As you probably discovered, having so many unchecked letters at the start of words makes a crossword a bit harder to start with, but the ‘unchecked’ first letters were really checked after all as the rubric explained, since they spelt out part of a bonus message.
The hidden message, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO IST CROSSWORD, refers to the crossword by Arthur Wynne published on 21 December 1913. It is a bonus in the sense that it is not strictly needed to finish the puzzle. In an ordinary daily cryptic, the solver might be left to notice it without any rubric to hint at its existence, in which case it would be a ‘Nina’, in the slightly mystifying crossword jargon.
Across
8 Children’s clothes are often old-fashioned — complaint heard (8)
OUTGROWN
OUT = ‘old fashioned’, after which a groan or ‘complaint’ is heard (if you listen to ‘grown’, that’s what it sounds like). And of course, children’s clothes are often OUTGROWN.
9 A beauty tailed on English street (6)
AVENUE
A is A, ‘beauty tailed’ = VENU(s), (that is, having had the tail or last letter removed), and E = English: A VENU E = ‘street’.
10 Burden servant bears, being less mentally quick (6)
DENSER
‘burDEN SERvant’ does indeed ‘bear’ this word.
12 Spouse formerly seduced, with no initial time spared (8)
EXEMPTED
One’s ‘spouse formerly’ is one’s EX, and ‘seduced’ is TEMPTED, with, as we are told, no initial T (‘time’) – hence EMPTED. EXEMPTED = ‘spared’.
13 Gentleman’s valet finally released from prison (3)
SIR
‘Valet finally’, namely T (the last letter of ‘valet’), is released from STIR or prison, giving this gentleman.
14 Wind up eating very soft type of ice cream (6)
RIPPLE
To wind someone up is to RILE them, and this word ‘eats’ (contains) PP (very soft, in music), giving a type of ice cream.
16 Woolly cow (8)
GUERNSEY
A double definition – a GUERNSEY is a breed of cow and a woollen jersey, both named after the Channel Island. (JERSEY has both meanings too of course, but it has the wrong number of letters!)
17 They flew in the early days with authority (7)
WRIGHTS
The WRIGHTS, namely Orville and Wilbur, were early pioneers of flight (‘flew in the early days’). W = ‘with’ and RIGHTS constitute authority.
20 Poem written after sappers’ defeat (7)
REVERSE
RE, the Royal Engineers (every setter’s favourite regiment, remember) are also known as the ‘sappers’; and VERSE is here written after them, giving REVERSE or ‘defeat’.
23 Cuts of beef cooked in rissole? Not quite (8)
SIRLOINS
This nice clue probably put you in mind of cheaper cut than SIRLOINS (who would cook those in a rissole?). But we are asked to take ‘not quite’ all of IN RISSOLE and then ‘cook’ or anagram it: (IN RISSOL)* = SIRLOINS.
24 She’s looking after baby but there’s nothing to it (6)
SITTER
Double definition – a baby SITTER, who may be female, looks after a baby, and a SITTER is also a ‘sitting duck’ or easy target (‘there’s nothing to it’).
26 Part of balletic movement that’s involuntary (3)
TIC
This involuntary movement is part of ‘balleTIC’.
27 Third Reich symbol was obscured by task I bungled (8)
SWASTIKA
WAS is obscured, i.e. covered up (included), by a ‘bungled’ or anagrammed form of TASK I.
28 Wally pocketing conventional benefits (6)
ASSETS
A wally or ASS ‘pockets’ (includes) SET (‘conventional’), yielding ASSETS or benefits.
31 Uncouth cry of startled angler! (6)
OAFISH
Favourite clue of the puzzle. “O! A fish!”
32 Joining you for broadcast, I get a rapturous feeling (8)
EUPHORIA
EU PHOR, if ‘broadcast’ (on the radio say), would be indistinguistable from YOU FOR. Then I get A: EU PHOR I A, or ‘rapturous feeling’.
Down
1 Not wearing clothes and undies on a regular basis (4)
NUDE
Read AND UNDIES ‘on a regular basis’, namely every other letter: aNd UnDiEs = NUDE (‘not wearing clothes’).
2 Two Germans in Home Counties served up farm produce (4)
EGGS
If G is German then GG is two Germans. They are in the Home Counties or south-east (SE) served ‘up’ – namely backwards, as this is a down clue: E(GG)S = ‘farm produce.’
3 Rough sounding area in bay, perhaps (6)
HOARSE
HOARSE or ‘rough-sounding’ = A (area) in HORSE – and a horse might perhaps be a ‘bay’, namely a chestnut-coloured horse.
4 Junior to stab bear (7)
UNDERGO
If x is ‘Junior to’ y then x is UNDER y; a ‘stab’ is a GO (‘Give it a stab’); and to UNDERGO something is to ‘bear’ it. This nice clue is very short, simple even, and yet completely misdirecting.
5 With which you barely see? (5,3)
NAKED EYE
In this ‘cryptic definition’, instead of a definition and wordplay, the clue has a definition only, but one that does not mean what it appears at first sight. You ‘barely see’ with the NAKED EYE not because you can hardly see but because if it is NAKED then it is ‘bare’. (Some setters over-use this clue type, or set poor examples which are not really very cryptic at all, but Nutmeg is not among them.)
6 Wretched vagrant depends on handout, ultimately (10)
DESPONDENT
‘Vagrant’ (wandering, or anagram) DEPENDS ON, plus T (the ‘ultimate’ letter of ‘handout’), gives this word meaning ‘wretched’.
7 Entering study, regrets son’s lack of culture (8)
RUDENESS
DEN is in RUES (‘regrets’) S (‘son’) – giving RUDENESS (‘lack of culture’). Isn’t the wrong word inside, you ask? Well, if you read the clue carefully, this reading is also possible. You, the solver, must write RUES S, but not forgetting to ‘enter’ or insert DEN.
11 Drop off pile (3)
NAP
A double definition – to drop off (to sleep), and the pile on a carpet.
14 Make progress shedding G-string (3)
ROW
To make progress is to GROW; shedding the G, we get ROW or ‘string’.
15 Dog, one I caught biting heel like boxer (10)
PUGILISTIC
PUG (dog) I (one) I C (caught, in cricket), biting (containing) LIST – something a ship might do meaning to ‘heel’ or tilt. So we have PUG I LIST I C, ‘like boxer’. A neat clue because a ‘boxer’ is also a type of dog, but I hope that didn’t lead you astray long.
18 Artist at home put on repellent clothing (8)
RAINWEAR
An RA (Royal Academy) is an artist; IN = at home; to ‘put on’ is to WEAR, giving RAINWEAR, (water-) repellent clothing.
19 Woman I left during tense period at end of day (8)
TWILIGHT
W (woman) I L (left) is ‘during’, i.e. in the middle of, TIGHT or tense, giving a period at the end of day.
21 Almost deserve appreciation (3)
EAR
EAR (appreciation, as in to ‘give ear’) is almost EARN (deserve).
22 Properties, say, in Home Counties going up (7)
ESTATES
STATE (‘say’) in SE going up, a device we’ve already seen in 2 down – just a little lazy of Nutmeg to use it twice.
24 Scotsman’s returning with very good seafood (6)
SCAMPI
MAC, of course, is a Scotsman; so MAC’S returning = SCAM, and PI, or pious, is ‘very good’, giving SCAMPI, seafood.
25 Bond runs out of bank (3)
TIE
R (‘runs’, in cricket) has been taken out of a TIER or bank, giving this bond.
29 Quiet ducks go away (4)
SHOO
SH! (‘Quiet!’) O, conventionally representing zero, is a duck (yet another cricket reference), so OO = ducks.
30 Shoot US soldier with temperature rising (4)
TWIG
A shoot is a TWIG. We have an American soldier or GI, W = with, and T = temperature: GI W T, all ‘rising’ (reading backwards).
Fine blog, Writinghawk, thank you (you had a late night, I see).
And an interesting idea from Nutmeg. If you really are in the ‘beginner’ rather than ‘in a hurry’ category then perhaps you wouldn’t have seen one of these perimeter messages before, so a neat idea to flag it up to the solver in the special instructions. It did however confuse me slightly, because seeing what it was and having ST before CROSSWORD, I was trying to shoehorn FIRST in. Just solving the crossword would have been a better strategy.
I too liked OAFISH. For SITTER, I was thinking of the football definition as in ‘he missed a sitter’: an easy goal to score, so ‘nothing to it’. It worked for me, anyway.
Glad you like! Once the morning arrives life is too busy …
Re ‘sitter’, yes for sure, but why is a ‘sitter’ an easy goal to score? I’ve always understood it also to be a metaphor from ‘sitting duck’.
Telling solvers to look for a message is not so unusual of course – think of those brain-scratching weekend barred grids – but I agree, it was considerate to point it out here.
Thanks WH and N – enjoyed this.
Announcing the Nina was a nice touch I thought. So often they go to waste. Even then I forgot until the end so wasn’t able to have it help with checkers even though this was a fairly guessable one.
Lovely crossword; could have been a ‘regular’ with some more deviousness.
Thanks Writinghawk; some great clues. I particularly liked PUGILISTIC and DESPONDENT.
Yes, this was an enjoyable solve. I either didn’t know or had forgotten that a “guernsey” is a type of sweater but the answer was clear enough. I saw what the message around the edge was going to be fairly quickly, which made it a faster solve than it might otherwise have been. DESPONDENT was my LOI.
Thanks WH quite a nice puzzle Nina making it much more easy than it would have been, not convinced the instructions needed to be quite so explicit though. Was surprised to see the blog posted so early.
Well, Flashling, without the indicated nina it would have taken me a lot more time to solve the puzzle.
I actually didn’t find it that easy at all.
Nice puzzle, of course, but a Quiptic?
[BTW: I sometimes ask myself ‘what is a quiptic’?]
Today’s Rufus I finished in, say, a third of the time.
A pity of the double use of SE (‘Home Counties’), and of W for ‘with’ too.
Should have been avoided.
Still, a good crossword.
Many thanks to WH & NM.
Good Quiptic? That’ll be why I gave up with only half of it done!
First quiptic attempted. Harder than Rufus in my opinion.