Financial Times 16,591 by BRADMAN

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A typical Friday BRADMAN challenge. Thanks Don.

FF: 8 DD : 7

ACROSS
1 TERMINAL Time to acquire Zola’s work, ignoring the beginning and the end (8)
 

T ( time ) gERMINAL (zola's work, without starting letter; referring to the novel germninal by emile zola – needed google to get the parse
6 FIENDS Pals? That’s not right! (6)
 

&lit; FrIENDS ( pals, without R – right ); i wonder if the definition is a good fit
9 COBRAS Company supports venomous types (6)
 

CO ( company ) BRAS ( supports )
10 NAMELESS The French fellow having setback, ending with female unspecified (8)
 

[ LE ( the, french ) MAN ( fellow ) , all reversed ( setback ) ] ESS ( female ending e.g. lionESS )
11 SHAH Former ruler making mess – rebels ultimately to the fore (4)
 

HASH ( mess, with S – rebelS, ultimately moving to the front )
12 RIOT SHIELD Their idol’s bombarded – protection from mob needed (4,6)
 

[ THEIR IDOLS ]*
14, 20 ORDNANCE SURVEY Government unit that could show nervous ardency (8,6)
 

[ NERVOUS ARDENCY ]*
16 TOSH Rubbish from hot drunk rolling over (4)
 

H ( hot ) SOT ( drunk ) , all reversed
18 SPAM Unwelcome messages – 14, 20 produces the reverse of that (4)
 

reverse of MAPS, something that 14,20 produces ( ordnance survey )
19 PROTRUDE Stick out as moralist penning drivel (8)
 

PRUDE ( moralist ) containing ROT ( drivel )
21 PRONOUNCES Voices of him and her maybe outside church (10)
 

PRONOUNS ( him and her , may be) containing CE ( church )
22 IMPS More than one troublemaker is nabbing member of the House (4)
 

MP ( member of the house ) in IS
24 EAU DE VIE Spirit of France maybe (3,2,3)
 

cryptic def
26 See 2
 
27 GENTRY Top people attempt to go after the dope (6)
 

TRY ( attempt ) after GEN ( dope, information )
28 SHREDDED Chopped up fish in hut (8)
 

REDD ( fish ) in SHED ( hut ); hadn't come across REDD before
DOWN
2, 26 ENOCH POWELL Yesteryear’s politician, Conservative one upset over bad situation prisoner is found in (5,6)
 

[ ONE C ( conservative) , reversed ( upset ) ] { POW ( prisoner ) in HELL ( bad situation ) }
3 MERCHANTMAN Ethel the singer gets to sing aboard ship (11)
 

CHANT ( sing ) in MERMAN ( ethel, the singer – referring to ethel merman, american actress and singer known as the first lady of musical comedy stage, as wiki would have me know )
4 NOSE RING Ornament shows finch dipping into drink (4-4)
 

SERIN ( finch ) in NOG ( drink )
5 LINE ONES POCKETS Make a heap of money? No stockpile seen, surprisingly (4,4,7)
 

[ NO STOCKPILE SEEN ]*
6 FAMISH Suffer great hunger in the morning, wanting eg sardines brought round (6)
 

AM ( morning ) in FISH ( sardines )
7 ELL Length of cloth, yellow, frayed at the edges (3)
 

yELLow ( frayed at the edges i.e without some of the end characters )
8 DISCLOSED Land of the dead unable to receive visitors, it’s revealed (9)
 

DIS ( land of the dead ) CLOSED ( unable to receive visitors )
13 INTERVIEWED Italian team struggle midweek – was the manager this after the match? (11)
 

INTER ( italian team ) VIE ( struggle ) WED ( midweek )
15 REPORTAGE Agent with nothing great bungled presentation of news (9)
 

REP ( agent ) O ( nothing, 0 ) [ GREAT ]*
17 GOSSIPER One talks and gripes so unreasonably (8)
 

[ GRIPES SO ]*
20 See 14
 
23 PULSE Beans and peas and suchlike may be taken for health reasons (5)
 

cryptic def; one would read one's pulse for health reasons
25 DOT Lady’s name shortened? What’s the point? (3)
 

DOT ( lady's name shortened ) short for dorothy – not very cryptic

22 comments on “Financial Times 16,591 by BRADMAN”

  1. An enjoyable Friday workout from Bradman this morning. Didn’t know the fish at 28ac, nor that bird at 4d (I was toying with rose(finch) and gin but succeeded in the end. It was the clever 21ac which tripped me up. Really like the surfaces For 14/18/20ac and 13d.
    Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs for the insightful blog.

  2. Only a couple of obscure words this week. I didn’t know the ‘fish’ or the ‘finch’ but both were gettable from their defs. I liked the apt surface for SHAH, the PULSE ‘taken’ and the reference to Ethel MERMAN – as I remember, she was not exactly sotto voce.

    Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs

  3. Up to Bradman’s usual high standard — although a couple of uncharacteristically clumsy surfaces, I thought — 2dn for instance. Great Friday entertainment, thanks. And thanks to Turbolegs for the blog

  4. Has Bradman misread his dictionary? Chambers defines REDD as “Fish or frog spawn”, which I would parse as “spawn or (fish or frog)” – I can’t find any evidence for redd as a fish.

  7. Adriana@6 – FF stands for Fun Factor and DD stands for Difficulty Denominator (or Degree of Difficulty). Its my rating of the puzzle based on my solving experience for that puzzle. ( Necessary disclaimer : Its strictly my opinion ).

    Regards,

    TL

  8. My 1944 OED’s only mention of Redd is“ to clear, put in order”.No mention of fish. The online Biology Dictionary has redd as a “nest made in gravel, a depression dug by fish for egg deposit.”
    Although shredded was the only possible answer I do object to the use of redd as a fish.
    Otherwise excellent puzzle

  9. Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. Very enjoyable, though I had the same problem with redd-fish. I took a while working out ENOCH POWELL here in the US and also ORDNANCE SURVEY and RIOT SHIELD.

  10. Also not happy with redd.

    can only assume Bradman read def in chambers app that said “Fish or frog spawn” and misread that to mean it was either a fish OR frog spawn :-/

  11. We weren’t happy with redd either.  That being said, if it’s taken to mean the actual spawn rather than a nest for spawn it can just about be stretched to mean ‘fish’.  But the clue would have worked just as well as ‘Chopped up something fishy in hut’.

    Apart from that quibble this was an enjoyable solve.  ORDNANCE SURVEY was good, although the clue to 18ac meant we didn’t have to work out the anagram.  We also liked REPORTAGE.

    Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.

  12. By far I found this to be one of the gentler crosswords of the week and much easier than the last Bradman. I agree with Hornbeam @3 about 2dn having a clumsy surface. It’s noticeable because most of the other surfaces read so well. I also agree with WordPlodder @2 about the apt surface for SHAH; I would put GOSSIPER in the “apt surface” category as well. Other favourites included NAMELESS and PRONOUNCES. I could not parse NOSE-RING so thanks Turbolegs for helping. Thanks Bradman.

  18. Mark @17

    We do cover the Saturday FT. Though it is currently not a prize puzzle, we have kept to the original schedule for posting a blog, ie in the early hours of the Thursday following what would have been the closing date for entries.

    For future comments, would you please add something to your username so that you can be distinguished from another Mark who has been commenting here for many years.

  19. sure, will do.
    sorry, been checking here for well over a year here and not noticed anybody else with same name … at least not in FT page which is all I check

  20. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
    Found this much easier than his last crossword and one of the easier ones for the week.
    Noted the mis-definition in 28a and recalled the SERIN from past crosswords from some time ago. Read GERMINAL and several others from the Rougon-Macquart series quite a while ago and loved them.
    Finished with that TERMINAL, SHAH and MERCHANTMAN.

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