Financial Times 16,980 by BUCCANEER

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I think I finished this Buccaneer…

…but I can't be sure, as there is at least one clue that I cannot fully parse (or maybe even understand?)

Let's start with the good – the long anagram for NATIONAL THEATRE, the THOU in OUTHOUSE, ACCIDENTAL and the simple but elegant PLEASANTRY.

Now, for the ones I'm less convinced by. I am pretty sure BATHROBE is the correct answer, and I can see BATH + ROBE(rt), RT is an abbreviation for "right" and in one of its meanings, right can be synonymous with appropriate, but the abbreviation is for the direction RIGHT, not the adjective meaning "appropriate". Am I overthinking this?

The homophone at 20dn is wrong to my ears, but may be fine to others, I pronounce the second syllable of ANY as a long A, as in MAKE, but that may just be a "Scottishism".

I can't work out the parsing of 27ac (TROT), so hope that one of you can enlighten me.

Anyway, thanks to Buccaneer for giving me a reason to get up early on a holiday.

Happy New Year when it comes, and I'll see you in 2022.

ACROSS
1 CROSSBONES
Menacing symbol vexed British figures (10)

CROSS ("vexed") + B (British) + ONES ("figures")
7 EMMA
Work of art essential to Requiem Mass (4)

Hidden in [essential to] "requiEM MAss"

I assume that the Emma referred to is the Jane Austen novel.
9 TUTU
By the sound of it, draw clothing for dancer (4)

Homophone [by the sound of it] TWO-TWO (a "draw" (in a football match, for example)
10 ASTON VILLA
English leaving a granite holiday home for club (5,5)

E (English) leaving A STON(e) ("granite") VILLA ("holiday home")
11 RIFLED
Sacked Republican, heading for ignominy, beat it (6)

R (Republican) + [heading for] I(ignominy) + FLED ("beat it")
12 OUTHOUSE
Yorkshire river banks grand for building (8)

OUSE ("Yorkshire river") banks THOU (short for thousand, so "grand")
13 RED PANDA
Maoist secretary eats along with Chinese native (3,5)

RED ("Maoist") + PA (personal assistant or "secretary") eats AND ("along with")
15 IMPI
Buccaneer’s with irrational African warriors (4)

I'M ("Buccaneer's") with PI ("irrational" number)
17 SCAN
Study what lines of verse should do (4)

Double definition
19 TAG ALONG
Filipino touring north is to come as well (3,5)

TAGALOG ("Filipino") touring N (north)
22 BATHROBE
Club man without appropriate indoor garment (8)

BATH (rugby union "club") + ROBE(rt) ("man" without RT (right, so "appropriate"))
23 RENOWN
City for better whiskey getting name and fame (6)

RENO ("city" in Nevada) getting W (whiskey, in the phonetic alphabet) and N (name)
25 ACCIDENTAL
Flat, perhaps in Iceland, cat vandalised (10)

*(Iceland cat) [anag:vandalised]

In music, an accidental is a note that is not a member of the scale, such as a flat or a sharp.
26 TOGO
American’s not eating in African country (4)

In the US, TO GO is the equivalent of the UK's "takeaway", although it is becoming popular as a phrase over here. especially in coffee shops.
27 TROT
Revolutionary wrong to turn to the left (4)

[revolutionary] TORT ("wrong")

Not aware of TROT meaning "to turn to the left". Become a Trot, possibly, but not trot on its own. Buccaneer may be asking us to do something with TO RT (to the right, being "wrong", so to the left, but if so, it's not obvious from the wordplay.
28 PLEASANTRY
Banal comment from learner in hard- working class (10)

L (learner) in PEASANTRY ("hard-working class")
DOWN
2 ROUTINE
Turn in, having tucked into course (7)

IN tucked into ROUTE ("course")
3 SKULL
Partner of 1 in row that’s overheard (5)

Homophone [that's overheard] of SCULL ("row")

The 1 referred to is CROSSBONES (1 ac) – i.e. SKULL and CROSSBONES (as seen on the Jolly Roger)
4 BRANDING
Make mixed gin? It may require an iron (8)

BRAND ("make") + *(gin) [anag:mixed]
5 NATIONAL THEATRE
A heat-intolerant imbecile plays here (8,7)

*(a heat intolerant) [anag:imbecile]
6 SANITY
Seizing nincompoop, utter good sense (6)

SAY ("utter") seizing NIT ("nincompoop")
7 EDITORIAL
Leader, one involved in trade and oil supply (9)

I (one) involved in *(trade oil) [anag:supply]
8 MILKSOP
Weakling makes the most of some music (7)

MILKS ("makes the most of") + Op. (opus, so "some music")
14 PANTHEIST
Long job for one who believes in everything (9)

PANT ("long") + HEIST ("job")
16 EGG ROLLS
For instance, good car fare from Chinatown (3,5)

E.G. ("for instance") + G (good) + ROLLS (Royce, "car")
18 CHANCER
Opportunist not unknown in court (7)

No Y ("unknown", in algebra) in CHANCER(y) ("court")
20 NEW AGER
One with alternative lifestyle heard any speculation (3,4)

Homophone [heard] of NE + WAGER ("speculation")

Is ANY is a homophone of NE? I say ANY as sounding like NA, not NE.
21 DONE UP
Daughter having advantage, given a makeover (4,2)

D (daughter) having ONE UP ("advantage")
24 NOT ON
Beyond the pale, going south or north? (3,2)

NOT ON reads the same way if you read it from the "south" (i.e. upwards) or from the "north" (i.e. down)

20 comments on “Financial Times 16,980 by BUCCANEER”

  1. No problem with the pronunciation of NE for me.

    BATHROBE is BAT + HE (man) around ROB (appropriate). TROT is a revolutionary and is the reversal of TORT(wrong).

  4. I agree with the parsing of BATHROBE and TROT in above comments.

    I had a mental blank for the parsing of TUTU and I entered ROUTINE unparsed. Otherwise everything made sense in this usual enjoyable and entertaining offering from our Buccaneer who was showing his true colours in a few clues today.

    Thanks to him and loonapick

  5. I loved TUTU but big teatray for CROSSBONES-obvious when you have a pirate setter but the surface was extremely cunning and the crossers not leaping out-chapeau to Buccaneer-and loonapick

  6. Another interesting and enjoyable puzzle from Buccaneer.

    I was held up for a while in the top left corner, apart from the poignantly topical first-in TUTU – I just couldn’t see CROSSBONES.

    I had ticks for EMMA, RENOWN, ACCIDENTAL, NATIONAL THEATRE, EDITORIAL, PANTHEIST and CHANCER.

    I’m with Hovis @1 re the parsing of BATHROBE and TROT. I puzzled over NE for ‘any’ to begin with then realised that I had to read it as N E – which I presume is what Hovis meant.
    loonapick – many thanks for the blog – my husband was Scottish (from Dundee) but I never heard him pronounce ‘any’ with a long A as the second syllable.
    Many thanks, as ever, to Buccaneer for the fun.

  9. We all have blind spots, I totally missed TUTU and NEW AGER apart from the obvious entry so thanks for the explanation, I would never have got draw in that sense, but I do say N E for any.
    Really enjoyed this especially the SKULL and CROSSBONES, NATIONAL THEATRE was so neat.
    OUTHOUSE misses yet another chance to include particle physics in a crossword.

  10. I parsed BATHROBE (bat.he.rob) as did others but Loonapick’s parsing was reasonable too. TROT posed no problem as I’ve seen it in this sense here before but IMPI proved my undoing. I agreed with Eileen on PANTHEIST and CHANCER, along with OUTHOUSE, TAGALOG, RED PANDA and NEW AGER.
    Thanks for yet another treat, Buccaneers and for the blog, Loonapick.
    Happy New Year to all!

  12. Could not see how TUTU meant draw, so thanks for explaining that one.

    Also, couldn’t parse NEW AGER, because ANY sounds like N A to me.
    Eileen@6, I’m from Edinburgh.

    Never heard of PANTHEIST or TAGALOG before.

  13. Thanks Buccaneer for a tough workout. It took me two sittings to complete this crossword and I used a bit of outside help to check my guesses. I had many favourites, RED PANDA, BATHROBE, RENOWN, TOGO, SANITY, and EGG ROLLS among them. I couldn’t parse everything so thanks loonapick for the blog.

  14. Minor addition to 23a. “Reno” is “City for better” as in gambler. I say that as I’m looking out at the casinos here!

  15. Most of this went in with little difficulty apart from the NW quadrant which was almost a complete blank for ages, then after failing to make an angram of ‘gin it may’ for 4dn we suddenly twigged ‘make’ = ‘brand’ and the rest fell into place. A nice mental workout and too many great clues to nominate a favourite.
    Thanks, Buccaneer and loonapick.

  16. Thanks Buccaneer and loonapick
    Another challenging puzzle as is normal from this setter. Started with EMMA and was able to motor down the right hand side of the grid quite quickly but did have trouble working up the left hand side with that NW corner holding out for longer than the rest of the solve.
    TAG ALONG was an immediate write-in – we had two Filipino girls working in a day spa that we once owned – who tried unsuccessfully to teach me some words of TAGALOG – even 10 years ago this dog was too old for those new tricks !!
    Paused over PANTHEIST for a while – thought it meant believed in all gods, rather than everything – but found that it included the universe as well. Thought that ROUTINE was quite good when eventually twigging to the theatrical act for it and ‘turn’. It was the penultimate entry with BRANDING (similarly taking a while for the penny to drop with ‘make’ = BRAND.

  17. Wouldn’t 15ac have read better as “Buccaneer’s with irrational NUMBER of African warriors” given Pi is an irrational number?

  18. Rats@17: we mathematicians often divide the numbers into the rationals and the irrationals, of which pi is an irrational, so I had no problem with the clue.

  19. EDK @18: As someone who also studied maths at University (albeit a while back), I had not heard of irrational numbers being referred to as just “irrational”.

  20. Thanks Buccaneer and loonapick

    Rats@17 and 19: I happen still to have a copy of “An introduction to the theory of numbers” by G.H.Hardy and E.M.Wright, sixth edition revised by D.R.Heath-Brown and J.H.Silverman. Some chapter and section headings contain the word “irrationals”, which can only be the plural form of a noun. In the text, the word “irrational” is mainly used as an adjective, but, after all, it takes less space to say “e is irrational” than to say “e is an irrational”. I have found occasional uses of “irrational” as a singular noun, for example Theorem 187 (page 203) says “Any irrational is approximable to order 2.”

    And of course, irrational as a noun is given in Chambers 2014, with the definition “an irrational syllable or number”.

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