Bobcat is today’s setter.
After my guest blog of Monk’s FT puzzle yesterday, I was hoping for something a bit quicker to solve and parse this morning, but I got this Bobcat puzzle instead. My first pass yielded only two across answers and a handful of down ones, all on the right side of the grid. After 20 minutes, the left half was complete, and I tackled the south west corner next, helped by crossers from the longer solutions. The north west corner held out resolutely for a while until I saw REBORN, which was a kickself solution, and the rest fell into place.
Thanks, Bobcat
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | REBORN |
York once taken by force and transformed (6)
|
| EBOR(acum) (Roman name for York, so “York once”) taken by RN (Royal Navy, or “force”) | ||
| 4 | ACOUSTIC |
Revolutionary agents throttling scout out of hearing (8)
|
| [revolutionary] <=CIA (Central intelligence Agency, so “agents”) throttling *(scout) [anag:out] | ||
| 9 | GARISH |
Flashy swimmer’s heading off after another (6)
|
| (f)ISH (“swimmer” with its heading off) after GAR (“another” swimmer) | ||
| 10 | LIMA BEAN |
Article on salt contained in citrus seed (4,4)
|
| AN (“article”) on (AB (able-bodied seaman, so “salt”) contained in LIME (“citrus”)) | ||
| 11 | TREADMILL |
A bit bored by focus of Korean philosopher’s monotonous routine (9)
|
| TAD (“a bit”) bored by [focus of] (ko)RE(an) + (John Stuart) MILL (q9th century utilitarian “philosopher”) | ||
| 13 | APART |
What Garbo sought — to be left alone? (5)
|
| As (Greta) Garbo was an actress, she would have “sought” an acting role (A PART), and the clue also refers to her most famous line, “I want to be alone” in 1932’s Grand Hotel. | ||
| 14 | ELDER STATESMAN |
Marlene detests corrupt old ministers (5,9)
|
| *(marlene detests) [anag:corrupt] | ||
| 17 | VESTED INTEREST |
Cryptic setter’s evident personal concern (6,8)
|
| *(setters evident) [anag:cryptic] | ||
| 21 | INTRO |
Romeo breaks into passage (5)
|
| R (Romeo, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) breaks INTO | ||
| 23 | AGREEMENT |
Treaty or pact every so often involving diminutive green men (9)
|
| (p)A(c)T [every so often] involving [diminutive] GREE(n) ME(n) | ||
| 24 | NECROSIS |
Condition one to enter 1ac in full, disregarding leads (8)
|
| I (one) to enter (o)NE (a)CROSS [disregarding leads] | ||
| 25 | SELFIE |
Hit-and-miss Sheila — failed shot (6)
|
| [hit-and miss] S(h)E(i)L(a) F(a)I(l)E(d) | ||
| 26 | RETRYING |
Electronic score introduced by band gets hearing again (8)
|
| E– (electronic, as in e-mail) + TRY (“score”, in rugby) introduced by RING (“band”) | ||
| 27 | GRILLE |
Lattice used in cooking rillettes (6)
|
| Hidden in [used in] “cookinG RILLEttes” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RIGHTO |
Ban outsiders from southern resort? OK (6)
|
| [ban outsiders from] (b)RIGHTO(n) (“southern resort”) | ||
| 2 | BORDELLOS |
Doorbells activated facilities for Congress (9)
|
| *(doorbells) [anag:activated]
The congress in question is sexual congress. |
||
| 3 | RESIDUE |
University lodge stashes coke? (7)
|
| RESIDE (“lodge”) stashes U (university) | ||
| 5 | CHILL FACTOR |
No points for electronic flash spoiling atmospheric effect (5,6)
|
| *(lctroic flah) [anag:spoiling] where LCTROIC FLAH is (e)L(e)CTRO(n)I(c) FLA(s)H with no points (of the compass) | ||
| 6 | UNAWARE |
An Italian campaign primarily executed in the dark (7)
|
| UNA (“an” in “Italian”) + WAR (“campaign”) + [primarily] E(xecuted) | ||
| 7 | THETA |
About to leave theatre, having floored a character (5)
|
| *(theat) [anag:having floored] where THEAT is THEAT(re) with RE (“on”) leaving | ||
| 8 | CONSTANT |
Faithful Poles function in bed (8)
|
| N + S (North & South, hence “poles”) + TAN (tangent, so “function” in mathematics) in COT (“bed”) | ||
| 12 | INSPIRATION |
Muse helping to support popular turn before its conclusion (11)
|
| RATION (“helping”) to support IN (“poupular”) + SPI(n) (“turn”, before its conclusion) | ||
| 15 | MASTERFUL |
High-handed graduates switched components of full term endlessly (9)
|
| MAs (Masters of Arts, so “graduates”) + FUL(l) TER(m) [endlessly] switched becomes MAS-TER-FUL | ||
| 16 | TV DINNER |
Set fare? (2,6)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 18 | ECOCOMY |
Prudence is against decoration for interior of embassy (7)
|
| Replace the [interior of] E(mbass)Y with CON (“against”) + OM (Order of Merit, so “decoration”) | ||
| 19 | ROE DEER |
Spooner gets money back from shy browser (3,4)
|
| Spooner’s version of ROE DEER would be DOUGH REAR (“money back”)
Roe deer are nervous animals who browse (feed on rough shoots), so “shy browsers” |
||
| 20 | ATHENE |
Olympian worried about source of eggs (6)
|
| ATE (“worried”) about HEN (“source of eggs”) | ||
| 22 | TACIT |
Silent guy’s given up on sex (5)
|
| <=CAT (“guy”, given up) on IT (“sex”) |
A dnf, as I looked up ‘Roman York’ to help finish the NW, and yes the Ebor bit of Eboracum went with the b of bordellos. Elsewhere, at 11ac, couldn’t think of Mill [whom I like because his work on inference led to Direct Learning, a teaching method great for disadvantaged kids]. And at 15d, high-handed, to me, is more like arrogant while masterful is about mastery, ie skill. Plenty to think about and enjoy, thanks Bobcat and loonapick.
Like loonapick, I didn’t find this easy. There was some tough parsing in CHILL FACTOR and TREADMILL in particular and some of the anagrams didn’t come easily. I thought NECROSIS for ‘Condition’ wasn’t great. I suppose death of tissue is a ‘condition’ of sorts but I’m not convinced. I couldn’t make the clue work as a cryptic def either, using REBORN for ‘1ac in full’ but maybe I’m missing something.
I liked the TV DINNER cryptic def for being both brief and misleading and the surface for BORDELLOS. Good to have our usual feline Nina materialise at the end.
Thanks to Bobcat and loonapick – maybe Io lies in wait for you next week
A few clues were difficult for me but it all worked out in the end. I loved the TOP CAT nina. Besides being feline related it is so the band that Roger Daltry’s music director, Frank Simms, is the lead singer for. Thanks Bobcat and thanks to Loonapick for another great blog.
Fortunately, REBORN was my foi. CHILL FACTOR was original and took some thinking. For THETA, no anagram is required. It is THEAT(re) with the A floored (taken to the bottom). Loonapick, you have mistakenly put one of the C’s in parentheses in 5d.
I found this a bit tougher than usual for a Bobcat puzzle, but other than a little GK (which I happened to know this time), I had no quibbles. Good blog, as always (minor typo on ECONOMY).
Thanks to Hovis for clarification on THETA and to both Hovis and Cineraria for pointing out the typos – maybe I should change my morning routine and do the blog AFTER my shower – maybe I’ll be more awake!!
I too found this tough and needed help to parse a couple.
However I did enjoy it.
Thanks Bobcat and Loonapick
Similar experience to loonapick except that I had no hope of solving REBORN without internet research
Thanks Bobcat and loonapick
Thanks Bobcat for a super crossword with TOP CAT as a bonus. My top picks were TREADMILL, APART, BORDELLOS, TV DINNER, and ATHENE. I couldn’t parse REBORN & didn’t care much for ROE DEER but there are few Spoonerisms I do like. Thanks loonapick once again.
REBORN was no problem as we knew the roman name for York. We needed help, though, for NECROSIS as we couldn’t get away from thinking it referred back to 1 across – we should have remembered that if that was the case it would have been referred to as 1A. Elsewhere it was tough but gettable; favourites were LIMA BEAN and SELFIE.
Thanks, Bobcat and loonapick.
Thanks for the blog , like Allan@10 found it tough but gettable with many clever clues .
York racecourse has the Ebor Festival with the main race being The Ebor .
Like WordPlodder, I thought that “condition” was a poor definition for NECROSIS.
A bit like clueing MOZART as “person”.