Crosophile gets us off and running with a reasonably gentle puzzle
There’s no overt theme but I did rather get a sense of the setter’s indignation over a big orange baby coming to town.
Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely accidental…
Across
1 Game bird giving you bellyache (6)
GROUSE
2 definitions, reminds me of the old sign near a low beam “Duck or grouse!”
4 Gathered condiment, gathered together (8)
MUSTERED
Gathered as in overheard so sounds like MUSTARD
10 Lecturer’s absorbed by a lot of papers in field of study (5)
REALM
L for Lecturer inside a REAM of paper
11 Dining out, magnate’s regularly ignored and understandably cross (9)
INDIGNANT
It’s DINING* out & alternate letters of mAgNaTe
12 A member landed on top of you? That’s a solicitor’s area (8)
LEGALITY
LEG – a member of the body & ALIT – landed & top of Y(ou)
13 Cold 15 fabric in drawer for 20 (6)
CRAYON
I guessed this as C & RAYON before even seeing the clue for 15/20 What are they? see the next answer…
15/20 Food dyes as dressing occurring with aioli – lift out! (10,10)
ARTIFICIAL COLOURINGS
It’s [OCCURRING AIOLI LIFT]* out all inside dressed by AS. Like a spray on tan perhaps
16 Stunted moose! – turn around and look! (4)
OGLE
So we have a short EL(k) & GO – turn – all around – reversed
19 ‘Tabloid Kelvin’ is done for (4)
SUNK
If only!! The SUN – red top rag “newspaper” & K for Kelvin. Who is this Kelvin? well maybe Kelvin Mackenzie who managed to upset a lot of folk over the years
20 See 15
23 Suburb leases housing – an incoherent speech (6)
BURBLE
It’s housed by suBURB LEasing
25 I go deeper leaving nothing out in family tree (8)
PEDIGREE
Quite a nice beer too. O for nothing removed from [I G(o) DEEPER]* out.
27 One stringed instrument in ten possibly undamaged (9)
INVIOLATE
I for one & VIOLA – instrument in TEN* possibly
28 Victor taking whiskey in secret (5)
INNER
As in the inner circle, W(hiskey) removed from (w)INNER
29 Anxiety in Germany produces violent criminal (8)
GANGSTER
ANGST inside GER(many)
30 Garlands end regularly abandoned in different stations (6)
GRADED
Alternate letters of GaRlAnDs EnD
Down
1 Primate from waterway in Indian province … (7)
GORILLA
RILL a small river inside the Province of GOA
2 … and another from Algerian port terribly gaunt (9)
ORANGUTAN
another primate that is. ORAN – a port in Algeria & a terrible GAUNT*
3 Make easy money in slip up? Risky after fine is extracted (8)
SIMPLIFY
M for money inside a SLIP* up & F(ine) removed from I(f)FY – risky
5 Release gun dog out of its confines (4)
UNDO
without its outsides it’s (g)UN DO(g). It’s a hidden answer but I feel that’s not really how it works
6 These are ferocious rows over a piece of gossip (6)
TIGERS
a bit of G(ossip) inside TIERS – rows
7 Study year needing cash (5)
READY
Give me the readies for doing this blog, oh I forgot we do this for fun 🙂 OK it’s READ for study & Y for year
8 Camping equipment thrown in river when relations become warmer (7)
DETENTE
TENT inside the river DEE. Camping equipment seems to imply more like a plural than just a tent
9 Childish game from US, approval short, diplomacy out-of-date, heartless (3-3-3)
TIC-TAC-TOE
A short TIC(k) & TACT & a heartless O(ut of dat)E. Trying to refer to big baby Trump I suspect
14 Legal profession’s awfully remote – it responds to pressure (9)
BAROMETER
The BAR & an awful REMOTE*
17 Posse let out with no time to be mortified (9)
GANGRENED
GANG for posse & T(ime) removed from REN(t)ED – let out
18 Britain relatively wet becoming brighter (8)
BRAINIER
BR(itain) & RAINIER – more wet
19 Silicon and flashy accessories in Big Brother say (7)
SIBLING
Si for silicon & BLING – gaudy jewelry
21 Artist initially drops in the identical colour dragged across canvas? (7)
SMEARED
A(rtist) drops down in SAME -> SMEA & RED for colour
22 Flowers from Leopold for Joyce (6)
BLOOMS
Leoplod Bloom was a major James Joyce character
24 A bird if fearful’s not caught (5)
RAVEN
C(aught) & RAVEN gives CRAVEN, fearful
26 Maybe water that comes with hail? (4)
WAVE
W(ith) & AVE – hail Caesar….
*anagram
We struggled a bit with this but got there in the end. LOI was GANGRENED when we happened to find in Chambers that ‘gangrene’ can be a verb. We also had difficulty parsing 15/20, although the answer came easily enough from crossing letters.
Favourite was OGLE for the smile the stunted moose caused us.
Thanks, Crosophile and flashling.
I did this just after midnight, and very enjoyable too. No qualms and I’m sure others will have felt the same. Maybe that explains the lack of comments. Thanks to S&B
There IS a nina, and i t’s not meant to be Trump – although ‘orange’ is a part of it.
@3. I suppose the central clueing is key to the nina. I’d never have spotted it if you hadn’t posted. Original, to say the least.
I still don’t see it.
Nor I.
Too many Rs in 18D, it’s B + RAINIER.
Thanks to Crosophile and flashling.
This is a bit late, but for the sake of completeness I think the theme (not a nina) is colours of the rainbow, though most are incomplete or homophonic and I couldn’t find yellow. RED at 4A, ORANG at 2D, GREE at 25A, BLOO at 22D, INDIG at 11A, VIOLATE at 27A.
Sorry everybody, Even later getting back here! [I forgot!]
Thanks very much , flashling, for the blog – and I enjoyed the Trumpology even if I’d not intended it! 🙂
Well done, endwether and Tatrasman, finding the nina. The key was ‘Artificial colourings’ exemplified by READY, ORANDutan, MUSTERED [I couldn’t find a suitable yellow], ganGRENEd, BLOOms, INDIGnant and [the one that started the idea in my head] inVIOLATE.
Thanks, all, for comments.
Thanks crosophile for confirming the nina – it was charybdis who alerted us to it. Surely the placing of the ‘e’ next to ‘orang’ and the ‘o’i under ‘indig’ wasn’t coincidental? It was that which convinced me to look further.
@Endwether Charybdis is the Superman like alter-ego of Crosophile….
@10 – That’s the trouble with having a split personality. I meant to post as Crosophile at #3!