Financial Times 16,096 by GOZO

16 comments on “Financial Times 16,096 by GOZO”

1. OK I dont cant abide BRAVA but it squeezes into Chambers. which is more than can be said about YAHTZEE-I’m sure its a fascinating game,

   But I feel like diving into it.

2. Never seen BRAVA before but, as copmus says, it’s in Chambers.

   Thought the clue for ECARTE was a bit unfair. Never heard of the game, always struggle with French words and CAR for COACH isn’t the first thing one would think of.

   Also wasn’t keen on ‘over’ as an anagram indicator in 1a.

   Never heard of MANGOLD but have heard of MANGELWURZEL which seems to be the same.

   Was happy to get YAHTZEE. My first themed answer was CHESS. Hoped the theme was games and not musicals. If OTHELLO had been my next one, I might have thought stage works – didn’t know this (and several others) as games.

   My first stab at an anagram for 3d was ‘rise later’ but wasn’t stupid enough to think that was correct.

   Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee.

3. Unfortunately, ‘balderdash’ was my first in. It had a definition and I didn’t know of it as a game, so it took a while to twig that ALL the acrossers were undefined games except that one. Grr. But once twigged it was a stroll in the park compared to yesterday’s evil Hamilton.
   ‘Brava’ I knew ‘cos I’m in the trade & pedantic like that anyway (like I also know that the French for ‘encore!’ is ‘bis!’).
   Can’t remember seeing ‘coagulate/catalogue’ before but I bet it’s a chestnut & what a splendid anagram anyway.
   Very enjoyable romp. Thanks to both.

4. Thanks for the blog, PeeDee and Gozo for an interesting puzzle.

   Well, Hovis @2, my first in was OTHELLO and so, of course, I was on the wrong track for a few minutes until I got RUMMY and remembered seeing OTHELLO as a game in a previous crossword. Several of the rest were unfamiliar but, as PeeDee says, gettable via the meticulous cluing [which is how it should be] – apart from 1ac: I don’t like ‘over’ to indicate an anagram and I’m so used to seeing  leg = on that I didn’t think of it indicating – er – leg and so came up with possibilities like CANONA et al, Still, I got there in the end and enjoyed the journey.

   Like Grant @3, I admired the anagram at COAGULATE [and its surface] and I don’t remember seeing it before, either.

   copmus @1 – I’m surprised at your objection to BRAVA. It turns up fairly often [along with bravissima] on the Guardian thread, in comments on puzzles by Arachne and Nutmeg. 😉

5. Hovis – I thought of cars being find on the railway rather than on the road – a dining car is an example of a coach for example.

6. Sorry – I meant CANONO [Can – John] + On [leg] + o [over].

7. PeeDee @5. That was my understanding, just not the first meaning to come to mind, making it a very difficult (impossible for me without cheating) word to get. So, unfair (maybe) but certainly acceptable.

8. Hovis @7 – surely the whole point of cryptic clues is that the intended meaning is not the first to come to mind?

9. Eileen @8. Don’t disagree in general. The point I was trying to make is that the combination of what I considered to be a very unusual word ECARTE with a very difficult wordplay wasn’t to my taste. Of course, if a similar clue appears in the future, I will have no problem with it. I’m very hypocritical in that regard 🙂

10. Thanks to PeeDee and Gozo

    We were told “Across clues lack definition”, but we had three – one @ 11a and a DD @ 26a. Perhaps the setter was trying to be kind. I would prefer that they were accurate.

    Apart from that and the egregious use of OVER as an anagrind, a very fine crossword.

11. Once l had RUMMY, CANASTA & SNOOKER, twigged the theme and completed this. FOI AITCH, LOI YAHTZEE. I admit l had to google ‘card games’ to get some. Thanks Gozo and blogger.

12. I’m a little surprised most seem to be unfamiliar with the game Balderdash. It is a bit like the old TV programme “Call my Bluff” with cards having an obscure word and players have to invent plausible definitions. The “dealer” for each round reads out the various made-up definitions plus the real one and players then have to guess what the word actually means with points scored for guessing the correct definition or for having ones own definition chosen as the correct one. Great fun, in fact

13. Thanks to Gozo and Peedee. I fought my way through with some help from Google (e.g., with BALDERDASH) but was defeated by YAHTZEE.

14. Othello was my first, chess my second, so I found the theme pretty quickly. Brava is common enough and I’ve seen over as an anagram indicator before morenthan once (Grauniad maybe?). We could done without without yahtzee, though.

15. … and I should check my comments for typos before posting 🙁

16. Thanks Gozo and PeeDee

    Good themed offering by Gozo again which was not all of that hard to get out as it turned out.  Knew all of the games apart for the couple across the top – BOGGLE and BASSET.  Remember enjoying YAHTZEE as a kid, so it didn’t present as many issues as it has for others.  I SPY and DRAUGHTS were my lead into the theme.

    Didn’t know MANGOLD but easy enough from the word play and crossers.

    Finished in the SE corner with SNOOKER, PICTIONARY and REEVE the last few in.

Comments are closed.