Financial Times 17,476 by BRADMAN

by

BRADMAN kicks off the week…

Apologies for the lateness of this, and the formatting being a bit off, and for a lack of grid image – had some issues with the blogging tool this morning.

Thanks BRADMAN!

 

ACROSS

1 Coastal places, each involved in games (8)

SEAPORTS

EA (each) involved in SPORTS (games)

5 Drug I took in after work (6)

OPIATE

(I ATE (took in)) after OP (work)

9/13 Container for something taken down and left in hall? (8,5)

UMBRELLA STAND

Cryptic definition?

10 Make good soldiers triumph? (6)

RECOUP

RE (soldiers) + COUP (triumph)

12 Sergeant out to limit one moving to new place in stadium? (9)

RESEATING

(SERGEANT)* (*out) to limit I (one)

13 See 9

14 A sign there is more to come? (4)

PLUS

Cryptic / Double definition

16 Medical specialist in depression, one really good person (7)

DENTIST

DENT (depression) + I (one) + ST (really good person)

19 A-listers going round Eastern island once (7)

CELEBES

CELEBS (A-listers) going round E (Eastern)

Now known as Sulawesi

21 Mum’s hot potatoes made soggy? (4)

MASH

MAS (Mum’s) + H (hot)

24 Merry learner always rolling over (5)

REVEL

(L (learner) + EVER (always))< (<falling over)

25 What actor must do before performance as one forced into duty? (9)

CONSCRIPT

CON SCRIPT (What actor must do before performance, “con” meaning “learn”)

27 A loose woman in the family (6)

AUNTIE

A + UNTIE (loose)

28 Crazy talker is pointedly bright? (8)

STARLIKE

(TALKER IS)* (*crazy)

29 Plant nasty grey? No (6)

ERYNGO

(GREY NO)* (*nasty)

30 When Greek character gets to rave, being hopeful (8)

ASPIRANT

AS (when) + PI (Greek character) gets RANT (to rave)

 

DOWN

1 Conventional place for public meeting? (6)

SQUARE

Double definition

2 Lying in wait in the morning — with suitable cover? (6)

AMBUSH

AM (morning) with BUSH (suitable cover)

3 Hope radio can provide this? Radio 3 can! (5)

OPERA

[h]OPE RA[dio] (can provide this)

4 Scores in matches (7)

TALLIES

Double definition

6 Birds got by country folk — hard to get caught (9)

PHEASANTS

PEASANTS (country folk), H (hard) to get caught

7 A nameless idealist is fragrant (8)

AROMATIC

A + ROMA[n]TIC (idealist, N (name)-less)

8 Hasten from deep exit with difficulty (8)

EXPEDITE

(DEEP EXIT)* (*with difficulty)

11 Ancient piece of stage design (4)

AGED

[st]AGE D[esign] (piece of)

15 Marking the French cocktail ‘almost good’ (9)

LABELLING

LA (the, French) + BELLIN[i] (cocktail, almost) + G (good)

17 Item of clothing used by super criminal (8)

SCARFACE

SCARF (item of clothing) by ACE (super)

18 Negligent son beautiful, knight admitted (8)

SLOVENLY

S (son) + LOVELY (beautiful), N (knight) admitted

20 Worker maybe not in religious group (4)

SECT

[in]SECT (worker, maybe, not IN)

21 Accounts of previous meeting in The Times (7)

MINUTES

Double definition

22 Note area with lowest values (6)

MINIMA

MINIM (note) + A (area)

23 Demonstrate at international match (6)

ATTEST

AT + TEST (international match)

26 Gosh — US soldier was a favourite of EIIR! (5)

CORGI

COR (gosh) + GI (US soldier)

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,476 by BRADMAN”

  1. Thanks for the blog, it looks fine, did not know the cocktail but answer was fine. Good set of neat, concise clues.

  2. Thank you Bradman for a quite hard puzzle on a very wet Monday. I learnt that ERYNGO is another name for Eryngium and wondered if REVEL as a noun ,is correct for merry, an adjective?
    Thanks to Teacow for a helpful blog.

  4. SM: I wondered about merry=revel, but I see Chambers has merry as an intransitive verb, “to make merry”. (And revel can also be a verb.)

  5. UMBRELLA STAND
    Looks like the setter is alluding to an umbrella being ‘taken down’ and left in the ‘hallstand’ or in the UMBRELLA STAND.
    If anything else, I am missing it.

    AMBUSH
    Seems to have a nice extended def.

  6. Well the joke in there is ‘taken down’ I suppose. A bit weak. As well we had ERYNGO and MINIMA in there, which are pretty tough words. Okay for international solvers? Who knows. In any case, I would guess all the dailies are international in some sense or other these days. Not sure we should fuss about it.

    Good puzzle, thanks Bradman and Teacow.

  7. I am struggling to see a non-cryptic reading for UMBRELLA STAND , I suppose you could take a cake down to the village hall and leave it there and it would need a container.
    Usually the non-cryptic reading is the obvious one that we need to see beyond.

  8. Liked AUNTIE. Didn’t think UMBRELLA STAND was cryptic. Didn’t know the cocktail. I’ve seen the very same clue for AROMATIC somewhere else recently.

    Thanks Bradman & Teacow.

  9. MERRY – My Chambers reads “…;merr’y-make (archaic) a merrymaking. — vi to make merry. — merr’ymaker;…”
    I think the setter has erroneously taken the “vi to make merry” as justifying merry as a verb, instead of merrymake.

  10. Knew MINIMA and maxima from GCE Maths (and Latin neuter plurals).
    nho ERYNGO or Eryngium – happy to accept a jorum.
    Ditto for CELEBES – I hadn’t heard of Sulawesi, either. – But then I never did Geography at school – a serious gap in my education.

  12. Very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks, Bradman and Teacow.

    UMBRELLA STAND was cryptic enough that I needed a good few crossing letters before the answer came to me. Not familiar with ERYNGO but I do know of eryngium and that was enough to help me deduce that one. CELEBES rings a very vague bell but in any case was generously clued so didn’t hold me up too long. MINIMA is self-evidently the plural of minimum – you don’t need to be a Latin scholar to work that one out.

    I’ve enjoyed a few bellinis in my time, though I’ve never been to Harry’s Bar, alas.

  13. Thanks Bradman. This was smooth sailing but the SW corner took a bit of time. I spent too long on 17d because I thought the definition was “item of clothing” and “criminal” meant an anagram of “super” preceded by a word that meant “used”. Nice misdirection for me. ERYNGO was new but easily guessed from the crossers. (MINIMA was no problem to guess either but I couldn’t parse it.) My top picks were AUNTIE, LABELLING, and CORGI. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  14. A puzzle of two halves for us with only two links between right and left. The former filled up quicly, leaving us struggling with the latter and several “D’oh!” moments such as for SQUARE and SCARFACE. We hadn’t heard of CELEBES but the answer was obvious from the clue so all solved without help apart from confirming one or two guesses in the dictionary.
    Thanks, Bradman and Teacow.

  15. Widdersbel @ 13 You don’t want to go to Harry’s Bar! We went in there a few years ago, looked round and left. €24 for a Dry Martini? Include me out…

  16. Enjoyed this and got through it pretty quickly. I wondered a bit about the validity of Scarface although it didn’t take long to find. I had no difficulty with Umbrella Stand as a clue, which I enjoyed. Certainly heard of the Celebes.and Eryngo.

    My favourite was Plus, where I had pencilled in Also?? until Tallies gave me the final S. Then there was a Doh moment.

    Thanks.

  18. This was my first crossword in a while and I was a bit rusty, but I did get 9/13 across, reckoning it to be UMBRELLA = container (as in umbrella fund), STAND = Something Taken down AND

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