Bobcat is the Thursday FT setter this week.
This puzzle has taken me almost 90 minutes to solve and blog and I still have one unparsed solution – 3dn, which I am fairly sure is VOLCANIC. (thanks to KVa at comment 1 for the assistance). I struggled to get a foothold in this crossword, with only four across answers and half a dozen down solutions going in in my first pass. I eventually worked my way through the rest until I was left with 23dn and 3dn. A moment of inspiration followed by a Google search to confirm my hunch and SERVES fell into place. However, I have to go log on to my work computer soon so don’t have time to sit and stare at 3dn any more, so I’m posting as is, certain that one of 225’s esteemed bloggers will set me right.
My favourite, by the way, was TRIFLING (excellent!)
David
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | STUBBORN |
Uncompromising objections repelled Nobel physicist (8)
|
| [repelled] <=BUTS (“objections”) + (Max) BORN (“Nobel phycisist”) | ||
| 9 | OPENER |
A 6 at Lord’s? (6)
|
| (slightly) cryptic definition – the 6 in the clue refers to 6dn (LEADING MAN) | ||
| 10 | PRESS CARDS |
They authorise journalists to squeeze WAGs (5,5)
|
| PRESS (“to squeeze”) + CARDS (“wags”) | ||
| 11 | DIGS |
Serviceman in South Dakota sent back home temporarily (4)
|
| <=(GI (American “serviceman”) in SD (South Dakota), sent back) | ||
| 12 | WOODEN |
Court office constructed in Deal? (6)
|
| WOO (“court”) + DEN (“office”)
The “deal” in the clue refers to the wood, deal, rather than the town. |
||
| 14 | SON-IN-LAW |
AN Wilson reviewed Family Guy (3-2-3)
|
| *(an wilson) [anag:reviewed] | ||
| 15 | AVARICE |
A fault harbouring primal avidity and rapacity? (7)
|
| A VICE (“a fault”) harbouring [primal] A(vidity) and R(apacity) and &lit. | ||
| 17 | ITEMISE |
Independent and Times misused English? Make a list (7)
|
| I (Independent) and *(times) [anag:misused] + E (English) | ||
| 20 | PREMIERE |
Publicity issued by former recording company before debut performance (8)
|
| PR (Public Relations, so “publicity”) issued by EMI (“former recording company”) + ERE (“before”) | ||
| 22 | IONISE |
Make charged particles in iron nails get neutralised intermittently (6)
|
| I(r)O(n) N(a)I(l)S (g)E(t) [neutralised intermittently] | ||
| 24 | SUET |
Fat girl on diet at last (4)
|
| SUE (“girl”) on (die)T [at last] | ||
| 25 | REGULATORY |
Controlling German piece recalled Boris, for one (10)
|
| [recalled] <=LUGER (“German piece” i.e. gun) + A TORY (“Boris, for one”) | ||
| 27 | ASSERT |
Lay claim to property without right (6)
|
| ASSET (“property”) without R (right) | ||
| 28 | ANNULLED |
Second American omitted from yearbook had charge cancelled (8)
|
| [second A (American) omitted from] ANNU(a)L (“yearbook”) + LED (“had charge”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | STEREO |
Recording effect of Easter’s start falling late, in the absence of a full moon (6)
|
| EASTER starting late and in the absence of A becomes (a)STER-E + O (“full moon”) | ||
| 2 | EBBS |
Abbess, discovered shaking, becomes weak (4)
|
| *(bbes) [anag:shaking] where BBES is (a)BBES(s) [discovered] | ||
| 3 | VOLCANIC |
Dreadful lecher, sacked by new vice-chancellor, is emotionally unstable (8)
|
| I couldn’t parse this, but KVa in the comments gave me the parsing (see comment 1)
*(lecher) [anag: dreadful] removed from [sacked by] *(vice chancellor) leaves the letters you need to get an angram of VOLCANIC |
||
| 4 | INGRESS |
Admission man-eater’s eschewing love following indigestion on vacation? (7)
|
| (o)GRESS (“man-eater” eschewing O (love)) following I(ndigestio)N [on vacation] | ||
| 5 | LOOSEN |
John’s space to relax (6)
|
| LOO’S (“john’s”) + EN (printer’s “space”) | ||
| 6 | LEADING MAN |
One playing Henry V? (7,3)
|
| Double definition, the first referring to an actor, the second to the king who led the English into battle. Alternatively, a cryptic definition (see comments 4-6 below) | ||
| 7 | EELGRASS |
Vegetation entangling a lot of grey seals? (8)
|
| *(gre seals) [anag:entangling] where GRE is [a lot of] GRE(y) | ||
| 13 | DARK MATTER |
Trademark designed to protect source of tiny stuff that’s hard to find (4,6)
|
| *(trademark) [anag:designed] to protect [source of] T(iny) | ||
| 16 | VIRTUOSO |
Some elevated aristos outrival master (8)
|
| Hidden upwards in [some…elevated] “aristOS OUTRIVal” | ||
| 18 | TRIFLING |
Inconsequential brief ménage à trois? (8)
|
| A “brief” affair would be a FLING, so a “brief ménage à trois” would be a TRI-FLING (tri = 3) | ||
| 19 | BELGIAN |
National strike — big one — no end in sight anywhere (7)
|
| BEL(t) (“strike”) + GIAN(t) (“big one”) with no end in sight anywhere | ||
| 21 | ERRATA |
Mistakes made by informer found in time (6)
|
| RAT (“informer”) found in ERA (“time”) | ||
| 23 | SERVES |
Does moving up river in China (6)
|
| SEVRES (type of porcelain, so “china”) with R (river) moving up becomes SE(R)V(r)ES | ||
| 26 | TILE |
Hat diacritic used in Spain, not Germany (4)
|
| TIL(d)E (“diacritic used in Spain”), not D (International Vehicle Registration for Germany) |
VOLCANIC
dreadful ‘lecher’ removed from (sacked by) the anagram of (new) vice-chancellor.
Yesterday we had FAUNA clued by Io in the FT. The clue was similar to the clue for VOLCANIC in terms of the logic used.
(dreadful lecher vs ostrich strangely)
Thanks, KVa – obvious once pointed out – must try harder!!
6A Loonapick, I think one of the definitions here is provided by the whole clue, as an actor who takes the part of Henry V in the play of that name is a “leading man” – the principal actor in a play (Chambers).
Rudolf@4
You are right. I think the whole clue should be underlined and marked as a cryptic definition.
KVA@5 It’s one of those clues that doesn’t fall into a standard category. Perhaps (tentatively) a semi & Lit which has a subsidiary definition but no wordplay?
Nice to see Bobcat include a little extra top and bottom of the grid, something new this time.
Most enjoyable overall with VOLCANIC, TRIFLING and TIDE my favourites. Thanks to Bobcat and Cineraria.
I’m sorry, I meant thanks to Loonapick, don’t know what happened there!
Rudolf and KVa – re LEADING MAN – I toyed with it being a CD, but plumped for a DD. It can be both, though, I agree.
loonapick@9
‘One playing=LEADING MAN’ is not quite convincing.
‘Henry V=LEADING MAN’ seems all right.
Tho’ I was going with a CD earlier, now I am for a semi &lit (perhaps, tentatively, provisionally, as an interim measure… :-)) thanks to Rudolf@6.
LEADING MAN was my second last in and parsed as a double def though I can now see the alternative parsing. My last in was BELGIAN which I couldn’t parse for the life of me. Good to have the Nina as a bonus at the end.
Favourite was the mention of Olivia Newton-John’s (RIP) grandfather at 8a.
Thanks to Bobcat and loonapick
As usual I struggled with this Bobcat crossword and left a half-dozen clues unfinished before I moved on. I liked PREMIERE and the nina. Thanks to both.
Dnf with Tile, Serves and Belgian all missing
I should’ve got Belgian and Tile (which I thought of, but didn’t think it was a hat) but not sure I would ever have got Serves without working my way through the alphabet.
Thanks for the blog , I really enjoyed this . Max BORN perhaps unfairly neglected in the history of quantum theory , took decades to get his Nobel prize after a concerted campaign.
I had TRIFLING from TRI(o)FLING , brief trio being tri , do not think it is any better.
Quite a struggle but we got it all in the end, helped by the nina, but there were some we couldn’t parse – PRESS CARDS for instance where we’ve just realised all we needed to do was ignore the capitalisation of WAGs.
Thanks, Bobcat and loonapick.
I had two wrong answers that fit but couldn’t parse. They were PRESS CORPS for 10a and WEDDING MAN for 6d.