Although it is always a delight to blog a Virgilius crossword, my heart is for ever in my mouth because of the Nina: what a fool I’ll look when I don’t see it. And that’s happened here. Lots of As, Bs and Cs and evidently this has something to do with it, but I can see no more.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | R ACE CA RD |
| 5 | BACUP — up on (cab)rev. |
| 9 | B ALMS — there are meanings of ‘balm’ that would be allowed on Countdown: they’re not all mass nouns |
| 10 | NICARAGUA — (Guiana)* outside (CA r) |
| 11 | CABBALA — I think this is just L in an assortment of As, Bs and Cs, but may be wrong |
| 12 | BOARD UP — (B road)* up |
| 13 | ABC — Australian Broadcasting Corporation |
| 14 | A BE(CEDAR I)AN |
| 17 | BASEBALL BAT — I think this is BA BA BA with se ll (the parts of sell) in the gaps, followed by t, but while I can see that ‘small-time’ gives t I can’t see how ‘in’ can be seen as ‘followed by’. OK in Latin (in urbem rather than in urbe), but in English? |
| 20 | CAB — its parts can be read as “see a bee” |
| 22 | LABCOAT — abc in (a lot)* |
| 25 | S (ACK) BUT — the old name for A refers to ‘ack emma’ and things like that |
| 26 | RU(RITA)N 1 A |
| 27 | AC TON — Lord Acton |
| 28 | CA(R)BS — ‘some wines’ gives cabernets I think, although the abbreviation doesn’t seem to be in any of the dictionaries |
| 29 | HERALDIC — (earl hid)* c |
| Down | |
| 1 | REBECCA — (a beer)* outside cc |
| 2 | C ALL B{l}ACKS |
| 3 | C(AS SAT)A |
| 4 | RANG(AB)E LL |
| 5 | BA(R BAR)A |
| 6 | C AGED |
| 7 | PL(A)Y PEN |
| 8 | S CAB |
| 15 | EMBASSAGE — BA in message with its first two letters swapped — a word I didn’t know, but gettable from the wordplay and it’s in at least two of the dictionaries |
| 16 | IN CU(BA)TE D — Buenos Aires |
| 17 | BALDRIC — (laird)* in BC — although a perfectly good clue as it stands, almost a very nice &lit., but Blackadder’s servant was Baldrick and in any case Blackadder probably wasn’t a laird |
| 18 | BRONTES — b (tenors)* |
| 19 | TO (CC) A T A |
| 21 | BOTANIC — either (into ABC)* or (into CAB)* |
| 23 | BA R{esources} E{xploring} R{idge} — barium and the definition is ‘Uncovered more’ |
| 24 | TUNA — (a nut)rev. |
Thanks John,
I think you’ve got everything covered here.
I don’t think there’s a nina beyond the copious use of ABC…(but I could be wrong; there was a fairly recent Radian where all but one of the answers contained DNA).
Another nice one from Virgilius.
Great blog, John – as many A,B,Cs as possible were fitted in with every answer containing at least one and most of them more.
The, um Rusty Badge of Office makes an appearance in the unches, but that would shurely never be revealed intentionally in public, except under the most particular conditions. And would only be noticed otherwise by a very sick person indeed.
Apart from that, I’m with John and Ian: only answer pairings 26 & 27ac (no C) and 4 & 24dn (no B) contrive not to feature all three letters. Brilliant puzzle – as ever.
Ignoring the badge of office, I did check the symmetrical unches for a synonym—no luck, there is KLMN across the central row of unches.
…which I suppose, Colin, could refer to 14ac.?
(Unlike Paul’s, um, starfish).
17 ac is nothing to do with Blackadder, it is indeed a sword bearer – worn over the shoulder.
I suspect that in 17A Virgilius had in mind “sell” = “deal in”
And I suspect that Brendan more than “suspects” what Virgilius had in mind…
Thanks, Brendan (now where did I see that name?). Should have seen that it was ‘deal in’ = ‘sell’ in 17ac. Michael I wasn’t saying that 17dn was connected with Blackadder; what I was trying to say, but doing so less than clearly, was that one might be tempted to think that this clue was an &lit., but it isn’t for the reason (two reasons possibly) that I gave.