Financial Times 17,960 by BOBCAT

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This is my 100th Financial Times blog. It is hard to believe that I have been posting here since 2022. By now, solving the solid clues of a Bobcat puzzle feels like chatting with an old friend. I very much appreciate all of the comments and support I have received so far.

As a bonus, we have the customary feline nina again, across the middle.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 OYSTER-CATCHER
Flighty individual corrupted chaste rector completely (in the end) (6-7)
Anagram of (corrupted) {CHASTE + RECTOR + last letter of (in the end) [COMPLETEL]Y}, referring to a species of wading bird, which, according to Chambers, does not actually feed on oysters
9 UTENSIL
Universal, endlessly extendable tool (7)
U (universal) + TENSIL[E] (extendable) minus last letter (endlessly)
10 ASININE
Foolish cardinal following one after a source of sex (7)
A + first letter of (source of) S[EX] + I (one) + NINE (cardinal [number])
11 DOLCE
Handout keeping Charlie sweet (5)
DOLE (handout) around (keeping) C (Charlie)
12 SOMNOLENT
Very fast to admit Norman, regularly dropping off (9)
{SO (very) + LENT (fast)} around (to admit) alternate letters of (regularly) [N]O[R]M[A]N
13 IDOLATRY
Worship in artificial language — annoy the French boards (8)
LA (the [in] French) inside (boards) {IDO (artificial language, derived from Esperanto) + TRY (annoy)}
15 CLOSET
Fail to keep boring court secret (6)
LOSE (fail to keep) inside (boring) CT (court)
18 POLICE
Cut back last 75% of rodents ó [sic] that’s the law (6)
LOP (cut) reversed (back) + last three of the four letters of (last 75% of) [M]ICE (rodents). I assume the “ó” was supposed to appear as a dash.
19 MARINARA
Ingredient from Colmar in a ravioli sauce (8)
Hidden in (ingredient from) [COL]MAR IN A RA[VIOLI]
22 SATISFIED
Met appeal bound to involve serious fraud inspectorate initially (9)
SA ([sex] appeal) + TIED (bound) around (to involve) first letters of (initially) {S[ERIOUS] + F[RAUD] + I[NSPECTORATE]}
24 DRIPS
Physical tear checked by empty dubious tears? (5)
RIP (physical tear) inside (checked by) outside letters of (empty) D[UBIOU]S
25 À LA MODE
Fashionable dude’s outside on a mission (1,2,4)
ALAMO (a mission, i.e., building) + outside [letters of] D[UD]E. Reminiscent of a clue I blogged last week.
26 ARBITER
Barbie stripped for first half of season, I hear (7)
Inside letters of (stripped) [B]ARBI[E] [substituted] for first half of [WIN]TER (season)
27 PSYCHOLOGICAL
High school play about soldier primarily conducting this sort of warfare (13)
Anagram of (high) {SCHOOL PLAY} around (about) {GI (soldier) + first letter of (primarily) C[ONDUCTING]}
DOWN
1 OPUS DEI
Gottfried’s up — or, to some extent, rising — in Catholic organisation (4,3)
Hidden in (to some extent) [GOTTFR]IED’S UP O[R] inverted (rising)
2 STEEL WOOL
Abrasive agent roaming Yellowstone, having abandoned parts of NY (5,4)
Anagram of [Y]ELLOWSTO[N]E, minus (having abandoned parts of) NY
3 ENSUE
Follow various players at table wearing uniform? The opposite (5)
U (uniform) inside (wearing) {E + N + S + E} (various players at table, i.e., positions in bridge), with “the opposite” indicating the inverted order of the wordplay
4 COLD SORE
Spooner’s traded heart for blister (4,4)
Spoonerism of SOLD (traded) + CORE (heart)
5 TRAUMA
Wound up a Greek character with cunning (6)
A + MU (Greek character) + ART (cunning) all inverted (up)
6 HOI POLLOI
Independent ballot in Ohio unleashed the rabble (3,6)
{I (Independent) + POLL (ballot)} inside (in) anagram of (unleashed) OHIO
7 RAISE
Rear fish, by all accounts (5)
Homophone of (by all accounts) RAYS (fish)
8 SEPTET
Cases of subtle and poignant film music (6)
Outside letters of (cases of) [S[UBTL]E + P[OIGNAN]T} + E.T. [the Extra-Terrestrial] (film)
14 ACCESSORY
Playing soccer as unknown extra (9)
Anagram of (playing) {SOCCER +AS} + Y (unknown)
16 STATISTIC
Fact — three of these could be vital (9)
Double/cryptic definition, the latter a jocular reference to a woman’s bust, waist, and hip measurements
17 LANDFALL
Journey’s End the essence of Decline and Fall? (8)
Central letter of (the essence of) [DEC]L[INE] + AND + FALL
18 PASCAL
Some pressure California to support fathers (6)
PAS (fathers) + CAL. (California), referring to a scientific unit for the measurement of pressure
20 AUSTRAL
Southern European state left without electric current (7)
{AUSTR[I]A (European state) + L (left)} minus (without) I (electrical current)
21 HI TECH
Industrial style knocked by leader of evangelical church (2,4)
HIT (knocked) + first letter of (leader of) E[VANGELICAL] + CH (church)
23 TRAMP
March quietly behind electric vehicle (5)
TRAM (electric vehicle) + P (quietly)
24 DEBUG
Young woman extremely unwilling to get rid of errors (5)
DEB (young woman, i.e., debutante) + outside letters of (extremely) U[NWILLIN]G

22 comments on “Financial Times 17,960 by BOBCAT”

  2. I send congratulations and more importantly thanks for your great blogs and also your contributions when not blogging. Always clear and insightful.

    Onto the puzzle…

    …. I am definitely not on Bobcat’s wavelength. Most of the charades were backward parsing once I had the answer, indicating a fair degree of difficulty or just me missing the point.

    TRAMP made me smile (tram as electric vehicle) and I liked DRIPS

    Good to see ET making a comeback. I have still not seen the movie. 13 & 17 took time.

    Thanks for help parsing STATISTIC (and STATISTIC is not a fact). My dictionary does not support AUSTRAL = southern. If we are talking Latin , we need an indicator.

    Thanks Bobcat and many thanks again to Cineraria

  4. Thanks for the blog – applause and many thanks for your century .
    I was very impressed by this puzzle , many examples of neat and clever wordplay , PSYCHOLOGICAL perhaps the best example with misleading possibilities for the anagram at the start. Good to see correct use of tensile for UTENSIL.
    Martyn@2 , Chambers93 has AUSTRAL = southern plus many examples including “Lucy” .

  5. Congratulations Cineraria! From what I’ve seen every one was a solid effort. Very enjoyable puzzle by Bobcat. My favorites were POLICE and UTENSIL.

  6. Like Martyn @ 2 I had to back parse several answers especially in the SE but I did enjoy it.

    Favourites included: DRIPS, SOMNOLENT, IDOLATRY (though I had not heard of IDO as a language), ALAMO, HOI POLLOI, TRAUMA

    Thanks Bobcat and Cineraria (and congrats)

  7. Blog no 100! Congrats Cineraria.
    My faves today: POLICE, HOI POLLOI and STATISTIC.
    Thanks Bobcat and Cineraria.

  8. Martyn@2 Have you considered downloading the Chambers Dictionary app?

    Here is the entry for STATISTIC

    statistic /stə-tis’tik/
    noun
    1. (in pl) tabulated numerical facts, orig those relating to a state, or (with sing verb) the classification, tabulation, and study of such facts
    2. One such fact
    3. A statistician
    adjective
    1. Statistical
    2. Political (obsolete)
    3. Relating to status
    ORIGIN: Ital statista and Ger Statistik, from L status state

  9. One of the nicest Bobcats I can recall. A real pleasure to solve and not a dud clue to be seen. Some splendid spots – even though virtually all the answer is in plain sight, decLine AND FALL is superb imo. The anagrams were all very neat, OYSTERCATCHER and PSYCHOLOGICAL in particular but I also enjoyed the subtractive anagram for STEEL WOOL. Other big ticks included the construction of SATISFIED; the mission in A LA MODE; the surface – and outrageous substitution – in ARBITER; the neatly hidden OPUS DEI and the sweet CD for STATISTIC. It has been a good day for the GIFT puzzles.

    Thanks Bobcat and Cineraria. Many congrats on reaching your ton and, as Martyn notes, on your helpful contributions to other blogs on this site.

  10. 18a POLICE: (Online the “ó” is a “–“). I had the definition as just “the law”.
    Jonathon Green’s Dictionary of Slang has “law n. … 2. (orig. US) constr. with the, the police. 1701–2017″
    He even has “3. with the article deliberately omitted, a police officer; occas. a private detective. 1911–2021″, so it could be just “law”.

  11. Late to this (travels, time zones) but I must echo the appreciative comments above for our setter, Bobcat, as well as doff my cap for Cineraria’s century. Here’s to another!
    Favourites included STEEL WOOL, the nina (one of my favourite cats) and OYSTER CATCHER – not least because I’ve just enjoyed watching a couple on the shores of Timaru.
    Thanks both!

  12. As others have said, a very nice puzzle indeed. AUSTRAL took me a little while at the end as I didn’t know the word & was trying to do something with an ‘e’ for ‘electric’, although in hindsight that’s ‘electronic’. Once I figured out the parsing I connected it to Austral(as)ia easily enough for confirmation.

    Thanks to Bobcat, and particular thanks to Cineraria for your service, and congratulations on the milestone. I quite often solve & read the comments without getting involved myself, but greatly appreciate the effort of all our bloggers.

  13. Like Amoeba I visit this site almost everyday, but I only comment myself if I feel I have something to add to what has already been said – i.e. rarely, as I usually finish my solve after other commenters have already said all that is worth saying – but I really appreciate the efforts of all the setters, bloggers and commenters who participate. It all adds greatly to my enjoyment of crosswords. So thanks to all and congratulations to Cineraria for this milestone. Long may you continue.

    I enjoyed today’s crossword. Austral was my LOI – I was hesitant about entering it as I didn’t know he word, though I could see a connection with Australia, aurora australis and Auster, the south wind. Thanks Cineraria and Bobcat.

  14. 20d AUSTRAL: “1. 1398– Belonging to the south, southern; also, influenced by the south wind, warm and moist.
    2. 1823– Of or pertaining to Australia or Australasia.”
    [Join your local (not just the UK – Ireland, Australia, Canada, & the US, too) library and get free access to oed.com]

  15. I agree with Martyn et al on the puzzle and the blog. I thank and congratulate Cineraria for all his blogs. They taught me a lot.
    Well done!

  16. Thanks Bobcat for an excellent crossword complete with a cat taking center stage. Like others, I also did a bit of ‘back parsing’ but when an answer becomes obvious from the definition I have no choice. Lots of good clues including the nicely constructed PSYCHOLOGICAL as well as ASININE, HOI POLLOI, and HI TECH. I missed the nho AUSTRAL and couldn’t begin to parse A LA MODE. Congratulations Cineraria on your milestone blog. Like PostMark I also enjoy your comments on blogs not your own.

  17. Thanks all for clarifying AUSTRAL. I almost quipped “I am sure someone somewhere said it some time and it is in Chambers”. Nice to see it in OED as well. All my paper dictionaries are out of reach at present and I rely on the SOED app. I was not aware Chambers has an app and thanks for the referral Rudolf@8.

  18. [Martyn @17: Chambers is the sacred text in this neck of the woods. I find its dictionary app worth every penny.]

  19. A steady and satisfying solve, although we took a while to see some of the parsings – and we spotted the feline nina!
    Thanks, Bobcat; thanks and congratulations to Cineraria.

  21. Thanks Bobcat and Cineraria (and many congratulations)

    Per the OED, AUSTRAL for ‘southern’ goes back to 1398, which surprised me.

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