Financial Times 14,830 by MAGWITCH

11 comments on “Financial Times 14,830 by MAGWITCH”

1. Thanks, Turbolegs.

   Some nice clues here – the only weakish one being, I thought, 10ac. My favourites were 12 and 30ac and 2, 11 and 24dn.

   I think 26 is OP [surgery] + an anagram [possibly] of ON PET + [broke]N.

   My first thought for 22dn was the same as yours but I couldn’t account for the ‘alternative’, so decided it was DEFEAT: reversal of FED + E [European] + AT [Alternative Technology].

   I have no problem with way = means – which can be singular: ‘a way to an end’ [Chambers].

   Thanks to Magwitch for an enjoyable puzzle.

2. Thanks Magwitch and Turbolegs.

   I had 26ac the same way as Eileen @1, and think she must be right about 22dn: DEFEAT works.

   27dn: I think the state here is actually Mississippi – the abbreviation Miss. is given that way in Chambers 2014.

3. Thanks Eileen@1 for the help with the parsing and PG@2 for the inputs. I am sure that DEFEAT is correct, just that my engineering background led me to DEFECT quickly (as in the context of materials) and I thought the parsing held. With 26ac, I didn’t check the dictionary for the abbreviation. It was a toss up between the two, and I thought Missouri fit as the reduction was exactly by half.

   Hope you had as much fun as I did solving this.

   Cheers

4. Nice puzzle to end the week.
   As ever with Magwitch there’s a lot of care for the surface.

   Thank you, Turbolegs, for a fine blog.
   In your preamble you mention Magwitch’s “inimitable style”.
   Yes, she certainly has a style of her own.
   However, having solved every single FT puzzle of this setter, I have noticed that one aspect of that style is something that I am not so keen on.
   Today exemplified by 9ac and 19d.
   9ac: “front of outbuildings” for OU
   19d: “beginnings of anarchy” for AN
   She does this all the time, so probably deliberately so.
   But I just don’t like it.

   Still, overall, some lovely stuff in a crossword that I found Magwitch’s easiest so far.

5. Hi Sil @4

   [‘m really just coming back because of the disappointing paucity of comments – as so often on this thread]

   I think that, like you, I’ve solved and enjoyed all of Magwitch’s FT puzzles so far and probably found this the quickezt to solve – but none the less enjoyable on that account.

   For the record, I have no problem at all with ‘beginningS’ of anarchy for AN but, like you, was not at all happy with ‘front of outbuildings’ for OU, which is a different matter altogether!

6. I had a slightly different take on 16A.
   Martinique is for example (say) a French island and ile is the French word for island.

   Thanks to Turbolegs and Magwitch

7. Agree with Pelham Barton re 27d. The University of Mississippi is nicknamed ‘Ole Miss’.

8. Hi Steve@7,

   Agree. I think the intended parsing was most likely that “MS” is the state abbreviation for Mississippi and is also short for Miss.

   Cheers

9. Hi Sil @4, Eileen @5,

   Ref 9ac, I should have highlighted this when I wrote the blog as I felt the same way ref the clue. And like Eileen, I was fine with 19d since the indicator was in the plural.

   Hi Ernie@6,

   Both would hold, since Isle also means Island, and ‘say’ in the clue could be a cryptically un-cryptic reference to a homonym.

   Cheers

10. Turbolegs (and Eileen), the reason why I don’t like 19d is that, for me at least, a word has only one beginning. Of course, I do see what Magwitch means but she’s also a setter who’s not afraid of writing “beginnings of anarchy” meaning ANA. In previous puzzles she has shown that this ‘device’ is part of her style.
    The use of ‘beginnings of’ should imply multiple fodders, e.g. “Beginnings of anarchy and major disruption” for AAMD.
    Well, that’s how I look at it, and I think many professional setters too.

    To give another example, there’s also a chance she might clue (quite sure, she did something like that) AY or even DAY for “holiday ends”. Again, a word has only one ‘end’ (if you mean what comes last). Alternatively, it could mean ‘the first plus the last letter’, the tips of a word. For me, that will lead to either Y or HY.

    Don’t worry, I accept setters doing this but it doesn’t happen very often the way Magwitch does it and so frequently.
    As I said in the post @4 (and also in comments on previous Magwitch puzzles), I just don’t like it.

11. Thanks Magwitch and Turbolegs

    Quickly finished this one late last night – and unusual to say quickly with this setter. Ended up being defeated by DEFEAT, having gone down the defect path – thinking that computerised tomography (CT) was the alternative technology.

    Had LITTERED, but did mess up the parsing by not seeing the simple RED for wine. Went down the MISS (rather than MS) = MISSISSIPPI and a damsel – either probably works.

    Liked working out FAMILIAR from the cryptic part and then having to work out the cryptic part of PARTISAN after getting the definition first.

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