A themed puzzle from Gozo as usual, always a pleasure to solve and blog. Thank you Gozo.
The across solutions are things to wear.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BODICE | How could I be Doc? (6) |
| anagram (how could…) of I BE DOC | ||
| 4 | CULOTTES | Confused college student dismissed legend (8) |
| anagram (confused) of COLlege STUdEnTS missing LEGEND | ||
| 9 | BURKAS | Hare’s partner’s swapping notes (6) |
| BURKE’S (murderous partner of Hare) swapping E (a note of the scale) for A (another note) | ||
| 10 | SOMBRERO | Gloomy gold returned (8) |
| SOMBRE (gloomy) then OR (gold) reversed (returned) | ||
| 12 | SWIMSUIT | Cornwall – I first managed clubs, say (8) |
| SW (The Southwest, Cornwall perhaps) with I then Managed (first letter of) and SUIT (clubs say) | ||
| 13 | GIRDLE | Poor Ann left Leningrad in a whirl (6) |
| anagram (in a whirl) of LEnInGRaD missing (left) ANN (poor indicates letters of Ann are not in order) | ||
| 15 | TOGA | Singular clothing article (4) |
| TOG (an item of clothing) and A (indefinite article) | ||
| 16 | STRING VEST | Demanding, swapping partners around five (6,4) |
| STRINGEnT (demanding) swapping N for S (partners at Bridge) containing (around) V (five) | ||
| 19 | CARGO PANTS | Charles Aznavour first has to arrange part-song (5,5) |
| first letters of Charles Aznavour then anagram (to arrange) of PART-SONG | ||
| 20 | KILT | Some exact likeness reflected (4) |
| found reversed (reflected) inside exacT LIKeness | ||
| 23 | BIKINI | Black family in team (6) |
| B (black) then KIN (family) in II (eleven, a team) | ||
| 25 | SLIPPERS | Minor error with some of the personnel (8) |
| SLIP (minor error) with PERSonel (some of the letters, the first four) | ||
| 27 | CARDIGAN | Old county town’s corgi (8) |
| a Cardigan Corgi is a breed of dog, from the Welsh town of Cardigan, formally the county town of Cardiganshire | ||
| 28 | BOW TIE | Stardust persona holding court, finally (3,3) |
| BOWIE (Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie persona) contains courT (final letter of) | ||
| 29 | LINGERIE | I waited outside as daughter left (8) |
| I inside (with…outside) LINGEREd (waited) missing D (daughter) | ||
| 30 | BRIEFS | Gives details of legal instructions (6) |
| cryptic definition ? | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BABYSIT | Act as minder for a small charge? (7) |
| cryptic definition – two meaning of “charge”, fee and ward | ||
| 2 | DERRINGER | The German campanologist’s short arm (9) |
| DER (the, German) then RINGER (campanologist) – a type of pistol | ||
| 3 | CLAUSE | Section of a will for Santa, we’re told (6) |
| sounds like (we are told) “Claus” (Santa) | ||
| 5 | UFOS | They are, originally, unknowns from outer space (4) |
| first letters (originally) of Unknowns From Outer Space | ||
| 6 | OXBRIDGE | Light and dark blue cattle crossing (8) |
| OX (cattle) and BRIDGE (cattle) | ||
| 7 | TREAD | Walk three yards regularly (5) |
| ThReE yArDs (regularly selected) | ||
| 8 | SLOWEST | This competitor is running in the race after all (7) |
| cryptic definition – the competitor coming after all the others | ||
| 11 | MISTRAL | Violent, dry wind, haze, some rain and finally a lull (7) |
| MIST (haze) then Rain (first letter, some of) and A lulL (final letter) | ||
| 14 | PISTOLE | Private Investigator purloined gold coin (7) |
| PI (private investigator) then STOLE (purloined) | ||
| 17 | EPICENTRE | Record in Crete possibly a focal point (9) |
| EP (Extended Play, record) then anagram (possibly) of IN CRETE | ||
| 18 | HORNPIPE | Casually pop in with her to dance (8) |
| anagram (casually) of POP IN with HER | ||
| 19 | CUBICAL | Square all round young animal I don’t quite sedate (7) |
| CUB (young animal) I then CALm (sedate, almost) | ||
| 21 | TASSELS | Frilly attachments are awfully tasteless – no note included (7) |
| anagram (awfully) of TASTELESS missing TE (a note) | ||
| 22 | UPROAR | He’s paid for working in former Middle Eastern union. It’s an outrage (6) |
| PRO (he is paid for working) in UAR (the former United Arab Republic) | ||
| 24 | KORAN | Unanswerable Buddhist question about religious leader in Holy Book (5) |
| KOAN (unanswerable Buddhist question) contains (around) Religious (leader, first letter) | ||
| 26 | RANI | From Amritsar, an Indian princess (4) |
| found inside amritsaR AN Indian | ||
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.
A nice, steady solve for me. I had to check CARDIGAN was a type of corgi and the meaning for KOAN in 24d. Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee.
Pedants’ corner. Isnt koan a Zen buddhist thing?
compus – I take your word for a koan being Zen Buddhist thing, but even so a Zen Buddhist question would be a Buddhist question would it not? Being Zen doesn’t stop it being Buddhist.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Entertaining puzzle by Gozo with a theme that revealed itself very early on when I got GIRDLE as my third or fourth entry and quickly followed by KILT. A good variety of clues and fortunately was able to spot the two subtraction anagrams quicker than I normally would. Thought that BURKAS and BOW TIE were both very good.
Finished in the NE corner with CULOTTES, STRING VEST and OXBRIDGE the last few in.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee. Lots of fun. I too got off to a good start by getting DERRINGER and CLAUSE that led me to BODICE and the theme. HORNPIPE and GIRDLE took me a while, but BURKAS was the only one that gave me real trouble, for I could not account for the final S and thought I was missing something.
Not sure why Ann in 13ac had to be poor. We already had whirl indicating the anagram. A reference to Karenina perhaps?
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
I guess this was quite good. It didn’t cheer me up as i’d never heard of Koan, a Cardigan corgi, Pistole, Derringer, or Cubical. I didn’t like the use of ‘team’ to indicate two letter ‘i’ s. Not really an accessible crossword for us FT readers with only an odd half an hour to spare.