Financial Times 16,894 by Buccaneer

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Non-prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 18, 2021

New blood is good and Buccaneer is looking like a highly valuable addition to our weekend slot here.  My first-in in this puzzle was 15 (RIN TIN TIN) and 20 (SPEEDOS) my last.  Two answers were new to me, 6 (INSWINGER) and 26 (LOLLARD).  My favourites are 1d (PYRAMID), 3 (CHINA), 21 (PARENT) and 24 (BUGLE).  Thank you, Buccaneer.

ACROSS
1 PREOCCUPATION
Brooding, like Britain before the Romans arrived? (13)
PRE-OCCUPATION (like Britain before the Romans arrived?)
9 RETRIED
Went to sleep, but one’s later heard again (7)
RETIRED (went to sleep) with the ‘I’ moved one place to the right (but one’s later)
10 MASONRY
Building a two-person family extremely readily (7)
MA SON (a two-person family) + R[eadil]Y
11 MAMBA
Two postgraduate degrees? One is a killer! (5)
MA MBA (two postgraduate degrees)
12 RIN TIN TIN
Cool cartoon character on rocket’s heading for Dog Star (3,3,3)
R[ocket] + IN (cool) + TINTIN (cartoon character)

 

Rin Tin Tin (September 1918 – August 10, 1932) was a male German Shepherd born in Flirey, France, who became an international star in motion pictures.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rin_Tin_Tin for more.
13 DUBLINER
Maybe James Joyce’s style and craft (8)
DUB (style) + LINER (craft)
15 AGEIST
A European, in essence, is a discriminating type (6)
A (a) + E (European) in (in) GIST (essence)
18 KVETCH
Sailing boat carrying five carp (6)
V (five) in (carrying) KETCH (sailing boat)
19 HAIRLESS
Husband, close shaven? (8)
H (husband) + AIRLESS (close)
22 INTEGRATE
Where firewood may be placed, not hard to mix (9)
IN T[h]E GRATE (where firewood may be placed, not hard)
24 BUGLE
Sneakily listen to the French horn (5)
BUG (sneakily listen to) + LE (the French)
25 EN SUITE
Result when catching hanky-panky in bathroom (2,5)
IT (hanky-panky) in (when catching) ENSUE (result)

 

In Britain at least, “en suite” is used mostly to describe a bedroom with an attached private bathroom. And over time, the term has come to be used to refer to such a bathroom by itself, a usage I rather dislike.
26 LOLLARD
I’m tickled by fat religious reformer (7)
LOL (I’m tickled, i.e. laughing out loud) + LARD (fat)

 

A lollard was a follower of John Wycliffe during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries
27 APOSTROPHISES
Issue for greengrocers to include one’s addresses (13)
I’S (one’s) in (to include) APOSTROPHES (issue for greengrocers)

 

To apostrophise/apostrophize means to address by apostrophe or to utter an apostrophe.
DOWN
1 PYRAMID
It’s a wonder lover hasn’t American passport, say (7)
PYRAM[us] (lover hasn’t American) + ID (passport, say)

 

Pyramus is a lover in the story of “Pyramus and Thisbe”
2 ESTIMABLE
Worthy English setter’s housed by animal shelter (9)
E (English) + I’M (setter’s) in (housed by) STABLE (animal shelter)
3 CHINA
Tea’s drunk in this? (5)
IN in (drunk) CHA (this…i.e. tea)
4 UNDERSEA
Submarine’s less than maximum possible speed picked up (8)
UNDER (less than) + SEA (homophone of “c”, maximum possible speed)

 

The maximum possible speed being the speed of light in a vacuum, denoted by ‘c’ as in E=mc²
5 ARMANI
Brand received by farm animal (6)
Hidden word (received by)
6 INSWINGER
Present person who’ll swap partners in ball (9)
IN (present) + SWINGER (person who’ll swap partners)

 

In cricket, an inswinger is a ball bowled so as to move from off to leg through the air
7 NONET
Group’s goal is to keep working (5)
ON (working) in (is to keep) NET (goal)
8 CYGNET
Caught seal in a little pen, perhaps (6)
Homophone (caught) of “signet” (seal)
14 INCOGNITO
Gin and tonic, stirred round, is unrecognisable (9)
Anagram (stirred) of GIN TONIC + O (round)
16 IDEOGRAMS
Mao’s dire reforms, imprisoning good characters in Beijing? (9)
G (good) in (imprisoning) anagram (reforms) of MAOS DIRE
17 WATERLOO
Battle station (8)
Double definition
18 KAISER
King lives with queen, hosting a ruler (6)
A (a) in K (king) + IS (lives) + ER (queen)
20 SPEEDOS
On a dash, gauge small, tight pants (7)
SPEEDO (on a dash, gauge — i.e. short for speedometer) + S (small)
21 PARENT
One who has issue with yearly payment (6)
PA (yearly, i.e. per annum) + RENT (payment)
23 TOSCA
Turned up drunk around performance at La Scala? (5)
SOT (drunk) backwards (turned up) + CA (around, i.e. circa)
24 BELCH
With casing of bronze, large taps release gas (5)
B[ronz]E + L (large) + CH (taps, i.e. Cold and Hot)

14 comments on “Financial Times 16,894 by Buccaneer”

  1. I’m another who enjoys Buccaneer in this slot. My FOI was KVETCH and my last, INSWINGER.
    Favourites included SPEEDOS, CHINA and CYGNET IDEOGRAMS. Great fun and fair cluing overall without which I would not have landed Lollard (and a recent re-read of Wolf Hall put me on the right track).
    I guess ENSUITE is estate agent speak.
    Thanks to Buccaneer and Pete.

  2. Thanks for a super blog , really enjoyed this. Agree with Diane about the fair clues for a few unusual words and I think you are right about estate agents being to blame for ENSUITE.
    SPEEDOS I missed the gauge bit, thanks for that, not seen them called tight pants before , I just associate them with swimming.
    c = speed of light is fine, c = maximum possible speed ?? perhaps better if I do not even start.

  3. Great fun and I assume, as my writing on the grid is quite neat, not that difficult

    Thanks to Buccaneer and Pete

  4. This made for a good crossword weekend, with the alter ego Picaroon in the Guardian – my favourite setter twice! Not entirely straightforward, but fair and very good fun: many thanks to Buccaneer and to Pete for the blog which explained the “c”/sea in 4a, which I had failed (well, hadn’t even tried, to be frank) to parse.

  5. I am still not on the same wavelength as Buccaneer. While I finished, I left a number of clues unparsed.

    IDEOGRAMS and CYGNET were stand outs for me too. I was not overly enthusiastic about the 13 letter clues – Brooding is a verb/adj, but PREOCCUPATION is a noun; and HYPOTHESISES seems rather obscure as an anchor for the bottom half of the puzzle.

    Thanks for the blog, Pete, and thanks for the crossword, Buccaneer – here’s hoping I will see eye-to-eye with you soon.

  7. Thanks Buccaneer. I solved this slowly and mostly enjoyably. Favourites included MASONRY, KVETCH, INTEGRATE, BUGLE, and BELCH. There was a bit I couldn’t parse so thanks Pete as usual.

  8. Thanks for the blog, Pete. I’m glad you’re appreciating your now seemingly regular Saturday Buccaneer blog, you lucky chap.

    My ticks were for RIN TIN TIN, EN SUITE, HAIRLESS, LOLLARD (which tickled me, too) and (pick of the bunch) PYRAMID.

    Many thanks, as ever, to Buccaneer for the fun.

  10. Pelham Barton @6. Your reply made me think along different lines, and I believe you are correct. I amend my earlier statement. Many thanks

  11. Roz@2: According to the theory of relativity, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Hence, “c” is the maximum possible speed.

  12. According to special relativity a particle with real rest mass created with a speed less than c can never reach c. Many other possibilities are still allowed but not really suitable for this blog.

  13. Thanks Buccaneer and Pete
    Only got to this one early this morning and although the grid fill was quicker than my average, the time taken to go back and parse the ones that I had missed – such as PYRAMID, APOSTROPHISES (and looking up the greengrocers involvement in the APOSTROPHES part), SPEEDOS and DUBLINER (which I actually couldn’t and needed the blog for – added considerably to the total time spent on it.
    Enjoyed nearly all clues, but PYRAMID, SPEEDOS and UNDERSEA deserve special mention.
    Finished in the NW corner with that PYRAMID, RETRIED (which was held up by an erroneous CUPPA at 3d) and CHINA (when I finally spotted that error).

  14. Late to the party but I’ll note that China can do triple duty since tea is drunk in the country and out of the tableware.

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