Financial Times 17,511 by NEO

27 comments on “Financial Times 17,511 by NEO”

1. NICETY
   Scots’ one=YIN, detective=TEC, YIN collars TEC–?for elevation (reversed)

2. YIN collars TEC—> YTECIN for elevation—>reversed.

3. IONA
   I parsed it as you.

4. I’m somewhat irregular in tackling the FT but had time for a third this morning and am very pleased it turned out to be Neo. I needed all the crossers to complete MULTIFUNCTIONAL though the first five letters were in place for some time: I suspected RU might have been the sport and the vital F – which would have made the solution jump out – was, of course, hidden in FUN. Neat. PUCK, ALLOCATION, CHANCERY, UNCLEANLY and WARMTH make for my sizeable podium though I could easily tick more.

   Thanks Neo and Turbolegs (being less familiar with FT bloggers, could I just ask what the FF:8 DD:8 means beneath your preamble?)

5. Thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. Favourites were 7AC, 25 (also needed to confirm the ‘marshal’, 26 (I agree, a double definition), 16D and 24D.
   Oh but Turbolegs, the one I couldn’t parse, 6D, has no explanation. Do please put me out of my misery, even if it’s startlingly simple.
   Thanks both.

6. Ah, thanks, to supersonic typist, KVa @ 2.

7. 🙂

8. Hi Postmark@4 – FF is Fun Factor and DD is Degree of Difficulty. Its how I rate the puzzle based on my solving experience. It has no bearing on how anybody else sees the same.

   Hi Diane@5 – I forgot to mention in the blog that I had no clue about the clue for 6d! 🙂 Thankfully KVa liberated us both.

   Cheers
   TL

9. Indeed, Turbolegs!

10. Another interesting and highly enjoyable challenge from Neo.

    My top favourites, from a long list of ticks, were the ‘lift and separate’ 7ac PUCK, 10ac ALLOCATION, 19ac CHOLERIC, which made me smile, 4dn CHANCERY, 6dn NICETY, 20dn IMITATE and 25ac FUNNY MONEY.
    When I began solving crosswords, decades ago, the Marshal featured quite frequently. The surface reminded me of the ‘Illegal Migrants Bill’ – now an Act.
    It took me a while to see how 15ac worked: when I started teaching I had a colleague named IONA, so I was working on a double definition.

    Many thanks to Neo for the fun and Turbolegs for the blog.

11. PS: for those of you who enjoy Rosa Klebb (and who doesn’t?) there’s an Arachne puzzle in the Guardian today.

12. Thanks for the heads-up, Eileen re Arachne!

13. For the second time this morning I’ll agree with Eileen at 10 and 11 above

    Thanks to Neo and Turbolegs

14. Turbolegs @8: thanks for that.

15. Although I didn’t have any trouble parsing NICETY, I couldn’t see the relatively simple TANNIC. Quite a few new words for me (INTROITS, HALBERDIER and only vaguely remembered VENIN & MONOCYTE) but all clued so I could guess and check. Thoroughly enjoyed this one.

16. No problem parsing NICETY – Y(‘TEC)IN< – with my knowledge of scarecrows and Sir Billy Connolly – "the Big YIN"
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%27tec
    ''TEC – (slang) – A detective. – 1963, Barbara Euphan Todd, Jill Crockford, Detective Worzel Gummidge:
    “A collection of battered churns, looking like the jars for Ali-Baba’s thieves, stood at one end of the room. A ‘TEC could hide in one of those, thought Robin.”‘
    INTROIT is Latin for “he goes in” – “Introibo ad altare dei…” – remembered from when I was an altar boy, and the Mass was still in Latin.
    UNCLEANLY is another one of those homographs – pronounced differently as adjective & adverb.
    Thanks N&T

17. Thanks for the blog , very neat set of clues and some nice unusual words.
    Nobody seems to have commented on PLAY, I took it as a simple definition
    (dramatic) Work=PLAY and a cryptic comment that work and play (fun ) are anything but the same.

18. Yes, that one was based on the idea that A work can be A play, but that play (in another sense) is anything but work (in another sense). I suppose it is a kind of double definition, but who knows. Or cares.

    Btw, and re Eileen, I’m another fan of the Spider-Woman: what a great puzzle that is.

    Thanks to all, esp Turbopins for an excellent blog.

19. Thanks Neo for a very satisfying crossword. I ticked SERVICEMAN, PUCK, FROU-FROU, OUTDID, CROUTON, and UNCLEANLY as favourites. I couldn’t parse NICETY, IONA, or WARMTH so thanks Turbolegs (and KVa) for the blog.
    [I second Eileen’s endorsement of the Arachne crossword in the Guardian.]

20. I thoroughly enjoyed this one after struggling for the last couple of days.

    This is the standard I expect / enjoy of an FT puzzle, not painfully difficult and virtually every word known to me – Introits and Halberdier being the exceptions. Even they were easy to work out from the clue, and the pleasure of looking up a word in the dictionary to find that it exists.

    Also, completable in a sensible amount of time and in one sitting.

    Congratulations, Neo

21. I got about half. Proud to have gotten what I did. Enjoyed it and then learned much from this learned group. Thank you

22. Can someone explain 19A please? How does “without house” parse as containing house (ho). To me, it reads the opposite.

    Tia

23. ‘Without’ can mean ‘outside’ (of). It’s used by compilers to suggest the opposite, as here.

24. Thanks Jeanne

25. It’s probably too late to post this but Bob Dylan’s “The Mighty Quinn” contained the lines “Come all within, come all without” which supports Jeanne’s explanation.

26. Although the line us the other way round, to set up the rhyme with Quinn. Oft heard on football terraces.

27. Forgot to mention the Nina in this one. Only 2 1/2 months late.

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