Financial Times 17,306 by FLIMSY

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,306 by FLIMSY”

1. Began badly, having confidently entered BECOMING for 1a. But things improved. There were a few aht I’d call loose definitions, such as piece/story, refer/turn and lies/consists. I initially had ROTOR for 24d.

   In the scores of meanings in Collins for “ray” I didn’t see “look”, but it’s probably there somewhere. I’d been rather nonplussed by TT for a bike race a few months ago, and should have remembered it, but I didn’t. Maybe next time.

   I also have only a vague recollection as to why an anorak is a nerd. Something to do with trainspotting, if my memory serves me correctly.

   These little twists and turns spiced up an otherwise straightforward puzzle, one which was quite enjoyable. Thank you Flimsy, and Teacow for the blog.

2. A gentle puzzle from Flimsy whom I haven’t seen in a while. My only regret was that it was over before I’d started, really. Like Geoff, I wondered about ‘becoming’ but held off until looking at 1d. I also agree that turn cluing refer seemed loose.
   However, I enjoyed the exercise overall and liked the occasionally deceptive wordplay.
   Thanks to Flimsy and Teacow.

3. GDU@1
   With you on the ray bit. Someone will explain it with an example, I am sure.
   ‘A ray/glimmer of hope in her eyes’-unable to say ‘ray’ means ‘look’ here. Or ‘to ray’ means ‘to look/to look for’?
   (Not knowing this particular meaning of ‘ray’ didn’t make arriving at the solution (AFFRAY)
   any tougher. Still, it would be good to learn…)

   Thanks, Flimsy and Teacow!

4. Glad I never thought of BECOMING. Like others, I found several of the definitions obscure (assuming they are ok, of course). As such, I also entered ROTOR for 24d which I don’t think means “turn” but might do.

   There’s an error in the blog for 2d. It is missing the T from abouT.

5. Beaten by this one. Never heard of ‘look’ for RAY, but you guessed it, it’s in Chambers, as a noun. I didn’t see REFER for ‘turn’ either and therefore put in “rotor” for 24d, but like Hovis @4, I wasn’t confident.

   For me at least, this wasn’t the gentle Monday puzzle I was hoping for after a few “missed by that much” efforts in the last couple of days.

   Thanks to Flimsy and Teacow – I’m sure your poor old lonely carthorse will be put to productive and tuneful use soon by one of our setters

6. Chambers gives “a look or glance” as one definition of “ray,” but I, too, cannot think of any such usage. “Glimmer” seems like a possible synonym for all three words, but I cannot think of a context in which I might substitute “look” for “ray” or vice versa.

7. I thought this was going to be a breeze until the SE corner .
   I was not helped here as my printer missed the last line of 25d (stick). One quibble; in my mind “hall” is a large room and a “corridor” is a “hallway””. nevertheless a fun puzzle and up to a Monday standard unlike some recent week openers. Thanks Flimsy and Teacow for the parsing of 4d.

8. I did not fall for “rotor” because I do the across clues first and entered AFF for “a couple of fellows” in 26a. Like others I didn’t finish the word with RAY until later, when I had the “A” 15d. Still uncomfortable with RAY = LOOK though.

9. It was probably linguistic laziness, but growing up in Norn Iron, school corridors were referred to as ‘halls’.
   My Chambers has ray – a look or a glance.

10. Thanks, Flimsy & Teacow. Yet another new-to-me setter, and another one for the “Like” list. A gentle but enjoyable solve, all well crafted.

    Like Hovis, I’m glad I didn’t think of BECOMING for 1a because it seems a perfectly good answer!

    No issue with REFER for me – you could say eg “refer to page 99”/“turn to page 99”

    Wasn’t so sure about the ray part of AFFRAY – like john, I hesitated to write it in until I had crossers. “It’s in Chambers” isn’t very helpful without citations. This is where the OED proves superior, as it gives a number of examples of this usage, which it describes as “chiefly poetic”, eg “Her eye grazing me with its hard ray like a steel stylet,” from Charlotte Bronte’s Villette.

11. An early (discredited) theory of optics held that vision was accomplished by beams that emanated from the eyes to the object, so “ray” for “look” makes (archaic) sense, then.

12. Thanks Flimsy. Much of this was a write-in but I did get stuck in the SW with REFER and AFFRAY. I had rotor but I checked it and only the R’s were correct. Then I guessed AFFRAY and that was confirmed but I couldn’t see how ray = look. I liked a lot of the clues including SPECIAL, NORMALLY, INCREASED, and YELL. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

13. Never heard of affray. A fray sure, but not affray. Had rotor like others. Enjoyed this puzzle a lot, especially after last week’s bashing. It’s mlk day here in the us and so a nice holiday puzzle for me. Thank you Flimsy, and Teacow

14. Concerning AFFRAY – If a couple can be seen as a few, rather than only two, then Ray could be one of the fellows who “look for a confrontation” – as a person is guilty of affray if he threatens unlawful violence towards another, whether it happens or not.

15. Widdersbel@ 10,
    Thanks for providing that illuminating and most persuasive definition of ‘ray’.
    Wedderburn@ 14,
    I too considered Ray as another ‘fellow’ for a while, but returned to ‘couple’ as two and wasn’t convinced ‘look for’ was part of the definition in the end.

16. Too late to comment but here goes anyway.
    I really liked this one – gentle, yes, but with impeccable surfaces, each one making sense on its own.
    Is ORCHESTRA one of those words that setters see as a special challenge – construct a clue that makes surface sense, and that no one has come up with before? Flimsy has met that challenge well. My image is of a pipe band performing at St. Andrews.
    Thanks Flimsy and Teacow for the fun.3

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