]

5. Sil & Eileen
   I read the ‘in or after’ in second part of 6d as being that you can have ‘irons in the fire’ and also ‘fire irons’.

6. Thank you, Gaufrid, that seems to make sense.
   But, although ‘irons in the fire’ is of course an expression on its own , aren’t these two kinds of irons not physically identical?

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