Financial Times 16,372 by SLORMGORM

16 comments on “Financial Times 16,372 by SLORMGORM”

1. I parsed LOCATE as in blog but don’t like it. Maybe there’s a better explanation?

   Surely 10a should be (5,4). UNDERFIRE exists as a nine-letter word but not with this meaning (unless I’m wrong).

   I was a bit underwhelmed by this but I’m sure many will love it.

2. Agreed Hovis @1 – I cant even find ‘underfire’ in Chambers as one word.  I put in undermine, but couldn’t parse it.

3. Geoff @2. I too wondered about “undermine” but just didn’t fit.

   In the Chambers app, “underfire” means “to fire or bake insufficiently”.

4. Jolly good fun was this. Pedants corner may like to criticise 17 but its fine by me,

   Coudnt resist writing TULL in for 30(on one leg too)

   Thanks Harry

5. I agree with Teacow and Hovis@1 re LOW KATE. Surely that parsing’s simply too superficial for a wordsmith like Slormgorm. Come on, Slormgorm, spill the beans: and thanks for an otherwise great puzzle. Teacow too for the perceptive blog.

6. Thanks for the blog, Teacow.

   Cracking puzzle – loved ENGELS and the flying teenager, particularly [but share the doubts about LOCATE].

   Many thanks for the fun, Harry.

    

7. Could it be that Kate was a commoner? I don’t like it – sounds like a barb from the gutter press! 15a defeated me, otherwise a fun  puzzleThanks to both.

8. Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow. I struggled with LOCATE, TALE, and ENGELS but eventually came up with the same parsing as above.

9. The Free Dictionary gives a few press citations of “underfire” used attributively with the meaning “under criticism” (“the underfire board…”).

10. I’m with Hovis – I was niggled by 10A and 23A, but also:
    – 18D (is Da commonly used for old man? I know Pa is…)
    – in 30A, why “of dodgy nature?”
    – in 31A, is “descend” really synonymous with “pitch”?
    (Sorry to whinge but, like Frasier says about restaurants, there’s only one thing better than a really good restaurant- and that’s a really good restaurant with a few tiny flaws that you can pick at for hours)

11. Hi George@10:
    – “Da” is used for father as a British colloquialism (especially in Scotland)
    – An “account of dodgy nature” is implying a lie. “Tales” by definition are either untrue or imaginatively recounted stories, so in my opinion this works
    – In the sense of sloping downwards “pitch” can be a synonym for “descend”, as in the case of a pitched roof

12. Thanks Slormgorm for an enjoyable crossword and Teacow for explaining ADAPTABLE — I never would have seen “da” and “pa” reversed or even come close to parsing LOCATE.

13. Thanks for the blog, Teacow.

    I didn’t enjoy this.

    Too many overstretched synonyms.

14. i rejected undermine and settled for underwire. You can criticise for it not fitting Cinders, but it did the enumeration

    i liked “drinks for one’s party”, “teenager flying concord” and favourite clue was “sexist term angered those at The fringe”

    SE took me a while

    Thanks slormgorm & Teacow

15. I can imagine 23a may have seemed amusing to a setter after a couple of glasses one evening, but isn’t that what an editor’s for?

    It’s simply not a crossword clue.

    If it is I’d like someone to explain it to me.

16. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow

    Had the same issues with 10a and 23d and can only conclude after seeing it here that it must be the commoner aspect of Kate that 23a can work.  That and [B]LIGHT at 14d were the two that I couldn’t parse at all – couldn’t get away from [p]LIGHT.  As it turns out they were the last two in.

     

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