A relatively gentle puzzle today. Thank you Aardvark.
This looked like it was heading for a double pangram, but that did not materialise – Z is missing once, J twice.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PRAISE |
Hail showers not new during exercise (6)
|
| RAInS (showers) missing N (new) inside (during) PE (Physical Exercise) | ||
| 4 | OFF-PISTE |
Carrying two matching keys, postie wavered outside the box (3-5)
|
| F F (two matching keys, F majors perhaps?) inside (carrying…is…) anagram (wavered) of POSTIE | ||
| 9 | ROUBLE |
Don’t start to bother with foreign currency (6)
|
| tROUBLE (to bother) missing first letter (don’t start it) | ||
| 10 | CREOSOTE |
Criminal to score Ecstasy, covering for fence (8)
|
| anagram (criminal) of TO SCORE and E (ecstasy) | ||
| 11 | DURBAN |
Headwear daughter preferred over time, somewhere in Africa (6)
|
| tURBAN (headwear) with D (daughter) replacing (preferred over) T (time) | ||
| 12 | MORPHINE |
Second run by husband in wood needing painkiller (8)
|
| MO (moment, second) R (run) then H (husband) inside PINE (wood) | ||
| 13 | RAW |
Soldier and wife like carpaccio? (3)
|
| RA (Royal Artilleryman, soldier) and W (wife) | ||
| 14 | SHUT UP |
Mum finding slug around shed (4,2)
|
| SUP (slug, to drink) containing (around) HUT (shed) | ||
| 17 | BOUQUET |
Nose that Parisian caught in fight (7)
|
| QUE (that in French, Parisian) inside (caught in) BOUT (fight) | ||
| 21 | GRATER |
Culinary device right behind jar (6)
|
| R (right) following (behind) GRATE (jar) | ||
| 25 | VIZ |
Verb is described in other words (3)
|
| V (verb) IZ sounds like (when described, verbally) “is”- viz means namely, in other words | ||
| 26 | COUSCOUS |
Liverpudlian, contracted to put on company uniform, steamed wheat (8)
|
| SCOUSe (Liverpudlian, contracted) following (connected to, to put on) CO (company) U (uniform) | ||
| 27 | UMLAUT |
One changes pronunciation in spiritual music retrospective (6)
|
| found inside spiriTUAL MUsic reversed (retrospective) | ||
| 28 | MAVERICK |
State probes motorway, with check at borders to find rebel (8)
|
| AVER (state) inside (probes) MI (M1, a motorway in England) then outer letters (at borders) of ChecK | ||
| 29 | POETIC |
Moments occasionally in film expressed figuratively (6)
|
| every other letter (occasionally) of mOmEnTs inside PIC (film) | ||
| 30 | YIELDING |
After year one, uninitiated male horse’s compliant (8)
|
| Y (year) I (one) then gELDING (male horse) missing first letter (uninitiated, not started) | ||
| 31 | WEASEL |
Shark wanted, in essence, owed cash – help! (6)
|
| middle letters (in essence) of oWEd cASh hELp | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PARADISE |
Eden Project’s initial publicity seen in spring (8)
|
| first letter (initial) of Project then AD (publicity) inside ARISE (spring) | ||
| 2 | AQUARIUS |
Blue Toyota scratching parking sign (8)
|
| AQUA (blue) then pRIUS (a model of Toyota car) missing (scratching) P (parking) | ||
| 3 | SYLLABUB |
Cream dish British friend brought up, covered by sandwich (8)
|
| B (British) ALLY (friend) all reversed (brought up) all inside (covered by) SUB (sandwich, named after the long submarine-shaped bread roll) | ||
| 5 | FURROW |
Hair disturbance – a feature of grandad’s head? (6)
|
| FUR (hair) and ROW (disturbance) – a large deep wrinkle, on grandads head perhaps | ||
| 6 | PROMPT |
Social training jog (6)
|
| PROM (social, an event) then PT (physical training) | ||
| 7 | SHOO-IN |
Mum loves wearing a certain thing (4-2)
|
| SH (mum, quiet) O O (love, zero score, twice) and IN (wearing) | ||
| 8 | EXETER |
Drug injected into breed of cattle heading off somewhere in Devon (6)
|
| E (ecstasy, drug) inside (injected into) dEXTER (breed of cattle) missing first letter (heading off) | ||
| 12 | MARQUIS |
Aristocrat to drive up with half-cut collaborator (7)
|
| RAM (to drive) reversed (up) then QUISling (half cut) | ||
| 15 | POX |
Italian runner cross, getting ailment (3)
|
| PO (the river Po, something that runs in Italy) and X (cross) | ||
| 16 | KEG |
King’s Head, say, where this vessel is seen? (3)
|
| first letter (head) of King then EG (for example, say) – Kings Head is a common name for a pub | ||
| 18 | TROMBONE |
Music player misinterpreted note, admitting memory blank at intro (8)
|
| anagram (misinterpreted) of NOTE containing (admitting) ROM (computer memory) and first letter (at intro) of Blank | ||
| 19 | ATLANTIS |
Mythical island’s last building houses opponent (8)
|
| anagram (building) of LAST contains (houses) ANTI (opponent) | ||
| 20 | PROTOCOL |
Expert with file perhaps hosting carbon convention (8)
|
| PRO (expert) with TOOL (file perhaps) containing (hosting) C (carbon) | ||
| 22 | SCUMMY |
Dirty film, mainly vacuous (6)
|
| SCUM (film) then MainlY missing middle letters (vacuous, empty) | ||
| 23 | LUVVIE |
Thespian’s posh verses found in fiction (6)
|
| U (posh) V V (verse, twice) inside LIE (fiction) | ||
| 24 | SCORED |
Found the net small, getting fish around banks of Ribble (6)
|
| S (small) with COD (fish) containing (around) outer letters (banks, like a river) of RibblE | ||
| 25 | VULCAN |
Bull’s eye by Charlie in lead bomber (6)
|
| middle letters (eye, the centre, as of a hurricane) of bULl and C (Charlie, phonetic alphabet) inside VAN (the lead) – former delta-wing bomber |
Joy! First time I’ve completed an Aardvark without cheating. Knowing this setter’s penchant for double letters helped me across the line…that and the fruitless pursuit of a pangram.
This was a real pleasure to solve with so many neat surfaces and high-scoring scrabble letters. Really hard to pick a favourite but I’ll nominate 2d for the sneaky ‘parking sign’, 26a and 27a (devilishly well hidden).
Not sure if there’s any particular significance or pattern in the double and, sometimes treble, letters but it was great fun to do regardless.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee (especially for parsing VULCAN).
Ah, PeeDee, I had VIZ (homophone from described) so thought it was a lipogram?
I had VIZ too so not a good day fo me.(so much for Top Tips)
Well spotted Diane, I have a mistake on 25ac. It should be VIZ. I will update the blog ASAP.
Came to a grinding halt after getting fewer than half out, so abandoned ship. I’ve conquered Aardvark’s previously, but mustn’t have been on the right wavelength today.
Thanks for the blog, do not like the grid , essentially four separate corners apart from the middle Q. I did like the clues though, a lot of clever ideas today, agree with Diane about the missing P in AQUARIUS.
I am never bothered about things like pangrams but since it has been mentioned surely it would be easy to change RAW to JAW.
Hey, Geoff, you’re really letting we Aussies down by conceding defeat (insert smiley emoji here). I couldn’t really parse or explain every clue but I did manage to get it all correct: even 25A which I still don’t really understand. I also don’t understand why a “weasel” is a “shark” in 31A.
Re 4A – it’s been a long time since I skied on snow but doesn’t “off-piste” have a particular meaning to untravelled snow? It doesn’t mean “outside the box”. In fact “outside the box” is a modern misinterpretation of “outside the nine dots”?
Not so gentle for me and I especially found the crossing VULCAN and VIZ hard to crack. Like Peter @7, I don’t see a (human) SHARK being the same as a WEASEL but I suppose they’re close enough in the sense of being contemptible. Similarly, OFF-PISTE went in with a shrug.
Favourite was the surface for AQUARIUS.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee
Peter & WordPlodder – that is interesting, over the years I have seen many people make similar comments on figurative meanings not having the same weight as literal meanings. A weasel is certainly not a shark.
My personal take on such is that this cryptic crossword is word puzzle, not a zoology puzzle. What is present in the clue is the word “weasel” and the word “shark”, not an actual shark or a weasel. The words are not constrained to the physical limits that animals are.
Unlike a physical weasel the word “weasel” can adopt many shapes and forms, it can represent multiple entities both concrete and abstract. It can represent more than one thing at the same time, it can even have contradictory concurrent meanings (think of how a pun works).
Peter@7 – I have come across ‘off-piste’ & ‘outside the box’ used in business jargon for something that is outside of the normal parameters or practices, so in that context they are used synonymously.
Thanks to blogger & setter.
Thanks Aardvark for many clever clues with my top marks going to MAVERICK, AQUARIUS, TROMBONE, ATLANTIS, and SCORED. It was not the easiest crossword but the multitude of readable surfaces made it a joyful one for me. I missed VIZ so thanks PeeDee for the help.
I enjoyed this one and all solved correctly without too much fuss.
I agree 25D Bull’s eye is UL but “eye” suggests one letter to me, not two. I can see eye meaning centre though, like eye of storm.
Esp. liked Couscous and Aquarius.
Worst I’ve done in a month a while
And my council estate upbringing always thought it was a shoe-in
I believe there is a family of weasel sharks, Hemigaleidae, which may help explain 31A. Fun puzzle.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee.