Financial Times 16,887 by BRADMAN

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A typical BRADMAN offering to get the last weekday started.

FF: 8 DD: 8

I had to confirm my solve for a couple of clues with google (13a, 19a ). The one clue where I needed help was 1d, not knowing the name of the new Scottish party, and never having come across the fish to hazard a guess.

ACROSS
1 ALPINE
Plant a tree containing minimum of leaves (6)

[ A PINE ( tree ) ] containing L ( minimum of Leaves, first letter )
4 ECSTATIC
Jubilant church suffering setback and not going anywhere (8)

EC ( church = CE, reversed ) STATIC ( not going anywhere )
9 BORED
Disaffected directors, from what we hear (5)

sounds like BOARD ( directors )
10 NUMBER ONE
Top guy getting miners drunk on beer (6,3)

NUM ( miners, National Union of Mineworkers ) [ ON BEER ]*
11 CONCERN
Business as against research establishment (7)

CON ( against ) CERN ( research establishment, in switzerland )
12 AITCHES
Characters beginning and ending in Harwich (7)

cryptic def; referring to H at the start and end of HarwicH
13 RO-RO
Vessel taking soldiers back repeatedly (2-2)

reverse of OR ( soliders ) twice; referring to roll-on/roll-off cargo ships – wiki here
14 STRIDENT
Vociferous leader of socialists against nuclear weapon (8)

S ( Socialists, leader i.e. first letter ) TRIDENT ( nuclear weapon )
17 DUNGEONS
No sun, egad, not a shimmer in these places! (8)

semi &lit? [ NO SUN EGaD ( not A ) ]*
19 FREE
French brother runs away, having escaped? (4)

FRErE ( french for brother, without R – runs )
22 ALARMED
Horrified member hugged by Jones the singer? (7)

ALED ( jones, singer ) around ARM ( member )
24 BOROUGH
Such may have been rotten old boy turning crude (7)

BO ( old boy = OB, reversed ) ROUGH ( crude ); wiki here
25 DOMINANCE
I condemn a misdirected authority (9)

[ I CONDEMN A ]*
26 PRION
Risk to health in jail – closed-in society unwanted (5)

PRIsON ( jail, without S – society )
27 TANGLIER
Altering? Altering that more complex? (8)

[ ALTERING ]*
28 REPEAL
Cancel another performance by learner with time running out (6)

REPEAt-L ( another performance, with L – learner, without T – time )
DOWN
1 ALBACORE
New Scottish party – at heart it’s something fishy! (8)

ALBA ( new scottish party ) CORE ( heart )
2 PARTNERED
Having a mate? Some requirement that’s right within (9)

[ PART ( some ) NEED ( requirement ) ] containing R – right
3 NODDER
Revolutionary socialist academic who shows agreement? (6)

reverse of RED ( socialist ) DON ( academic )
5 COMPANIONABLE
Cop a noble man, I fancy — easy to get along with (13)

[ COP A NOBLE MAN I ]*
6 TRESTLE
Get restless, somewhat lacking support (7)

hidden in "..geT RESTLEss.."
7 TROTH
Make gentle progress with hospital pledge (5)

TROT ( make gentle progress ) H ( Hospital )
8 CHEESE
What may be said to go with a snap (6)

cryptic def
10 NONATTENDANCE
Upset soon clear, upset over social function? It may suggest event has been boycotted (13)

{ reverse of ANON ( soon ) } { reverse of NETT ( clear ) } DANCE ( social function )
15 TURQUOISE
Squire out travelling around in a shade of blue (9)

[ SQUIRE OUT ]*
16 METHANOL
Drunken male not minimally healthy? Not if he drinks this! (8)

[ MALE NOT H ( minimally Healthy, first letter ) ]*
18 NOMINAL
Token number – least possible – I’m not included (7)

NO ( number ) MINimAL ( least possible, without IM )
20 BARDOT
At far end of pub spot actress (6)

BAR ( pub ) DOT ( spot ) ; brigitte bardot, yesteryear's french actress
21 FRAPPE
Reprimand in female gym – it’s very cold (6)

RAP ( reprimand ) in [ F ( female ) PE ( gym ) ]
23 ADMAN
Hidden persuader brought on board by bad manager (5)

hidden in "..bAD MANager"

18 comments on “Financial Times 16,887 by BRADMAN”

  2. Harder than the usual Friday FT Bradman for me and I failed in the end on RO-RO, bunging in ‘ra-ra’ even thought it didn’t really work. I had to guess the unheard of ‘New Scottish party’ at 1d, but crossers and the def made it possible. The wordplay also helped with 1a as I didn’t think of ALPINE for ‘Plant’.

    Some good clues though to make up for those periods dumbly staring at the grid waiting for inspiration. Favourites were DUNGEONS, PRION and the ‘Such may have been rotten’ def for BOROUGH.

    Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs

  3. This was a lovely, cleanly clued puzzle from Bradman. Otherwise, I might not have landed RO-RO and PRION, neither of which I knew.
    ALBACORE was my LOI because though I’m familiar with the tuna, like Wordplodder, I didn’t know ALBA.
    Saw ADMAN and wondered for a while if the setter had slipped his signature into the grid.
    I liked AITCHES, ALARMED, DUNGEONS, TANGLIER and CHEESE best though it was an enjoyable solve from start to finish.
    Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs, particularly for explaining CERN and PARTNERED.

  5. Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. Enjoyable. Here in the US I did Know Cern and rotten boroughs but not Aled Jones, Alba, or RO-RO so I needed Google to complete the parsing. I liked the CHEESE-snap combination.

  7. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs

    Not entirely convinced by FRAPPÉ as ‘very cold’ – it’s a description of what you do to a Beaujolais, Pinot Noir or other light red to take it a little below ambient temperature, so certainly not as cold as a chilled white.

  9. Diane @6 A popular misconception but no he didn’t. He had a hit single with the theme song but not the singer on the cartoon itself.

  12. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog — there was a bit I didn’t know like the Scottish party and Alex the singer — and much I couldn’t fully parse. Though legitimate, I’m not a fan of words like PARTNERED, NODDER, and TANGLIER. All that aside I still felt the exercise was worthwhile. Thanks Bradman.

  13. All easily gettable to make an enjoyable solve. Our only (minor) niggles- we didn’t think 12ac was very cryptic and we thought 10dn should be hyphenated and enumerated as (3-10).
    We liked the topical reference in 1dn but our favourite was CHEESE.
    Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.

  14. A nice way to spend part of an afternoon – thanks Bradman.
    I also looked sideways at FRAPPE as I do not associate it with “very” cold, just cooled or iced. These things are relative I guess.
    The other quibblet is ALPINE which is not, as far as I know, a specific plant but a description of conditions under which some species grow. Yes, there are alpine daisies but they are daisies and not alpines.
    I had to check the Scottish party, but the rest was fine.
    Thanks for the blog Turbolegs.

  17. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs. ACD@5, most of the same reactions as you; I figured ALBACORE without knowing about the party, but needed Google for RO-RO and Aled Jones. No Nina or theme I could see, but an enjoyable puzzle.

    To me a FRAPPE is any kind of iced blended drink; what Starbucks calls Frappuccino is a frappe at other coffee places here, and I think there’s a menthe frappe cocktail. So “it’s [something that’s] very cold” made sense.

  18. In New England (as opposed to merrie olde England), a “frappe” refers to what most of the rest of the US calls a “milkshake”. Since that is milk blended with ice cream and flavorings, it is typically very cold.

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