Financial Times 17,046 by BRADMAN

15 comments on “Financial Times 17,046 by BRADMAN”

1. Thanks for the entertainment Bradman. This was all good fun with only the odd unfamiliar word.
   In 14a I assumed the crooked spire church was the seat of the local bishop so it was a see, or part of one.
   Thanks for the explanations Turbolegs.

2. How good it feels to complete and fully parse a grid once in a while so, yes, I’d agree that this was on the gentle side.
   Very clean cluing (LARKSPUR) throughout, as ever with Bradman, and some lovely wordplay (CATEGORISING).
   Others I enjoyed included CHEESE, INGENIOUS and VENTRICLE.
   OCTROI, luckily, I have seen before in crossword land and GAM, thanks to fair parsing, I learned means the same as ‘pod’ (my first notion).
   Mali was instinctive, as it is a short name, but it took a while to land the explorer hence this was my LOI.
   Thanks for the Friday fling, Bradman, and to Turbolegs for the write-up.

3. Thanks for the blog, Diane@2 has said it all for me.
   Will just add CAVALIER for the caver.
   I think OCTROI is one of those words that turn up to fill an awkward spot in the grid, very fairly clued. Does it mean an eighth ( of salary ) to the king ? I will look it up later or the linguists can enlighten me please.

4. Roz,
   A reasonable thought re OCTROI. It comes from a middle French verb ‘octroyer’ which appears to be a levy to be paid on goods brought into a country (used in France/Italy). A more contemporary usage is ‘to grant’ (leave, a reprieve etc.)
   That’s what found initially, anyway.
   I agree, the CAVER was devilishly good – certainly had me working the old grey matter!

5. Many thanks Diane.

6. I agree with above comments. A quick and pleasant solve this morning. Can anyone please tell me how BANK becomes CANT?

   Thanks Bradman for a puzzle that I could solve and Turbolegs for illuminating blog.

7. A bit more than a ‘gentle tussle’ for me though with not as many obscure words as Bradman sometimes includes in his puzzles. OCTROI was vaguely remembered and CALAMINE was semi-guessed, looking more likely than “pasamine”. GAM is seen every now and then in crosswords but I can’t recall ever having heard it used in real life.

   Not the first time that (M)ALI has come to the rescue for ‘African country’, this time in a not so easy clue.

   Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs

8. SM,
   Something that slopes or leans can ‘bank’ (as an aircraft) or ‘cant’ (verb and noun).

9. Thanks so much, Diane

10. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
    14ac: I do not think this is “& lit”. The parish of Chesterfield is part of the diocese (see) of Derby: the diocese of Chester is in another part of the country altogether.

11. If anyone has never seen the famous crooked spire it is rather spectacular . I had heard of it but never seen it. Thank you Bradman to inspiring my interest.

12. Why is dispute == SET TO?

13. Harry @ 12

    If you have a dispute with someone, you’re having a set to (sometimes hyphenated).

14. Thanks Bradman for a well-clued, pleasant crossword. I missed CALAMINE but all else slipped in gently and for once I had no parsing questions. I liked SPECS, INGENIOUS, ICEBERG, and CAVALIER. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog and for your numerical ratings as always.

15. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
    A less taxing puzzle than usual from this setter with the interesting spire of CHESTERFIELD adding interest. CALAMINE was previously unknown, OCTROI wasn’t.
    Didn’t end up parsing SET FIRE TO, more an oversight that Harry@12’s comment triggered a re-look to see that I’d missed it. Liked the construction of CAVALIER which would have been my pick of a pretty good lot of clues.
    Finished in the NE corner with UNSETTLE, SPECS and the clever CHEESE as the last one in.

Comments are closed.