PeeDee is (hopefully) enjoying a cycling holiday so I get a chance to cover the Wednesday FT again. So, what can I say about this one?
1ac was entered immediately followed by the rest of the NW quadrant. I then progressed clockwise with the NE, SE and finally the SW quadrants being completed in turn. The only slight holdup was in the SW where I had to do some research to justify part of the parsing of 30ac (I have included a link in case others, like me, were unaware of this type of garden).
There seemed to be a lot of containment clues but this did not detract from the solving pleasure. Thanks Aardvark.
Across
1 Yank shortly taking hint about where to preach (6)
PULPIT – PUL[l] (yank shortly) TIP (hint) reversed (about)
4 I’m going north with agents somewhere in Iberia (8)
VALENCIA – VALE (I’m going) N (north) CIA (agents)
10 Disease that produces rings during regular spells of trauma (7)
RUBELLA – BELL (that produces rings) in (during) [t]R[a]U[m]A (regular spells of trauma)
11 Itinerant weeps, stifled by a lack of foreign currency (3,4)
NEW PESO – an anagram (itinerant) of WEEPS in (stifled by) NO (a lack of)
12 English runner’s bearing extreme right in race (4)
AIRE – AIR (bearing) [rac]E (extreme right in race)
13 Hard soldiers intercepting alien type of missile (5-5)
SHORT-RANGE – H (hard) OR (soldiers) in (intercepting) STRANGE (alien)
15 Northern ambassador entering prime site of battle (6)
ARNHEM – N (northern) HE (ambassador) in (entering) ARM (prime)
16 Trail disheartened during Ashes, sadly missing bowler? (7)
HATLESS – T[rai]L (trail disheartened) in (during) an anagram (sadly) of ASHES
20 Mum present to probe party
SHINDIG – SH (mum) IN (present) DIG (probe)
21 Almost banned by licensee, primarily a source of booze (6)
BARREL – BARRE[d] (almost banned) L[icensee] (licensee, primarily)
24 High-class lines contributing to poetry in royal residence (10)
VERSAILLES – A1 (high-class) LL (lines) in (contributing to) VERSES (poetry)
26 Ice crystals swept over, using ruler (4)
EMIR – RIME (ice crystals) reversed (swept over)
28 Part of Barnet maybe granted arena as priority (7)
RINGLET – RING (arena) before (given priority) LET (granted)
29 Bath perhaps having water controls reflecting individual (3,4)
SPA TOWN – TAPS (water controls) reversed (reflecting) OWN (individual)
30 Small daughter at a particular garden finds invasive plant usually (8)
KNOTWEED – KNOT (a particular garden) WEE (small) D (daughter)
31 Painter once again absorbed by canal (6)
CUBIST – BIS (once again) in CUT (canal)
Down
1 Mean royal female eats husband’s meat (5,3)
PARMA HAM – PAR (mean) MAAM (royal female) around (eats) H (husband)
2 One may get lost here travelling by train into outskirts of Leith (9)
LABYRINTH – an anagram (travelling) of BY TRAIN in (into) L[eit]H (outskirts of Leith)
3 Tallest ones in ice dance lift youngsters with ease (4)
IDLY – initial letters of (tallest ones in) I[ce] D[ance] L[ift] Y[oungsters]
5 Weird secret clique, caught out, concealing rule (8)
ABNORMAL – [c]ABAL (secret clique, caught out) around (concealing) NORM (rule)
6 Dodgy dealer collects sketch, perhaps hiking up artist (6,4)
EDWARD LEAR – an anagram (dodgy) of DEALER around (collects) DRAW (sketch, perhaps) reversed (hiking up)
7 Virtuous family, full of energy (5)
CLEAN – CLAN (family) around (full of) E (energy)
8 An animal expert employs senior officer to raise bird (6)
AVOCET – A VET (an animal expert) around (employs) CO (senior officer) reversed (to raise)
9 Accountant joins revolutionary store (5)
CACHE – CA (accountant) CHE (revolutionary)
14 Using canvas-like material, Warhol depicted Hollywood actress (4,6)
JEAN HARLOW – JEAN (canvass-like material) plus an anagram (depicted) of WARHOL
17 Explosive island’s terrible riots keeping doctor on watch northwards (9)
STROMBOLI – an anagram (terrible) of RIOTS around (keeping) MB (doctor) LO (watch) reversed (northwards)
18 English novelist discussing frivolous digital feature? (8)
SILLITOE – SILLI sounds like (discussing) ‘silly’ (frivolous) TOE (digital feature)
19 Bizarre article about new musical instrument (8)
CLARINET – an anagram (bizarre) of ARTICLE around (about) N (new)
22 Composer Dave not even getting coat reduced by a third (6)
DVORAK – D[a]V[e] (Dave not even) [an]ORAK (coat reduced by a third)
23 Vote outside in secret for some of beer (5)
YEAST – YEA (vote) S[ecre]T (outside in secret)
25 Reach small pig and duck (3,2)
RUN TO – RUNT (small pig) O (duck)
27 Rib, everyone accepted, needing sauce (4)
RAGU – RAG (rib) U (everyone accepted)
Thanks Gaufrid and Aardvark.
There are some really ingenious pieces of misdirection hiding under smooth surfaces here. I like 1 down, for example.
Re 30, in case anyone is interested there is a Tippett opera called The Knot Garden.
Challenging, but fair crossword. It lies three quarters finished on my bedside tablle. Thanks for the solutions.
Thanks Gaufrid and Aardvark.
I couldn’t bring myself to enter YEAST at 23dn – “some of beer” really?
Otherwise, all fair and reasonably entertaining.
Wasn’t it Dorothy Parker who said about 14dn – “the T is silent”?
Thanks Aardvark and Gaufrid
A backlog puzzle which I found pretty difficult, taking numerous sittings to eventually get it all out. Was stuck with my last two for ages – RAGU and CUBISM and only got them by googling all possible sauces to get RAGU.
There was not a lot of unusual words, it was just hard to unravel what was definition and what was wordplay and often harder again to unravel the word play once the answer had been resolved. Didn’t know of the KNOT garden so wasn’t able to completely parse KNOTWEED.