A very enjoyable puzzle from Aardvark today. Thank you Aardvark.
Aardvark has been amusing himself with the grid fill today. If the grid rotated 180 degrees the shaded A’s become E’s and vice versa. I don’t know if A & E are/is intended to have any special significance here.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | AYE-AYE |
Nocturnal tree-dweller very well in Scotland, always (3-3)
|
| AYE (yes, very well) and AYE (always, Scots) | ||
| 9 | BEVERAGE |
Hard-working creature wanting a mellow drink (8)
|
| BEaVER (hard working creature) missing (wanting) A then AGE (mellow) | ||
| 10 | AREA |
Zone more ethereal, reportedly (4)
|
| sounds like (reportedly) “airier” (more ethereal) | ||
| 11 | SATIRISING |
Sending up day shift, essentially, before rebellion (10)
|
| SAT (Saturday, day) middle letter (essentially) of shIf before RISING (rebellion) | ||
| 12 | AGED |
Return of French painter mostly grey? (4)
|
| DEGAs (French painter. mostly) reversed (return of). I was delayed for a long while in this corner by mistakenly entering TONE here: mONET (French painter, mostly) reversed meaning “tint or shade, grey perhaps”. For some reason I completely failed to see that this leads to TENO not TONE, thanks to Hovis for putting me straight. | ||
| 13 | AIR-MARSHAL |
Serviceman fixing a rail around bog (3-7)
|
| anagram (fixing) of A RAIL contains (around) MARSH (bog) | ||
| 17 | ANEW |
Once more trapped by Shane Warne (4)
|
| found inside (trapped by) shANE Warne | ||
| 18 | IBIZA |
Casual affair by American on one island (5)
|
| BIZ (affair, business in casual speech) with A (American) all following (on) I (one) | ||
| 19 | MALE |
Extremists in media lure chap (4)
|
| the outer letters (extremists) of MediA LurE | ||
| 21 | MARYLEBONE |
Mike terribly early visiting, say, hip part of London (10)
|
| M (Mike, phonetic alphabet) then anagram (terribly) of EARLY then (visiting?) BONE (the hip, say) | ||
| 23 | CAME |
Staff, couple swapping places, attended (4)
|
| MACE (staff) with two letters swapping paces | ||
| 24 | VERMICULAR |
Worm-like river Cam meandering around university lake (10)
|
| anagram (meandering) of RIVER CAM containing (around) U (university) L (lake) | ||
| 28 | RARE |
Melted cheese on toast, ignoring bit undercooked (4)
|
| RAREbit (cheese on toast) missing BIT | ||
| 29 | ESOTERIC |
Secret boozer beyond east Morecambe? (8)
|
| SOT (boozer) following (beyond) E (east) then ERIC (Eric Morecambe perhaps, comedian) | ||
| 30 | SOLACE |
Spanish sun, dazzling source of comfort (6)
|
| SOL (sun, in Spanish) then ACE (dazzling, superb) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HYDROGEN |
Health spa attracting low-down element (8)
|
| HYDRO (health spa) with GEN (low-down, information) | ||
| 2 | FAR AND AWAY |
Football chiefs abroad accepting foreign money easily (3,3,4)
|
| FA (Football Association, football chiefs) AWAY (abroad) containing (accepting) RAND (foreign money) | ||
| 3 | PERSUASIVE |
Novel super when writer’s convincing (10)
|
| anagram (novel) of SUPER then AS (when) and I’VE (the writer has) | ||
| 4 | ABET |
Egg on old president that’s finishing breakfast (4)
|
| ABE (Abraham Lincoln, old president) and the last letter (the thing that finishes) breakfasT | ||
| 5 | AVER |
Dance party, with Roger transported to the ultimate state (4)
|
| RAVE (dance party) with R (Roger, a word used in radio communication for the letter R, standing for Received) moved to the last place (transported to the ultimate) | ||
| 6 | ARES |
Greek idol runs into the Med perhaps uplifted (4)
|
| R (runs) inside SEA (the Med perhaps) reversed (uplifted) | ||
| 7 | AGENDA |
Schedule heater outside to stop (6)
|
| AGA (a heater) containing (outside) END (to stop) | ||
| 14 | RHINO |
Lolly, a horny thing (5)
|
| a RHINO has horns, so is horny – rhino and lolly are both slang for money | ||
| 15 | AMATEURISH |
Incompetent religious group crossing at French street northwards (10)
|
| AMISH (religious group) contains (crossing) AT with RUE (French street) reversed (going northwards, up the grid) | ||
| 16 | SEMICIRCLE |
House above London underground line that’s D-shaped (10)
|
| SEMI (type of house) then CIRCLE (London Underground line) | ||
| 20 | LIMERICK |
Beneath shade, strain to make comic verse (8)
|
| RICK (strain) following (beneath…is…) LIME (shade, a colour) | ||
| 22 | AT EASE |
Relaxed batsmen regularly scoffing cake in pavilion? (2,4)
|
| every other letter (regularly) of bAtSmEn contains (scoffing) TEA (cake in pavilion) – “tea” is a cricket term for a mid-session break where the players may return to the pavilion for a snack | ||
| 25 | MATE |
Partner flooring second of belligerents (4)
|
| MAT (flooring) then second letter of bEligerents | ||
| 26 | CARE |
Charge vehicle, European (4)
|
| CAR (vehicle) and E (European) | ||
| 27 | LACE |
Bill caught in extremely large netting (4)
|
| AC (account, bill) inside (caught in) the outer letters (extremes) of LargE |
Notwithstanding a last mini battle in the NW corner, I found this towards the easier end of the scale for Aardvark, and very enjoyable too.
Besides juggling with that surfeit of vowels, I particularly liked 24a. Not a word I knew beforehand but my favourite noodles provided a hint which helped with the anagram.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee.
I didn’t know the animal at 8A but is was easy to guess.
At 14D this creature was unknown to me and even with the cross letters, it was a total guess.
My total ignorance of cricket made 22D hard to parse but I did get the correct answer from the cross letters and the definition.
I’m still not sure with 26D how “charge” means “care”. “I give this child to your care” = “I give this child to your care”. Maybe?
Not as ‘Aard’ as his recent puzzles I thought. PeeDee, (M)onet reversed gives TENO. I found HYDROGEN the hardest clue and wins my pick fir favourite.
Hi Peter, yes exactly that. I think charge for care is especially common in legal situations, similar to custody.
Hi Hovis, so it does! Serves me right for not being more careful.
I didn’t know what all those A’s and E’s in the same position in each quadrant were doing either.
Steady progress on this one, helped by the four letter answers not being as difficult as they sometimes can be. I also thought of mONET for 12a but managed to see the error of my ways fairly quickly.
A few cricketing references but not enough to make a theme. SATIRISING and PERSUASIVE held out longest at the end.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee
A fun puzzle which had a creature new to me: Aye-Aye. How is a rhino lolly? Is it slang for cash?!
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee
Yes, SM, it is.
I liked this. Thank you, Aardvark.
As usual, the compiler’s “bit of fun” — in this case the ‘A’s and ‘E’s — was wasted on me. I never seem to notice these little divertissements until I come here.
I’d never heard of an aye-aye. I must remember to go into the garden tonight and see if there are any in my trees. The Aga in 7d was unknown to me. And I don’t understand rhino/lolly.
Just read the above re rhino/lolly. Ta.
Rhino (or rino) is very old slang for money, dating back to the 1600’s which surprised me. The use of rhino as an abbreviation for rhinoceros comes much later. Lolly is more recent again, dating from the 1940’s.
The OED isn’t able to give a definitive origin for either slang. Lost in time now.
If A and E were to form a coalition or hung parliament the minority Y party could have a lot of say.
But Boris wont be reading this
Thanks PeeDee . My 1944 Shorter OED has rhinocerical as “having plenty of ‘the rhino’ rich 1796” ; lolly as short for lollipop (Australian and dialect) with no mention of slang for cash, although this was certainly in common usage when I was a child in the 1950s
And thanks to Diane too
Thanks Aardvark, that was super. I needed a reference to solve MARYLEBONE but all else fell into place. It took me awhile to get AGED; I initially had “sage” which is a greyish-green. (DEGAS in reverse gives either, depending on which end you lop off.) I had many favourites including BEVERAGE, PERSUASIVE, ARES, AMATEURISH, and SEMICIRCLE. Thanks PeeDee — I needed your help in parsing AT EASE, RHINO, and FAR AND AWAY. I noticed all the A’s and E’s as well. Funny, in the US, there is an A & E (Arts & Entertainment) network for TV and streaming. This crossword was both art and entertainment in my mind.
Good puzzle. Romeo is R in the phonetic alphabet; Roger implies OK, understood, will-do.
Good point Peter, I wasn’t thinking very carefully when I wrote that, I got confused with Romeo. I can’t see the abbreviation in Chambers, Collins or the OED. Can anyone explain why Roger = R?
Found it now, I needed to look under the entry for Roger not R.
Enjoyed this one. Didn’t notice all the As and Es until right towards the end which helped me with Aye aye– a creature of which I have never heard, although I was familiar with the Scottish expression.
Thanks to everyone
Thanks Aardvark and Grant
Certainly one of this setter’s more straightforward puzzles to solve, helped along by the four letter words with a given start or finish letter, when the theme shone through – and made even easier with the third letter also given if people were smarter than I and saw the second layer of E’s and A’s.
Have come across the Madagascan animal @9A before in crossword land, although it took until quite deep into the solve to find him.
Finished in the NW, as did a lot of folk by the sound, with PERSUASIVE, SEMI-CIRCLE (probably the hardest clue for me) and MACE (where I swapped the A to the front and then the C, but the C with the M is much more logical).