Financial Times 16,546 by HAMILTON

8 comments on “Financial Times 16,546 by HAMILTON”

1. Probably just me, but I found this a struggle, starting with 1a, one of those partial anagram clues which I find tricky. I only knew the “canoe” sense of OUTRIGGER, hadn’t come across AVOCATION or ‘Mowgli’s snake’ and CUPBEARER for ‘Waiter’ was also new. OK, the wordplay was helpful for each, but none were exactly write-ins.

   Thanks for explaining BISMARCK which I had no idea about and entered in hope as the only word fitting the checked letters. My favourite was the reverse anagram/&littish PERFORMING ARTS.

   Thanks to Hamilton and Grant

2. Thanks Hamilton and Grant

   Writing this well after our second night of curfew in good ol’ Melbourne town.  Found this quite tough going and taking over the hour to get done – didn’t actually get the first perimeter clue to quite a way in before 1d / 1a finally presented.  Didn’t realise what MOCK TURTLE SOUP was until looking it up after – didn’t really appeal when I did.

   Was pleased to remember KAA from the Jungle Book, but INKHORN and OTOSCOPE were both new terms – MATZO came out from the periphery of memory.

   Finished in the SE corner with AVOCATION (that took longer than it should have), the well hidden INKHORN and that BISMARCK as the last one in (of course!)

3. To WordPlodder @1, while it’s quiet…
   BISMARCK I solved, like you, as the only possible fit. I remembered from schoolboy 19thC history that Bismarck planned the expansion & unification of Prussia by cynically playing off France against Russia, thus looking east & west – ‘both ways’ – and I presumed that this was what Hamilton was vaguely driving at, although I couldn’t find a specific quote to fit the thesis.
   But in the process, seeing & remembering ‘Otto’ put everything into place. Still don’t know whether H was being that cerebral but if so the clue could certainly, on two levels, have been written for Bismarck.
   Crosswords, eh?

4. We solved this fairly quickly, with BISMARCK as our LOI – and we also were thinking of ‘looking both ways’ in terms of his career or what he might have said – the palindrome never occurred to us.  We guessed 18dn was AVOCATION but had to check the meaning in Chambers – we’d only heard it used wrongly, as Chambers says, for ‘vocation’.  GORGONS took a moment or two to work out – ‘dragons’ or even ‘amazons’ fitted the definition and enumeration and with them also ending in ‘ons’ would have given a false sense of security in that 16dn and 20dn would still have fitted.  IN VITRO was our favourite.

   Thanks, Hamilton and Grant.

5. First time trying the FT and I found it very logically and clearly clued with no extremely obscure references, so I made good progress to complete it.  As others have stated, BISMARK was my LOI and as I thought BIS was something to with “both ways” I got a handle (albeit an erroneous one) on it but couldn’t parse it.  An enjoyable crossword.

   Thanks Hamilton and Grant for elucidating BISMARK.

6. This took the better part of the morning but PERFORMING ARTS made it worthwhile. The BISMARCK – Otto connection was too far-fetched for me as was “girl” = “viv” in SURVIVE but overall I’m not complaining. Thanks Hamilton and Grant.

7. 4 Down, a direct M for Man could be from the abbreviation IOM, for Isle of Man.

8. Hello Grant, Thanks for your further explanation which was all new to me.

   “Crosswords, eh?” Yes indeed. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy them so much; they take you down little side roads you otherwise wouldn’t think of exploring.

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