Thanks to Jason for some nice, multi-part clueing, some ingenuity and a pleasing solve except for one clue, which I think is plain wrong.
I’d be pleased to hear that’s it’s me that’s wrong about 27 but if not, well, it was rather infuriating. Being duty-bound to explore all other possibilitie, this took me longer than the rest of the clues put together!
| Across | ||
| 1 | PASTOR | Minister ended with other ranks (6) |
| PAST (‘ended’) + O[ther] R[anks]. | ||
| 4 | LARGESSE | Hissing letter included in huge gifts given generously (8) |
| ESS (=‘s’, the ‘hissing letter’) in LARGE (‘huge’). | ||
| 10 | STATELY | Showing great dignity art gallery cut cunning (7) |
| TATE (‘art gallery‘) in SLY (‘cunning’). | ||
| 11 | TORNADO | Bother chasing rent could be a big blow (7) |
| ADO (‘bother’) follows TORN (‘rent’, adj.) | ||
| 12 | CLOT | Fool caught by destiny (4) |
| C[aught] + LOT (fate, or ‘destiny’). | ||
| 13 | MOBILE HOME | Phone in caravan, perhaps (6,4) |
| MOBILE (‘phone’) + HOME (‘in’). | ||
| 15 | DOES IN | Female deer with deadly greed kills (4,2) |
| DOES (‘female deer’) + SIN (’greed‘ being one of the 7 ‘deadlies’). | ||
| 16 | SELFISH | Mean what seafood stall may do? Only one line (7) |
| i.e., SELL FISH, lacking one L[ine]. | ||
| 20 | HACKNEY | Coach from London borough (7) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 21 | GALLOP | Career in brass work (6) |
| GALL (cheek, nerve, ‘brass’) + OP[us], ‘work’. | ||
| 24 | ADMITTANCE | Right of entry at Camden, it changed (10) |
| Anagram (‘changed’) of AT CAMDEN IT. | ||
| 26 | STUN | Bowl over small barrel (4) |
| S[mall] + TUN (‘barrel’). | ||
| 28 | HOSTILE | Sadly hotel is unfriendly (7) |
| Anagram (‘sadly’) of HOTEL IS. | ||
| 29 | TERMINI | Training stops with these finally (7) |
| Whole-clue cryptic. A train’s final stop is a terminus. | ||
| 30 | RECREATE | Once more make tree (Acer) flourishing (8) |
| Anagram (‘flourishing’) of TREE ACER. | ||
| 31 | SEVERE | Harsh hack back in vogue (6) |
| SEVER (‘hack’) + E (the ’back’ of ‘voguE’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | POSTCODE | Top co-eds fuelled by such a lottery? (8) |
| Anagram (‘fuelled’) of TOP COEDS, a ‘postcode lottery’ being the seemingly arbitrary nature of govt. funding decided by where you happen to live. | ||
| 2 | SOAP OPERA | Drama somehow appears – old and ordinary within (4,5) |
| Anagram (‘somehow’) of APPEARS including O[ld] & O[rdinary]. | ||
| 3 | OVEN | Cooker has one almost complete and new (4) |
| OVEr (‘almost complete’) + N[ew]. ‘Has one’ I think is a bit of mischief; the clue works without it. | ||
| 5 | ATTAINED | Secured date ain’t flexible (8) |
| Anagram (‘flexible’) of DATE AINT. | ||
| 6 | GARDEN FLAT | Glad after toddling around new place to live (6,4) |
| Anagram (‘toddling’) of GLAD AFTER around N[ew]. | ||
| 7 | SHAKO | Soldier’s cap is small, hard and a knockout (5) |
| S[mall] + H[ard] + K[nock] O[ut]. | ||
| 8 | ELOPER | Software designer, say, rejecting first three finds loving runaway? (6) |
| devELOPER (‘s/w designer, say’) minus 1st 3 letters. | ||
| 9 | NYLON | Stocking material in name only, strangely (5) |
| N[ame] + anagram (‘strangely’) of ONLY. | ||
| 14 | PICKET LINE | Choose haphazardly, let in last of workforce – not across this! (6,4) |
| PICK (‘choose’) + Anagram (‘haphazardly’) of LET IN + E (’last of workforcE’), plus kinda cryptic, half-clue definition. | ||
| 17 | SOLITAIRE | Sun god – it almost voiced patience (9) |
| SOL (‘sun god’) + IT + AIREd (‘almost voiced’ of e.g. an opinion. | ||
| 18 | RED ALERT | Warning on valley: retweet (3,5) |
| RE (concerning, ‘on’) + DALE (‘valley’) + RT, short for ‘retweet’, I’m presuming. | ||
| 19 | OPEN FIRE | Start to pick off what Scouts cook on? (4,4) |
| Double definition. Soldiers shooting may be said to be ‘picking off’ the enemy. | ||
| 22 | WASHER | Appliance’s ring which keeps joints together (6) |
| DD, again. | ||
| 23 | ACUTE | André has one charming accent (5) |
| 3- or 4-parter: AndrÉ ’has one [acute accent]’; & A + CUTE = ‘charming’; and ‘accent’ is your straight def. The stray ‘A’ (for ‘one’) is doing double duty here, I think. | ||
| 25 | MUSIC | What starts concert I reckon up in score? (5) |
| C (‘what starts Concert’) + I + SUM (‘reckon’), all reversed (‘up’). | ||
| 27 | BRIE | Passing cheese endlessly (4) |
| H’mm, last clue in… ’Endlessly passing cheese’ would go straight in as BRIEf (‘passing’, shortened), as would ’Passing endless cheese’. But I can’t for the life of me make ’Passing cheese endlessly’ work here, so I’m going to stick my neck out and say it’s a mistake, unless anyone has a better idea. | ||
*anagram
Quite agree with you about BRIE, for which I’d written down “? incorrect clue” myself, though it just seems too obvious a mistake and maybe there is something a bit more cunning at play.
Otherwise not too difficult after a couple of tricky ones earlier in the day.
I wonder if the juxtaposition of TORNADO and MOBILE HOME was deliberate?
Thanks to Jason and Grant
Passing is cheese if you take the end off, is how I read it.
I read the blog intro before doing the puzzle, so was looking for a dodgy clue. I decided I’d found it when I got to WASHER. I’ve always found nuts far better at keeping joints together.
To James @2,3…
I’d considered that, natch, but there isn’t nearly enough info there to justify the unconventionality of the definition lying centrally, as it were. ‘Passing = cheese endlessly [if endless]’ would be the presumable intent but even then you end up with a statement of fact & not a solution, if you see what I mean. (I’d love Jason to hop in at some point).
Either 27d is wrong or a terrible clue – I certainly go with the former. I also didn’t like WASHER. There is a minor typo in blog for 15a, ‘deer’ is a singular DOE.
I do see, and I’m probably disagreeing for the sake of it, but: the ‘=’ is nearly always implied, so its omission is no fault; ‘Passing, if endless, = cheese’ would presumably be ok, and therefore ‘passing endlessly cheese’. Maybe where we part is that I think ‘passing cheese endlessly’ can be read the same as ‘passing endlessly cheese’. At least, I think it’s only a bit too concise, rather than wrong.
I agree with Hovis.
Thanks Jason and Grant
A reasonably straightforward puzzle with some quirky styled clues and the wrongly ordered one for BRIE. Had to go back and change my SELLING to SELFISH in order to get the card game at 17d. It was the last one in.