Financial Times 16,657 by BRADMAN

by

A typical Friday offering from BRADMAN. Thanks Don!

FF: 8 DD: 8

ACROSS
7 ROAD SHOW Touring group had so fallen apart in quarrel (4,4)
 

[ HAD SO ]* in ROW ( quarrel )
8 PRO TEM Occupant of No. 10 keeping repetitious performance for now (3,3)
 

PM ( occupant of no.10 ) containing ROTE ( repetitious performance )
11 CONGA Dance in African location given new ending (5)
 

CONGo ( african location, with the ending changed to A )
12 IN THE DARK Lacking information as one suffering power cut? (2,3,4)
 

cryptic def
13 AT STAKE A cop crossing street in danger? (2,5)
 

A [ TAKE ( cop ) containing ST( street ) ] – not comfortable with my parsing for TAKE = cop
14 NYLGHAU An ugly drunk outside hotel, a wild beast (7)
 

[ AN UGLY ]* outside H ( Hotel )
15 THE DEVILS TATTOO Absent-minded performance that results from a baddy getting needled? (3,6,6)
 

THE DEVIL ( baddy ) TATTOO ( ~ getting needled ) – my LOI
18 NUTTIER More insane knight, say, going around India (7)
 

N ( knight ) [ UTTER ( say ) around I ( India ) ]
20 IMPASSE Troublemaker meets fools – shortly there’s deadlock (7)
 

IMP ( troublemaker ) ASSEs ( fools, shortly )
22 TIMECARDS Folk may naughtily process them for absent colleagues – scam tried out (9)
 

[ SCAM TRIED ]* – not very fond of this clue unless i am missing something else in the definition, felt a bit too contrived
23 OGHAM Old characters journey back to meet flood survivor (5)
 

OG ( journey = GO, reversed ) HAM ( flood survivor )
24 DETEST Journalist about to face ordeal with hate being shown (6)
 

DE ( reverse of ED – journalist ) TEST ( ordeal ) – i did think about 'being shown' as part of the definition but decided against it
25 ANDERSEN Not all islanders enjoy writer of fairy stories (8)
 

hidden in "..islANDERS ENjoy.." ; hans christian, loved his stories as a kid

DOWN
1 PROCRASTINATED Erratic don, past being able to change, wouldn’t make decision (14)
 

[ ERRATIC DON PAST ]* – my FOI
2 BARNES Big buildings around eastern district of London (6)
 

BARNS ( big buildings ) around E ( Eastern )
3 ESCAPADE Adventure ceased sadly with the old man locked up inside (8)
 

[ CEASED ]* containing PA ( old man )
4 MOBILE LIBRARY Van booked to visit out-of-town areas? (6,7)
 

cryptic def; clever use of 'booked' i thought
5 ORWELL Soldiers meeting fine author (6)
 

OR ( soldiers ) WELL ( fine )
6 STRAW HAT Street artist having what could be seen as item of summer wear (5-3)
 

ST ( street ) RA ( artist ) WHAT
9 MAKE UP ONES MIND Decide to have lipstick etc – and no turning up with casual denims! (4,2,4,4)
 

MAKE UP ( lipstick etc ) ON ( reverse of NO ) [ DENIMS ]*
10 AT ONES WITS END Desperate news noted as it is broadcast (2,4,4,3)
 

[ NEWS NOTED AS IT ]*
16 ESTIMATE Judge has landed property – this writer’s entertained (8)
 

ESTATE ( landed property ) containing I'M ( this writer's )
17 APPROVES Sanctions a very quiet ramble first thing on Sunday (8)
 

A PP ( very quiet ) ROVE ( ramble ) S ( Sunday )
19 IN CASE Boxed, so as to be safe (2,4)
 

cryptic def
21 SCHIST Rock mostly split over time (6)
 

SCHISm ( split, mostly ) T ( time )

11 comments on “Financial Times 16,657 by BRADMAN”

  1. Nice puzzle with lovely clues.  9d and 10d are my faves. But a question: does the def in 1d clearly suggest past tense? He wouldn’t make suggestion/He is [still[ procrastinating. These two equations ran in my mind.

    Though we ignore the apostrophe in gridfills, I think we could use it in the blog.

    Finally, what is FF? And why count only these two clue-types?

    Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs.

     

  2. More than enough to keep the mind in gear. I dipped out on the unchecked letter lucky dip for the unknown NYLGHAU, missed the parsing of NUTTIER, didn’t know the ‘flood survivor’ at 23a and THE DEVIL’S TATTOO was also new.

    I liked the ANDERSEN hidden, which took me a while to spot, and the ‘Van booked’ for MOBILE LIBRARY.

    Just about right for a Friday from Bradman. Thanks to him and Turbolegs

  3. Very enjoyable from Bradman today though there were a couple for which I sought online: OGHAM and NYHLGHAU.
    I can’t improve on your parsing of AT STAKE, Loonapick, and did find the surface of 22a a tad jarring even if the answer was clear.
    However, I particularly liked SCHIST and CONGA for their neat surfaces, along with 1, 4, 9 and 10 which were fun to unravel. I feel ‘wouldn’t’ (was not willing to) was sufficiently suggestive of the past tense in 1d.
    Thanks to Bradman and Loonapick

  6. After ten hours glued to a laptop screen, this was a welcome respite. I guessed ‘nuttier’ but should have realised why. Nylghau is a new one for me.

    Thanks Bradman and good weekend all.

  7. Thanks for the afternoon entertainment Bradman. And for the explanations Turbolegs. Like you, I looked sideways at both 13a and 22a. I wonder if the latter was the last written clue as it almost seemed a grasp at something. I did enjoy the MOBILE LIBRARY when I saw it. Great! I had to check the tattoo as it was not a term I knew but it seemed the only fit. The antelope was also a case of “I have all the letters and crossers so enter and look up”. But all good fun.

  8. Even though I failed at 14, 15, and 23 I found the rest of the crossword to be a write-in, surprising for a Bradman puzzle. I enjoyed it nonetheless with ORWELL, PRO TEM, and SCHIST being favourites. Thanks to both.

  10. I got 18a but i was unable to parse it: thank you Turbolegs.

    I thought 4d was the best (why is it nor cryptic?)

    Thank you all!

  11. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
    Enjoyed this and it took longer than normal to get it finished. Seems that I had different hold ups to others – OGHAM was one of the early entries with HAM coming to mind as a son of Noah quite quickly. I struggled in the NE corner with NYLGHAU (which I had never seen before … and needed help to get the anagram sorted), ORWELL (where OR was the final group of soldiers after looking at RE, RA and GI) and PRO TEM (got caught up looking for two of the same 2-letter word to put into PM). These were my last few in.
    Liked all of the long idioms throughout the grid and was pleased to work through the construction of STRAW HAT, MAKE UP ONES MIND and NUTTIER.

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