Financial Times 16,717 by GURNEY

19 comments on “Financial Times 16,717 by GURNEY”

1. Not just me then, except I failed in the SW. I got PRIVILEGE only by means of thinking of words that fit (this and PRIMITIVE, having not found 26a) and realising PRIVILEGE equated to “right”. Failed on TOUPEE, BANISTER & SPURN. I was particularly annoyed at the latter since I was looking for a team that fit S???S and couldn’t think of one. Sheesh!

2. A similar experience here – more or less a write-in until the SW corner. I spent an inordinate amount of time on 26. Having only the penultimate E as a crosser, and the clue indicating another E at the end, I became convinced that it would be APOGEE, but couldn’t make it fit the clue. SPURN was my last in as well.

3. Exactly the same comments as Grant and others. I don’t know how long my last 5 in the SW corner took, but it was a very long time. PRIVILEGE opened things up, but even so there was a lot of head scratching before the satisfaction of seeing BANISTER and then TOUPEE, my LOI.

   As Grant says, “Pride cometh…”. Thanks to he and Gurney

4. Thanks both.

   In common with everyone else, I got stuck in the SW. Failed to solve last three.

5. Like others I failed at TOUPEE and SPURN; not knowing the Spurs caused the latter to be out of my reach. I also missed LOUNGE for no good reason but everything else seem to fall in place fairly routinely. I liked CHAMELEON and PRIVILEGE; I did have a minor quibble, however, with “right” being a definition for PRIVILEGE — the former is something inherent, the latter is something granted to you. (I’m sure there’s a dictionary somewhere that will list them as synonyms.) Thanks to both.

6. Hmm..mollified slightly by above comments.. set my heart on PRIMITIVE which obviously made TOUPEE A non-starter… had kick about, as PUNT to TNUP.. which I was hoping would be the starting point to some obscure narcotic… oh dear.. such good stuff.. no argument with PRIVILEGE.. a privileged background is by no means granted..
   Thanks GURNEY n Grant Baynham

7. Tony @5. Setters often end their clues with a question mark when the definition isn’t air-tight, as is the case with PRIVILEGE.

8. Just completed my effort for today and also failed in the SW corner – so pleased to see I was in good company.
   As I have (masochistically) been a Spurs fan for all too many years, I should have got 24D!
   Thanks to Gurney and Grant.

9. I, too, failed with the SW corner, having gaily thought “Oh this is pretty straightforward”.
   Hovis @1 struggling to call Spurs to mind when the word was “team” reminds me of a tale from long ago. A certain F E Smith was a prominent Tory MP and a leading member of the Bar. He amused himself by calling in at the National Liberal Club en route from the Law Courts to Parliament, to avail himself of the Gents. An outraged gentleman, recognising him, exclaimed, “Dammit, sir, this is a private members’ club!” Smith looked at him deadpan and replied “Oh, I didn’t realise it was that as well“.
   Thanks to Gurney and to Grant.

10. Reading the comments above has made me smile. Thank you fellow solvers. Finally reverting to a thesaurus suggested Spurn for 24D, but couldn’t think why was the answer, and I too missed Toupee. I also wasted ages considering Scorn for 24 down, which also fitted the definition of Slight!

    So easy for nearly the whole puzzle, but a DNF because of those corkers it in the SW corner!!

11. We too found the SW corner tricky, but we did finish although we couldn’t parse TOUPEE. On the other hand we did like BANISTER for the misdirection in the clue.
    Thanks, Gurney and Grant.

12. 3d should have EX+A+C[our]T probably.

13. 16a surface does not read well. Better would be:

    Colour vehicle learner keeps in collection

    ‘matching’ in the original has no meaning and just confuses the issue.

14. Hovis @7: Thanks, I can understand that explanation for PRIVILEGE but it seems to me that most question marks in cryptic clues (in this crossword and in general) exist primarily for the surface reading. They don’t seem to add much else to solving the clue.

15. Thanks Gurney and Grant
    Took this to a cafe for an afternoon coffee and muffin – and with coffee gone, muffin gone and three glasses of water gone, the SW corner was still pretty sparsely filled in. After getting home, finally saw the SPURN / SPURS polar swap which led to the ‘soldier’ and the ‘upward feature’. Needed to resort to a word finder to finish out PRIVILEGE (even after recognising there was a PRIG involved) and TOUPEE (with its very tricky word play).
    So, a reasonably straightforward puzzle that had a mighty sting in its tail.

16. Just to say I found myself struggling with the SW corner like everyone.

    Am not in the slightest bit jealous of brucew@aus with his ability to take the crossie to a cafe. We haven’t been able to do that for ages. ? That’s what comes of having a competent government I suppose.

17. Hi Martin
    I come from Melbourne – apologise for the casual mention of being able to do it in a cafe – tend to forget that you guys are locked down now – we were locked down sometimes with curfews from June until October last year and again just a week or so again for 5 days after yet another leak from our hotel quarantine system, so I know your pain. Hopefully with the help of a vaccine you will be coming out of yours in the not too distant future – wishing you all of the best !

18. Les@13: I have no problem with “matching” in 16a. For example, a “set” of dishes is a matching collection.
    Like the rest of you, I stumbled on the SW corner. Thanks to Gurney and Grant.

19. Very many thanks, Grant, for the excellent blog and also to all who commented. In 3 Down, CT was an abbreviation of court.

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