An excellent fun crossword from MUDD. Several inventive clues and misdirections kept proceedings consistenly interesting !!
FF: 10 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | MAMMON | Material wealth shown by chap pocketing a grand, flash (6) |
| MAN (chap) containing [ M (grand} MO (flash) ] | ||
| 4 | SCAFFOLD | Lecture encompassing a very strong framework (8) |
| SCOLD (lecture) containing A FF (very strong) | ||
| 9 | CURATE | Vermin trapped by prompt clergyman (6) |
| RAT (verming) in CUE (prompt) | ||
| 10 | GOD AWFUL | A wolf dug the pits, being abominable (3-5) |
| A WOLF DUG* | ||
| 12 | BOUTIQUE | Don’t praise wood, say, in shop (8) |
| BOO (don’t praise) TIQUE (sounds like TEAK, wood) | ||
| 13 | PEG LEG | A wooden pin to stick back on Margaret (3,3) |
| PEG (margaret) LEG (stick = GEL, reversed) | ||
| 15 | EPIC | Classic electronic image? (4) |
| E (electronic) PIC (image) | ||
| 16 | STRIP LIGHT | Get high accessing fine source of illumination (5,5) |
| TRIP (get high) in SLIGHT (fine) | ||
| 19 | PALINDROME | Nan perhaps, ending in bed hugged by Caesar’s friend, perhaps (10) |
| [PAL IN ROME (caeser’s friend)] around D (ending in beD) | ||
| 20 | WARM | Wasps, perhaps, failing to open cordial (4) |
| sWARM (wasps, perhaps, without starting character) | ||
| 23 | RESCUE | Save two items of snooker equipment, one shortened (6) |
| RESt CUE (two items of snooker equipment, one shortened) | ||
| 25 | KNICKERS | Those going up in the morning, down at night, dammit! (8) |
| cryptic clue | ||
| 27 | DINGBATS | American idiots close to losing, breaking one or two rackets? (8) |
| G (close to losinG) in [ DIN (a racket) BATS ( two rackets) ] | ||
| 28 | MINION | Baby touching pet (6) |
| MINI (baby) ON (touching) | ||
| 29 | TOWERING | Giant grew into freak! (8) |
| GREW INTO* | ||
| 30 | HERESY | I’m showing you yellow, primarily, for dissent (6) |
| cryptic clue : “I’m showing you Y..” = “HERE’S Y” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MACABRE | Dark horse guarding hansom (7) |
| MARE (horse) containing CAB (hansom) | ||
| 2 | MARSUPIAL | Florid as primula one’s pocketed? (9) |
| AS PRIMULA* | ||
| 3 | OUTWIT | Fox, duck, cougar’s third, then ass (6) |
| O (duck) U (coUgar’s third, letter) TWIT (ass) | ||
| 5 | COOT | Hurry to shave head – so a baldie? (4) |
| sCOOT (hurry, without starting character) | ||
| 6 | FLAGELLA | Prisoner punching bloke gets some lashes (8) |
| LAG (prisoner) in FELLA (bloke) | ||
| 7 | OFFAL | Refuse rotten innards of calf (5) |
| OFF (rotten) AL (innards of cALf) | ||
| 8 | DELIGHT | Please darken? (7) |
| read as DE-LIGHT (darken) | ||
| 11 | MUSTARD | Yellow sun eclipsed by earth (7) |
| MUD (earth) around STAR (sun) | ||
| 14 | DIAMOND | Daughter having to clean herself up? Something sparkling! (7) |
| reverse of D (daughter) NO MAID (~having to clean herself) | ||
| 17 | GRAPEVINE | Travelling rep gave in a source of information (9) |
| REP GAVE IN A* | ||
| 18 | ENCUMBER | Burden finding a hundred in code on food label (8) |
| C (hundred0 in E NUMBER (code on food label, allowed list of additives) | ||
| 19 | PERIDOT | Saucy rings I make in yellowish- green stone (7) |
| PERT (saucy) around (rings) [ I DO (make) ] | ||
| 21 | MASONRY | Building where redeemer’s mother shelters child (7) |
| MARY (jesus’ mother) containing SON (child) | ||
| 22 | ACTIVE | Musical coming up about charismatic leader, live (6) |
| reverse of EVITA (musical) around C (starting character of Charismatic) | ||
| 24 | SINEW | Strength is up, then fresh (5) |
| SI (reverse of IS) NEW (fresh) | ||
| 26 | ETON | School told to remove head (4) |
| lET ON (told to, without starting letter) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs. Good fun as you say. Couldn’t parse ETON but I think it is told= let on without the starter rather than – told to.
Good to see the return of KNICKERS which was Mr Halpern’s answer to his first ever clue in a Guardian crossword.
12 and 19 great I thought-and because it was himself, I somehow wrote in knackers instead of knickers. Doesnt work but…
Such a consistent setter-and marathon runner!
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
Catching up on some late posts and can remember that this was a fun and entertaining puzzle, as is so often the case with this setter. Was interesting to see PALINDROME come up here and later in the Crux puzzle the next Tuesday that were both very cleverly constructed.
Hadn’t seen his KNICKERS trick before and it did give me a bit of a chuckle when the penny dropped.
Initially had DOG AWFUL at 10a, but after not finding any dictionaries supporting it as a phrase was eventually able to flip the first word for the correct answer … followed by a head slap ! Actually got ETON quite early on and pretty much saw the tricky word play soon after.
The last one in was STRIP LIGHT which is a term that I hadn’t heard of before.