Financial Times 17,200 by LEONIDAS

14 comments on “Financial Times 17,200 by LEONIDAS”

1. A very satisfying solve from Leonidas with much to like: 1a, 22a, 18d and, especially 5d.
   I take your point Loonapick about 28a and that part of speech but he’s the most likely to flush, being a redhead so I thought it was just fine.
   Thank for some great cluing, Leonidas and to Loonapick for a well-considered blog.

2. ROYAL FLUSH:
   Agree with your comments, loonapick.

3. Very likeable. 5d was my favourite. Yes, I had the same reservations about 28a.

4. I’ll go along with Diane’s favourites and would add 13ac FLAMINGO, 23ac YEOMEN, 4dn TWOPENNY, and 14dn MOTH-EATEN.

   I share the reservations about ROYAL FLUSH but it didn’t really spoil a great puzzle.

   Many thanks to Leonidas and loonapick.

5. I think the idea in 28a is that “Harry turning scarlet” would be a “royal flush” – that works better than treating the elements separately.

   19a is surely a double definition – elements in an electric fire, and on the periodic table.

6. I entered ROYAL FLUSH without thinking too much about it. I take our blogger’s point, but Andrew @5’s way of looking at it seems to make sense. I also agree with the parsing of ELEMENTS as a double def.

   Enjoyable puzzle with the same favourites as already mentioned by others, including the unexpected adjectival sense of TWOPENNY which took a while to see.

   Thanks to Leonidas and loonapick

7. This took me longer than usual after I confidently entered “LAMINAR” for 2D. It has L and R for both hands; A for article; MA for mother and IN for in.

   I was happy with 28A and 19A but think that 1A should have had a better definition. It was my last one in, thanks to Laminar!

8. I’m in the double definition camp for 19a. Because I thought “act with naturalness” was the definition for “striptease”, I failed to parse age “ease” part. With regard to yesterday’s discussion of the Englishness of some ft clues; I have lived in the US for 52 years and am often thankful for having spent my first 34 in England and I worry about those who never had that experience. Thanks Leonadis and loonapik.

9. No problem with 28a.
   1a & 5d the best of the bunch for me

10. I found this quite tough but eventually arrived at a happy destination.

    5D is brilliant.

    No problem with Royal Flush – indeed I rather liked. I read the first definition as “Harry turning scarlet” = Royal Flush.

    As in “we witnessed Harry turning scarlet”. “ we witnessed a Royal flush”. I think that works. As for Harry; yes he’s a minor Royal but I initially went along the Harry = Chase line of thought; a good misdirection I felt.

    Loi was Flagstone which, for no good reason, was a struggle. And so obvious.

    Thanks for the Blog.

11. Thanks Leonidas. It seems I’ve seen FLAMINGO, THERMAL, and STRIPTEASE very recently in other crosswords — this repetition happens more often than mere coincidence would suggest. Do setters all use the same software that might account for this? In any event, I enjoyed this with the split READJUST, NOSE CONE, TWOPENNY, UTOPIA, and TRELLIS being top choices. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

12. A ‘Goldilocks’ puzzle in terms of difficulty. We thought there must be a reason why 1ac had ‘with naturalness’ rather than ‘naturally’ but once w realised tghe definition was simply ‘act’ the parsing explained it. And we guess that 28ac might have been editorially changed at the last minute but was still not ideal at the present time – might have been better to hold the whole puxxle back for a week or two?
    Lots to enjoy, though, ELEMENTS (a double definition to us), DISTRIBUTE and UTOPIAN were among our favourites.
    Thanks, Leonidas and loonapick.

13. [ john@8, I sort of agree with you, but there are other ways of getting there. I have lived all my life in Canada, but have become a bit of an Anglophile, aided by my first partner being English (from Wolverhampton) and my current partner, although Canadian, having lived in England (Lewis and Cambridge) for 20 years. It does rub off on one. ]

14. (…Lewes, damned autocorrect.)

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