Super puzzle from Gozo. Thank you.
The themed entries are things to eat. All that solving and blogging has made me very hungry all of a sudden – I’m off for a hearty breakfast!
I will be out most of the day but will respond to any queries or corrections when I can.
| Across | ||
| 1 | COBNUT | Small company with odd characters from banquet (6) |
| CO (company, small=abbr) with BuNqUeT (odd letters from) – a hazelnut | ||
| 4 | CONSOMME | Politician by river (8) |
| CON (Conservative, politician) with SOMME (river) – clear French soup | ||
| 9 | RUSSET | Returning from the States – surely? (6) |
| found reversed (returning) inside staTES SURely – an apple | ||
| 10 | MERINGUE | Gumere, cryptically (8) |
| “gumere” cryptically is MER IN GUE – with whipped cream and strawberries | ||
| 12 | CHOP SUEY | Hacks’ U-turn, down under (4,4) |
| CHOPS (hacks) with UEY (U-turn, Australian) – chinese takeaway special | ||
| 13 | HASLET | The tenancy is signed – could be last he arranged (6) |
| HAS LET (the tennacy is signed) and also (LAST HE)* anaram = arranged – a pork meatloaf | ||
| 15 | EDAM | Regular sex. Dear me! (4) |
| sEx DeAr Me (regular selection from) – cheese | ||
| 16 | BATH OLIVER | Hate Bovril in a stew (4,6) |
| anagram (in a stew) of HATE BOVRIL – cullinary companion of 14dn | ||
| 19 | SALSA VERDE | Investor in new deals (5,5) |
| SAVER (investor) in DEALS* anagram=new – food for saucy Mexicans | ||
| 20 | BRIE | Cut short (4) |
| BRIEf (short) cut short (cut) – cheese that always tastes better when eaten in France | ||
| 23 | NOUGAT | Go out with aunt (6) |
| anagram (out) of GO with AUNT | ||
| 25 | WATER ICE | Irrigate reserve (5,3) |
| WATER (irrigate) and ICE (reserve) – sorbet | ||
| 27 | AMBROSIA | One doctor sounds more cheerful (8) |
| A (one) MB (doctor) with ROSIER sounds like “rosier” (more cheerful) – food for the gods | ||
| 28 | RELISH | Run to cooked meat shop that’s not opened and be quiet! (6) |
| R (run) with dELI (cooked meat shop) miisng forst letter (not opened) and SH (be quiet) – often seen with 14 and 16 | ||
| 29 | PORRIDGE | Broken grip-rod on end of staircase (8) |
| anagram (broken) of GRIP ROD with staircasE (end letter of) – food for prisoners | ||
| 30 | RENNET | Bank note returned (6) |
| TENNER (bank note) reversed (returned) – used to make 14 | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CORACLE | Chelsea tractor could shatter this boat (7) |
| CHELSEA TRACTOR is an anagram of (could be) SHATTER CORACLE (this, the answer) | ||
| 2 | BEST OF ALL | Especially fortunate football star on round trip (4,2,3) |
| George BEST (football star) on O (something round) and FALL (trip) | ||
| 3 | UNEASE | Trouble most of the month for centre of Basel (6) |
| jUNE (the month, most of) with bASEl (centre letters of) | ||
| 5 | OGEN | Lack of data, apparently (4) |
| O GEN (zero gen, lack of information apparently) – a melon from Israel | ||
| 6 | SUITABLE | Outfit that’s fit and fit (8) |
| SUIT (outfit) with ABLE (fit) | ||
| 7 | MOGUL | Wealthy businessman with a moment to pull up (5) |
| MO (a moment) and LUG (to pull) reversed (up) | ||
| 8 | EVENTER | Horseman always around hospital department (7) |
| EVER (apways) contains (around) ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat, hospital department) | ||
| 11 | FELAFEL | Turn left twice (NOT two times!) round main road (7) |
| LEFt missing T (time) reversed (turn), twice, containing A (A road, main road) – filling for flatbreads | ||
| 14 | CHEDDAR | Dramatic heroine in outskirts of Colmar (7) |
| HEDDA Gabler (eponymous heroine of Ibsen play) inside ColmaR (outside letters of) – cullinary companion of 16 ac | ||
| 17 | VERMILION | Minister, upset, losing pound from 1,000,000, goes red (9) |
| REV (minister) reversed (upset) with MILLION missing L (libra, pound) | ||
| 18 | MACARONI | 1 ac. – Roman version (8) |
| anagram (version) of I (1, Roman numeral) AC ROMAN – food for Italians | ||
| 19 | SUNLAMP | Light for a tanner (7) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 21 | EYESHOT | Private detective gunned down within seeing distance (7) |
| EYE (private detective) with SHOT (gunned down) | ||
| 22 | SEVERE | Unrelenting Spanish golfer on St Andrews’ 6th and 7th (6) |
| SEVE (Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer) on standREws (6th and 7th letters of) | ||
| 24 | UMBER | Pigment from ‘ull’s river (5) |
| the river hUMBER flows past hULL | ||
| 26 | LING | Cheap jewellery (not black) for Heather (4) |
| bLING (cheap jewelry) missing B (black) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Without catching the food theme, this one was impossible! Isolated most of the non-food clues but could not justify those few of the “food clues” e.g.1ac 16ac 23ac and 29ac
Oops, That should have been “I solved most…..” Just shows how befuddled I was when I gave up!
Thanks Gozo and Peedee
Unlike john above I thought this one was a doddle – 1A15, 23, 25 & 30 were gimmes on the first across pass, closely followed by 2, 7, 8, 17, 19, 21, 24 & 26 on the first run through the downs. That revealed the theme and gave enough crossers to start filling the grid in another one or two passes.
Very enjoyable, and I applaud Gozo’s ingenuity in making 20 of 32 solutions themers.
Yes, I loved this puzzle — thanks, Gozo. I hesitated with a couple — e.g. haslet, which I’d never heard of till I consulted Chambers; and coracle, which I got but couldn’t parse. Well done, PeeDee — I try to get puzzles done before breakfast, but didn’t manage today.
Thanks, Peedee.
I didn’t quite finish this – missed FELAFEL, through sheer laziness. I was left with the unpromising ?E?A?E?, for which there were dozens of options and couldn’t see the wordplay, after having tried an anagram of LEF[t] [t]WICE. If I had bothered to count up the number of food ‘downs’ I had, I’d have seen there was one missing, which would have reduced the field considerably and I would have persevered.
I’d forgotten all about HASLET. When I was a child, there was a pork butcher’s in the village, which sold it, among other weird and wonderful things like brawn, chitterlings, faggots, of course, and more that I don’t really like to think about.
I really liked the clues for EDAM, BATH OLIVER and MACARONI.
Many thanks to Gozo – quite a feat, as Simon S says.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Started this one on the train ride into work today … didn’t look at it until tonight after dinner when was able to finish it off. Didn’t find it particularly easy, especially when I got to the same last one as Eileen but was able to find FELAFEL, although it is not the usual way that I would have spelled it.
Interesting choice of theme and a good effort to get so many into the grid without any weirdo words to fill in the gaps.
Did like the clue for UMBER a lot.
Thanks PeeDee and Gozo.
I found this tough going. It needed the whole train ride home, a lot of thought overnight, and half the train ride this morning and I still couldn’t parse CORACLE, the EY in CHOP SUEY (I see now I was looking for UEY) or BEST OF ALL.
Maybe I’m sore because this took too much effort but there did seem some laxity in the clues – “for” in 3dn should surely be “to” and the people of Kingston upon Hull would normally claim their river as the Hull (which enters the Humber there).
On the food theme, I got COBNUT straight off followed by RUSSET, EDAM, BRIE, BATH OLIVER, CHEDDAR, RELISH and RENNET before any others so was looking for a cheese-board theme. So that made me feel short-changed when the theme emerged to be food-stuffs generally.
Hey Ho!