Financial Times 16,266 by Mudd

8 comments on “Financial Times 16,266 by Mudd”

1. 27ac:
   Dictionaries tell me that GIRO can mean ‘giro cheque’.
   If that’s all right, then this clue is fine.
   One should read it as that IN is written on [after, in an Across clue] a reversal of GIRO.
   Not unimportantly, in these kind of constructions Mudd – unlike many other setters – always uses a comma, as he did here.
   8d:
   TE is an alternative spelling of ‘ti’, the seventh tone.
   17d:
   I think ‘not left out’ should be seen as the opposite of ‘left out’.
   The RIGHT bit is clear and – although cricket is many bridges too far for me – it might well be that
   ON is the opposite of OUT (= not batting). I have seen ON clued as ‘batting’ on several occasions.
   But as I said, I can easily be wrong but then others will surely correct me.

   Thanks Pete (& Mudd)

2. thanks Mudd & Pete.

   To expand on Sil’s comment on 17 down, the expression “right-on”, meaning trendy, is the opposite of “left out”.

3. Nice puzzle, thanks both, and thanks Sil for explaining 17d. As for 17d, right-on in my era vernacular is an approval expression, so it doesn’t quite work, but a mere quibblet. Thought axle for 12 straight away, but took a bit to wake up to axe = pull, as in eg pull someone from a team. No op stressed was fun.

4. .. meant thanks Sil for 27ac

5. 27a. To flesh out what Sil has written, in the 1960s very few people had bank accounts but many more had accounts with the Post Office. The governmment decided to introduce the continental Giro system into the UK and the Post Office was given the remit. One of their initiatives was the introduction of the girocheque which was a cheque in every respect except not drawn on a bank but on the PO. With later computerisation the name was shortened to giro.

   I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle and thanks to you both.

6. Sil, Thank you for helping me out regarding Giros.  I never used a giro and was not living in Europe in the days when they were widely used so I know little about them.  Wikipedia mentions girocheques, I see (written as one word).

   psmith, Thanks for your comment.  I was not familiar with “right on” meaning trendy.

   trenodia, Thank you for filling in that history.

7. Thanks Mudd and Pete

   Entertaining puzzle as always from Mudd and one that I found a little harder than normal for some reason.  Not helped by making the same mistake with HILT / AXLE.  Was familiar (from a distance and only through crosswords) with GIRO = cheque.

   Didn’t ever work out the word play to OAST – had gone down a homophone for HOST path, so thanks for setting me straight there.  Not sure whether I fully worked through the RIGHT ON logic, so good to see that here too.

   Finished in the top left hand corner by finally correcting CLUELESS (from HOPELESS) at 2d and AXLE at 12a.

8. Thanks to all for comment and explanation – I couldn’t get ‘Oast’ either. I suspect a lack of familiarity with unemployment in the ’80s for everyone not fully conversant with a giro. It’s how the dole was paid.

   I think I’m persuaded by the batting explanation to explain ‘On’ being the opposite of ‘Out’ in 17d.

   I really liked 1a: it was succinct and playful.

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