[New comment layout] - details here
Aardvark is today's setter in the FT.
As is the norm with Aardvark, this was a pangram, but I found this one chewier than normal.
After my first pass, I only had a handful of answers in place, and most of them were in the NE corner. I eventually worked my way through them and was left with LIVENER and HIBERNIA, as well as an unparsed ALOE VERA, but I think I got there in the end.
Thanks Aardvark
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EXEMPT |
Free water in Devon: a thousand pints (6)
|
|
(River) EXE ("water in Devon") + M (a million) Pt. (pints) |
||
| 4 | BINNACLE |
Anger about new cooler, revolutionary housing (8)
|
|
BILE ("anger") about N (new) + <=(CAN ("cooler" as in prison), revolutionary) A binnacle is a housing for a ship's compass. |
||
| 9 | REEBOK |
Antelope’s smell stifles another (6)
|
|
REEK ("smell") stifles BO (body odour, so "another" smell) |
||
| 10 | FLAWLESS |
Female criminal unblemished (8)
|
|
F (female) + LAWLESS ("criminal") |
||
| 12 | ATHL;ETIC |
Robust shelves occasionally put in loft (8)
|
|
(s)H(e)L(v)E(s) [occasionally] put in ATTIC ("loft") |
||
| 13 | JEKYLL |
Legendary doctor fitful, not right with students (6)
|
|
JE(r)KY ("fitful", not R (right)) with L + L (learners, so "students") |
||
| 15 | HYDE |
13’s other half somewhere in Manchester area (4)
|
|
Double definition, the first being the alter ego of Dr Jekyll ("13's other half"). |
||
| 16 | LEDERHOSEN |
Helen with sore head latterly ordered shorts in bierkeller? (10)
|
|
*(helen sore d) [anag:ordered] where D is (hea)D [latterly] |
||
| 19 | BEWILDERED |
Social worker consumes nuts and wine, in a daze (10)
|
|
BEE ("social worker") consumes WILD ("nuts") and RED ("wine") |
||
| 20 | MEZE |
Assorted dishes Naomi served, pizza slices penultimately (4)
|
|
(nao)M(i) (serv)E(d) (piz)Z(a) (slice)E(s) [penultimately] |
||
| 23 | RAPPED |
Knocked on vacation, phone died — put on charge (6)
|
|
P(hon)E [on vacation] + D (died), put on RAP ("charge") |
||
| 25 | HIBERNIA |
Former steakhouse in Ischia divided islanders here (8)
|
|
BERNI (inn) ("former steakhouse" chain) in (isc)HIA [divided] |
||
| 27 | QUENELLE |
Northumbrian tucks into mostly crushed dumpling (8)
|
|
NE (North East, so in England at least, "Northumbrian") tucks into [mostly] QUELLE(d) ("crushed") |
||
| 28 | CAMERA |
One takes pics privately when in this (6)
|
|
Double definition |
||
| 29 | EYE CANDY |
Broadcast of Eisenhower, Warhol, Marilyn Monroe perhaps (3,5)
|
|
Homophone of IKE ("Eisenhower"'s nickname) + ANDY (Warhol) |
||
| 30 | HECKLE |
Interrupt speech by George Cole (second half) (6)
|
|
HECK ("By George!") + [second half] of (co)LE |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EARBASH |
Nag with ‘Attention, flyers! Belt up!’ (7)
|
|
EAR ("attention") + BA (British Airways, so "flyers") + SH ("belt up!") |
||
| 2 | EYESHADOW |
Cosmetic beginning to enliven the old dog (9)
|
|
[beginning to] E(nliven) + YE ("the old") + SHADOW ("dog") |
||
| 3 | PLOVER |
Wader quietly joins duck on river (6)
|
|
P (piano in music, so "quietly") joins LOVE ("duck", a term of endearment) on R (river) |
||
| 5 | IDLE |
Unimportant papers on banks of Loire (4)
|
|
ID (identity "papers") on [banks of] L(oir)E |
||
| 6 | NEW DELHI |
Quarter daughter probes while relocating somewhere in Asia (3,5)
|
|
NE (north east, so "quarter") + D (daughter) probes *(while) [anag:relocating] |
||
| 7 | CHEWY |
Cold chop Yankee finds difficult to eat? (5)
|
|
C (cold) + HEW ("cut") + Y (Yankee, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) |
||
| 8 | EPSILON |
Character in Delos recording sculpture of lions (7)
|
|
EP (extended play record, so "recording") + *(lions) [anag:sculpture of] |
||
| 11 | LIVENER |
Boozy drink this writer has, over night- time void, in both hands (7)
|
|
I've ("this writer has") over N(ighttim)E [void] in L + R (left and right, so "both hands") |
||
| 14 | GENESIS |
Book old rock band (7)
|
|
Double definition, the second referring to the band that included Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Peter Gabriel at various times in its existence. |
||
| 17 | STEINBECK |
Writer of Pot Black theme music (honky-tonk) shown at end? (9)
|
|
STEIN ("pot") + B (black) + (them)E (musi)C (honkyton)K [shown at end] |
||
| 18 | ALOE VERA |
Plant over in bar nicked by heavy drinkers (4,4)
|
|
O (over, in cricket) in LEVER ("bar") nicked by AA (Alcoholics Anonymous, so "heavy drinkers") I'd have preferred former drinkers, as AA members are trying to kick the habit. |
||
| 19 | BAROQUE |
Flashy aristocrat contracted that in Paris (7)
|
|
BARO(n) ("aristocrat", contracted) + QUE ("that" in French, so "in Paris") |
||
| 21 | EMANATE |
Printing unit worried about article for issue (7)
|
|
EM ("printing unit") + ATE ("worried") about AN ("article") |
||
| 22 | MENACE |
Troublemaker in jailhouse can empower insurgent (6)
|
|
Hidden backwards in [in…insurgent] "jailhousE CAN EMpower" |
||
| 24 | PIECE |
Maybe bishop’s spiritual objective when preaching? (5)
|
|
Homophone [when preaching] of PEACE ("spiritual objective" of a bishop, possibly) |
||
| 26 | PLOD |
PC left inside school (4)
|
|
L (left) inside POD ("school") For non-Brits, PC (police constable) and Plod (often PC Plod) are synonymous with policeman. |
Thanks, Aardvark and loonapick!
Lovely puzzle and a great blog (quite clear as always)!
Liked BINNACLE, CAMERA and ALOE VERA (agree with loonapick’s comment in the blog).
CAMERA
Found the ‘in camera’ (privately) wordplay particularly good.
8d EPSILON – “Delos” meant to misdirect us to the fictional amusement park in Westworld(1973) – the science fiction Western celebrating its golden anniversary.
Thanks to Aardvark and Loonapick too! Great puzzle and blog.
I was delighted to finish this but I was stuck for ages until the fog cleared. LOI was LIVENER, not a word I am familiar with. Pity
25a HIBERNIA – Being !rish I needed to lift-and-separate the “divided islanders” here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berni_Inn
Once ‘the largest food chain outside the USA … most frequently ordered meal … prawn cocktail, steak and Black Forest gateau.’
Wondered how long ago the “Former steakhouse” chain ceased to be – 1955-1995 until subsumed into the Beefeater chain. 28 years.
loi GENESIS – I never liked them much after Peter Gabriel left (in 1975 – 48 years ago).
Great puzzle; liked BAROQUE, the reminder of the old steakhouse, EARBASH and the E in each corner which helped snag HECKLE.
Much more fun besides.
Thanks to Aardvark and Loonapick.
Thanks Loonapick. A minor slip in 1A: “M” used to be a “thousand” as intended in the clue, not the “million” as it is today, in your solution.
Thanks Loonapick
Too difficult for me to finish – I got about half out in an hour, including three answers I had guessed correctly but were unparsed. I then ran out of the time and the heart to continue.
Some nice clues, but there were too many obscure references for my liking and I felt the enjoyment did not justify the work. I admire those that got to the end.
Thanks Loonapick and Aardvark
Thanks Aardvark. I found this challenging but I expected that from this setter. I used the guess-then-check method to get EARBASH and BINNACLE, both new to me, and I had no hope of parsing PLOD or HIBERNIA. Nonetheless I found this ultimately satisfying due to excellent clues like REEBOK, JEKYLL, EYESHADOW, PLOVER, EPSILON, and GENESIS. Thanks loonapick for the blog.