Financial Times 16,950 by BOBCAT

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My first Bobcat. He certainly has teeth and claws.

Sometimes, out of devilment, faced with a bruiser like today’s, I’m tempted to say, ‘Breezed through this. Straightforward Tuesday puzzle, la, la’.

Not this morning because nobody would believe me. This was very chewy, with several sneaky reverse anagrams and head-scratching novelties.

But all fair: I lost count of the times I went, ‘Tut. Obviously. Sigh.’ which is always the test of a good ‘un. Thanks, Bobcat. More, please.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 MOHAWK
American from Missouri associated with warmonger (6)
MO (abbreviation for ‘Missouri’) + HAWK (politically, pro-war. Cf ‘dove’).
4 CHEMICAL
Ludicrous to replace gas with another substance (8)
CoMICAL (‘ludicrous’), its O[xygen] replaced with HE[lium].
9 ECZEMA
Mackenzie’s treated skin with this (6)
Kind of reverse anagram (‘treated’), i.e. MACKENZIES = a jumble of SKIN + ECZEMA. Bit of a chin-stroker, this. ‘Skin’ is doing double duty, so perhaps an extra word (‘afflicted’?) or even q-mark might have helped here?
10 AARDVARK
Animal rescue service shelter to be opened by Queen, God willing (8)
A[utomobile] A[ssociation] (‘rescue service’) + ARK (‘shelter’) contain R[egina] (queen) + D[eo] V[olente] (‘God willing’).
12 NULL
Insignificant 50s character is given prominence (4)
2xL (fifties) with NU (Greek ‘character’) in front (‘given prominence’).
13 DOTTY
Wacky Races over . . . . wheels stopping . . . . . Dastardly gutted (5)
TT (motorbike ‘races’) + O[ver], reversed (‘wheels’), fill the outside letters of ‘DastardlY.
14 MOLL
Friend of criminal philosopher receives nothing for paper (4)
John Stuart MiLL (‘philosopher’), his ‘I’ (a ‘newspaper’) replaced by ‘0’ (‘nothing’). Gangster’s moll, of course.
17 SOUTH-EASTERN
Atherton uses bats from Kent (5-7)
Anagram (‘bats’) of ATHERTON USES, for the south-easternmost county of these islands.
20 WATERING HOLE
Transport lager and wine to hotel bar (8,4)
Anagram (‘transport’) of LAGER + WINE + TO + H[otel].
23 OPAL
One’s precious, but seemingly ostracised (4)
I.e., has no friend (0 PAL).
24 GAUGE
Countered urge to introduce gold standard (5)
EGG (to encourage, to ‘urge’), reversed, contains AU (‘gold’).
25 TSAR
Turn traitor to implicate second man in command (4)
Reversal of RAT (‘traitor’) includes S[econd].
28 PONYTAIL
Put £25 on dog in Barnet (8)
PONY (slang for 25 pounds) + TAIL (to ‘dog’). ‘Barnet Fair’ is rhyming slang for ‘hair’.
29 SILENT
Old film is making a comeback fast (6)
Reversal of IS + LENT (a Christian ‘fast’ time).
30 SAND DUNE
Sierra with greyish brown silicate at far end is feature of landscape (4,4)
S[ierra] (in radio code) + AND (‘with’) + DUN (‘greyish brown’) + last of ‘silicatE’.
31 GOODLY
Fine line crossed by hero (6)
L[ine] surrounded by GOOD.Y (‘hero’, as opposed to ‘baddy’, natch.).
DOWN
1 MEEKNESS
I’m afraid Newton’s in trouble for submission (8)
EEK! (‘I’m afraid’) + N[ewton], both in M.ESS (‘trouble’).
2 HAZELNUT
Something obscuring vision given to student teachers? It’s fruit! (8)
HAZE (‘something obscuring vision’) + L[earner], ‘student’, + N[ational] U[nion] of T[eachers].
3 WIMP
Coward wrote incisively mordant plays at first (4)
1st letters of words 2-5 of clue.
5 HEARTSTRINGS
Affections misdirected could lead to night arrests (12)
Reverse anagram again: HEARTSTRINGS ‘misdirected’ gives ‘NIGHT ARRESTS’.
6 MODE
Fashion’s sort of average (4)
Double definition, 2nd = ‘the value of greatest frequency’. No mathematician, I always have to look up the differences between ‘mean’, ‘mode’ and ‘median’.
7 CRAYON
Pencil in third of craftsmen over there (6)
3/9 letters of CRAftsmen + YON.
8 LIKELY
Royal portraitist to capture current king? Probably (6)
Artist [Sir Peter] L.ELY (1618-80) contains I (electrical ‘current’) + K[ing].
11 NONAGENARIAN
Oldie confused Noriega with Annan (12)
Anagram (‘confused’) of NORIEGA + ANNAN. My CoD.
15 SHEAF
Bundle of papers originally assembled inside novel folio (5)
1st of A{ssembled} in SHE (the H. Rider Haggard ‘novel’) + F[olio].
16 DREGS
Trash Democrat orders (5)
D[emocrat] + REG[ulation]S.
18 LOOSE END
Unexplained element of wordplay for “den”? (5,3)
Another reverse anagram: END = ‘loose’ DEN.
19 SECRETLY
Spies eventually see round most of island incognito (8)
Last (‘eventually’) of ‘spieS’ + ELY (the bishopric, ‘see’) surround most of ‘CRETe’.
21 CORPUS
Add Manx cat to my collection (6)
COR (‘my!’) + PUSs (tail-less, as Manx cats are).
22 CANNON
Excessively hearty clergyman’s playful stroke? (6)
Rather topical. Playfully, CAN.ON (‘clergyman’) has one central (‘hearty’) ‘N’ too many, to give a kind of billiards or snooker ‘stroke’. Or else the cannon is a stroke made within play, ‘playful’ thus becoming part of the definition. Take your choice.
26 STUD
One from stable environment’s finishing in South of France (4)
Last of ‘environmenT’ in S.UD (Fr. ‘south’). An ‘orse. Of course.
27 FINO
Alcohol distilled from paraffin oil (4)
Type of sherry hidden in ‘parafFIN Oil’. One to avoid..

18 comments on “Financial Times 16,950 by BOBCAT”

  1. I had half an hour before lunch and opted for this rather than today’s Brummie in the G as I thought this would be easier. How wrong I was. There were some tough ones here and I failed on the tricky ECZEMA, for which I put in an unparsed “enzyme”. I didn’t know what DV stood for in AARDVARK and don’t remember seeing ‘eventually’ as a last letter indicator before. MEEKNESS and WIMP were my favourites – probably a bit close to the bone.

    Not a straightforward puzzle but a very satisfying one and to make up for the late lunch, a little present from Bobcat reminding us of the superiority of feline creatures.

    Thanks to Bobcat and Grant

  2. I really enjoyed this puzzle which I would place near the top of the degree of difficulty measure for the FT, somewhere around the Monk level roughly. I look forward to a bit more Bobcat. Thanks both.

  3. This was a real challenge from Bobcat which I dnf. There were some great clues and the blogger was most impressive .
    I could not follow in 13a how over .. wheels stopping gave O? Although a drink from paraffin oil (27d) is definitely to be avoided a fino is another matter .

  4. I agree with baerchen. I think the standard of FT setters, at least from my perspective, has risen substantially of late and Bobcat is a fantastic addition based on this outing. I did have to resort to word fits for AARDVARK & GOODLY. Not sure I would ever have thought of the latter and had forgotten DV for God willing making the former harder than it should have been.

  5. A proper challenge and a very welcome one – thanks to Bobcat and to Grant for the admirable blog. As it happens I didn’t need help with parsing anything, for once, since the parsing was really essential to getting the answers in most cases – a sign of a good setter, in my view, since there was little scope for my frequently used technique of bunging in something which fits the definition and sorting out the wordplay later.

  6. Even the fair clues (and 15 of the 32 are not IMO) are pretty tough, and with the grid being something of an unch-fest I’m not surprised folks are seeing this as on the chewy side.

    But I did like 21d. Just like Emily loved Bagpuss.

  7. Gee whiz, how testing this was! I spent ages on it determined to finish and when I saw the comments and blog, I feel pleased to have got as far as I did: 3 failing me ultimately in the SE corner.
    Despite – or maybe because of – the degree of difficulty, I certainly enjoyed this challenge from Bobcat and as others have said, I eagerly anticipate that day.
    I particularly liked ECZEMA, CRAYON, PONYTAIL and HAZELNUT.
    Really liked the innovative wordplay overall and was happy to learn new things such as deo volente.
    Thanks Bobcat – I’ll know what to expect next time. And felicitations to Grant on a valiant showing.

  9. Thanks for the blog, really enjoyed this.
    Minor quibble first, 9Ac is a compound anagram , often used by Azed , and the anagram works perfectly but I am struggling to see any sort of definition for ECZEMA. Unless someone called McKenzie developed a treatment.
    Loved the reference to Wacky Races for DOTTY and the hearty clergyman for CANNON.

  11. Failed to parse NULL. Should have taken a little more time on it.
    Must confess to using a word wizard to keep me plodding on, otherwise I may have given up.
    Super puzzle, pretty tough, and I’ll make a point of looking out for Bobcat in the future.

    PS. Failed as usual to spot the nina.

  12. Well, this wasn’t a walkover but we completed it all without much difficulty. A bit of headscratching, maybe, but everything made sense and we found it an enjolyable solve. Our only (minor) quibble is with 2dn – the NUT is now the NEU (National Education Union).
    Plenty to like, including ECZEMA, AARDVARK (a write-in from crossing letters), SECRETLY and CORPUS.
    Thanks, Bobcat and Grant

  13. Thanks Bobcat. Finished with breakfast coffee this morning so I needed the overnight brain reset to get there.
    Thanks Grant – I had all the right letters in the right place but I needed your explanations to understand why. Best description of this for me – whew.

  14. Thanks (I think) Bobcat and Grant
    After using the easier Slormgorm yesterday to play some catchup, this puzzle has set me back a day again for this week. Well worth that though, this was a ripper crossword that made one wheedle out every last clue. A wide range of clue devices, plus some new terms (CORPUS, FINO, Deo volente) to keep one on one’s wits.
    Think CHEMICAL was the clue that tickled my fancy the most- very clever. Took the last run through parsing and word-finder check to change the erroneous ENZYME to ECZEMA and unravel one of my favourite clue types.
    Eventually finished in the SE corner with GOODLY, GAUGE (after fixing up the spelling error with NONAGENARIAN (hello mum!)) and SILENT the last few in.

  15. I came to this very late because of several weeks without access to a printer.

    A splendid puzzle from a setter I haven’t come across before. The FT stable is full of pedigree setters and getting better all the time. Congratulations whoever is responsible.

    It might be a coincidence but the middle column, reading down from square 4, says ‘CATS RULE’.

    This late post may be like Schrödinger’s cat. Or the tree that falls in the forest when no one is within earshot.

  16. I should have added my thanks to Bobcat for the ingenious puzzle and to Grant Baynham for the illuminating blog. I entered the solution to 8 down, wondering why I’d never come across a royal portraitist called Lely … such an unusual name, too. And, despite knowing the phrase for God willing, I didn’t connect it with the abbreviation. Another one I filled in without knowing why it had to be right.

    Another tree falls in the silent forest of FTs past.

  17. To pthill:
    Never quite.
    And WordPlodder@1 & RichardCV22@8 were a little way ahead of you in spotting Bobcat’s message.
    Join as late as you like – I’ll always pick up – but do have a trawl through the posts as well!
    G.

  18. Thank you, Grant, for not losing the thread after all this time. And thanks for putting me right. No good ever comes of trying to swank. I did glance through the comments, but missed the most obvious reference by RichardCV22@8. I really must learn to rush more slowly.

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