Financial Times 13,756 by Aardvark
Posted by PeeDee on July 27th, 2011
A very enjoyable crossword from Aardvark.
No themes, multiple linked clues or other funny business, just straight down the line crossword fun. My favourite clues were 1ac and 28ac. 1 across took me an inexplicably long time to solve, the answer was staring me in the face but for some reason I just couldn’t see it.
Hold mouse over a clue number to read the clue.
| Across | ||
| 1 | AARDVARK | mAcAbRe (letters chosen regularly) and Volume in the DARK (in secrecy) – the author of this crossword |
| 5 | CARPET | Double definition – slate in sense of ‘to severely reprimand’ |
| 9 | KING LEAR | KIN (blood relation) Left inside GEAR (dress, clothes) |
| 10 | RANDOM | MANOR* containing (houses) Deserted (abbreviation) |
| 12 | DAMNATION | TAN (brown) MAD (bananas) following (past) NO I (peak=number 1) all reversed |
| 13 | ELGAR | LearninG (limits of) inside EAR (listener) |
| 14 | WHEY | Women and HEY (look here!) |
| 16 | PINK GIN | NIP (drinks measure) reversed Gallons inside KIN (family) |
| 19 | PLUMMET | MET (satisfied) following PLUM (fruit) |
| 21 | BEND | B (secondary) and END |
| 24 | ADIEU | AU around (coats) DIE (fade) – definition is ‘all the best’ |
| 25 | BILLY LIAR | BILLY (cooking pot) LIAR (one who tells ‘pork pies’, rhyming slang for lies) – novel by Keith Waterhouse |
| 27 | FRINGE | RING (gang) inside FrancE (unoccupied=nothing inside) |
| 28 | AMBROSIA | MB (doctor) RO (run out, cricket) in ASIA (continent) |
| 29 | RUN DRY | RR (Rolls Royce, maker of limousines) containing (attracts) UND (‘and’ in German) and Yankee (phonetic alphabet) |
| 30 | RAMSGATE | George in SEAT* with RAM (something woolly) put on |
| Down | ||
| 1 | AIKIDO | I (1 Roman numeral) KID (child) in LAOs (centre of) |
| 2 | RENAME | poEM AN ERror |
| 3 | VOLGA | GLOVe (mitt briefly) reversed (lifted) and A – a river is something that runs |
| 4 | READILY | DELIA* inside RY (railway, lines) |
| 6 | AGAMEMNON | GAME (daring) Male to go into (punch, make hole in) ANON (soon) |
| 7 | PEDAGOGY | DEP (Department of Earnings and Pensions, UK goverment) reversed (boosted=raised) AGO (in the past) Government Year |
| 8 | TAMARIND | TAMAR (name of English river, something that flows) IN (at home) Develop (first letter of) |
| 11 | SNAP | South and North poles with PA (per annum) reversed (switched) |
| 15 | HAMBURGER | Definition and cryptic definition – a resident of Hamburg will say ‘Ja’ rther than ‘Yes’ |
| 17 | SPEAK FOR | Sweden PEAK (top) FORm (class without M=mile) – letter count should be (5,3) for this solution |
| 18 | MUSICIAN | MU (Greek letter) SICilIAN (Italian with I=one and L=pound) |
| 20 | TUBA | TUB (bath) and Alfresco (first letter of) – a musical instrument in the brass section |
| 21 | BULIMIA | anagram of MALIBU and I (1 Roman numeral) – medical complaint |
| 22 | FIESTA | FIrE STA (station) missing R |
| 23 | ARCANE | CAN (toilet, slang) inside (occupying) ERA (a long time) reversed |
| 26 | YPRES | PR (Proportional Representation, voting system) inside YES (agreed) – municipality of Belgium |
*anagram
July 27th, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Very enjoyable thanks Aardvark. Thanks to PeeDee too. Like you I took ages to see 1a. I would have got 17d a lot earlier too had the enumeration been correct. There is a typo in the answers for 25a – LIAR not LAIR.
July 27th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Finished (except 17d) without any real difficulty. As crypticsue says above, if the enumeration had been correct, I would have completed it; at the time it did not occur to me that the answer might be two words.
Thanks to Aardvark for the puzzle, and to PeeDee for the notes.
July 27th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Thanks PeeDee. I think you mean “per annum” in the explanation of 11dn.
I really do not like grids that split into quarters as badly as this one does.
Re 29ac: I have serious problems with “limousine” to clue “RR”. As I understand it, not all limousines are Rolls Royces and not all Rolls Royces are limousines.
Favourite clue 24ac – nice deceptive use of “coats” in an excellent surface.
July 27th, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Pelham – I agree with you about RR and Limousine, stretching it a bit I think.