Financial Times 17,907 by XELA

14 comments on “Financial Times 17,907 by XELA”

1. [7d EXTROVERT: EXTR[a] = endlessly excessive and far from; OVERT = conspicuous]

2. In what sense does RECEPTION = first class?
   I also do not understand the parsing of EXTROVERT, even reading it as does FrankieG@1. The “far from” just seems extraneous???

3. Cineraria @2 – in England and Wales the first class most children join is RECEPTION, aged 4, then move into Year 1 aged 5. Legally, they could skip Reception, it’s a preparation class.

   I didn’t understand the “far from” in the clue for EXTROVERT either.

   Thank you to Xela and Turbolegs.

4. I’ve decided I like this setter.

   I didn’t understand RECEPTION either. We call it kindergarten. Couldn’t parse LEMONADE. Never heard of QUIETUS. I thought “lot” for “group of people” was a bit vague.

5. Shanne@3: Thanks. Wikipedia has an article, so I really should have found that.

6. Like others, “reception” as “first class” was unknown to me. As was 21A – “Escape Room”. In my working life, I have been on many team-building programmes but have never encountered this one.

   11A was also an expression with which I am unfamiliar.

   3D: is “baller” really a word? I accept that “footballer”, “netballer” and basketballer” are real words but really …

   Thanks Turbolegs.

7. Thanks Xela and Turbolegs

   3dn: Collins 2023 p 154 gives baller with a range of meanings, including “a ball-game player, esp in basketball” marked slang. This appears under the headword ball¹.

8. I agree with GDU @4: I am enjoying this setter. Although I did not find it as easy as our blogger. I only really got into my stride about half way through, my initial reads of the first dozen or so clues giving me very little. All became clear on returning to them, especially with crossers, but it was a pleasant battle. I laughed out loud at both ROYALTY and RECEPTION, the latter being particularly neat. Other faves inc FLAMBE – a very nice use of the normally screamingly obvious ‘primarily’, STRIKE HOME and AIR FRYER for the neat anagrams, VISITOR for the smooth surface, LOOSE which had a surprisingly tricky simple surface to try to penetrate and the lovely OGREISH.

   Turbolegs, there is a minor typo in the parse for STRIKE HOME where ‘smoker’ should read ‘smokier’.

   Thanks Xela and Turbolegs

9. 14ac: I meant to say this earlier. I think we should note how Xela has used an anagram to make sure that we got the unchecked letter Y in the correct spelling of FRYER.

10. Another one who didn’t understand 7D :-s

11. Pace Turbolegs we wouldn’t say this was a gentle challenge as we needed considerable help, for instance with ROMANESCO (we couldn’t unscramble the anagram) and LEMONADE (NHO berliner as a newspaper format – we parsed it as Die Welt, a German newspaper, hence a Berliner, translated into French as Le Monde and having an A inserted, which we thought would have been a bit abstruse had that been the correct parsing).
    But we liked TUTTI and ANCHOR, the latter for ‘key’ not being ‘esc’, ‘alt’ etc.
    Thanks, Xela and Turbolegs.

12. Yes, Claudia @6 basketball players in the states are called BALLERS and even more interesting is that players who play well are said to the BALLIN. I enjoyed the puzzle a lot. Quietus was a new word for me and, Ike our esteemed blogger, I had never heard the term Berliner as pertaining to newspapers before. Thanks Xela and Turbolegs!

13. For those who didn’t know the Berliner size, the UK Guardian changed to Berliner size when it changed from a broadsheet in 2005 and was published in that format to 2017. When I last read the Guardian in dead tree form it was a Berliner. I now buy it in e-format so hadn’t noticed to move to tabloid format in 2017.

14. Some decades in the newspaper industry, inc a couple at the FT, and I really loved 16 across. Clever. 👍

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