Financial Times 18,161 by FLIMSY

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FLIMSY kicks off the week…

An enjoyable and fairly straightforward puzzle with some nice surfaces.

Thanks FLIMSY!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Garment our sister altered one’s taken off (8)
TROUSERS

(OUR S[i]STER (I (one) taken off))* (*altered)

5. Colonel’s only protecting admiral (6)
NELSON

[colo]NELS ON[ly] (protecting)

9. Dignified demeanour before scene changes (8)
PRESENCE

PRE (before) + (SCENE)* (*changes)

10. Scarf and cardigan ultimately makes you hot (6)
STOLEN

STOLE (scarf) and [cardiga]N (ultimately)

12. European cross by a court’s demand (5)
EXACT

E (European) + X (cross) by A + CT (court)

13. Obstruct playwright heading off with free nuts (9)
INTERFERE

[p]INTER (playwright, heading off) with (FREE)* (*nuts)

14. Turn back if gang’s shooting (6)
FIRING

(IF)< (<turn back) + RING (gang)

16. Birds following black dogs (7)
BEAGLES

EAGLES (birds) following B (black)

19. Revered American golf course (7)
AUGUSTA

AUGUST (revered) + A (American)

21. Conclusion bleak, possibly, about Northern Ireland (6)
FINISH

FISH (bleak, possibly) about NI (Northern Ireland)

23. Cleaner put off by grand hospital department (9)
DETERGENT

DETER (put off) by G (grand) + ENT (hospital department)

25. Free limb almost trapped in vehicle (5)
CLEAR

LE[g] (limb, almost) trapped in CAR (vehicle)

26. Jersey, perhaps, is put down (6)
ISLAND

IS + LAND (put down)

27. Arriving at emergency room flipping throbbing (8)
REACHING

(ER)< (emergency room, <flipping) + ACHING (throbbing)

28. Finally standing next to snake, Edward breathed hard (6)
GASPED

[standin]G (finally) next to ASP (snake) + ED (Edward)

29. Hearing sound, honest! (8)
STRAIGHT

"strait" = STRAIGHT (sound, "hearing")

DOWN
1. Drunk pinching priest’s hat (6)
TOPPER

TOPER (drunk) pinching P (priest)

2. Running exercises restricted by speaking (9)
OPERATING

PE (exercises) restricted by ORATING (speaking)

3. Son satisfied eating large fish (5)
SMELT

S (son) + (MET (satisfied) eating L (large))

4. Stunning mythical bird, Charles? (7)
ROCKING

ROC (mythical bird) + KING (Charles?)

6. Get in coach right away, please (9)
ENTERTAIN

ENTER (get in) + T[r]AIN (coach, R (right) away)

7. Crack visible at first in part of shoe (5)
SOLVE

V[isible] (at first) in SOLE (part of shoe)

8. In town, regularly pick up rubbish (8)
NONSENSE

[i]N [t]O[w]N (regularly) + SENSE (pick up)

11. Go round the bend from the south (4)
STAB

(BATS)< (round the bend, <from the south)

15. Protection from cur’s inane barking (9)
INSURANCE

(CURS INANE)* (*barking)

17. Around middle of seminar, Glen isn’t unfortunately paying attention (9)
LISTENING

around [sem]I[nar] (middle of), (GLEN ISNT)* (*unfortunately)

18. Dealing with worker left in rear of building (8)
HANDLING

HAND (worker) + L (left) + IN + [buildin]G (rear of)

20. Salary wife’s missed for a long time (4)
AGES

[w]AGES (salary, W (wife) missed)

21. Most plump initially for a time trial (7)
FATTEST

F[or] (initially) + A + T (time) + TEST (trial)

22. Scare female properly (6)
FRIGHT

F (female) + RIGHT (properly)

24. Swiss archer’s orders (5)
TELLS

Double definition

25. Short farm animal twice accepted drink (5)
COCOA

CO[w] CO[w] (farm animal, short, twice) + A (accepted)

20 comments on “Financial Times 18,161 by FLIMSY”

  2. Well I’ve learnt that a bleak is a fish. Must try one on our next fish’n’chips night.

    My least favourite clue was for COCOA.

  3. Haven’t seen Flimsy in ages and I enjoyed this very much.
    Lots of pithy clues and neat surfaces throughout.
    Liked: AUGUSTA, STOLEN, FIRING, LISTENING, TOPPER and STAB.
    Thanks Flimsy and Teacow.

  4. I too liked AUGUSTA and STRAIGHT and had never heard of a fish called BLEAK. Overall, gentle but fun.

    Thanks Flimsy and Teacow

  6. Very enjoyable, I only came up short on Reaching but once I saw it I kicked myself!

    Thanks to Flimsy and Teacow.

  7. I too liked AUGUSTA; not quite an &lit, but one where the wordplay kind of extends the definition.

    All of the surface readings were very smooth; this is the sort of puzzle that exemplifies my credo that given a choice between elegant and difficult, I’ll take elegant every time (if choice there must be).

  8. Loved this as much as the Nitsy in the Independent but why do setters have pseudonyms of pseudonyms? Why not use one or the other?

    Same concise surfaces, I like when a setter can use as few words as possible to include the definition and wordplay. So clever especially TOPPER, SMELT and my LOI JERSEY.

  9. A nice easy one – a few I had to fill in from crossers then google afterwards (NHO ‘bleak’ as a fish, and British English just has way too many terms for drunk). Also felt like the surface for 17 was a bit tortured, but overall a very enjoyable Monday puzzle. Thanks Flimsy and Teacow!

  10. Yet another odd fish name to remember – and most of them seem to occur only in Crosswordland. An enjoyable puzzle, though with enough challenge to avoid being a write-in.
    Thanks, Flimsy and Teacow.

  11. Not much to add to the comments so far. Flimsy’s appearances are rare, but so far his puzzles have all been top class.

    Thanks Flimsy and Teacow

  12. Thanks as ever to Flimsy and Teacow.

    GDU@2 Couldn’t agree more on COCOA. We have no doubt a is listed somewhere as an abbreviation for accepted but can anyone give us a working example?

  14. We knew there would be an answer. Thanks very much for that Pelham Barton @13.

    But I guess that was our point. It may be on p.1 of SOED 2007 but that’s pretty obscure which we suspect was what GDU was getting at with his post and hence our comment.

  15. Chambers 2016 (p 1) also has a for “accepted”, but as usual without any further definition, which is why I went to SOED.

  16. Bleak barely even registered with me. I had to go back and find the clue. I remember watching on with jaded disattachment as my angling friends would catch and release them while hoping for carp.

    Elsewhere, there were some neat surfaces here.

    I liked TROUSERS, PRESENCE and STRAIGHT.

    Thank you Flimsy and Teacow

  17. I really enjoyed this one – and as an intermediate crossworder, I actually completed this with no assistance! Also, now I know that bleak is a fish! Thanks to Flimsy & Teacow!

  18. I initially thought the bleakly recondite use of “a.” for “accepted” could have easily been avoided:
    Short farm animal twice had a drink.
    But you can’t have a drink and then have it twice.

  19. I put OPERATION for 2 down, which I admit is a bit of a stretch, but that made it impossible for me to get AUGUSTA (which I’d never heard of anyway.)

  20. 2dn further to Funsize@9: I originally had OPERATIVE, which fits the definition, but is a stretch for the wordplay. OPERATION fits the wordplay, but I agree it is a bit of a stretch for the definition. Fortunately, I knew Augusta, so could correct my error.

    25dn: While I am back in. I think comments that a for accepted is obscure or recondite might be fair for a puzzle in the Guardian or the Independent, but, given the definition quoted in comment 13, I think it is perfectly reasonable to use that abbreviation in the Financial Times.

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