Friday , and its BRADMAN time, thanks to whom for a gentle tussle.
FF: 8 DD: 7
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MATHEMATICS |
School subject – a thousand MAs teach it badly (11)
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[ M ( thousand ) MAS TEACH IT ]* |
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| 7 | GAP |
Yawn endlessly in break (3)
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GAPe ( yawn, endlessly ) |
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| 9 | SUSAN |
Woman given directions to cross America (5)
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SN ( directions, South, North ) across USA ( america ) |
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| 10 | ACCIPETER |
Family of birds in flying practice across island (9)
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I ( island ) in [ PRACTICE ]* ; new word for me |
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| 11 | HEAD START |
Principal’s sharp to gain initial advantage (4,5)
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charade of HEAD'S ( principal's ) TART ( sharp ) |
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| 12 | REBEL |
Bishop in dance is an unconventional type (5)
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B ( bishop ) in REEL ( dance ) |
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| 13 | PELICAN |
Priest about to enter vessel – a good catcher of fish (7)
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[ ELI ( priest ) C ( about ) ] in PAN ( vessel ) |
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| 15 | DUTY |
Dirty son avoiding obligation (4)
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DUsTY ( dirty, without S – son ) |
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| 18 | PROP |
Support for piano (4)
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PRO ( support ) P ( Piano ) |
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| 20 | RED LINE |
Communist policy to establish impassable boundary (4,3)
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RED ( communist ) LINE ( policy ); if my answer is correct, the enumeration for the clue should read 3,4 rather than the other way around |
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| 23 | OCHRE |
Colour of old bit of work with middle missing (5)
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O ( old ) CHoRE ( work, without middle letter ) |
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| 24 | RUMP STEAK |
Cooked food upset Mark unfortunately (4,5)
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[ UPSET MARK ]* |
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| 26 | COLLISION |
Accident, one by holy hill to the east of Scottish island (9)
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COLL ( scottish island ) I ( one ) SION ( holy hill, ~zion ) |
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| 27 | LOOFA |
An idiot knocked over something in the bathroom (5)
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A FOOL ( idiot ), all reversed |
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| 28 | DAM |
Mother and man in garden heading off (3)
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aDAM ( man in garden, without heading ) |
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| 29 | GENDARMERIE |
Greedier man brought under control with force in France (11)
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[ GREEDIER MAN ]* |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MISSHAPE |
Maiden lands on messy heap, a splodge? (8)
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MISS ( maiden ) [ HEAP ]* |
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| 2 | TESTABLE |
The empty equine facility that may be tried out (8)
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TE ( ThE, empty, without inner letters ) STABLE ( equine facility ) |
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| 3 | ENNIS |
Went wrong, mostly heading north to find Irish town (5)
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reverse of SINNEd ( went wrong, mostly ) |
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| 4 | A LA MAIN |
Adult animal dealt with, in hand (1,2,4)
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A ( adult ) [ ANIMAL ]* |
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| 5 | INCITED |
Encouraged at home and mentioned in dispatches? (7)
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IN ( at home ) CITED ( mentioned in dispatches ) |
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| 6 | SEPARATED |
Red Sea apt to be troublesome – what was it for Moses? (9)
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&lit; [ RED SEA APT ]* |
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| 7 | GATSBY |
Party man turning up by great man (6)
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GATS ( party man = STAG, reversed ) BY – from the novel 'the great gatsby' |
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| 8 | PAROLE |
Promise to give office assistant part to play (6)
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PA ( office assitant ) ROLE ( part to play ) |
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| 14 | CARPETING |
Covering domestic animal, worrying about it (9)
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CARING ( worrying ) around PET ( domestic animal ) |
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| 16 | SIDE DOOR |
Team benefactor, unnamed, making anything but a grand entrance (4,4)
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SIDE ( team ) [ DOnOR ( benefactor, without N ~ unnamed ) ] |
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| 17 | NECKLACE |
Ornament of twisted nickel, not one that’s brilliant (8)
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[ NiCKLE ( not one i.e without I ) ]* ACE ( brilliant ) |
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| 19 | PORTION |
Component of eg love drink recipe included (7)
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POTION ( an example of which is perhaps, a love drink ) containing R ( recipe ) |
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| 20 | ROMANIA |
Country with retreating soldiers, a sort of madness (7)
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RO ( soldiers = OR, reversed ) MANIA ( sort of madness ) |
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| 21 | VOICED |
Sounded very old and very cold? (6)
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V ( very ) O ( old ) ICED ( very cold ) |
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| 22 | SHALOM |
Sign of holiness in sergeant major’s greeting (6)
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HALO ( sign of holiness ) in SM ( Sergeant Major ) |
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| 25 | SALEM |
American place with trading event attracting millions (5)
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SALE ( trading event ) M ( millions ) |
Ok, but took a while to see 20a due to yet another FT crossword error. They do get annoying over time. Never heard of ACCIPITER (spelt wrongly in blog) and didn’t care for the extraneous ‘a’ in the clue.
It was, as Turbolegs says, a gentle grid with only the unknown ACCIPITER which required an online check. Also needed help parsing COLLUSION.
Yes, thanks to the editing error, I couldn’t get CODE RED out of my mind. Once I had all the crossers, though, I just ignored the (3,4) enumeration and found what was required.
My favourite today was GATSBY.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs.
Sorry, I meant COLLISION
Oh dear, and I ignored the (4,3)!
Having entered OCCIPITER from (faulty) memory , could not get A LA MAIN or PELICAN. Entered unparsed “a go cart” and “polecat” to fill in the grid!
Hovis@1: I agree with you about the spelling of ACCIPITER (especially given the anagram) and the numeration error in 20a. But I interpreted the word “across” in 10a to mean surrounding, so the “a” in across felt right to me.
As a mathematician by training, 1a was my favorite — and my FOI. However, I like to think that I’m an MA who taught it well. 🙂
EdK. Sorry, my fault – it was the extraneous ‘a’ in 1a I didn’t like (I’m a retired mathematician myself). It looks like it is needed for the anagram but it isn’t. Ok, you can take M to equate to ‘a thousand’ not just ‘thousand’ so it’s not much of a quibble.
Thanks Bradman for the Friday fun. I could not get VOICED because I was certain that “sounded” had to mean a homophone was in play and that “very cold” was the definition — nice misdirection. All else fell into place with my favourites being the simple PROP and SIDE DOOR. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Many thanks for the fun Bradman but I have done it with breakfast coffee this morning.
Yes, the bird family is ACCIPITER, which I vaguely recall from another crossword.
But I think the definition for 6d is “what was it for Moses” with the first part being the wordplay.
Is “dirty” really synonymous with “dusty”? It works fine but, to me, they seem to be describing different unclean situations.
Main thing – it was all quite gettable. Thanks for the blog Turbolegs.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
At the gentle end with the hawk genus needing to be looked up after getting the most likely looking outcome of the mixed letters at 10a. Only slight holdup was repairing my BACK DOOR to SIDE DOOR to fit in the ‘cooked food’. It then allowed me to see the mis-numeration of 20a and finish that corner.
Funny how one can be on to things some times and others not – didn’t count the letters in the anagram of MATHEMATICS and had included the first ‘a’ in it :o.
Finished with COLLISION and it’s busy word play, ADAM, that ACCIPITER and only then seeing the anagram to give A LA MAIN.