Financial Times 17,740 by FALCON

22 comments on “Financial Times 17,740 by FALCON”

1. Vale Falcon

   What a nice puzzle to commemorate such a neat setter. I had so many ticks, given the wonderful surfaces throughout the puzzle. It really is difficult to name favourites, but if pressed I would mention HOGARTH for its mental image (hog art indeed!), with VIETNAM and TELSTAR for their surfaces

   I got AUGMENTED quite quickly, Cineraria, but the clues that took me time were HOGARTH and TWENTY TWO (also a favourite).

   On the downside, I did not like the relatively high degree of GK. Indeed, I could not be bothered attempting to solve “the highest point in Cornwall”.

   Thanks for the great blog, Cineraria, and a posthumous thank-you to Falcon. I love concise clues with entertaining surfaces and, in my experience, Falcon consistently delivered on both.

2. Top faves: TETRAGRAM (great surface), FRAGMENTED (excellent wordplay) and STAB (Nice def and lift & separate).
   Great puzzle by Falcon. Sad my thanks won’t reach you.
   Excellent blog Cineraria!

   (TEST DRIVE: Yes. It’s a cricket reference)

3. Very satisfying solve with a few chuckles to boot, like TETRAGRAM and ISHERWOOD. I didn’t have a problem with GK. It was fun to follow Falcon’s lead and arrive at a previously unknown destination, like BODMIN MOOR and BEVIN BOYS.
   It’s easy to see why Allan Scott’s puzzles were so enjoyed. Thank you for this, and to Cineraria for the blog.

4. Knew not of BEVIN BOYS, BODMIN MOOR, Christopher ISHERWOOD, William HOGARTH, ROLLMOP. And two sporting references in the one clue was a trial. So a fair amount of googling and dictionarying

   Vale, Falcon.

5. Thanks for the blog, neat ,precise and concise clues as always, it could have been a classic Everyman puzzle. NUDE is so simple but so clever and AUGMENTED a great construction.
   The highest point in Cornwall is Brown Willy, no smirking, but it is part of Bodmin Moor. Famous for “the beast of Bodmin” a large domestic cat or a panther depending on how gullible you are.
   Very sad that there is only one more Falcon to go .

6. I always look forward to the solve when I see the name Falcon. Given it’s the pseudonym that appears in the thumbnail FT picture on the website, there has always been something rather satisfying about encountering the setter himself. And, as others have remarked already, this was a classically neatly clued puzzle. So sad that there is only one more to come.

   I am sure the reverse Margaret trick in TETRAGRAM must have been spotted before but I don’t recall seeing it; very clever. Other faves include LUCRATIVE, VIETNAM, NUDE, FRAGMENTED, ASTRINGENT and TWENTY-TWO. BEVIN BOYS rang only the faintest of bells but I had figured out the construction and a quick check on Google confirmed there was such a thing – I have been guilty of confusing Bevin and Bevan in the past.

   TEST has been discussed occasionally before: it is also the word used for an international rugby match.

   Thanks Falcon and Cineria

7. Well it’s a shame that there will be but one further Falcon puzzle in The FT. This one’s a demo of all that’s good in crossword writing, for me. As for the GK, what’s the problem? All the clues are gettable from the wordplay as far as I can see. If anything, I bemoan the general absence of such answers in puzzles, where the burgeoning practice of allowing only vanilla entries seems to me to presume that solvers are utterly benighted, which they’re not. As Allan (obviously) would have agreed. RIP.

8. RIP Allan

9. PostMark @6. Yes, this parsing for TETRAGRAM has been used before quite recently (March 4, Gaff) “About time woman raised expletive maybe “.

10. What Neo said! Hear hear!

    I don’t recall ever coming across the term Bevin boys before but definitely solvable especially with some crossers and the impeccable cluing.

    Stab and nude were my favourites today for the simple elegance of the word play.

    Thanks Cineraria and rest in peace Falcon.

11. Bevin boys well known in mining communities, my grandfather was a sort of reverse Bevin boy, a miner first who was not allowed to join the armed forces.

12. RIP Falcon

13. As others have said lovely puzzle and sad to know there will only be one more.

    To my surprise I did know BEVIN BOYS though no idea why.

    Thanks Falcon and Cineria

14. A lovely puzzle, neat, fun, and fair. The only – minor – thing that snagged was the repetition of ‘winning’ for UP. I have come across BEVIN BOYS at some point, although might have been tempted to attribute them to BEVAN.

    Thanks Falcon and Cineraria – and I shall look forward to his final appearance.

15. Lovely puzzle, which I finished very quickly by my standards and enjoyed enormously.

    Thanks, especially to Falcon.

16. RIP Falcon and Thanks Cineraria

    14dn: Further to Amoeba@14, I think we should take note of the way that Falcon clued this so that BEVIN would fit and BEVAN would not.

17. A most enjoyable puzzle to remember this setter by – RIP Falcon. And thanks to Cineraria for the blog.

18. The puzzle required some unknown (to me) GK, but everything was gettable from the clue construction, so no complaints. Thought “Mycroft” was a bit clunky but otherwise liked all the clues, “Stab” and “Nudge” especially. Very sorry that I will see only one more puzzle from this setter.
    RIP Falcon and thank you to Cineraria for the blog

19. I loved the puzzle with my favorite being TETRAGRAM. I had not heard of either HOGARTH or ISHERWOOD (I know, what a heathen) but the word plays still made the solves easy. Tip of the cap to Falcon, you will be missed.

20. Falcon was one of the few setters I could crack when I first began attempting British crosswords because his clues seemed crystal clear to me. I will miss him.

21. I second all the praise above. Did not get FRAGMENTED but otherwise sailed through. No trouble with BEVIN BOYS or BODMIN MOOR!

22. I had the pleasure of working with and then editing Allan’s puzzles when he compiled for the Spectator. He joined the team in the late 1980s and compiled a puzzle every ninth week for the next twenty years or so. He had previously collaborated with Mass to produce four books of cryptic crosswords for M&S. Then of course he was Everyman in the Observer for many years. On retiring from the Soectator Allan joined the Daily Telegrapn and want on to compile over 3500 puzzles of various types — a feat that I would expect will not be equalled for many years — if ever!

    He will be missed. RIP, my friend.

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