Financial Times 12,959 by Bradman
Posted by Gaufrid on December 24th, 2008
A late blog today because this one caused me some problems, particularly in the NE corner. All the across answers are Biblical Characters and most lived BC. A number of them are obscure to say the least, well in my opinion anyway, and some do not appear in the lists of biblical names that I have found on the web. A copy of the Bradford or Chambers crossword dictionary may have helped but unfortunately I don’t have a copy of either.
I have a query about the validity of 14a and perhaps someone with greater knowlege of the good book can clarify this issue.
Seasonal felicitations to all.
Across
1 BARUCH RU (game) in BACH (composer)
4 ELIADA ELIA (essayist) DA (teddy-boy hairstyle) – the pseudonym of Charles Lamb and the abbreviation of ‘duck’s arse’. Apparently Eliada was one of David’s sons
8 ABSALOM ABS (sailors) A LO (a look) M (maiden)
9 JAPHETH PH (pub) in JET (black) H (hospital)
11 METHUSELAH *(THE MULE HAS)
12 NOAH NO AH
13 AARON A [b]ARON (lord)
14 ISAACHAR I (one) SA (oomph) A CHAR (a cleaner) – I can find no reference which indicates that this is an alternative spelling of ‘Issachar’ so is there an error here?
16 THADDEUS *(DEAD) in THUS (so)
18 MOSES E (energy) in MOSS (plant)
20 JEHU HE reversed in JU[mp] (leap)
21 SIMON PETER *(ONE PERMITS)
23 MICHAEL MI (motorway) CHA (tea) [g]EL (set)
24 SOLOMON SOLO (sort of performance) MON (Monday)
25 GIDEON G (grand) IDE (fish) ON – ‘the menu’ seems to be superfluous
26 ELISHA hidden in ‘jezebEL IS HAted’
Down
1 BIBLE B (book) in BILE (anger)
2 REACHER CHE (revolutionary) in REAR (last)
3 CLOISONNE I SON (one boy) in CLONE (exact copy)
5 LOACH L (lake) [r]OACH (another {fish})
6 APHONIC A *(CHOPIN)
7 ASTRAGALS cd
10 ALTISSIMO *(AS LIMIT SO)
13 ACHIEVING IVE (I have) reversed in ACHING (longing)
15 ALMOND OIL *(NAOMI DOLL)
17 DOUCHED DOU[r] (mostly glum) C (cold) HED (he had)
19 STEROLS ST (holy fellow) *(LOSER)
21 STENO hidden in ‘almoST ENOugh’
22 EBOLA A BOLE (rounded lump) reversed
December 24th, 2008 at 11:57 am
The Church Times crossword editor is blushing. Sorry about 14 A.
December 24th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Bradman
Thanks for confirming my suspicion about 14a, and so quickly too!
January 5th, 2009 at 5:23 am
I spent my Christmas at Chaung Thar beach, Myanmar, with no internet or dictionary access, but I did take a bible with me. So, Mr Bradman had me pretty perplexed about what edition of the bible he had been reading. Certainly 14 across had me tetchy but I also question the spelling of Thaddeus (Thaddaeus). I couldn’t see how he got the el for Michael and ide as a fish is in the dictionary but in a roundabout way and I agree that “the menu” made this clue very hard to justify the obvious biblical name. The hardest clue for me was astrogals but very clever.
Elia I remembered from my schooldays but I didn’t know the DA for duck’s tail and my bible had Beeliada as David’s son.
February 2nd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
As far as I’m concerned Eliada, the duck’s arse, Isaachar (sic), the Vauxhall Astra and astragals are unknown to human knowledge! In the circumstances with three clues unsolved I did brilliantly.