The usual elegant puzzle from Aardvark. Thank you.
My apologies for the late arrival of the blog. Every day seems the same at the moment.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PEEWEE | Singer having consecutive number ones? (6) |
| PEE and WEE (number ones, British baby talk for urination) – a songbird | ||
| 4 | GORGEOUS | Splendid Cheddar perhaps alongside donuts served regularly (8) |
| GORGE (Cheddar Gorge perhaps) then dOnUtS (every other letter, regularly) | ||
| 10 | NECTARINE | Irish over in canteen munched fruit (9) |
| IR (Irish) reversed (over) in anagram (munched) of CANTEEN | ||
| 11 | RIDER | Haggard feature of Bill? (5) |
| double definition – author Rider Haggard | ||
| 12 | HALT | Temporarily stop Henry the Eighth in flagrante (4) |
| HAL (Henry) then flagranTe (eighth letter of) | ||
| 13 | RADIAL TYRE | Artist first to decry reality broadcast that’s typically inflated (6,4) |
| RA (Royal Academician, artist) then Decry (first letter) and anagram (broadcast) of REALITY | ||
| 15 | NIBLICK | Old iron spike given slight wash (7) |
| NIB (spike) with LICK (slight wash) – a golf club | ||
| 16 | ENFOLD | Wrap up Parisian in France with cold, heading off (6) |
| EN (in, French, as spoken in Paris) then F (France) with cOLD missing first letter (heading off) | ||
| 19 | BRAZIL | Underwear Elizabeth rejected somewhere in Latin America (6) |
| BRA (underwear) then LIZ (Elizabeth) reversed (rejected) | ||
| 21 | CARAMEL | Brownish-yellow vehicle male shifted (7) |
| CAR (vehicle) then anagram (shifted) of MALE | ||
| 23 | STAGECOACH | Western trainer prioritising leg (10) |
| COACH (trainer) follows (prioritising…) STAGE (leg) – film title | ||
| 25 | WEAR | Don, an English river (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 27 | EVITA | Musical beat I verbalise partly, making comeback (5) |
| found inside (partly) beAT I VErbalise reversed (making comeback) | ||
| 28 | ISOLATION | New lino’s outside at number ten, being detached (9) |
| anagram (new) of LINO’S contains (outside) AT IO (10, the number) | ||
| 29 | STURDIER | More robust undergraduate stifles resistance (8) |
| STUDIER (undergraduate perhaps) contains (stifles) R (resistance) | ||
| 30 | FRIGHT | Alarm loud and sinister? Just the opposite (6) |
| F (forte, loud) and RIGHT (the opposite of left, sinister) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PENCHANT | Liking swan song (8) |
| PEN (swan) CHANT (song) | ||
| 2 | EXCALIBUR | Sword passed on by Charlie before burial at sea (9) |
| EX (former, passed on) with C (charlie) then anagram (at sea) of BURIAL | ||
| 3 | EBAY | Promoted unknown Lincoln marketplace (4) |
| Y (an unknown) ABE (Abraham Lincoln) all reversed (promoted) | ||
| 5 | ONE-TIME | Previous jail sentence under twelve months (3-4) |
| TIME (jail sentence) follows (under) ONE (twelve months, age in years) | ||
| 6 | GERALD FORD | Unusually large theologian overwhelming for president (6,4) |
| anagram (unusually) of LARGE then DD (theologian) containing (overwhelming) FOR | ||
| 7 | ODDLY | How Scandi characters become sad? In a peculiar way (5) |
| the odd characters (letters) from ScAnDi become SAD | ||
| 8 | SERVER | One distributing Bible in company of soothsayer (6) |
| RV (Revised Version, bible) inside SEER (soothsayer) | ||
| 9 | HIJACK | Seize control of countryman bypassing European agreement (6) |
| HICK (countryman) contains (bypassing?) JA (yes in German, European agreement) | ||
| 14 | FITZGERALD | US novelist in good health grazed freely, drinking litres (10) |
| FIT (in good health) then anagram (freely) of GRAZED contains (drinking) L (litres) | ||
| 17 | LUMBERING | Heather picks up earthy pigment, dealing with timber (9) |
| LING (heather) contains (picks up) UMBER (earthy pigment) | ||
| 18 | CLARINET | Music player from Cambridge college keeps in time (8) |
| CLARE (Cambridge college) contains (keeps) IN then T (time) | ||
| 20 | LIONISE | Reflective type of painting by Geordie hosting is put on pedestal (7) |
| OIL (type of painting) reversed (reflective) on NE (north-eastern, Geordie) containing (hosting) IS | ||
| 21 | COCOON | Place of security functioning beneath two businesses (6) |
| ON (functioning) follows (beneath in a down light) CO (company, business, twice) | ||
| 22 | ASSESS | Evaluate a bearing between ships (6) |
| 24 | ADIEU | That is blocking middle of viaduct for so long (5) |
| IE (that is) inside (blocking) viADUct (middle of) | ||
| 26 | FAIR | Open market (4) |
| double definition | ||
Thanks both. I think the compass bearing is SSE.
Surely the bearing is just E, between two lots of SS.
Is it not ‘E’ between ‘SS’ and ‘SS’?
Not the most challenging of puzzles but notable for some cheery surfaces.
We don’t normally spell these out but:
‘Temporarily stop Henry the Eighth in flagrante’
‘Singer having consecutive number ones’
‘Previous jail sentence under twelve months’
All these were of themselves smile-raising.
Thanks to all.
‘Liking swan song’
‘Previous jail sentence under twelve months’
Disagree with both. The compass bearing is, I think, just E, with A then SS (steamship) twice surrounding it.
Favourite was SWAN SONG -> PEN CHANT. Very nice.
Thanks all.
Sorry, @4 became garbled, but you take the point, I trust.
Wow! Lots of posts appeared whilst typing.
Re 22:
Agree with Hovis, but then I usually do.
Sorry, Andrew, we crossed in the post.
Although I usually agree with Eileen, here I agree with Hovis and Grant about 22d
Thanks to Aardvark for the crossword and PeeDee
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee. Enjoyable. I needed help parsing LIONISE and wasn’t sure about fair..
I found this quite tough. After filling the grid fully seven remained unparsed! I eventually figured them all out and four (HALT, EBAY, ODDLY, and FRIGHT) were amongst my favourites.
On the downside I’m not sure I care for the definition ‘Singer’ for the bird PEEWEE (especially given there is an actual singer named Pee Wee) and I think the second definition for RIDER is a bit tenuous. But other than those two minor gripes this was a very enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks to all.
Really enjoyed BRAZIL & PEEWEE, their surfaces amused me.
Angstony@12: There was also Pee Wee Hunt (1907-1979) , jazz trombonist, vocalist, and bandleader.
Generally pleasant, though I missed RIDER, SERVER, and HALT. Enjoyed PEEWEE, COCOON, and GORGEOUS — I had the pleasure of driving through the Cheddar Gorge decades ago on my first trip to England so that was a write-in for me. Was a bit baffled by “promoted” in 3d as a reversal indicator — I guess being promoted is moving up — I assume this would only word in down clues. Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee, (number one river blogger?)
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
A good challenge that took a few sittings to get through. Liked the word plays used, where sometimes they would lead to the answer and other times the definition would come leading to a wrestle to work out the why. As noted some lovely surfaces to boot. Missed seeing ONE being ‘twekve months’ at 5d.
Finished in the NE corner with ENFOLD, GERALD FORD and SERVER the last few in.
No one think there’s a theme here? Films and musicals perhaps? Cocoon, Stagecoach, Evita, Brazil, Excalibur, Hijack. Or was this just too obvious to mention?
Kev – that’s an interesting idea, and I didn’t notice them! It is hard to say if this was intentional. There are too many for it to look like chance but not enough to definitely say it is a theme.