Trickier than usual from Aardvark, but enjoyable as always. Thank you Aardvark.
There must be at least one pangram in the grid, are there any letter-counters out there who would like to work it out?
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | INSECT | Perhaps cricket clubs attracted by class on batting (6) |
|
C (clubs) inside (attracted by) SET (class) all follows (on) IN (batting) |
||
| 4 | FLAPJACK | Following drink, seaman’s given biscuit (8) |
|
F (following) LAP (drink) JACK (seaman) |
||
| 9 | SQUALL | Court game is declined by mum and learners in brief storm (6) |
|
SQUAsh (court game) missing (declined by) SH (mum, quiet) and L L (leaner, twice) |
||
| 10 | BENGHAZI | Mountain soldier describes mist briefly in North Africa (8) |
|
BEN (mountain) GI (soldier) contains (describes) HAZe (mist, briefly) – a city in Libya |
||
| 11 | MEADOW | Gerard regularly comes in to cut field (6) |
|
every other letter (regularly) of gErArD inside MOW (cut) |
||
| 12 | BALINESE | Part of poem written in vulgar language (8) |
|
LINE (part of poem) inside BASE (vulgar) |
||
| 13 | JAY | One tweets the tenth character (3) |
|
double definition – name of letter J (10th in alphabet) and a bird (an animal that "tweets") |
||
| 14 | CHEW UP | Using teeth, damage drinking vessel – shape is retained within (4,2) |
|
CUP (drinking vessel) contains (…is within it) HEW (shape, to cut) |
||
| 17 | YOU'RE ON | I accept that Euro when abroad in distant environment (5,2) |
|
anagram (when abroad) of EURO inside (in…environment) YON (distant) |
||
| 21 | PARADE | Trim drinking promotion display (6) |
|
PARE (trim) contains (drinking) AD (promotion) |
||
| 25 | FEZ | Something for the head chef? Some shiraz, at the end (3) |
|
last letters of cheF somE shiraZ |
||
| 26 | FLASHIER | Bird outside remains comparatively loud (8) |
|
FLIER (bird) contains (outside) ASH (remains) |
||
| 27 | VISAGE | Face appearing to droop during fight (6) |
|
SAG (to droop) inside (during) VIE (fight) |
||
| 28 | EXACTION | Rigorous one performing oppressive demand (8) |
|
EXACT (rigorous) I (one) ON (performing) |
||
| 29 | NAVAJO | Native American’s certainly not consuming coffee – it’s rejected (6) |
|
NO (certainly not) contains (consuming) JAVA (coffee) reversed (it's rejected) |
||
| 30 | DAYBREAK | Sat perhaps alongside Bill, entertaining Roger and Dawn (8) |
|
DAY (Sat, Saturday perhaps) then BEAK (bill) containing (entertaining) R (roger, phonetic alphabet) |
||
| 31 | RED ANT | One across road accommodating European worker (3,3) |
|
RD (road) contains (accommodating) E (European) then ANT (worker) – an insect (1 across) |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | INSOMUCH | Greek character in chinos juggling to such an extent (8) |
|
MU (Greek character) inside anagram (juggling) of CHINOS |
||
| 2 | SQUEALED | Ask queen shortly to mingle – Duke’s informed (8) |
|
anagram (to mingle) of ASK QUEEn (shortly) then D (duke) |
||
| 3 | COLLOQUY | Senior officer half-concealed load on wharf without a conversation (8) |
|
COL (colonel, senior officer) LOad (half concealed) on QUaY (wharf) missing (without) A |
||
| 5 | LEEWAY | Discussed meadow and footpath margin (6) |
|
LEE sounds like "lea" (meadow) then WAY (footpath) |
||
| 6 | PUGLIA | Usually Italians are here every year collecting fruit (6) |
|
PA (every year) contains (collecting) UGLI (a fruit) |
||
| 7 | AZALEA | Ornamental shrub unknown porter maybe carried through two acres (6) |
|
Z (an unknown) ALE (porter maybe) inside (carried through) A A (acre, twice) |
||
| 8 | KAISER | Emperor’s spirit lives on in retirement (6) |
|
KA (spirit) IS (lives) then RE (on, regarding) reversed (in retirement) |
||
| 12 | BARRIER | What faces British topless steeplechaser? (7) |
|
B (British) then hARRIER (steeplechaser, cross country racer, topless) |
||
| 15 | POX | Disease coming from foreign river? Wrong (3) |
|
PO (foreign river, one in Italy) and X (wrong) |
||
| 16 | MOP | Cleaner’s way of working quietly (3) |
|
MO (modus operandi, way of working) then P (quietly) |
||
| 18 | NAVIGATE | Sail raised, Russian man approached channel (8) |
|
IVAN (Russian man) reversed (raised) then (approached) GATE (channel) |
||
| 19 | MAHARAJA | Old prince somewhat open with an amateur actor getting all upset (8) |
|
AJAR (somewhat open) with A (an) HAM (amateur actor) all reversed (getting all upset) |
||
| 20 | LEVEL OUT | Iron velvety material right away in rented property (5,3) |
|
VELOUr (velvety material) missing R (right taken away) inside LET (rented property) |
||
| 22 | OFFEND | Tread on someone’s toes leaving terminus (6) |
|
OFF (leaving) END (terminus) |
||
| 23 | GALAXY | Two unknowns supporting sporting occasion’s collection of stars (6) |
|
X Y (two unknowns) following (supporting) GALA (sporting occasion) |
||
| 24 | RHETOR | Public speaker once from the Magic Circle breaking rules (6) |
|
anagram (magic) of THE and O (a circle) inside (breaking) R R (rules) |
||
| 25 | FEMORA | Bones those people commonly found in ancient marketplaces (6) |
|
'EM (those people, commonly) inside FORA (ancient marketplaces) |
||
I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish. Hard work from Aardvark, you might say. Really pleased to complete without cheats having nearly ground to a halt several times, in the SE & NE. Spotting the sneaky definition in 31a (my favourite) opened up the SE and the tricky KAISER opened up the NE.
PUGLIA was a new word for me and had to check it. Also RHETOR was new to me but with a clear link to RHETORIC.
It was only after I finished that I noticed the preponderance of unusual letters and a quick check showed this was a triple pangram. My hat goes off to Aardvark for this excellent grid fill.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee.
2d is SQUEAKED
The triple pangram did not in the least hinder this from being a great puzzle.
Pick of the day and nice to see this setter again
Thanks
When the first word you write in has a Z in it, you automatically think pangram, but I never imagined it would be a great triple pangram
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee
Hovis @ 1 = 6d was one of several places we were planning to visit in 2020 before the deadly virus spoiled all our fun 🙁
muffyword – thanks for spotting that error, I will update the blog shortly.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
I thought that was a tremendous puzzle. Getting J Y & Z among first entries triggered the pangram alarm, 2 Qs in quick succession raised the likelihood of a double, while the third Q set me to counting. Loved it!
Oh wow! I thought triple pangrams were like hippogriffs…imaginary!
I started off strong with the NW finished faster than I normally do, and was feeling good….till I ground to a halt. After an hour more of chewing, got the SE but then just had to stop. After seeing the answers, still don’t think could have finished the NE. This puzzle was a toughie.
Hats off to aardvark, and thanks to PeeDee for the blog.
AMAIZING
Adriana @7 You may be aMAIZEd (following copmus) that Maize produced a quintuple pangram in the Independent (9740).
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
A great puzzle and a credit to create a triple pangram without any really obscure words – think that RHETOR and the FLAPJACK biscuit (only knew of the pancake) were the only two that were unknown and had only slightly heard of BENGHAZI. Still it did take some time to get it finished across four sittings – with some well-hidden definitions and quite testing parsing to work through.
Had an unconvincing EXACTING in at 28a before the parsing and the FEMORA crossing proved it different. NAVAJO was probably the favourite. Finished in that tricky SE corner with RED ANT and LEVEL OUT the last two in.
This was not fun. Too many obscure synonyms
Rhetor & Femora? Yeah. Great.
Oh and iron = level out. Mmm. Next time I’m ironing my clothes I’ll remind myself that I’m ‘levelling them out’ !!! ?
This was not fun.
Too many obscure synonyms
Rhetor & Femora? Yeah. Great.
Oh and iron = level out. Mmm. Next time I’m ironing my clothes I’ll remind myself that I’m ‘levelling them out’ !!! ?