Financial Times 17,111 by ARTEXLEN

10 comments on “Financial Times 17,111 by ARTEXLEN”

1. While waiting for my Picaroon fix I’ve been trying some different setters. ARTEXLEN might just be the one if this puzzle is of the quality to judge the rest by.

2. I liked this, especially FORESTALL. Took BISHOP as simply being an inclusion.

3. I too liked this. I also thought BISHOP was ruBISH OPera.

4. PARSNIP was my pick of the bunch.
   Thanks to Artexlen and Turbolegs.

5. Thanks Turbolegs, in 16d I fixated on HOME for House and wondered what sort of pet said “OW” even as our cat downstairs complained bitterly about the quality and quantity of food laid on for it, now clear and very amusing! I didn’t like PICT for “race, once” in the singular and upon perfunctory research they seem to have been a heterogenous tribe but maybe someone learned can correct me. Difficulty there (i was unfamiliar with the mighty Ure, the Uk’s approx 20th longest river) led to 6d being last in but that’s a lovely construction for a fine word, thanks Artexlen.

6. Satisfying to get this all out, with some quite difficult parsing, eg ESCHEWING as pointed out and HOMEOWNER, to keep us on our toes.

   Favourite was the surface for BERGAMOT; would have been even better if it had been ‘… juicy fruited’ but unfortunately it couldn’t be made to work.

   Thanks to Artexlen and Turbolegs

7. Good puzzle but failed trying to put Aintree into 25a. Which meant that I couldn’t get 21 and 23. Thanks for the blog

8. Thanks Artexlen for an expertly crafted crossword. For once I could both solve and parse everything without assistance. I particularly liked CONVERGED, the nicely hidden BISHOP, PARSNIP, HOMEOWNER, and TROOPER. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
   [Rats @1: You may already know this but Picaroon is Buccaneer in the FT and Rodriguez in the Indy; not only is he very good he’s also quite prolific. Artexlen’s crosswords are just as rewarding but there are far fewer of them. One of my current favourites is the FT’s Basilisk who is more often seen as Serpent in the Indy.]

9. Thanks to both for the fun and explanations.
   I also considered BISHOP to be a hidden answer as the playing piece was “from” rubbish opera.
   Loved CLANDESTINELY.

10. Thanks Artexlen and Turbolegs
    Found this quite challenging, taking nearly twice as long as the average FT solve to complete – and then some of the harder word play that needed to be done on completion – such as ALL AT ONCE, HOME OWNER and ESCHEWING. Interesting to see the dual appearance of similar ‘rats’ appearing in 9a and 23d.
    I think that PARSNIP would have been my favourite too (as quaintly put by Diane@4). It was my third to last in, followed by PURSE and FELL UPON.

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