Financial Times 18,155 by BOBCAT

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BOBCAT kicks off the week…

A good fun puzzle with a suitable Nina. This was all going swimmingly until 25a, which I can't parse. I know very little of G&S, though perhaps that is irrelevant.

Thanks BOBCAT!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Ex-con bedding bird in hay wagon’s no Romeo. He wasn’t always like this (3-7)
LAW-ABIDING

LAG (ex-con) bedding (BI[r]D (no R (Romeo)) in WAIN (hay wagon)

7. Foundation graduates given low grade (4)
BASE

BAS (graduates) given E (low grade)

9. So very dismissive of outsiders being given work (4)
ERGO

[v]ER[y] (dismissive of outsiders) being given GO (work)

10. Ad agency employee’s instruction to plagiarise? (10)
COPYWRITER

Double (cryptic) definition

11. Tense United ultimately finished game exhausted (2,4)
ON EDGE

ONE (united) + [finishe]D (ultimately) + G[am]E (exhausted)

12. Yarn took in most of new Conservative party bores (8)
ANECDOTE

ATE (took in), (NE[w] (most of) + C (Conservative) + DO (party)) bores

13. Member of the Lords half-heartedly takes seat, having succeeded, and carries on (8)
PERSISTS

PE[e]R (member of the Lords, half-heartedly) + (SITS (takes seat) having S (succeeded))

15. Barbies regularly date between the sheets (4)
ABED

[b]A[r]B[i]E[s] (regularly) + D (date)

17. Endlessly bitter plant (4)
ACER

ACER[b] (bitter, endlessly)

19. Church rent met by 60% of brass band? (8)
BRACELET

(CE (church) + LET (rent)) met by BRA[ss] (60% of)

22. Treacherous couples leading revolutionary networks gamble with death (8)
RENEGADE

RE[volutionary] NE[tworks] GA[mble] with DE[ath] (couples leading)

23. Beats produced by legendary hammer-wielder moving right behind stage initially (6)
THROBS

THOR (legendary hammer-wielder, moving R (right)) + B[ehind] S[tage] (initially)

25. Nautical chamber composition of Gilbert and Sullivan denied a last run, unfortunately (6,4)
DIVING BELL

???

26. Beethoven’s first bit of work as a Viennese composer (4)
BERG

B[eethoven] (first) + ERG (bit of work)

Alban Berg

27. Diver finally inspects North Sea rig (4)
SHAG

[inspect]S [nort]H [se]A [ri]G (finally)

28. Post Office meeting about closure of surplus property (10)
POSSESSION

(PO (Post Office) + SESSION (meeting)) about [surplu]S (closure of)

DOWN
2. Adapt article by bishop in Time (7)
ARRANGE

(AN (article) by RR (bishop)) in AGE (time)

3. Permitted broadcast for all to hear (5)
ALOUD

"allowed" = ALOUD (permitted, "broadcast")

4. Hotel shortly free to entertain the king for profit (8)
INCREASE

(IN[n] (hotel, shortly) + EASE (free)) to entertain CR (the king)

5. Unlikelihood of embassies pulling out of grand manoeuvring (15)
IMPLAUSIBLENESS

(EMBASSIES PULLIN[g] (out of G (grand)))* (*manoeuvring)

6. Hurried clear of society after joker turned up and stared (6)
GAWPED

[s]PED (hurried, clear of S (society)) after (WAG)< (joker, <turned up)

7. Strangers meeting bandit led astray (5,4)
BLIND DATE

(BANDIT LED)* (*astray)

8. Cover girl suppresses ardent desire (7)
SHEATHE

SHE (girl) suppresses HEAT (ardent desire)

14. Criminal using very detailed measurement (9)
SURVEYING

(USING VERY)* (*criminal)

16. Sweet? Well, it’s a pharmacy counter that stocks it (8)
PASTILLE

([w]ELL ITS A P[harmacy])< (<counter, that stocks it)

18. Schoolteacher is happily embracing nurse (7)
CHERISH

[schooltea]CHER IS H[appily] (embracing)

20. Proscribe distribution of bergamot to a large extent (7)
EMBARGO

(BERGAMO[t] (to a large extent))* (*distribution of)

21. Problem with Chinese dog rearing up (4- 2)
HANG-UP

HAN (Chinese) + (PUG)< (dog, <rearing up)

24. Puzzle about capsized vessel (5)
REBUS

RE (about) + (SUB)< (vessel, <capsized)

18 comments on “Financial Times 18,155 by BOBCAT”

  2. Liked ergo, diving bell, surveying.

    Forgot about the Nina, which is annoying as I was stuck on renegade where it would have helped. Clever clue though.

  4. For 25A, if you remove (deny) “a last run” from “Gilbert and Sullivan”, you’re left with an anagram (unfortunately) for “diving bell”. Thanks for the blog Teacow

  5. Apologies James P@1 for duplicating your explanation. I was interrupted mid-post by the doorbell and my screen hadn’t refreshed.

  6. A fun puzzle indeed. Much to like . IMPLAUSIBLENESS was a good anagram but a horrid word.DIVING BELL had me racking my brains for a suitable G&S opera until the penny dropped.
    Thanks Neo and Teacow.

  7. Answers were not difficult to work out, parsing was a different matter. There were so many complicated charades and deletions!

    Ticked SHAG

    How does COPYWRITER = instruction to plagiarize? Copywrite maybe

    Thanks Bobcat and Teacow

  9. I didn’t spot the Nina (I never do) or it might have helped with DIVING BELL which defeated me. I also couldn’t get PASTILLE. Clever clue. No takers for THROBS? I thought that one was rather good.
    I share SM@6’s dislike of IMPLAUSIBLENESS. Such words should not be allowed to exist.

  10. Fun puzzle. When I filled in the grid I thought 6D was GAWKED and did not understand the parsing, so thanks to Teacow for clearing that up. BTW, I had never heard of GAWPED.

  11. Looking in out of interest while away from home, I think the second part of 10ac should be taken as technically wordplay and can be read as “Copy, writer!” – an imperative verb and a vocative noun. I am not sure if I am saying the same thing as SM@8.

    Babbler@9: I disagree profoundly with the sentiment in your final remark. If enough people use a word in a living language, it becomes standard. That is how living languages work. Why should any one person claim the right of veto over that?

  12. Late to this today. DIVING BELL went in entirely unparsed. I really despise subtractive anagrams, though this may sound like sour grapes since if you have to delete more than about three letters I rarely manage to do them. My problem with them is that they’re usually inelegant. In this case, you’re being asked to delete nearly half the fodder!

  15. Pelham Barton@11. My argument that I should be allowed the dictatorial right to ban IMPLAUSIBLENESS is based on the fact that it sounds awful. As there is a perfectly satisfactory and euphonious alternative in “Implausibility” I’m surprised that “Implausibleness” has ever gained enough currency to get into a dictionary. Has anyone ever heard it used?

  17. 5dn:Now that I am home, I can confirm that Collins 2023 p 983 and Chambers 2016 p 764 both give “implausibility or implausibleness“.

  18. PB@11, I don’t I think that Babbler is being seriously dictatorial, but rather simply objecting to the unfelicitousness (😊) of implausibleness.

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