A very nice puzzle. Traditional in style but not not old-fashioned in delivery. Thank you Leonidas.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PTERODACTYLS | Early birds in tight lycra spotted (12) |
| anagram (tight, drunk) of LYCRA SPOTTED – modern birds evolved form dinosaurs | ||
| 10 | ABRIDGE | Shorten bit of work maybe done by driller (7) |
| A BRIDGE (a bit of dental work) – a driller is a cryptic reference to a dentist | ||
| 11 | PICTURE | Imagine old Scot with an English flower (7) |
| PICT (old Scot) with URE (the River Ure, something that flows in England) | ||
| 12 | DEFER | Not all lemonade fermenting is put on ice (5) |
| found inside (not all of)lemonaDE FERmenting | ||
| 13 | DICTATOR | Castro perhaps adroit moving across court (8) |
| anagram (moving) of ADROIT contains (across) CT (court) | ||
| 15 | ABYSSINIAN | Former African who lived in the Gulf? (10) |
| an ABYSS-INIAN might be someone who lived in an abyss (gulf) | ||
| 16 | VEGA | Chill in the company of a star (4) |
| VEG (chill, relax) with (in the company of) A | ||
| 18 | AVID | Greedy duck taking egg (4) |
| AVoID (duck) missing, taking) O (an egg) | ||
| 20 | SHOESTRING | Lace small amount of dough (10) |
| double definition – dough is money | ||
| 22 | RUCKSACK | Hiker’s accessory in heap by fire (8) |
| RUCK (heap) then SACK (fire, from a job) | ||
| 24 | GLOOM | Grand Master holds game in darkness (5) |
| G (grand) M (master) contains LOO (card game, lanterloo) | ||
| 26 | SUBSUME | Incorporate transport for non-fliers returning (7) |
| EMU’S BUS (transport for non-fliers) reversed (returning) | ||
| 27 | CLARION | Trumpet band traverses South American city (7) |
| CLAN (band) contains (traverses, goes across) RIO (South American city) | ||
| 28 | SCHOPENHAUER | Philosopher School free to meet with Rutger? (12) |
| SCH (school) OPEN (free) with HAUER (Rutger Hauer perhaps, actor) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | THRIFTY | Prudent scrapping of price raised from £3.50? (7) |
| THRee fIFTY (£3.50) missing (scrapping of) FEE (price) reversed (raised) – very nice! | ||
| 3 | RED CROSS | Unwelcome mark on a paper flag (3,5) |
| double definition – a mark on an exam paper | ||
| 4, 23 | DEEP SOUTH | Pet housed around Alabama and Georgia etc. (4,5) |
| anagram (around) of PET HOUSED | ||
| 5 | CAPTIVATED | Lid drawn across container having held (10) |
| CAP (lid) TIED (drawn) contains (across) VAT (container) | ||
| 6 | YACHT | Safety ultimately caps number in German craft . . . . (5) |
| safetY (last letter, ultimately) on top pf (caps) ACHT (the number 8, in German) | ||
| 7 | SHUTTLE | . . . . ferry close to losing equilibrium initially (7) |
| SHUT (close) then first letters (initially) of To Losing Equilibrium | ||
| 8 | CARDIAC ARREST | An emergency rule Caracas tried to break (7,6) |
| anagram (to break) of R (rule) with CARACAS TRIED | ||
| 9 | REARRANGEMENT | Bring up oven before setter books alteration (13) |
| REAR (bring up) RANGE (oven) ME (the setter) and NT (New Testament, books) | ||
| 14 | ON THE CHEAP | Shifted phone each time at low cost (2,3,5) |
| anagram (shifted) of PHONE EACH T (time) | ||
| 17 | STIGMATA | Dump resident on rug area to see scars (8) |
| STIG (dump resident, Stig of the Dump chidren’s book) on MAT (rug) A (area) | ||
| 19 | INCUBUS | Tiny exposed copper statue detailed devil (7) |
| tINy (exposed, no outer letters) CU (copper) BUSt (statue, de-tailed) | ||
| 21 | IDOLISE | Worship in huge silo directed to the heavens (7) |
| found inside hugE SILO DIrected reversed (to the heavens, upwards in a down light) | ||
| 23 | See 4 | |
| 25 | SCAN | Butcher’s Special on top of container (4) |
| S (special) on CAN (container) – short for a butcher’s hook, rhyming slang for look | ||
Nice to see Leonidas again. Hasn’t done many puzzles so far but already one of my favourite FT setters. Nice anagram to kick off with. Couldn’t get SHOESTRING for the life of me and resorted to a word fit and a head slap. Thanks to Leonidas and PeeDee.
Unlike his previous 2 puzzles, there were a couple of instances in this one when I had to use Google.
Stig of the Dump was new to me, and I’d never heard of either Rutger Hauer or Arthur Schopenhauer.
I keep looking for a nina, because the style of clues here remind me of Serpent/Basilisk.
Looking forward to number 4.
Thanks to Leonidas and PeeDee.
There is a typo in the explanation of 2d: the second “T” got dropped from Three-Fifty. Otherwise quite well done.
Maybe PeeDee was being thrifty with his T’s.
Thanks to Leonidas and PeeDee. I enjoyed this puzzle but needed help with parsing. I did not get the stig in STIGMATA or the rhyming slang for SCAN and took a long time working out AVID and VEGA though I did eventually get THRIFTY and SHOESTRING, my LOI.
Thanks EdK@USA, fixed now.
Also, the early birds should be PTERODACTYLS (with an O).
Thanks Sil, fixed now.
Very enjoyable – thanks to Leonidas and PeeDee.
I must remember flower is usually a river – doh!
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee. This was rather good once I got into it. 2dn is the best clue I’ve seen for a long time.
My only gripe is with game = loo.
Well it helps if you do not decide that heap = pile = (k)nap! I had KNAPSACK for a long time and that made a nonsense of things in that corner. Once sorted, everything went in fine. Loved the idea of the ABYSSINIAN. A smooth and enjoyable offering.
Thanks to Leonidas for the afternoon entertainment and PeeDee for his explanations, which I needed for a couple today.
That was excellent — my first run through the clues yielded just two answers 14d and 28a but that was enough to set me on my way. I was happy to complete this without error or outside help but I couldn’t fully parse THRIFTY so thanks PeeDee for that. Favourites were VEGA, SUBSUME, CLARION, SCHOPENHAUER, and INCUBUS. Thanks Leonidas — would love to see more of your work.
To answer Grumpy; Loo is a card game that was invented presumably so it could used in crosswords. Does anyone play cards anymore beside Poker, Bridge and Patience (Solitaire)? Sometimes you see Gin Rummy being played in films . . great crossword btw
That was quite a toughie we thought; we certainly needed a bit of wordfinder help. But we did get THRIFTY unaided; that was one of our favourites, along with PTERODACTYLS and STIGMATA.
Thanks, Leonidas and PeeDee.
Thanks Leonidas and PeeDee
Excellent puzzle with a great variety of clues and tricky deception with some of the definitions. Got off to a good start with the clever ABYSSINIAN and the whimsically defined ABRIDGE amongst the early entries. Thought it was a pretty tough general knowledge ask to know both the German pessimist and Dutch actor down the bottom, but was able to get a head start with the SCH and OPEN bits. The children’s book at 17d was unknown as well.
Thought the great surface and anagram at 1a was one of the highlights. Finished in the SW corner with SUBSUME, CARDIAC ARREST (another good anagram) and AVOID the last few in.
Grumpy @10. I think loo is still played in the novels of Jane Austen!
I didn’t think Rutger Hauer was so tough, brucew@aus; he was in Blade Runner amongst others, and SCHOPENHAUER was pretty much a write-in for me. Not so much with SHOESTRING, and I don’t think I’d have got VEGA if you’d given me until next week. So, victory to Leonidas on this occasion, but an enjoyable defeat for me. THRIFTY was the best of many very good clues.