Financial Times 14,797 by GAFF

12 comments on “Financial Times 14,797 by GAFF”

1. Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs.

   1ac: A bugler would play the last post, so possibly could be hoping that others would hear (catch) it, but I would love to see a better explanation than this.

2. Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs,

   This was great fun.

   I thought “corporate” referred to the body in the bath, not its corporation.

   I have BUGLES at 1 ac – perhaps a cd related to The Last Post?

   DAY IN THE LIFE could allude to the theme too.

3. Thanks PG@1 and Muffy@2.

   For 1ac, while the last post seems to fit, not sure about the first part of the clue though. Like PG, I wonder if there are better explanations for this. Hopefully, Gaff will stop by to enlighten us if all else fails.

   Muffy, I did observe the same as you ref 31,10 and had included it as part of my first attempt on the preamble which didnt go through (Specifically, seven such days in ..)

   I thought 14ac was quite neat.

   CHeers

4. 1a.I keep seeing bag for catch and “t” for last post, or “d” as in send.

5. A ‘cryptic’ crossword should be purely that. A heavily themed crossword is, in my book a ‘craptic’. One with a predominance of proper nouns is a GK. Setters should stick to established principles.

6. Gaff is unique: all his puzzles are one-offs of a sort, and unlike the general run. A lot of us embrace them avidly (though sometimes with not a little trepidation), but he is not your bag, at least the FT puzzles say who the setter is, so you can go elsewhere.

7. I meant ‘if he is not your bag’, sorry.

8. Wagonman@5: FT puzzles are not actually labelled “Cryptic”. They are just “Crossword”, except for the Saturday “Polymath”, which is printed in addition to the prize crossword, still not labelled “Cryptic”. There is a reasonable expectation that there will be a mixture of standard cryptic puzzles and specials.

9. Yes 1ac is BUGLER as per Pelham@1, and, like him, I wish there were a better explanation, i.e. I wish it were a better clue! Sometimes you look at a clue too hard and convince yourself it’s better than it is,

   ‘Purser hoping we catch the last post’ might have done the trick.

   Thanks to Turbolegs for the blog.

10. Ta TL struggled getting going. Didn’t really enjoy this but not sure why.

11. Even I, not familiar with the nursery rhyme (for obvious reasons), had no problem finding SOLOMON GRUNDY. However, I must admit that this name was still fresh in my mind after the latest posts for Imogen’s (Guardian) puzzle spoke of him.
    I had to google to see all the links – clever.
    BTW, why is 19ac “feel ill” and not “took ill”?

    I failed on a few clues in the NW which were actually all kind of cryptic definitions (1ac, 1d and 9d (although I was pretty sure that it had to “penny”).
    In 1ac, just like calypso, I was very much focused on “the last post” meaning T. After all, it is something that Gaff liked to apply in previous puzzles. How wrong I was. But no 1ac anyway for me anyway as there was no 1d for me either.

    Meanwhile I do not understand what Wagonman @5 is pointing at.
    This is just a themed crossword as there are so many themed crosswords. With only Solomon Grundy as a proper noun today.

    And: “Setters should stick to established principles”?
    Why is that?
    In fact, Gaff did nothing outrageous today – he can do! 🙂 – yes, I liked this puzzle.

    Many thanks to setter & turbolegs.

12. Thanks Gaff and Turbolegs

    Another catch up puzzle whilst on holidays … and a pretty enjoyable one at that, with a few minor niggles with the cryptic definition clues!

    Although BUGLER was one of the last in, I thought that BATHTUBS was a weaker clue – am still having trouble understanding how a bathtub is where a ‘corporate (stomach) purges bubbles over’. TOWN was marginally better, but still not to the normal standard by Gaff.

    Thought that it was extremely clever work to think of the theme … and then to include each day’s event into the grid without generating any obscure words to support them.

    DAY IN THE LIFE was a nice touch to it.

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