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
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.
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.
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.
Pelham – I agree with you about RR and Limousine, stretching it a bit I think.