BOBCAT kicks off the week…
A very enjoyable puzzle, with the expected feline Nina.
Had some issues with the tool I use for blogging, so have tried my best to manually recreate the usual format and image. Apologies if it’s not quite right, and for the lack of numbers in the grid – I lost patience with Excel.
Thanks BOBCAT!
ACROSS
1 Extremely poor concierge, swigging last of champagne, damages cases (10)
PRECEDENTS
(P[oo]R C[oncierg]E (extremely) swigging [champagn]E (last of)) + DENTS (damages)
7 Musical’s back to front nonsensical lyrics (4)
SCAT
CATS (musical, back (the S) to front)
9 Pole let off without charge in the end (4)
SPAR
SPAR[e] (let off, without [charg]E (in the end))
10 Ofcom warns about potential problem (3,2,5)
CAN OF WORMS
(OFCOM WARNS)* (*about)
11 Third character excluded from number (around 100) getting distinction (6)
NICETY
NI[n]ETY (number, third character excluded) around C (100)
12 Hot dish occupies home let temporarily (8)
OMELETTE
[h]OME LET TE[mporarily] (occupies)
13 What theatre staff provide to support medic leading operation (8)
BACKDROP
BACK (support) + DR (medic) leading OP (operation)
15 Government department once introduced by Eastern European country (4)
EIRE
IR (government department once, Inland Revenue) introduced by (E (eastern) + E (European))
17 Moved quickly to halve the amount of ecstasy in drug (4)
SPED
SP[e]ED (drug, halve the amount of E (ecstasy))
19 Making mockery of Carol masking cough in hearing (8)
SCOFFING
SING (carol) masking “cough” = COFF (“in hearing”)
22 Snitch, not English but American, gives unconvincing account (4,4)
TALL TALE
TELLTALE (snitch, not E (English) but A (American))
23 Mob repelled soldiers relieving unit in action (6)
THRONG
(OR)< (soldiers, <repelled) relieving I (unit) in THING (action)
25 Possibly Mercury’s sort of music? (5,5)
HEAVY METAL
Double definition
26 Extent of insulation provided by a simple garment (4)
TOGA
TOG (extent of insulation) provided by A
27 Trouser-wearer perhaps needs boots regularly shined from the start (4)
BOSS
B[o]O[t]S (regularly) + S[hined] (from the start)
28 Starter, a Parisian one, prepared here? (10)
RESTAURANT
(STARTER A + UN (Parisian))* (*prepared)
DOWN
2 Model’s on about conserving interior of Split (7)
REPLICA
(RE (on) + CA (about)) conserving [s]PLI[t] (interior of)
3 Provincial police once overturned electric vehicle going round bend (5)
CURVE
(RUC)< (provincial police once, <overturned) + (EV)< (electric vehicle, <going round)
4 Maritime establishment is cut off by some distance (8)
DOCKYARD
DOCK (cut off) by YARD (some distance)
5 Irrational misapplication of common sense, lacking foundation and point (3,6,6)
NON COMPOS MENTIS
(COMMON SENS[e] (lacking foundation) and POINT)* (*misapplication of)
6 Put up with very loud boring litigant (6)
SUFFER
FF (very loud) boring SUER (litigant)
7 Revamped FTSE index, excluding outliers, initially acceptable or lacking sense? (5-4)
STONE-DEAF
(FTSE [i]NDE[x] (excluding outliers) + A[cceptable] O[r] (initially))* (*revamped)
8 What can measure a metric amount, forever being 50% out? (7)
AMMETER
A + MM (metric amount) + ETER[nity] (forever, being 50% out)
14 Diplomacy wasted Kiev’s gold (3,6)
KID GLOVES
(KIEVS GOLD)* (*wasted)
16 Cooked food wrong — every bit, essentially, sent back (8)
TORTILLA
TORT (wrong) + (ALL (every) + [b]I[t] (essentially))< (<sent back)
18 Put former pupil back in control of drug trial? (7)
PLACEBO
PLACE (put) + (OB)< (former pupil, <back)
20 Almost nobody checks to find fault with figure (7)
NONAGON
NO ON[e] (nobody, almost) checks NAG (to find fault)
21 More tranquil French water sources rising and falling (6)
CALMER
(LAC)< (French water source, <rising, lake) and MER (French water source, falling, sea)
24 The greater part of this is rubbish, whichever way one turns (5)
ROTOR
ROT (rubbish) being the greater part of ROTOR in either direction (whichever way)
Thanks Teacow
28ac: Although not difficult, the requirement to convert “Parisian one” into UN – rather than UNE, incidentally – put this the wrong side of the boundary for an indirect anagram in my book, so I cannot thank the setter for that clue. I will happily thank Bobcat for the rest of the puzzle.
Thanks Teacow and Bobcat
Couldn’t parse 23a satisfactorily. Please explain how does thing = action? Legal concept of a”chose in action” is now going to be forever a “thing in thing” to me. Maybe I need to get out more.
Just a question on 7a. Do people feel using ‘Musical’s …’, as opposed to ‘Musical is …’ means that the solution is unambiguously SCAT not CATS?
Although I can’t usually finish Bobcat’s puzzles, and missed a couple of answers today, it was an achievement for me as for the first time I managed to discover the hidden cat.
I did get THRONG, but couldn’t parse it. I felt that “thing” for “action” was a bit of a tall order.
Thanks both.
I got stuck for ages on EIRE until the penny dropped.
28ac was quite straightforward and I do not follow the point that PB@1 is making. Enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks Bobcat and Teacow.
Thanks to Bobcat and Teacow for an excellent puzzle and blog.
Following SM@5, nor do I understand PB@1. As a number, one in French is UN and as such is correctly parsed by Teacow. As an adjective, one in French may be UN or UNE, depending on the gender of the noun that follows. Since no gender is identified in the clue, even if considered as an adjective, UN would be the correct parsing.
An enjoyable puzzle and the Nina prompted two answers that might have taken a while longer. Thanks for the blog which got to the bottom of a couple of clues where the parsing was beyond me. Loved tortilla, among others.
Angie@2, Babbler@4 Chambers gives “an event, happening, action” as one of the meanings of “thing”.
PB@1 In 28A, I don’t think this is any more indirect than using”one” in anagram fodder to indicate I, as distinct from A. In fact, it’s probably less so, given that UNE can immediately be ruled out (owing to the indicated word length of the answer).
In 20D, I think “with” forms part of the definition of NAG.
I’m with PB: it’s an indirect anagram (though not a hard one). To be kosher, an anagram clue should have all the letters to be anagrammed present in the actual clue. Here, we have to translate “one” into French before our U appears. But I still enjoyed the clue–and it’s French so basic that us non-Francophones can’t complain on that score either–so pedantic application of the arbitrary rules seems silly this time.
7ac responding to Hovis@3: “back to front” can mean a complete reversal or – as here – just moving the last letter of a word to the beginning. CATS back to front could be SCAT or STAC, of which SCAT fits “nonsensical lyrics”. SCAT back to front would have to be either TACS or TSCA.
28ac continuing the discussion: the point is that the letters to be rearranged are not given explicitly in the clue. That is my understanding of the phrase “indirect anagram”. I hold to the view that any indirect anagram is out of place in a weekday puzzle, but as always I have no quarrel with those who think differently. Bagpuss@8, I would equally object to using “one” to indicate that an I (or an A) forms part of the anagram. I do not agree that UNE can be immediately ruled out by the length of the answer. “a Parisian one” could be taken to mean “one of the forms of the French word for one”, which would have to be UNE to get the right number of letters along with STARTER. On a bit of reflection, “a Parisian one” is more naturally UNE than A + UN.
Thanks Bobcat for an enjoyable crossword with my favourites being HEAVY METAL, NON COMPOS MENTIS (nice surface), KID GLOVES, & TORTILLA. I missed EIRE but at least I saw TOMCAT. I agree with Pelham Barton about 28a & indirect anagrams; my understanding is that the fodder be in ‘plain sight’. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
LarryS@6: As a simple cardinal, “un” is “one” I agree (“un, deux, trois…”). But as a determiner or noun (“one” is not an adjective) it can be “un” or “une”. Consider “j n’ai qu’une vache” (“I only have one cow” – determiner) or “il y en a une” (“There is one” – noun) where the word “one” in French is definitely “une”. I, for one, did look at this and wonder if the anagram fodder was “starter” + “un” + “a” or “starter” + “une” but solved the anagram before having to try both! To me this made it more indirect than I was comfortable with.
I also balked a little at “thing” for “action”. For me a rather far-removed synonym when it is almost the entirety of the wordplay just made this clue a less satisfactory solve. Personal opinion…
Otherwise, an enjoyable puzzle and I wondered if an ocelot was going to show up in column 3 but they are notoriously shy so I guess it is well camouflaged. Thank you Bobcat and Teacow.
PB @10. Of course you are correct. I amaze myself with my stupidity at times. Unfortunately, this results in me being in almost perpetual amazement 😉
It is not at all uncommon for anagram fodder in daily crosswords to fall foul of the definition of “indirect anagram” that PB and some others here are employing. As Tony@11 says, the general principle is that the components of an anagram should be “in plain sight”, but, for example, abbreviations (eg “right” in the clue indicating R in the fodder) are considered to fall in that category. I have seen the guidance to Times setters on this point and it says just that anagrams of synonyms should not be used. I don’t know what the FT guidance is, but I doubt that a different line is taken there.
PB@10 I take your point about what I said earlier about rejecting “une”. I should have made it clear that if “a” in the clue were not intended to form part of the anagram fodder it would be otiose. So my starting point was that I was looking for “Parisian one” to provide two letters.
Bagpuss@14: The way I formulated the definition of “indirect anagram”, using “right” to indicate R would not count as indirect, because the letter R is in the clue as the first letter of the word “right”. However, I would still prefer a way that avoided such a hint of indirectness, by such means as an initial letter indicator (such as used in 7dn today for the A and O), or by keeping the letter out of the anagram either by an inclusion indicator or simply having it at the beginning or end of the answer. But I have already said that I have no quarrel with those whose views differ from mine on this point. In comment 10 I should really have said something like “I would be equally unhappy about” rather than “I would equally object to”. That is enough from me for now.