An entertaining puzzle from Aardvark as usual. Thank you.
I have not counted the letters but it looks like the grid-fill is a pangram. If I had noticed this earlier it would have helped solving a couple of the clues.
| Across | ||
| 9 | UNDERWEAR | Boxers perhaps below weight getting some cereal (9) |
| UNDER (below) W (weight) with EAR (some cereal) | ||
| 10 | A GOGO | In excited eagerness, Owen’s opening in spades (1,4) |
| AGOG (in excited eagerness) Owen (opening letter of) | ||
| 11 | COLONEL | Army man’s isolated during depression (7) |
| LONE (isolated) inside (during) COL (depression) | ||
| 12 | PACE EGG | One, say, attracted by type of film that symbolises springtime (4,3) |
| ACE (one) EG (for example, say) inside (attracted by) PG (type of film, UK content rating) – a traditional play performed at Easter | ||
| 13 | EYE | Organ composer discussed (3) |
| sounds like (discussed) I (Aardvark, the composer of this crossword) | ||
| 14 | HAND GRENADE | Having weapon, extremists in Hamburg neared building (4,7) |
| H AND G are the outers letters (extremists) in Hamburg, then anagram (building) of NEARED | ||
| 17 | SAY-SO | Approval from nosy assistant misdirected (3-2) |
| found inside (from) nOSY ASsistant reversed (misdirected, going the wrong way) | ||
| 18 | CON | Party making a racket (3) |
| double definition – the Conservative party | ||
| 19 | GABOR | Hollywood actress, back to obtain Oscar after vacation (5) |
| BAG (to obtain) reversed (back) then OscaR (on vacation, having emptied the middle letters out) – one of the Gabor sisters: Magda, Za Za or Eva. The Gabor sisters were also famous for their husbands, between them having 20 marriages to 19 men (George Sanders married more than one sister). | ||
| 21 | PURPLE HEART | Honour university helper freely occupying role (6,5) |
| U (university) and anagram (freely) of HELPER inside (occupy) PART (role) | ||
| 23 | EMS | European runner’s long dashes (3) |
| double definition – river in Germany (something that runs in Europe) and printer’s name for a long dash (plural) | ||
| 25 | ROOMIER | Comparatively wide jumper I’m returning with reluctance (7) |
| ROO (kangaroo, something that jumps) them I’M reversed (returning) with ER (reluctance?) | ||
| 27 | CHENNAI | Constant hair dye one’s seen in Asian city (7) |
| C (constant) HENNA (hair dye) and I (one) | ||
| 28 | ADEPT | Skilful and fit recruits extremely dependable (5) |
| APT (fit) contains (recruits) DependablE (extremes of) | ||
| 29 | BALACLAVA | Bill and John in Welsh lake needing head protection (9) |
| AC (account, bill) and LAV (the John, a toilet) inside BALA (Lake Bala, in Wales) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | QUICHE | In Paris, who joined head cook, reducing egg-based dish? (6) |
| QUI (who French, as said in Paris) with CHEf (head cook) missing last letter (shortening) | ||
| 2 | ADULTERY | He forbade such playing of lute during promotion track (8) |
| anagram (playing) of LUTE inside AD (promotion) RY (railway, track) – He with a capital H is God, who’s 10 commandments forbid adultery | ||
| 3 | FRENCH ROLL | Tongue sandwich that a hairdresser finishes off? (6,4) |
| FRENCH (tongue, a language) then ROLL (sandwich) | ||
| 4 | TEAL | Son’s not seen in appropriate colour (4) |
| sTEAL (appropriate) missing (not seen) S (son) | ||
| 5 | PROPAGANDA | Potentially influential information for non-believing prosecutor (10) |
| PRO (for) PAGAN (non-believing) DA (prosecutor, in US) | ||
| 6 | MARC | Blight beginning to cover fruit waste (4) |
| MAR (blight) then Cover (first letter, beginning to) | ||
| 7 | TOPEKA | Excessively drink spirit in US capital (6) |
| TOPE (excessively drink) and KA (spirit) – capital of Kansas | ||
| 8 | JONGLEUR | Wandering minstrel, Jack, excited lounge spectator finally (8) |
| J (jack) then anagram (excited) of LOUNGE and then spectatoR (final letter of) | ||
| 15 | NICK HORNBY | Novelist can house seamen in reserve (4,6) |
| NICK (can, prison) HO (house) RN (Royal Navy, seamen) BY (in reserve) – an easy one for me as I bought a book of his yesterday | ||
| 16 | EIGHTPENCE | Rowing team snacked regularly after training – little change? (10) |
| EIGHT (rowing team) then sNaCkEd following PE (physical exercise, training) | ||
| 17 | SUPERTAX | Gulp, having extra to lay out, such as this? (8) |
| SUP (gulp) with anagram (to lay out) of EXTRA – the definition hints at the dismay of having to lay out extra cash on additional taxes | ||
| 20 | BIENNIAL | Type of plant one’s seen occupying mountain peak, positioned northwards (8) |
| I (one) inside (seen occupying) BEN (mountain peak) then LAIN (positioned) reversed (backwards) | ||
| 22 | RHODES | Horace’s work maybe fenced by body of gardeners somewhere in Greece (6) |
| ODE (Horace’s work maybe) inside (fenced by) RHS (Royal Horticultrual Society, body of gardeners) | ||
| 24 | SHIRAZ | Short county guide map showing produce of some vineyards (6) |
| SHIRe (county, short) then AZ (A to Z, a guide map) | ||
| 26 | IOTA | Central couple in priory returning at Whit (4) |
| prIOry (central couple of letters) then AT reversed (returning) | ||
| 27 | CALF | Youngster left in coffee house refusing drug (4) |
| L (left) inside CAFe (coffee house) missing (refusing) E (drug) | ||
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.
Struggled with this and had to cheat a bit to finish. I did check that it was indeed a pangram but only after I had finished.
Never heard of PACE EGG (LOI). Didn’t like the initial ‘Having’ in 14a, which held me up for a time. Didn’t know NICK HORNBY either and don’t know what a FRENCH ROLL is.
Thanks to Aardvark for the challenge and to PeeDee for the explanations.
Composing a puzzle??!! Decomposing usually!
You have lost me there compus. Can you explain for me?
PeeDee@ 3 I normally think of composing as in symphonies, sonatas etc etc. whereas crosswords normally consist of surfaces which need to be “decomposed” into their components and reassembled in a well-known shape, form or word(s)
Setting and compiling are what i normally think of with crosswords and although I like this setter, to describe oneself as a composer
seems like a dodgy back pass to me. But perhaps I am being a bit trichological-if so, apologies.
And I dont object to Mahler being a barman.
Hard work. I’d never heard of PACE EGG, initially dismissed EMS as “couldn’t possibly be the name of a river” and a few others such as BIENNIAL and TOPEKA took a bit of getting. Missed on CALF, one of the easier ones, in the end.
I did think ‘composer’ was a bit unusual but shrugged it off as making a better surface than ‘setter’ or ‘compiler’.
The ‘He forbade such’ def. was my highlight
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee.
Am I missing something in 14a? HG and neared total eight letters. Hand grenade is a total of ten. Where does the additional “and” come from?
H and G are the extreme letters of Hamburg.
tilloubill – “H AND G” are the first four letters of the solution, the anagram of NEARED brings the total up to ten letters.
Hi compus – I see where you are going now, thanks.
Ah, merci bien. Too much rosé last night, peut-être.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
Found this quite tough, taking several sittings to get it out. A combination of some new terms – A GOGO, PACE EGG, FRENCH ROLL and BY (as a definition of ‘in reserve’) – and some tricky word play.
Hadn’t parsed PROPAGANDA (going down the weak cryptic definition path). Did like 2d and 24d.
Finished in the NE corner where two of those new terms were, with PACE EGG, MARC and A GOGO the last few in.