A traditional style puzzle as is usual from Aardvark. Thank you Aardvark.
Seeing Q, X, W, K etc appearing in the grid I was expecting a pangram for a while, but none materialised.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ALPHABET |
A table goes spare outside pub serving sort of soup (8)
|
| anagram (goes spare, gets mad) of A TABLE contains (outside) PH (pub) – a confusing and unreadable text, named after the noodle soups made for children | ||
| 5 | CHASER |
Cleaner stashes case of Soave for drink after (6)
|
| CHAR (cleaner) contains (stashes) outer letters (case) of SoavE | ||
| 9 | TERRAPIN |
Simple shot captures stray reptile (8)
|
| TAP-IN (simple shot, in football) contains ERR (to stray) | ||
| 10 | PASS UP |
Renounce annual review of cat (4,2)
|
| PA (per annum, annual) then a reversal (review) of PUSS (cat) | ||
| 12 | MAELSTROM |
Eddy’s pants are lost within two minutes (9)
|
| anagram (pants, UK slang, in a useless manner) of ARE LOST inside M M (minute, twice) – a very large eddy in the sea | ||
| 13 | THETA |
Les, in France, cheers character in Marathon (5)
|
| THE (les, in French) then TA (cheers) – a Greek (as used in Marathon) letter equivalent to TH, found in maraTHon | ||
| 14 | OSSA |
As usual, regularly picked on duck bones (4)
|
| every other letter (regularly picked) of aS uSuAl follows (on) O (duck, a zero score) | ||
| 16 | TREACLE |
Criminal cartel finally provide sweetener (7)
|
| anagram (criminal) of CARTEL then last letter (finally) of providE | ||
| 19 | QUARREL |
Fight arranged between that Parisian and student (7)
|
| ARR (arranged) inside (between) QUE (that, French, as in Paris) and L (learner, student) | ||
| 21 | KITE |
Christopher Reeve taking centre stage as high-flier (4)
|
| KIT (Christopher) then reEve (middle letter, the one taking centre stage) | ||
| 24 | ASPEN |
A small animal home that has many branches? (5)
|
| A S (small) PEN (animal home)- a tree has many branches | ||
| 25 | NIT-PICKER |
Fusspot flipped can, and cream emptied easier (3-6)
|
| TIN (can) reversed (flipped) then PICK (cream) and EasieR (no middle letters, emptied) | ||
| 27 | RIPSAW |
Carpenter’s helper spotted on ladder (6)
|
| SAW (spotted) following (on) RIP (ladder, in stockings perhaps) | ||
| 28 | CHILDREN |
Issue 49 on central heating geek recalled (8)
|
| IL (49, Roman numerals) on CH (central heating) then NERD (geek) reversed (recalled) | ||
| 29 | NASSER |
Former statesman somewhat unassertive (6)
|
| found inside uNASSERtive – Nasser Hussein, former |
||
| 30 | SPUMANTE |
Bubbly fellow inside rarely upset (8)
|
| MAN (fellow) inside anagram (rarely, |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | AUTUMN |
Gold corporation, the first to notice fall (6)
|
| AU (Au, gold) then TUM (corporation, stomach) and first letter of Notice | ||
| 2 | PART-EX |
Standard resident of Dallas working out a new deal (4-2)
|
| PAR (standard) and TEXan (resident of Dallas) missing (working out) A N (new) | ||
| 3 | AMASS |
Gather you love Latin seminar, sitting foremost (5)
|
| AMAS (you love, in Latin) then first letter (sitting foremost) of Seminar | ||
| 4 | ERITREA |
Tax rises are unsettling country (7)
|
| TIRE (tax, to make weary) reversed (rises) then anagram (unsettling) of ARE | ||
| 6 | HEARTFELT |
Genuine chap maybe engraving on fibrous material (9)
|
| HE (a chap) ART (engraving maybe) on FELT (fibrous material) | ||
| 7 | SESTERCE |
Obsolete coin with crest used fraudulently in butcher’s (8)
|
| anagram (used fraudulently) of CREST inside SEE (butcher’s, Butcher’s Hook rhyming slang for look, see) | ||
| 8 | REPEATER |
Parrot that’s continually involved in piracy? (8)
|
| double definition – someone that parrots and someone repeatedly infringing copyright (piracy). I’m not 100% sure about this. | ||
| 11 | OMIT |
Old computers etc engulfing Mike’s skip (4)
|
| O (old) IT (computers etc) contains (engulfing) M (mike, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 15 | SHRINKAGE |
Period under psychiatrist revealing loss through theft (9)
|
| AGE (period) follows) under SHRINK (psychiatrist) | ||
| 17 | SQUADRON |
Army unit’s youngster squeezes muscle on run (8)
|
| SON (youngster) contains (squeezes) QUAD (muscle) with R (run) | ||
| 18 | BAGPIPES |
Musical instrument disheartened buskers outside just beat in time (8)
|
| BuskerS (no middle letters, dis-heartened) contains (outside) PIP (just beat) inside AGE (time) | ||
| 20 | LING |
Heather’s affair loudly denied (4)
|
| fLING (affair) missing (defined) F (forte, loudly) | ||
| 21 | KETCHUP |
Dip boat at Oxford? (7)
|
| KETCH then UP (attending university, at Oxford perhaps) | ||
| 22 | SKI RUN |
Risk fractures on a French Alpine slope? (3,3)
|
| anagram (fractures) of RISK on UN (a, French) | ||
| 23 | ORANGE |
Paint Dutch house (6)
|
| I don’t know why paint denotes orange, except that paint (noun or adjective) might be orange, but it might equally be any other colour. Paint as a verb means “to colour” but “to orange” something sounds very strained. Can anyone see a better explanation? Maybe I have the wrong answer here. | ||
| 26 | ISLAM |
Scottish female joins mass religion (5)
|
| ISLA (Scottish girl’s name) with M (mass) |
Thanks for the blog, your E has strayed to A in TERRAPIN.
Paint = Orange seems quire a stretch unless we are missing something ?? Some modern make-up term ??
Whoops! Thank you Roz, I will fix that asap.
Not overly happy with REPEATER either, it is a gun and I suppose modern pirates use guns ?? I think of them with swords.
Last minor grumble, I think ladder=RIP is a bit strong, ladder is more of a run and much easier to repair.
I did enjoy this overall just a few things not quire sure of.
I suspect a repeater may be a device used in online piracy but that’s just a guess. I often remark that some setters seem to think just about any word works as an anagram indicator. I find it hard to justify this use of “rarely” in 30a. It’s interesting to note that it is a reverse cycle and I don’t recall ever seeing a clue using this. Something like Bubbly fellow upset cycles in reverse outside.
Rare can mean extraordinary so I was happy with that.
I suspect Hovis @ 5 and PeeDee are correct with piracy being a modern online copyright issue.
Roz – I prefer your “out of the ordinary” explanation of rarely. Thanks for that, I will update the blog.
Re repeater: I think if piracy is repeating someone else’s material then it works equally with or without being online. I have not come across this as a specifically Internet oriented term. I can think of “re-posting” and “re-tweeting” as specifically Internet terminology, but not repeating.
If I am allowed to get a word in, I’d like to say I liked the old coin and I like Aardvark
Slight overlap with Brummie-a quarrel of ?? for starters
Thanks peedee and… wasnt he Scorpion once upon a time
Just to say that, in 29A, I think Aardvark probably had this Nasser in mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamal_Abdel_Nasser
I am not convinced by repeater – in my mind there’s no suggestion in the word of plagiarism or deliberate ripping-off of intellectual property. I also agree with Roz@4 about ladder=rip – I even tried looking up ‘runsaw’ in case I’d reached my great age without having heard of one.
Otherwise a pleasant solve. Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee.
Thanks flatcap, you are definitely right. When I was writing up the blog thought I would check the famous Nasser Hussein in Wikipedia and was surprised to find a relatively short entry on him saying he was PM of Jordan. I just assumed I had misremembered something (as is often the case with me). It never occurred to me there were two of them.
Exactly the same doubts about REPEATER and ORANGE, neither of which I could explain satisfactorily. To me, a TAP-IN refers to a short putt in golf (equivalent to a “gimme”), but, looking it up afterwards, I see it has a similar meaning in both football and basketball. If you can make the distinction, I regard KETCHUP as a sauce, rather than a ‘Dip’. Good to be reminded of SESTERCE.
Yes copmus @8, Aardvark was Scorpion in the Indy once upon a time but a site search shows he hasn’t appeared since Feb 2018.
Quite difficult and I look forward to enlightenment for the two clues which are giving so much trouble.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee
For what it’s worth, my Collins says that ORANGE can refer to a pigment producing an orange colour. It doesn’t seem too large a step from pigment to paint. This isn’t in Chambers.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee. I put ORANGE in at 23dn without any fuss. It did not seem too much of a stretch to me that “Paint” could define a specific colour, in just the same way that “Musical instrument” at 18dn defines a specific instrument. I was more bothered by 19ac, where we have to take “between” to mean between the letters of QUE, rather than between QUE and L.
Pelham re 19ac – yes, ARR is not between QUE and L as I wrote in the blog, thanks for pointing it out. Next time I should look more carefully!
A bit of a slog today — missed ALPHABET (DNK goes spare = gets mad), LING (DNK as heather), SESTERCE (DNK butcher = see), and ORANGE (DNK Dutch house). I bunged in KITE without parsing. I loved MAELSTROM (for its amusing surface) and NIT-PICKER. Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee for today’s education session.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
A typically full on puzzle by this setter with a number of unusual definitions, as called out above. Like Wordplodder, I was surprised to see KETCHUP clued as a dip. Had no real problems with ORANGE after seeing the ‘pigment’ definition – but it could be no other. PART-EX was a new term.
Finished in the SW corner with the well-hidden NASSER, RIPSAW (which I hadn’t heard of) and SHRINKAGE (which raised a grin) as the last one in.