Financial Times 16,869 by BRADMAN

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A good challenge from BRADMAN that I had fun tussling with. Thanks BRADMAN.

FF: 9 DD : 9

I am sure there are a couple of clues where the parsing can be improved upon, and will look for the same in the comments.

ACROSS
1 EGALITARIANISM
Material gain is wrongly distributed – this political outlook demands greater fairness? (14)

[ MATERIAL GAIN IS ]*
10 RAGGA
Newspaper has good article on modern music (5)

RAG ( newspaper ) G ( good ) A ( article )
11 ABSCONDED
Sailor temporarily assigned (not English) did a bunk (9)

AB ( sailor ) SeCONDED ( temporarily assigned, without E – English ); while its obvious, perhaps an indication that the first E had to be removed would have been a nice touch.

12 MANGOES
Fellow disappears in fruit trees (7)

MAN ( fellow ) GOES ( disappears )
13 SANTA FE
Seasonal visitor felt half abandoned in US city (5,2)

[ SANTA ( seasonal visitor ) FElt ( half abandoned ) ]; the clue works just as fine if parsed as [ SANTA claus, half abandoned ]
14 STIFF
Formal society having difference of opinion (5)

S ( society ) TIFF ( ~ having difference of opinion )
16 OUTFITTER
It’s unlikely one would provide tot with fur tie! (9)

[ TOT FUR TIE ]*; i initially marked the entire clue as the definition but later changed it to just the indicator of the object.

19 COMMON-LAW
Like a matchless partner? (6-3)

cryptic def
20 GARTH
King entering biblical city courtyard (5)

R ( king ) in GATH ( biblical city )
22 ARCHAIC
Very old piece of furniture shortened to fit into car somehow (7)

[ CHAIr ( piece of furniture, shortened ) ] in [ CAR ]*
25 COBBLER
Last person to do a repair job? (7)

cryptic def
27 CHARIVARI
Tea with one Indian musician coming back for a noisy celebration (9)

CHAR ( tea ) [ I ( one ) RAVI ( indian musician ) , all reversed ]; ravi shankar is the musician
28 AMICE
Nibblers getting at a garment (5)

A MICE ( nibblers ); guessed the answered and then had to look up to confirm the parse
29 SECOND MORTGAGE
Good Germans etc involved in additional accommodation expense (6,8)

[ GOOD GERMANS ETC ]*
DOWN
2 GIGANTISM
Excessive size makes man sit awkwardly, having joined carriage (9)

GIG ( carriage ) [ MAN SIT ]*
3 LLANO
Everyone climbing? No: the land is flat here (5)

LLA ( everyone = ALL, reversed ) NO
4 TOADSTOOL
Dangerous driver’s excessively lax initially – it could be lethal (9)

TOAD'S ( dangerous driver's ) TOO ( excessively ) L ( Lax, initially ); the toad reference is to the book "the wind in the willows" by kenneth grahame and later adapted by a.a.milne for stage. I didnt know this reference so had to look it up.

5 RUSES
Tricks and exploits overseen by king (5)

R ( king ) USES ( exploits )
6 ABOUNDING
Plentiful gain wickedly acquired – certain to get hidden (9)

[ GAIN ]* containing BOUND ( certain )
7 INDIA
Home help set up in the country (5)

IN ( home ) DIA ( help = AID, reversed )
8 MID-YEAR
I’m ready to work when the sun is at its highest (3-4)

[ I'M READY ]*
9 CRUMBS
Gosh – that’s the least you could offer anyone! (6)

double def
15 FLOTATION
Financial activity that keeps someone’s head above water? (9)

cryptic def
17 TOWN CRIER
You’ll see rector win converts – someone proclaiming an important message (4,5)

[ RECTOR WIN ]*
18 THRILLING
Fascinating article about small flower (9)

THING ( article ) around RILL ( small flower, stream; flower as a name for something that flows )
19 CHANCES
Risks taken by Dutch ancestors (7)

hidden in "..dutCH ANCEStors"
21 HERREN
Men in Berlin sin, being in the clutches of female (6)

ERR ( sin ) in HEN ( female )
23 CRAIC
Top commander entertaining artist to have a good time in Dublin? (5)

CIC ( top commander, Commander-In-Chief ) containing RA ( artist )
24 CHARM
Church member making appeal (5)

CH ( church ) ARM ( member )
26 BHANG
After onset of biliousness suspend drug (5)

B ( starting letter of Biliousness ) HANG ( suspend )

16 comments on “Financial Times 16,869 by BRADMAN”

  1. I enjoyed this too, especially the long anagrams top and bottom. 20 was unknown as ‘yard’ but guessable. 28, also unknown (a fail), made me think of Alice (band) – not really a garment so much as hair accessory.
    Needed Turboleg’s help then to get AMICE and the full parsing of TOADSTOOL.
    I wondered about the definition of 25A; shoe-makers use ‘lasts’ so a ‘last person’ could be a cobbler?
    Also, CHARIVARI (lovely word) leaves me uncertain. I initially had CHAI and then lazily passed onto RAVI which lacks an ‘r’ and has an extra ‘i’. Turbolegs has CHAR + I + RAVI which works…except I thought CHAR as ‘burn’ and ‘CHA’ as tea. Is CHAR a variation on CHA?
    Besides these musings, it was fairly straightforward with many ticks.
    Thanks both to Bradman and Turbolegs.

  3. A nice diversion from Bradman to fill a damp locked down afternoon. Thanks.
    I wondered about OUTFITTER as the clue doesn’t really work. I would have preferred it starting with “One” and rephrasing.
    It took me some time to remember Toad and driving.
    I also started 27a with CHAI but eventually got it right by jumbling letters.
    Thanks for the untangling Turbolegs.

  4. Thanks for the blog, luckily I think of tea as CHA(R) and never chai, far too modern for me.
    Quite a few new words here but well clued and nice to look them up afterwards – RAGGA , GARTH , AMICE , LLANO, BHANG ….. all interesting.
    Diane @1 a last person is definitely a cobbler, it made me think of Albert Steptoe.

  5. Another who wasn’t sure how to categorise OUTFITTER, wondering if it might be a semi &lit. I had come across both AMICE and GARTH before but didn’t remember either and had to guess the latter as I didn’t know the ‘biblical city’.

    Not too hard but with a few more difficult ones and some obscure words thrown in as expected from Bradman. Favourite was the ‘Last person to do a repair job?’ cryptic def.

    Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs

  6. An ok puzzle for me but a few clues I personally didn’t care for. In 6d there seems to be two inclusion indicators, “acquired” and “to get hidden”. Don’t particularly like the inclusion of “at” in 28a (especially given the fairly obscure answer – I also thought about an Alice band before doing a word fit search) or the words “You’ll see” in 17d. The biblical city was unknown to me but did know GARTH so easy to get. No problems with either CHA or CHAR.

  7. Roz @4, CHAI is not exactly my cup of CHA, either though I won’t sniff at an expertly whisked ‘matcha’. COBBLER, certainly redolent of that old rag-and-bone man, always makes me think of the actor Daniel Day Lewis who took himself off to Italy to learn the shoemaker’s craft…and not for a role either!
    Hovis @6, ‘you’ll see’ (17d) also troubled me. ‘You’ll hear’ would have been even worse as then I’d have been hunting down a homophone rather than an anagram.

  8. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
    Hovis@6 re 28ac: I think “at” is necessary, or at least helpful, to indicate that the nibblers come after the A.

  9. I will probably attract derision, but an alternative to 28 across ‘amice’ might be alice. An alice is a bow, something worn. So ‘nibblers’ are lice, are they not? So nibblers at ‘a’ = alice. My apologies.

  10. No, john hall@9, not from me. I also had Alice at 28ac. I thought of amice, but NHO it, so settled on Alice, parsed just like you.
    Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs.

  11. To be fair, John @9, Diane @1 and me @6 had already mentioned this but both of us thought “garment” was a bit of a stretch. Garment equates to clothing and I certainly felt an Alice band was more of an accessory. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t totally discount it.

  13. I did know the biblical city from a lispy childhood rhyme “ Goliath of GATH, in his helmet of brath. Up thlipped thlim David……”. I also went for alice in spite of first thinking amice. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs.

  14. In 25ac the old proverb” the cobbler’s children always have the worst shoes” inspired the clue?? The reference to last person gives a nice double entendre.

  15. Thanks Bradman for a solid crossword — I especially liked the surfaces for 1a, ARCHAIC, and MID-YEAR and thought SANTA FE was fun. In 17d “you’ll see” seems to be there only for the reading of the clue; if you had “rector wins converts” the extra “s” would have to be addressed but I think that could have done. GARTH and CRAIC required a look-up for me but AMICE I knew from Catholic school. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  16. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
    Very late to the party with this one, and as others have mentioned it wasn’t an easy one. Typically of this setter with any word that was slightly obscure, they were very clearly clued. Goliath and his home town, GATH was somehow remembered from childhood Sunday school.
    Really enjoyed the clues for COBBLER and ABSCONDED as well as the long anagrams at 1a and 29a.
    Finished in the NW corner with COMMON LAW, MANGOES and TOADSTOOL (after twigging to ‘The Wind in the Willows’).

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