Financial Times 17,135 by BRADMAN

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A proper head-scratcher from BRADMAN this Friday.

FF: 9 DD: 9

I believe my blog has scope for some improvements, which I am sure the dab hands here would graciously oblige.

ACROSS
1 PODIUM
One with hesitation hiding behind school platform (6)

POD ( school ) I ( one ) UM ( ~hesitation )
4 CIVILIAN
Secular Scot who won’t fight? (8)

CIVIL ( secular ) IAN ( scot )
9 LIMPET
A short distance back and favourite is one hanging on (6)

[ reverse of MILe ( distance, short ) ] PET ( favorite )
10 CLIFFTOP
Edgy situation with Richard’s disc at number one? (8)

CLIFF ( richard, singer ) TOP ( disc at number one; could have been clued without 'disc'? )

12, 23 MONA LISA
Unusual Somalian exhibit in Paris (4,4)

[ SOMALIAN ]*
13 PHASING OUT
President has, at home, disease diminishing to nothing (7,3)

P ( president ) HAS IN ( at home ) GOUT ( disease )
15 CHALCOPYRITE
Mineral crushed in holy practice (12)

[ HOLY PRACTICE ]*
18 FAYETTEVILLE
Destiny that’s yet to be sealed, learner having probed nasty Arkansan city? (12)

[ YET in FATE ( destiny ) ] [ L ( learner ) in VILE ( nasty ) ]
21 CLOVEN HOOF
Satanic indication at ground level? (6,4)

cryptic def
22 SPUN
Like a bit of propaganda given page in newspaper (4)

P ( page ) in SUN ( newspaper )
24 LUSTROUS
Shiny component of Lulu’s trousers (8)

hidden in "..luLU'S TROUSers"
25 LICHEE
End of meal, one with maybe twice- pared Stilton and fruit (6)

L ( end of meaL ) I ( one ) CHEEse ( stilton, twice pared i.e. without the last two letters )
26 REMINDER
Message about needing to look after top lady (8)

RE ( about ) MIND ( look after ) hER ( lady, top )
27 TARDIS
Sailor goes to underworld in magical mode of transport (6)

TAR ( sailor ) DIS ( underworld ) ; doctor who
DOWN
1 POLEMICS
Male in charge restricted by Europeans arguing (8)

[ M ( male ) IC ( in charge ) ] in POLES ( europeans )
2 DEMONIAC
Swirling on ice, mad person devil- possessed (8)

[ ON ICE MAD ]*
3 UVEA
Part of spectrum impinging on each part of viewer (4)

UV ( part of spectrum, light ) EA ( each )
5 ILLUSTRATION
The Italian desire to take part, for example (12)

IL ( the, italian ) LUST ( desire ) RATION ( part )
6 INFINITIVE
We came to see – what’s to see? (10)

cryptic def; i am not sure if i have marked the clue right or if there is a more involved explanation
7 INTROS
Pieces of music favoured, uplifting kind (6)

IN ( favoured ) reverse of SORT ( kind )
8 NEPETA
Plant one pet apparently needs? (6)

hidden in "..oNE PET Apparently.."
11 CHAPTERHOUSE
Religious building in independent school – right to be quiet (12)

CHArTERHOUSE ( independent schoolm with R – right changing to P – quiet )
14 OCTAHEDRON
Coronet had to be specially made – a solid multi-faceted thing (10)

[ CORONET HAD ]*
16 SLIPSHOD
Careless fielders – how stupid, on reflection (8)

SLIPS ( fielders, cricket ) [ reverse of DOH ( ~how stupid ) ]
17 KEENNESS
Avidity of head after expression of sorrow (8)

KEEN ( expression of sorow ) NESS ( head )
19 OCULAR
Viewer’s confused by a colour with something circular unseen (6)

[ A COLoUR ( without something circular – O ) ]*
20 POSSUM
Marsupial with power, huge problem (6)

P ( power ) OS ( huge, Over Size ) SUM ( problem )
23
See 12

14 comments on “Financial Times 17,135 by BRADMAN”

  1. Mostly smooth sailing for me, but got stuck on a few. I wasn’t aware of CHALCOPYRITE nor NEPETA nor FAYETTEVILLE. Didn’t know that meaning of “keen”. 16d was my favourite, with its allusion to The Simpsons.

  2. Also found this rather tricky and failed on CLOVEN HOOF. 10a probably could have done without disc, as Turbolegs suggests, but I needed it to think of Cliff. 6d had me flummoxed for a while until I got the ‘f’ of Cliff – is the definition not ‘to see’? I’m afraid I didn’t really understand the first part of this clue and wondered if it too could be skipped?
    Anyway, I enjoyed the half of this puzzle which came readily. PHASING OUT was my favourite but agree that SLIPSHOD was good for the reason Geoff mentions.
    I leaned rather heavily on the blog today so thanks to Turbolegs and to Bradman for the stiff challenge.

  3. In 26a, I think ‘top lady’ is more likely a reference to the Queen, ER.
    In 16d, it’s really D’OH, not DOH.

  4. On 6d INFINITIVE I read clue as two sentences:

    We came to see.
    What’s ‘to see’ [in that sentence]?

    Answer: It’s an infinitive.

    Some other tricky parsings. It took me ages to see how CHAPTERHOUSE worked. I wanted to make it OCULUS instead of OCULAR, but then noted the apostrophe in ‘viewer’s.’ I parsed 26 as Hovis did. Thanks to Bradman and TL

  7. I had to cheat to get 3D as I had never heard of the answer. 8D was easy to guess with the cross letters but I have never heard of this plant.

    I have an issue with 25A as, here in Australia, it is “Lychee”, but this is an English newspaper.

    GDU I have actually been to Lafayetteville but they wouldn’t let me into Fort Bragg unless I enlisted or killed someone.

    As for 6D, it is important to never ever split an infinitive!

  8. Peter,
    The spelling of ‘lichee’ has been discussed here before; I like you, knew ‘lychee’ first and foremost but there is also ‘litchi’ and probably others, all depending on the romanisation of various Chinese dialects.
    And if you like cured meats, prosciutto is delicious with melon!

  10. This was one of those Pasquale masquerading as Bradman puzzles for me. CHALCOPYRITE, really? An obscure word clued as an anagram with several possible answers, even with all the crossers. OK, you could take a stab that as a ‘Mineral’ it might end in ITE, which I did, and I managed to guess the rest correctly, but that’s what it was – guesswork. NEPETA wasn’t far behind, but I’ll excuse that given that it’s close to an &lit as the ‘Plant’ In question is “catmint”.

    Anyway, enough whingeing. Lots of good clues which needed a bit of lateral thinking to solve. I’ll go for CLOVEN HOOF, INFINITIVE and CHAPTERHOUSE as my favourite difficult ones.

    Thanks to Bradman (really!) and Turbolegs

  11. Whilst I agree with WordPloder that CHALCOPYRITE is obscure and I cheated to get it, it is actually a very common mineral. I had never heard of it before so I learnt something today.
    However, NEPETA aka Catmint is very much in common use. I am looking out at it near the back door where it has attracted the usual mass of bees, who love it.

    Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs.

  12. There was too much beyond my reach to be truly enjoyable but I did like ILLUSTRATION, KEENNESS, and MONA LISA, the latter for its anagram. Thanks to both.

  13. Chewy in places but nothing that wasn’t getteble without a little help. The mineral in 15ac was almost certain to end in …ITE which helped to unscramble the anagram, and similarly a few crossing letters suggested the Arkansan city might end in …VILLE (as do many US cities) but we needed Google to track down FAYETTEVILLE, although the parsing was obvious once we saw it.
    We thought that CHAPTERHOUSE should have been enumerated as two words (7,5) but on checking in Chambers we see it is all one word. Chambers also confirmed for us the identity of NEPETA, worked out from the wordplay.
    CLOVEN HOOF, INFINITIVE and INTROS were our favourites.
    Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.

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