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.
In general, I found this grid to be alternating rapidly between easy clues and difficult ones. Amongst several neat clues, 22ac, 24ac and 23d (nice surface!) caught my fancy. The clues which were a bit shaky to me were 26ac and 2d.
FF: 9 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | GODELS THEOREM |
Piece of mathematics old geometers worked out – hard to penetrate it (6,7)
Anagram of OLD GEOMETERS H (hard) – Math aficionados should definitely read An Eternal Golden Braid.
|
| 9 | UNSCREW |
International organisation’s team is loose (going round in circles) (7)
UN’S (International organisation’s) CREW (team)
|
| 10 | FINESSE |
Adroitness of female actually existing (7)
F (female) IN ESSE (actually existing, I learnt that ‘esse’ is noun for essential nature or essence, commonly used in philosophy).
|
| 11 | IVORY |
Girl collecting gold and hard white stuff (5)
IVY (girl) collecting OR (gold)
|
| 12 | RECESSION |
So sincere about a big financial problem (9)
Anagram of SO SINCERE
|
| 13 | STITCHES |
Good person feels irritation – result of surgical treatment? (8)
ST (good person, saint) ITCHES (irritation)
|
| 15 | TEMPER |
Moderate anger (6)
Double def
|
| 18 | TIMBRE |
Quality of wood that is a bit twisted at one end (6)
TIMBER (wood) with a twist in the end, i.e. E and R exchange places.
|
| 19 | FLATHEAD |
Lifeless principal is a fishy type (8)
FLAT (lifeless) HEAD (principal)
|
| 22 | APPLE TART |
What may be on smartphone – pictures etc showing food (5,4)
Charade of APPLET (what may be on smartphone) ART (pictures etc)
|
| 24 | BROOM |
Brush could alternatively be shrub (5)
Double def, what a fantastic clue !!
|
| 25 | OUTSIDE |
Away team no longer in the changing room? (7)
OUT (away) SIDE (team)
|
| 26 | RAGWORT |
See weed grow out of control – rodent will eat it (7)
Anagram of GROW (out of control) in RAT (rodent will eat it). I am not clear as to why the ‘see’ is present (other than for grammar) as it puts the definition in the middle of the clue rather than at the start or the end. What am I missing here?
|
| 27 | SLEDGEHAMMERS |
Drivers into the ground make offensive comments to Upton Park players (13)
SLEDGE (make offensive comments) HAMMERS (Upton Park players – West Ham football side)
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | GAUDIES |
A university peters out after good reunions (7)
[A U (university) DIES (peters out)] after G (good)
|
| 2 | DESPOTISM |
Me? I’d stop awful tyranny (9)
I would like to say anagram of ME ID STOP but am missing an ‘S’.
|
| 3 | LARDY |
Overweight woman eating last bit of hamburger (5)
LADY (woman) eating R (last bit of hamburgeR)
|
| 4 | TAWDRIER |
Cheaper and nastier item for wiping marble? (8)
TAW is a large marble. A TAW-DRIER therefore could be a cloth for wiping marble.
|
| 5 | EFFACE |
Get rid of very loud star after end of performance (6)
[FF (very loud) ACE (star)] after E (end of performancE)
|
| 6 | RENASCENT |
Children (apart from one of them) on the uphill path, getting new vitality (9)
childREN (apart from one of them, i.e. excluding’child’) ASCENT (on the uphill path)
|
| 7 | MASAI |
African mothers, tip-top (5)
MAS (mothers) AI (tip-top, A1)
|
| 8 | LEANER |
Less productive student deficient in one of the R’s (6)
LEArNER (student, deficient in one of the R’s)
|
| 14 | CARMELITE |
This writer has inaccurate article about friar (9)
Anagram of ARTICLE around ME (this writer)
|
| 16 | PHEROMONE |
Star with external power and endless cash, the means to attract a mate? (9)
HERO (star) with [ P (power) and MONEy (endless cash) on the outside – external ]
|
| 17 | PLUTARCH |
Greek writer’s place linked with tree (8)
|
| 18 | TEAPOT |
Little ‘un eats ‘uge pile – sitter on kitchen table too! (6)
TOT (Little ‘un) eats [h]EAP (‘uge pile)
|
| 20 | DEMOTES |
Puts down D, D, . . . when test is held (7)
The D,D part of the clue is D’S in plural form and spelt DEES. Test refers to the MOT (Ministry of Transport) test. So it is MOT inside DEES.
|
| 21 | BAD EGG |
Scoundrel that’s hard on the outside and nasty inside? (3,3)
Cryptic clue
|
| 23 | PATHS |
Ways to show sadness but not love (5)
PATHoS (sadness, without ‘o’ – love)
|
| 24 | BY GUM |
Get something to chew as you might say indeed! (2,3)
Sounds like ‘Buy Gum’ – Get something to chew.
|
*anagram
Hi Turbolegs,
Thanks for pointing out the missing S in the clue for DESPOTISM.
I think PLUTARCH has PUT overlapping with LARCH.
Thanks to Bradman too, I enjoyed this.
Apologies for missing S in DESPOTISM! Must check ALL anagrams on paper with crossings out!
A whoopsie moment in a good puzzle.
Convincing myself on my first pass that ‘hard white stuff’ (11ac) could be SH-OR-E didn’t help…
I enjoyed this – thanks to Turbolegs and Bradman.
Failed on CARMELITE (had the anagram of article plus something but did not see it) and needed the blog to parse DEMOTES.
Thanks all for the comments (especially Muffy@1 for helping with 17d).
Bradman@2 – Thanks as always for stopping by and even more so for giving us a treat of a crossword. I found this one to be on the trickier side relative to other grids you have set. Looking forward to many more!!
pogel@4 – The number of times I have got stuck going down a similar path …. !!!
Urieka@5 – I took some time for 20d as well. Devious, eh? 🙂
Cheers
TL
By the way, I just realized that today marks exactly 1 year to the day, since my first blog (No 14495 by Magwitch)! I should cut a cake for myself now .. 🙂
Thanks to everybody here (with 10% extra for Geoff Moss !! ) – its been a lovely ride and one that hopefully goes on for a while.
Cheers
TL
P.S: Funnily enough, the first comment on my first blog was also from Muffy, same as this one!!
Congratulations to Turbolegs on reaching his first milestone with many more hopefully to come.
Among several fine clues I would like to single out 4d (taw drier) as a magnificent cryptic clue.
Thanks to Bradman
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Eventually got to this … and happy that I did. Well spotted with the missing S, I wasn’t that diligent ! Majored in Mathematics, but Godel makes my head spin every time that I read about him … nice clue though! Not being a close follower of EPL, I had to look up who might play at Upton Park to get 27.
I finished in the SW corner with CARMELITE and BAD EGG my last two in, after a very pleasant struggle.
Congrats TL – I do enjoy your blogs a lot – too often, many days after they were originally posted.
Bruce@9, Many thanks for your kind comments. Glad you enjoyed the puzzle and the blog. (I suspect you make up 100% of my blog admirer’s club! ). I can honestly tell you that I find it unadulterated fun to be on this site – as both both reader and blogger.
Happy New Year!!
Cheers
TL