An enjoyable outing from Vigo of moderate difficulty.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BESTRIDE | Mount leading horse (8) |
| Best(=leading) + ride(=horse) | ||
| 5 | SMALLS | Undergarments in galleria on board ship (6) |
| Mall in SS | ||
| 9 | MARZIPAN | Drive back fly on a new form of confectionery (8) |
| Ram< + zip + a + n(ew) | ||
| 10 | FRIDGE | Bottom of egg fried badly in kitchen appliance (6) |
| ([eg]g + fried)* | ||
| 12 | SQUINTING | Looking sideways at one of five children wearing fleece (9) |
| Quin in sting | ||
| 13 | JULEP | Drink in short pitcher starts to loosen everyone’s principles (5) |
| Ju[g] + first letters of loosen everyone’s principles | ||
| 14 | AGOG | Try to get silver coating on edge of seat (4) |
| Go in Ag | ||
| 16 | SPARKLE | Around a thousand scattered pearls glisten (7) |
| K in pearls* | ||
| 19 | PROVERB | Saw rambler in empty bar (7) |
| Rover in p[u]b | ||
| 21 | PEAK | Max talks endlessly (4) |
| [S]peak[s] | ||
| 24 | PITCH | Shy salesman’s patter (5) |
| DD | ||
| 25 | MEDICINAL | Healing mild acne I developed (9) |
| (Mild acne I)* | ||
| 27 | EXODUS | Book flight (6) |
| DD (book of the Bible) | ||
| 28 | LIFELESS | Sentence the French said initially for dead (8) |
| Life(=prison sentence) + les + s[aid] | ||
| 29 | YIELDS | Taking exercise speedily produces returns (6) |
| S[pe]edily* | ||
| 30 | AGITATED | Excited when bit of Italianate bric-a-brac is found in old container (8) |
| I think this is I(talianate) tat in aged | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BEMUSE | Confuse or inspire artist? (6) |
| DD (as in an artist’s muse) | ||
| 2 | SPROUT | Vegetable is unfashionable following first half of growing season (6) |
| Out after spr[ing] | ||
| 3 | REIGN | Leave job sacrificing second period in charge (5) |
| Re[s]ign | ||
| 4 | DRAWING | Attracting doctor inspiring dread (7) |
| Dr + awing | ||
| 6 | MARIJUANA | In Barcelona Mary embraces John in grass (9) |
| Maria around Juan (Spanish equivalent names) | ||
| 7 | LADYLIKE | Idly swimming in pool that’s refined (8) |
| Idly* in lake | ||
| 8 | STEEPLED | Wantonly depletes appearance of some churches (8) |
| Depletes* | ||
| 11 | EGGS | Regularly engages spurs (4) |
| Odd letters of engages | ||
| 15 | GREYHOUND | Dog worrying young herd (9) |
| (Young herd)* | ||
| 17 | APOPLEXY | Father left Eastern axes after a major fit (8) |
| (Pop + l(eft) E(astern) + XY) after a. | ||
| 18 | POSTPONE | Put off upright individual holding power (8) |
| Post + p on one | ||
| 20 | BUMF | Worthless American fellow generating junk mail? (4) |
| Bum + f(ellow) | ||
| 21 | PUDDING | Sweet dog swallowing date and half of meal (7) |
| Pug around d(ate) + din[ner] | ||
| 22 | INFEST | Unpleasantly inhabit bargain festival clothes (6) |
| Hidden in bargaIN FESTival | ||
| 23 | CLOSED | Exclusive clubs fail to degree (6) |
| C(lubs) + lose + d(egree) | ||
| 26 | CREPT | Snuck salesman into court (5) |
| Rep in c(our)t | ||
*anagram
A nice, pleasant solve. Nothing too taxing but not so straightforward in that a bit of thought is needed. Mostly nicely written surfaces. I parsed AGITATED as you did Neal. Thanks to all.
Not too taxing, and a pangram, which helped me get Marzipan as I was missing a Z.
Thanks to Neal and Vigo.
Very nice. AGOG a thing of minor beauty. Thanks to both.
MARZIPAN, PUDDING, EGGS, SPROUT(s) and SPARKLE led me to assume Vigo had got today’s theme-inducer from last year’s Xmas shopping list on her FRIDGE door.
Early spotting of the pangrammatic probability helped me to finish this enjoyable puzzle more quickly than might otherwise have been the case.
Many thanks to Vigo and NealH
There is something so inherently satisfying about a Vigo puzzle – no wasted words, no dodgy definitions and just tricky enough to hold the interest.
The pangram went over my head (they often do) but that cut out any potential for cheating!
I won’t bother you all with a list of the ones I really liked – most of them – but I will mention that 13a raised a smile. Put me in mind of where I first heard of the drink – part of the lyrics of Summer (the first time).
Many thanks, Vigo and thanks to NealH for the review.
Sniffed a Pangram early, though not necessary for the solve. Liked AGOG, MARIJUANA.
Not sure of parsing in 18D, which I would have described as POST + ONE around P, or P in POST and/+ ONE.
Thanks to Vigo and NealH.
Enjoyable stuff and defo at the harder end of Vigo’s range. I completed, but was held up for a while in the NW. Thought there must be a theme because of the bit of an unfriendly grid, but only spotted food ala baerchen @4. 6d was me fave today so thanks to The V for the puzzle and to Neal for the blog.
As Hovis@1 says, A nice, pleasant solve. Nothing too taxing but not so straightforward in that a bit of thought is needed.
Plenty of clues to like; PROVERB, APOPLEXY and PUDDING among them.
One small insignificant niggle – the clue for FRIDGE sounds as if it ought to be a down clue. But if you think of a (rear) end as a bottom we suppose it’s OK.
We failed to spot the pangram but that didn’t hold us up too much; it was the SE corner we found trickiest.
Thanks, Vigo and NealH.
MrC (and apprentice) @8 – regards fridge, yup – that’s pretty much how I take it as in ‘the bottom of the garden/the bottom of the road’ being the end furthest from you, but not necessarily at a lower level.
Thanks to NealH for the blog and to all who solved and especially those who took the time to comment. I always enjoy reading what everyone has to say and I’m such a terrible solver it’s lovely to have you parse the clues for me when I’ve forgotten…
Victoria
@Vigo
a few weeks ago, I asked a “National Treasure” of the crossword world (I couldn’t possibly say who it was, but suffice it to say that, as a Sheffielder, I always relish this compiler’s puzzles) the following question:
Dear Blah,
Do you ever find yourself looking at a published puzzle of yours, written some months ago, and ask yourself “what the hell does that mean?”
Blah replied:
Rob, it happens Later That Same Day