Financial Times 17,265 by GOZO

24 comments on “Financial Times 17,265 by GOZO”

1. I looked everywhere for a direction along the lines of “Across clues are themed, and many lack definitions”, thinking I must have missed it. A little odd that we had to work this out ourselves, but I guess all’s fair in love and cryptic crosswords.
   The “swapped” in 24a was a bit vague; I thought it might have been referring to both letters 1 & 5. I’m more inclined to think of an ostinato as a repeated pattern, not a “musical phrase”. And without a definition, PRESTO was bit of a stretch. How many millions of cities are there in the world?
   I couldn’t work out how “grace” and “darling” could be synonyms, but after some googling became aware of a serious deficiency in my knowledge of English lighthouse keepers’ daughters. 😉
   I’d never heard of ETRURIA, and I couldn’t parse ANDANTE, ALIBI, CHANTER (didn’t know that mushroom) & POSTCARD (wasn’t aware of CARD=COMB).
   Despite all the above, this puzzle was not too taxing, and reasonably enjoyable.

2. I share your reservations regarding the clue for 6d, Oriel. And yes, I use the PDF, not the app. I like some scribble room.

3. Yet another who had to (eventually) work out the missing instructions. I took the ‘with a northern tail’ bit of 1a to ‘help’ by telling you the N to be removed is at the end of the city. A few unknowns for me: BOURDON, ETRURIA & only vaguely aware of PARTITA & CHANTERELLE. Glad I remembered ENNEAD at least.

4. This was a themed crossword without any indication that there was a theme. Luckily my wife and I are both musicians so we managed to complete the whole thing.

   Re 17A: does anyone really say “half-tone”. Real musicians know it as “semi-tone”.

   I also didn’t know that “Joanna” was rhyming slang for “piano” but I do know that Rod McKuen wrote the soundtrack to the movie.

   Did anyone really know that “BOURDON” was associated with a bagpipe?

5. Thanks for the blog. I had exactly the same questions about 1A and 6D. Those had to be the intended solutions, I figured.

   I solve these on paper, and was also wondering whether a special Instruction was supposed to be included somewhere. The musical theme and the lack of some definitions soon became apparent, though. I was also wondering whether there was a nina or something else linking, confirming, or identifying the undefined clues, but I did not spot any such devices.

6. Also, how does one solve on the app? Is a subscription required? I am not sure I understand the various options on offer on the FT website, and I do not really need another news source spamming my e-mail constantly.

7. The iOS app did have the instructions as noted; a subscription doesn’t seem to be required yet Cineraria @6, but I suspect we’re only getting it free for a limited period.

   Even though I soon cottoned on to the theme, my meagre musical knowledge was stretched to close to breaking point for a few answers. No, Peter @4, I certainly didn’t know a BOURDON had anything to do with a bagpipe or anything else musical for that matter and I just remembered OSTINATO. Of the non-thematic obscurities (=I’d never heard of them), CHANTER(ELLE) and ETRURIA took a bit of working out.

   Good to see ‘Joanna’ for PIANO, even if it is more crossword land-ese than CRS for me.

   Thanks to Gozo and Oriel

8. Cineraria@6: the FT puzzles are currently freely available to complete online through a browser at: https://app.ft.com/crossword
   (News to me!)

9. Oriel @8, thanks for that link. The interactive version seems very user-friendly, much better than the last time the FT tried the same thing.
   I did this puzzle via PDF too, and found it a real mish-mash, what with the missing instructions and the apparently random selection of no definition/musical definition/other definition. Easy enough to solve, though. The clue for ETRURIA is very odd, apart from the missing cryptic instructions: what on earth is it describing?

10. James@9 Josiah Wedgwood built his third ceramics factory in N Staffs at a site he named Etruria. Many districts in the Potteries are named after other European areas famous for pottery. I was born in Florence and educated in Dresden and Etruria.

11. As well as all the issues covered above, I was also held up by confidently entering POST for 10a – anagram of ‘stop’ (working) and post = support. Too much iffy stuff going on to enjoy what could have been an excellent crossword IMHO.
    Thanks for the helpful blog.

12. Roz, thanks, it was the ‘curtain raiser Cairns out at … ‘ that puzzled me. I think it can only be describing a person with the name of Cairns whose profession is raising curtains on a visit to Etruria, where there are presumably some curtains that need raising. One likes to get to the bottom of these things.

13. I am clearly one of the few people in the world who actually does the crossword on a physical copy of the FT, which i collect daily (along with the Guardian) from my newsagent – it’s then my rule that I read the paper before attempting the puzzle, one reason why my contributions to the site are usually later in the day… No instructions there either, though, but it soon became clear what was going on and everything went in pretty easily – I am a classical music enthusiast, which helped.

14. I can only solve with pen and paper, luckily my friend has the FT and she swaps the crossword for the back page of my G2 . Definitely no instructions but I do not mind that.

    James@12 I see what you mean now, I am one of those people who do not actually “read” the clue so I do not notice these things. I did notice the double use of out which I frown at. This was generally very good but a few bits needed tidying up.

15. Thanks Gozo, I always enjoy the challenge your crosswords present. I usually solve puzzles on paper but HALF-NOTE suggested that I check the online version for missing instructions. Of course, once there I began guessing answers and then validating their accuracy with the check button. My musical knowledge is limited but many of the answers were familiar from decades of solving crosswords. Favourites included RHAPSODY, BANGER, BOURDON, and RUMPLE. I could not parse PRESTO, POSTCARD, and ALIBI so thanks Oriel for the blog.

16. I retired at 50%. I figured out the instruction was missing, but what a blunder. Surely this isn’t deliberate? A editing cock up I guess

    I don’t know all these musical expressions. As a result, the puzzle offered me no pleasure. Solving a puzzle with no pleasure and a missing instruction is a waste one’s life.

    I once quite quite liked Gozo but increasingly I find the puzzles, deeply unsatisfactory. From now on, I will avoid.

17. Apologies if my comment above was a bit grumpy. The truth is, I was a bit grumpy.

18. We usually don’t bother with crosswords with instructions that certain clues lack definitions, so (as we solve on paper) in the absence of an instruction we plunged in today so were a bit mystifed to find clues lacking definition. Then we rememberd that Gozo often includes instructions and a quick peek at fifteensquared confirmed our suspicions.
    Anyway we carried on and found it an enjoyable solve without any problems except for guessing HALF-NOTE at first for 17ac whch delayed us a bit for 5dn and 10dn.
    Thanks, Gozo and Oriel.

19. I liked the puzzle but I’m enough of a music nut to enjoy finding the themed words in this one. So, nice job Gozo: thank you to you, Oriel and all above.

    (If the theme hadn’t been a hobby-horse of mine I would have been justifiably grumpy like Moly@16,17.)

    In the parsing of 1d, could someone please say why COMB = CARD? I’ve wondered about this all day and can’t think how to research it without simply asking.

20. Phil @19. My old mum was once into spinning an weaving. One takes the raw wool and grooms it with combs. This process was called carding.

21. Greg@19: Brilliant, many thanks. I’ll think of this meaning first if I see it again!

22. In US and Germany a quaver is an 8th note, so a semi tone would be a half note
    I liked the lack of instructions/
    Good stuff!

23. Sorry a half note would be a minim
    Half tone is to do with photography

24. Peter@4, most musicians would usually say semitone, but half-tone has crept in, especially in the context of (usually) avant- garde music when composers have incorporated quarter-tones in their writing.

    Allan_c@18, I too avoid puzzles with undefined clues, so I was glad FT omitted the special instruction, because I enjoyed this crossword which I otherwise would have avoided.

    Thanks Gozo and Oriel for the fun and the helpful blog.

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