Thank you Aardvark for another enjoyable puzzle.
This puzzle contains a lot of what might be described as “old chestnuts” and some clues would be difficult to solve if you were not already familiar with the genre. I am in two minds about this.
To pick one example: drawer=RA might be impossible to get if you didn’t already know that in crosswordland RAs are either artists or gunners and a drawer is not something you open. Without knowing these were stalwarts even if one found the solution one might dismiss it as simply too tenuous. Combinations such as this can make crosswords solving into an activity for those “in-the-know” only.
On the other hand new solvers come to cryptics all the time and it would be a shame of they don’t get to see the old devices simply because they have been used before and need to be even further disguised to make the solution less obvious to the experienced solvers. If you didn’t get it all there is always the blog to explain what is going on.
I don’t intend to criticise Aardvark here, I’m just musing on crossword styles in general.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TRICERATOPS | During journeys, muse on Conservative dinosaur (11) |
| TRIPS (journeys) contains (during…) ERATO (a Muse) following (on) C (Conservative) | ||
| 7 | BOO | I don’t like three-quarters of novel (3) |
| three-quarters of BOOk (novel) | ||
| 9 | REPRO | Agent bringing round gold copy, shortly (5) |
| REP (agent) then OR (gold) reversed (bringing round) – shortly indicates the definition is an abbreviation | ||
| 10 | RED MULLET | School member’s ginger hairstyle (3,6) |
| RED (ginger, of hair) and MULLET (hairstyle) – schools of fish | ||
| 11 | BUTTERCUP | Yellow flower, say, seen in black container (9) |
| UTTER (say) inside (seen in) B (black) CUP (container) | ||
| 12 | HAREM | Group of women are enthralled by leading royal (5) |
| ARE inside (enthralled by) HM (Her Majesty, the leading royal) | ||
| 13 | TUGBOAT | Brothers, having fast car around, stole aquatic craft (7) |
| TU (trade union, brothers) then BOA (stole) inside (having…around) GT (fast car) | ||
| 15 | SMOG | Coming back, try starters in motorway services – pea soup? (4) |
| GO (try) in first letters (starters) of Motorway Services all reversed (coming back) | ||
| 18 | ODER | European flower’s pronounced smell (4) |
| sounds like (pronounced) “odour” (smell) – a river, something that flows | ||
| 20 | SETTLER | Maybe referee part of tennis match, misapplying “let” rule (7) |
| SET (part of tennis match) than anagram (misapplying) LET and R (rule) – one who settles disputes | ||
| 23 | MENSA | Very clever people amend mosaic, keeping central elements (5) |
| middle letters (central elements) of aMENd moSAic | ||
| 24 | NARROWEST | Pointer in animal home thinner than the others (9) |
| ARROW (pointer) in NEST (animal home) | ||
| 26 | ETHELBERT | Retired soprano perhaps entertains the ancient king (9) |
| TREBLE (soprano perhaps) reversed (retired) contains (entertains) THE | ||
| 27 | ALOOF | Reserved a turkey from the back (5) |
| A then FOOL (turkey) reversed (from the back) | ||
| 28 | ERR | Deirdre regularly avoided sin (3) |
| every other letter (regularly avoided) of dEiRdRe | ||
| 29 | YOUTH HOSTEL | Second person to entertain in the large building for itinerants (5,6) |
| YOU (second person) then HOST (to entertain) in THE L (large) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TERABYTE | French head secures drawer maybe, alongside storage unit (8) |
| TETE (head, French) contains (secures) RA (Royal Academician, someone who draws maybe) BY (alongside). | ||
| 2 | IMPETIGO | Current GP with time to treat ordinary skin problem (8) |
| I (current, electrical symbol) then anagram (to treat) of GP with TIME and O (ordinary) | ||
| 3 | EMOTE | Cat returned, tucking into middle of cheese and ham? (5) |
| TOM (cat) reversed (returned) inside chEEse (middle letters of) – to overact | ||
| 4 | APRICOT | Fruit that’s tropical, endlessly cooked (7) |
| anagram (cooked) of APRICOt | ||
| 5 | OEDIPUS | Legendary Greek newsman, one engrossed in work (7) |
| ED (editor, newsman) and I (one) inside (engrossed in) OPUS (work) | ||
| 6 | SOUTHPORT | Lancashire town found, bearing left (9) |
| SOUTH (bearing) and PORT (left) | ||
| 7 | BOLERO | Expressed approval during relative’s dance (6) |
| OLE (expressed approval, approval that is expressed out loud) in (during) BRO (relative) | ||
| 8 | ON TIME | Sharp mint munched in periphery of office (2,4) |
| anagram (munched) of MINT in OfficE (periphery of) | ||
| 14 | OLD BAILEY | Where people are given time over ad-lib, having fluffed line (3,6) |
| O (old) then anagram (having fluffed) AD LIB and LEY (line, mystical Earth line) – the Criminal Court of England and Wales, time is a prison sentence | ||
| 16 | BLUECOAT | Serviceman once grief-stricken by sound of animal shelter (8) |
| BLUE (grief-stricken) bt COAT sounds like (sound of) “cote” (animal shelter) | ||
| 17 | GRATEFUL | Appreciative, given mince and almost bursting (8) |
| GRATE (mince) and FULL (bursting, almost all of) | ||
| 19 | RONDEAU | Initially read out stirring Auden poem (7) |
| Read (first letter of, initially) O (out) then anagram (stirring) of AUDEN | ||
| 20 | SCRATCH | School presses rogue clubs to withdraw from competition (7) |
| SCH (school) contains (presses) RAT (rogue) C (clubs) | ||
| 21 | AMPERE | French scientist in the morning training with engineers (6) |
| AM (in the morning) PE (Physical Exercise, training) with RE (Royal Engineers) | ||
| 22 | ANCHOR | Equestrian chore involving stable person (6) |
| found inside (involved by) equestriAN CHORe | ||
| 25 | OTAGO | Mark visiting loves Antipodean city (5) |
| TAG (mark) inside (visiting) O O (love, zero score, twice). UPDATE: compus @1 points out that Otago is not a city but a region of New Zealand. Wikipedia does state there is a suburb of Hobart named Otago but with a population of 554 this can’t really be considered a city. | ||
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.
I like Scorpion but although I have found wonderful wine in Otago, I havent managed to find this mysterious city bearing its name.
Quite right compus – Otago isn’t a city but a region. The name was familiar to me and I just assumed that Aardvark knew what he was writing about. I should have made the effort to look it up.
I knew Otago wasn’t a city and originally wrote in another city until it didn’t work with 29a
Apart from that, I didn’t have any trouble solving, probably because after all these years I can recognise an ‘old chestnut’ at several paces
Thanks to Aaardvark and PeeDee too
I guess Dunedin is the main town there(is somewhere with over 10.000 a city in South Island?)Great wine!!
Otherwise I much preferred this to Qaos.
Ta PeeDee and Aardvark.
The surface os 1a made me smile. Thansk S and B.
Yes OTAGO was a bit of a boo-boo. Nothing else fitted even though I knew it wasn’t correct. Lovely place by the way if you haven’t been there.
Couldn’t parse TUGBOAT. It’s almost an anagram of ‘Bugatti’ (‘Brothers, having fast car’) but this obviously doesn’t fit. By the way, the (correct) ‘fast car’ is GT (not TT) – looks like there’s a typo in the blog. Sorry, being picky again.
Liked TRICERATOPS and the ‘School member’ in particular.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee
In parse of 13a, I think you meant GT for fast car. As to 18a, to an American “odor” could also have fitted.
I must admit to have needed the blog to parse a few of these e.g. 13a (BOA), 26a (LEY) and 26a (treble)
Thanks PeeDee and Aardvark.
GT/TT fixed now, thanks all for spotting that
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee. I missed the ley part of OLD BAILEY and spent some time trying to parse TUGBOAT until I finally decided that TU (another old chestnut) might signal “brothers” (as opposed to the “bro” in BOLERO). An enjoyable solve.
Thanks aardvark
Last one in was impetigo which I didn’t remember and had to check. Things went much better when I put RONDEAU into 19d instead of 20d. A pleasant solve, I liked YOUTH HOSTEL, ANCHOR, ERR, OEDIPUS, and more.
Many thanks peedee as usual
I managed most of this whilst watching the racing. Well worth the slog and the price of the paper, if you can find one. Thanks, Aardvark.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
For some reason, I struggled more with this one than I should have – perhaps because I was grabbing only 5 or 10 mins at a time to look at the puzzle. Anyway, enjoyed the solve as usual with this setter. Couldn’t properly parse TUGBOAT (didn’t see the ‘brothers’ = TU trick) and had to re-look up LEY for the ‘lines’.
Did like the tenuous definitions which seemed to be a bit of a thing with the clues – ‘School member’, ‘Brothers’ (once it was pointed out), ‘Maybe referee’, ‘building for itinerants’, ‘storage unit’, ‘expressed approval’ (as a noun) and ‘where people are given time’.
Was excited to see an ‘Antipodean city’, but not so when it was not really one.
Finished in the SW corner with YOUTH HOSTEL (nice clue0, SCRATCH and BLUECOAT as the last few in.