Financial Times 17,077 by FLIMSY

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FLIMSY kicks off the week…

A pretty straightforward solve this morning, but enjoyable nonetheless.

 

Thanks FLIMSY!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Tiniest square by shopping centre is in Paris (8)
SMALLEST

S (square) by MALL (shopping centre) + EST (is, in Paris)

5. Homeless animals king keeps outside (6)
STRAYS

R (king), STAYS (keeps) outside

9. Attackers damage hired vans, wanting hospital (8)
INVADERS

([h]IRED VANS)* (*damage, wanting H (hospital))

10. A bloke returned wearing father’s hat (6)
PANAMA

(A + (MAN)< (bloke, <returned)) wearing PA (father)

12. Nag husband or lovemaking is cut short (5)
HORSE

H (husband) + OR + SE[x] (lovemaking, cut short)

13. Harbour a grudge about Edward after penny’s handed over (9)
PRESENTED

RESENT ED (harbour a grudge about Edward) after P (penny)

14. Caught tucking into alcoholic drink, daughter grimaced (6)
WINCED

C (caught) tucking into WINE (alcoholic drink) + D (daughter)

16. Be hugged by the German for free (7)
DELIVER

LIVE (be) hugged by DER (the, German)

19. Gets to what’s required for vaccinations? (7)
NEEDLES

Double definition

21. Scours hotel for 100 plants (6)
SHRUBS

SCRUBS (scours), H (hotel) for C (100)

23. Provoking cop in drug bust (9)
PRODUCING

(COP IN DRUG)* (*bust)

25. Decrepit car’s constant speed (5)
CRATE

C (constant, speed of light) + RATE (speed)

26. Insult mother with large pants (6)
DISMAL

DIS (insult) + MA (mother) with L (large)

27. Wanting dire sign rewritten (8)
DESIRING

(DIRE SIGN)* (*rewritten)

28. Some wounds I sterilise? (6)
SISTER

[wound]S I STER[ilise] (some) &lit

29. More rum, visitor? (8)
STRANGER

Double definition

DOWN
1. Snub Flimsy (6)
SLIGHT

Double definition

2. Bill may drive east out of place (9)
ADVERTISE

(DRIVE EAST)* (*out of place)

3. Promise to remove top shelf (5)
LEDGE

[p]LEDGE (promise, to remove top)

4. Grazed from fight with editor (7)
SCRAPED

SCRAP (fight) with ED (editor)

6. Tense composer left on ferry regularly – one’s touring? (9)
TRAVELLER

T (tense) + RAVEL (composer) + L (left) on [f]E[r]R[y] (regularly)

7. No.10 character in miscalculated social gathering almost isolated (5)
APART

[miscalcul]A[ted] (No. 10 character in) + PART[y] (social gathering, almost)

8. Put up with a road’s quality (8)
STANDARD

STAND (put up with) + A + RD (road)

11. Activity, whichever way you look at it (4)
DEED

A palindrome

15. Model all clothes initially with a cute figure (9)
CALCULATE

(ALL + C[lothes] (initially) with A CUTE)* (*model)

17. Sailor under six barrels, trembling (9)
VIBRATING

RATING (sailor) under (VI (six) + B (barrels))

18. Definitely wearing suit (2,6)
IN SPADES

IN (wearing) + SPADES (suit)

20. Cut legs climbing (4)
SNIP

(PINS)< (legs, <climbing)

21. Son, for example, intended to leave a portion (7)
SEGMENT

S (son) + EG (for example) + ME[a]NT (intended, to leave A)

22. Poor person’s urge to enter pub (6)
BEGGAR

EGG (urge) to enter BAR (pub)

24. Retreat from old American relative (5)
OASIS

O (old) + A (American) + SIS (relative)

25. Country clubs beginning to hamper fashionable area (5)
CHINA

C (clubs) + H[amper] (beginning to) + IN (fashionable) + A (area)

20 comments on “Financial Times 17,077 by FLIMSY”

  2. Didn’t quite get it all out — came here for the last couple, including 26a. Why is “pants” “dismal”?

  3. Geoff @2. “Pants” does mean “nonsense” and is often used as an anagram indicator. However, I don’t consider that as a meaning of “dismal”. Perhaps close enough for a cryptic?

  5. Enjoyed the neat simplicity of this, though like Hovis, APART was among my last few in that slightly more stubborn corner.
    Likes included LEDGE, SNIP, SLIGHT and DISMAL (Geoff, I took ‘pants’ to mean ‘rubbish’, a dismal or a pants film, for instance).
    Thanks to Flimsy and Teacow.

  7. I’ve never heard of “pants” meaning “nonsense”. Either I lead a sheltered life or it’s a usage that hasn’t yet reached the Antipodes.

  8. Diane @5. Yes, I think something like “my week so far has been pants/dismal” is close enough to work.

  9. Thanks Flimsy and Teacow
    21ac; I went for SHRUBS, and I expect that will be the official answer printed tomorrow, but I think SCRUBS also fits the clue.
    26ac: Chambers 2014 allows us dismal adj of a very poor standard (inf). I am happy that this fits with pants n sing (sl) nonsense; rubbish; anything considered worthless. I was surprised that Chambers only allows it as a noun. Perhaps another dictionary explicitly allows this use of “pants” as an adjective. The example given by Hovis@8 is good enough for me in that regard.

  10. Having seen my comment on 21ac on screen, I am not as sure that “hotel for 100” can mean “replace an H by a C”. On reflection, this makes SCRUBS a definitely inferior answer.

  12. SM @11.It doesn’t mean ‘some’. As in the blog, it is an &lit, so the whole clue provides a sort of definition. A sister (at a hospital, of course) may say “some wounds i sterilise”.

  13. Thanks Hovis. Not the clearest clue imho.
    However , as Teacow said, an enjoyable and relatively easy puzzle. Thanks to setter and blogger for a good start to the week.

  14. Yes, unusually straightforward, but (or thus?) very enjoyable.
    I don’t get 2d, but it might be a British usage. In the US, a bill can be an advertisement, but to bill is to ask for payment. In the UK, can to bill mean to advertise? Or am I missing something?

  15. Ed @14. I wasn’t sure about this but took the definition as “Bill may” in that a bill may advertise. Could be wrong as this seems a bit ‘flimsy’.

  16. Ed@14 re 2dn: Chambers 2014 gives “to announce or advertise” as the second definition for bill as a verb, after “to give or send a request for payment to”.

  17. Pelham @16: Thanks for that information. That caused me to do what I should have done in the first place: look in one of my US dictionaries. That meaning was the second definition of bill as a verb there, too! The example it gave was “He was billed as the greatest tenor since Caruso.”
    It’s amazing what one can learn from a little research instead of assuming one already knows! 🙂

  18. Thanks Flimsy and Teacow
    Think that this is one of the more difficult puzzles that I have seen from this setter – no stinker, but with some interesting definitions for answers and bits of the word play – PRODUCING (provoking), DISMAL (pants) and NEEDLES (gets to – this was probably my favourite clue – beautifully disguised).
    The trick with ‘No 10 character in miscalculated’ to generate A was another excellent piece of clueing. The misdirection with ‘nag’ in 12a was noteworthy. The &lit SISTER was another that took some seeing through.
    Finished down the bottom with STRANGER, OASIS and CALCULATE – more because that’s where the journey took me rather than those being the most difficult clues.
    Great stuff !!

  19. Ed@17: actually, after reading my comment, I could not think of an example where I would use the verb “bill” in the required sense, but your example gives me a way of wording a thought which I often have, but rarely post, namely that the FT crossword is not actually billed as a cryptic crossword.

  20. ‘Top billing’ has been widely used in the U.S. and elsewhere for a long time.

    Thanks to Flimsy and all involved.

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