(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) This wasn’t too difficult after getting the gateway clue (1,12). Thanks to Crucible. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1, 12 Writer, illustrator, top farceur and snooker player (7,6)
BEATRIX POTTER : BEAT(to top;to surpass) + RIX(Brian, English farceur, actor and campaigner) plus(and) POTTER(a snooker player)
5 Elemental form is uppermost in poet’s heart (7).
ISOTOPE : IS + [TOP(uppermost) contained in(in) the last letter of(…’s heart) “poet “].
10 Brave enormous halves switch sides (4)
GAME : MEGA(enormous) with [its 1st 2 letters and last 2 letters](halves) exchanging places(switch sides).
11 Climbing with difficulty, get lost jewellery (10)
SCRAMBLING : SCRAM!(get lost!;beat it!) + BLING(flashy jewellery, originally from hip-hop slang).
12 See 1
13 It’s for picking fruit et cetera, occasionally netted (8)
PLECTRUM : PLUM(a fruit) containing(… netted) the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th letters of(…, occasionally) “et cetera“.
Defn: … on the strings of a string instrument.
14 Trunk‘s for governor protecting social centre (9)
PROBOSCIS : PRO(for, in contrast to against;con) + [ BOSS(informally called “governor” or “guv”) containing(protecting) the central 2 letters of(… centre) “social“].
16 Dull Black Country character of 1 12 (5)
BLAND : B(abbrev. for “black”) + LAND(country).
Double defn: 2nd: …(Beatrix Potter) in “The Tale of Pigling Bland”.
17 Greens back US city, ousting Liberal (5)
SALAD : Reversal of(back) “Dallas”(US city) minus(ousting) “l”(abbrev. for “Liberal”).
19 Idiot pays criminal for property of 6 23 (9)
ADIPOSITY : Anagram of(pays criminal) IDIOT PAYS.
Defn: …(Samuel Whiskers), an enormous rat.
23 See 6
24 Bane of 26, teacher’s pet ultimately (6)
RABBIT : RABBI(a teacher of Jewish law) + the last letter of(… ultimately) “pet“.
Defn: …(Mr. McGregor) in Beatrix Potter’s stories.
26 Oddly, more mice busily gorge on rare 1 12 character (2,8)
MR MCGREGOR : The 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th letters of(Oddly) “more mice” + anagram of(busily) GORGE plus(on) R(abbrev. for “rare”).
Defn: … , a vegetable farmer.
27 A country’s seabirds (4)
AUKS : A + UK(abbrev. for for the United Kingdom)‘S.
28 Spots wine, then loses it (4,3)
SEES RED : SEES(spots;eyes) + RED(a category of wine).
Defn: Flies off the handle.
29 Prepare to print 50-peseta curtains (7)
TYPESET : Hidden in(… curtains) “fifty-peseta“.
Down
2 European guy mounts Guardian’s entrance (7)
ENAMOUR : E(abbrev. for “European”) + reversal of(… mounts, in a down clue) MAN(a guy) + OUR(self-referential possessive pronoun for the “Guardian”, presenter of this crossword).
Defn: …, as a verb;to enchant.
3 Daily crime perpetrated by 24s (5)
THEFT : [THE FT](abbrev. for the daily paper, the Financial Times).
Defn: …(rabbits) on Mr. McGregor’s vegetables.
4 Leaflets in series that is withdrawn for a short time (7)
INSERTS : IN + “series” with “ie”(abbrev. for “id est”;that is) replaced by(withdrawn for) “t”(abbrev. for “time”).
Defn: … inserted into newspapers, magazines and books.
6, 23 US male’s crazy about tiny margin for 1 12 character (6,8)
SAMUEL WHISKERS : Anagram of(… crazy) US MALE’S containing(about) WHISKER(a tiny margin, as in “he won the race by a whisker”).
Defn: … in “The Roly-Poly Pudding” or “The Tale of Samuel Whiskers”.
7 Everyone in the Times drinks? They’re incredible (4,5)
TALL TALES : ALL(everyone) contained in(in) T,T(twice the abbrev. for “time”) + ALES(beers).
8 English university invested in secure publisher (7)
PENGUIN : [ENG(abbrev. for “English”) + U(abbrev. for “university”) ] contained in(invested in) PIN(to secure;to fasten).
Defn: … of books.
9 Ginger had pics Photoshopped as part of this work (7,6)
GRAPHIC DESIGN : Anagram of(… Photoshopped) GINGER HAD PICS.
Such work could include pictures that have been photoshopped. A WIWD (wordplay intertwined with definition) clue.
15 They give support thus, when they’re eaten by 24s (9)
BRASSICAS : BRAS(apparel that give support to female chests) + SIC(thus;a word inserted in brackets to indicate it was originally written or printed as such, no matter how odd or wrong it is) + AS(when, as in “as you are doing this”).
Defn: A genus of plants including cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, and mustard, food for rabbits.
18 A short way to get round hardwood supplier (3,4)
ASH TREE : A + “street”(a way;a thoroughfare) minus its last letter(short …) containing(to get round) “h”(abbrev. for “hard”).
20 Picture four rivers, one flowing into another (7)
PORTRAY : PO(a river in Italy) + R(abbrev. for “river”) + [ R(abbrev. for “river”) containing(flowing into) TAY(a river in Scotland) ]. That’s four “rivers” in all.
Defn: …, as a verb.
21 1 12 character ignores Iggy — stars do it (7)
TWINKLE : “Tiggy-Winkle”(character in Beatrix Potter’s “The Tale Of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle”) minus(ignores) “Iggy“.
22 I’m surprised troops nearly block river (4,2)
DEAR ME! : “army”(military troops) minus its last letter(nearly) contained in(block) DEE(any of a number of rivers in the UK, and in Australia).
Answer: … or “Dearie Me!” exclamations of surprise.
25 Poet, painter and illustrator left to cook hogs (5)
BLAKE : L(abbrev. for “left”) contained in(… hogs) BAKE(to cook in the oven).
Answer: William, English poet, painter and printmaker.
(Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)
Thanks scchua, for 15 the last two letters AS are missing from your blog. I think these are indicated by the word ‘when’? I enjoyed this but needed to resort to google as my Beatrix Potter knowledge is near non-existent.
Thanks matrixmania, omission now rectified.
Re 26 ac: ‘r’ as an abbreviation for ‘rare’ is really the setter’s invention.
An enjoyable puzzle but I had a do a bit of Potter googling too. Just seen on the news that today is the 150th anniversary of her birth.
Thanks Crucible and scchua
Straightforward, as I used to read Beatrix Potter to my daughter. I ran out of time and cheated on SALAD, though.
1,12 reminds me of the old joke: What do you call a woman who plays snooker with a pint of ale balanced on her head?
BEER TRICKS POTTER.
[btw the way I’m out for the rest of the day, so won’t be able to particpate in your “unmentionable”, scchua – sorry!]
Logomachist @3
r, for ‘rare’, might be used in listings of paintings, books, CDs, etc.
Thanks, scchua, fine blog.
Much towards the easier end of this setters gamut but nonetheless enjoyable for that.
Solved in bed this morning solely with the aid of my wife who read these tales to our kids about a century ago.
Nice hidden ‘H’ in ASH TREE but TALL TALES definitely my COD.
We had to Google (I presume that’s now a verb?) to find if Samuel Whiskers was indeed fat, but the rest went in nicely enough.
Most enjoyable, thank you Crucible.
Nice week, all.
Thank you Crucible and scchua.
A delightful crossword. Having just read the UK news, I was wondering if I would be meeting Peter RABBIT today – I can just see him being chased and SCRAMBLING under the fence to escape from MR MCGREGOR (loved the way SEES RED was under his name in the puzzle). “Ginger”, 9d, is also a Beatrix Potter character – “The Tale of Ginger and Pickles”.
The clues for TYPESET, THEFT, SALAD and TALL TALES were great.
Heaven. Thanks Crucible and scchua. Didn’t get 10ac. Wanted it to be dare or rare. Do you have to be brave to be game?
Thanks Crucible & scchua.
Got the gateway BEATRIX POTTER via MR MCGREGOR. Lots of Googling then needed.
I didn’t find this very satisfying although there were some good clues, like the one for TALL TALES.
Just like others I woke up with the news that Beatrix Potter was born on this very day 150 years ago.
Seeing, half an hour later, the enumeration of 1,12 plus the ‘snooker player’ – bingo!
I have no particular knowledge about the characters she used (apart from Peter Rabbit)
and was therefore surprised to see how easily everything fell in place.
I mean, SAMUEL WHISKERS couldn’t be anything other than ‘Samuel Whiskers’, the same for MR MCGREGOR.
I don’t think this crossword was much harder than yesterday’s, yet more fun to solve.
Many thanks as ever to Crucible.
And also thanks to scchua for another comprehensive blog.
Only in 25d I thought there was more going on.
BLAKE: William the poet (although, he was indeed more than that), Peter the painter and Quentin the illustrator?
ps, Logomachist @3: ‘r’ for ‘rare’ is in Collins!
Sil @12 has indeed nailed the Blakes though I must admit I only had the triple-talented William in mind when solving.
I’d heard of the 150th too, though it didn’t help much as I always found her rather twee. Still it was clever of Crucible to clue more than just character names.
To those of us who walk in hill country, SCRAMBLING is easy climbing usually not needing ropes, unlike the scary stuff that the real climbers get up to.
Thanks scchua and Crucible. Right in the Goldilocks zone for me, despite having very little BP knowledge – which is a testament to the quality of clueing.
Loved this. Fond memories of reading these books to my son almost 30 years ago. We loved Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck, but making a kitten into a dumpling did cause some concern.
Favourites were 11a SCRAMBLING, 13a PLECTRUM and 9d GRAPHIC DESIGN. Particular thanks to Cookie for the extra Potter allusions, and to Sil van den Hoek for the additional Blakes.
Grateful to Crucible for the puzzle fun and to Scchua for the blog.
Enjoyable with some Wpedia for character. Where did the ‘s go to in 24a…just being a bit fussy on grammar maybe.
A very enjoyable crossword. I thought my lack of knowledge would be exposed, but in the end McGREGOR was the only one that wasn’t familiar and that was easy enough to deduce. WHISKERS was last in. Liked SCRAMBLING, GRAPHIC DESIGN and TWINKLE
Thanks to Crucible and scchua
I never read Potter but most of the characters I’d heard of- Pigling BLAND
was new though. FOI was TWINKLE which rather gave the theme away although I didn’t realise that today
was a Potter anniversary.
Quite a straightforward puzzle all round. I liked SEES RED.
Thanks Crucible.
Trailman @13 – I was quite happy with SCRAMBLING – there are scrambles at many different levels of difficulty and scariness, some of them look more like rock climbs to some of us, but I’d agree that the easier ones are as you’ve described, but since you can climb by walking uphill, I think the definition is fine. And yes, Potter is twee but I was brought up on them when I was tiny – no sign of Jeremy Fisher, Squirrel Nutkin and a few others I remember.
Hello beery
Roughly, I believe, a grade 3 scramble = a ‘moderate’ or perhaps ‘difficult’ grade rock-climb, which to you or me might be rather tricky if not seriously inadvisable but to a rock climber is anything but!
Twee! Ridiculous. But then I’m a Potter.
I think I’m about the only one here who found this pretty hard going, having next to no knowledge of the works of Beatrix Potter apart from the names of a few characters. Close to giving up a few times but stuck with it and eventually managed to finish, with BRASSICAS being my last in. PORTRAY. PROBOSCIS and PLECTRUM were my favourites.
Thanks to Crucible and scchua.
No-one told me that today was a special anniversary. Spain isn’t big on Beatrix Potter but once we got that one sorted, the rest fell in quite easily. Thanks to everyone, from sunny Tenerife.
I was lucky enough to guess 1a,12a as soon as I looked at the clue, even though I couldn’t parse the first half (never having heard of Brian Rix) and didn’t know about the anniversary. “Snooker player” suggested “Potter”, and then who else could it be? I hadn’t heard of Samuel Whiskers or Bland, but managed to work them out anyway.
Cleverly constructed and thoroughly enjoyable.
Generally enjoyable, though made more of a challenge by my very sketchy knowledge of Beatrix Potter’s work. I don’t much like “curtains” as an indicator of a hidden answer. I didn’t see the triple BLAKEs (well spotted, Sil @12) and it took me ages to get MEGA, my LOI.
Thanks, Crucible and scchua.
beerhiker @ 19 I agree some scrambles look pretty hard going; see Mount Assiniboine, for example.
Thanks PeterO and Crucible, most enjoyable.
robi@11 “Got the gateway BEATRIX POTTER via MR MCGREGOR” – same here the mouse mention pointing the way.
Mount Assiniboine
Don’t know what happened to the first version
Slight mistake with the parsing of 5. It should be IS + TOP in middle two letters of poet (poet’s heart) OE.
19 Adiposity Surely not in BP’s vocabulary? And certainly not in the text of SW – i’ve checked! And is “criminal’ an accepted anagram indicator? Adiposity:
A beautifully constructed puzzle – perfectly formed. Many thanks both.
(A shame BP’s sesquicentennial fell today as this was rather more straightforward than one hopes for on a Thursday. But no-one can be blamed for that save La Potter’s ma and pa!)
ponticello @29
Yes, “criminal” is quite widely used as an anagram indicator. Rufus, Vlad and Everyman have already used that device this month, as well as Anto in a Quiptic in late June..
Re # 30, 31
To be ‘criminal’ is to be ‘crooked’ and ‘crooked’ is ‘not perfect, disturbed’.
Thanks all
I did not start until Friday early, it was worth the wait.
I failed to parse salad because I was set on LA as city.Last in was theft, favourite was 29 across,
Thanks scchua and Crucible.
I knew I was looking for a Potter but not doing this on the day, it was ages before I could think beyond Dennis or Stephen.
And then the penny dropped and it was plain sailing until a struggle for the last few at 4dn, 11ac, 9dn, 19ac and 20dn.
A pleasant troll through my memory but still needed to check a few on Google.
Thanks Crucible and schhua
Nice puzzle ! MR MCGREGOR was my second one in from the word play only and when I googled it, found that he was the farmer from the BEATRIX POTTER (then the third one in) books. Didn’t really read them or have them read to me, so most of the characters mentioned in here had to be looked up to find or at least confirm who they were.
Found the clues really interesting and some quite tricky to get as per normal from this setter. In particular the diagonally opposite BLAND (certainly one of the characters that i did not know) and SALAD were difficult, especially with only the two lights available from the crossers.
GAME was actually my last one in – another with a tricky -A-E only exposed. Was satisfying to get it and then see how it worked.