Financial Times 16,902 by JULIUS

25 comments on “Financial Times 16,902 by JULIUS”

1. Loved the idea for this grid though I admit I was unsure of the directions at first. Luckily 9a was my second one in so that clarified things. I then wondered if the letters in question would be consecutive but 15’s ‘lift’ showed otherwise.
   As ever with Julius, there were devious twists and turns and new words to learn: 20a I parsed but 1a was my lone failure – what a lovely word though. If only I’d remembered to look back at 5.
   And credit to the latter for hiding in plain sight while 16 had me fooled for ages, stuck on ‘kedgeree’. That ‘camera setting (9a), 7 and 8 were my picks.
   Thanks to Julius and Grant.

2. An extremely enjoyable unexpected Tuesday challenge – not having the 11th instance helped me solve my final clue. I hadn’t heard of 1a but have noted the splendid word in the unlikely event that it ever appears again

   Thanks very much to Julius and to Grant

3. It occurs to me that Laurel (2d) and Hardy (12a) are both referenced here today.

4. What a brilliant idea for a grid-fill! – a perfect response to the amount of discussion there’s been here re giveaway enumerations.

   I think I ticked all of the simplifications, which doesn’t leave much scope to list other favourites, so I’ll just highlight those that amused me particularly (though there was plenty of wit throughout): 12ac RATIO, 28ac KIP, 2dn ISTANBUL and 14dn BLUNDERER.

   I knew MANIPLE but confess to using a word search for the unlikely-sounding SWINGLETREE – but, as Diane says, what a lovely word.

   [I feel well and truly spoilt today, after Philistine in the Guardian.]

   Huge thanks to Julius for lots of fun and to Grant for a great blog.

5. The explanation in the print version was “In 11 instances, the letter count has been simplified”. I thought it might be difficult to work out what this meant, but PLAN B and then F STOP were my ways in.

   SWINGLETREE went in solely from wordplay, and the dictionary definition was as helpful to me as it was to Grant. I found ISTANBUL quite hard, and was fooled into going through my ‘Illinois city’ list (n=2) before that particular well ran dry. Maybe an obvious one, but my favourite was the Private Pike ‘Stupid boy’ reference at 28a.

   Thanks to Julius and to Grant.

6. 22 could have been “Let down stripped note (5)” except it would have ruined the grid
   Thanks Julius-great puzzle

7. Like others here, I found this very entertaining. SWINGLETREE was the only new word for me (and not much wiser having looked up the definition) but was pleased to get it from the wordplay.

   There’s a small error in blog for 12a. The wrong letter O has been lower-cased.

8. To Hovis:
   I’d just been reviewing the blog and spotted that but I thought, ‘Nah, leave it. Hovis’ll be here soon and it gives him something to nitpick about’.
   Btw, I thought 18a would have been better without the brackets and ‘It’s’. (In an otherwise brilliant puzzle).

9. Always glad to be of service. Now, if only I could avoid the numerous errors in my posts.

10. Re 1a, according to Chambers, the swipple of a flail is a swingle, not a SWINGLETREE. The latter (or whippletree) is “the crosspiece of a carriage, plough, etc., which is made so as to swing on a pivot and to which the traces of a harnessed animal are fixed”.

11. ToTom I:
    Thank goodness we’ve cleared that up.

12. Thanks Tom. I selected “swingletree” in my Chambers app and didn’t realise the first bit referred only to “swingle” on its own. I guess Grant may have done similar. I do find it a little annoying that it then gives the definition as a “whippletree” and you have to then look that up. At least I am finally the wiser and now know another word (at least for the next few hours).

13. Being an habitue of Azed, where hyphenated answers are never indicated as such, I guessed that theme straight away, then got flummoxed by the hyphen indicator at 29. It was only towards the end, with all the relevant words entered that that particular penny dropped. Clever puzzle.

14. Lovely idea which I spotted almost immediately (and certainly after 27ac).
    I was initially somewhat confused by the enumerations of 26ac and 30ac – why was Julius doing that?
    But then it turned out to be that all the enumerations were either (1, x) or (x, 1).
    With all the single letters being different – a clever touch.
    I ended with, of course, 1ac – and 29ac (it’s ‘rosy-cheeked’ but ‘rose-cheeked’ is also a word).
    Sometimes you do a crossword in which a setter has the enumeration wrong, eg writing (9) when it should be (3,6).
    What today’s puzzle made clear (to me) was that the right enumeration does matter.
    Having so many of them ‘wrong’ made solving more difficult – well, in my perception.
    And surely more difficult than the average Julius (or Knut, for that matter).
    Agree with everyone above: really enjoyable.
    Thanks to Grant & Julius.

15. 30ac? There is no 30ac – 29ac!

16. I always dread “special instructions” but they actually helped here, an original and amusing idea. Thank you, Julius and Grant Baynham.

17. It took me a LONG time to see the stupid boy. Stupid boy!
    Thanks Grant and Julius

18. Much credit to Julius for this original and entertaining concept. From the instructions (in the print version) I guessed there would be split words and fortunately it became clear what was going on quite quickly. Some very good “straight” clues too – 2d, 20a etc. Very enjoyable Tuesday surprise.

19. Thanks for the blog, very clever crossword. fortunately FSTOP gave me the idea quickly .
    SWINGLETREE is basically quite simple. Think of two people towing a boat, using a rope and a piece of wood at right angles which they hold. The idea for horses is only slightly more complicated.

20. Could 29a be a double definition instead of a (not so) cryptic clue? Just asking.

21. That was more difficult than I expected. F-STOP was my FOI so I caught the trick early and that helped a bit but I needed a word finder for several including SWINGLETREE and VIDELICET, new words for me. I never did figure out H-BLOCK, another unknown. Favourite was the simple PURR. Thanks to both.

22. Tony,
    H-block is a reference to the infamous Maze prison in Northern Ireland – an overhead shot shows why. There was also once an Australian TV called Prisoner Cell Block H.

23. Diane, thanks for the education. I started doing British crosswords about three years ago and I love learning these facts.

24. Thanks Julius and Grant
    Sil@14: good observation about the single letters all being different. That would explain the choice of D sharp at 22dn.

25. Thanks Julius and Grant
    This one spilled over to the next morning to complete. Ignorance of Private PIKE meant that 28a was not parsed at all, did not work out what was going on with that SWINGLETREE after finding it in a word finder and didn’t see the extraction of NORM from John MAJOR’s wife.
    Lots of other clever constructions throughout the puzzle and especially appreciated the novel idea of the 11 special single-lettered clues. L-PLATE was the first of these to land but it was only after PLAN B to properly understand the theme.
    Finished with H-BLOCK, KIP and A MAJOR.

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