Financial Times 17,157 by GOZO

10 comments on “Financial Times 17,157 by GOZO”

1. One for the anagram-lovers. I thought I’d done pretty well to solve all those 15-letter clues including 12a (whom I don’t know) but, alas, I failed on 10 for which, being unable to parse fully, I guessed the wrong first name as Aaron. Always good to expand one’s GK.
   Plenty of freespirited fun as ever from Gozo and I liked the ‘childish impressions”.
   Also ticked 5 and 20, among others.
   In an impressively compiled grid such as this, I take a lenient view of 4d.
   Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee for expertly filling in my gaps.

2. Thoroughly enjoyed the bottom half, but the top half had too many obscurities and iffy clues.

3. Those 15-letter across answers looked intimidating, especially the single 15-letter words, but they weren’t too impenetrable. Still, I couldn’t have told you much (ie anything) about SIR JACOB EPSTEIN (since looked up in Wikipedia) for which the enumeration helped, or GRADE SEPARATION which went in via anagram fodder and crossers.

   A few other hard ones, eg ITERATION and I missed the parsing for the innocuous looking EAT UP. Spent a while at the end over-thinking SORES which now looks simpler than it did. Unless I’m missing something, I wasn’t a fan of ENTRE either. Even though ‘speak ‘n tell’ was part of both wordplay and def, TALK IN ONE’S SLEEP was still my favourite.

   Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee

4. 18D was obvious from the clue but the answer was un-knowable (is that a word?) to non-English viewers.

   12A is hardly cryptic as the definition of “The Riddle of the Sands Author” gives it away.

   13D was unknown to me and I didn’t know the meaning of 1D.

   16A was very clever, in my opinion.

5. I have to admit I am not a fan of Gozo puzzles (and avoid his Maskarade bonanzas altogether). Really hate clues like 12a. If you know the author then, like Peter says, it is a non-cryptic write-in. If you don’t know the author, then it is a next-to-impossible anagram. Similarly, I thought ENTRE was poor. It does not exist as a word by itself in any of my dictionaries and, not surprisingly, lacks a definition. Ok, it’s clear what was needed but I can’t justify this as a valid construction.
   Having said all that, I do his puzzles because there are always some clever clues and here you have to respect the grid fill.

6. Thanks for the blog, as Hovis@5 says, respect the grid, so I will forgive a few obscurities .
   I knew TMS because it often invades Radio 4 in the summer, although we still get the Shipping Forecast. TRANSFERS are also used by grown-ups, those who are cowards and do not like needles, they are much better quality these days. I thought HAEMATITE was very neat.

7. Got there relatively painlessly, though used wiki to find the author of 12 – the anagram being obvious but the answer not. Sometimes I like Gozo, sometimes I don’t. I found this one at the more acceptable end of the spectrum and you do have to admire having all the crossers as 15 letters.

   It’s only fair to then offer a bit of leniency with the down clues, but Entre seems to me to be definitely missing its definition

   Thanks for parsing Iteration, which fixed me.

   Loi was Transfers where I ended up making my way through the alphabet until the answer dawned……:)

8. Thanks Gozo for a challenging grid and some great clues including TALK IN ONES SLEEP, SILENT TREATMENT, and ETAGERE. I needed outside assistance to solve SIR JACOB EPSTEIN, TRANSFERS, and HAEMATITE. I find Gozo to be one of the more creative setters who tries to expand the cryptic universe so I’m a big fan. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.

9. Thanks Gozo – another excellent puzzle.
   I actually thought 5D was a great clue…

10. Agree with Lemski, 5D was a fine clue indeed

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