A straightforward challenge from Bradman, significantly easier than his last puzzle I blogged.
FF:9 DD:8
| Across | ||
| 9 | ADVERBIAL | In grammatical terms, well might that be (9) |
| cyptic def | ||
| 10 | ATOLL | Possibly an amount to be paid for crossing island (5) |
| A (an) TOLL (amount to be paid for crossing) | ||
| 11 | AURICLE | I, a cruel drunk should show a bit of heart (7) |
| I A CRUEL* | ||
| 12 | ROSTRUM | Where speaker maybe given traditional Sunday fare but not a drink (7) |
| ROaST (traditional sunday fare, without A ) RUM (drink) | ||
| 13, 18, 23 | THE OLD MAN | Dad who’d lament dreadfully having lost wife (3,3,3) |
| wHO’D LAMENT* (without W – wife) | ||
| 14 | RECRUITMENT | Current time organised for bringing people on board (11) |
| CURRENT TIME* | ||
| 17 | BESET | Exist in a state of readiness for plague (5) |
| BE (exist) SET (state of readiness) | ||
| 18 | See 13 | |
| 19 | NICKS | Little fellow’s showing signs of careless shaving? (5) |
| NICK’S (little fellow’s) | ||
| 21 | UNDERCHARGE | Bill inadequate when this happens in business? (11) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 23 | See 13 | |
| 25 | ACCOSTS | Address bill with added expenses (7) |
| AC (bill) COSTS (expenses) – shouldnt this be ‘addresses’ in the clue? | ||
| 27 | WINSLOW | Town gets modest victories to begin with (7) |
| WINS (victories) LOW (modest) | ||
| 28 | LOFTY | See our paper with yen to be illustrious (5) |
| LO (see) FT (our paper) Y (yen) | ||
| 29 | EMBASSIES | More than one diplomat’s building seems to be troubled with bias (9) |
| SEEMS BIAS* | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BASALT | Rock has one sailor landing upside down on another (6) |
| BA (sailor = AB, reversed) SALT (sailor) | ||
| 2 | OVERSEES | Supervises as a bishop guilty of pluralism? (8) |
| cryptic def; SEE being used in the meaning of cathedral / seat of authority of a bishop . | ||
| 3 | PROCURATOR | Financial agent supporting manager of museum (10) |
| PRO (supporting) CURATOR (manager of museum) | ||
| 4 | RICE | Man with energy going down gets food (4) |
| ERIC (man) with E (energy) moving to the end | ||
| 5 | ALL-ROUNDER | Every person protecting the Queen must be a multi-talented individual (3-7) |
| ALL (every) ROUND (protecting) ER (queen) | ||
| 6 | BAYS | Beastly sounds from areas close to shore? (4) |
| double def | ||
| 7 | COURSE | Stream for programme of study (6) |
| doubel def | ||
| 8 | CLEMATIS | Climate’s bad for one sort of plant (8) |
| CLIMATE’S* | ||
| 15 | CLOTHES PEG | Online help for one wanting to dry out? (7,3) |
| cryptic def; online referring to the physical clothesline | ||
| 16 | TENDERNESS | Offer head affection (10) |
| TENDER (offer) NESS (head) | ||
| 17 | BRUTALLY | Dry friend showing lack of humanity (8) |
| BRUT (dry) ALLY (friend) | ||
| 20 | CAMELLIA | Mammal having trouble climbing shrub (8) |
| CAMEL (mammal) LIA (trouble = AIL, reversed) | ||
| 22 | DECAFF | End of year needs a very strong drink (6) |
| DEC (end of year) A FF (very strong) | ||
| 24 | NOWISE | Not at all prudent, following a word of rejection (6) |
| NO (word of rejection) WISE (prudent) | ||
| 26 | SKYE | Part of Scotland in risky endeavour (4) |
| hidden in “..riSKY Endeavour” | ||
| 27 | WEBB | Water’s beginning to flow back for swimmer (4) |
| W (Water, first letter) EBB (flow back) – matthew webb, first unaided crossing of the english channel | ||
*anagram
Enjoyable. Although I had BARS for 6d. Thinking it was referring to a sheep’s baas.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs.
I feel that “maybe” in 12a should be “may be”. Had the same concern about 25a.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs.
Accosts was last one in because it didn’t make sense. Undercharge struck me as pretty feeble. Enjoyed the rest of it.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. I did not know WEBB as a swimmer (though the parsing was clear), eventually get BAYS and RICE, and paused over ACCOSTS because of that extra S so that my LOI was CLOTHES PEG (also it’s “pin” in the US). I’m printing out the puzzle by choosing p. 2 of the 4 pages offered when I log in, and (at least for now) my previous problems with missing numbers on that printout have disappeared. I much enjoy the FT puzzles and hope we continue to get them.
Yes, much gentler than the last couple from Bradman, though like you I was stumped by 25a which I thought should have been ‘Addresses’. I also had ‘bars’ for 6d, but I suppose there’s no homophone indicator so it’s probably not a genuine alternative correct answer. CLOTHES PEG was my COD with the reference to Capt. WEBB a close second.
Good to be able to print out a PDF again. Thanks to those who fixed the problem.
Thanks also to Bradman and Turbolegs
ACD @ 4
The new-style FT crosswords page now has a link to “Download crossword PDF’, so you should be able to get it all on a single page.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Found this one quite a bit easier than the normal Don offering – but as can happen (to me, anyway) a bit of slapdashedness can bring on an unwelcome error – in this case LIME instead of RICE. In the cold light of day, I now see that it doesn’t even fit the word play !!! 🙁
I did initially write in BARS at 6d, but did go back and get the right answer in later.
Thought that CLOTHES PEGS was clearly cod !!
Finished in the NW corner with AURICLE (which was a new term), ADVERBIAL (tricky) and that erroneous LIME (slash) RICE.
As for my take on 4d, I’d concluded the man was “Sid” with the entire answer “going down(wards)” when entered in the grid, resulting in (a) side (dish). Which was a lot more convoluted than need be.