A nice easy puzzle form Falcon, though I don’t expect there will be many people will be doing the FT puzzle today. Thank you Falcon.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MANTRA | Repeated phrase always employed by human traffickers (6) |
| found inside (employed by) huMAN TRAffickers | ||
| 5 | HOMESPUN | Plain flat? Small play on words (8) |
| HOME (a flat perhaps) S (small) and PUN (play on words) | ||
| 9 | PAMPHLET | A politician in public house allowed to give handout (8) |
| A MP (politician) in PH (public house) then LET (allowed) | ||
| 10 | NOTICE | Become aware of warning (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 11 | BOGART | Garbo, wickedly, beginning to tease famous actor (6) |
| anagram (wickedly) of GARBO then Tease (beginning letter of) | ||
| 12 | PYRENEES | Mountain range, extremely pretty and uncommonly serene (8) |
| PrettY (extreme letters of) then anagram (uncommonly) of SERENE | ||
| 14 | CONTROL FREAK | Changed frock later on for one like Svengali? (7,5) |
| anagram (charged) of FROCK LATER ON | ||
| 18 | DAS RHEINGOLD | Opera singer had unfortunately aged (3,9) |
| anagram (unfortunately) of SINGER HAD then OLD (aged) | ||
| 22 | TRAVERSE | Heartless article about party animals makes one cross (8) |
| ThE (the definite article) contains (about) RAVERS (party animals) | ||
| 25 | ATRIUM | Area to decorate round university’s central hall (6) |
| A (area) then TRIM (to decorate) contains U (university) | ||
| 26 | JARGON | Leave name on pot in specialist language (6) |
| GO (leave) N (name) following (on) JAR (pot) | ||
| 27 | LITERATE | Learned line to say again (8) |
| L (line) and ITERATE (to say again) | ||
| 28 | REVEREND | Member of the clergy never terribly overdrawn? (8) |
| anagram (terribly) of VENER in RED (in the red=overdrawn) | ||
| 29 | REPORT | Rumour about harbour (6) |
| RE (regarding, about) PORT (harbour) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ARAGON | Model heading off for Spanish region (6) |
| pARAGON (model) missing first letter (hreading) | ||
| 3 | TAP-DANCER | Astaire, say, departs having broken cane in silly part (3-6) |
| D (departs) with anagram (broken) of CANE in anagram (silly) of PART | ||
| 4 | ALL AT ONCE | Everyone agreed about carbon, suddenly (3,2,4) |
| ALL (everyone) AT ONE (agreed) contains (about) C (carbon) | ||
| 5 | HOTSPUR | Fiery type in Proust novel going after husband (7) |
| anagram (novel) of PROUST following H (husband) | ||
| 6 | MANOR | Landed estate’s custom, reportedly (5) |
| sounds like (reportedly) “manner” (custom) | ||
| 7 | SIT-IN | Fool is up for a form of protest (3-2) |
| NIT (fool) IS all reversed (up) | ||
| 8 | UNCLE SAM | Relatives, American, in the US government (5,3) |
| UNCLES (relatives) AM (American) | ||
| 13 | ELF | Supernatural being appearing in Angel Falls (3) |
| found inside nngEL Falls | ||
| 15 | LOOK AFTER | Guard to see later (4,5) |
| LOOK (see) AFTER (later) | ||
| 16 | RADAR TRAP | A system set up by the police may show two artists parking without charge (5,4) |
| RA RA (Royal Academician, artist twice) and P (parking) containing without, going outside) DART (charge) | ||
| 17 | CARRIAGE | Surrey air? (8) |
| double definition | ||
| 19 | HOE | Gardening tool in meadow initially overlooked (3) |
| HOmE (in) missing (overlooking) Meadow (initial letter of) | ||
| 20 | NEEDLED | Irritated – wanted to catch learner driver (7) |
| NEEDED (wanted) contains (to catch) L (learner driver) | ||
| 21 | PUTTER | Speak, after end of championship, in golf club (6) |
| UTTER (speak) following championshiP (end letter of) | ||
| 23 | VAGUE | Ill-defined fever following first of vaccinations (5) |
| AGUE (fever) following Vaccinations (first letter of) | ||
| 24 | RANGE | Citrus fruit, not round variety (5) |
| oRANGE (citrus fruit) missing O (something round) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks Falcon and PeeDee
There is someone who did … took longer than it could have whilst trying to eat a panini whilst solving it !!
Generally found it pretty straight forward but did have to look up Svengali to confirm the CONTROL FREAK attribute. Couldn’t properly parse HOE, failing to spot the ‘in’ meaning HOME. It was one of the last couple in as well with the tricky ATRIUM the last of all.
Seasons greetings to both setter, blogger and any posters who should follow.
Also missed parsing for HOE, thank you peedee, and missed CARRIAGEbecause I didn’t know Surrey. Else fairly gentle, thanks Falcon, my favourite was 1a because it took me a while to see the hidden well-disguised in human traffickers.