Financial Times 17,107 by PETO

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,107 by PETO”

1. I think 30 is just a double definition (a spider is a spinner of webs; and the snooker rest), with “needing” as a link word.

2. Yes, there’s definitely something… about this puzzle. I didn’t know that the arachnid at 30a was part of the fun and games as well.

   I wasn’t too keen about the defs in 10a and 19a including part of the answer but otherwise there was plenty to like. Favourites were the snooker ref in 30a (yes, I thought it was a double def) and the misleading ‘Film director Nick’ at 1d.

   Thanks to Peto and Teacow

3. Enjoyed this for the main part but I found a few clues not entirely to my liking. I wasn’t keen on SETS< in 19a, where SETS is also the first word of the clue; using ‘the German’ in 23a in a way that isn’t really cryptic; and spelling ODESA with the double S. The latter is really the difference between using a transliteration of the Ukrainian spelling (one S) and the previous Russian one.

4. Nice to see Peto after what seems a while. Like Teacow, it took a while for the penny to drop for 30a.
   Otherwise the puzzle all went swimmingly – except for 11a – a composer I don’t know and needed to check…once I was sure it was not part of the theme.
   I could almost make out ‘red tilapia’ for 23a (using ‘der’ not ‘das’) and it was tempting to enter this on my first pass but I needed an extra ‘i’ and the crossers I had suggested otherwise.
   Very enjoyable and the theme was a bonus.
   Thanks to Peto and Teacow.

5. Diane@4 you may not know the name John Philip Sousa, but I’m sure you’d recognize some of his marches, such as The Liberty Bell – theme music for Monty Python?

6. Thanks for the blog, enjoyable puzzle. Deezzaa @5 a great snippet of information which I did not know.
   I have heard of Sousa , he wrote many things for marching brass bands . Still a big thing around here especially in Whit week.
   Surely the sousaphone is named after him ??

7. Enjoyable, and reasonably challenging. I’d never heard of “Territorial Army”. I found when I last visited Ukraine that “Odessa” and “Odesa” were about equally common, but in light of recent events no doubt they’re now preferring the Ukrainian transliteration.

8. Ah thank you, Deezzaa@ 5, that should certainly help me to remember his name.

9. Thanks Peto and Teacow
   Found this a good challenge that I worked on across the course of the day when I could grab time. Can’t believe that I didn’t pick up on the ghost theme along the way – will put it down to the effort required to unravel some of the word play in numerous clues. Couldn’t fully unravel SCORSESE even twigging to the idea of all of the component bits – just a blind spot ! Did like the devious misdirection in getting one to think that the director’s first name was Nick – put me off of ages.
   Finished with MOANED (taking ages to determine the Ministry of Defence), SKATE (clever and innovative way to clue a common word) and SHARK (hidden in plain sight but not seen for way too long).

10. Sousa is also the composer of the Liberty Bell march, aka the Monty Python theme music.

11. I enjoyed this but I don’t think 1 down works even though the idea and the misdirection is great. If you follow the instructions of the clue you get SCORSSEE

12. Thanks Peto and Teacow.
    gsolphotog: You need to group the wordplay in 1dn as (Nick capturing singular) followed by (area of London) not Nick capturing (singular area of London). The fact that the adjective “singular” goes with the noun “area” in the surface reading does not mean that you have to keep those words together in the cryptic reading.

13. We weren’t sure about SPIDER being thematic unless it relates to a spider crab. But we thought FLUKE might be thematic and checking in Chambers it gives one meaning as an American name for a FLOUNDER.
    Challenging in places but we got it all without help. Thanks, Peto and Teacow.

14. Thanks to Peto and Teacow. Most of the clues make good sense to me – thanks for explaining SPIDER with the pool reference. Only one I didn’t get was SOLE, a head slapper.
    Definitely a “fishy” theme. Also liked SOUSA – was this a tribute to US Memorial Day? (Maybe mini theme with STATES and MUSICAL?) Roz@6, yes, he invented the sousaphone to create a tuba that could be carried easily in a marching band.

15. Thanks jeff@14 , I thought the name was too much of a coincidence.

16. I thought I would never finish this one, but slowly and steadily it fell into place. I needed my son to help me with Aperture, my LOI. Thanks for helping with the parsing of a few of them!

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