Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 30, 2022
My first-in was 3 and I completed the top half very quickly except for 7 which was my last-in. The lower half took longer. My favourites are 6 (GIFT), 12 (PLANKTON) and 20 (EINSTEIN.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | REDO |
Change decor, wanting the ultimate in chic? (4)
|
| Anagram (change) of DE[c]OR and &Lit. | ||
| 8 | FOR CERTAIN |
Definitely make time to go in shower (3,7)
|
| FORCE (make) + T (time) in (to go in) RAIN (shower) | ||
| 10 | BUSTLE |
Old lady’s garment the French put on chest (6)
|
| BUST (chest) + LE (the French) | ||
| 11 | MOORGATE |
James Bond once holding gun somewhere in London (8)
|
| GAT (gun) in MOORE (James Bond once, i.e. Roger Moore) | ||
| 12 | PLANKTON |
Seafood in great quantity on board (8)
|
| PLANK (board) + TON (great quantity) | ||
| 13 | IN SYNC |
Where dirty crockery may be picked up, working together (2,4)
|
| Homophone (picked up) of “in sink” (where dirty crockery may be) | ||
| 15 | CONFABULATING |
Discussing eg Boris Johnson making up stories (13)
|
| CON (eg Boris Johnson) + FABULATING (making up stories) with a nice topical twist | ||
| 18 | UNPLUG |
Disconnect from current hype by a Parisian (6)
|
| UN (a Parisian) + PLUG (hype) | ||
| 20 | EINSTEIN |
Great thinker seen as a mug in his homeland? (8)
|
| EIN STEIN (a mug in his homeland, i.e. Germany) | ||
| 22 | NEBRASKA |
Harry Kane bagging at least four cups, in a state (8)
|
| BRAS (at least four cups) in (bagging) anagram (harry) of KANE | ||
| 24 | GARDEN |
Government nearly burning green space (6)
|
| G (government) + ARDEN[t] (nearly burning) | ||
| 25 | COCONUT SHY |
Head in business repeatedly timid where one has a fling? (7,3)
|
| NUT (head) in (in) COCO (business repeatedly) + SHY (timid). Non-Brits may not recognize this term which is the name of a fairground game. | ||
| 26 | ARCH |
Knowing what soldiers do to depose leader (4)
|
| [m]ARCH (what soldiers do to depose leader) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | REPUBLICAN |
Politician, one found behind bars after case of revenge (10)
|
| R[eveng]E + PUBLICAN (one found behind bars) | ||
| 2 | COTTON ON |
Understand refusal to cut cash crop (6,2)
|
| NO (refusal) in (to cut) COTTON (cash crop) | ||
| 3 | EFFECT |
Result of toned down swear word and shocking treatment (6)
|
| EFF (toned down swear word) + ECT (shocking treatment, i.e. electro-convulsive therapy) | ||
| 4 | SENORITA |
Notes air shot? It could be Barcelona’s miss (8)
|
| Anagram (shot) of NOTES AIR | ||
| 5 | STAGES |
Puts on stone over long period (6)
|
| ST (stone) + AGES (long period) | ||
| 6 | GIFT |
Offering front of Guardian and other papers (4)
|
| G[uardian] + I FT (other papers). There is a British newspaper called simply the i. | ||
| 9 | ROMAN NUMERALS |
Perhaps CID men also ran rum, criminally (5,8)
|
| Anagram (criminally) of MEN ALSO RAN RUM | ||
| 14 | NEGLIGENCE |
Wearing filmy garment, nymphomaniac’s clothing shows a lack of care (10)
|
| N[yphoania]C in (wearing) NEGLIGEE (filmy garment) | ||
| 16 | AUGUSTUS |
A bit of wind, you heard, suppressed by American ruler (8)
|
| A (a) + [GUST (bit of wind) + U (you heard)] in (suppressed by) US (American) with the definition referring to the first Roman Emperor | ||
| 17 | INTERVAL |
Football club brought back toilet break (8)
|
| INTER (football club) + LAV (toilet) backwards (brought back) | ||
| 19 | LARGOS |
Slowly moving pieces in large shop (6)
|
| L (large) + ARGOS (shop). Argos is a chain of shops in Britain. Largo is a musical term for a piece to be played ponderously. | ||
| 21 | NAGOYA |
Revolutionary article on painter in Japanese city (6)
|
| AN (article) backwards (revolutionary) + GOYA (painter) | ||
| 23 | EWOK |
English pan a feature of Star Wars (4)
|
| E (English) + WOK (pan) |
Buccaneer goes from strength to strength. I remember working harder on this one than previous grids but reaped the many rewatds. Clues I enjoyed:
AUGUSTUS (cheeky surface), NEBRASKA (for those 4 cups), ROMAN NUMERALS (sly use of CID), COCONUT SHY (fun to nut out) and CONFABULATING (another great surface). Think I should start collecting Boris-era clues of this nature!
My LOI was LARGOS which I parsed but didn’t know.
Thanks to Buccaneer for the laughs and Pete for a reliably sound blog.
Thanks Buccaneer for another solid crossword. I had many favourites including REDO, FOR CERTAIN, NEBRASKA, EFFECT, SENORITA, GIFT, ROMAN NUMERALS, and EWOK. How anyone can produce so many top notch crosswords in multiple papers so often amazes me. Thanks Pete for the blog.
In complete agreement with Tony.
Thanks, B and PM!
My picks: EINSTEIN (The genius would have chuckled at this, I guess.), IN SYNC, NEBRASKA, CONFABULATING (ha ha ha), ROMAN NUMERALS and LARGOS.
Lots of good ones as mentioned by others, my favourite being NEBRASKA.
Failed at the last on the long forgotten EWOK (I tried “epot”) which funnily enough then turned up in a puzzle only yesterday.
Thanks to Buccaneer and Pete
Thanks for the blog , I am sure our non-British friends appreciate the way you reference things that may be specifically British.
Great puzzle, where do I start with favourites ? Of course I agree with the comments above and I will repeat NEBRASKA, I was getting a little tired of the Harry Kane trick but the four cups make it worth it here.
Just to increase the list I will add UNPLUG for the elegant simplicity and NEGLIGENCE for the surprising but accurate wordplay.
I enjoyed this for all the reasons stated by Pete and the contributors, and found it more approachable than most Buccaneers. It took me a several goes to parse a couple of the clues, and I could not initially convince myself that Buccaneer had called the British PM a con. But, I got there finally.
Most of my favourites have been mentioned. I do not see COTTON ON above, so I add that to the list for its cleverness.
Thanks Pete, Buccaneer and all
Thanks Buccaneer and Pete
Late to post on this one, although I did complete it at around the time of the post. Was a surprisingly quick grid fill for me (under the half hour) but that does not detract from the admiration I have for the excellent clues – surfaces, clever wordplay (the ‘four cups’ in NEBRASKA must be the best, closely followed by EINSTEIN) and the expansion to a non-Brit of new terms such as ARGOS and MOORGATE.
Strangely enough EWOK was my first in – can’t remember them from Star Wars but did see an animated series with them as my kids were growing up.
Finished in the SW corner with AUGUSTUS (and its amusing surface), UNPLUG and that LARGOS (which I didn’t know as a noun).