Marvellous! Thank you Gozo.
All the entries in the grid are geographical names from around the world: towns, states and rivers. The clues sometimes define these entities directly, other times obliquely. I had heard of nearly all the places, only a few visits to Wikipedia were required to confirm my guesses at the rest. I suspect non-UK solvers may have more of a struggle with some of the less well known places here.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LYTHAM | Emphatically bad – no plaice available in town on the Fylde (6) |
| anagram (bad) of eMpHaTiCALlY missing PLAICE | ||
| 4 | BALLATER | Work-room setback subsequently at Deeside resort (8) |
| LAB (work-room) reversed (set back) then LATER (subsequently) | ||
| 9 | NANTES | Determined grandma knocked back French port (6) |
| SET (determined) NAN (grandma) all reversed (knocked back) | ||
| 10 | MCKINLEY | Host and family call round endlessly on mountain (8) |
| MC (host) and KIN inside (with…round) YELL (call, missing last letter) | ||
| 11 | OVIEDO | Competed wearing spectacles, in Spanish city (6) |
| VIED (competed) in OO (wearing spectacles) | ||
| 12 | HEREFORD | Present way to cross breed of cattle (8) |
| HERE (present) FORD (way to cross) | ||
| 13 | VAN | Turkish town and lake in the savannah (3) |
| found in saVANnah | ||
| 14 | TARBES | Might it be Brest, a capital of Bigorre (6) |
| anagram of BREST A | ||
| 17 | NOVI SAD | Dejected after All Saints’ Day in Serbian city (4,3) |
| SAD (dejected) following NOV I (1st November, All Saints’ Day) | ||
| 21 | MEXICO | Come round about eleven in country (6) |
| anagram (round) of COME contains XI (eleven) | ||
| 25 | TAW | Marble from Devonshire river (3) |
| a marble in the game of Marbles | ||
| 26 | BORDEAUX | Carried money, reportedly for wine (8) |
| BOR DEAUX sounds like (reportedly) “bore dough” (carried money) | ||
| 27 | TARBET | Village near Loch Lomond of shooting star – Bethlehem? (6) |
| found inside sTARBEThlehem – I’m not sure about “shooting” | ||
| 28 | DUMFRIES | Royal burgh charges keeping firm in trouble (8) |
| DUES (charges) contains anagram (in trouble) of FIRM | ||
| 29 | HAMBLE | South coast river through the heart of York’s historic street (6) |
| sHAMBLEs (York’s historic street), middle letters (heart of) | ||
| 30 | NUNEATON | The food’s untouched, we’re told, in Warwickshire town (8) |
| NUN EATON sounds like (we are told) “none eaten” (food’s untouched) | ||
| 31 | NEVERS | North-east, towards French capital of department (6) |
| NE (north-east) then VERS (towards, French) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LYNMOUTH | Monthly tours include university in Devonshire resort (8) |
| anagram (tours) of MONTHLY includes U (universirty) | ||
| 2 | TANGIERS | What could be angriest city in Africa (8) |
| anagram of ANGRIEST | ||
| 3 | ABERDEEN | Two rivers shielded by a mountain city at Royal burgh (8) |
| R (river) and DEE (another river) inside (shielded by) A BEN (mountain) | ||
| 5 | AACHEN | A long name for German city (6) |
| A ACHE (long) N (name) – superb! | ||
| 6 | LEIDEN | Wreath on earth in Dutch city (6) |
| LEI (wreath) on DEN (earth) | ||
| 7 | TULLOW | Drag act includes topless drag act in town in Co. Carlow (6) |
| TOW (an act of dragging) contains pULL (an act of dragging, topless) | ||
| 8 | RIYADH | Arabian capital investment originally in Hardy novel (6) |
| Investment (originally, first letter) in anagram (novel) of HARDY | ||
| 12 | HALIFAX | Prince provided a cross for Canadian city (7) |
| HAL (prince, Henry) IF (provided) A X (cross) | ||
| 15 | SOW | Female to prepare for future growth in Stafford’s river (3) |
| the same word used as a noun and verb: a sow is a female, to sow is to prepare for future growth | ||
| 16 | CAM | Engine part nearly arrived on university river (3) |
| CAM (engine part) and also CAMe (arrived, nearly) | ||
| 18 | DELAWARE | Brought back to conscious state in America (8) |
| LED (brought) reversed (back) with AWARE (concious) | ||
| 19 | ZIMBABWE | It’s unknown I’m with child outside in the country (8) |
| Z (unknown, in equations) I’M then W (with) inside BABE (child) | ||
| 20 | POITIERS | People feeling regret about old battle in 1356 (8) |
| PITIERS (people feeling regret) contains O (old) | ||
| 22 | IBADAN | Rankin going round wicked Nigerian state capital (6) |
| IAN (Ian Rankin, author) contains (going round) BAD (wicked) | ||
| 23 | BREMEN | City centre of Leibnitz occupied by army corps (6) |
| leiBNitz (centre of) contains (occupied by) REME (army corps) | ||
| 24 | PEORIA | Exercise with oxygen with fresh air at Illinois port (6) |
| PE (exercise) with O (oxygen) with anagram (fresh) of AIR | ||
| 25 | TUXEDO | Formal dress in town in Orange County (6) |
| double definition | ||
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.
Great fun over breakfast. Never heard of Novi Sad but the clue was lovely. Thanks to everyone.
Yes, good fun. Definitely one to be attempted without aids for this non-UK solver. Ended up missing 1a and 1d and didn’t know TAW in either sense or VAN. As well as learning a few new place names, I now know AACHEN is in Germany, not The Netherlands as I’d mistakenly thought.
Thanks to our geography teacher and to PeeDee
Re 2d:is Tangier actually called “Tangiers” in the UK (like Lyons and Marseilles)? Or is it one of those crossword alternatives?
Corby – I’m a UK national and resident and I have always known the city as Tangiers. In fact until you pointed it out I had not realised that this was not the city’s correct (Anglicized) name.
Wow; what a grid-fill! Thanks to Gozo for a great puzzle and to peedee for the blog
A most enjoyable puzzle – thank you very much to Gozo and PeeDee.
Magnificient puzzle: a masterpiece of grid-filling and elegant clues throughout.
Many thanks to Gozo and PeeDee.
Btw to Tenerife Miller @ 1: I got NOVI SAD quite early on – memories of a chess tournament in the mid-1970s.
Brilliant! Very enjoyable. Thank you.
Loved the puzzle. Our last summer ‘s trip through York and Scotland helped immensely. Even have a photograph of us doing the touristy things in the Shambles!
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Don’t mind these type of puzzles normally but did find this one a bit of a chore for some reason – probably a frame of mind thing. Can appreciate the cleverness in putting together a grid in which every answer is a geographical place and the word play for them all were very well constructed.
This time, I found that I just didn’t enjoy continuously trawling through Wikipedia to either look up the place or to confirm it. Having said that, I did take the time to read up on the places that I hadn’t heard of before – so at least there was some additional learning from the exercise.