Financial Times 16,732 by BRADMAN

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A typical BRADMAN offering from a familiar Friday setter. Thanks BRADMAN for the treat.

I wondered briefly if there was anything special about today ref Rev John Graham ( Araucaria , Cinephile – anagram of one of the down clues in todays grid, and whose genus name is the first pseudonym ) but couldn't come up with any.

FF: 8 DD: 8

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 FARMYARD
Female fighting unit by a road – it’s probably out in the country (8)

F ( Female ) ARMY ( fighting unit ) A RD ( road )
6 BRANCH
Bishop managed church – part of a big organisation (6)

B ( Bishop ) RAN ( managed ) CH ( church )
9 RUINED
Game one lout wrecked (6)

RU ( game ) I ( one ) NED ( lout )
10 AROMATIC
Fragrant actor, I am fancied (8)

[ ACTOR I AM ]* – my foi
11 PERI
Fairy embraced by superiors (4)

hidden in "..suPERIors"
12 REGISTRIES
Man is joining attempts to provide places for documents (10)

REG ( man ) IS TRIES ( attempts )
14 RELEVANT
Reveal translated part of scripture as appropriate (8)

[ REVEAL ]* NT ( New Testament, part of scripture )
16 SLIP
Item of underwear seen as a mistake (4)

double def
18 APED
A quiet journalist took off (4)

A P ( quiet ) ED ( journalist )
19 MOABITES
Tribespeople giving warning about dangerous bird once? (8)

cryptic def ; read as MOA BITES ( warning about a dangerous bird once , moas went extinct around 600 years ago)

21 BRIGHTENED
Being put into correct position in bed, cheered up (10)

RIGHTEN ( put into correct position ) in BED
22 URGE
Press, say, returning to biblical city (4)

UR ( biblical city ) GE ( say = EG, reversed )
24 SCAMPISH
Mischievous trick? That’s disgusting! (8)

SCAM ( trick ) PISH ( ~ that's disgusting! )
26 AKIMBO
Having elbows out. I am OK moving with a bit of bending (6)

[ I AM OK ]* containing B ( bit of Bending )
27 ALUMNA
Old girl and a learner meeting university man after upset (6)

A L ( learner ) U ( University ) [ MAN ]*
28 PATENTEE
Inventor of a shelter to be immersed in water? (8)

[ A TENT ( shelter ) ] in PEE ( water )
DOWN
2 ACUTE
Leading character, pretty keen (5)

A ( leading character ) CUTE ( pretty )
3 MAN BITES DOG
Champ makes boxer suffer? It’s a sensational story! (3,5,3)

cryptic def; boxer here refers to the dog
4 ALDERMAN
Local dignitary stupidly alarmed any number (8)

[ ALARMED ]* N ( any number )
5 DRAUGHTSMANSHIP
Fellow’s skill with diagrams – thus his grand map may take shape (15)

[ THUS HIS GRAND MAP ]*
6 BLOUSE
Black insect – something in the wardrobe? (6)

B ( Black ) LOUSE ( insect )
7 AGA
Ruler once more not elected (3)

AGAin ( once more, without IN -> not IN -> i.e. not elected )
8 CHILE PINE
Greek character needing shelter gets leg stuck in tree (5,4)

CHI ( greek character ) [ PIN ( leg ) in LEE ( shelter ) ]
13 RESTITUTION
Return from time off before coaching, one having got up (11)

REST ( time off ) [ ITUTION ( coaching = TUITION, with I ( one ) moving to the front ]
15 EMPIRICAL
Very good to be involved in fantastic miracle, it’s found from experience (9)

PI ( very good ) in [ MIRACLE ]*
17 HANDCART
Vehicle hadn’t moved – vehicle kept inside (8)

[ HADNT ]* containing CAR ( vehicle )
20 ATTICA
Greek region, a dry one with cold autumn initially (6)

A TT ( dry ) I ( one ) CA ( "..Cold Autumn..", initially )
23 GABLE
Actor that may be seen high up on building (5)

cryptic def
25 MUM
Silent male and maiden outside university (3)

[ M ( Male ) M ( Maiden) ] containing U ( University )

19 comments on “Financial Times 16,732 by BRADMAN”

  1. Failed to get middle word of 3d. Not met this phrase before. Should “champ” be “chap”?
    Solving 16a, couldn’t help but notice “slips” and “bloomers” are both items of underwear.
    Had the same idea about Cinephile when solving 8d. At least it did help in getting the answer.

  3. Yes, pretty straightforward, although MOABITES & RESTITUTION gave me pause at the end.
    To Hovis @1: ‘The Man’ is a phrase meaning ‘the champion’, ‘the one to beat, so that worked for me.
    Thanks to Bradman & Turbolegs.

  5. Or, more precisely, I’m not convinced that “The Champ” = “The Man” means “Champ” = “Man”.

  6. I had trouble in working out the wordplay in MAN BITES DOG as well. Otherwise not too difficult though I didn’t immediately equate ‘that’s disgusting’ with PISH, and PATENTEE (almost put ‘patenter’, copmus @2!) held me up at the end.

    Once I worked it out, MOABITES was my favourite. A bit like the Tassie tiger, I live in hope.

    Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs

  7. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
    Was able to get through this in a single session without too many holdups after seeing BRANCH immediately. Hadn’t heard of the CHILE PINE, but when I looked it up to see it was another name for the monkey puzzle, fond memories of the master came back. Had to look up and confirm that the phrase MAN BITES DOG meant a ‘sensational story’ – a man can be addressed informally as ‘champ’, as in “Hey, champ, what are you up to?” Curiously enough, champ can also mean to bite.
    Finished in the SW corner with SCAMPISH, ALUMNA and BRIGHTENED the last few in.

  9. johninterred @8. I initially discounted this, since the “man” part of the answer is then not explicitly clued, but, on reflection, I don’t see why it should be and now prefer this interpretation.

  10. Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. Enjoyable. MAN BITES DOG was familiar to me, but I struggled with CHILE PINE and MOABITES.

  11. All progressed fairly smoothly although I had not heard of Moabites or Pish, but wordplay made them easy to find.

    Missed Patentee. Entered “put under”
    which fitted and seemed to have something to do with being immersed in water!’ Though I knew it was wrong.

  14. Many thanks for feedback. Champ=bite was intended. though I can see that Chap=man is an alternative, Ideally I would have liked to get the fellow AND his biting action into play!

  16. Thanks Bradman for a well-crafted crossword. I’m very familiar with the saying that “dog bites man is not news but man bites dog is news.” As soon as I saw that boxer meant dog I got the answer and thought “champing at the bit” somehow played into it but couldn’t quite come up with a parsing that was clear. My favourite was URGE, a clue that took way too long to see. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  17. An amazingly rapid solve for me with a Bradman with plenty to enjoy. Loi was the amusing MOABITES and wondering what PER had to do with water eventually led to EE and the right answer. Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs.

  18. A pleasant steady solve. We got MAN BITES DOG from definition and crossing letters and didn’t bother parsing it in detail. Favourite was MOABITE.
    Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.

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