Hello, lovelies!
The preamble:
Five clues contain an extra word which must be removed before solving; in clue order, these words and their first letters provide a hint to the theme. In the completed grid, one letter in the entries for each of these clues must be changed to reveal a character who finds himself surrounded by his LOVED ONES running clockwise around the perimeter. All entries are real words, and the unchecked peripheral letters could spell WRY NEWT CLUBS MRS MUD. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
With an unclued perimeter there weren’t too many clues to grapple with – and only five special ones, so nothing too daunting to start with. Whenever there are unclued entries there is a reduction in checked letters, but I think Ranunculus compensated well for this with tractable clues. In any case I filled most of the grid without being tempted to peek forward and use the endgame to help me. However, I did still have 23a/d and 30a left when I turned my focus to the perimeter and the extra words from the clues.
It’s been some years since I last paid any real attention to the thematic character and his family, but “bear” in the extra words together with M BOND from their initial letters took me straight to a certain creation of Michael Bond and his love of MARMALADE SANDWICHES. I also remembered THE BROWNS and slotted in the remaining unchecked peripheral letters to find AUNT LUCY and MR GRUBER.
Finally, I looked at the row these entries crossed with and made the necessary changes to uncover the character himself: PADDINGTON. Thanks Ranunculus!
From 9am there should be a setter’s blog here.
| # | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | |||
| Across | |||
| 8a | BUSTARD | Shoot bagging brilliant bird (7) | |
| BUD (shoot) taking in (bagging) STAR (brilliant) | |||
| 10a | ERUCTATE | Rank French remedy brought about belch (8) | |
| ÉTAT (rank, French) and CURE (remedy) reversed (brought about) | |||
| 11a | BOTARGO | Bowled over by salt? Try cured fish roe! (7) | |
| B (bowled) + O (over) + TAR (salt) + GO (try) | |||
| 12a | PERAI | Mobile seller retracted contents of mail threatening Amazon user (5) | |
| REP (mobile seller) reversed (retracted) + the contents of mAIl | |||
| 13a | UPON | In contact with company distancing itself from discount voucher (4) | |
| CO (company) is distancing itself from [co]UPON (discount voucher) | |||
| 14a | AMBERED | Preserved antique lead from coop ducks bent upwards slightly (7) | |
| The first letter of (lead from) Coop evades (ducks) [c]AMBERED (bent upwards slightly) | |||
| 16a | RHUMBA | Entering busy bar, wordlessly sing dance tune (6) | |
| Going inside (entering) an anagram of (busy) BAR, is HUM (wordlessly sing) | |||
| 18a | BIRCH | Flog hospital bed wheels (5) | |
| H (hospital) and CRIB (bed) goes backwards (wheels) | |||
| 20a | GYRAL | Spinning line about railway Government “turned around” (5) | |
| Reversed (spinning) L (line), A (about), RY (railway) and G (government) | |||
| 22a | HOOPOE | Stop old American author I occasionally fly into Britain (6) | |
| HO (stop) + O (old) + POE (American author) | |||
| 23a | GILDING | Horse, one making up for loss of shoe, ultimately finishing nicely (7) | |
| G[e]LDING (horse) with I (one) replacing (making up for loss of) E (shoE, ultimately) | |||
| 25a | BOAS | They’ll put the squeeze on Siemens and any other business going west (4) | |
| S (Siemens) and AOB (any other business) reversed (going west) | |||
| 26a | MOVIE | Picture second fight (5) | |
| MO (second) + VIE (fight) | |||
| 27a | NEAREST | Most local research delves into local cattle (7) | |
| RES. (research) delves into NEAT (local cattle) | |||
| 29a | BADMOUTH | Knock HM out, possibly? (8) | |
| An anagram (BAD) of MOUTH could cryptically give (… possibly?) HM OUT | |||
| 30a | CANONRY | Lament penning anonymous note about specific members of the clergy (7) | |
| CRY (lament) containing (penning) A (anonymous), N (note) and ON (about) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | ATROPHY | Waste hour, left standing in empty alleyway (7) | |
| Reversal of (… standing) H (hour) and PORT (left) in AlleywaY without its inner letters (empty …) | |||
| 2d | ROUT | Lick grub up (4) | |
| Double definition | |||
| 3d | ANTRA | Pockets periodically sag (not great) (5) | |
| Periodically sAg (NoT gReAt) | |||
| 4d | AUTOBAHN | No resistance to a wild boar hunt? It’s continental way (8) | |
| There is no R in (no resistance to) A plus an anagram of (wild) BOA[r] HUNT | |||
| 5d | ETAERIO | See you – not child – grabbing at round fruit like raspberry (7) | |
| [ch]EERIO (see you) without (not) CH (child) taking in (grabbing) AT reversed (round) | |||
| 6d | AREAD | Neglected to explain tail of echidna in Australian wine (5) | |
| The last letter of (tail of) echidnA in A (Australian) and RED (wine) | |||
| 7d | SCAN | Lacking time, restrict investigation (4) | |
| Lacking T (time), SCAN[t] (restrict) | |||
| 9d | AIRER | Alternative to line dancing rare outside India (5) | |
| An anagram of (dancing) RARE around (outside) I (India) | |||
| 15d | MARINARA | Tackling advanced recipe at home, ruin a sauce (8) | |
| Around (tackling) A (advanced), R (recipe) and IN (at home) is MAR (ruin) + A | |||
| 17d | MALISON | In [my] poetry, curse naysayers I beat up (7) | M |
| NOS (naysayers), I and LAM (beat) reversed (up) | |||
| 19d | COASTER | Trader rotten to scarce [bear] (one caught escaping) (7) | B |
| An anagram of (rotten) TO SCAR[c]E with a C (caught) leaving (escaping) | |||
| 21d | RIVEN | Rent old part of manor I’ve [often] noticed (5) | O |
| Part of manoR I’VE Noticed | |||
| 23d | GORAL | Object about initial [needs] of ruminant animal like goat (5) | N |
| GOAL (object) around (about) the initial of Ruminant | |||
| 24d | GAMIN | Wearing clothing of gentleman, could I be guttersnipe? (5) | |
| Inside (wearing) the outer letters of (clothing of) GentlemaN, AM I (could I be) | |||
| 25d | BROW | Notice [diversion] leaving B-road on western edge of hill (4) | D |
| AD (notice) leaving B–RO[ad] on W (western) | |||
| 28d | EURO | Also rues, to some extent, returning oversize jumper (4) | |
| Contained reversed in (… to some extent, returning) alsO RUEs | |||
This crossword was challenging enough to be very enjoyable, with excellent clues. I collected the five extra words, and of course their first letters spelling M BOND, which I thought at first referred to ‘M’ and (James) Bond. I knew more about that than about Michael Bond’s creation, but I saw how PADDINGTON could be formed according to the instructions and got everything else I needed by looking online.
Thanks to Ranunculus for a quality puzzle with a good thematic design, and thanks to Kitty for the blog.
There is a setter’s blog for this puzzle here:
https://bigdave44.com/2024/12/19/ev1672-setters-blog/#more-208722