I enjoyed this offering from Gurney. It seemed very fresh; that might be because I don’t blog Gurney’s puzzles very often, or it might simply be because this was a well-thought-out, witty and challenging crossword. So thanks, Gurney.
ACROSS
1. STREEP Re [about] within reversal of pets [cats]
4. WOODLAND Anagram of download
10. ALL-STAR Cryptic definition
11. DESCENT S [son] within decent [good]
12. WEED Alternate (intermittent) letters of WeEkEnD
13. SEMICIRCLE Anagram of clerics (r)emi(t)
16. ROSTER Anagram of shorter minus H [hours]
17. BEELINE Bee(f) [meat] + in [home] within le [‘the’ in French]
20. MATTHEW Hidden in jerusaleM AT THE Window
21. GREECE Sounds like grease [oil]
24. ABERRATION Anagram of bare + ration [allowance]
25. PAST Pa’s [dad’s] + t [tenor]
27. LAWLESS Flawless [perfect] minus F [fellow]
29. FLORIST Or [gold] within Fl [Florida] + Ist [first]
30. DETHRONE Anagram of the [definite article] within drone [plane]
31. OPENER O [old] + pen [writer] + er [expression of hesitation]
DOWN
1. STALWART Reversal of awl [tool] within start [beginning]
2. ROLLER-SKATE Anagram of talkers role
3. EATS Heats [raises temperature] minus h [heat]
5. OLD-TIMER Double definition, a clepsydra being an old-fashioned timing device
6. DISTILLERY S [Southern] + tiller [farmer] within DIY [Do-it-yourself, independent work]
7. AGE Sage [wise one] minus (contentiou)s
8. DUTIES Du [Dutch] + tie [restrict] + s(tealth)
9. GREEN Hidden in emiGRE ENgages
14. CENTENARIAN Anagram of near ancient
15. YESTERYEAR Yes [indeed] + anagram of rare yet
18. JETTISON J [judge] + anagram of notes it
19. TESTATOR Test [exam] + reversal of rota [schedule]
22. BALLAD Bal(tic) + lad [young man]
23. CORFU Co [company, firm] + anagram of fur
26. SOAP Hidden in treviSO APpear
28. WET Initial letters of Winter Evening Typically
Thanks, Ringo, for a nice blog. I agree with your assessment of this puzzle, which I enjoyed solving, although I made things difficult for myself in places. I’m obviously not at my brightest today.
For some reason, I just couldn’t see the anagram at 4ac for ages and also spent a long time looking for a word including K at 12ac.
Then, at 14dn, I didn’t bother to write the letters down to rearrange them and carelessly construed the anagram as REINCARNATE – I was only an R short and an N too many! 🙁 That, along with the clever hidden answer at 20ac turned out to be my favourite.
Many thanks, Gurney, for all the fun!
Thanks Ringo and Gurney. I wondered if there was a mini theme about the past: CENTENARIAN, OLD TIMER, AGE, DESCENT, YESTERYEAR and PAST. Maybe not.
Nice crossword.
Thanks to S and B. Like Eileen, I spent longer on 4a than I might have done – I think it was because of the neat bracketing of the anagram indicator (“dodgy”) between two possible eight letter sets, with the possibility of two different definitions. Nice one, Gurney!
@mike anyone would think setters deliberately do such things, the horror 🙂 there does seem a mini age thing going on but our friend nms has a way to go yet to get his telegram or whatever you get these days. 30 took me a few seconds to unravel mostly due to me making a similar mistake to Eileen with 15d putting in yesterdays for yesteryear. Thanks Gurney and Ringo.
Many thanks for the excellent blog, Ringo, and to all who commented. The kind remarks are much appreciated. Inclusion of the answers mentioned at #2 was pure coincidence and not even noticed till it was pointed out there!