Financial Times 18,064 by BOBCAT

19 comments on “Financial Times 18,064 by BOBCAT”

1. I agree with your parsing of 3D. For 9A, I had CORN (sentimental stuff) + ISH (a bit) as wordplay.

2. INTERVENE
   Had the same parsing as the blogger.
   CORNISH
   Parsed it as Rudolf@1

   Thanks Bobcat and Teacow.

3. Not an easy puzzle, although it was a good one . Nho MANNOSE although this was easy to spot.Missed the lurking ocelot.

   Thanks Bobcat and Bobcat.

4. I completed this in one sitting, though it was quite a long one. I didn’t spot the feline despite looking for it.

   I too parsed Intervene in the same way, and thought it was an unsatisfactory clue (assuming the parsing is correct ) in an otherwise generally excellent puzzle. I don’t like clues which ask you to take bits of words when there’s any number of bits that could be taken.

   I also felt there were a few confusing superfluous words in some of the clues. For example,”plastic” in 2 D. “Perhaps” in 19D.

   NHO Mannose but straightforward. Nor Ret = soak.

   Favourites were Elvis, Alarm Bell, Spinach.

   Thank you

5. Thanks for the blog , I will raise SM@3 , not easy but exceptional , such clever wordplay and so many different ways of moving letters here and there .
   INTERVENE is unusual , cut the end off painters , push next to venetian and then it is hidden .
   SEDUCER has very neat use of commuted . MANNOSE sugar well known for being very dense .

6. Another nho for mannose but it had the same suffix as gluc- and fruct-. Ret for soak I know from the late mrs ginf’s Morland series, and it’s been here before too. To me, snub usually means to ignore socially, but then boxer dogs have snub tails I guess. Last Bobcat had a cat nina and I said I’d look next time .. forgot! Fun anyway, ta Bobcat and Teacow.

7. Thanks Bobcat and Teacow

   I’m confused by the parsing of 3D. paINTERs I get, but I don’t see how VENE is the ‘frames’ of VENETIAN, and ‘frames’ isn’t an inclusion indicator, as the two components abut each other.

   Moly @ 4: those words aren’t superfluous. ‘plastic’ is an anagrind, as the letters of CARDS do not appear in sequence in the clue, while ‘Perhaps’ is because Joy isn’t the only emotion.

8. Moly@4
   ANARCHY
   ‘plastic’ is used as the anagram indicator with the fodder being ‘cards’.
   As the letters c a r d s are not in order in the words ‘cash and carry’, the
   setter has instructed to anagram cards and then remove it from the above
   words.

   EMOTION
   Joy is one type of EMOTION. Perhaps is used to indicate that the definition is
   by example.

   I just see that Simon S has addressed these queries.

   Simon S@7
   painter touching venetian—->paintervenetian
   paintervenetian frames/includes INTERVENE

9. I share the admiration for this and agree with Rudolf@1 about CORNISH.

10. Thanks KVa

    Still not the most elegant of clues, in my book.

11. Liked VISITED, EJECT (remembered c), DROPS IN.

    But I am going to buck the trend and confess that I did not enjoy the puzzle much. It was probably a wavelength thing. The number of unusual words and devices that failed to elicit a smile made it Into a chore for me.

    Thanks Bobcat and Teacow

12. I’ve only been at this lark for 3 or 4 years so I’m still very much a beginner, and I stared at this for half an hour and had one answer in . . . 30 minutes later I’d completed it. I don’t know what that means. Perhaps I’m beginning to get the hang of things?

13. An absorbing challenge for a wet bank holiday. There were a number of clues where we guessed at the answer then saw the parsing as we wrote it in, incuding LEAKAGE, NOISOME and TERRAIN. Anyway, we finished unaided but didn’t spot the nina although we looked for one.
    Thanks, Bobcat and Teacow.

14. Eric @12 it means just reward for persevering . The grid may have helped as well , get a few and lots of helpful letters , many first letters which are very useful .

15. Good job Eric E

16. Loved 20 Down

17. This was hard for me. Ret means soak? Why are pirates of Penzance Cornish? What is derv? I had stops in instead of DROPS IN for a long time and screwed up melodrama for that reason though a dictionary crawl found me melismata which is some kind of performance! It was fun but perhaps for experienced solvers who have a host of odd crosswordeze in their quiver rather than a straight forward battle.

18. Anil@17 , RET is quite common in crosswords , a term from the linen industry , the flax is retted .
    DERV might be UK only , usually called diesel it is only for road vehicles , we also have Red Diesel for farm vehicles , much cheaper .
    Penzance is in Cornwall , many pirates there once .

19. RET may be quite common in crosswords but was new to me as was MANNOSE but all in all an entertainment, if tough, puzzle

Comments are closed.