A gentle puzzle from Bradman, much like others from him in the past. I felt the clues were mostly straightforward except a couple that seemed to be slightly out of sync with the rest of the puzzle. Thanks Bradman for a genial workout.
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | CABALIST | Jewish student in taxi in front of the top people (8) |
| CAB (taxi) A-LIST (top people) | ||
| 5 | CASTRO | Country’s leader discarded by revolutionary soldiers (6) |
| CAST (discarded) RO (soldiers = OR, reversed) | ||
| 8 | BOO | Short work of literature? I don’t like it! (3) |
| BOOk (work of literature, short) | ||
| 9 | SENATORIAL | Member of governing body’s spurious rationales (10) |
| Anagram of RATIONALES | ||
| 10 | NATTERED | Attender unfortunately rattled on in talk (8) |
| Anagram of ATTENDER | ||
| 11 | ASHRAM | A quiet sheep in retreat (6) |
| A SH (quiet) RAM (sheep) | ||
| 12 | HERR | Sin by husband, a German mister (4) |
| H (husband) ERR (sin) | ||
| 14 | DISSEVERED | Daughter is stern, daughter torn apart? (10) |
| D (daughter) IS SEVERE (stern) D (daughter) – not a big fan of this clue | ||
| 17 | PROFLIGATE | Debauched academic to get tied up (10) |
| PROF (academic) LIGATE (tied up) – Is “tied up” in the right tense or have I got it wrong? | ||
| 20 | TARN | Lake given name by sailor (4) |
| TAR (sailor) N (name) | ||
| 23 | SMYRNA | Rampaging army’s capturing any number in ancient city (6) |
| Anagram of ARMY’S containing N (any number) | ||
| 24 | FAIR ISLE | A girl ensnared by backward little devil in Scottish location (4,4) |
| [A IRIS (girl) ] in FLE (little devil = ELF, reversed) | ||
| 25 | LANCASHIRE | County road in which money is hidden by Irish (10) |
| LANE (road) containing [ CASH (money) IR (irish) ] | ||
| 26 | RIO | Disturbance curtailed in foreign port (3) |
| RIOt (disturbance, curtailed) | ||
| 27 | BREEZE | Cheeses said to give wind (6) |
| Sounds like BRIES (cheeses) | ||
| 28 | ANALECTS | Crook can steal literary work (8) |
| Anagram of CAN STEAL | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CABIN SHIP | Vessel has sign of damage – a different receptacle’s to be brought in (5,4) |
| CHIP (sign of damage) containing [ A BIN’S – receptacle’s ] | ||
| 2 | BLOTTER | Something absorbing for a man of letters? (7) |
| cryptic clue | ||
| 3 | LASHED | It’s bound to get left on roof of a hut (6) |
| L (left) A SHED (hut) – roof is just a positonal indicator in the clue (wouldn’t ‘on’ suffice?) | ||
| 4 | SUNDERING | Carol’s hiding below, breaking up (9) |
| SING (carol) containing UNDER (below) | ||
| 5 | CHORALE | Hymn tune hourly in church (7) |
| HORAL (hourly) in CE (church) | ||
| 6 | SLIGHTEST | Most insignificant group sent up in insult (9) |
| TES (group = SET, reversed) in SLIGHT (insult) | ||
| 7 | RELEASE | Let out and let out again? (7) |
| Cryptic clue; let out again is RE-LEASE | ||
| 13 | REFERENCE | Testimonial provided as priority, but first page is lost (9) |
| pREFERENCE (priority, not containing ‘P’ – first letter of Page) | ||
| 15 | SITUATION | Spot affairs in job (9) |
| Triple def | ||
| 16 | DANGEROUS | Fury in party with American threatening (9) |
| [ANGER (fury) in DO (party)] US (american) | ||
| 18 | RAMBLER | One may take river walk, right? (7) |
| &lit; R (river) AMBLE (walk) R (right) | ||
| 19 | IMAMATE | This person’s a chum in Muslim territory (7) |
| I’M (~ this person’s) A MATE (chum) | ||
| 21 | AUSTRIC | Like some languages that would be tricky for a rustic (7) |
| Anagram of A RUSTIC – large hypothetical grouping of languages primarily spoken in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and the eastern Indian subcontinent (from wiki) | ||
| 22 | ORDEAL | Test gold before transaction (6) |
| OR (gold) DEAL (transaction) | ||
*anagram
Yes, even gentler than usual, I thought. But a great start to a Friday. Thanks, Bradman and TL.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Boo: I do like it! (and lots of the other clues as well).
I think the definition for SENATORIAL (adjectival) requires all of
“Member of governing body’s”. Perhaps you meant this in the blog?
In PROFLIGATE I read ‘ligate’ to mean ‘to get tied up’:
to tie up an artery/to get an artery tied up?
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
It WAS a gentle puzzle from the Don, wasn’t it ? Fitting in quite easily to the lunch hour …
There were only a couple of unknown words to me – AUSTRIC and ANALECTS (my last one in). There were a couple where I needed help – the parsing with of CABIN SHIP (even after knowing that BIN’S formed the majority of the answer !) and as it turns out the triple definitions at 15d.
The little evil man of wrong answers was pushing me to go with CHALET at 3d for a long time, but we put him to the sword with SENATORIAL,
I thought that 2d was an &lit with the definition of BLOTTER being ‘something that a man of letters would absorb his wet ink’, in days of yore !!
I agree that this was a gentle puzzle, but it was very well crafted. There were a few words which were new to me, but they were easily gettable from the wordplay.
Thank you Bradman & Turbolegs.
Thanks Turbolegs and Bradman!
Pretty smooth. Analects and Austric are new words for me.
I went to the trouble of buying a copy of the FT at the railway station an hour ago just so that I could do the crossword on my long journey home.
My heart sank when I saw it was BRADMAN. I’ve given it a go, but it’s just annoyed me as Bradman usually does.
Thanks Turbolegs and Bradman.
Not too tricky by this setter’s standards. AUSTRIC and ANALECTS were new words to me too and it took an age for me to spot CASTRO – he must have been wearing camouflage!
I’m familiar with CABIN CRUISER but not SHIP – but once I worked out the parsing it had to be.
BLOTTER felt a bit Danteish.