A novel theme to today’s puzzle from Scorpion – one with which we are all probably familiar without really knowing why.
What is it about 17ac that makes it a measure for the size of other geographical features?
If any amendments are needed, they will have to wait until the evening. We are currently walking St Oswald’s Way. If you see four walkers between Beadnell and Belford – give us a wave!
| Across | ||
| 8 | Older crook pinches sage plant, destroying one’s land (about the size of 17) (2,8) | |
| EL SALVADOR | An anagram of OLDER (anagrind is ‘crook’) round or ‘pinching’’ SALV |
|
| 9/24 | Injured Oriental soaks, unclothed, in mass of water (about the size of 17) (4,7) | |
| LAKE ONTARIO | An anagram of ORIENTAL and |
|
| 10 | Constant blanket used by queen in National Park (about the size of 17) (6) | |
| KRUGER | K (constant) RUG (blanket) ER (queen) | |
| 11 | Part of army outside in shower running around courtyard (8) | |
| SQUADRON | S and R (first and last letters or ‘outside’ of ‘shower’ ON (running) round QUAD (courtyard) | |
| 12 | Jimmy, before volume reduced, vaguely complaining (7) | |
| PEEVISH | PEE (Jimmy, as in jimmy riddle) V (volume) ISH (vaguely) | |
| 14 | It’s the responsibility of Abbey to leave out bin at rear (4,2) | |
| DOWN TO | DOWNTO |
|
| 16 | Island‘s ace party swinging (4) | |
| BALI | I (ace) LAB (party, as in Labour) reversed or ‘swinging’ | |
| 17 | Cardigan’s found in this school, as reported (5) | |
| WALES | Homonym of WHALES (school) | |
| 19 | Given some time to think, wrenching back and shoulder (4) | |
| TOTE | Hidden (‘some’) and reversed (‘wrenching back’) in ‘timE TO Think’ | |
| 21 | Gipsy roamed regularly, and left country (about the size of 17) (6) | |
| ISRAEL | Alternate or ‘regular’ letters of ‘gIpSy RoAmEd’ and L (left) | |
| 24 | See 9 | |
| 25 | Poles touring adore major road around republic (about the size of 17) (8) | |
| SLOVENIA | S and N (poles) round or ‘touring’ LOVE (adore) A1 (major road) reversed or ‘around’ | |
| 28 | Bother active American drawing area of Italy (about the size of 17) (6) | |
| APULIA | We’re not at all sure about this – we think it is AIL (bother) UP (active) A (American) all reversed or ‘drawing’??? Any thoughts out there? | |
| 29 | Worry, as female overpowers male in convoluted puzzle (4) | |
| FAZE | ||
| 30 | Scottish pupil aimed to change during current calendar (10) | |
| ACADEMICAL | An anagram of AIMED (anagrind is ‘to change’) in AC (current) CAL (calendar) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Beauty exercises followed by a colourful Antipodean resident (5-3) | |
| GLORY-PEA | GLORY (beauty) PE (exercises) A | |
| 2 | Ruin the grain mostly, splitting pizza (10) | |
| MARGHERITA | MAR (ruin) + an anagram of THE GRAI |
|
| 3 | Survey completed on sex in Latin partners (8) | |
| OVERVIEW | OVER (completed) VI (six – ‘sex’ in Latin) EW (partners – in bridge or similar card gaems) | |
| 4 | Likelihood party will be backed by surgeon (4) | |
| ODDS | DO (party) reversed or ‘backed’ DS (doctor of surgery) | |
| 5 | Did pound firstly get used on ball? (6) | |
| GROUND | G (first letter of ‘get’) ROUND (ball) | |
| 6 | What PCs supposedly do when left in casing (4) | |
| PLOD | L (left) in POD (casing) | |
| 7 | Add to Oriental meal-to-go? No thanks (3,3) | |
| EKE OUT | E (Oriental) |
|
| 13 | Man is going to love what’s said at meeting? (5) | |
| HELLO | HE’LL (he will or ‘man is going to’) O (love) | |
| 15 | Current Classical character thus discovering orchestral suite (5,5) | |
| WATER MUSIC | WATER (current) MU (Classical character) SIC (thus) | |
| 18 | Day before a diet, nuts gorged (8) | |
| SATIATED | SAT (Saturday – ‘day’) + an anagram of A DIET – anagrind is ‘nuts’ | |
| 20 | Roger enters local, hot and sticky (8) | |
| TROPICAL | R (Roger) in TOPICAL (local) | |
| 22 | Ruler bends, as trainee’s added line touching curve (6) | |
| SULTAN | This one had us really puzzled – but we think it must be U and S (types of bend) L (Learner or trainee) TAN (tangent – line touching curve) | |
| 23 | Type of equation the Calabrian’s written up narrowly (6) | |
| LINEAR | IL (‘the’ in Italian – Calabrian) reversed or ‘written up’ + NEAR (narrowly) | |
| 26 | Always chasing playing against wind (4) | |
| VEER | E’ER (always) after or ‘chasing’ V (playing against) | |
| 27 | A number of seamen heard Greek warrior (4) | |
| AJAX | A + a homonym (‘heard’) of JACKS (number of seamen) | |
Very pleasant and educational,Thanks Scorpion and B&J
I worried about APULIA too, but how’s this…
The construct is as you say, but the operator for ‘reversing’ is the ‘about’, cleverly hidden in the bracket. I think that’s it.
Good head-scratchers all through. Thanks to Scorpion and to B & J. Enjoy the walk!
On APULIA, I think “drawing” is used in the old sense of “withdrawing”. Thanks for explaining the other aspects of it, though – it had me scratching my head.
For APULIA the indicator is “drawing”. A draw shot in golf goes right to left.
Good stuff. Thanks to setter and bloggers.
I had CLAD, though, at 6D. I admit it doesn’t quite work, but “What PCS supposedly do” could just about be CAD (Computer-Aided Design), with “in casing” as the definition.
@Geebs, 4…
Not if you’re left-handed!
And a pangram. AJAX a bit of a giveaway.
Enjoyed this. I parsed APULIA (my last in) as B&J did though haven’t come across ‘drawing’ as a reversal indicator before. I liked your explanation Geebs@4, though as Grant Baynham@5 points out, I’m not sure Phil Mickleson and other ‘lefties’ would agree! Liked ACADEMICAL and PEEVISH.
Thank you to Scorpion and B&J.
Quite unusually for me, I spotted the theme straight away; the enumeration of 8 plus a quick look at 17 said it all, and any of the thematic answers which weren’t immediately obvious soon came from checking letters – even APULIA though I was puzzled by the apparent lack of a reversal indicator (I think it must be ‘drawing’ as others have said). Got GLORY PEA from the wordplay but had to google to check there was such a thing. I had SALTAN (as in The Tale of Tsar Saltan) for 22dn, taking ‘bends’ to be a reversal indicator, except of course that it showed up as an error.
But all very enjoyable. Thanks, Scorpion and B&J.
In my app version the themed entries on the empty grid were shaded purple. Anyone else get this ? Is there a point to doing this ?
Ditto for me with CLAD, Jason @ 5.
I think it works fine, although (now) obviously not as strong as PLOD.
@Geebs, 10…
Re the purple squares. It’s a bit of mess, isn’t it? I think we’re bright enough to work out a theme as clear as this without being SHOUTED AT.
Thanks, both.
I love the way that cryptics throw up random stuff like this. Why do we use Wales as an indication of size? Answers on a postcard, but I suspect it’s just because we can.
Got most of it, but failed on APULIA, SULTAN and FAZE. But you don’t have to finish a crossword to enjoy it, and I enjoyed this one.
Thank you to the (sometimes) venomous one.
This one defeated me. Could only get about half of it.
Also a case of even if you got the theme, it didn’t help in getting the themed entries, unless there’s a website somewhere listing all places the size of Wales.
Dormouse @14
Funny you should say that …
http://www.thedepartureboard.com/top-10-places-actually-the-size-of-wales/
🙂
OK 🙂
No Kruger national park, though, which I’d never heard off nor could I get from the word play. 🙁