Interesting grid from Bradman – quite a few clues with clever word plays and cluing. Quite enjoyed solving it – started off slowly but with the anagrams in, conveniently in all quadrants (3D, 8D, 18A, 24A), pace picked up. Stumped by 14D where I had to use some help as well as a couple of others where my parsing wasn’t quite satisfactory.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FRAGMENTED | Material by chaps in our paper editor’s torn apart? (10) |
| RAG (material) MEN (chaps) in FT (our paper) ED (editor) | ||
| 6 | GAMP | School prefect’s first to get brolly (4) |
| GAM (school as in a school of whales) P (prefect’s first) – old colloquial term for an umbrella (brolly) | ||
| 9 | STEPSON | Member of family using stairs with leg trailing (7) |
| STEPS (Stairs) with ON (Leg-side in cricket) | ||
| 10 | SIBERIA | Bear is wandering round one Asian region (7) |
| Anagram of BEAR IS around I (One) | ||
| 12 | PAID HOMAGE | Servant coming round to help house, maiden that’s shown great respect (4,6) |
| PAGE (servant) coming round AID (help) HO (house) M (maiden) | ||
| 13 | AIM | End of road with motorway status (3) |
| AI(M) – A1, UK’s longest numbered road has a few parts with motorway status and is designated as A1(M) | ||
| 15 | LIEDER | Story to introduce the foreign songs (6) |
| LIE (story) DER (the in German) – german and dutch word literally meaning song(s). | ||
| 16 | RISKIEST | Most dangerous ceremony briefly taking place across the heavens (8) |
| RIT (ceremony briefly – rite less ‘e’) across SKIES (heavens) | ||
| 18 | EIGHTEEN | The genie let loose when boy becomes man? (8) |
| Anagram of THE GENIE – indicating the age for adulthood in many countries. | ||
| 20 | PHOBOS | Note about tramp from another world (6) |
| PS (note) about HOBO (tramp) – satellite of the planet Mars | ||
| 23 | ASS | Singer missing initial note is an idiot (3) |
| bASS (Singer missing initial note) | ||
| 24 | REARMAMENT | Mere mantra being spouted – will that encourage war again? (10) |
| Anagram of MERE MANTRA | ||
| 26 | DROPS IN | Visits with command to repent? (5,2) |
| definition (visits), plus cryptic indicator “DROP SIN” (command to repent). | ||
| 27 | NAUGHTY | Disobedient in nothing, having little yen (7) |
| NAUGHT (nothing) Y (little yen) | ||
| 28 | SETT | Dog without hesitation put in another animal’s home (4) |
| SETTer (dog without hesitation) – burrow of a badger | ||
| 29 | FRIENDLESS | Lacking pals with the weekend never coming it sems (10) |
| Nice wordplay – FRI(day) ENDLESS stands to mean that the weekend is never coming. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FAST | Exercise for spiritual wellbeing firmly fixed (4) |
| Double definition – Most schools teaching meditation recommend doing so on an empty stomach. | ||
| 2 | ACETATE | Fabric that’s excellent hanging over gallery (7) |
| ACE (Excellent) hanging over TATE (gallery) | ||
| 3 | MISADVENTURES | Accidents in stadiums never properly constructed (13) |
| Anagram of STADIUMS NEVER | ||
| 4 | NANDOO | Non-flying bird and two ducks sitting under bottom of van (6) |
| AND OO (and two ducks) sitting under N (bottom of van) | ||
| 5 | EUSTATIC | Regarding sea-level changes, international community’s inanimate (8) |
| EU (international community) STATIC (inanimate) – Referring to changes in the level of the ocean surface. | ||
| 7 | ACREAGE | Area of land with an enclosure to accommodate soldiers (7) |
| A CAGE (an enclosure) accomodating RE (soldiers – royal engineers) | ||
| 8 | PRAGMATIST | Tramp’s gait is awkward – one wants to offer hands-on help (10) |
| Anagram of TRAMP’S GAIT | ||
| 11 | BREAK THE MOULD | Try something new at the risk of upsetting jelly-maker? (5,3,5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 14 | ALLEMANDES | Chilean statesman’s grabbing the old woman for dances (10) |
| ALLENDE’S (Chilean statesman is Salvador Allende) grabbing MA (old woman) – one of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music. I wasnt aware of the existence of this and had to use some help from Google and Wiki.Wiki link on Allemande | ||
| 17 | RETAINER | Household servant first to reproach awkward trainee (8) |
| R (first to reproach) anagram of TRAINEE | ||
| 19 | GOSPORT | Encouragement to get Aussie mate to shift from Hants town (7) |
| GO SPORT (parsed as Encouragement to get Aussie mate, to shift) – Gosport is a town in Hampshire county. | ||
| 21 | BANSHEE | Female spirit, the woman steeped in poison (7) |
| SHE (the woman) in BANE (poison) | ||
| 22 | AMENDE | What’s changed, apart from the last bit, is fine (6) |
| Whats changed = AMENDED minus D (apart from the last bit) – Amende is a monetary punishment | ||
| 25 | DYES | Colours noticed in crowd yesterday (4) |
| Hidden in crowD YESterday | ||
*anagram
Very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks for the blog. One of the great things about Bradman is that you can pretty much always work out the answer from the precise cluing of the subsidiary definition even if you are not familiar with the answer.
Gave up after an hour with about 1/3 solved. It didn’t help that I’d simply never come across gamp,nandoo, phobos, eustatic , amende and allemandes. I know that lack of knowledge of a word doesn’t stop the better solvers but it usually brings me to a halt.
I knew the anagram material in 3d & 8d but no matter how many times I scattered the letters about, I just couldn’t get them.
On the tough side for a FT I’d say.
Thanks Jmac.
Bamberger – I can empathize with you. The completion of the crossword above for me was only possible due to help from Google, Wiki and Gaufrid. I wasn’t aware of nandoo, phobos, amende etc but managed to work them out by piecing the clues. Originally penciled in Ecstatic instead of Eustatic as I thought it was a tangential clue relating to mood swings. I also suffer when UK-specific clues are used – so needed Gaufrid’s help to put in Gosport, and learnt only today that Hants refers to Hampshire. Grids like these are the reason why doing them is so much fun and at the same time, so educative as well.