Financial Times 14,946 by BRADMAN

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[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

Happy birthday, Bradman

A challenging puzzle from one of cruciverbalism’s Grand Masters.

I struggled with the parsing of three of the down clues (2, 5 and 14), and I think there was the occasional superfluous word or phrase in some of the clues, but overall, an enjoyable diversion from a boring videoconference at work!

Across
1 TESTAMENT
Will and son taking flat, occupying temporary accommodation (9)

TE(S-TAME)NT
6 AESOP
French art in a work from storyteller (5)

A(ES)OP

“es” as in French “tu es” = “thou art”
9 PIECE
A bit holy? Last thing with the Established Church! (5)

PI-(th)E-CE

E = “last thing with the” (ie last letter of “the”) and CE = Church of England
10 POMPADOUR
Extravagant display by a grim

POMP-A-DOUR

In the fashion of Madame de Pompadour, so just about allowable as “extravagant”
18  
th-century madame (9)
11 DELECTABLE
Charming belle acted naughtily (10)

*(belle acted)
12 IMPS
Pusillanimous folk – not initially troublemakers (4)

(w)IMPS
14 BRADMAN
Great sportsman in Brazil, promoter of products (7)

BR-ADMAN

Don Bradman, the legendary Australian cricketer, who provided Mr Manley with one of is alter egos.
15 SEVENTY
Number in uniform in place of debauchery (7)

S(EVEN)TY
17 RODENTS
More than one creature becomes weak outside beastly home (7)

RO(DEN)TS
19 FINESSE
Oaf, in essence, somewhat lacking in tact (7)

Hidden in “oaF IN ESSEnce”, indicated by “somewhat lacking”.

 
20 MOCK
Guy in loose dress Society turned away (4)

(s)MOCK

An uncommon meaning og “to guy” is to “to make fun of”
22 TORRENTIAL
Such as could be turning “terra” into lake? (10)

*(terra into L)

An &lit
25 TREMATODE
Red meat to go off on account of worm (9)

*(red meat to)

Personally, I think the “on account of” is superfluous.
26 OREAD
Nymph offering love divine? (5)

O-READ

O = nothing = “love” and READ =”divine” as “to read omens”
27 RIPON
City’s final wish being broadcast (5)

R.I.P.-ON
28 FORETASTE
Army in break penetrating enemy – sign of things to come (9)

FO(RE(TA)ST)E
Down
1 TAPED
Bound to record illegally, journalist? (5)

TAP-ED
2 STEELYARD
Weighing-machine registering stones and pounds kept by special dealer (9)

ST – *(dealer) keeping Y

Why does Y equal “POUNDS”?
3 AMERCEMENT
A male ruler to fix fine historically (10)

A-M-ER-CEMENT

An old word for a monetary penalty (“FINE”)
4 EXPLAIN
Account for level land once being higher (7)

EX-PLAIN

The setter appears to be proposing that land which was once high would have been a plain (I don’t agree with that assumption, though)
5 TEMPLES
Places of worship established by two occupants of Lambeth Palace (7)

Don’t know why, though?

 
6 AWAY
Not here always, a couple of characters out of sight (4)

A(L)WAY(S)

The couple of characters out of sight are ther L and the S – lazy cluing, in my opinion.
7 STORM
Outburst from Sergeant Major full of upsetting rubbish (5)

S(<=ROT)M
8 PERISTYLE
Fairy with elegance in architectural feature (9)

PERI-STYLE

A Peri is a fairy in Persian mythology, and a persityle is a rank of columns surrounding a building
13 EVENING OUT
Maybe a night on the tiles is becoming normal (7,3)

Double definition
14 BAROMETER
In pub see the (not hard to spot) weather guide (9)

Help – I can’t parse this one!
16 NASTINESS
Name wine that goes to the head – not a pleasant quality (9)

N-ASTI-NESS
18 SHOW OFF
Reason why theatregoers can’t go and swank (4-3)

Double definition
19 FORBEAR
Desist from supporting one type of share-seller (7)

FOR-BEAR

A bear is a pessimistic shares dealer, as opposed to the optimistic bull
21 CHEEP
Cry comes from cold Dickensian character (5)

C-HEEP

Uriah Heep, the ever so ‘umble character from “David Copperfield”
23 LEDGE
Projection given by account book not right (5)

LEDGE(r)

A ledge projects, so is a “PROJECTION”
24 FAWN
Be gushy, as one with enthusiasm hugging wife (4)

FA(W)N
*anagram

13 comments on “Financial Times 14,946 by BRADMAN”

  2. Temples – two Archbishops of that surname – who lived in Lambeth Palace.

    Barometer – ROME (Holy See) and TH (the without H for Hard) inserted into BAR (pub)

    I’ll let some other person explain the Y in STEELYARD

  3. Tough! I am unclear on 2 and 5.

    14 Put ROME (“see”) T(H)E (“the not hard”) in BAR”pub” “to spot” i.e. to get, weather device

    Thanks to Bradman and loonapick

  4. Thanks, crypticsue

    One of the beauties of crossword-solving (and setting, for that matter) is that you learn new stuff.

    I probably would have got to the 14dn parsing eventually, but I’d never have got 5.

  7. Again, Happy 70th Birthday Don Manley, and thanks for another super puzzle. Also thanks to loonapick for the blog.

    OREAD and AMERCEMENT were new words, and I could not parse TEMPLES or BAROMETER and am not sure about STEELYARD.
    6d, could the couple of characters L and S refer to long and short sight?

    I did like EVENING OUT and SHOW OFF!

  9. 4d I took ‘ex’ as coming from ‘once’ and as it is a down clue it is placed above (being higher)the plain (level land).

    Loonapick, for 10a I think that you have made things difficult for yourself by leaving out the definition part of the clue ie 18th century madame.

    Thanks to Loonapick and happy birthday to Bradman.

  10. Ernie, that makes sense. In my defence, I was solving and writing the blog when I was in a videoconference at work, so was a little distracted.

    On 10ac, it’s a formatting issue with the blog (the software thinks the 18 of 18th century is a clue number.

  11. Thanks Bradman and Loonapick

    I think the Don had puzzles in all three of the papers covered by 15 squared on the day – this is the only one that I’ve done to date. Quite tough for his Bradman alias as well as a fairly liberated style with a number of clues – AWAY and STEELYARD the most prominent examples. My take on the latter is that Y is the economic symbol for ‘income’ and in the UK that would be measured in pounds – a bridge too far for me though.

    Thought that the misdirection in the clue for BAROMETER was excellent when the penny dropped. Had no idea about TEMPLES, but the idea is clever.

    RIPON, CHEEP and MOCK were the last few in.

    Many happy returns for yesterday, Mr Manley – love your work !!!

  12. Thanks for the blog loonapick and belated happy birthday to the Don.

    I worked out Barometer straight off but needed your help for Temples.

    As for the ‘Y’ in 2, I’m equally stumped. It surely can’t be ‘y’ for yard since it is ‘pounds’ (plural).

    I’ll ponder during my walk up to Holborn and get back to you if I figure it out.

  13. I’ve discounted anything to do with yttrium or the ‘thorn’ in old English (the now defunct letter sounding ‘th’ which looked like a superimposed lower case b on a p – which was later changed to ‘y – as in “Ye”).

    Then realised that it’s simply that a Steelyard measures in stones and pounds and a steel yard is a specialist dealer (in steel).

    Nothing to do with an anagram of dealer!

    We were all looking for something a little less straightforward.

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