Financial Times 17,606 BUCCANEER

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Buccaneer is today's FT setter.

A fun puzzle for those who like general knowledge in their crosswords (a group which definitely includes yours truly). It took me a while to complete this as I was doing other things as I solved, but it was a pleasure from start to finish. My LOI was QUAESTOR, which encouraged me to check whether the puzzle was pangrammatic (it isn't). None of the general knowledge was too challenging, apart possibly from Damon.

Thanks, Buccaneer

ACROSS
ASEPTIC
Renovated space — it’s free of bugs (7)

*(space it) [anag:renovated]
STRIDE
Team welcoming right back’s pace (6)

SIDE ("team") welcoming <=Rt. (right, back)
TIGHTWADS
They won’t spend a penny on women in clingy clothes (9)

A + D ((old) penny) on W (women) in TIGHTS ("clingy clothes")
NOMAD
Wanderer’s faithful friend heading west (5)

<=DAMON ("faithful friend", heading west)

I assume the Damon referred to here is the friend of Pythias in Greek legend
NEEDY
Poor Edmund invested in currency the wrong way (5)

ED (Edmund) invested in <=YEN (Japanese "currency", the wrong way)
SEMIFINAL
Car racing included in ground-breaking competition (9)

F1 (Formula One, so "car racing") included in SEMINAL ("ground-breaking")
SHOWCASE
Display the smallest room, for instance in Oxford? (8)

WC ("the smallest room") + AS ("for instance") in SHOE ("Oxford?")
ENTOMB
Inter Milan disheartened to be beaten (6)

*(mn to be) [anag:beaten] where MN is M(ila)N [disheartened]
IMPUGN
Attack dog bit men regularly, going outside (6)

(b)I(t) M(e)N [regularly] going outside PUG ("dog")
QUAESTOR
Magistrate’s mission to imprison American soldiers (8)

QUEST ("mission") to imprison A (American) + OR (other ranks, so "soldiers")
GASTROPUB
Sophisticated boozer in bars got up unsteadily (9)

*(bars got up) [anag:unsteadily]
BERET
What goes on French bean or root crop, recipe included (5)

BEET ("root crop") with R (recipe) included

Bean in the clue refer's to head.
YEAST
Ultimately, Gary Player means to raise dough (5)

[ultimately] (gar)Y + EAST ("player" in bridge)
MAJOR-DOMO
Chief of staff in Conservative party cut content from manifesto (5-4)

(John) MAJOR ("Conservative") + DO ("party") + [cut content from] M(anifest)O
SEVERN
Always saved by partners, this is held in English banks (6)

EVER ("always") saved by S and N (South and North, so "partners" in bridge)
TRELLIS
Still playing around on climbing frame (7)

*(still) [anag:playing] around RE ("on")
DOWN
ASTONISHINGLY
To everyone’s surprise, I like some beaches by part of Birmingham (13)

I + SHINGLY ("like some beaches") by ASTON ("part of Birmingham")
EL GRECO
Composer, not a European novelist or painter (2,5)

(Edward) ELG(a)R ("compoaer", not A) + (Umberto) ECO ("European novelist")
TATTY
We’re told Glaswegian food item is past its best (5)

Homophone [we're told] of TATTIE (Scottish word for potato, so "Glaswegian food item")
CLASSIST
Showing snobbery in court, drinking yoghurt drinks (8)

Ct. (court), drinking LASSIS ("yoghurt drinks")
SESAME
Spot drilled into by South American oil supplier (6)

SEE ("spot") drilled into by S (South) + Am. (American)
RING-FENCE
Call on criminal dealer to show a guarantee for expenditure (4-5)

RING ("call") on FENCE ("criminal dealer")
DOMINGO
Tenor being inactive, perhaps, pocketing millions (7)

DOING O (nothing, so "being inactive, perhaps"), pocketing M (millions)

Placido Domingo was one of the Three Tenors.
DELIBERATIONS
French composer keeps helping debates (13)

(Léo) DELIBES ("French composer") keeps RATION ("helping")
CIGARETTE
Camel, perhaps, with curiously erect gait (9)

*(erect gait) [anag:curiously]
TURBOJET
One flying fish sliced by yours truly in Paris (8)

TURBOT ("fish") sliced by JE (I in French, so "yours truly in Paris")
PASSAGE
How old family member is, eating second course (7)

PA'S AGE ("how old family member is"), eating S (second)
TURMOIL
Chaos, you heard, with jollies during work (7)

U (homophone [heard] of YOU) with RM (Royal Marines, aka "jollies") during TOIL ("work")
APEMAN
Call secretary about an ancestor of ours (6)

<=(NAME ("call") + PA (personal assistant, so "secretary"), about)
BARGE
Perhaps lighter piece of metal for one to lift (5)

BAR ("piece of metal") + <=e.g. ("for one", to lift)

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,606 BUCCANEER”

  1. Thanks, Buccaneer and loonapick!
    Liked SHOWCASE, ASTONISHINGLY, PASSAGE and BARGE.

    BERET
    A doubt: Is bean (head) a French word? Or is beret originally French?

  3. I enjoyed Buccaneer’s alter ego’s in the Guardian, and this one too, but there were a lot more head scratchers in this one. Obscurities, or just deficiencies in my general knowledge, or perhaps a bit of both.

    Couldn’t account for the AD in TIGHTWADS. Didn’t know Aston was part of Birmingham, Eco was a European novelist, that Scots call potatoes tatties, that Royal Marines are jollies, that lassi is a yogurt drink, that a fence can be a criminal dealer, that Damon is a faithful friend. Never heard of MAJOR-DOMO or QUAESTOR.

    So I spent more time than I’d have liked googling and using Wikipedia and dictionaries, but I emerged unscathed, and I suppose I should be grateful that you learn more from crosswords than you do from sudokus. However it’s unlikely that much will stick …

  4. I liked ASTONISHINGLY and DOMINGO. Monk clued EL GRECO in a very similar way last week. Another double-pirate day. I don’t know how he manages to be so prolific. Thanks, both.

  7. I agree entirely with loonapick’s preamble – a pleasure from start to finish indeed.

    I really enjoyed the two long answers at 1dn ASTONISHINGLY and 10dn DELIBERATIONS and smiled a lot at the ingenious 8ac TIGHTWADS, 22ac GASTROPUB and 14dn CIGARETTE. I had ticks, too, for 15ac ENTOMB, 19ac QUAESTOR, 27ac TRELLIS, 2dn EL GRECO 5dn SESAME and 7dn DOMINGO – all excellent surfaces, as ever.

    Many thanks to Mr Brydon for the double treat today and to lucky loonapick for the blog.

  8. Always hard to disagree with Eileen’s picks, particularly TIGHTWADS (which likewise tickled me), DOMINGO, BERET and, as a fellow, Midlander, 1d.
    As Peter notes, it is currently Villa (or Vile) as my cousin dubs them, who are in the ascendancy.
    This was a typically playful puzzle from Buccaneer which I greatly appreciated.
    Thanks to him and Loonapick.

  10. Yep-this was a little bit meatier than his Picaroon in the Graun

    But his clues are always excellent whatever the level of difficulty

  11. 2d EL GRECO – “Composer, not a European novelist or painter (2,5)” – I noticed, as PeterT@6:
    Monk (I) 5 days ago – “Artist wants composer, but not a novelist (2,5)”
    Wiglaf (I) last year – “Composer ignored by a novelist and painter (2,5)”
    Knut (I) 5 years ago – “Toledo resident composer not a novelist (2,5)”
    Cincinnus (FT) 15 years ago – ELG[a]R (composer not a) + ECO (novelist) [wordplay only]
    Araucaria (G) 15 years ago – “Painter and composer with a missing novelist from Italy (2,5)”
    Araucaria (G) 15 years ago – “Painter like Zorba? (2,5)”
    Thanks B&L

  12. Thanks Buccaneer and Loonapick

    1dn: It is credibly asserted that the University of Aston in Birmingham chose that name to be near the top of alphabetical lists, or possibly just to be ahead of the University of Birmingham which had been founded some sixty years earlier. As to the soccer clubs, Aston Villa are certainly in the ascendancy over Birmingham City now – can anyone with real knowledge of the subject tell us when that was last not the case?

  13. Thanks for parsing SHOWCASE. I got “shoe-something?,” but then thought it must be one of those arcane references to university life that pop up from time to time. No, much easier than that. A good puzzle that took me a little while to get warmed up on, but which went in steadily as the crossers gave me some toeholds.

  16. Great puzzle. Annoyingly beaten by QUAESTOR – new to me & didn’t twig the wordplay. Certainly chewier than his Graun puzzle today & his Telegraph Toughie yesterday.
    Thanks to B&L

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