Financial Times 18,075 by Zamorca

15 comments on “Financial Times 18,075 by Zamorca”

1. Thanks Zamorca and Pete

   7dn needs a final L (overall at last) to be added to the parsing.

   17dn I read as [tu]RNI[ps] in (to hide) GASH (cut)

   [21ac: About twenty years ago, I was at Kennington Oval for a cricket match when a Surrey County Cricket Club member told me that his club did not own any clocks. I could see at least one clock, but he told me that it was on tick.]

2. I enjoyed this very much.

   Favourites included: GARGOYLE, STAND BY, GARNISH (which I read the same as PB @ 1), QUEUED, TICKLE PINK, NOBLE

   Thanks Zamorca and Pete

3. PRECEDE, TICKLE PINK, JUKE BOX and UPSET were my favourites in this pangram.
   The only one I failed to parse correctly was GARNISH, which I had seen as per the blog but wondered how ‘garish’ could be ‘cut’. Looking at Pelham’s comment now, I wonder how I didn’t see ‘gash’! Probably, I wasn’t expecting to use so much of the essence of ‘turnips’. I’ll be on my guard from now on!
   I didn’t know ‘nobble’ in this sense either; I usually think of it as ‘pinch’ or gain by underhand means.
   Still, I enjoyed the puzzle.
   Thanks to Zamorca and Pete.

4. I found the too half was pretty OK, and the bottom half much more challenging

   Ticked GARNISH, RESIDENCE, CITIZEN, and SHEER

   22d and 24a took a lot of time, not helped by me repeatedly misreading intimidate as imitate. NHO nobble to mean intimidate. I am sure it is in some dictionary somewhere, but not in mine.

   Why does sandwich = ROUND? An I am afraid I do not understand how IDLE THREAT equates to Phantom Menace. Is it a saying? I was also looking for an insertion indicator to place r in theat. Thanks Pete for putting me right

   Thanks Zamorca and Pete

5. Martyn,
   Typically in England, anyway, a round is two slices of bread to form a sandwich. Confusingly, in some regions, a round is just one slice!
   An ‘idle threat’ is one that is not carried out, just as a phantom pregnancy is not a real one. It’s a play on the Star Wars film, Phantom Menace.

6. Thanks Diane@5 for ROUND of bread. That is a new expression for me.

   I am relieved to learn I cannot say “that’s no phantom menace” in place of “that’s no IDLE THREAT”. So saying, it does not help me like the clue.

7. Diane@5 (also Martyn@6)
   ROUND
   Interestingly, Chambers (the mobile app) has both meanings

   noun
   4. A whole slice of bread or toast
   5. A sandwich made with two complete slices of bread
   one round=two rounds (in a way) 🙂

8. Thanks for the blog , good range of clues , neat and concise .
   Martyn@4 , for major trials in court some potential witnesses could be nobbled .

9. This took me a long time. I liked it but never picked up much momentum. I noticed the pangram, not knowing it was a signature Zamorca move. JUKEBOX closed that out.

   Thanks all.

10. hmmm
    ASHORE a homophone of ASSURE?

    Not so SHORE about that

11. Martin @9 Zamorca is Hectence in the Guardian, and she is known for pangrams there too.

    Enjoyable puzzle, thank you toZamorca and Pete Maclean.

12. Enjoyed this one – a steady solve and, unusually for me, no ??? or unparsed clues.

13. Thanks Roz@8. Don’t you nobble the witness by intimidation (or bribery etc)?

14. Yes Martyn – you can nobble/intimidate a key witness or even jury members .

15. Thanks Roz@14. I was thinking one is the result and the other the method for getting the result. But I am not hung up on it either way

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