Financial Times 16,935 by BRADMAN

22 comments on “Financial Times 16,935 by BRADMAN”

1. Many thanks for the afternoon challenge Bradman.
   I think 5a could just as easily by IBADAN – a city in Nigeria. That suits the “One” in the clue better.
   The rest dropped into place fine and I did enjoy NIGHTIES.
   This week I did notice it was a Friday Bradman.
   Thanks for the explanations Turbolegs.

2. Thanks for the blog , usual neat and sound clues here.
   I think TOP COAT refers to a final coat of paint often being GLOSS paint.
   ON ICE – some shows are presented on ice such as “Dancing on Ice “.

   Thanks for further knowledge on DUMDUM and LEGER LINE.

3. Looking on google, I think 7d is a reference to Daisy Amodio.

4. Hovis
   An interesting suggestion but I think it is more likely to be Daisy Bell in the tune ‘Bicycle made for two‘.

5. Hovis @3 I rather think it is Daisy from the old song: “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do.”

6. Sorry, Gaufrid, crossed.

7. Of course. That makes much more sense.

8. Hi Roz@2 – I was referring to the same definition as well when noting that I could have marked it as a possible double def. I would have felt better if there was a ‘?’ at the end, for me to comfortably mark it as a double def. Just a personal eccentricity if you will… 🙂

   Mystogre@1 – I quite liked 8d too!

   Geoff@4 – Yet again, your GK never ceases to amaze me.

   Cheers
   TL

9. Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do, I’m half crazy all for the love of you.., as pointed out by Gaufrid and Spooner’s catflap. Very good and there are worse earworms. Before my era, but not by much.

   A bit harder than the usual Bradman Friday FT. I hadn’t heard of the ‘city’ at 5a or the LEGER LINE musical term, though I had an idea what ‘staff’ was referring to.

   For the second time this week, favourite was my first in, the &lit (I think) THOMAS.

   Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs

10. Mystogre @1, I too had IBADAN for the city. I did well except for “leger line” which I’d never heard of. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs

11. ACD

    Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. I knew Daisy-bicycle built for two and opted for IBADAN but failed with AS-LEVELS and LEGER LINE.

12. Maybe this is a bit of a 20 d’s comment, but isn’t ‘wanting’ in 12a redundant?

13. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs. My first cryptic in a while, a good challenge. Got LEGER LINE though in US we often write “ledger line”. DOCKER was the only one I didn’t get, ocker was a new term. For a while that whole corner stumped me because I had DROVER there till I got CHOIR. 6d very clever!

14. jeff@usa @13. It is the same spelling of LEDGER normally in the U.K. ocker is also pretty unknown here. Well done you for solving it. What are the puzzles in the USA like. Similar to ours?

15. A pleasant afternoon diversion. We thought IBADAN to be the obvious answer for 5ac. And looking again at the clues we’d agree with Steve@12 about ‘wanting’ being redundant in 12ac. Favourites were BACK TO SQUARE ONE and STAKE-OUT.
    Thabks, Bradman and Turbolegs.

16. SM@14 – I do these because there are far fewer cryptics here than UK. The Nation has a weekly – usually pretty simple-and Harper’s has a challenging one monthly, often diagramless or with unnumbered clues like some of Julius’ puzzles in the FT. Most US crosswords are “straight”, not cryptic, though New York Times often uses cryptic definitions and puns but no anagrams, rebuses, hidden words or other cryptic methods. And many of our puzzles have each letter be part of two words – which permits clever patterns of black squares.

17. Thanks jeff@usa @16. Interesting. I wonder what the position is in other anglophone countries? There are some setters/ bloggers of FT puzzles, active on this website who are not U.K. based.

18. SM@17 – Maybe an item for discussion in the “general discussion” group on Fifteensquared, where people talk about things not directly related to the day’s puzzle.

19. Just checked the printed solution, which gives IBADAN for 5ac.

20. jeff@usa @18. Thanks . I will think about your suggestion.

21. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
    Completed in about the average time, but it seemed to be harder work than normal.
    DOCKER was the first in, unfortunately OCKER is a reputation that a small percentage of our overseas travellers from here have given rise to. ABADAN was another early entry and not sure that it is technically incorrect, maybe the definition could have been expanded to include African or Asian city to do away with the ambiguity – ‘one’ is often defined as A or I in crossword land.
    Was with Roz@2 with her interpretations of 18a and 26a.
    LEGER LINE and AS LEVELS were the last two in, both unknown terms requiring a word-finder. Wouldn’t have been able to derive either of them any other way – one being a cryptic definition and the other where I could only see the word play after getting the answer.

22. Jeff@usa @ 18. Having just visited the comments section I have decided not to start a new discussion, but thanks for the suggestion.

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