Financial Times 16,461 by ARMONIE

13 comments on “Financial Times 16,461 by ARMONIE”

1. Thanks T and A! indeed a fairly straightforward puzzle – though I had never see LI before as soldiers (conditioned to restrict myself to RE, RA, GI).  And while I worked out STOP UP I don’t quite understand the definition (“avoid retiring”) — can’t find a reference.

2. Found this ok but didn’t particularly thrill me. PERCHERON was new to me and OBLIGATED took a bit of working out. Not keen on the use of “support” in 29a. I think this construction is better left to down clues.

   Ilan, I think “stop up” is a variation on “stay up” i.e. not going to bed until late.

   Thanks to Armonie and Teacow.

3. Thanks Armonie and Teacow

   A few weeks since an Armonie cryptic – just finished doing one of his stinkers of a Polymath (he goes to the other extreme for them).

   This was all pretty straightforward and completed in a couple of shortish sessions.  Couldn’t parse the last bit of OBLIGATED (haven’t seen that definition of GATED) and forgot to go back and properly parse BOWLING ALLEY (was focused on the clever cryptic definition).

   Started with AS IT WERE and finished not all that long after with the new (to me) horse breed at 4d.

4. Another to report the obligatory trouble with OBLIGATED- both the LI and GATED bits – even if the answer was clear enough. PERCHERON was a new equine breed but I was pleased to recognise an old avian crossword friend – REDSTART – as my first in.

   Thanks to Armonie and Teacow

5. Thanks to Armonie and Teacow. Enjoyable. I did know PERCHERON but not SUS, and PLINTH was my LOI. I especially liked BOWLING ALLEY.

6. I made pretty much the same observations as Hovis @2, although BOWLING ALLEY raised a smile.

   On a side note, 23 down’s surface reminded me that I once described a mystery person in a ‘scrambled picture’ puzzle as ‘possibly oriental’, only to be scolded by an American of East Asian descent that it was “an offensive term!” It’s fine for describing objects apparently, but I guess it must have been used pejoratively against people over there at some point. No doubt Armorie, like me at the time – and probably most other Brits – was blissfully unaware of this consideration, but it’s maybe something worth bearing in mind for suture reference.

   Thanks to all.

7. ^future

8. Count me as another who didn’t know LI = light infantry. Otherwise no difficulties. I liked  ESCAPADE, BOWLING ALLEY and DETAILED, although I think that last one may have come up before somewhere or other. Thanks both.

9. Similar experience to others, didn’t know PERCHERON, GATED, or LI for soldiers. Took me a while, unlike the Monday offerings from the Guardian.

10. We couldn’t fully parse OBLIGATED either – didn’t know Light Infantry, though if we’d bothered to look up LI in Chambers we’d have found it; we did know ‘gated’ though.

    Otherwise all very straightforward with no real problems, but DETAILED elicited a groan.

    Thanks, Armonie and Teacow.

11. Pleasant crossword. Missed PERCHERON, got OBLIGATED, but couldn’t parse it. DETAILED was in another FT puzzle recently with three blind mice in the clue. ESCAPADE and BOWLING ALLEY were favorites. Thanks Armonie and Teacow.

12. Not good. 13dn & 4dn were very poor.

13. …keener = mourner? Kent = SE ! LI = Light Infantry?

    Poor. This crossword was a combination of very simple anagrams and poor use of synonyms & abbreviations.

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