Financial Times 18,033 by JASON

14 comments on “Financial Times 18,033 by JASON”

1. 8d: Hadn’t noticed, but yes, it’s the rising niffs that are being bored by the Wife. “Wife bears rising niffs” or “Wife’s borne by rising niffs” could work.

2. Maybe Jason got the verbs crossed, thinking the wife was skewered rather than the niffs bored …

3. Liked ACCURATE, MENDACIOUS (very topical) and three concise anagrams with great surface CARICATURE, REGIONS, NECTARINE

   Did not like the GK needed and felt a couple of the definitions were stretching the language too far. I see 8d has been covered

   Thanks Jason and Cineraria

4. Took ages nailing the NE, trying to do something with otip in 5d, finally bunging in Van Dyke (forgot the actor, kids the wrong age for MP; vaguely thought maybe he painted a chimney sweep, double d”oh!). Hey ho, no pain no gain, ta Jason and Cineraria.

5. I enjoyed the puzzle—thanks Jason! My favorite was TRAIN SET. Thanks Cinearia for the wordplay on AUCTION. I got the answer without fully understanding the methodology. Quite a clever clue after seeing the explanation.

6. A 95% solver-friendly compilation, but it’s strange (and rather unfair to the setter), how just one or two questionable clues can spoil one’s overall opinion of a puzzle.
   The syntax of 8(d), for example, as already addressed, above. Mick DUNDEE in 4(ac): which I knew well from the films, but it still felt a bit unsatisfactory.
   For me, 22(d), was a culprit too; WARMTH and sincerity are not quite the same thing? “Couple from Thanet”, for TH…. a bit iffy?
   95% is still a good score, and I greatly enjoyed this crossword; AUCTION (29ac) gets a mention, for the “about moving sideways” device. Nice one.
   Thanks, Jason & Cineraria

7. Thanks, Jason & Cineraria.

   AUCTION my fave too.
   Also liked SKEWER’s def.
   TRAIN SET and SPARE TYRE: liked them as well.

   “Couple from Thanet”, for TH…. a bit iffy? : Not quite E.N.Boll&@6. This device has been used a few
   times in puzzles and I feel this is all right.

8. Thanks Jason and Cineraria

   To add to the other observations, my commercial pedant head would argue that an advice note and an invoice are completely different documents – for one, an advice note generally doesn’t show price details.

9. Other than the word order in SKEWER I loved this, all accessible and clear with fun surfaces (and a relief after today’s Paul in the Guardian). Mary Poppins was 1964, I can’t remember it not being around and recurring on BBC TV (last on New Year’s Day 2025, previously part of Christmas 2019, and so on).

   Thank you to Julius and Cineraria.

10. This was enjoyable, I had to think a bit on a few which is good, not too easy for my talents. I came up short on a handful and I mistook 10A to be Classic rather than Chalice – D’Oh! Ah well, I must try harder next time!

    Thanks to Jason and Cineraria.

11. KVA@7 Apologies, “iffy” was the wrong word. The device is indeed used by setters, so of course, it must be totally correct, not iffy in any way.
    Perhaps I should have used “weak”. As in, “couple from Thanet” could be TH/AN/ET, or indeed, HA/NE.
    It’s a very poor way to generate a 2-letter sequence, requiring little skill, and, as in this clue, completely random.
    Unless there is “a couple from Thanet who are showing sincerity to Women’s power”, who are reading this.
    In which case, you have my empathy.

12. Ian@11 I’m not sure whether your concern about the use of “couple from Thanet” to indicate TH in 22D is that it is (a) imprecise, or (b) random.

    As far as precision is concerned, it would, of course, have been possible to have made things absolutely watertight by including “leading” before “couple”. But would that have been necessary? Is the clue unfair as it stands, given that you have identified only three possibilities for the two letters in question? If you think it’s unfair, then what is your opinion of, say, clues that require strings of letters to be cycled, and clues that require letters to be rearranged before being inserted into something else? Such devices could require the solver to consider multiple possible word orders before determining the one which applies.

    On the question of the use of “Thanet” being random, that criticism could be levelled at almost any clue which relies on building the answer up from multiple parts, some of which use letters derived from other words ( eg the middle letters, the internal letters, or the extreme letters). In my view it is desirable that the surface readings of cryptic clues should make sense, but that surely does not mean that they must also provide statements of fact. I don’t agree that the clue is weak – although the surface reading is perhaps not of the best it is not nonsensical.

13. Overall a bit tricky but pretty fair clue-wise, I thought.

14. Late to the feast.. . Enjoyable puzzle, not disturb by word orders such as in 8dn, it seems to a common trope in crossword land, I agree it’s vaguely annoying but usually only delays the inevitable… on the other hand I find FAR and OFF not to be synonyms altho’ often used together, obviously this caused no concern for anyone else… one man’s meat, as they say…
    Thanks Jason and Cineria

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