Sound enough Tuesday puzzle from Armonie with notably smooth surfaces.
Apologies for late blog, the first from our new home with the usual network teething difficulties. I’m grateful that the puzzle itself was pretty angst-free, though with a few pleasing disguises & ‘ah-ha’ moments to keep interest alive. Thanks, Armonie.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MOTORING | Doctor to call when speeding along (8) |
| MO (‘doctor’) + TO + RING (‘to call’). | ||
| 5 | SCARED | Full of fear, old Bob felt concern (6) |
| S[hilling] (‘old Bob’ in pre-decimal currency) + CARED (‘felt concern’). | ||
| 9 | AMBROSIA | Best food Mike’s sibling found in the continent (8) |
| M[ike], in radio code, + BRO[ther] in ASIA. | ||
| 10 | CAMPUS | College grounds affected American (6) |
| CAMP (‘affected’) + US. | ||
| 12 | ELECTRODE | Conductor designate went by train (9) |
| ELECT (‘designate’, either as verb or noun) + RODE (‘went by train’). | ||
| 13 | KEATS | Sovereign irritates poet (5) |
| K[ing] (‘sovereign’) + EATS (‘irritates’, as in ‘what’s eating her?). | ||
| 14 | CODE | Fish to European rules (4) |
| COD + E[uropean]. | ||
| 16 | DIOCESE | See Oscar tucking into chops with energy (7) |
| DICES (‘chops’) includes O[scar], again in radio code. | ||
| 19 | RELATED | King’s happy to be of he same family (7) |
| R[ex] (‘king’] + elated. | ||
| 21 | CANT | An inclination for insincerity (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 24 | DRAKE | Coppers hunt for a famous bowler (5) |
| D (abbreviation for pennies, again pre-decimal) + RAKE (‘hunt’). Sir Francis Drake, obvs. | ||
| 25 | FORETEETH | They come between canines and have a sharp bite (9) |
| Whole-clue cryptic. | ||
| 27 | RECIPE | Guide ready to tour part of London (6) |
| RIPE [‘ready’] around EC (postcode for city of London). | ||
| 28 | PUNINESS | Inadequacy of Tom consuming one over the eight (8) |
| PUSS (‘Tom’) surrounds NINE. | ||
| 29 | NOTATE | Write symbolically a message including thanks (6) |
| Note (‘message’) includes TA (‘thanks’). | ||
| 30 | AESTHETE | Connoisseur gets silly? The tease! (8) |
| Anagram (‘silly’) of THE TEASE. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MOANED | Made no changes and complained (6) |
| Anagram (‘changes’) of MADE NO. | ||
| 2 | TABLET | Non-drinker swallows effective medicine (6) |
| TT (teetotaller, ‘non-drinker’) surround ABLE (‘effective’). | ||
| 3 | ROOST | Rummage round stable, initially, for a place to sleep (5) |
| ROOT (‘rummage’) around Stable (first letter, ‘initially’). | ||
| 4 | NOISOME | Disgusting row about old man (7) |
| NOISE (‘row’) around O[ld] M[an]. | ||
| 6 | CRACKDOWN | Restrictive measures to get the best feathers (9) |
| CRACK (‘the best’, as in ‘crack troops’) + DOWN (‘feathers’). | ||
| 7 | REPEATED | Rotted vegetation among the grass? That’s reiterated! (8) |
| PEAT (‘rotted vegetation’) in REED (‘grass’). | ||
| 8 | DISASTER | Star dies horribly? That’s a calamity (8) |
| Anagram (“horribly’) of STAR DIES. | ||
| 11 | SEND | Broadcast son’s death (4) |
| S[on] + DEATH. | ||
| 15 | ON THE SPOT | Ten photos developed immediately (2,3,4) |
| Anagram (“developed’) of TEN PHOTOS. | ||
| 17 | GRIDIRON | Riding or playing football (8) |
| Anagram (‘playing’) of RIDING OR. American football, of course. | ||
| 18 | CLEAR-CUT | Get the OK for retrenchment? That’s unambiguous! (5-3) |
| CLEAR (‘get the OK’) + CUT (‘retrenchment’). | ||
| 20 | DAFT | A day behind? That’s silly! (4) |
| D[ay] + AFT (‘behind’). | ||
| 21 | CAROUSE | Many move to have a drinking spree (7) |
| C (100, ‘many’] + AROUSE (‘move’). | ||
| 22 | SEVERE | Always being in a corner is hard (6) |
| EVER (‘always’) in S[outh] E[ast], a ‘corner’ of, e.g., a crossword… | ||
| 23 | CHASTE | Charlie’s speed is immaculate (6) |
| C[harlie] (much use of radio codes today) + HASTE. | ||
| 26 | TAINT | It is not commonly a defect (5) |
| T’AINT (‘it is not’, in the vernacular, or ‘commonly’). | ||
*anagram
Thanks Armonie and Grant
Nice easy-ish puzzle for a Tuesday although I did make things harder than they should have been in the bottom by initially writing in BENT instead of CANT at 21a which held up getting – CAROUSE and FORETEETH in the SE.
And to continue the pain, CLEAR OUT at 18d made my last one in RECIPE (tricky enough as it was) even more difficult.