Financial Times 16,298 by FLIMSY

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Speedy Tuesday solve, neat cluing and smooth surfaces.

An enjoyable romp.  Thanks, Flimsy. I’ve changed my house-style a little. Comments welcome.

completed grid
Across
1 ACCURATE Right about flipping college and university cost (8)
C[irc]A (‘about’), reversed (‘flipping’), + C[ollege] + U[niversity] + RATE (‘cost’).
5 HEALTH Merkel finally probing former prime minister’s fitness (6)
Ex P.M. Ted HEA.TH includes L (last of ‘merkeL’).
9 SINGULAR Rum? Just the one (8)
Double definition.
10 LABOUR Workers about to be cut in two different ways (6)
ABOUt, shortened, in L[eft] and R[ight].
12 RAISE Breed fish, we are told (5)
Homophone of ‘rays’ = ‘fish’.
13 FURIOUSLY Angrily you slur if drunk (9)
Anagram (‘drunk’) of YOU SLUR IF.
14 HEROIC Daring Oscar to interrupt the woman in charge (6)
O[scar] (in radio code) inside HER + I[n] C[harge].
16 STATION Stop standing, thanks – sit on ground outside (7)
TA (‘thanks’) in anagram (‘ground’) of SIT ON.
19 WITNESS Fake news? It’s evidence (7)
Anagram (‘fake’) 0f NEWS ITS.
21 CREATE Produce animal with no sign of hesitation (6)
CREATurE with UR (‘sign of hesitation’) deleted. UR instead of the more usual ER but Chambers gives it.
23 ESSENTIAL Vitally important German city starts to turn into a liability (9)
ESSEN (‘German city’) + 1st letters of last 4 words.
25 PROVE Show for TV we regularly put out (5)
PRO (‘for’) + alternate letters of tV wE.
26 PLUNGE Swim quietly with thrusting forward movement (6)
P (‘quietly’) + LUNGE.
27 REASSURE Religious education, in whatever degree, certain to dispel one’s fears (8)
R[eligious] E[ducation] + AS SURE (‘certain in whatever degree’).
28 ASTUTE Speedily heading off – pick-up truck’s quick (6)
fAST without head letter + UTE (Aus. utility vehicle, ‘pick-up truck’).
29 STRATEGY Plan to wander off to capture sheep (8)
STRA.Y around TEG (2nd year ‘sheep’).
Down
1 ABSORB Digest crab? Only half – brother’s thrown up (6)
crAB (half of) + BRO[ther]S, reversed.
2 CONFIDENT Learn if getting over depression is optimistic (9)
CON (to ‘learn’) + IF, reversed, + DENT (‘depression’).
3 ROUTE Tree’s beginning to be in rake’s way (5)
T(ree) in ROU.E (ne’er do well, ‘rake’).
4 TRAFFIC Transport business (7)
Double definition.
6 ELABORATE Fussy at piercing earlobe, unfortunately (9)
AT in anagram  (‘unfortunately’) of EARLOBE.
7 LOONS John’s caught new birds (5)
N[ew] in LOO.S (‘Johns’).
8 HARRYING Annoying prince perhaps in German (8)
(Prince) HARRY + IN + G[erman].
11 BRAS Arrogant to ignore hospital supporters (4)
BRASh without H[ospital].
15 OVERNIGHT Very swiftly finished – nearly on time (9)
OVER (‘finished’) + NIGH (‘nearly’) + T[ime].
17 INTRODUCE Announce devious reduction (9)
Anagram of REDUCTION.
18 SWEETPEA Nice vegetable – it’s colourful and fragrant (8)
SWEET + PEA.
20 SKIN Hide from small family members (4)
S[mall] + KIN.
21 COLLECT Save room for prisoner up in bed (7)
CELL reversed in CO.T.  ‘Collect’ as in e.g. ‘I’m saving the coupons’.
22 REMEDY Solution all set – exchanging article for me (6)
REaDY (‘all set’), ME replacing A.
24 SHUNT Second F1 driver’s accident (5)
S[econd] + (James) HUNT, late British racing driver.
25 PASTA Food some keep as tagliatelle (5)
Hidden in ‘keeP AS TAgliatelle’.

*anagram

9 comments on “Financial Times 16,298 by FLIMSY”

  1. Most of this went in without too much trouble, but there were a few tricky ones such as ACCURATE, and TRAFFIC didn’t immediately come to mind for either of the definitions in the clue. I had ‘standing’ as another def for STATION at 16a.

    I did like 24d.  As a young driver in the early 70’s, James Hunt was known as ‘Hunt the SHUNT’. What a character.

    Thanks to Flimsy and Grant

     

  2. My tricky ones were different to those of WordPlodder but I will say I thought 4d was a bit of an ‘old friend’ to the crossword solver.  Nice to member Hunt the Shunt too

    thanks to Flimsy and Grant

  3. I need the parsing for some of these 24d, 10a, and 25a. Two quibbles: I feel “standing” to be superfluous in 16a and the apostrophe in 7a suggests LOO rather than LOOS. Thanks  both.

  5. John@3. Although slightly unusual, it is not that uncommon  for setters to have more than one definition coupled with a cryptic bit. Here both “stop” and “standing” are two different definitions for “station” (and they give a better surface imo).

  6. Oh, and 7d is N inside LOO’S rather than LOOS. The fact that the apostrophe disappears in the final answer is again fairly standard.

  7. Thanks Flimsy for an enjoyable crossword. I missed SHUNT — I neither knew Hunt the driver nor SHUNT as a type of accident so that’s my education for the day. Thanks Grant for parsing STATION — I got the answer but without understanding the full sense of the clue.

  8. To Hovis @6 re 7d:
    The dot was intended to show where the introduced ‘N’ would lie in the parsing, so you’ve inadvertently answered my change-of-house-style query in the rubric.
    I thought it might be helpful but clearly it’s just confusing. Ah, well.

  9. Thanks Flimsy and Grant

    Pretty straightforward offering as per normal from this setter.  Hadn’t come across that ‘rum’ definition of SINGULAR before though.  Also hadn’t seen UR as the expression of hesitation either.

    Finished in the SW corner with PLUNGE and SHUNT as the last couple in.

    PS:  Liked the concept of your . to indicate where and inserted part of the word play was to go in.

     

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