Financial Times 17,093 by GOLIATH

13 comments on “Financial Times 17,093 by GOLIATH”

1. Goliath’s grid caps a week of very entertaining FT puzzles.
   All present and correct except 6d, though the wordplay shown here is fair enough. I also needed help from Turbolegs parsing 3d for which I relied on crossers (again, gettable in hindsight).
   I liked the London references, particularly 1a, along with the amusing and well-placed seafood answers. 16a was well disguised, I thought.
   Thanks to setter and blogger.

2. Thanks Goliath for another well-crafted crossword. Favourites included COVENT GARDEN (great surface), AFTERSHAVE, SUSHI (nicely hidden), ABETTOR, and IMITATE. DIOPTRE (new word for me) required a word finder as did INTREPID. I couldn’t parse NECESSITY at all or DICTION in part so thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
   [Diane: Nice to see you on the Indy blog for Knut’s crossword. Keep in mind that Basilisk (Serpent), Neo (Tees), and Buccaneer ( Rodriguez) regularly set puzzles for the Indy and are always worth a look.]

3. Thanks for the blog, a lot of very nice clues here, thanks to Diane@1 for the London link which I had somehow missed. Many favourites but will just mention the variety and imagination in all the clues.
   A couple of minor points, not complaining, just wondering. MEGABYTE has “rising” in the clue, was it originally a Down clue ? sometimes the grids get flipped. SUSHI , I have been told is the rice and may have fish with it?? I do not know for sure , someone must be an expert on here.
   DIOPTRE is the power of a lens , 1/ focal length , used for correction of course by opticians. It is not an accepted SI unit, there is no actual universal symbol which is strange, it has a sort of limbo existence.

4. Thank you, Tony. You’ve named a few of my favourites. I must try to pop in more often.
   Roz,
   Firstly, thanks for providing more insight into ‘dioptre’.
   I think you’re right about ‘sushi’ which is the vinagred rice base for a variety of toppings including vegetables though I think outside of Japan, a fish topping is most popularly associated with sushi. Sashimi is the raw fish alone which can command very eye-watering prices. Not an expert, merely a frequent consumer of Japanese food.
   Ha ha, if we eat enough apples [and pears] from 1a, we won’t need any Thomas Edison from 25/26a!

5. Thanks, G and T!

   Liked DICTION, NECESSITY and SHELLFISH.

6. Another highly enjoyable puzzle from Goliath. (He’s Philistine in the Guardian, Diane – he appeared just yesterday.)

   I particularly liked COVENT GARDEN, SUSHI, CABARET, NECESSITY, NURTURING and SAVILE ROW.

   Many thanks to Goliath and Turbolegs.

7. Oh thanks, Eileen! That is one I will seek out.

8. Great puzzle . For me certainly the best of today’s offerings. Thanks all

9. I got there but not with the fluency which I sometimes achieve. Megabyte was my LOI, cunningly hidden. All seemed fairly clued and lots of favourites, many of which are mentioned above.

   I never travel beyond the financial Times. How do you voyagers elsewhere rate the FT’s puzzles compared with the other papers?

10. [Moly @9: Much depends on the setter — I find some much more penetrable than others — Monk, Io, and Vlad frustrate me no matter what paper they use but I attempt most others across the G, I, and FT. I always enjoy Mudd in the FT but he can sometimes be a bear in the G (Paul). Neo seems a bit easier in the FT than in the I (Tees) and Basilisk seems a bit friendlier in the FT than he is in the I (Serpent). Buccaneer/Picaroon/Rodriguez seems to be the most consistent for me across all papers and always worthwhile.]

11. A pleasant and fairly quick solve. We found our way to COVENT GARDEN easily enough but it took a bit longer to reach HARLEY STREET via SAVILE ROW with all the diversions on the way.
    We liked MEGABYTE although we thought ‘rising’ as a reversal indicator was a bit odd in an across clue (fine in a down clue, of course). And in NURTURING we think ‘of old’ is part of the definition as the NUR became part of the RMT many years ago now.
    Others we liked included DICTION, CHAFF and IMITATE.
    Thanks, Goliath and Turbolegs.

12. I wondered if I had missed something with the three London references, but I have been unable to link any others to them. All very good fun though – thanks Goliath. Thanks for the explanations Turbolegs.
    Moly@9. I find FT produces the most “approachable” crosswords of the three sources mentioned. Sunday and Monday from the G are usually pretty doable too. After that the difficulty level varies. I have not done enough I ones to offer an opinion.

13. Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs
    Excellent puzzle from this setter again featuring the three London locations top, bottom and centre. Plenty of clever clues and often very tricky parsing to unravel. I thought that the cutest clue was PADLOCK. The reversed MEGABYTE was devious – was tossing up between that and TERABYTE from the crossers and it took a little while to see the very well concealed reverse hidden.
    Finished in the NW corner with CHAFFINCH, AFTERSHAVE and NECESSITY (which took an age to understand why and became my favourite when the penny dropped).

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