With today’s offering from Flimsy, I breezed through the left half and had to mull over the right half a bit, but ultimately, nothing too surprising popped up.
I noticed a few words in the unches–LOUSE, FOX, PANE, FOE–but I am not sure that they qualify as ninas, and if there is anything extra going on, I am missing it.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CLEAR OFF |
This could make Clare go away (5,3)
|
| Reverse anagram of (this [i.e., CLARE] could make) CLEAR [if it goes] OFF | ||
| 5 | SLACKS |
Son is without trousers (6)
|
| S (son) + LACKS (is without) | ||
| 9 | MOSQUITO |
Shilling left inside low WWII aeroplane (8)
|
| {S (shilling) + QUIT (left)} inside MOO (low), by de Havilland, made almost entirely of wood | ||
| 10 | SCREWS |
Defrauds prison officers (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 12 | OUNCE |
Big cat’s leap lacking power (5)
|
| [P]OUNCE (leap) minus (lacking) P (power) | ||
| 13 | EXISTENCE |
Being awfully nice with exes? About time! (9)
|
| Anagram of (awfully) {NICE + EXES} around (about) T (time) | ||
| 14 | SILENT |
Mum is knocked back by period of fasting (6)
|
| IS reversed (knocked back) + LENT (period of fasting) | ||
| 16 | PROCESS |
Newspapers containing nothing about series of events (7)
|
| PRESS (newspapers) around (containing) {O (nothing) + C (about)} | ||
| 19 | HELPFUL |
The man left Portugal with ‘flu – terrible kind (7)
|
| HE (the man) + L (left) + P (Portugal) + anagram of (terrible) FLU | ||
| 21 | RUSHED |
Hectic game abandoned (6)
|
| RU (game) + SHED (abandoned) | ||
| 23 | ATTACKING |
Criticising Territorial Army about changing course (9)
|
| TA (Territorial Army) reversed (about) + TACKING (changing course) | ||
| 25 | DRAMA |
Play scene (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | RUINED |
Regretted admitting home’s derelict (6)
|
| RUED (regretted) around (admitting) IN (home) | ||
| 27 | GLEANING |
Gallery initially bent drawing (8)
|
| First letter of (initially) G[ALLERY] + LEANING (bent) | ||
| 28 | SAFETY |
Speak about France and French welfare (6)
|
| SAY (speak) around (about) {F (France) + ET (and [in] French)} | ||
| 29 | PRETENDS |
Affects half of pretty nurses (8)
|
| [First] half of PRE[TTY] + TENDS (nurses) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | COMMON |
Ordinary couple of months in company, working (6)
|
| M + M (couple of months) inside (in) {CO. (company) + ON (working)} | ||
| 2 | ESSENTIAL |
Renewed lease isn’t vital (9)
|
| Anagram of (renewed) LEASE ISN’T | ||
| 3 | ROUGE |
Blush from finally getting squeezed by libertine (5)
|
| Last letter of (finally) [GETTIN]G inside (squeezed by) ROUÉ (libertine) | ||
| 4 | FATTEST |
Most stout a teetotaller’s hidden in party (7)
|
| {A + TT (teetotaller)} inside (hidden in) FEST (party) | ||
| 6 | LOCATIONS |
Emollients covering half of Cath’s spots (9)
|
| LOTIONS (emollients) around (covering) [first] half of CA[TH] | ||
| 7 | CLEAN |
Wash top of calf and heel (5)
|
| First letter of (top of) C[ALF] + LEAN (heel, in the sense of “incline”) | ||
| 8 | SUSPENSE |
South American writers primarily enjoy creating tension (8)
|
| S (South) + US (American) + PENS (writers) + first letter of (primarily) E[NJOY] | ||
| 11 | WIMP |
Chicken with monkey (4)
|
| W (with) + IMP (monkey) | ||
| 15 | EFFICIENT |
Orderly’s terrible tiff with niece (9)
|
| Anagram of (terrible) {TIFF + NIECE} | ||
| 17 | ELEVATION |
Joy without envy, oddly, getting promotion (9)
|
| ELATION (joy) around (without) alternate letters of (oddly) E[N]V[Y] | ||
| 18 | THEATRES |
Places in hospital he treats wound (8)
|
| Anagram of (wound) HE TREATS | ||
| 20 | LAIR |
Retreat from Labour leader, scratching head (4)
|
| [Tony] [B]LAIR (Labour leader) minus first letter (scratching head) | ||
| 21 | REGULAR |
Soldier’s pistol picked up by a king (7)
|
| LUGER (pistol) inverted (picked up) + A + R (king) | ||
| 22 | GANGES |
Herds crossing eastern river (6)
|
| GANGS (herds) around (crossing) E (eastern) | ||
| 24 | THIEF |
Criminal from India grabbed by the foot (5)
|
| I (India) inside (grabbed by) {THE + F (foot)} | ||
| 25 | DRAFT |
Plan day on boat (5)
|
| D (day) + RAFT (boat) |
Couldn’t work out how to get SUS from “South American”, but it’s pretty obvious now, worthy of a “D’oh!”. Heel/lean in 7d was a head scratcher, and still is. I could find no reference to them as synonyms in my brief internet quest, and can’t think of an example sentence where they’d be interchangeable.
Otherwise, nothing too difficult, and quite a pleasant Tuesday diversion, thank you Flimsy & Cineraria.
GDU@1: Heel is a nautical term, referring to the leaning of a ship.
Flimsy maintained his record with exactly 2 puzzles in 2024.
With well-constructed and witty clues throughout, I mentally ticked a large number of clues. EXISTENCE, WIMP, RUSHED and SLACKS made me smile. I made good time, but like Cineraria I needed to pause occasionally on the right-hand side.
Heel = lean was new for me too, GDU@1, but I did find it in the dictionary as the listing of a ship. MOSQUITO was lurking somewhere in the dark recesses of my memory and LOI.
Thanks Flimsy. I enjoyed that, and hope 2025 is a four-puzzle year. Thanks as always for the great blog, Cineraria
Cineraria @ 2, thank you for clarification.
I originally had ‘clear out’ for 1a, making 4d an impossible to get ‘U?T?E?T’ until I stopped going crazy and checked my workings! A gentle solve otherwise, and like others, I found the left side easier than the right.
Not sure about WIMP – is IMP really a monkey? Otherwise a straightforward but enjoyable solve although I do wonder if anyone outside the Crossworld ever calls a snow leopard an ounce
11dn: The Pocket Oxford English Dictionary 2013 gives “mischievous child” as a meaning for both imp (p 456) and monkey (p 586).
Lovely puzzle, but over too quickly. We liked MOSQUITO and THEATRES among others.
Thabks, Flimsy and Cineraria.
Nothing flimsy, frail, or fragile, here, for me.
Very nicely clued throughout…..albeit, sometime soon Blair must become “ex” or somesuch.
OK: three anagrams indicated “awfully”, “terrible” and “terrible” , respectively.
No quibble from me: it’s great to find a setter who actually uses indicators, add to which – fit for purpose.
I especially liked 11(d) ” chicken with monkey”; it’s completely daft, but concise clue + answer + original.
A bit of whimsy from Flimsy.
Happy days, Flimsy & Cineraria
Yes, I was happy with this one, although there were a few I didn’t get.
Mosquito was one of my favourites, as ever, a few anagrams got me going, which made it easier to figure out other clues.