Financial Times 17,039 by ZAMORCA

13 comments on “Financial Times 17,039 by ZAMORCA”

1. I agree, loonapick, that this was generally a good puzzle, but I also agree with you about ‘G’ for ‘girl’.
   I’ve never seen the plural of ‘TOFFEE’ spelled like that before, but it is in my dictionary as an alternative.
   Thanks Zamorca and loonapick.

2. With Z, Q and J spotted early on, it seemed a pangram was likely and so it proved. It helped to score BINNING and EVERY (where I had at first entered LEARY).
   This was a rapid write-in until the NW corner where I’d entered MOPED for 13a, causing problems with 2d. After another look, I realized it was MUSED which went in last of all.
   I liked the wordplay for 1d but my favourites were WHISKER and HUE AND CRY.
   As for G for ‘girl’, it seems I’ve seen it before. I can’t say it bothered me greatly but then I tend towards a more liberal view.
   Thanks to Zamorca and Loonapick.

3. Sourdough,
   I agree on the unusual (to me) spelling of toffees, probably why it was my penultimate answer. Guessed it from the crossers but it remained unparsed till now.

4. Enjoyable puzzle with some clues requiring quite a bit of nutting out. I’ll add my voice to the doubters about G for ‘girl’ which I don’t remember seeing before. Once again I’m embarrassed to admit I’d never heard of a ‘Singer’, this time at 5d which I therefore couldn’t parse. I bunged in TOFFIES without much thought but I agree the EE spelling is more common.

   Good to see the pangram reveal itself as the J and Z went in.

   Thanks to loonapick and Zamorca

5. Re 16: Chambers does not give ‘g’ as an abbreviation for ‘girl’, but does give ‘gf’ for ‘girlfriend’. You might argue that in this context ‘g’ stands for ‘girl’ and ‘f’ for ‘friend’. Or is that pushing things too far?

   No sign of ‘bf’ for ‘boyfriend’, though.

6. My OED gives toffy as an alternative for the singular so TOFFIES is probably acceptable.However I can find no justification for G for girl.
   That said an enjoyable puzzle. I liked Iac and Id ; both rather neat.

   Thanks to setter and blogger for a welcome distraction from the horrors of war.

7. WordPlodder@4 Please don’t be embarrassed at never having heard of the singer – neither had I and I think it possibly shows rather good taste….Not knowing that didn’t mean it wasn’t obvious from the wordplay, so no complaints about a pleasant if undemanding puzzle.

8. Thanks for the blog, no dictionary support for g=girl but it is widely used in maternity wards. I too was very surprised by TOFFIES but Chambers does give support. I thought the clues were very good, neat and clever and often very concise.

9. Quick solve by my standards. I too didn’t like G for Girl, though I suspect plenty of girls’ schools are known by their initials. Eg. (Town) Girls’ Grammar School was often abbreviated to TGGS by the pupils. Hmmm.
   Thanks to all as ever.

10. Thanks Loonapick and Zamorca. Suspected the pangram on entering ZURICH about two-thirds of the way through, which helped with DISQUALIFY and my loi, WHISKER. A steady solve for me; I hadn’t encountered TOFFIES before either, but it went in without any thought. Agree that G for girl is dubious. The solution that gave me the most trouble was USEFUL TIP; the second word was obvious, but I stared at the crossers for a long while before coming up with a word that fit U-E-U.

11. I believe every Zamorca puzzle has been a pangram, so if the setter wanted to confuse us, we would see a letter or two left out! The missing Q got me started on the SE corner. I somehow missed seeing the hidden FJORD until I read the blog, although the answer was obvious.

12. Thanks Zamorca and loonapick
    Used to seeing this setter earlier in the week, so a slightly easier than normal Thursday puzzle solved on Friday after work. Like others, TOFFIES was a surprise spelling but later found TOFFY as the singular in the dictionary. G for girl raised only a minor eyebrow raise as it went in at 16a – makes sense that it would be used in a maternity ward though. Don’t know why but always thought that there was an S in POULTICE which caused a small delay.
    Pangram did help with DISQUALIFY and WHISKER (which was also my last one in).

13. I didn’t solve this puzzle but saw the gridfill when printing off Friday’s Redshank and came here to see the clue for my adopted home town – it is brilliant, just drop the “European City” for a valid &Lit – Zamorca, if you are reading this, I take my hat off to you!

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