SOLVING TIME: 24 MINUTES
Apologies for the late posting. A very clever puzzle from Gozo, reminiscent of Araucaria, with some good clueing, although a couple of queries. There seems to be an ambiguity at 19 down, and at 26 down the “container indicator” seems to be be lacking.
1 BIFFIN NIFF + IB (rev) IB = Short for IBIDEM (in that place) – A biffin is a red apple.
4 APRICOT PISCATOR (anag)
9 CHERRY HERR in CY
10 TAMARIND TAMARIN + D
12 MUSCATEL CATS/MULE (ANAG)
13 quince The Mechanicals were the group of strolling players led by Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Quince was also a member.
15 SLOE Odd letters in SALMONET
16 REDCURRANT CURR(Y) inside RED ANT
19 CLEMENTINE From the old song much mangled by Huckleberry Hound.
20 DATE
23 LYCHEE Hidden answer
25 MINNEOLA Type of orange. A NON-LIME (anag)
27 RIBSTONE Type of apple. BRETON IS (ANAG)
28 COMICE Type of pear. COMIC + E
29 PINK LADY You might say a “softer version of “Woman in Red” is Pink Lady. A type of apple.
30 ORANGE or + GEAN (ANAG)
DOWN
1 BECOMES SECOMBE (ANAG)
2 FREESTONE Apart from being my old Physics Teacher, Freestone is a variety of peach.
3 INROAD IN + ROAD
5 PEAR Homophone of ‘pair’
6 HURRY Two defs – new on one me, a hurry is a type of drum-roll.
7 ONION ON + ION
8 SADDEST DAD / TESS (anag)
11 SEVENTY EVEN inside STY
14 SCANDIC SCAN + CID (rev)
17 AMAZONIAN Two defs
18 PEDESTAL PETES LAD (anag)
19 CALTRAP / CALTROP Both answers seem equally valid according to Chambers.
21 ETAGERE GATE (anag) + ERE
22 INDOOR I (one) + DONOR (anag)
24 CABIN As in Harriet Becher Stowe’s novel
25 ENID Hidden answer, but there isn’t an obvious indicator, although I could make a case for the “‘s” being the indicator.
Great stuff and thanks to Gozo
I would like to have seen this blogged.
It was an impressive piece of work.
My one quibble (assuming I have solved it correctly) was the lack of a hidden word indicator for 26D Girl’s mistaken identity
It will be up this evening. I am just on my way to retrieve the memory stick from the hospital where I’d left it!
The puzzle was splendid and I did wonder about the 26D. I assumed that the apostrophe S was the (rather weak) indicator.
I also agree with the CALTRAP/CALTROP confusion. Initially I didn’t have an answer at all and so had to resort to cheating. This narrowed it down to these two alternatives but, as you say, both appear to be valid as the, supposedly, double definitions weren’t distinct enough (i.e. the spiky weapon is named after the water chestnut and so they both have the same alternative spellings).
Justifying 17D took me a while as I was googling for AMAZONIAN ants when they are actually just called AMAZON ants.