Financial Times 17,933 Jumbo by BUCCANEER

17 comments on “Financial Times 17,933 Jumbo by BUCCANEER”

1. Enjoyed this puzzle a lot, but download from site was missing 54D. Was it in paper FT?

2. BrianB@1: It is my understanding that the paper did include 54D and that a revised PDF upload is planned.

3. Thx, Cineraria!

4. Ah, so that’s how IDIOTIC works. I might need to get stronger reading glasses, as I didn’t make out the dot, and thought it was eleven. Should’ve gone to Specsavers. (Do you have those ads over there?)

   My printout was missing 54d too. I thought it might have been something sneaky, like a puzzle I came across many moons ago where one answer was CLUELESS.

   I 90% finished and shall now go through the blog and enjoy a few “D’oh!” moments.

5. I understood the idea of a jumbo is to enjoy it over the break. This is the second time the blog has come out the same day as the FT jumbo. This time I am halfway through and have little desire to finish in a hurry. I doubt I will be commenting on this blog.

   Thanks for your enthusiasm, Cineraria, but perhaps 15 squared could review its publication timing for holiday puzzles?

6. 24A: let me confess my almost total ignorance of golf, but I thought that the “tee” was the small plastic thingamajig that the golf ball sits on before being blasted into space. It seems a pretty small space to be classed as “an area for driving”.

   34A – “short tennis”; 7D – sextonship; 47D – “samuel”; and 51D – “dactyl” were all unknown to me but gettable from the cross letters and the help of an online crossword helper.

   Congratulations to anyone under seventy years of age who solved “Crank Handles”!

7. 55Ac – brilliant clue.

8. Virginia@6

   “Tee” is also the name given to the, usually rectangular, area of short grass from where the first shot at each hole has to be played. At longer holes players would usually use a driver so “area for driving”

9. Just looking in out of curiosity, I can take IMJ’s comment further by quoting the definition for the relevant meaning of tee from SOED 2007 p 3195. It is dated late 17th century and marked origin unknown:
   “A cleared place from which a golf ball is struck at the beginning of play for each hole; a support on which a ball is placed to be struck, org. a small heap of earth or sand, now usu. a small wooden or plastic peg with a concave top.”
   From this, it appears that it is just a coincidence that plastic golf tees have a slight resemblance in shape to the letter T. I have learned something today.

10. A superb puzzle.

11. Very enjoyable and a bit tougher than the other Christmas “Cluedo” jumbo

12. I subconsciously knew that sight of the blog would prompt me to finish the puzzle, rather than save it for NY as originally planned. And then it rained, my conscious excuse for sitting down and finishing it.

    I agree with Moly@11 that it was tougher than Xmas. I also agree that IDIOTIC was a great clue. And it was a great blog

    This much Buccaneer confirmed my belief that he is not one of my favourite setters. I recognise the quality of his clues, but we just do not seem to share the same sense of humour and his puzzles seem monotonous to me with such a high % of wordy charades.

    Anyway, it must have taken quite an effort to compile this puzzle, which I appreciate.

    Thanks Buccaneer and Cineraria

    Best wishes for the NY to all!

13. Very nice puzzle. I started it a bit late as I was still enjoying my break. Some new words but solvable from the clues.

    If you’re after a clue of the year (COTY?), my favourite was one from Picaroon’s Olympics crossword:

    Extremely tough skill, fencing with foil (6)

    https://www.fifteensquared.net/2024/07/26/guardian-cryptic-29445-by-picaroon/

    Flawless surface and topical.

14. To confirm 54D was indeed in the paper itself. Held out on fifteensquared until NYE 🙂

15. 9dn. Pluto is the god of the Underworld. Hades IS the Underworld. I fail to see how the one clues the other.

16. 9dn: Hades is defined as both the underworld and the god in Collins 2023 p 878, Chambers 2016 p 687, ODE 2010 p 787, and SOED 2007 1187. My schools edition of A Lexicon Abridged from Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon (impression of 1966) has the Greek name on page 11 defined as “Hades, the god of the lower world, Lat. Pluto” I think that is sufficient authority for the names Hades and Pluto to define each other.

17. Totally agree with Martyn.

    Please bring back the jumbo, themed Christmas crossword and a week or so to do it in the quiet periods over Christmas.
    No theme and results the same day?? What’s that all about? 🫤

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