Financial Times 17,474 by BUCCANEER

A witty challenge from BUCCANEER this Friday AM.

FF: 8 DD: 8

ACROSS
9 GENITALIA
Bits of information European detailed (9)

GEN ( information ) ITALIAn ( european , without last letter )

10 TRUTH
Bible book following start of the gospel (5)

T( The, starting letter ) RUTH ( bible book )

11 SCOWLED
Lowered light boat at first (7)

SCOW ( boat ) LED ( light ) – didn't know this meaning of the word

12 INGRAIN
Impress German, regularly welcomed into homes (7)

GRA ( GeRmAn, regularly ) in { IN IN ( homes ) }

13 IVY
Climber, one by drained valley (3)

I ( one ) VY ( ValleY, drained i.e. without inner letters )

14 GREASEPROOF
Sort of paper old academic pens on musical (11)

GREASE ( musical ) [ PROF ( academic ) containing O ( old ) ]

17 RISHI
Leader from a European country delaying independence (5)

iRISH { from a european country, with I ( independence ) moving to the end }

18 FAR
A good way service gets returned (3)

reverse of FAR ( service )

19 INTEL
Information technology company (5)

double def

21 ACUTE ACCENT
A sweet way of speaking is something Beyoncé has (5,6)

A CUTE ( sweet ) ACCENT ( way of speaking ) – referring to the symbol above 'e' in beyonce's name.

23 IMP
Terror in India has 17 across reeling (3)

I ( india ) MP ( reverse of PM – leader; 17a refers to the pm of the uk )

25 TAPROOM
Flipping low scoundrel stealing penny in bar (7)

reverse of [ MOO ( low ) RAT ( scoundrel ) ] containing P ( penny )

27 YELTSIN
Boris’s party ultimately let off transgression (7)

Y ( partY, ultimately ) [ LET ]* SIN ( transgression)

28 SITES
Spots spots, we hear (5)

sounds like SIGHTS ( spots )

29 NICKNAMES
E.g. Scarface and Baby Face Nelson mean to reform in prisons (9)

[ NAME ]* in NICKS ( prisons )

DOWN
1 AGASSI
A fun experience is coming up for US sports star (6)

A GAS ( fun experience) [ reverse ( coming up ) of IS ]

2 ANTONYMS
Working man’s receiving award for performing Night and Day? (8)

[ MANS ]* containing TONY ( award for performing )

3 STALAGMITE
Camp, sculpted item, something in caveman’s home? (10)

STALAG ( camp ) [ ITEM ]*

4 CLAD
Dressed salad when it is cold (4)

saLAD, with SA ( it, Sex Appeal ) replaced by C ( cold )

5 PATISSERIE
Pastries prepared and occasionally iced here? (10)

[ PASTRIES ]* IcEd ( occasionally, alternate letters of )

6 STAG
What Bambi becomes in small child’s game (4)

S ( small ) TAG ( child's game )

7 RUBATO
Way of playing game with stick and ball (6)

RU ( game ) BAT ( stick ) O ( ball )

8 THANKFUL
Relieved a quantity of fuel contains hydrogen (8)

TANKFUL ( quantity of fuel ) containing H ( hydrogen )

15 EFFACEMENT
Deleting feature people put in on-line paper (10)

[ FACE ( feature ) MEN ( people ) ] in [ E ( online ) FT ( paper ) ]

16 POINT-BLANK
Indicate lender invests pounds directly (5-5)

POINT ( indicate ) [ BANK ( lender ) containing L ( pounds ) ]

17 ROAD TEST
Vile toad detained in place for trial (4,4)

[ TOAD ]* in REST ( place )

20 TOILSOME
As far as I’m concerned, framing paintings is laborious (8)

TO ME ( as far as i'm concerned ) containing OILS ( paintings )

22 UPPITY
Like a presumptuous soandso winning sympathy (6)

UP ( winning ) PITY ( sympathy )

24 PUNISH
Witticism, to an extent, in sentence, perhaps (6)

cryptic def; read as PUN-ISH ( witticism -> pun )

26 OR SO
Stripped off trunks roughly (2,2)

tORSOs ( trunks, stripped i.e. without end characters )

27 YUCK
What dissatisfied diners say of your cake, oddly (4)

YoUr CaKe ( odd letters of )

20 comments on “Financial Times 17,474 by BUCCANEER”

  1. Thanks Turbolegs and Buccaneer.
    Very nice puzzle.
    Liked IMP – RISHI clues link.
    Others incl ACUTE ACCENT, INTEL, TOILSOME, TAPROOM, and INGRAIN

  2. Thanks for the blog, very consistent set of tidy clues , I will add OR SO to the lists above.
    For RISHI I think the definition is just Leader .

  3. You can see why this setter is many solvers favourite. Simply brilliant. I did know LOWER = SCOWL though I would normally use the ‘lour’ spelling. RUBATO was new to me. You could probably create a crossword entirely composed of musical directions. (Note to setters – please don’t!)

  4. UPPITY
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/uppity
    ‘Adjective – uppity (comparative uppitier, superlative uppitiest) – Presumptuous, above oneself, self-important; arrogant, snobbish, haughty.
    Exceeding one’s station or position, assuming prerogatives to which one is not entitled.
    Usage notes
    This term has historically been used in America to describe black people who were considered to be acting above “their place”, and is considered by some to have racist connotations when applied to people of color; sometimes arrogant or presumptuous, invoking the same idea, are used as codewords for it.’

  5. Another witty puzzle from Buccaneer.

    I won’t list all my ticked clues – those that made me smile were GENITALIA, for the definition, ACUTE ACCENT, YELTSIN, for a different slant on Boris’s party, NICKNAMES, AGASSI, for the memory, ANTONYMS, and THANKFUL.

    Many thanks to Buccaneer for the fun and Turbolegs for the blog.

  6. I found this heavy going at first and almost chucked it in after only half a dozen clues solved, but I pulled myself together and ended up enjoying it very much. Lots of smiles, and even a chuckle at GENITALIA.

    Thanks Buccaneer & Turbolegs.

  7. Once again Eileen has identified my favourites. Fortunately, I had forgotten about Frankie G’s spoiler by the time I came to solve AGASSI.

  8. Very good as ever from Buccaneer, particularly when paired with his Picaroon offering in The G today. The ‘Bits’ def was the highlight closely followed by the lift-and-separate (sort of anyway) required to split the ‘Leader from a European country’ into its component def and wordplay parts; maybe a dig at the UK’s current status as a ‘European country’.

    I’ve just looked up RUBATO which I vaguely remembered; I’m no closer to understanding what it means though and second Hovis @4’s request to setters about musical terms!

    Thanks to Buccaneer and to Turbolegs

  9. Thanks Buccaneer for a top notch crossword. I found it slow going at first but eventually everything fell into place. I couldn’t parse CLAD but all else made sense. My top choices were GENITALIA, TRUTH, GREASEPROOF, TAPROOM, ANTONYMS, TOILSOME, PUNISH, and OR SO. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  10. Brian L @19:

    Letter “o” is round like a ball. Sometimes “ring” or “egg” are used similarly.

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