Super themed puzzle from Gozo but consumed in a bit of a rush today as I was very late getting started, a shame that I did not have time to savour this puzzle more. Thank you Gozo.
The theme today is food (F) and drink (D).
Across
1 In France, goes into theatre box for F (6) L OVAGE
VA (goes, French) into LOGE (theatre box) – salad plant
4 F’s standard design with central section (8) PARMESAN
PAR (standard) MEAN (design) with S (section) in the centre
10 Affectionate worker’s F (7) FONDANT
FOND (affectionate) ANT (worker) – type of icing
11 Emergency landing for F (7) PANCAKE
double definition
12 See 25
13 F from Goon and old fool (6,4) ECCLES CAKE
ECCLES (character in the Goon Show) CAKE (a fool, archaic)
16 Sour D – a drop of advocaat and frothy lager (6) ALEGAR
A (first letter of advocaat, just a drop) and LAGER* – vinegar
17 F for the girl’s operatic cycle (7) HERRING
HER (the girl’s) RING (Wagner opera cycle)
20 Jack and young Eleanor’s party F (7) JELLIES
J (jack) and ELLIE’S (belonging to Eleanor, diminutive of) – childrens party food
21 F one 18 has (6) ANANAS
A (one) NANA’S (relative has) – pineapple
24 Crazy persons F for crazy Frank Coles (10) CORNFLAKES
(FRANK COLES)* anagram=crazy – is a cornflake a crazy person?
25, 12 Mabel and Ian chewed F (4,4) LIMA BEAN
(MABEL IAN)* chewed=anagram
27 French husband holding can of D (7) MARTINI
MARI (husband, French) holding TIN (can)
29 Leading restaurateur is to accept books for F (7) RISOTTO
R (start of restauranteur) IS TO contains (accepts) OT (books of bible)
30 D provided by pick-up in French river (8) SAUTERNE
UTE (pick-up truck, Australian) in SARNE (French river?) – type of wine. Like the commenters I can’t find a river SARNE. It is either very obscure, we have all missed something or there is a mistake here.
31 Mix us some F (6) MOUSSE
(US SOME)* anagram=mix
Down
1 Fail to be moved by vessel (4,4) LIFE BOAT
(FAIL TO BE)* anagram=moved
2 D’s best time – every time – again revised (7,4) VINTAGE YEAR
anagram (revised) of EVERY T (time) and AGAIN
3 Irishman leaves parade for wild F (4) GEAN
paGEANt (parade) missing PAT (Irishman) – the wild cherry
5 Mortifed priest has everything copied out (8) APPALLED
P (priest) has ALL (everything) has APED (copied) outside
6 F distributed rent monies (10) MINESTRONE
(RENT MOVIES)* distributed=anagram
7 Practise cut at resort (3) SPA
SPAr (practise) cut short
8 Born and died – one’s not wanted (6) NEEDED
NEE (born) DiED missing (not) I (one) – definition is ‘wanted’
9 F for traditional farm animals (5) STOCK
double definition
14 Proclaims name during ancient USA reform (11) ANNUNCIATES
N (name) in (ANCIENT USA)* reform=anagram
15 D for dynamic fellow (4,2,4) BALL OF FIRE
double definition – lively fellow and glass of brandy
18 Reference to statement (8) RELATION
double defintion – a statement is something said, related
19 Peas and cole served as F (8) ESCALOPE
(PEAS COLE)* anagram=served as
22 Lively children affected on board (6) SCAMPS
CAMP (affected) in SS (in a steam ship = on board)
23 D for each of us on railway (5) PERRY
PER (for each of us) on RY (railway) – pear drink
26 City getting top salmon regularly (4) OSLO
tOp SaLmOn (regular selection of letters)
28 Town near Helensburgh amid some spectacular hues (3) RHU
some spectaculaR HUes – Scottish town
Thanks PeeDee
I tried to parse 30ac in the same way as you but, despite some extensive searching, I could not find any reference to a river in France by the name of SARNE. The nearest are Marne, Saone and Sarthe but these, of course, do not fit.
Of all today’s cryptics,this one was the hardest work, not helped by the fact that having got HERRING, I started off thinking that F meant fish. Thanks to Gozo for making me a happy, if hungry, solver and to PeeDee for the explanations. I couldn’t find a river SARNE either.
I must admit that I guessed at SARNE and did not look it up as it sounded so plausible. I will investigate again.
Given that F & D turned out to be two of my favourite things in life, I thought this theme would make it easy – but certainly did not, found it pretty tough.
Also spent too long on Wikipedia looking at French rivers – though there is a Sarne village in Chad apparently…
I also enjoyed this one. Very neat clueing apart from 30A.
Gozo must have assumed like most of us that there was a River Sarne in France.
Thanks to PeeDee.
There is a river Sâne in France – could an earlier version of this clue have been UTE + R in SANE?
EN = in French, R = river, AS = provided, but there aren’t enough “ups” ?