Super puzzle, albeit one that might be difficult to finish without access to reference materials. Thank you Gozo.
The theme is mountains and mountain ranges. I made life extra-hard for myself by misspelling Jane Austin and Popocatapetl, neither of which I had any excuse for as I have read all the former’s books and have visited the latter. Ochils was one of my last ones in, which was also a bit lame as I can see them from my window. All rather embarrassing.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TAUNUS | Reservists with one Latin model (6) |
TA (Territorial Army, former reservists) with UNUS (one in Latin) – The Ford Taunus and a mountain range in Germany.  |
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| 4 | KRAKATOA | When exchanged, he pulls seasonal novelty, reportedly (8) |
sounds like (reportedly) TOA (tower, he pulls) and KRAKA (cracker, seasonal novelty) in reverse order (when exchanged) – scene of huge volcanic explosion in 1883, shown here making a small “phut” |
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| 9 | ELBRUS | Burl Ives lost four bananas (6) |
anagram (bananas) of BURL ivES missing IV (four) – a mountain in the south of Russia. |
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| 10 | SPERRINS | Points out Reggie (8) |
S S (south twice, point of compass) contains (out, outside of) PERRIN (Reggie Perrin, character in TV series) |
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| 12 | ALAI | Carl Davis appearing regularly (4) |
cArL dAvIs (regular selection from) – Alai or Alay Mountains in Kyrgyzstan |
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| 13, 14 | CAIRN GORM | Minor crag? No! (5,4) |
anagram of MINOR CRAG, but actually a large crag – the name means Green Hill. |
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| 17 | GODWIN AUSTEN | Strange wording lacking review, initially, by novelist (6,6) |
anagram (strange) of WOrDING missing Review (initial letter of) then AUSTEN (novelist) – remote Himalayan mountain more commonly known as K2. It appears not to have a traditional local name as it is so remote it is not visible form any permanent habitation. |
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| 20 | POPOCATEPETL | Dad with broken toe-cap let off (12) |
POP (dad) with anagrams (broken, off) of TOE-CAP and LET – volcano in Mexico |
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| 23 | ETNA | Estonia, oddly (4) |
EsToNiA (odd letetrs from) |
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| 24 | ANDES | Joiner with bridge opponents (5) |
AND (joiner) with E and S (opponents in the game of Bridge) |
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| 25 | JURA | Island panellist is heard (4) |
sounds lie (is heard) juror (panellist) – also island in Scotland and part of The Alps |
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| 28 | CRUACHAN | French vineyard by a church on outskirts of Avignon (8) |
CRU (French vineyard) with A CH (church) on AvignoN (outskirts of) – a mountain in western Scotland, housing a large underground pump-storage power station |
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| 29 | OCHILS | Painting medium includes church (6) |
| OILS (painting medium) including CH (church). I took much too long to get this considering I could see the Ochils out of my window as I was attempting to solve the clue.
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| 30 | MALVERNS | Poorly French novelist’s dropped English (8) |
MAL (poorly, French) and VERNe’S (novelist’s) missing E (English) |
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| 31 | VOSGES | Touch of violet gesso, daubed (6) |
Violet (touch of, first letter) than anagram (daubed) of GESSO |
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| Down | ||
| 1 | THE TANGO | Greek character heading non- governmental organisation for trip (3,5) |
| THETA (Greek character) in front of (heading) NGO (non-governmental organisation) | ||
| 2 | UPBRAIDS | Chides, having organised pub attacks (8) |
| anagram (organised) of PUB with RAIDS (attacks) | ||
| 3 | URUS | Wild ox seen during tour usually (4) |
| found inside toUR USually | ||
| 5 | REPORT STAGES | Old coaches following sound of gunshot – they await the outcome (6,6) |
| STAGES (old coaches) following REPORT (sound of gunshot). I’m not sure about the definition, probably something to do with government procedures. Perhaps someone knowledgeable in this are can explain. | ||
| 6 | KERB | Stop, you say, at the pavement edge (4) |
| sounds like (you say) curb (stop) | ||
| 7 | TRIPOS | Stumble over small exam (6) |
| TRIP (stumble) O (over) and S (small) | ||
| 8 | ASSUME | Don amuses, clowning about (6) |
| anagram (clowning about) of AMUSES | ||
| 11 | CATAMOUNTAIN | Puma, an old killer, grabbing at a horse (12) |
| CAIN (an old killer, from The Bible) containing AT A MOUNT (horse) | ||
| 15, 16 | SIMON PETER | Apostle more in step with devilry (5,5) |
| anagram (with devilry) of MORE IN STEP | ||
| 18 | RESUMING | Continuing to think, standing in arena (8) |
| MUSE (to think) reversed (standing) in RING (arena) | ||
| 19 | CLEANSES | Sees clan moving to Scrubs (8) |
| anagram (moving) of SEES CLAN | ||
| 21 | WEBCAM | Wife caught entering moving beam in PC’s device (6) |
| W (wife) then C (caught) in anagram (moving) of BEAM | ||
| 22 | ANNUAL | Could be Wisden for the nursery (6) |
| double definition – Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and a plant grown in a nursery | ||
| 26 | ACRE | Plot of land, one that’s about right (4) |
| ACE (one) containing (that is about) R (right) | ||
| 27 | ECHO | Sound from the choir (4) |
| found inside thE CHOir | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks, PeeDee, for a superb blog of, as you say, a super puzzle, which I really enjoyed solving – and learned a lot in the process.
I have an embarrassment, too. At 1ac, I entered TAURUS, which I was sure was right and awaited the blog for parsing of the second part, since I couldn’t see any connection with ‘one Latin’ – never even thought of looking up TAUNUS, which I’d never heard of [nor the car!].
Very clever grid-filling and lovely clues throughout – I particularly liked those for CAIRN GORM and ELBRUS, which made me smile.
Many thanks, Gozo.
Eileen: the Ford Taurus is also a car. I was tempted by that.
Thanks to Gozo for a really great puzzle and to PeeDee for a blog above and beyond the call of duty!
I’m often in the Vosges (just across the river) and the Jura (just down the road) and used to visit the Malverns often so very much a baerchen-friendly theme.
Superb puzzle! Although I needed reference material it didn’t detract from the fun and PeeDee’s blog just adds to the experience.
20ac seemed to have two anagrinds. Not something I have seen before…
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Another Gozo crossword of the kind he is so good at.
Some entries needed confirmation (like SPERRINS and CRUACHAN).
One question: where is the anagram indicator in 13,14 (CAIRN GORM)?
Don’t tell me it’s the question mark (as I am not happy to accept that).
Thanks PeeDee & Gozo.
Hi Sil @5
I took the anagram indicator to be ‘No’ – which, combined with the question mark, works perfectly for me. And, as PeeDee points out, CAIRN GORM is not a minor crag, so there are really two bits of wordplay.
Eileen, I do see how the clue works but I’m afraid that ‘No’ as (part of) the anagram indicator is a bit of a stretch – for me, that is.
But if others are happy with it, just ignore me. 🙂
Hi Sil, I took the question mark as a anagram hint. I don’t think that all anagrams need an explicit indicator. For me crosswords are more like watching a play than solving a mathematical equation. If it feels right then it is right: no need to provide a watertight and logical justification for every little piece.
Just catching up on some back numbers.Sorry to be pedantic, but Cairn Gorm is better translated as Blue Hill, rather than Green Hill, although whenever I have climbed it Grey Hill would have been more accurate! Great mountain though, and great puzzle!
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
This was a super puzzle that has taken the elapsed month and a bit to finally solve – was stuck on SPERRINS (really tough for an Aussie with the mountain range that I didn’t know and a BBC character that I certainly didn’t know either – finally lucked out with googling different ‘Reggie’s” to find the PERRIN one) and JURA (that kept trying to be CUBA which I struggled to find a relevant homophone nor convince myself that the mountain theme would be abandoned for just the ‘island’ part of the clue).
I originally had TAURUS at 1a until doing my final parsing run and couldn’t validate the URUS (also thought that it would be unlikely with the same cow running down from it). Didn’t think of the Ford TAUNUS as any part of it (not knowing the car) – ‘model’ was just left as a mystery until the blog.
Unlike his later puzzle on towns and cities, I actually enjoyed the challenge of this one – and a very satisfying feeling of accomplishment to have finally nailed it !
The blog more than matched the quality of the puzzle – so a very well done there as well !!!