Enjoyable crossword, neither too hard nor too easy. This was my first FT blog and I don’t know AARDVARK at all, so was a little apprehensive starting this one. My favourite clue was 26dn with a nice surface reading and a good ‘aha’ moment on solving.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SENORA | bARONESs |
| 4 | PSYCHS UP | P (pastor) with ouside letters of SundaY + CH + SUP |
| 9 | ESCUDO | anagram of USED with part of COin (and literal definition) |
| 10 | BEN NEVIS | BENN (politicain) and ElVIS without ‘l’. I was fasciniated to discover how many ‘Benn’ politicians there are to choose from: Arthur, Brindley, Emily, Hilary, Sir John, Stephen, Tony, William… |
| 12 | PLATYPUS | PLUS around A TYPe (blood group briefly) |
| 13 | CORNEA | CO (company=buisiness) ARE* hiding N (new) |
| 15 | REIN | RE (regarding, on) and IN (home) |
| 16 | BLANCMANGE | Raymond BLANC GAME* including N (national) |
| 19 | CHELTENHAM | (HE THE CLAN M)* |
| 20 | STUB | BUTS reversed |
| 23 | DEFACE | ED around CAFE reversed |
| 25 | AT A GUESS | TAG (name) with UsEd inside ASS |
| 27 | LOLLARDS | ALL reversed inside LORDS. The Lollards were followers of John Wycliffe. |
| 28 | PANAMA | PAN AM + A |
| 29 | ABOVE ALL | OVEn inside A BALL |
| 30 | FAG END | F (emale) AG (Ag chemical symbol for siver) END (cutains) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SLEEPER | LEE (shelter) inside REPS backward |
| 2 | NECTARINE | (N CERTAIN)* + E (bearing) |
| 3 | REDEYE | Sounds like “Red I” |
| 5 | SUET | IsSUETips |
| 6 | CONSOMME | CON with Moan inside SOME |
| 7 | SEVEN | SEVE Ballesteros plus close of piN. Reference is to the 7th hole. on golf course. |
| 8 | PASSAGE | PAS (French not) with SAGE |
| 11 | CURLING | Cryptic definition |
| 14 | INFANTA | IN (popular) + FANTA |
| 17 | NOTRE DAME | MADE Runs in ETON all reversed |
| 18 | STOCKADE | STOCK (standard) + ADE (‘aid’ homophone) |
| 19 | CEDILLA | (CALLED I)* |
| 21 | BUSTARD | U with SmarT inside BARD |
| 22 | IGUANA | Anagram of Umbrage and AGAIN. I liked ‘ground’ as the anagram indicator here. |
| 24 | FALDO | FAL (rivier in SW England) and DO (fleece = to ‘do’ someone out of their money) |
| 26 | IDOL | Left following I DO (Do you promise to take…?) Took a while to catch on to this one! |
* Anagram
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee. Of the Benn politicians, Tony would be by the far the best known, I’d say.
Many thanks PeeDee you are really getting around!
I enjoyed this: full marks to Aardvark.
Failed to finish this puzzle, so thanks for the blog, PeeDee. Re the Benn politicians, I would have thought it was more relevant how many Tonys there are. Eden, Blair, Crossland come to mind. I just googled “tony politician” and Benn came up first.
Thanks PeeDee.
Enjoyed this puzzle from Aardvark,who I find one of the more difficult of the FT setters.As usual there were some clever,misleading surfaces and some unusual definitions.
I,also,liked 26 down along with 13 across and 14 down.I didn’t realise Fanta was still available,my drinking tastes have moved on somewhat from sweet fizzy drinks!
I am puzzled by 2 down,the clue only works if NOTE can be represented as NE.I can’t find it in Chambers,is this an acceptable abbreviation?
Re 2 dn: I thought of N as being half of ‘NB’ meaning ‘note that…’. Actually though, this is not a very good solution, as now I look it up in Chambers it stands for ‘nota bene’, or ‘good note’ in Italian, so it needs translating before it really works.
Anyone got any better ideas?
Hi Scarpia and PeeDee
2dn is N (note) *(CERTAIN) E (bearing)
Thanks Gaufrid.
So obvious when you point it out!
I should have spotted that,but well done to Aardvark for a nicely disguised clue.
Thanks Gaufrid, Sorry Scarpia, I forgot to add the E into the explanation. I understand what you are gettting at now.