The puzzle can be found here.
Hello all. Today we have an enjoyable puzzle from Silvanus. It’s also a pangram, not that I noticed until just now. Thanks Silvanus!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.
Across
1a Lead scientific study, maybe touched by extremely awful disease (10)
METALLURGY
MET (touched) next to (by) the letters at the edges of (extremely) AwfuL + LURGY (disease)
6a Man, for example, that’s deceived, receiving no protection (4)
ISLE
mISLEd (deceived) without its outer letters (receiving no protection)
10a Improve the minds of some disenchanted, if youthful characters (5)
EDIFY
Some characters in disenchantED IF Youthful
11a Risk briefly carrying horse in old vehicle (9)
CHARABANC
Most of (… briefly) CHANCe (risk) around (carrying) ARAB (horse)
12a He’s a kind eccentric, one with little up top though (8)
SKINHEAD
HES A KIND, anagrammed (eccentric)
13a Worth Rome writer ignoring argumentative individual at intervals? (5)
MERIT
[ro]ME [w]RIT[er] without (ignoring) ROWER (argumentative individual) in separate pieces (at intervals)
15a University and school rent regularly overlooked, not cut (7)
UNSHORN
U (university) [a]N[d] S[c]H[o]O[l] R[e]N[t] ignoring alternate letters (regularly overlooked)
17a Rule out treasure being scattered in grave (7)
AUSTERE
Without R (rule out), we have TREASU[r]E anagrammed (scattered)
18a Prepared to be given a diet of cheese? (7)
BRIEFED
BRIE–FED. ‘Nuff said!
21a Current unfinished row between Left and Right in Curacao, say (7)
LIQUEUR
I (symbol for electrical current) and QUEUe missing its last letter (unfinished) both between L (left) and R (right)
23a Consent from Germany to criticise its wartime ally (5)
JAPAN
JA (Consent from Germany) + PAN (to criticise)
24a Night owls partial to claret but not steaks reportedly? (8)
VAMPIRES
Cryptic definition, with claret being blood and stakes given as a homophone of (… reportedly) steaks
27a Difficult to look restrained after damage in French city (9)
MARSEILLE
ILL (difficult) inside SEE (to look), with restrained as the containment indicator, after MAR (damage)
28a Culinary plant from Mali’s absolutely revolutionary (5)
BASIL
We take the answer from MaLI‘S ABsolutely reversed (revolutionary)
29a Scraps inequality (4)
ODDS
A double definition
30a Fish possibly once served raw, eaten with moreish sides (10)
WEATHERMAN
An anagram of (served) RAW EATEN with the letters at the edge of (… sides) MoreisH. Ah, Michael Fish, the forecaster who famously failed to predict the Great Storm of 1987. This gave rise to the so-called “Michael Fish effect” blamed for subsequent over-pessimistic forecasts
Down
1d Look bad-tempered in conversation (4)
MIEN
Sounds like (… in conversation) MEAN (bad-tempered)
2d Characteristic habit to cheat (5)
TRICK
Two definitions
3d Attack unlimited gambling on tense final of judo (3,4)
LAY INTO
pLAYINg (gambling) without its outer letters (unlimited) preceding (on, in a down answer) T (tense) and the last letter of (final of) judO
4d Relative ambition that’s heartless and immoral (7)
UNCLEAN
UNCLE (relative) plus A[mbitio]N that’s without its middle letters (heartless)
5d South African ready to visit on vacation glum adult family member (7)
GRANDMA
RAND (South African ready, ready money) inside (to visit) the emptied (on vacation) G[lu]M, then A (adult)
7d Cocktail that creates a cool ambience around 6? (3,6)
SEA BREEZE
A cryptic definition: a SEA BREEZE would provide some cool air around an ISLE (6a)
8d Reached tax arrangement with authority (2,8)
EX CATHEDRA
An anagram (arrangement) of REACHED TAX
9d Priests outside mark old feast day (6)
LAMMAS
LAMAS (priests) around (outside) M (mark, former German currency)
14d Male boss undermined by flier displaying baffling jargon (5-5)
MUMBO-JUMBO
M (male) and UMBO (boss, the central boss of a shield) followed by (undermined by, in a down answer) JUMBO. Umbo was new to me
16d Short bouncy type, Liverpool player perhaps, acted as captain (9)
SKIPPERED
SKIPPEr (bouncy type) without its last letter (short …) + RED (Liverpool player perhaps)
19d Stack of food that describes dinner essentially (6)
FUNNEL
FUEL (food) which goes around (that describes) the central letters of (… essentially) diNNer
20d Reveal resort in which to stick around endlessly (7)
DIVULGE
DIVE (resort, not generally a reputable one) in which we have most of (… endlessly) GLUe (to stick) reversed (around)
21d Brilliant amateur, first from blocks during fast time (7)
LAMBENT
AM (amateur) and the first letter from Blocks all inside (during) LENT (fast time)
22d Question over American pet food, missing kilo generates complaint (7)
QUIBBLE
QU (question) preceding (over, in a down answer) [k]IBBLE (American pet food) missing K (kilo). If you’re going to have a quibble in a crossword, better to have it in the grid than the comments!
25d Course of electrotherapy probably surpasses other medication initially (5)
EPSOM
A race course, of course. The first letters of (… initially) Electrotherapy Probably Surpasses Other Medication
26d Inadequate tool for drawing (4)
PLAN
Not quite the whole of (inadequate) PLANe (tool)
The pangram helped with WEATHERMAN, my last in. Not too hard, but a few not common (to me anyway) words such as LAMMAS and I was initially tricked by DIVE for ‘resort’.
My favourites were the original take on the often feared ‘Fish’ clue (and the memories of that day it brought back), the VAMPIRES cryptic def and CHARABANC, for which my personal translation – ‘rickety old bus’ – fitted the clue nicely.
Thanks to Kitty, including for the pics, and to Silvanus.
Favourite clues! I knew I forgot something! Yes, I too really enjoyed the VAMPIRES.
I was but a kitten in 1987, in First School, as it was then. One of my few memories from that far back* is of being kept awake by the howling of that storm, a sound I couldn’t believe was made by the wind.
*not that I remember all that much from before about last Tuesday …
The purrfect storm.
The clue for MERIT was a bit unusual. Somehow managed to get EX CATHEDRA early on. No idea where I dredged that up from. A nice Sunday romp. Thanks to all.
A bit tricky in places, but we got there in the end – only spotted the pangram after completing it, though. We took a while to see the parsing of METALLURGY, and in 12ac we wondered if ‘with little up top’ applied in more senses than one!
Lots to like. Thanks, Silvanus and Kitty.
Many thanks to Kitty for her usual excellent review and illustrations, and to the others who took the time to leave comments, they are always much appreciated.