The usual well-crafted puzzle from Aardvark. Thank you.
The grid is a pangram.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MOHAIR | Husband follows mode of operation to ventilate fabric (6) |
| H (husband) follows MO (modus operandi, mode of operation) then AIR (to ventilate) | ||
| 4 | ARRANGER | Person who organises golf, with uncertainty, on Scottish isle (8) |
| G (golf, phonetic alphabet) on ER (uncertainty) following (on) ARRAN (Scottish isle) | ||
| 10 | BARBELL | One used to work out what indicates last orders? (7) |
| the BELL on the BAR in a pub signals “last orders” | ||
| 11 | DIPLOMA | See degree written on lower document (7) |
| LO (see) MA (degree) following (written on) DIP (lower) – a diploma is a qualification document lower than a degree | ||
| 12 | DUKE | Aristocrat appointed to host king (4) |
| DUE (appointed) contains (to host) K (king) | ||
| 13 | QUARRELLED | A senior clergyman comes in subdued, having had a row (10) |
| A RR (Right Reverend, senior clergyman) inside QUELLED (subdued) | ||
| 16 | CLIENT | One seeking lawyer’s advice right inside court (6) |
| LIEN (right) inside CT (court) | ||
| 17 | JUNIPER | Seat for students seen by Jack through coniferous shrub (7) |
| UNI (seat of learning for students) following (seen by) J (jack) then PER (through) | ||
| 20 | SHOWBIZ | Comic who is touring beginning to bemoan variable entertainment industry (7) |
| anagram (comic) of WHO IS contains (touring) Bemoan (beginning to) then Z (commonly used to denote a variable quantity) | ||
| 21 | STREGA | Stan refs game in first half, having Italian liqueur (6) |
| STan REfs GAme (first half only) | ||
| 24 | CHATTERBOX | Mad person, on cold punch, who never stops talking (10) |
| HATTER (mad person) follows (on) C (cold) then BOX (punch) | ||
| 25 | DEVA | Some grave-diggers recalled Chester many years ago (4) |
| found inside (some of) grAVE-Diggers reversed (recalled) – the Roman name for Chester | ||
| 27 | APRICOT | Fruit cost almost nothing in middle of Skiathos (7) |
| PRICe (cost, almost) O (nothing) inside skiAThos (middle of) | ||
| 29 | TANK TOP | Container, then another, tipped over knitwear (4,3) |
| TANK (container) then POT (another container) reversed (tipped over) | ||
| 30 | LONG STOP | Cricket fielder once getting together trousers and jumper? (4,4) |
| LONGS (trousers) and TOP (jumper) – once indicates now rarely used | ||
| 31 | COARSE | Rough voyage reported (6) |
| sounds like (reported) “course” (voyage) | ||
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MOBY-DICK | Michael hides body when recreating novel (4-4) |
| MICK (Michael) contains (hides) anagram (when recreating) of BODY | ||
| 2 | HARE KRISHNA | Hire Shankar to broadcast religious chant (4,7) |
| anagram (to broadcast) of HIRE SHANKAR | ||
| 3 | ICED | Current Conservative and newsman like a cool drink (4) |
| I (current, electrical notation) C (Conservative) ED (editor, newsman) | ||
| 5 | RYDER CUP | Jockey sounding cheerful after constant sporting competition (5,3) |
| RYDER sounds like (sounding) “rider” (jockey) then UP (cheerful) following C (constant) | ||
| 6 | APPRECIATE | Understand cryptic paper spies peripherally translate (10) |
| anagram (cryptic) of PAPER then CIA (spies) and TranslatE (peripherally, outer letters of) | ||
| 7 | GOO | Girlfriend’s first love letter repeated sentimentality (3) |
| Girlfriend (first letter of) then O (letter representing zero, love in tennis etc) twice | ||
| 8 | RWANDA | Country run alongside borders of wisteria (6) |
| R (run) followed by (alongside) W AND A (w and a are the border letters of WisteriA) | ||
| 9 | ALBUM | Record nearly every scrounger (5) |
| ALL (every) missing last letter (nearly) then BUM (scrounger) | ||
| 14 | LIE DETECTOR | Roving editor elect that might uncover stories (3,8) |
| anagram (roving) of EDITOR ELECT | ||
| 15 | IN TWO TICKS | Soon apart, stick’s reassembled (2,3,5) |
| IN TWO (apart) then anagram (reassembled) of STICK | ||
| 18 | LIBRETTO | Words of Norma perhaps more ’eated, rising after party earlier (8) |
| ‘OTTER (more ‘eated) reversed (rising) following LIB (Liberal Party, earlier name for Liberal Democrats) | ||
| 19 | MAY APPLE | Fruit from acer seen around bark (3,5) |
| MAPLE (acer, tree) contains (seen around) YAP (bark) – fruit of the May Apple plant | ||
| 22 | SCRAWL | It might be difficult to read server’s initial stroke (6) |
| Server (first letter, initial) then CRAWL (stroke, swimming) | ||
| 23 | FORTE | Loud warning of course: closing time (5) |
| FORE (warning on golf course) contains (closing) T (time) | ||
| 26 | UNDO | Periodically turns door to open (4) |
| every other letter (periodically) of tUrNs DoOr | ||
| 28 | RAN | Smuggled group of seamen around Australia (3) |
| RN (Royal Navy, group of seamen) contains (around) A (Australia) | ||
I thought this was Aardvark at his best. The pangram was just the icing on the top.
I wondered whether, in 15d, we were supposed to take STICK as S + TICK and then reassemble in the reverse order. As a anagram, it does seem a bit weak.
As a side note to 2d, I remember in my youth listening to Ananda Shankar (Ravi’s nephew). In particular, he did a somewhat unusual rendition of Jumping Jack Flash on the sitar.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee.
Failed to parse APPRECIATE properly (might have if I’d been blogging, honest) but did parse IN TWO TICKS as PeeDee, to whom thanks for the blog: I’m thinking of adopting your mono colour-scheme which is more elegant than my double definition emphasis.
BTW – picky, picky – ‘Moby-Dick’ is indeed hyphenated as per the numeration.
Thanks very much to both.
And just to say that the pangram was a help. Having found the Z & X, I cast about for a bare ‘U’ at which point QUARRELLED was write-in.
Moby-Dick does indeed have a hyphen, thanks for pointing out that error. The whale is called Moby Dick but the title of the novel is Moby-Dick. I have been meaning to read this for a very long time and never got round to it. Maybe now is the time to start!
To PeeDee:
Not really an error. Most of us lit-geeks think that the hyphen in the title was a typo in the first place. And do get a nice copy and set aside a month’s reading. It’s a corker. Regards.
Minor point, but I think 2D is spelled Gare Krishna
Or even Hare Krishna
Aid – so it is, fixed now. Thank you for the corrections as always.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee. Lots of fun. I’ve never seen the hyphen in MOBY DICK (I taught it once long ago) and I took a while before piecing out ALBUM and BARBELL.
Thanks Aardvark for a fine offering. Ignorant of cricket as well as longs for pants, and top for jumper I was never going to get LONGSTOP. I did get CHATTERBOX and LIBRETTO by partial parsing, then guessing — thanks PeeDee for the elucidation.
Enjoyable and not difficult. Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee. LOI was MAY APPLE which I needed the blog for. I guessed LONG STOP from the trousers and jumper but I also don’t know cricket; wondered if it was a fielder like a baseball shortstop? Looked it up later and now I know.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
Always an entertaining solve when this setter is presented. Unfortunately, through laziness, had spelled RYDER CUP wrongly though.
MAY APPLE and STREGA were the two new terms for me.
Like Grant, the recognition of a probable pangram, led to QUARRELLED finding it’s place in the grid. It was near the back end of the solve, followed by the tricky ALBUM and BARBELL the last one in.