Financial Times 18,172 by Rosa Klebb

15 comments on “Financial Times 18,172 by Rosa Klebb”

1. 

   Martyn

   #1 - Sun 28th Sep 25, 23:05

   
   

   I thought this generally gentle but with a sting in the tail.

   I thought this a high-quality puzzle and there were smiles aplenty. I had a long list of likes, including HURRY, CLANDESTINE, & UNPRESSED, and I loved THUMBNAIL, STORAGE TRUTHER, & SODA BREAD

   STEROL was a jorum. TAPESTRY (do not understand) and PLAGUEY (NHO) crossed,
   which considerably delayed my finish.

   Thanks RK and Pete

2. 

   Rats

   #2 - Sun 28th Sep 25, 23:06

   
   

   Rosa back to her very best! Superb puzzle with lots of excellent clues. My pick, and LOI, was DEFENDER. Nice bit of misdirection.

3. 

   mrpenney

   #3 - Sun 28th Sep 25, 23:59

   
   

   Martyn @1: TAPESTRY is a multi-platinum album by Carole King, hence “King’s greatest success.” It features several renditions of songs she wrote that were first made hits by other singers, including “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” “You’ve Got a Friend,” and “Natural Woman,” along with other classics such as “So Far Away”, “It’s Too Late,” and “I Feel the Earth Move.” It still holds up well today.

   Or do you mean you don’t understand the clue? TAPES are records, and TRY =weary, as in “I find that obnoxious neighbor of ours very trying/wearying.”

4. 

   Martyn

   #4 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 00:12

   
   

   Sorry MrP@3 – I should have written ”did not understand” rather than “do not”. I wrote that note as I was solving the puzzle, at which point I understood neither the definition nor the parsing for TAPESTRY. Pete cleared up both for me and I forgot to update before publishing.

5. 

   khayyam

   #5 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 01:05

   
   

   I don’t normally do the FT puzzles but picked this one up on a recommendation and I agree it’s very good. I didn’t understand the definition for TAPESTRY (though clear enough from the crossers) so thanks for the clarification. Have to say I’m not enamoured with POTUS as a) it’s an acronym, the first of which is for “president” as given in the definition and b) pus for matter seems very vague. But the minor quibble was more than balanced by the numerous clues I loved, including most of Martyn@1 and Rats@2’s highlights — DEFENDER probably being the pick for me from the surface misdirection, and TRUTHER a close second.

6. 

   James P

   #6 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 04:30

   
   

   Yes a very good puzzle with numerous excellent clues and no complaints pitched at a nice level of challenge overall. Taciturn, Rasta, tapestry, thumbnail, Rhode island and obituary my favourites.

7. 

   Fiona

   #7 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 05:26

   
   

   Lovely puzzle

   Favourites included: TAPESTRY, OVERLOOK, HURRY, SODA BREAD, PIETY

   Thanks Rosa Klebb and Pete Maclean

8. 

   PostMark

   #8 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 07:22

   
   

   Lovely as ever. Succinct, smooth, flowing surfaces hiding clean constructions as we have come to expect. The Carole King album was unknown but guessable. TACITURN, RASTA, VILLAINS, STEROL, CLANDESTINE, THUMBNAIL, RHODE ISLAND and POSSE were my faves.

   khayyam @5: ‘matter’ = PUS is one of those crossword staples. A convenient way to signal a reasonably frequently occurring 3 letter combo. It is vague, true, but also recognised, I suspect, by many regular solvers. I’d acknowledge it’d be a potential source of confusion for most of those encountering it for the first time.

   Thanks Rosa and Pete M

9. 

   Babbler

   #9 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 07:55

   
   

   There’s a slight error in Pete Maclean’s treatment of 13, which illustrates why I had a question mark against it. Every other letter in “in tears very” produces NERVR, as Pete has written, and not NERVY, which is the answer. Is it usual (or even permissible) for the word “periodically” to indicate letters taken from a word without regularity?

10. 

    James P

    #10 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 07:57

    
    

    VerY disheartened is VY

11. 

    Pete Maclean

    #11 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 10:09

    
    

    That was a typo in 13, now corrected. Thank you.

12. 

    jvector

    #12 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 10:13

    
    

    A pleasure to see Rosa as ever. Maybe a little on the gentle side; I had no real issues in parsing whereas quite often I need to come here for enlightenment on some clever clue. My COD was probably the ‘one dreaded’ RASTA.

13. 

    Eileen

    #13 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 13:51

    
    

    Once again, I forgot that the Saturday puzzle is now blogged on Monday, so late to the party today.

    My two penn’orth: my favourites, echoing several others’, were TACITURN, OCTOBER, NERVY, RASTA, STORAGE, DEFENDER, CLANDESTINE, THUMBNAIL, RAT ON and OBITUARY.

    Many thanks, as ever, to Rosa and to Pete.

14. 

    Tony Santucci

    #14 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 15:02

    
    

    Thanks Rosa for a very gentle but very good crossword. My top picks were SODA BREAD, RASTA, STEROL, THUMBNAIL, EBB, and HEADGEAR but, as I’ve said many times, there are no bad clues in a Rosa Klebb crossword. TAPESTRY was a write-in for me, having heard its songs thousands of times on the radio in my youth. Thanks Pete for the blog.

15. 

    khayyam

    #15 - Mon 29th Sep 25, 21:07

    
    

    PostMark@8, thanks for the clarification. I thought I’d stumbled across most of those ‘conveniences’ by now but apparently not all of them, so still some learning to be done! I wonder if they vary a bit by paper, or if I’ve just failed to absorb this one.

Comments are closed.