Magwitch, this Friday at long last ! She brings this work week to a close with a gentle and relatively straightforward challenge, which in keeping with her inimitable style, has several smooth and clean surfaces with a whiff of inventive constructions.
Turbolegs
Financial Times 14,824 by BRADMAN
This serving from the Don can be aptly likened to being a Jekyll-and-Hyde type of grid – polarized between some very easy clues and some true brain-busters.
Financial Times 14,818 by GAFF
My pleasure to blog a Gaffle as the first FT grid of the New Year 2015 – and like all others before it from the globetrotter, an absolute delight to tackle.
Financial Times 14,809 by WANDERER
A mindbender from WANDERER which turned out to be a complete delight at the end of it all. First pass resulted in barely 3-4 clues being solved and I was getting mentally ready for a long arduous affair.
Financial Times 14,803 by BRADMAN
It is Friday, and it is Bradman at the FT so no surprises there. The Don serves up another delectable offering with an excellent mix of smooth surfaces and ingenious constructions. Quite an enjoyable solve with the SE quadrant nearly being a showstopper for me. There are a couple of clues though which I have a minor quibble about but nothing significant.
Financial Times 14,797 by GAFF
A very entertaining puzzle from Gaff. I had written a much longer preamble than this one, but somehow lost it due to a technical glitch. As with most if not all Gaffles (Gaff-puzzles), there is a central theme. 1ac continues to elude me so any help here would be much appreciated.
Financial Times 14,791 by BRADMAN
A fun-filled offering from my dear friend on Fridays, Bradman. Smooth surfaces in several clues alongside some ingenious word play.
Financial Times 14,785 by HAMILTON
I found today’s offering from Hamilton tough going. Slow progress for most part, having to slowly chip away at clues sprinkled across the grid. Still have a couple of clues / parsing that require improvement (apologies for this!). Seemed to have a more-than-average number of island references in both answers and clues – anybody have any idea why?
Financial Times 14,779 by WANDERER
Excellent offering from Rurouni (look it up!!) today. A rich variety of clues spanning the entire spectrum of easy write-ins and really difficult ones to crack. I made quick work of the top half and then went plodding through quicksand as I finished the lower half.
Financial Times 14,773 by BRADMAN
A familiar friend this Friday. Thanks to Bradman for this pleasant jaunt of a solve. Fairly steady progress through out the grid. A couple of clues seemed like they could have been more precise but nothing material enough to take away from some smooth cluing.
Financial Times 14,767 by MUDD
First up, a big “Thank you!” to Gaufrid, for covering for me these past few weeks when I was away on vacation.
Mudd’s puzzle today was a pleasant solve, themed around Scotland. The reason I suspect is Halloween (31st October) got its name from the Scottish song, “All Hallows’ Eve”, sometime around 1745.
Financial Times 14,737 by ALBERICH
Such a wonderful puzzle from Alberich. Pity it wasnt my best day in the sun, especially coming a cropper against the SE corner. Amongst several gems of clues, 26ac was vastly ingenious. Thanks to Gaufrid for sprucing up and providing a backbone to an otherwise ordinary blog. There will be several opportunities to improve upon the parsing below so I hope collectively we are in good shape by the end of the day.
Financial Times 14,731 by FLIMSY
An entertaining tussle with Flimsy today, thanks to whom for setting an intuitive and approachable grid. No favorite clue here as there were several smooth surfaces. My LOI was 25ac, not because I solved it last, but because I couldnt do any better than parsing it as cryptic definition for the player part of the clue. Perhaps this could be improved upon.
Financial Times 14,725 by BRADMAN
A gentle offering this from Bradman – my best friend on a Friday. Relatively straightforward with very little left to chance. I needed help parsing 16ac and 18 ac but other that everything else went in pretty quickly. Thanks Bradman, for an apt conclusion to this week of relatively easy FT grids.
Financial Times 14,719 by REDSHANK
This was a puzzle in 3 parts. The 1st part was solving the clues that seemed ready for parsing. The 2nd was correcting for the wrong numbering in the second half of both the across and down clues. This had to be done after removing 2 black squares which shouldn’t have been, along 2dn and 7dn. The 3rd part was trying to put 1 and 2 together. Barring these minor inconveniences, I really had a fun time attacking this grid, so thanks to Redshank (yet again!) for making this a meaty challenge.