Financial Times no.13,793 by FLIMSY

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A lovely little puzzle from Flimsy on a pretty miserable morning in north Leeds. Nothing too demanding, but a good mixture of methods and and some cute clueing (plus a scattering of general knowledge-related clues, which always ensures a good review from me).

ACROSS

1. GOOSEBERRY  Go [try] + anagram of be sorry including (aunti)e

7. EXAM  Reversal of axe [chopper] + m(ilitary)

9. LAMB  Lam [hit] + b(ook) to give essayist Charles Lamb

10. LOINCLOTHS  Anagram of l(eft) in school t(ime) to give the skimpy undies favoured by Tarzan, Gandhi etc.

11. SILENT  Anagram of isnt incorporating le [‘the’ in French] to give ‘silent’ as in ‘keeping mum’

12. CAT’S-EYES  Cryptic definition of Percy Shaws’s most famous invention

13. MANTELET  Manet [Edouard, the artist] incorporating t(he) E(gyptian) l(adies)

15. ABET  A(dult) + be + t(ense) 

17. ECHO  A ‘response’ that sounds like the name of the Italian novelist Umberto Eco

19. ACHIEVED  Ached [was uncomfortable] incorporating i(nsurrection) e(xtremely) v(iolently); a repetition of the technique used in 13ac. that I could have done without

22. CASHCARD  Cash [as in former Wimbledon champion Pat] + card [joker]

23. NIPPER  Double definition: one who pinches or nips, and, colloquially, a child (you could also, by the way, read the clue as a (very weakly) cryptic definition, and end up with napper)

25. FLOORCLOTH  Floor [sounds like ‘flaw’, problem] + clot [silly (noun)] + h(ospital)

26. SANE  Anagram of sen(t) incorporating a [indefinite article] to give the contrary of mad

27. EDIT

28. DESPICABLE  Anagram of spiced + able [likely]

DOWN

2. OCARINA  Anagram of a(dvising) air con to give the flute-like woodwind instrument

3. SABLE  Hidden in ageS A BLEssing

4. BELITTLE  Be [live] + little [hardly any]

5. RAIN CATS AND DOGS  R(ehearsal) + anagram of gin and soda cast to give a colloquialism meaning ‘pour (with rain)’

6. YACHTS  Anagram of stay incorporating Ch(ina) to give the sailing boats on which you might literally be ‘at sea’ (with at sea doing double duty as an anagram indicator)

7. EXONERATE  Exe [river] incorporating one [single] rat [rodent]

8. ATHLETE  Anagram of the metal minus m(ark) to give one such as Usain Bolt

14. TOOTHWORT  Too (over, excessively) + (compos)t + anagram of throw to give the parasitic plant Lathraea squamaria

16. SHANGHAI  Double definition: the Chinese city, and a darts term for hitting the single, double and triple of the same number with three darts

18. CRAWLED  C [about, circa] + raw [naked] + l(i)ed [fibbed]

20. ETERNAL  E(uropean) + tern [seabird] + a l(och)

21. RANCID  Ran [managed] + CID [Criminal Investigation Department; detectives]

24. PASTA  Past [gone] + (b)a(d)

7 comments on “Financial Times no.13,793 by FLIMSY”

  1. Thanks Ringo.
    Yes, a lovely little puzzle as you say – with one exception.

    I was completely floored by the homophone in 25ac. PROBLEM to FLAW to FLOOR?
    Just an insurmountable problem with an English accent like mine!

  3. Indeed, a lovely puzzle by this compiler whose crosswords have nothing to do with his pseudonym.

    For me, not even that easy – Araucaria got out of the way much quicker.

    mike04 questioned the homophone in 25ac. I am happy with it, although FLAW=problem is a bit of a stretch, I think.
    The other homophone today (ECHO – 17ac) was for me much more problematic. Maybe, you Brits call Umberto Eco ‘echo’, but I don’t and the Italians most certainly do not either.

    Apart from that, no complaints whatsoever.
    Very good crossword!

  6. Thanks, all, for your comments. Think we’ve flagged up the Achilles’ heel of the sounds-like clue here: the infinite diversity of pronunciation in English.

    @Mike04 – whereabouts do you hail from?

    @Richard – thanks very much for filling in for me at 27ac; meant to return to it, but forgot…

  7. Hello again, Ringo.

    I think my earlier comment may have been rather ambiguous; I meant “with an accent like mine in English”. (Edinburrgh borrn and brred).
    FLAW and FLOOR are not homophones anywhere north of Hadrian’s Wall – and quite a few places, I think,
    south, east and west of it?

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