Another nice puzzle form Aardvark. Not difficult overall, but there were a couple of clues held me up for quite a while. Thank you Aardvark.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | GET CARTER |
Drag queen seen on cop film in 1970s (3,6)
|
| CART (drag) ER (Elizabeth Regina, queen) follows (seen on) GET (cop, arrest) – 1971 film featuring Michael Caine | ||
| 10 | LAUDA |
Fast driver relatively flashy, shouting (5)
|
| sounds like (shouting) “louder” (relatively flashy) – Nikki Lauda | ||
| 11 | SATCHEL |
The class endlessly muddle book carrier? (7)
|
| anagram (muddle) of THE CLASs | ||
| 12 | MAMMOTH |
Enormous explosives obtained by outwardly militant husband (7)
|
| AMMO (explosives) inside (obtained by) MilitanT (outer letters, outwardly) and H (husband) | ||
| 13 | ISH |
Sort of newspaper taken by mum (3)
|
| I (the i, title of a UK newspaper) and SH (quiet, mum) | ||
| 14 | MISCONSTRUE |
Wrongly interpret criminals, honest with girl mostly (11)
|
| CONS (criminals) TRUE (honest) following (with) MISs (girl, mostly) | ||
| 17 | CADET |
In recession, partly rested accounts trainee (5)
|
| found inside resTED ACcounts reversed (in recession) | ||
| 18 | CHI |
Energy vital for character in Marathon (3)
|
| double definition – a Greek letter, as used in Marathon perhaps | ||
| 19 | OLDIE |
Senior soul’s driven occasionally (5)
|
| every other letter (occasionally) of sOuL’s DrIvEn | ||
| 21 | RUTH RENDELL |
Author perhaps writing strangely under the lines (4,7)
|
| R (writing perhaps, one of the three R’s) with anagram (strangely) of UNDER THE then L L (line, twice) | ||
| 23 | EBB |
Decline of English bees (3)
|
| E then B B (bee, name of letter, twice) | ||
| 25 | BOROUGH |
Cry of hostility and of disgust encapsulating Republican urban area (7)
|
| BOO (cry of hostility) and UGH (cry of disgust) contains (encapsulating) R (republican) | ||
| 27 | IMPASSE |
On board, draw this writer’s old hat (7)
|
| I’M (this writer is) PASSE (old hat) – a stalemate in a board game | ||
| 28 | AILED |
Felt pain, cracking watch display (5)
|
| AI (A1, cracking, excellent) then LED (a type of watch display) | ||
| 29 | NICARAGUA |
A sauce used in original Inca country (9)
|
| A RAGU (sauce) inside anagram (originally) of INCA | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | AGASSI |
Decline in savings upset former US sportsman (6)
|
| SAG (decline) inside (ISA, a savings scheme) all reversed (upset) | ||
| 2 | STITCHED |
Darned bird, constant resident in outhouse (8)
|
| TIT (bird) C (constant) inside (resident in) SHED (outhouse) | ||
| 3 | TACHOMETER |
Measuring device moggy picked up on domestic terrace (10)
|
| CAT (moggy) reversed (picked up) on HOME (domestic) TER (terrace) | ||
| 4 | ET AL |
Delayed travelling northwards and elsewhere (2,2)
|
| LATE (delayed) reversed (travelling northwards, up the grid) | ||
| 5 | TRAMPOLINE |
Vagrant round business that occupies bouncer? (10)
|
| TRAMP (vagrant) O (something round) and LINE (business) | ||
| 6 | CLAM |
Seafood with cold batter (4)
|
| C (cold) LAM (batter, to hit) | ||
| 7 | RUMOUR |
Alcoholic drink associated with British grapevine (6)
|
| RUM (alcoholic drink) and OUR (associated with British, in this British newspaper) | ||
| 8 | CASHMERE |
Rhino possibly approaching me on border of ravine – hairy stuff (8)
|
| CASH (rhino possibly, slang) with ME on RavinE (outer letters, border of) | ||
| 15 | SECOND HAND |
Used part of clock? (6-4)
|
| double definition | ||
| 16 | SPOILSPORT |
Damage squash, maybe getting wet blanket (10)
|
| SPOIL (damage) SPORT (squash maybe) | ||
| 17 | CEREBRAL |
Intellectual bookworm primarily gripped by Le Carre novel (8)
|
| Bookworm (first letter, primarily) inside (gripped by) anagram (novel) of LE CARRE | ||
| 20 | DRESSAGE |
Delta research by scientific advisers forming part of three-day event (8)
|
| D (delta, phonetic alphabet) RES (research) then SAGE (scientific advisers, name of UK government body) – a three-day event are horse-riding competition | ||
| 22 | TURTLE |
Reptile let loose after rising macho behaviour (6)
|
| anagram (loose) of LET follows RUT (macho behaviour) reversed (rising) | ||
| 24 | BYELAW |
In reserve, beer’s served up with whiskey as a rule (6)
|
| BY (in reserve, put by for later) then ALE (beer) reversed (served up) and W (whiskey, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 26 | UNDO |
Reverse Fiat when collecting daughter (4)
|
| UNO (Fiat Uno, model of car) contains (when collecting) D (daughter) | ||
| 27 | INCA |
Driver usually seen here curtailed language (4)
|
| IN CAr (driver usually seen here) missing last letter (curtailed) |
I really enjoyed this crossword. 23a was my favourite.
My only slight complaint was 7d. The definition [grapevine] was clear enough to give the answer but the ‘our’ for being associated with Britain was not helpful for those solvers – like me – who are not British. I make this remark not from a position of being offended (or whatever) but purely from a solvers point of view. Of course, I may well be the only person to have been stupid enough not to get it. More than likely.
Very enjoyable but I found this a bit harder than PeeDee and amongst a few others was unsure of two simple four letter answers. I’ve always thought ET AL meant “and others” for et alia, but now see it does have a separate ‘elsewhere’ sense for et alibi. I was also unsure if INCA, rather than “Incan”, could be used for ‘language’, but there it is when I looked it up post-solve. Odd to have the same word as part of the wordplay for a crossing clue.
Didn’t know how SAGE meant ‘scientific advisers’ and wondered if the wordplay for 8d should have been ‘borders’ rather than ‘border’, but I’m being picky. AILED was a cracking clue.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee
@2 WordPlodder. I thing SAGE refers to the scientific advisors that are dealing with COVID – although they might well have other concerns for all I know.
I think Ruth Rendell wordplay in blog is missing an R. It stands for ‘writing perhaps,’ one of the 3 R’s in school. It took me a while to see that. Thanks to both.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee. I had 21ac the same way as ub@4.
Thanks, diagacht @3. I’ve just got around to looking it up. As PeeDee says in the blog it’s a UK government body, with which I’m sure UK residents are very familiar, standing for Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies and now dealing with COVID, although it has previously dealt with other emergencies including natural disasters and other infectious disease outbreaks.
Well, I’ve learnt something anyway.
ub – thanks for pointing out the missing R in Ruth Rendell. Fixed now.
Like Diagacht@1, I loved EBB for its neat simplicity, likewise AILED. CASHMERE was another goodie.
Unfortunately, I can never see the word ‘rut’ of 22d without being reminded of Dominique Strauss-Kahn (compared to a ‘rutting chimpanzee’) but then there are references to two of my favourite writers and a tennis player I admired. Very entertaining.
I usually struggle with Aardvark but not today so felt very satisfied to finish. My few questions over parsing were dealt with most ably by PeeDee.
A fairly quick solve, and a solo effort at that. Like WordPlodder I thought it a little odd to have INCA as the answer to one clue and part of the wordplay in another, particularly as the two intersected. And I did wonder if ‘cathometer’ could be an answer for 3dn, but it can’t; I was obviously thinking of a cathetometer – something I used fairly regularly at one time.
Plenty to like, including MISCONSTRUE, TRAMPOLINE and SPOILSPORT.
Thanks, Aardvark and PeeDee.
“Inca” is NOT a language!
Chambers includes “the language of the Incas” under the entry Inca.
Many thanks both – I did need your explanations today peedee, although I did have everything in the right place. I just wasn’t sure why for a couple.
I smiled at AGASSI as GRAF came up as an answer in exactly the same location in another crossword recently. That was my last in as I needed all the crossers and only found out here about ISA.
I also looked sideways at INCA but checked and found the same as Merman.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
Another one that just got around to checking off and looking at the notes, looks as I may have found it at the easier end of this setter’s difficulty spectrum. EBB was first in before solving randomly around the grid before finishing with MISCONSTRUE (tricky word play), TRAMPOLINE and GET CARTER (a film that I’d heard of, but not seen) as the last one in.
Missed the R = ‘writing’ in 21a, but that was the only one that went not fully parsed.
Had seen LAUDA in that spot in another puzzle that I recently had done – but in the asynchronous solving habit, it could have been set before or after this one. Hadn’t seen BYELAW spelt this way before, but the wordplay supported it. Didn’t know the SAGE organisation prior to looking it up.