Financial Times 17,176 by BOBCAT

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A typical Bobcat puzzle.

Thursday mornings always present a dilemma to me – I want a puzzle hard enough to be challenging and entertaining, but not so hard that I can't solve and blog within an hour as I have to get ready for work, especially now that I have returned to a hybrid working pattern and sometimes have a commute.

Today's puzzle was almost exactly what I look for, except that I haven't had time to fully parse TRAIN SET – I suspect there may be something about "potential guide" in engineering, but that may be a red herring, so I'll leave it to my friendly commenters to fill in the gap.

I don't think there's a theme or a Nina, but happy to be corrected on that.

Thanks Bobcat.

ACROSS
1 STRATHSPEY
Keep quiet about little Italian restaurant by river steps at Aviemore? (10)

SH ("keep quiet") about TRAT(toria) (little "restaurant") by (River) SPEY

The Strathspey is a traditional Scottish dance, hence "steps at Aviemore".
7 TORT
Wrong . . . . or, in time, ultimately right (4)

OR in T (time) + [ultimately] (righ)T
9 OBIT
Notice loss of resistance in circuit (4)

[loss of] R (resistance) in O(r)BIT ("circuit")
10 RHEUMATISM
Condition restricting movement is secured by finance provider following discharge (10)

IS secured by ATM (automated teller machine, so "finance provider") following RHEUM ("discharge")
11 DEBRIS
Refuse to join woman out with teacher on the rebound (6)

DEB (debutante, so "woman out") with <=SIR ("teacher" on the rebound)
12 EYE TOOTH
Look at Bottom –– unconstrained, asinine, and beginning to heehaw. Would a fairy call for this? (3,5)

EYE ("look at") + *(otto) [anag:asinine] + [beginning to] H(eehaw), where OTTO is (b)OTTO(m) unconstrained
13 JUGOSLAV
European once in prison needs exceptionally large place for business (8)

JUG ("prison") needs OS (outsize, so "exceptionally large") + LAV (lavatory, so "a place" to do one's "business", euphemistically)
15 IBEX
Rustic claims he’s the unidentified horned beast (4)

I BE ("rustic" way to say "I am") + X ("unidentified")
17 DUFF
It’s not good of the French to take on very loudly (4)

DU ("of the" in "French") to take on FF (fortissimo, so "very loudly")
19 THROTTLE
Serve the lot right to impose silence (8)

*(the lot rt) [anag:serve] where RT is right
22 RANCHERO
Unfortunately, corn here’s run short around 1st April. One must keep stock (8)

*(corn her) [anag:unfortunately] around [1st] (of) A(pril), where HER is HER(e) run short
23 IMBIBE
Drink first couple of beers after author’s declaration of personal impartiality (6)

[first couple of] BE(ers) after I'M BI ("author's declaration of personal impartiality")
25 SAFETY PINS
They establish connections and maintain them without revealing the point (6,4)

Cryptic definition
26 SATE
Supply eats? (4)

*(eats) [anag:supply] and &lit.
27 KEEN
Lament line finally adopted by Livingstone? (4)

(lin)E [finally] adopted by KEN (Livingstone) (ex-Mayor of London)
28 ESTATE CARS
Electronic data gathered about people going west. In these? (6,4)

E (electronic) + STATS ("data") gathered about <=RACE ("people" going west, ie from right to left)
DOWN
2 TABLEAU
One of St Paul’s letters describes clever dramatic effect (7)

TAU ("one of St Paul's letters") describes ABLE ("clever")

St Paul wrote in Greek, and tau is a letter in the Greek alphabet.
3 ALTER
Perhaps bend Hamlet’s ear every now and then (5)

(h)A(m)L(e)T(s) E(a)R [every now and then]
4 HARD SELL
Insensitive promotion in marketing firm leads to some embarrassingly lengthy litigation (4,4)

HARD ("firm") + [leads to] S(ome) E(mbarrassingly) L(engthy) L(itigation)
5 PRESERVATIONIST
One such as Betjeman recollected patriots in verse (15)

*(patriots in verse) [anag:recollected]

As well as being a poet, John Betjeman was well known as a preservationist, closely associated with a range of heritage organisations in the UK.
6 YAMMER
Rabbit novel sent up to occupy youngster on vacation (6)

<=EMMA (Jane Austen "novel", sent up) to occupy Y(oungste)R [on vacation]
7 TATTOOIST
Inca by profession’s a needlewoman? (9)

Homophone [by profession] of INKER
8 ROSETTE
Prize pupils bored by mindless repetition? On the contrary (7)

SET ("pupils") in ROTE ("mindless repetition"), contrary to SET bored by ROTE

A set is a class of pupils of similar ability.
14 OFF-SCREEN
Actor’s base offence in play involves son in real life (3-6)

*(r offence) [anag:in play] involves S (son), where R is (acto)R ['s base]
16 TRAIN SET
Potential guide for TES production line found in loft? (5,3)

TRAIN (?) + *(tes) [anag:production]
18 UNAWARE
Siege-gun: a war engine used to some extent in the dark (7)

Hidden [to some extent] in "siege-gUN A WAR Engine"
20 LOBSTER
I could be in deep water, having given criminal a fresh start (7)

(m>L)OBSTER ("criminal" given a fresh start)
21 RETYPE
Spooner’s drink ready? Correct! (6)

Spoonerism of TEA RIPE ("drink ready")
24 BASIC
Like “fundamental” it’s tetrasyllabic, but not latterly used in translation (5)

*(asbic) [anag:in translation] where ASBIC is tetrASyllaBIC without the letters of "latterly"

15 comments on “Financial Times 17,176 by BOBCAT”

  3. I took 16d as Andrew. Thought 1a was a little unfair, having to know a Scottish river in order to get a Scottish dance. Ninawise, I noticed FLATS in row 8 and SHARPS in column 7. Bobcat usually has a feline Nina – maybe this refers to jazz cats?

  4. Thanks Bobcat and Loonapick

    Following Hovis@3, I spotted SHARPS and this gave me the T for FLATS to solve 16dn. It was clear to me that it was a “reverse anagram” type clue and I wanted the right anagram lead for the first word. Then I saw how the definition works that someone could well keep a train set in the loft.

  5. A tough one today. Wasn’t “John Betjeman” in an FT cryptic yesterday or the day before? I didn’t know he was a 15A but cross letters and the anagram made it pretty easy as my second last one in.

    My last one in was 1A. I recall the town but didn’t know that it was a dance. Strip the Willow, The Dashing White Sergeant – yes, I remember; and I was pretty good at The Twist!

    Re 7D, I’m not sure that I like “profession” as a homophone indicator. I know that one definition of “profess” is “openly declare” but I still think it’s a little bit of a stretch.

    Re 23A “I’m Bi” these days refers to someone’s sexuality whereas, as Loonapick suggests it means” personal impartiality”. Maybe that’s close enough in crossword-land.

    Re 28A – we don’t have “estate cars” in Australia; we call them “station wagons”, although, these days, they have all been replaced by SUVs. I dimly recall from the depths of my youthful memories of being raised in England that we called them “Shooting Brakes”.

    Thanks Loonapick – you cleared up some confusions that I had. Especially with 11A as I had no idea why the word “out” was included: I just guessed that the “woman” was “Deb”. Here in Oz, if a woman is called Deborah, we would automatically call her Deb. Just as Kevin would be Kev and Peter would be Pete. A lazy nation.

  6. Peter @5: Indeed, John Betjeman was in yesterday, also at 5dn. It was Estate Car (in the singular) that was in the day before yesterday. Such coincidences are of course bound to happen from time to time with lots of setters working independently on their own crosswords.

  7. Another puzzle to add to the list of recent hard ones. I was hoping the usual feline Nina would help out towards the end but no such luck and I only spotted FLATS and SHARPS after finishing.

    I must have been watching too many TV programs about Scotland as STRATHSPEY went in early, but I took a long time to get the ‘by profession’ homophone indicator at 7d, the RETYPE Spoonerism and DEBRIS as my last few in. The clever and concise SATE &lit was my favourite.

    Thanks to Bobcat and loonapick

  8. No gimmes today! Failed on STRATHSPEY; know the river not the dance. Still, it was an absorbing solve.
    Like Pelham, I got TRAIN SET after spotting the musical ninas. Good thing too because I had ‘grain’ firmly rooted in my mind, thinking of ‘granary’ for ‘loft’. My cousin had a train set in the loft.
    And like Peter, I didn’t like (or rather realize) that ‘profession’ indicated the homophone though it obviously was one.
    I did like SAFTEY PINS, LOBSTER, DEBRIS and PRESERVATIONIST.
    Thanks to Bobcat for the challenge and Loonapick for the insights.

  10. A really enjoyable puzzle – thanks to Bobcat and to loonapick for the review.
    I failed to spot the musical Nina.
    The clues I liked best were 11a, 12a and 7d.

  11. This one beat me. Got about 60% of the way through it and lost interest. There were quite a few clues that were not on my wavelength / seemed at the very edge of fair. Profession as a homophone indicators was at the top of my list of dislikes.

  12. Another tough one with multiple failures — I had “family ties” instead of SAFETY PINS (connections without a point) but I guess that would be too cynical for an FT clue. Anyway I did find things to like e.g. EYETOOTH, IBEX, ESTATE CARS, TABLEAU, and HARD SELL among the many nicely worded clues. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

  13. Late to the party as we’re catching up on a few things this week. Anyway we didn’t find this particularly difficult coming to it from Monk’s Thursday offering in the Indy. A few entries, e.g. RHEUMATISM went in from crossing letters with parsing apparent only later, but we got it all in the end. EYE TOOTH and TABLEAU were favourites.
    Thanks, Bobcat and loonapick.

  14. Too much obscure shite in this for me. For example “One of St Paul’s letters” = tau – FFS!

    Shan’t bother trying to solve a Bobcat again.

  15. Sharron@14 What an unnecessary and unpleasant thing to say. I do not understand why comments of this sort are permitted on this website. I do agree, however, that if you want to restrict yourself to tackling crosswords which lack originality and do not present a satisfying intellectual challenge you should steer well clear of Bobcat’s puzzles.

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