Another enjoyable puzzle from Aardvark. Thank you.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PICKWICK PAPERS | Novel photo wife put in boot with ID (8,6) |
| PIC (photo) then W (wife) inside KICK (boot) with PAPERS (id) | ||
| 10 | AZURE | Blue streetmap certain to lose its front (5) |
| AZ (A-to-Z, streetmap) then sURE (certain) missing front letter | ||
| 11 | BATTLE-AXE | Overbearing woman from Hastings perhaps cross in casualty (6-3) |
| BATTLE (Hastings perhaps) then X (cross) in A and E (Accident and Emergency, casualty) | ||
| 12 | RONALDO | European footballer cultivated land wearing jumper (7) |
| anagram (cultivated) of LAND inside (wearing) ROO (kangaroo, a jumper) | ||
| 13 | HOGNOSE | House guest initially recognises reported snake (7) |
| HO (house) Guest (first letter, initially) then NOSE sounds like (reported) of knows (recognises) | ||
| 14 | WEDGE | Joined, say, revolutionary club (5) |
| WED (joined) EG (say) reversed (revolutionary) – a golf club | ||
| 16 | LEVITICUS | Religious text Clive reviewed, circulating it with American (9) |
| anagram (reviewed) of CLIVE contains (circulating) IT then US (American) | ||
| 19 | SINGALONG | Make mistake with lass performing good chant (9) |
| SIN (make mistake) with GAL (lass) ON (performing) G (good) | ||
| 20 | RELIT | Centre of party hat, when turned round, illuminated again (5) |
| paRty (centre of) then TILE (hat) reversed (when turned round) | ||
| 22 | MACDUFF | Shakespearean character having coat of poor quality (7) |
| MAC (coat) with DUFF (of poor quality) | ||
| 25 | ENDED UP | Arrived eventually, then Jade only half-finished flipping dessert (5,2) |
| thEN jaDE (only half of) then PUD (dessert) reversed (flipping) | ||
| 27 | AQUITAINE | Stop among motoring group in English region of France (9) |
| QUIT (stop) inside (among) AA (motoring group) then IN E (English) | ||
| 28 | BANJO | Five characters in Cuban joint strumming instrument (5) |
| five letters (characters) in cuBAN JOint | ||
| 29 | DISTRESS SIGNAL | Woman’s hair and nails restyled around end of spring. Mayday? (8,6) |
| DI’S TRESS (woman’s hair) then anagram (restyled) of NAILS containing sprinG (end letter of) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | IGUANODON | In the past a massive herbivore, one dropping kebab without hesitation (9) |
| I GUANO DONer (doner kebab) missing ER (a hesitation) | ||
| 3 | KNEEL | What worshipper might do to raise shelter needed by Kingston’s outsiders (5) |
| a reversal (to raise) of LEE (shelter) with (needed by) KinstoN (outside letters of) | ||
| 4 | IMBROGLIO | Writer’s vivacity, when keeping log, stirred confusing situation (9) |
| I’M (the writer is) BRIO (vivacity) contains (when keeping) anagram (stirred) of LOG | ||
| 5 | KETCH | Tart dressing up to exit sailing boat (5) |
| KETCHup (tart dressing) missing (to exit) UP | ||
| 6 | ALLIGATOR | Sort of hide everybody on vacation in Genoa during violent riot (9) |
| ALL (everybody) then GenoA (on vacation, vacated, empty) inside (during) anagram (violent) of RIOT | ||
| 7 | ERATO | Muse, time and time again, on Oscar (5) |
| ERA (time) T (time, again) on O (Oscar, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 8 | SEERESS | Woman forecasting weather’s latest feature in six directions (7) |
| weatheR (latest feature, the last bit of) in S S E E S S (directions, six of) | ||
| 9 | YARROW | Pungent plant reflected sunlight on bank (6) |
| RAY (sunlight) reversed (reflected) on ROW (bank) | ||
| 15 | EVALUATOR | One determines the worth of foremost of artists in Louvre at broadcast (9) |
| Artists (first letter, foremost of) inside anagram (broadcast) of LOUVRE AT | ||
| 17 | VAGUENESS | Victor has fever, head being hazy (9) |
| V (victor, phonetic alphabet) has AGUE (fever) and NESS (head) | ||
| 18 | CALEDONIA | US agents consuming beer and sport north of the border once (9) |
| CIA (US agents) contain (consuming) ALE (beer) and DON (sport, to wear) | ||
| 19 | SIM CARD | Storage device is erected by Mike and Jack perhaps (3,4) |
| IS reversed (erected) then M (mike, phonetic alphabet) and CARD (jack perhaps) | ||
| 21 | TIPTOP | Excellent advice by spinner (6) |
| TIP (advice) by TOP (a spinner) | ||
| 23 | CLUBS | Clobber son required: black suit (5) |
| CLUB (clobber) with (required by) S (son) | ||
| 24 | FRIES | Scotsman leaves dairy cattle food for grazing? (5) |
| FRIESian (dairy cattle) missing IAN (a Scotsman) | ||
| 26 | DEBUG | First attempt mostly good? Correct (5) |
| DEBUt (first attempt, mostly) then G (good) | ||
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.
Nicely constructed pangram I thought.
Last two in were HOGNOSE and ALLIGATOR. The snake was new to me but not too hard to guess.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee.
Very nice but I was beaten by YARROW and WEDGE.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing…
In 2d, I happened to know (my son’s a palaeontologist) that Parasaurolophi are a group of dinosaurs. Aha! ‘Para’ = ‘one dropping, ho-ho’. Took some time for my smugness to wear off, to be replaced with a grump.
My fault: the clues were all perfectly fair and accessible. Nice puzzle, and a pangram to boot.
Thanks to both.
I didn’t know the ‘snake’ or ‘Pungent plant’ but the wordplay was helpful for both. I couldn’t parse KETCH, ketchup not really occurring to me as a ‘Tart dressing’, but I was also fooled by the wordplay. I know the surface wouldn’t work and I’m being picky, but ‘dropping’ rather than ‘droppings’ for GUANO?
I liked the surface for the ‘Mayday’ clue and ALLIGATOR was an unusual ‘Sort of hide’.
Thank you to Aardvark and PeeDee.
Thanks to Aardvark for a good puzzle. I was stumped by AQUITAINE and FRIES. I got KETCH and WEDGE without understanding the parsing — thanks PeeDee for the enlightenment.
Terrific — some great surfaces. Thanks, PeeDee — I’ve been without external assistance all day, so muffed Hognose. Thanks, Aardvark
Best clue for me 12ac for odd and amusing surface.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee. Very enjoyable. I did not parse IGUANODON but did parse KETCH. I knew Friesian cattle from a previous puzzle and HOGNOSE.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
An enjoyable lunch time solve where a fair bit of general knowledge was needed. Because of my asynchronous solving of crosswords, IGUANADON had appeared in another puzzle (published later but done earlier) – but still needed many of the crossers to see the sneaky definition.
A couple of new terms in HOGNOSE and YARROW and had to check on CALEDONIA indeed being the olden time name for Scotland.
Finished in the SW corner with SIM CARD (which I got thrown by the ‘storage device’ definition, thinking more of it as an identifier device that actually does store a little information) and AQUITAINE (which needed to be dredged from some dark recesses of the memory) as the last couple in.