I struggled with this but got there in the end.
PADDINGTON BEAR arrived by boat from DARKEST PERU wearing a DUFFLE COAT. He stayed with the Brown family at 32 WINDSOR GARDENS. One Christmas he receives a pair of WELLINGTON boots as a present. He has been taught by his Aunt Lucy to OUTSTARE the traders at the market.
I had naively assumed that Paddington had always worn boots, but apparently this idea was popularised by a toymaker who gave the stuffed toy bear Wellingtons to help it stand upright. Michael Bond originally had Paddington coming from Darkest Africa, but his editor informed him that there were no bears in Africa so Bond made Paddington’s home Darkest Peru, home of the Spectacled Bear mentioned in 6 across.
Thank you Gaff.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PADDINGTON | Exercise covers getting more on station (10) |
| PT (physical training, exercise) includes (covers) ADDING (getting more) then ON | ||
| 6 | BEAR | Suffer being spectacled, maybe (4) |
| a Spectacled Bear maybe (the Andean Short-faced Bear), a being that is spectacled | ||
| 10 | ROGUE | Heel of topless shoe (5) |
| bROUGE (shoe, topless) | ||
| 11 | RATIONING | Call round at ten with new restriction on what we eat (9) |
| RING (call) contains (round) AT IO (10, ten) with N (new) | ||
| 12 | MISSPELL | What poor witch may do to display bad character? (8) |
| double cryptic definition – a character is a letter | ||
| 13 | BOOTS | Starts fires (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 15 | ULYSSES | Grant could be for returning hero (7) |
| American General Ulysses S Grant and the Greek hero returning after the fall of Troy | ||
| 17 | WINDSOR | Green family tie knot (7) |
| triple definition – colour, royal family and a knot for a tie. | ||
| 18 | FLAMING | Finish off bird on fire (7) |
| FLAMINGo (bird) with finishing letter missing (off) | ||
| 21 | OVERDUE | Unsettled by deliveries delayed until Easter initially (7) |
| OVER (six deliveries, in cricket) then initial letters of Delayed Until Easter – an account that has not been settled | ||
| 23 | ETHIC | Values some Elizabeth I coins (5) |
| found inside (some of) elizabETH I Coins | ||
| 24 | OUTSTARE | Sea trout floundering face down (8) |
| anagram (floundering) of SEA TROUT | ||
| 27 | OMISSIBLE | Duck born inside shell, say, may be forgotten (9) |
| O (duck, zero score in cricket) then B (born) inside MISSILE (shell say) | ||
| 28 | KNEEL | Prepare to pray for king born at finishing school (5) |
| K (king) NEE (born) and schooL (finishing letter of) | ||
| 29 | TUTU | Disapprove of posh prelate (4) |
| TUT (disapprove of) and U (posh) – Bishop Desmond Tutu | ||
| 30 | WELLINGTON | Dish of beef wound round fish covering (10) |
| WELT (wound) contains (round) LING (a fish) then ON (covering) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PERU | Land according to turn (4) |
| PER (according to) and U (a turn) | ||
| 2 | DIGNITY | Worth tidying mess (7) |
| anagram (mess) of TIDYING | ||
| 3 | ILEUS | Obstruction is about money (5) |
| IS containing (about) LEU (Romanian money) – an obstruction in the bowel | ||
| 4 | GARDENS | Plots to scrap uprising and retreats (7) |
| RAG (a scrap) reversed (uprising) and DENS (retreats) | ||
| 5 | OUTFLOW | Place of learning turned us down for discharge (7) |
| OU (Open University, place of learning) then FT (us, this newspaper) reversed (turned) and LOW (down) | ||
| 7 | EDITORS | Hacks at top of perm leaving misreported mess (7) |
| anagram (perm, permutation) of mISreORTED missing MESS – hacks are journalists, editors are top journalists | ||
| 8 | REGISTRIES | Records Bognor perhaps with essays (10) |
| REGIS (Bognor Regis perhaps) with TRIES (essays) | ||
| 9 | SORBONNE | Right to cry out before One Direction entered university (8) |
| R (right) inside (with…out) SOB (cry) then ONE containing (…entered) N (north, a direction) | ||
| 14 | DUFFLE COAT | Arrangement to cut off deal for personal cover (6,4) |
| anagram (arrangement to) CUT OFF DEAL | ||
| 16 | SUITCASE | Possibly carry on with fit specimen (8) |
| SUIT (fit) and CASE (specimen) – a carry-on item, a cabin bag on an aeroplane | ||
| 19 | ATHEIST | He’s unconvinced that he is taking part (7) |
| found inside (part of) thAT HE IS Taking | ||
| 20 | GOODBYE | Take off close in poem – it’s so long (7) |
| GO (take off) then BY (close) inside ODE (poem) | ||
| 21 | OATMEAL | Leading part in Porridge? (7) |
| this might be a cryptic definition – the leading part in porridge is played by oatmeal (as the leading part in Porridge is played by Ronnie Barker) | ||
| 22 | DARKEST | Most gloomy braves hold end of tomahawk with a bit of trepidation (7) |
| DARES (braves) contains (holds) tomahawK (end of) then the first letter (a bit) of Trepidation | ||
| 25 | TOKEN | Number of commandments describing approval for remembrance (5) |
| TEN (the number of commandments) contains (describing) OK (approval) | ||
| 26 | PLAN | Design most of factory (4) |
| PLANt (factory, most of) | ||
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.
I knew just enough about PADDINGTON BEAR to be able to pick up most of the references but I’m sure some have passed me by. I looked up Michael Bond post solve and see that the ‘anniversary’ referred to at the top of the puzzle is the anniversary of his death exactly a year ago.
I liked this even without the theme and there were a few tricky ones such as SORBONNE and OUTFLOW. Didn’t quite understand PORRIDGE which hardly seems a cryptic def., apart from the misdirection of the upper case ‘P’; maybe there’s something more to it. Done by the Romanian money in the end so missed out on ILEUS.
Thank you to Gaff and PeeDee
Thanks, PeeDee for the blog and Gaff for a fun puzzle.
I struggled a bit, too, with some of the definitions but got there in the end, apart from failing to find an answer for L?H?C at 23ac, because I had entered DUFFEL COAT at 14dn. 🙁
It’s also Paddington’s own [60th] anniversary around now – see here
Hi, I’m coming to this a bit late (really struggled!) but there’s a typo in your solution for 7D: “anagram (mess) of mISreoORTED”
Thanks for that k3vin. I had also got the wrong anagram indicator and failed to explain that MESS was missing. All fixed now!
Thanks Gaff and PeeDee
Good themed crossword from Gaff again where the theme helped me to settle on BEAR at 6d about mid way through the solve. Only new learnings were the resort town of BOGNOR REGIS and the ILEUS blockage.
Liked the WINDSOR triple definition – had discovered Windsor Green as the little place in Sussex as the first of them.
Finished in the NE corner with SORBONNE (which I found quite tricky) and BOOTS (a good double definition).
Hi Bruce, I discovered Windsor Green too but it is such a tiny place that it can’t really be intended as the solution.