The grid looks like ought to have some theme in there, but nothing obvious comes to mind. Thank you Aardvark.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | IAMBIC | Current Australian doctor in charge of feet (6) |
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I (current, electrical notation) A (Australian) MB (doctor) IC (in charge) – of metric feet, in verse |
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| 5 | PUGILIST | Boxer backed up against fighter that’s lean (8) |
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UP reversed (backed) then GI (General Infantryman, fighter) with LIST (lean) |
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| 9 | ANGLESEY | Injured leg’s given drug when inhabiting some island (8) |
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anagram (injured) of LEG'S and E (drug) inside (when inhabiting) ANY (some) |
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| 10 | ACIDIC | Group of policemen in capital caught tart (6) |
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CID (group of policemen) inside AI (A1, great, capital) C (caught) |
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| 11 | LA-DI-DA | Paula did appear somewhat pretentious (2-2-2) |
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found inside (somewhat) pauLA DID Appear |
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| 12 | ON AND OFF | Old relative attends to shed intermittently (2,3,3) |
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O (old) NAN (grandmother, relative) with (attends to) DOFF (shed) |
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| 14 | STIRLING MOSS | Racing driver picked up money in Britain, being second three times (8,4) |
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STIRLING sounds like (picked up) "sterling" (money in Britain) then MO, S and S (second, three times) |
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| 18 | RITA HAYWORTH | Hollywood actress rearranging most of hair – worth a try (4,8) |
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anagram (rearranging) of HAIr (most of) with WORTH A TRY |
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| 22 | SCORPION | Expert retrospective probes descendant, one born on Hallowe’en (8) |
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PRO (expert) reversed (retrospectively) inside (probes) SCION(descendant) |
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| 25 | ERRATA | Misprints informant found during long period (6) |
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RAT (informant) inside ERA (long period) |
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| 26 | STIGMA | Spot Greek character eating a bit of tzatziki (6) |
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SIGMA (Greek character) contains (eating) Tzatziki (first letter, a bit of) |
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| 27 | GLISSADE | Learner’s depressed during extremely gauche dance movement (8) |
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L (learner) IS SAD (depressed) inside (during) GauchE (extremes of) |
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| 28 | TITANIUM | Jumbo taken by author’s boarded by posh element (8) |
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TITAN (jumbo) then (taken by) I'M (the author is) containing (boarded by) U (posh) |
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| 29 | NAILED | Held fast – unknown number feel ill by start of Easter Day (6) |
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N (unkown number) AIL (feel ill) then Easter (starting letter of) and D (day) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | AENEAS | Sean Bean, unclothed, represented ancient warrior (6) |
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anagram (represented) of SEAN with bEAn (unclothed) |
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| 3 | BALTIC SEA | After curry, accountant touring London area needs much water (6,3) |
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BALTI (curry) then CA (chartered accountant) contains (touring) SE (London area) |
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| 4 | COSTA RICA | Country station in part of France son avoided (5,4) |
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STA (station) in CORsICA (part of France) missing S (son) |
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| 5 | PAYROLL | Table of employees chatter about sandwich (7) |
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YAP (chatter) reversed (about) ROLL (sandwich) |
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| 6 | GUAVA | Fruit from Pacific island Mike scrubbed and Vera hollowed out (5) |
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GUAm (Pacific island) missing M (mike) then VerA (hollowed out) |
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| 7 | LAIRD | Landowner placed a bet, securing first in race (5) |
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LAID (placed a bet) contains (securing) Race (first letter in) |
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| 8 | STIFFEST | Second row from France is the most resistant (8) |
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S (second) TIFF (row) then EST (is, from France) |
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| 13 | NAG | Harry’s half-seen on flag (3) |
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half of oN flAG |
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| 15 | NORWEGIAN | Munch perhaps on earwig, terribly close to starvation (9) |
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anagram (terribly) of ON EARWIG then starvatioN (closing letter) – artist Edvard Munch perhaps |
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| 16 | MAHARISHI | Graduate with flowing hair’s greeting religious teacher (9) |
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MA (graduate) with anagram (flowing) of HAIR'S then HI (greeting) |
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| 17 | BISCOTTI | Italian’s baked produce? Fresh cob’s added to it repeatedly (8) |
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anagram (fresh) of COBS with IT IT (repeatedly) |
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| 19 | HIP | Cool joint (3) |
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double definition |
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| 20 | WINE GUM | Sweet group of women, say, captivated by underground workers? (4,3) |
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WI (Women's Institute) then EG (say) inside (captivated by) NUM (National Union of Miners) |
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| 21 | STODGE | Southern BBC boss plugs digital feature: difficult to digest? (6) |
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S (southern) then DG (Director General, BBC boss) inside (plugs) TOE (a digital feature) |
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| 23 | RAGGA | Charity event on Goa shunning ordinary sort of music (5) |
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RAG (charity event) then GoA missing O (ordinary) |
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| 24 | IRAQI | Irish great entertains queen from Middle Eastern country (5) |
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IR (Irish) AI (A1, great) contains (entertains) Q (queen) |
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Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
5dn is dreadful. A roll is not a sandwich, and the Payroll is never described as a ‘table of employees’.
Enjoyed this. Thanks Aardvark. Did not know/remember that balti was curry, rag was a charity event, MB was doctor, or CID was a group of policemen so thanks PeeDee. Favorites included NORWEGIAN and PUGILIST.
I liked this crossword (as ever with this setter) but can anyone explain to me why Aardvark uses ‘being’ in 14ac?
Well that was very Grumpy. I’ve had many a bacon roll that I would not object to being called a sandwich as it is bacon sandwiched by bread. And being on the payroll definitely means you are on the list or table of employees. I enjoyed this and the blog. Thanks both.
wrt PAYROLL, Chambers has “a list of people entitled to receive pay…” so “table of employees” seems OK to me. Also, liked Munch misdirection (of course, I assumed it was the anagrind at first).
Very clever puzzle. SvdH @3, I originally thought that the clue was alluding to Moss being 3 times runner-up in the world championship but on checking it seems that he finished second four times. It would have been brilliant otherwise. Ah well.
jmac, thanks for your thoughts after my query re 14ac.
But it still makes me none the wiser.
Aardvark uses ‘being’ at a position in the clue where there is just an addition (of MO,S and S). That’s what I don’t get.
Alternatively, ‘being second three times’ equating MO S S, doesn’t do it for me either. Or perhaps just about after doing some deep thinking.
But, don’t get me wrong, this was a very fine crossword from a setter who we don’t see enough – as Scorpion – in the Indy.
Even though not literally accurate per JMAC, perhaps ‘finishing’ would have provided a better surface than ‘being’in 14ac.
Sil, the obvious answer seems to be that “being” is in there simply to make the surface work better and doesn’t play a significant part in the parsing of the clue. Some setters think adding the odd word here and there to smooth things over is OK, and some solvers think it is OK to have them there too.
Are you suggesting that this is an oversight by Aardvark (he didn’t realize it doesn’t parse in the strict sense), or that such things are just not allowable in puzzles?
PeeDee and others, sometimes words are indeed there just to enhance the surface and as long as they are not in the way of the cryptic part of the clue, then I am usually happy with them.
The reason why I asked my question was only because I do want to understand clues.
As far as I know this setter, I was rather surprised by what he did here.
Shouldn’t he have done it? That’s not my point. Every day of the week you see a lot of things in crosswords that are at least questionnable – which is something that I have accepted and doesn’t spoil my day or the puzzle as such (as long as I do not have to do it myself).
So no fuss, I just wanted to understand why Aardvark did it. And I get it now. Fine.
I cant remember seeing a Scorpion puzzle for a long while so at least we got one as an answer.
Hi Sil, there is certainly something odd about 14 across. I think the thing about “being” is that it looks like it should play a more significant role in the clue than it does. My guess is that this was probably unintentional. I think it is a bigger weakness than it just being there as a surface filler, which on its own is not a big deal. The additional word leads one on and then disappoints when nothing materializes. Misdirection should lead one one way (e.g. I’m an anagram…) and then reveal another (…no, I’m a reversal!). This leads one one way and then reveals… nothing.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
An entertaining puzzle that had a lot of depth in most of the clues. Came in just over the half hour, so quicker than the average FT solve and was able to fully parse all of them – though that many of the word constructions were outstanding.
The ‘being’ didn’t worry me at the time and actually thought that it was a clever clue (pity that he was second four times instead of three, for the sake of the clue) – I can see the point of the discussion though. Was more concerned from an elegance perspective with ‘worth’ being in the anagram fodder for RITA HAYWORTH at 18a.
Finished in the SW corner with RAGGA (which was a new musical term for me), STIGMA (easy in hindsight) and TITANIUM (where it took way longer than it should to see the TITAN part).