An enjoyable puzzle, not easy to parse some of the clues. Thank you ardvark.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ENTANGLE | Confuse medical department, showing an abnormal leg (8) |
| ENT (Ear Nose and Throat, medical department) then AN followed by anagram (abnormal) of LEG | ||
| 5 | STEP UP | Progressively raise setter, regularly clipping dog (4,2) |
| every other letter (regularly clipping) of SeTtEr then PUP (dug) | ||
| 9 | FOXGLOVE | Plant kiss on female, given ring that’s put on hand (8) |
| X (a kiss) following (on) F (female) with O (a ring) then GLOVE (something that’s put on hand) | ||
| 10 | BISQUE | Some rabbis question fish dish (6) |
| found inside (some of) rabBIS QUEstion | ||
| 12 | GEEKY | Obsessive about tablets perhaps, European runs off, back to pharmacy (5) |
| GrEEK (a European) missing (runs off) R (runs) then pharmacY (last letter of, back to) | ||
| 13 | BOW STREET | Runners once seen here bend and stretch, leaving clubhouse, conserving energy (3,6) |
| BOW (bend) then STRETch missing (leaving) CH (clubhouse) containing E (energy) – the Bow Street Runners were the first official police force in London | ||
| 14 | CURATE | Clergyman’s worried by scoundrel (6) |
| ATE (worried) following (by) CUR (scoundrel) | ||
| 16 | BULLDOG | Command Father to reject symbol of this country (7) |
| BULL (command) then GOD (Father) reversed (to reject) | ||
| 19 | LONGBOW | Pine crook that was used as a weapon (7) |
| LONG (pine) BOW (crook) | ||
| 21 | TONGUE | Language that’s evident in butcher’s? (6) |
| tongue is a cut of meat that might be evident in a butchers | ||
| 23 | PAPER CLIP | Sun possibly caught brass item on office desk? (5,4) |
| PAPER (The Sun possibly) then C (caught) LIP (brass, cheek) | ||
| 25 | GAMMA | Classical character’s publication diverted graduate (5) |
| anagram (diverted) of MAG (publication) then MA (graduate) | ||
| 26 | HAZARD | Difficult to restrain extremists displaying menace (6) |
| HARD (difficult) contains (to restrain) A Z (extremists, of the alphabet) | ||
| 27 | POPINJAY | Dandy to go off with fashionable bird (8) |
| POP (to go off, pop to the shops) with IN (fashionable) and JAY (bird) | ||
| 28 | PRAISE | What flock might do to breed with tup finally (6) |
| RAISE (to breed) following (with) tuP (final letter of) | ||
| 29 | MANDARIN | Outsiders in media almost ring high-ranking official (8) |
| M AND A (the outside letters in MediA) then RINg (almost all of) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | EFFIGY | Upright soldier appearing very strong in the old image (6) |
| GI (soldier) with FF (fortissimo, very strong) in YE (the, old) all reversed (upright) | ||
| 2 | TAX RETURN | Working extra shift, financial statement’s needed (3,6) |
| anagram (working) of EXTRA then TURN (shift) | ||
| 3 | NELLY | Once called associate when stripping a turkey (5) |
| NE (once called, maiden name) then aLLY (associate) missing A – a fool | ||
| 4 | LOVABLE | See bachelor in depression, appealing (7) |
| LO (see) then B (bachelor) in VALE (depression) | ||
| 6 | TRIATHLON | Test about half of them on sport (9) |
| TRIAL (test) contains THem (half of) then ON | ||
| 7 | PIQUE | Crown hearing for offence (5) |
| sounds like (hearing) “peak” (crown) | ||
| 8 | PRESTIGE | Standing near French cat that’s tailless (8) |
| PRES (near, in French) then TIGEr (a cat) missing last letter (tailless) | ||
| 11 | SWAB | Cornish sailor’s mop on board (4) |
| a Cornish sailor might be a SW AB, an Able Seaman form the South West | ||
| 15 | AMBERGRIS | Some of perfume, a shade over one thousand dollars, upset gent (9) |
| AMBER (a shade, colour) on (over) G (grand, one thousand dollars) then SIR (gent) reversed (upset) – an ingredient for making perfumes | ||
| 17 | DRUM-MAJOR | Doctor hides odd contrary crush on old band leader (4-5) |
| DR (doctor) contains (hides) RUM (odd) JAM (crush) reversed (contrary) on O (old) | ||
| 18 | SLOPSHOP | Clothing outlet overflows ahead of spring (8) |
| SLOPS (overflows) then HOP (spring) | ||
| 20 | WILE | Trick the Italian into playing partners at bridge (4) |
| IL (the, Italian) in WE (East and West, playing partners in the game of Bridge) | ||
| 21 | TAPIOCA | Spanish cuisine sustains one business which elevates dessert (7) |
| TAPA (Spanish cuisine) contains (sustains) I (one) CO (company, business) all reversed (which elevates, goes upwards in a down solution) | ||
| 22 | CANYON | Sort of camera capturing variable geological feature (6) |
| CANON (a brand, sort, of camera) contains (capturing) Y (variable, in equations) | ||
| 24 | PIZZA | Dash back, halfway into Penzance, for takeaway at Luigi’s? (5) |
| ZIP (dash) reversed (back) then penZAnce (halfway into) | ||
| 25 | GRIND | Crunch good bit of bacon (5) |
| G (good) RIND (a bit of bacon) | ||
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.
A good work ouit today. Noticing the pangram helped me with 12ac, my LOI. Pity no such langaage as TINBUT in 21 ac, my initial idea when i had the crossing letters T_N_U_!
Enjoyed this.
Interestingly, GRIND appeared almost identically clued in the Tuesday FT. And I struggled with NELLY because while we all know ‘nee’ as a maiden name, I hadn’t seen it in the masculine before, as in ‘Lord, ne William, Hague’ (sorry for lack accents). So, technically, ‘ne’ can’t really be a maiden (!) name, just an ‘AKA’.
Also missed the parse of ‘swab’, assuming it was just a West Country, piratically pronounced seaman’s insult (“Avast, thou swab!”), so ta for that.
Grant – good point about “maiden” name!
Yes, the pangram found me Pizza; but I found the parsing unusually nightmarish (i.e. cleverer than me). Thanks PeeDee and Aardvark
A bit of a struggle to finish this. Failed to parse NELLY so thanks for that.
Didn’t care much for 1d. Held up for a while due to the word ‘appearing’ in the clue which doesn’t work for me. Maybe others can explain.
SLOPSHOP was new to me. Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee.
Hovis – I thought the same about 1dn. My best reading was to add some mental punctuation so that we have “soldier appearing, very strong, in the old”. Like you might say “he appeared, carrying the ball, on the pitch”.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
Having caught up on most of my recent backlog of puzzles, I am printing off some old Guardian ones from 2003 (from the first published Imogen puzzle – was surprised that one could actually go back that far – and interesting to solve some of the renowned past setters as well). I mention this as the old Janus puzzle that I completed yesterday had a near identical clue to 25d in today’s puzzle – GRIND (except he used ‘masticate’ instead of ‘crunch’) which brought a serendipitous smile when I saw it !
Anyway, the rest of this puzzle provided a very good challenge which I enjoyed a lot. And like Steven@1, the recognition of the pangram also helped me to get GEEKY as my second to last one in. Had a bit more trouble getting NELLY as my last in – that NE (instead of NEE) gets me every time.
Hadn’t seen the singular TAPA used before and SLOPSHOP was a new word. Plenty of clues to like throughout the solve.
Oh goodness … it was yesterday’s FT not the old Guardian one … :-/
To Bruce @7,8…
See me & PD above @2,3.
Do read the posts, old chum! You even solved & posted on my FT blog yesterday. I think you’re getting a bit over-crossworded, mate, if there can ever be such a thing.
Haha .. when I started here, there was only the Steven’s post – but I got way-laid for half hour (my mum still calls me !!!) and I finished my write-up without refreshing the blog here so didn’t see @2-@6 🙁
Yesterday I did both the Slormgorm and Janus crosswords and have obviously mixed them up … a senior thing ? too many crosswords in a day ? taking too long to post ? who knows … its all good fun !!
l admit defeat, filled half of both this and Pasquale and then gave up.
That was fun. Thanks for explaining SWAB – very good. I didn’t know that meaning of my LOI, NELLY but luckily guessed it as I couldn’t see anything else that fit the checkers. Hmmm. I must remember to do my 2d – that was a useful reminder! Thanks PeeDee and Aardvark.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee. I struggled with the parsing of NELLY and SWAB but did get through.
Thanks for the blog, Peedee. I found this contained too many obscure and dodgy references to be pleasurable. I’ve never heard of a slopshop, a popinjay, or ambergris. Never heard of Nelly = Turkey. FF means loud, not strong, and ye means you according to the dictionary app in my phone. Geeks aren’t obsessive, and i’ve never ever seen clubhouse abbreviated as CH.