Financial Times 17,642 by BRADMAN

21 comments on “Financial Times 17,642 by BRADMAN”

1. I parsed ORIEL and BRITANNIA as per Cineraria’s blog and for the ‘to take to bits’ def of 23d, I thought of to STRIP an engine. Never heard of CHRISM or BORDEREAU before but you expect a few obscure words from Bradman. I wasn’t sure about MAKEOVER either; you can “make over” = transfer or leave eg property to someone but that’s not quite the same thing as ‘deliver’ and I think is two words.

   Maybe not historically 100% proven, but I liked the ‘Where many couples ended up’ def for ARARAT and the surface for HOT-WATER BOTTLES; yet another sign of having done too many of these, but I immediately thought the answer was going to be horticulturally related.

   Thanks to Cineraria and Bradman

2. Thanks Cineraria and Bradman!
   ORIEL and BRITANNIA
   ditto as Cineraria and WP@1.
   MAKEOVER
   Parsed it as in the blog and by WP@1, And with a ? in my mind.

   STRIP (my take)
   take to bits=to cut into strips/pieces (like shred).

   BORDEREAU
   One anagrind for the ‘Labour leader’ and one for the ‘all’ (LABOUR LEADER* less ALL*)

3. MAKEOVER
   Parsed it as WP@1 (I didn’t and don’t think of cricket here).

4. Same as the blog on BRITANNIA and ORIEL. I do not think MAKEOVER has anything to do with cricket either (no-one makes an over). Similar to Wordplodder & KVa, I thought of deliver = make over, but did not find that very convincing

   I seemed to spend more time on RORQUAL and BORDEREAU (both unknowable and ugly words) than the rest of the puzzle. It was bad planning that they crossed, and I thought the clue required parsing that was tough for such obscure words. I am not sure I understand why a bass clef is of lower significance. Tone yes, but significance? I am sure someone will be able to explain.

   There were several clues with nice surfaces and economy of language as I have come to expect from Bradman. My favorites were SWITCHING, HOT WATER BOTTLES and CARD TRICK. ARARAT was close behind

   Thanks Bradman for the mixed bag and thanks Cineraria for an excellent blog of a challenging puzzle

5. Martyn@4: I took BASS CLEF as being a sign indicating the lower notes, thus, “of lower significance,” in Crosswordese.

6. STRIP
   WP@1’s parsing seems correct (mine probably doesn’t work in that sense).
   Take an engine to bits=strip an engine.
   I stand corrected.

7. Three I’d never heard of (CHRISM, RORQUAL, BORDEREAU), within the legal limit. One or two weird ones, covered above. Unsurprisingly, the Oxford college was unknown. I don’t think I’ve ever ordered a treble.

   Definitely more achievable than Brendan’s in the Guardian, so it behoves me to be grateful. Thanks Bradman & Cineraria.

8. I liked BLOBBY best as it made me laugh.
   I had no problem with STRIP in either sense (football strip or ‘strip an engine’ as Wordplodder says). Also, like Wordplodder, I suspected HOTHOUSE FLOWERS at first but it was a fine anagram, as it turns out.
   MAKEOVER (one word) for cosmetic treatment or home renovation was fine but like others, I thought of cricket in the parsing of it.
   My failure was the unfamiliar BORDEREAU (one for the memory bank).
   Anyway, I enjoyed this so thanks to Bradman and to Cineraria for doing a grand blog despite any misgivings.

9. Thanks for the blog, I thought this was really good, a fine range of neat clues and the relative obscurities clued fairly. I will agree with Martyn’s list @4 but put ARARAT at the front.
   Good spot from Word Plodder @1 for STRIP an engine.
   MAKEOVER was fine , two words in the first part to just build the answer .
   ORIEL fairly famous at one time for being the last all male college .
   I would say that BORDEREAU does not actually need a second indicator. Labour leader = BORDEREAUALL when organised. It all depends on the order.

10. Roz@9
    BORDEREAU
    We have been there before. Some setters use two anagrinds but some use just one in such situations. I have no complaints with either style of clueing.

11. KVa@10 it depends on the order of operations, if the ALL was first in the clue being taken out it would need an anagram indicator, here it is second and the mix up has already occured.
    The second indicator is not wrong but not needed.

12. Thanks Bradman and Cineraria

    20dn: I always like to see RORQUAL in a puzzle. It was the answer to the following clue by AF Ritchie (Afrit) roughly fifty years ago:
    “You could make this whale seem quarrelsome, but hold it up by its tail and it begins to laugh.”
    As I understand it, this was the archetypal extended anagram (aka compound or composite): RORQUAL + SEEM = anagram of QUARRELSOME. The last twelve words are a partial third indicator – Afrit’s attempt to give some extra help to the solver.

    There are usually words that some of us do not know. There may be words which we cannot reasonably be expected to know. I do not see how there can ever exist an “unknowable” word.

13. PB@14: about 50 years ago? And the rest! Afrit died 70 years ago, tough I’m impressed you fund teh clue.

14. Goujeers@13: Thank you for that correction of date. I shall try to get it right next time. The “roughly fifty years ago” correctly applies to an article in the magazine Games and Puzzles (1970s version), and to a reference to it on the Azed slip for the Christmas 1974 competition.
    http://www.andlit.org.uk/azed/slip.php?comp_no=146
    I found this by searching on “quarrelsome whale”.

    Azed’s comments include the following:
    “For my part I find Afrit’s clue quite acceptable, except for the last twelve words, which strike me as superfluous. I would make only two general comments by way of proviso. The anagrams formed should not be too long, resulting almost inevitably in loss of neatness. And clear indication should be given that additions and subtractions are in jumbled form when, as usual, this is the case.”
    Azed seems to have relented on the “not too long” proviso over the years. But I think that is as far away from today’s puzzle as we should be going.

15. PB@14 Thank you for the link. I note that the winner of the competition on that page was a Dr G B Greer. Is this, I wonder, Brian Greer aka Brendan/Virgilius?

16. Rudolf@15 – it is, I just found an interview with him which mentioned the first time he won the Azed competition. I see from the complete list of his successful entries at http://www.andlit.org.uk/azed/by_cluer.php?cluer_id=1083 that he was also responsible for one of my all-time favourite clues: “Some in Commons term Mrs T. one, abusively (7)”

17. Even he!
    The Quarrelsome Whale clue set alight the composite anagram craze, so prevalent in Azed’s clue-writing comps. Don Putnam did us all a favour in recalling Afrit’s clue for RORQUAL. Read all about it in Chambers Crossword Manual by me (Don Manley).
    Glad the puzzle went down well. I cannot recall ever using a hidden homophone before.

18. Thanks, Tom. I rate him as the best setter. His Virgilius puzzles were always a pleasure to solve.

19. Interesting to see the clue from Afrit, – this whale seem quarrelsome – is a brilliant spot. I agree with Azed about losing the last 12 words, the clue is perfect without them.

20. Thanks Bradman. My top picks were BACKBITER, AUDIO, MILORD, FIRST-RATE, and ARARAT. I needed a word finder for SWITCHING, BORDEREAU, and RORQUAL. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.

21. Late to this but have to register my appreciation for a first rate puzzle. Bravo, Bradman. I thought the “hidden homophone” was particularly clever and inventive.

    Interesting discussion in the comments too. Thanks all.

Comments are closed.