I enjoyed this, varied and interesting – Aardvark rarely disappoints. A good level of difficulty too. Thank you Aardvark.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CASTLES IN THE AIR | Unrealistic hopes of seeing rooks flying? (7,2,3,3) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 9 | PACKAGE | Whole canine statue carried by attendant (7) |
| C (canine, abbrev) KA (Egyptian statue) in (carried by) PAGE (attendant) – definition is ‘whole’ | ||
| 10 | CALCIUM | Scotsman circles islands finding metal (7) |
| CALUM (Scotsman) going round (circling) CI (Channel Islands) | ||
| 11 | BLISS | French wine, having tea out, close to religious ecstasy (5) |
| chaBLIS (French wine) missing CHA=tea with religiouS (closing letter of) | ||
| 12 | LANZAROTE | Old tenor composed, taking week off somewhere in Canaries (9) |
| Mario LANZA (old tenor) wROTE (composed) missing W=week – one of the Canary Islands | ||
| 13 | LANGOUSTE | Swimmer got us exercising in channel (9) |
| (GOT US)* anagram=excercising in LANE (channel) – the rock lobster | ||
| 15 | ABYSS | Idiot traverses near depths of sea (5) |
| ASS goes across (traverses) BY (near) | ||
| 16 | TOADY | Now, daughter’s advancing to crawl (5) |
| TODAY (now) with D (daughter) moving one letter forwards (advancing) | ||
| 18 | TITO GOBBI | Italian singer produces note, very soft one, fronted by African people (4,5) |
| TOGO (African nation, people) in front if TI (note) BB (very soft, pencil lead) I (one) – Italian baritone 1913 – 1984 | ||
| 20 | BORN LOSER | Reject the Netherlands map during drill (4,5) |
| NL (Netherlands) OS (map, Ordnance Survey) in (during) BORER (drill) – definition is ‘reject’. I’m not convinced OS=map, a type of map yes, but not a map itself. | ||
| 23 | NONET | Retrospective part of joint musical piece (5) |
| TENON (part of mortice and tenon joint) reversed (retrospective) – a nine-part piece of music | ||
| 24 | ON LEAVE | Excused from work, operating educational chiefs have half (2,5) |
| ON (operating) LEA (Local Educational Authority) haVE (half of) | ||
| 25 | SKI MASK | Brush and pump – equipment needed in Cortina? (3,4) |
| SKIM (brush) ASK (pump, question) – Cortina is a ski resort in Italy | ||
| 26 | NEW YORK MARATHON | Anthony and Mark wore pants for race around boroughs (3,4,8) |
| anagram (pants) of ANTHONY and MARK WORE | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CAPABILITY BROWN | Gardener’s headwear means forehead ultimately unseen (10,5) |
| CAP (headwear) ABILITY (means) BROWN (forrehead) unseeN (ultimate letter of) - Lancelot Brown, English landscape architect 1716-1783 | ||
| 2 | SECTION | Notices rotten branch (7) |
| NOTICES* rotten=anagram | ||
| 3 | LEAD STORY | Article influences rightwinger (4,5) |
| LEADS (influences) TORY (rightwinger) | ||
| 4 | SWELL | Balloon’s brilliant in America (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 5 | NO CONTEST | Criminal in Totnes changed plea (2,7) |
| CON (criminal) in TOTNES* (changed=anagram) – in US courts a plea neither admitting guilt nor denying the charges | ||
| 6 | HILDA | Woman regularly thrilled by Austria (5) |
| tHrIlLeD (regularly) A (Austria, IVR plate) | ||
| 7 | ALIMONY | Rolls Royce punctured – some support from spouse needed (7) |
| LIMO (RR for example) in (puncturing) ANY (some) | ||
| 8 | RUMPELSTILTSKIN | Fairy tale character remains on the Spanish circus apparatus with family (15) |
| RUMP (remains) EL (the, Spanish) STILTS (circus apparatus) KIN (family) | ||
| 14 | SO TO SPEAK | Pesto mixture left in marinade, as it were (2,2,5) |
| PESTO* (mixture=anagram) inside (left in) SOAK (marinade) | ||
| 15 | ARGENTINA | Country fellow in harbour first to leave (9) |
| GENT (fellow) in mARINA (harbour) first letter missing | ||
| 17 | AIRFLOW | Fan provides such voice alongside footballer initially down (7) |
| AIR (voice) Footballer (first letter of) LOW (down) – provided by a ceiling fan for example | ||
| 19 | BENEATH | Under order to keep tidy hospital (7) |
| BE NEAT (order to keep tidy) H (hospital) – definition is ‘under’ | ||
| 21 | LLANO | Allison is missing, touring South American plain (5) |
| ALLisON missing IS – Los Llanos is an area of plains in South America | ||
| 22 | RASTA | Disciple backing an emperor (5) |
| A TSAR (an emporer) reversed (backing) – a Rastafarian, a disciple of Haile Selassie | ||
*anagram
I had TODAY as the answer for 16A which prevented me getting 17D.
Reviewing the clue still leads me to the same answer. Should it not be receding rather than advancing in the clue?
Minor typo. In 20A, drill should be borer rather then just bore
Thanks AID, typo fixed. I thought of advancing (going forwards) in the sense of ‘moving towards the end’ or else you could have ‘in the direction of the writing’.
I think advancing in the sense of ‘moving higher up’ would really need to be used in a down clue.
The intro says it all – thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee.
Not sure I have ever seen Rumpelstiltskin many times before in 40+ years of cryptic solving and here it is for the second time this week.
AID@1 – further to my last comment, now I think about it to advance could equally be ‘move to the front’ or ‘move to the end’ depending on how you look at it. No upwards metaphor necessary.
Super. Always nice to work a puzzle out largely from the excellence of the wordplay. Thanks for the blog.
Thanks to Aardvark and to everyone else. Great entertainment.