Some very easy clues in today’s puzzle in which all the across answers were items of clothing. I was held up briefly towards the end having confidently put in ‘stocks’ (an archaic term for stockings) at 1a which made 3d rather problematic until I realised the homophone. The shorts=securities in 1a is probably something a typical FT reader would know but it is possibly a little obscure for those outside the finance industry.
Across
1 SHORTS dd – short-dated securities
4 STRAW HAT *(ARTS) WHAT (which)
10 OVERALL dd
11 SLIPPER SLIP (position, in cricket) PER (for each)
12 KILT hidden reversal in ‘don’T LIKe’
13 LEDERHOSEN *(LEEDS RHONE)
16 CRAVAT CR (credit) A (accepted) VAT (tax)
17 TILE-HAT I (one) LE (French article) in THAT
20 BIRETTA *(TRIBE) T[anzani]A
21 BIKINI BIKIN[g] (cyclin’) I (Italy)
24 LEG-WARMERS *(GREW SMAL[l]ER)
25 SHOE O (nothing) in SHE (woman)
27 MITTENS I TT (race) in MENS (loo)
29 SOUTANE OUT (away from home) in SANE (reasonable) – a cassock
30 TROUSERS *(US RESORT)
31 CHINOS CHIN (feature) SO (thus) reversed
Down
1 SPOT KICK SPOT (particular place) KICK (thrill)
2 OVERLOADING *(GORDON ALIVE)
3 TOAD homophone of ‘towed’ – ref. Wind in the Willows
5 TASTEVIN A *(VEST) in TIN (can) – small cup for observing the colour and clarity of wine
6 ARITHMETIC *(I CRIME THAT)
7 HOP quadruple def.
8 THRONE homophone of ‘thrown’ (cast)
9 FLIES dd
14 SPANISH MAIN *(PASHMINAS IN)
15 FACE-SAVERS FACES (confronts) AVERS (asserts)
18 ATOMISER *(TIMOR SEA)
19 PIKELETS dd
22 SLUM IT *(I L MUST)
23 GRASS dd
26 RUTH *(HURT)
28 TWO [ne]TWO[rk]
A stock is a form of cravat (old fashioned but not archaic)and would seem to be the obvious answer but for the fact that toad does not start with a “k”. That was more than a little annoying.
I must be an ideal FT reader: “shorts” came immediately after realizing “stocks” caused problems; “soutane” required a trip to this site…