Financial Times 16,839 by BRADMAN

15 comments on “Financial Times 16,839 by BRADMAN”

1. Enjoyable solve which wasn’t quite as hard as a couple of other offerings elsewhere today, but still with some challenging clues. I was pleased to remember Reginald MAUDLIN(g) but was more annoyed that I missed the EGRET reverse hidden. I agree with you about EL DORADO.

   RAPPORTEUR was an original answer for ‘Investigator’ and I’ve learnt yet another new plant in SHEPHERDS PURSE. Looked it up and apparently it could also have been clued as a “worm killer”. Well I never.

   Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs

2. I don’t think that we have 10A/11A here in Australia but once I’d worked out the first word, the second was obvious from the remaining letters.

   The chancellor in 21A was also unknown but the answer was gettable (is that a real word?) from the definition and cross letters. As was 27A/28A once I had guessed the second word: not a phrase that I know.

   22A was very clever.

   Now, back into government enforced lockdown for me.

3. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
   29ac: Chambers 2014 gives El Dorado or Eldorado.

4. Thanks for the blog. MAUDLIN is a very odd word but quite correct, I always think it needs to end in a g. I wonder if any other words end with DLIN.
   SHEPHERD’S PURSE is quite an annoying garden weed here but not very invasive.
   RAPPORTEUR is the word used by the UN when they send in an investigator.

5. Thanks for all comments. I really must try to produce an atypical puzzle though!

6. Roz@4: My 1995 edition of Chambers back-words for crosswords gives codlin and quodlin, but nothing else (apart from maudlin) up to fifteen letters. Both those words are variants of codling, a variety of elongated apple.

   While I am back in, anyone old enough to remember Reginald Maudling may also remember notices saying “Bill Posters will be prosecuted”, which often attracted the graffito “Bill Posters is innocent”. Sometimes it was Bill Stickers.

7. Thanks to Bradman for a pleasant solve, with no quibbles and only slight doubt as to OSWALD, since I had forgotten about Lee Harvey…Thanks to Turbolegs for the reminder.

8. Roz@4 many thanks for your vast knowledge.

9. Pelham Barton @6 thank you, very interesting, I will look these up later.
   I remember the Bill Stickers is innocent , in the 1970s I think.

10. Thanks Bradman for the challenge. I got held up in the SE corner because I had “snap” for 25a with “part of garment” for the definition, “s” for soft, and “nap” for fibre. Favourites were LOOKING, ERRING, MAROON, and RESCUE. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

11. A pleasant solve as we sat enjoying the sunshine. We particularly iked SHEPHERD’S PURSE, CASTLED and MAROON.
    Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.
    Peter@2: MAUDLIN is a corruption of Magdalen; its meaning comes from over-sentimental paintings of Mary Magdalen weeping at Christ’s tomb (John 20: 11). And Magdalen College, at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, is pronounced ‘Maudlin’

12. allan_c @11. Just to add to the confusion, in Cambridge it is Magdalene college with an E at the end.

13. “The Death of William Posters” by Alan Sillitoe 1965

14. Is that a genuine play ? copmus@13
    I did once see a short BBC2 programme called “Bill Stickers is innocent” . It was about people who put up the posters.

15. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
    A single sitting that went much shorter than usual for this setter, so it must have been on the easier end of his spectrum. No real hold-ups and the ones where there was any queries, as in King OSWALD, Reginald MAUDLING, SHEPHERD’S PURSE and RAPPORTEUR were all clearly enough clued to be worked out.
    Finished on the right hand side with MAUDLIN, MAROON and RAPPORTEUR the last few in.

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