Financial Times 16,821 by BRADMAN

10 comments on “Financial Times 16,821 by BRADMAN”

1. Not taxing but SO neat
   Thanks Don and Turbo (new hip-hop duo!)

2. Despite having three of the five letters of 9A, and despite writing down “SNARE” in the jotter pad, I had to resort to cheating to find the answer. Not a word that I have come across and certainly not part of my usual vocabulary.

   I am also not familiar with the film in 14A but the answer was obvious from the cross-letters and the definition.

3. Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. I did not remember the plot of Brief Encounter so needed help parsing EYE-OPENER and had to check the spelling of IZMIR, but I’m glad to see LLAMA, an old favorite, and enjoyed BEE-EATER when I got it.

4. For 17d, I had corus-a-e but did not know how to make that sparkle. Otherwise a pretty easy ride. I also didn’t know the movie but agree with Peter above.
   Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs.

5. I recognised the film from the actors involved, but I don’t remember ever seeing it, so the reference passed me by, but as said above, the answer was clear from the definition: thanks to Turbolegs for the research. TARO was a new word to me, but again obvious from the wordplay.
   So my only real quibble was that as Turbolegs says, NARES is not an “opening”. It is the plural of the Latin “naris” and means nostrils: a pity, because the wordplay was neat.
   Otherwise, not too demanding with some enjoyable clues for eg BEE-EATER and MAYFLOWER/BLOOM.

6. I think it’s reasonable to say “The nostrils are an opening”, after all they lead to the same place.

7. Thanks Bradman, that was satisfying. Enjoyed PARTY LINE and SEND UP for their witty surfaces. Did not know BEE-EATER, needed a word finder for OUSEL, and had to check my spelling of IZMER but generally this went in smoothly. It seems that PRAIRIE has been making the rounds lately. Thanks Turbolegs for parsing, especially EYE-OPENER, an answer which was as obvious as its parsing was obscure.

8. Not quite sure what’s meant by ‘an easy challenge’ as there were some less familiar words such as NARES, ESTOP and possibly CORUSCATE. Fortunately we did know them, and the reference in 14dn.
   Favourites were PAPOOSE and the aforesaid CORUSCATE.
   Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.

9. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
   An enjoyable enough puzzle, but with a technical fail having written ISMIR (the alternative spelling of IZMIR, IS + “MERE”) in at 12a. Interesting cryptic play with EYE OPENER – taking a scene from a 75+ year film as a reference – didn’t stop me getting the answer, but …
   Knew all of the other ‘obscure words’ and they were all very fairly clued. PAPOOSE was my favourite.
   Finished in the NW corner with PANAMA, OUSEL and NARES (getting both of these last two with their identical parsing).

10. Late start.. n later finish.. not my concept of an “easy” challenge.. enjoyable of course but quite often on looking back.. eg BEE-EATER .. also confused by no actual def for 16dn, obvious as it might seem… never knowingly used ESTOP, TARO , or CORUSCATE previously… loved the obscure King Oswald n DEBENTURE for sheer simplicity.. any less easy n I’d be posting this on Sunday..
    Thanks BRADMAN n Turbolegs

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