Financial Times 15063 by BRADMAN

by

An intriguing challenge from Bradman, thanks to whom for a busy Friday morning. I got through the right half of the grid pretty quickly but then had to plod through the remainder. 13ac I believe has a typo in the solution and a couple of other clues could have been ‘stronger’ in my opinion. Overall, a satisfactory start to Friday crossword solving!

FF: 7 DD: 8

Across
7 OLD HARRY
Unexpected holiday with bishop ousting one devil (3,5)

Anagram of [ HOLiDAY RR (bishop) , without ‘i’ – ousting one ]
8 MYSELF
Gosh, Will appears in emphatic personal form! (6)

MY (gosh) SELF (will, british novelist and journalist).
11 TALON
One to grab cards left on table (5)

Double definition
12 KERBSTONE
Checks quality of sound for audience – it is hard and “edgy” (9)

KERBS (checks) TONE (quality of sound for audience) – I was wondering for a while as to whether there was a sounds-like reference here.
13 EIDOLON
One lied to misrepresent image (7)

I think Don intended for this to be an anagram of ONE LIED – but the ‘E’ has to be ‘O’ for this to work.
14 POPPIED
The old man confused under the influence of drug (7)

POP (old man) PIED (confused)
15 MILITARY ATTACHE
Diplomat who could conjure up theatrical amity (8,7)

Anagram of THEATRICAL AMITY
18 WOLFRAM
Something elemental that brings two animals together (7)

WOLF RAM – two animals; Tungsten.
20 AMATEUR
A friend you are texting no real expert? (7)

A MATE (friend) UR (sms equivalent of ‘you are’)
22 OMINOUSLY
Drunk moonily engaging us in a threatening manner? (9)

Anagram of MOONILY containing US
23 RECCE
Search in front of restaurant by city church (5)

R (front of Restaurant) EC (city, Eastern Central, London) CE (church)
24 GLOWER
One to exude warmth, you might think – or scowl (6)

Cyptic clue; Something that glows would typically exude warmth.
25 VITAMIN A
I’m a native terribly short of energy – chemical required by body (7,1)

Anagram of I’M A NATIVe (short of energy – excluding ‘E’)
Down
1 DONT GET ME WRONG
I would like to be understood – warning from the clue here? (4,3,2,5)

cryptic clue
2 ADDLED
Confused son avoids being on a bike maybe (6)

sADDLED (on a bike maybe, without ‘s’ -son)
3 GAUNTLET
What could make for an iron fist in naval punishment (8)

Double definition, perhaps. The naval use of ‘gauntlet’ I think is relatively rare.
4 BROKEN PROMISE
I’m poser maybe in act of betrayal (6,7)

cryptic clue; I’M POSER can be clued from BROKEN PROMISE
5 HYSSOP
Sprinkler? The latest thing for safety in various shops (6)

Y (last character of safetY) in anagram of SHOPS
6 DEMONIAC
Display revolutionary murderer as one devil-possessed (8)

DEMO (display) NIAC (murderer = CAIN, reversed)
9 FREDDIE TRUEMAN
Cricketer awfully defiant rude, me? That’s about right! (7,7)

Anagram of DEFIANT RUDE ME around R (right)
10 CRYPTANALYSIS
Nasty spy Carl and I work in code-breaking (13)

Anagram of NASTY SPY CARL I
16 LOLLIPOP
Sweet tablet in few drops of water, say, going the wrong way (8)

PILL (tablet) in POOL (few drops of water,say), all reversed
17 TEA BREAK
Bear wandering about in wood gets opportunity for refreshment (3,5)

Anagram of BEAR in TEAK (wood)
19 RHODES
Island’s coloniser (6)

RHODE’S (Island’s)
21 EUCLID
Greek community detectives going across lake (6)

EU (community) [ CID (detectives) containing L (lake) ]
*anagram

13 comments on “Financial Times 15063 by BRADMAN”

  1. Thanks Turbolegs and Bradman. Needed your help with 11ac – I’d not come across the second meaning of TALON (nor several others, listed in Chambers). Agree with you about 13ac. Otherwise, an enjoyable challenge.

  3. As for blogger TL, the right hand side was a bit of a doddle but I was then held up by a failure to ‘get’ 1d until I had 15ac and 18ac, whose starting letters then provided me with a Eureka moment and allowed my to complete the puzzle.

    I like Bradman’s mea culpa, with the neat and humble anagram to 13ac!

  4. Mistakes such as the one in 13a do occur sometimes in the crossword that is published in a local paper. There is no-one with the designation ‘crossword editor’. The puzzle is handled by a staffer on the editorial desk. He/she might be co-operative but he/she may not check anagram discrepancy and such finer things. So the onus is on the setter, who of course checks and rechecks but when doing that repeatedly the mind might leap sometimes and miss errors. Regular solvers used to the work of a particular setter are understanding but the groan of the setter when this rare mistake occurs can by no means be slight (as evidenced by OH DEAR of Bradman).

    I as a setter and as one who was in journalism am quite used to ‘checking’. Accustomed to certain self-imposed steps in crossword checking, I appreciated Don’s Tip 8 in his article ‘Ten Tips for Editors’ in his manual.

  6. Good 13a was right after all. Didn’t get recce, but enjoyed the crossword and, as I’m not a cricket fan, was pleased to recognise Freddie Trueman. Thanks

  7. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs

    A tad harder than the graun today, I thought, which is not the way The Don usually comes across.

    I read 19 as a straight definition (which would work equally well without the ” ‘s “. Any takers?

  8. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs

    19dn: Is this not a reference to the Greek island (etymologically quite distinct from Cecil Rhodes)?

  11. Thanks all for the comments.

    Mike@1 – I didnt know the second meaning of Talon either. Geoff helped with that one.

    Bradman@2 – Nice of you to stop by! Thanks for the puzzle. Ref the typo, we all have our moments … 🙂

    PG@8 – I parsed for the Island reference to be Rhode Island in the US, so as to make the ” ‘s ” fit better (in my mind). Of course like Simon@7, the Rhodes reference to the Greek island would work just as well without the need for the ” ‘s “.

    Ernie@10 – The reason for my comment is that ‘kerb’ in one of its meanings is the same as ‘curb’ thus obviating the need for a homophone indicator.

    Cheers
    TL

  12. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog and to Bradman for both the puzzle and the honesty to ‘fess’ up.

    I’ll blame the error on my failure to complete both 13ac and the crossing 3dn – I have not come across the punishment before.

    Three long anagrinds plus the clever 4dn to get through.

    So tougher than the regular Bradman, and more rewarding because of it.

  13. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs

    A back pile one that I got to over this weekend. A good typical offering from the Don with a mistake that I’ve seen him have previously, so was pretty confident that the intention was EIDOLON when all the crossers were in and that the anagram fodder was ‘off’.

    Was pleased to recognise TALON with the ‘left over cards’ definition I have only seen this in a crossword from a book of Sullivan’s puzzles close to 40 years ago I reckon. It took me ages to get it back then and it obviously burnt itself into a memory cell for recall here !!

    I went with the Greek island, RHODES at 19d and left the ‘s as a surface overhang.

    Didn’t think about the author Will SELF and just trusted that SELF could mean one’s own will – anyway the grid was right !!

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