Financial Times 17,117 by BRADMAN

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BRADMAN serves up yet another Friday tussle.

FF: 8 DD: 8

ACROSS
1 HABITS
They are customary items of clothing (6)

double def
4 OFFENDER
Criminal present with hidden aim (8)

OFFER ( present ) containing END ( aim )
9 LURING
Attracting lady initially with superior token of love (6)

L ( Lady, initally ) U ( superior ) RING ( token of love )
10 EYE-DROPS
Medicine could be provided by ‘’doper’’, yes? (3-5)

[ DOPER YES ]*
12 THEN AGAIN
After all, the poor horse may need a home (4,5)

THE NAG ( poor horse ) A IN ( home )
13 MADGE
Girl departs, transported by wise man (5)

D ( departs ) in MAGE ( wise man )
14 MAN IN THE STREET
Tom, Dick or Harry entertains them with playing (3,2,3,6)

[ ENTERTAINS THEM ]*
17 SACRED MUSHROOM
Something hallucinogenic changing mood – charms user (6,8)

[ MOOD CHARMS USER ]*
21 OSTIA
Seaman reaches island to the west to find harbour (5)

OS ( seaman ) [ reverse of AIT ( island ) ] – not a big fan of this clue with the 'seaman' clue for OS; hadnt heard of the port before and had to look it up on the web
22 OBEISANCE
Respect and honour is given to forefather, not half! (9)

OBE ( honour ) IS ANCEstor ( forefather, without second half )
24 INERT GAS
Angriest drunk appearing? One doesn’t react (5,3)

[ ANGRIEST ]*
25 RABBIT
A little something attached to leg that may prove advantageous (6)

cryptic clue; referring to the rabbit's foot lucky charm
26 SUPERIOR
Rise up in revolution with soldiers of higher quality (8)

[ RISE UP ]* OR ( soldiers )
27 TEASEL
Something prickly Guy found by lake (6)

TEASE ( guy ) L ( lake )
DOWN
1 HALF-TIME
Female has to stop outside, one joining me for rest period? (4-4)

[ HALT ( stop ) outside F ( female ) ] I ( one ) ME
2 BURGEON
Flourish as British operator heading off (7)

B ( british ) sURGEON ( operator, heading off i.e. without first letter )
3 TANGA
With minimal underwear Georgia gets brown on top (5)

TAN ( brown ) GA ( georgia )
5 FLYING SAUCER
Mysterious object at rest in bumpy surface (6,6)

LYING ( at rest ) in [ SURFACE ]*
6 ENDOMORPH
Grotesque doormen at entrances to public houses – no skinny type wanted! (9)

[ DOORMEN ]* PH ( starting letters of "..Public Houses.." )
7 DO OR DIE
Persist in desperate attempt to get entrance secured finally, that is (2,2,3)

charade of DOOR ( entrance ) D ( secureD, finally ) IE ( that is )
8 RUSTED
Game’s 50-style male became tarnished (6)

RU'S ( game's, Rugby Union ) TED
11 MASHED POTATO
A hotpot’s made specially – eat it for lunch? (6,6)

[ A HOTPOT'S MADE ]*
15 NOREASTER
No festival to be without minimum of rain and wind (9)

[ NO EASTER ( festival ) ] outside R ( minimum of Rain )
16 EMMENTAL
Bits of metal chaps found in that cheese (8)

MEN ( chaps ) in [ METAL ]*
18 ANTWERP
Port given new part after redevelopment (7)

[ NEW PART ]*
19 OMNIBUS
Vehicle I’m on, falling apart and almost beyond repair? (7)

[ I'M ON ]* BUSt ( beyond repair, almost )
20 TORIES
More than one politician of eminence is visible round England’s capital (6)

TOR ( eminence ) [ IS around E ( England, first letter ) ]
23 SPACE
Area in Bath, say, overlooking church (5)

SPA ( bath, say ) CE ( church )

15 comments on “Financial Times 17,117 by BRADMAN”

  2. I should, perhaps, add that I originally thought RABBIT for 25a. The surface does lead naturally to that but I felt that, cryptically, it would refer to RABBIT’S FOOT not just RABBIT. With some more thought, GAMBIT came to mind which I thought made it a clever clue.

  3. For 21A, I did know the port and solved it with OS for seaman, but I couldn’t parse the answer as I had “I” for Island and couldn’t work out where the “AT” came from as I have never heard of AIT.

    Re 17A, I worked out the mushroom part as I am familiar (in theory, not practice!) with Magic Mushrooms but have never heard of the solution before.

    3D was easy to work out but I have never heard of this and neither had my wife so I had to use the Internet to check – not a chore, I can assure you!

  5. I’m another with GAMBIT though RABBIT is interesting. We’ll see what turns up.
    A DNF for me, anyway, because I had the same difficulties with OSTIA.
    TANGA is one I remember from a long time ago but THONG was my first thought till LURING came along.
    My favourites today were DO OR DIE and OMNIBUS.
    An enjoyable solve. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs.

  6. OSTIA is quite common in Xwords, presumably because it’s a ready fit here & there. Apart from being a real place, it was the port for Ancient Rome and hence a kinda classical shorthand for ports in general. And where would crosswords be without the gamut of short words & abbreviations for sailors?
    GAMBIT is obviously right, although I would say that, wouldn’t I, because it was my first thought.
    My only quarrel was with ‘after all’ for THEN AGAIN which in my head suggests rather the opposite.
    Still, good puzzle, and usual thanks to both. It’s a great site, isn’t it, & thanks to kenmac for the continuity and to Gaufrid for, well everything, really.

  7. Thanks for the added info, Grant, re Ostia and yes, a great site. I’ll second your gratitude to Gaufrid and from here on, kenmac.
    Oh, and I know what you mean about ‘then again’.
    Compare “I’m leaving at 4pm; it’s POET’s day, after all” with “I’d like to leave at 4pm; then again, I’ve got a report to finish”.
    Prefer the first, naturally.

  8. As GAM is another term for leg GAMBIT has to be right.
    Fully share all positive views on site and heartfelt gratitude to Gaufrid and kenmac.
    Thanks to both for enjoyable puzzle and blog

  9. Agree with so many of these comments. Got “gambit”, not ”ostia” or “tories”. Otherwise excellent clues. Thanks all.

  10. Another here for GAMBIT, though clever to have thought of RABBIT and it may turn out to be right. With little confidence I took OSTIA to be a generic term for a ‘harbour’ so I was glad to see there is some support for this. No problems with OS for ‘Seaman’. No spoiler, but there’s an answer here which is almost identical to one elsewhere and which fits into the theme of that puzzle.

    Bunged in THEN AGAIN without thinking. Maybe it would have repaid a bit of thought after all.

    Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. I also echo the comments of others re kenmac and Gaufrid.

  11. Thanks Bradman. I found this on the easier end of the Bradman spectrum, maybe due to the seemingly large number of anagrams. I’m another who had GAMBIT and I never even thought of rabbit. OSTIA was no problem, maybe because I visited the port on a trip to Italy. TANGA was new but couldn’t be anything else. Favourites included OFFENDER, THEN AGAIN, FLYING SAUCER. and DO OR DIE. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  12. Thanks for the blog, GAMBIT but RABBIT is nice know I see it. FLYING SAUCER was very good out of many fine clues.
    Seaman=OS is fine of course but I think sailor or mariner would be nicer.

  13. Interesting comments on THEN AGAIN and “after all.” Maybe one can interchange them. “They argued about the match but later had a pint together; it was only a game after all, not anything to stay mad about. Contrast that to “they argued about the match but later had a pint together; then again, it was only a game and not anything to stay mad about.”
    I prefer the former but the latter always works.

  15. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
    Able to do this in quicker than normal time over coffee and scones this afternoon. Whilst it seemed at times there was a dead end to the solve, a clue would then present itself and could happily start off again. Originally wrote in MEN ON THE STREET at 14a before paying closer attention to the anagram fodder to come up with the right answer. Only ever know 17a as ‘magic mushrooms’ which were apparently easy to sample on trips to Bali – not for me though – Bali nor the mushrooms !
    Finished with OSTIA (where had no issues with the ‘ordinary seaman’), TORIES (which was one of the harder clues of the bunch, until seeing the answer and wondering why it took so long) and that GAMBIT (after discarding the unparsable RABBIT and finding that GAM was a slang word for leg).

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