I found this pretty tricky and for a while thought I might not be able to finish.
The definitions Aardvark chooses are often quite loose. By this I do not mean unfair, just that they are not simple synonyms and require some thought to see how they work. This makes the puzzle hard as there are no ‘easy wins’. I contrast this to the Rosa Klebb of two Wednesdays ago which had very straightforward definitions and the grid could be filled by treating it as a concise crossword and more or less ignoring the cryptic elements.
The second difficulty was the grid itself. The four corners only intersected with the centre of the puzzle by a single letter. This meant that it was difficult to maintain any momentum as helpful crossing letters dried up once a region of the grid was completed.
The puzzle is also a pangram, containing every letter of the alphabet. Thanks Aardvark for a good metal workout.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WILLOW | Boy nurses poorly bat (6) |
| WOW (boy, exclamation) contains (nurses) ILL (poorly) – a cricket bat | ||
| 4 | TRESPASS | Wrong lock used to secure health centre (8) |
| TRESS (lock, of hair) contains (used to secure) SPA (health centre) | ||
| 9 | RAGBAG | Newspaper gossip read over salad (6) |
| RAG (newspaper) GAB (gossip) reversed (over) – a salad is a diverse and confused mixture | ||
| 10 | TROMBONE | One’s blown millions pursuing stardom, regularly revealing part of body (8) |
| M (millions) following (persuing) sTaRdOm (regularly revealing, alternate letters of) BONE (part of body) – a trombone is something blown. | ||
| 12 | SEMILLON | When retiring, not one left fruit wine (8) |
| NO (not one) L (left) LIMES (fruit) all reversed (when retiring) – a type of grape and wine. I’m not convinced that ‘no’ is the same as ‘not one’. | ||
| 13 | SHRIMP | School member who gets bullied? (6) |
| cryptic definition – a school of fish | ||
| 15 | OINK | What farmer hears coming from radio in kitchen? (4) |
| found in radiO IN Kitchen – noise of a pig | ||
| 16 | LEGHORN | Cricket side that’s played in headwear (7) |
| LEG (cricket side) HORN (something played) – a straw hat | ||
| 20 | VAN GOGH | Head off excited into Norwich’s outskirts after seeing museum’s artist (3,4) |
| aGOG (excited, missing head) in NorwicH (outskirts of) following V and A (Victoria and Albert Museum) | ||
| 21 | JEEP | Scoff endlessly before parking vehicle (4) |
| JEEr (scoff, endless) before P (parking) | ||
| 25 | ELEVEN | Football team originally called back, as foreign brass introduced (6) |
| NEE (originally called) reversed (back) including (as introduced) LEV (money, brass, of Bulgaria) | ||
| 26 | MISSOURI | River’s island seen on the turn into motorway (8) |
| IS (island) with SOUR (on the turn) in MI (M1 motorway) – definition is ‘river’. I can’t see how ‘seen’ fits in. | ||
| 28 | RATTIGAN | Dramatist’s giant novel available at back of shop (8) |
| GIANT* anagram=novel following (available at back of) RAT (shop) – Terrence Rattigan | ||
| 29 | SAVANT | Used to model clothes against an academic (6) |
| SAT (used to model) contains (clothes) V (against) AN – definition is ‘academic’ | ||
| 30 | TITANESS | Phoebe, say, crossing over street,inhales French cigarettes untipped? (8) |
| ST (street) reversed (crossing over, swapped) contains (inhales) gITANES (French cigarettes) missing first letter (untipped). Phoebe was one of the Titans in Greek Mythology. | ||
| 31 | ETCHER | One sharply scores three after moving around clubs (6) |
| THREE* anagarm=moving contains (around) C=clubs | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | WORKSHOP | Photographer latterly inside pans dance studio (8) |
| photographeR (last letter of) inside WOKS (pans) then HOP (dance) – definition is ‘studio’ | ||
| 2 | LIGAMENT | Joiner’s brave wearing bandage (8) |
| GAME (brave) in (wearing) LINT (bandage) – ligament joins bones | ||
| 3 | ORACLE | Adviser’s contributing line to ancient poet failing to start (6) |
| L (line) in (contributing to) hORACE (anciant poet) missing first letter | ||
| 5 | RARE | Underdone cheese dish not chewed (4) |
| RAREbit (cheese dish) missing bit (chewed). Is chew really the same as bite? | ||
| 6 | SAMPHIRE | Maritime plant providing booster in county (8) |
| AMP (amplifier, booster) in SHIRE (county) – a coastal plant | ||
| 7 | ADONIS | Beauty queen avoids kebab when among high-class society (6) |
| DONer (kebab) missing ER=queen in (when among) AI (high class) S (society) – definition is ‘beauty’ | ||
| 8 | SLEEPY | Dwarf plant getting shelter inside (6) |
| SPY (plant) containing LEE (shelter) – one of the Seven Dwarfs | ||
| 11 | LOZENGE | Religious school fills in register with electronic tablet (7) |
| ZEN (religious school) inside (fills in) LOG (register) with E (electronic) – definition is ‘tablet’ | ||
| 14 | CHAGRIN | Not middling grubber delivered into cricket wicket causes irritation? (7) |
| GrubbeR (middle missing) in (delivered into) CHAIN (length of a cricket wicket) | ||
| 17 | JAMESIAN | Crowd gathering in east mostly like a certain US writer (8) |
| JAM (crowd) then anagram (gathering) of IN EASt (mostly) – in the manner of Henry James | ||
| 18 | BEQUEATH | Will from church avoids payment, as vessel goes round (8) |
| chEQUE (payment) missing CH=church in (as … goes round) BATH (vessel) – definition is ‘will’ | ||
| 19 | SPRINTER | Athlete they copy, moving second to first (8) |
| PRINTERS (they copy) moving S (second) to the front (first) | ||
| 22 | FERRET | Clergyman joins walkers in search (6) |
| RR (clergyman) inside (joins) FEET (walkers) – definition is ‘search’ | ||
| 23 | SEXTET | Musicians start to study scale (not new) (6) |
| S (first letter of study) EXTEnT (scale) missing N=new | ||
| 24 | ASLANT | Leaning six-footer circumvents lowest of ceilings, note (6) |
| ANT (six-footer) contains (circumvents) ceilingS (lowest, last letter of) LA (note, music) | ||
| 27 | PASS | Approve assistant bodyguard (4) |
| PA (assistant) SS (Nazi bodygiuard) – definition is ‘approve’ | ||
*anagram
Pretty tricky indeed PeeDee. The slightly off the wall definitions gave the brain a good workout. But Aardvark never killed anyone…..
(Too late for retribution, I’ve already left the building.)
Felt a real sense of achievement getting all the way through this – though some of the wordplay was not clear till I reviewed it later! The pangram even steered me to the “J” in 17d which had initially eluded me.
Thanks PeeDee and Aardvark
@conrad lol!
The most difficult of all today’s cryptics – took me ages to get going and then a long time before I progressed any further than the SE corner.
Thanks to Aardvark for making me work really hard (and because I do love a crossword where OINK is fitted in somewhere) and to PeeDee for the explanations.
For me this was a complete stinker, and I don’t mind conceding victory to Aardvark with a third of it uncompleted — I just don’t have time to finish. But what a terrific ‘metal workout’ as Pee Dee calls it. Heavy metal indeed. Many thanks to both of you.
Ye gods ! Solved 5d,10a, 15a and 19d and that was it. Disappointed at the time but now that I see the answers , not too downcast. Way, way out of my league.