I have been laid up with a cold the past few days, but I think I pierced the fog sufficiently to explain today’s very diverting Aardvark.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | AURORA |
Dawn chorus taking centre stage, enriching air (6)
|
| [CH]OR[US] (taking the middle letters or the “centre stage”) inside (enriching) AURA (air) | ||
| 4 | HARDNESS |
Daughter in parachute gear, tough character (8)
|
| D (daughter) inside (in) HARNESS (parachute gear) | ||
| 10 | BISMUTH |
Metal body part put back to front in error (7)
|
| TUM (body part) reversed (put back to front) inside (in) BISH (error) | ||
| 11 | CANTATA |
Musical piece from John so long (7)
|
| CAN (john) + TA-TA (so long) | ||
| 12 | CHEF |
One works with chow, playing fetch when temperature dropped (4)
|
| Anagram of (playing) FE[T]CH, minus “T” (temperature “dropped”) | ||
| 13 | WUNDERKIND |
Special child sedated, getting blood in empty ward (10)
|
| UNDER (sedated) + KIN (blood) inside (in) W[AR]D (“empty” ward) | ||
| 16 | RETINA |
Keep, with article moving rearmost, section of Observer? (6)
|
| RETAIN (keep) with “A” (article) moved to the end (moving rearmost). I assume that “observer” is a cryptic reference to the eye. | ||
| 17 | SKYDIVE |
Perform high jump, sidestep about three feet (7)
|
| SKIVE (sidestep) around (about) YD (three feet, i.e., one yard) | ||
| 20 | OBELISK |
Column of deer eating remains beyond Asian river (7)
|
| OB (Asian river) + ELK (deer) around (eating) IS (remains) | ||
| 21 | NASSAU |
Known as sauce bottling site in Caribbean (6)
|
| Hidden in (bottling) [KNOW]N AS SAU[CE] | ||
| 24 | CRETACEOUS |
Criminal court case covering drug period (10)
|
| Anagram of (criminal) COURT CASE around (covering) E (drug) | ||
| 25 | OINK |
Vacuous Nick on Love Island that sounds like a swine (4)
|
| O (love) + I (island) + emptied out (“vacuous”) N[IC]K | ||
| 27 | AVOCADO |
Fruit business recruits endlessly talkative (7)
|
| ADO (business) around (recruits) VOCA[L] (talkative, minus its last letter or “endlessly”) | ||
| 29 | OREGANO |
Geordie to go probing sandwich cookie’s flavouring (7)
|
| GAN (Geordie to go) inside (probing) OREO (sandwich cookie) | ||
| 30 | LATITUDE |
Student, fooling around, regularly muddled geographical term (8)
|
| L (student) + AT IT (fooling around) + alternate letters of [M]U[D]D[L]E[D] (“regularly”) | ||
| 31 | LACE-UP |
Student outstanding at university — Oxford, maybe (4-2)
|
| L (student) + ACE (outstanding) + UP (at university) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ALBACORE |
After vacation in Argyll, one learned to gut marine fish (8)
|
| A[RGYL]L (minus its interior letters or “after vacation”) + BA (one learned, or perhaps more conventionally, “learned one”) + CORE (to gut) | ||
| 2 | RESPECTABLE |
Wild spree, primarily collecting furniture that’s decent (11)
|
| Anagram of (wild) SPREE + first letter of (“primarily”) C[OLLECTING] + TABLE (furniture) | ||
| 3 | ROUX |
Culinary mixture, interlinking game and beef (4)
|
| “Interlinking” RU (game) + OX (beef) | ||
| 5 | ARCHDUKE |
Former aristocrat’s curv’d string instrument shortened (8)
|
| ARCH’D (curv’d) + UKE (string instrument, “shortened” from ukulele) | ||
| 6 | DON BRADMAN |
Assume British promoter’s wanting top cricketer (3,7)
|
| DON (assume) + BR (British) + ADMAN (promoter) | ||
| 7 | ERA |
24 are standing (3)
|
| ARE inverted (standing), with “24” referring to the solution to 24A “Cretaceous” | ||
| 8 | SHANDY |
Husband splits gingery drink (6)
|
| H (husband) inside (splits) SANDY (gingery) | ||
| 9 | THRUM |
Drone thus half-hidden over Scottish Island (5)
|
| TH[US] (“half-hidden”) + RUM (Scottish island) | ||
| 14 | INVESTIGATE |
Search sink unit opening (11)
|
| INVEST (sink) + I (unit, i.e., one) + GATE (opening) | ||
| 15 | UNPLEASANT |
Nasty crashing of plane captured by American worker (10)
|
| Anagram of (crashing of) PLANE inside (captured by) US (American) + ANT (worker) | ||
| 18 | ASTEROID |
Rocky piece to record again without REM band name (8)
|
| [REM]ASTER (record again “without REM”) + O (band) + ID (name) | ||
| 19 | DUCK SOUP |
Zero concession available screening superior comedy film (4,4)
|
| DUCK (zero) + SOP (concession) around (available screening) U (superior), Marx Brothers, 1933 | ||
| 22 | SCRAWL |
Hand beginning to spoil stroke in pool (6)
|
| First letter of (“beginning to”) S[POIL] + CRAWL (stroke in pool) | ||
| 23 | JUROR |
Court attendant Jack joins public indignation as case dismissed (5)
|
| J (jack) + [F]UROR[E] (public indignation, minus its outside letters or “as case dismissed”) | ||
| 26 | ZETA |
Unknown delivery time character in Argos revealed (4)
|
| Z (unknown) + ETA (delivery time) | ||
| 28 | OUT |
Faceless yob banned (3)
|
| [L]OUT (yob, minus its first letter or “faceless”) |
Liked AURORA, OREGANO, ARCHDUKE, ASTEROID and JUROR!
Thanks, Aardvark and Cineraria!
Only got about 90% out, but I don’t feel so bad as some of the ones I missed required some pretty specific British knowledge such as “Geordie to go”. I believe bish is British slang — never heard of it. Didn’t know Rum was a Scottish island either.
Didn’t know Duck Soup, and couldn’t parse ASTEROID.
Everything else flowed freely and was enjoyable.
I remember a teacher at school saying that if you were unsure, to stick with the first answer you put in, advice that would have served me well today after I changed my original ZETA to “Xeta”. A pity, as I had managed to struggle through the rest of this, finding OREGANO and the crossing AURORA, BISMUTH and ROUX difficult along the way and not being able to parse ALBACORE or ASTEROID.
Good to see another member of the FT setter stable putting in an appearance.
Hardest one of the day but an enjoyable challenge.
Thanks to Aardvark and Cineraria – hope you’re now over the lurgy
Really enjoyed this outing from Aardvark whose puzzles are never easy but I was gratified to finish this using crossers and definitions.
Like Geoff, I didn’t know the Scottish isle or ‘bish’ (thinking of ‘thumb’ not
‘tum’ helped here though, as it turns out, I was wrong). Appreciated the explanations here for my half-parsed DUCK SOUP and ASTEROID too.
It was very entertaining; I liked the definitions for CHEF and SCRAWL, ‘at it’ for ‘fooling around’, OINK and OREGANO. A pangram but for a Q.
Thanks to Aardvark and Cineraria (hope you’re over the worst).
My last one in was 17A as I needed all cross letters. I have not heard of “skive” and haven’t seen “yd” as an abbreviation for “yard” : we have metres here in Oz.
Re 22D: I still don’t understand why “hand” and “scrawl” have the same meaning. I think that it is only English people who use “Australian Crawl” for the swimming stroke; here it is called “freestyle” which is technically incorrect as “freestyle” means a swimmer can use any stroke that he or she likes. It is usually the fastest stroke but I once knew someone who did “butterfly” for the “freestyle” round of a medley as it was her fastest.
“Bish” and “rum” were also unknown to me in this context.
Pleased to complete this without any cheats. Had to guess the Scottish island and wouldn’t have known the cricketer in 6d where it not for a certain setter.
Peter,
‘Hand’ is used to describe someone’s penmanship; a ‘scrawl’ is perhaps not the most elegant ‘hand’ being perhaps spidery or illegible.
You must have left England before you were old enough to ‘shivering off school’!
Oops, I meant ‘skive off school’!
Oh Diane, I was a perfect pupil and would never have considered “skiving” although I do remember “shivering”! Newcastle was a very cold place in the fifties.
I liked this a lot. Nice and chewy, even on the short answers – OUT, ERA, ROUX, ZETA.
Last 2 in OBELISK & ASTEROID.
Especially liked JUROR: the [f]UROR[e] schtick would also have worked well in 1a AURORA.
Thanks A&C
Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria
I’m not convinced by 18, as remastering involves working on the sound of a previously released recording: recording the piece again is something completely different.
Obelisk = column? Not sure about that.
Thanks Aardvark. After getting a foothold much of this became the guess-then-parse game — not my preferred way of solving. I never could parse SKYDIVE or AVOCADO but I did enjoy clues like WUNDERKIND and ROUX. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
Thanks, Aardvark and Cineraria!
Even the ones I got right through guessing I couldn’t parse! Lots of learning here for me.
I struggled with this one, and found several aspects that seemed wrong – including apparently equating geological periods and eras – the second and third largest units respectively. Cretaceous is a period, not an era as 7 suggests. Or am I wrong? I am certainly no geologist.