Financial Times 14,824 by BRADMAN

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This serving from the Don can be aptly likened to being a Jekyll-and-Hyde type of grid – polarized between some very easy clues and some true brain-busters.

What looked like a promising start steadily dissolved into an arduous challenge that culminated in an attempt to run a marathon in quicksand, especially when it came to the last 3 clues of my solve (5d, 28a, 18a, the last of which remains an unsuccessful attempt at parsing). I had to reverse-engineer 5d and I was unaware of 28a.

On the whole, I am inclined to believe that unlike my experience,  most of the regular solvers here would have found this only moderately difficult. Having been battered by Monk and Gozo earlier , Bradman rounds up a week that I would like to soon forget. 🙂

FF:7 DD: 8

Across
1 DILIGENT
Little woman left with one man should be careful (8)
Charade of DI (Little woman, DIana) L (left) I (one) GENT (man)
6 INFLOW
Maybe immigrants demolish province when coming from east (6)
WOLF (demolish, in the context of eating) NI (Northern Ireland, province) , all reversed (coming from east).
9 MATTED
Like some wickets made somehow to keep dry (6)
Anagram of MADE containing TT (dry, TeeTotal)
10 EULOGIES
Our community record that is sure initially to get plaudits (8)
Charade of EU (our community) LOG (record) IE (that is, i.e.) S (Sure initially)
11 JEER
No street for joker – bad reception (4)
JEstER (joker, without ‘st’ – street)
12 ROADWORTHY
Hot rod awry – needing repair to make it this? (10)
Anagram of HOT ROD AWRY – Likable clue!
14 POLITELY
I phone inside old college, speaking respectfully? (8)
I TEL (phone) inside POLY (old word for college – polytechnic). Should ‘speaking’ be part of the definition?
16 GRUB
Barbecue bun without hesitation rejected as food (4)
Reversal (rejected) of BURGer (Barbecue bun, without ‘er’ – hesitation)
18 SNOW
Writer about two cultures – the stuff of a cold man (4)
Need help parsing this – I was thinking along the lines of reversal of WO (??) N-S (North-South, two cultures) but couldnt come up with anything clever. [Edit: See Bradman@1 below].
19 ATTENDER
A time with careful listener (8)
A T (time) TENDER (careful; had some uncomfortable thoughts here about the correct grammatical usage but cant put my finger on it).
21 FREE LIVING
Not parasitic like the hippies? (4- 6)
Cryptic def. (I originally parsed this as a double definition, but felt that this understanding was relatively ‘stronger’.)
22 RICE
What’s charged when there’s penny off grocery item (4)
pRICE (What’s charged, less ‘p’ – penny)
24 SHARPISH
Soon quiet instrument is to be introduced (8)
[HARP (instrument) IS] in SH (quiet)
26 ACTING
The stage is temporary (6)
Cryptic def, in the context of people/positions.
27 OPPOSE
Resist work when facing endless problem (6)
OP (work) POSEr (endless problem)
28 SPEEDWAY
Process to pursue drug in sport (8)
WAY (process) after (pursue) SPEED (drug)
Down
2 IRATE
It’s mad, having one fixed price (5)
I (one) RATE (price)
3 INTERVIEWEE
Bury jockey, little fellow after a job? (11)
Charade of INTER (bury) VIE (jockey) WEE (little)
4 ENDORSES
Backs last runners in race, not the first (8)
Charade of END (last) hORSES (runners in race, without the first letter)
5 THE LADY VANISHES
Film evidently has repeated twists and turns (3,4,8)
Anagram of EVIDENTLY HAS HAS (i.e. has repeated; twists and turns functioning as an unusual anagram indicator phrase). A 1938 Alfred Hitchcock movie.
6 IN-LAWS
Relations coming from a match (2-4)
Cryptic def
7 FOG
Suspension of game, held up – fifty will leave (3)
Reverse of GOlF (game, held up) less ‘L’ (Fifty, roman numeral)
8 OPEN HOUSE
Place of hospitality and love – use phone freely (4,5)
Anagram of O (love) USE PHONE
13 REGENERATED
Looking embarrassed about wayward teenager – must be radically changed (11)
RED (looking embarassed) around anagram of TEENAGER
15 OWNERSHIP
After struggle, hoper wins possession (9)
Anagram of HOPER WINS
17 STAGNATE
Stand still as guy at party has fallen finally at end of dance (8)
Charade of STAG (guy at party) N (falleN finally) AT E (end of dancE)
20 DIVINE
Cleric gets to eat around six (6)
DINE (eat) around VI (six)
23 CANNA
Plant that might be revealed by American naturalist (5)
Hidden in “..AmeriCAN NAturalist.’
25 RIO
After conclusion of dinner I love port (3)
R (conclusion of dinneR) I O (love)
*anagram

12 comments on “Financial Times 14,824 by BRADMAN”

  1. Thanks for struggling on. The scientist and novelist C.P.(later Lord)Snow in 1959 famously expressed a wish for the two cultures (of art and science) to be more closely linked — and that would be a laudable aim for crossword setters seeking to make their vocabulary interesting of course!

  2. Thanks Bradman for 3 things – The crossword itself, for stopping by and for the elucidation on 18a. I would have liked to have had a better run solving it.

    Regards,
    TL

  5. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs

    26ac: I took this as a double definition: an actor might say either “my profession is the stage” or “my profession is acting”.

    8dn: I took this as O + anagram of “use phone”, but it works either way.

  8. Many thanks for these links, Eileen. Having loved Arachne’s New Year’s Day puzzle in the Guardian (the first of hers I’ve attempted) I am now going to have a look at this one – it looks great!

  9. Thanks again, Eileen – I’ve just completed the Arachne puzzle to which you have referred, and thought it was fantastic. Thank you also for your blog on that puzzle – although I see I am over 3 years out of date in expressing that sentiment! I’ve only been doing cryptic crosswords for the past year, and wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere without the daily support that this wonderful website provides. I feel I have been steadily improving over the past year and am now starting to venture into the Genius / Listener territory, but that is proving to be slow progress so far…!

  10. del Giudice @8 and 9

    It doesn’t seem fair to hijack Turbolegs’ blog any further, when I didn’t even do this puzzle, so I’ll leave you a response later on the General Discussion thread.

  11. Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs

    Did this in the early hours of the morning when the lateral powers seem at their strongest for some reason – so didn’t have the same trouble as TL here.

    Typically entertaining and well-clued offering with some additional new learnings. Didn’t know of the chemical term ‘suspension’ for FOG, the DIVINE synonym of a ‘cleric’ and ‘The Two Cultures’ lecture by C P Snow.

    Was pleased to remember the Hitchcock movie at 5 without aids.

    Thought that the clues for INTERVIEWEE, FREE-LIVING (which I did parse as a double definition – with the interesting definition for ‘not parasitic’) and SNOW (although a little obscure) were quite brilliant.

  12. Thanks all for the comments.

    PG@5 – Agree with your interpretation for 26ac.

    Eileen@10 – No question of hijacking a thread, Your comments are always welcome whether on my blog or otherwise!! And thanks for the link to the science-heavy grid, which I intend to try later today.

    Like I tried to summarize in the preamble, this grid for me followed the pareto principle in the sense that I spent more time on the last 4 clues than I did on the rest of the crossword. Slightly different wavelength from the Don this time.

    Cheers
    TL

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