Financial Times 17,207 by BRADMAN

10 comments on “Financial Times 17,207 by BRADMAN”

1. A pleasant divertissement, nothing too hard nor controversial. New to my lexicon AGHA, SPLEENWORT & ELASTOMER. I did find RM in my expanding list of British initialisms, but had to add AUT (which Google insisted was Auckland University of Technology). And I must add Fal to my list of English rivers. Why is a set a group of pupils? Couldn’t “of pupils” be omitted from the clue to 30a?

2. That is probably because the AUT ceased to exist in 2005, Geoff. The profession has since been represented by the NATFHE (National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education), a set of initials less likely to be of use to crossword setters.

3. Fal is one of those rivers that I get by putting ‘mouth’ at the end and am more familiar with the place Falmouth. I knew ELASTOMER but SPLEENWORT was new and wasn’t sure I’d seen AGA spelt as AGHA before. Held back a little by entering EPISODIC & DISTRESSES but, fortunately, SHANDY was fairly straightforward.

4. I’m not to sure that I like 22D. WELL can be a noun (a hole with water in it; a verb (to well up); an adjective (well-read, well-off); and even an interjection (well, what have here?)

   I agree with GDU about the redundant “of pupils” in 30A; and also the “H” in AGHA was new to me. I also didn’t know the Royal Marine Doctor Jolly but I respect his duty for his country.

5. Yes, a “breezy offering” today with not too many obscurities though I didn’t know AUT for ‘Group of lecturers’ at 12a and like a few others it seems, I didn’t know the AGHA spelling at 25a. The other word I hadn’t come across before, though felt that I should have, was IMMANENT. Vaguely recognised SPLEENWORT and ELASTOMER.

   Satisfying to work out the not so simple parsing of VARIED.

   Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs

6. Funny, WP, but I thought that the solution and parsing of 9D was pretty simple. Unlike 7D where I am not sure that “woman” is a definition of a female name without further clues – like “DAY”.

7. Yes Peter @6, I was thrown by the ‘very very’ and by ‘Changed’ not being an anagram indicator, but looking at it now, it wasn’t hard as I initially thought it was. I didn’t think about it too much (and what would I know anyway), but ‘Woman’ as the def for a female first name seems OK to me and I presume is acceptable to the crossword setting cognoscenti of whom Bradman is a prominent member.

8. I think for 22d, ‘one is’, means it’s an example of an adverb (well). Maybe the Don can drop in to clarify.

9. Thanks Turbolegs, I was relieved to see SPLEENWORT correct though it was the clear favourite once all crossers emerged. I wondered if there may be more to 14d but clearly not.
   I found the “of pupils” helpful as it reminded me of schooldays when our classes were grouped into “sets” by vague ability but agree that it isn’t strictly necessary.
   But am still iffy about ADVERB for which I relied on not knowing any other words ending in B to fit that pattern. Seems to me that the clue is essentially equivalent to “Well?” ie definition by example. Would we accept “Table?” or “Chair?” as a clue for NOUN? Or am i missing something? (It wouldn’t be the first time.)
   i think I have heard “DORIS” used as a faintly derogatory term for women in general but am sure this is not the sense that Bradman was using. I needed all the crossers anyway.
   9d was my favourite for the tricksiness, this hit the spot nicely overall, thanks Bradman.

10. Whenever I see ‘Doris’, it makes me think of rugby player, Jonny Wilkinson, as this what he used to call his spectacular, unerring penalty kicks.

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