A pangrammatic effort from Orense.
Once I out in REDWOOD I realised that every letter of the alphabet had been used at least once, so well done, Orense.
Some excellent clues, such as 1ac and 6d.
I did have a couple of niggles (see my comments for 12ac and 30ac), but neither serious enough to ruin the experience for me.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PIGEON | Bird or creature unlikely to fly, given time (6) |
| PIG (“creature unlikely to fly”) + EON | ||
| 4 | DOG-EARED | Shabby, but had the courage to embrace Roger undressed! (3-5) |
| (r)OGE(r) in DARED | ||
| 10 | AGONY AUNT | Columnist shot in a city in front of relative (5,4) |
| GO(“shot”) in A NY + AUNT | ||
| 11 | TROLL | Fish beginning to rise in cost (5) |
| R(ise) in TOLL | ||
| 12 | MASH | Burnt residue on bottom of grim brew (4) |
| (gri)M + ASH
“Bottom of” applies better to down clues, I think. |
||
| 13 | MUSICAL BOX | Sound producer of Cats perhaps before television (7,3) |
| MUSICAL (“Cats perhaps”) + BOX (“television”) | ||
| 15 | SEVILLE | South-eastern French town or city (7) |
| S.E. + VILLE (French word for “town”) | ||
| 16 | EXTANT | Surviving Texan shot twin, dismissing victory (6) |
| *(texan) + T(win) | ||
| 19 | BROKER | Runs after cash-strapped agent (6) |
| R(“runs” in cricket) after BROKE | ||
| 21 | DROUGHT | December, except the middle, should be a dry spell (7) |
| D(ecembe)R + OUGHT | ||
| 23 | HIGH AND DRY | Stranded on a trip with no booze! (4,3,3) |
| HIGH (“on a trip”) + AND (“with”) + DRY (“no booze”) | ||
| 25 | STEM | Pastures temporarily holding stock (4) |
| Hidden in “pastureS TEMporarily” | ||
| 27 | QUARK | Particle requiring question mark? Millions lost (5) |
| QU. + (m)ARK | ||
| 28 | OVERSTATE | Make too much of condition after having finished first (9) |
| STATE after OVER | ||
| 29 | EVENTIDE | Latter part of day’s regular diet, possibly (8) |
| EVEN + *(diet) | ||
| 30 | HECKLE | Dearie me! The French are to barrack (6) |
| HECK (“dearie me!”) + LE
This clue doesn’t work for me, because of the “are” which is necessary for the surface, but is superfluous as far as the clue is concerned, and actually misleading as “the French are” could lead to ES or EST. |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PSALMIST | Songwriter’s son adopted by fortune-teller (8) |
| S in PALMIST | ||
| 2 | GLOSS OVER | Hardly mention what an undercoat may need (5,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | ONYX | Stone cross to the south of old New York (4) |
| X under O NY | ||
| 5 | OUTSIDE | Where one’s left, for example, after being dismissed? (7) |
| SIDE (“left, for example” after OUT(“dismissed”) and & lit. | ||
| 6 | EXTRACTION | Pulling out spear-carrier shortly before film director’s call (10) |
| EXTR(a) + ACTION
“Spear-carrier” is a term for a walk-on part in a play or film. |
||
| 7 | RHOMB | Greek character, doctor, in shape (5) |
| RHO + M.B. (Bachelor of Medicine) | ||
| 8 | DE LUXE | Superior light unit thrown into river (2,4) |
| LUX in DEE | ||
| 9 | SUTURE | Certain trade union’s covered medical procedure (6) |
| T.U. in SURE | ||
| 14 | FLAK JACKET | Female ass in pond – time for such protection (4,6) |
| F + JACK (“ass”) in LAKE + T | ||
| 17 | NIGHTHAWK | Strange thing to try to flog – a bird (9) |
| *(thing) + HAWK (“try to flog”) | ||
| 18 | STAMPEDE | Result of panic in the stock market? (8) |
| Cryptic definition, with stock referring to both “stocks and shares” or “livestock” | ||
| 20 | REDWOOD | Tree found in socialist golf club? (7) |
| RED + WOOD | ||
| 21 | DARNED | Blasted sailors getting in flipping late (6) |
| R.N. in <=DEAD | ||
| 22 | CHEQUE | How to pay for verification, reportedly (6) |
| Homophone of CHECK | ||
| 24 | GRAZE | Look around back of larder and eat (5) |
| GAZE around (larde)R | ||
| 26 | ISLE | One’s levy cut by half for land offshore (4) |
| 1’S + LE(vy) | ||
*anagram
Loved it … thanks, Orense. And thanks to loonapick for unravelling a couple of parsings for me.
Quite enjoyed this, though I wondered at 30ac too. Spent ages trying to think of a word ending in “est” that would fit the clue.
Thank you Orense and loonapick.
Thanks loonapick & orense. An enjoyable solve after I realised that 11ac was not BRILL!
Thanks Orense and loonapick
Quite a straightforward solve although I did miss the pangram.
I used my ‘Bruce-filter’ on the ARE in 30a and it didn’t present a problem. Do have to switch to my British brain on with the use of ‘barrack’ though – it means the exact opposite down here – to cheer on one’s team !! ‘Spear-carrier’ was a new term in this context to me – it actually took quite a while to see what was going on with the parsing in that clue. Liked DE LUXE.
Finished in the SW corner with REDWOOD (after getting it out of my head that I wasn’t looking for a tree in RED to get a golf club), QUARK (pretty easy when looking back at it) and CHEQUE (even more so)
Thanks loonapick and Orense.
Straightforward but nevertheless enjoyable.
I even spotted the Pangram!
I think the surface of 30 might have been better without “are to” altogether.