Good stuff from Aardvark. Everything is there but well enough hidden to make it an enjoyable challenge. Thanks Aardvark.
I expected this to be a pangram but the letter H is missing (unless I have made a mistake of course).
| Across | ||
| 1 | LAMBADA |
Quick steps Marathon character’s taken over major road (7)
LAMBDA (Greek character, in Marathon for example) containing (having taken over) A (major road classification) |
| 5 | CASTLE |
Throw out exterior of lettuce for rook (6)
CAST (throw out) LettucE (exterior letters of) |
| 8 | MUSSOLINI |
Italian and American taking Spanish sun in brief clothing (9)
US with SOL (sun, Spanish) inside (in…clothing) MINI (brief) |
| 9 | BANJO |
Music maker’s an occupation bachelor put first (5)
AN JOB (occupation) with B (bachelor) oved to teh front (put first) |
| 11 | NAAFI |
Eatery’s providing motorists with nosh initially westbound (5)
IF (providing) AA (Automobile Association, motorists) with Nosh (initial letter of) all reversed (going westbound, right to left on a map) – army catering services |
| 12 | ROAST BEEF |
Food when in decline leads to bellyache (5,4)
AS (when) in ROT (decline) with (leads to) BEEF (bellyache) |
| 13 | QUATRAIN |
On courtyard, briefly teach part of poem (8)
QUAd (courtyard, briefly) TRAIN (teach) |
| 15 | UNISON |
Concert leader leaves African capital before performing (6)
tUNIS (African capital) missing first letter (leader leaves) then ON (performing) |
| 17 | EERILY |
Rage about having to enter cathedral in a peculiar way (6)
IRE (rage) reversed (about) inside (having to enter) ELY (a cathedral) |
| 19 | ALVEOLUS |
Breathing apparatus split in ‘alf? Poor soul (8)
hALVE (split in ‘alf) with SOUL* anagram=poor – part of the lung |
| 22 | ZEITGEIST |
Relish drinking vermouth, as Sergei gets 50% off spirit (9)
ZEST (relish) contains (drinking) IT (Italian vermouth) with serGEI (getting 50% off) |
| 23 | SALVO |
Remedy needed? Change rearmost battery (5)
SALVe (remedy) with rearmost letter changed |
| 24 | ROBOT |
Machine that starts bleeping oddly going through rubbish (5)
Bleeping Oddly (starting letters of) inside (going through) ROT (rubbish) |
| 25 | ANNE FRANK |
Geordie’s attracted by an honest journalist (4,5)
NE (Geordie, from the North East of England) with (attracted by) AN then FRANK (honest) – who wrote a journal |
| 26 | TWISTY |
Charlie circles second unknown roundabout (6)
TWIT (Charlie, idiot) contains (circles) S (second) then Y (an unknown, maths) |
| 27 | MEANDER |
Waffle base burning needs to turn (7)
MEAN (base) then RED (burning) reversed (needs to turn) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | LEMON SQUEEZER |
Ron and Mel excitedly describe partner’s kitchenware (5,8)
anagram (excitedly) of RON and MEL contain (describe, go round) SQUEEZE (partner) |
| 2 | MASCARA |
Cosmetic centre in Tasmania used by Australian with lesion (7)
tasMAnia (centre of) with (used by) A (Australian) with SCAR (lesion) |
| 3 | AIOLI |
Latino regularly joined the Italian serving up garlic dish (5)
lAtInO (regular selection from) with IL (the, Italian) reversed (serving up) |
| 4 | ACID RAIN |
Current section of pipework contains one pollutant (4,4)
AC (current selection, opposed to DC) with DRAIN (pipework) contains I (one) |
| 5 | CLIMAX |
110 enveloping South American city for summit (6)
CX (110, Roman numerals) containing LIMA (SOuth American city) |
| 6 | SUBSTANCE |
More footballers flog extremely choice property (9)
SUBS (more footballers) TAN (flog) then ChoicE (exreme letters of) |
| 7 | LANCERS |
Scandinavian man perhaps obtains new engineer for military unit (7)
LARS (Scandinavian man perhaps) contains (obtains) N (new) CE (Chartered Engineer) |
| 10 | OFF ONES ROCKER |
Frenzied music fan pursues discontinued singles (3,4,6)
ROCKER (music fan) follows (pursues) OFF (discontinued) ONES (singles) |
| 14 | RELEGATES |
Supporter during Easter strangely moves to lower division (9)
LEG (supporter) inside (during) EASTER* anagram=strangely |
| 16 | PLATINUM |
Silvery-white marks one mountain reflected (8)
M (marks) UNIT (one) ALP (mountain) all reversed (reflected) |
| 18 | RAINBOW |
Restrain fashionable chap, ordering an array of colours (7)
sounds like (ordering?) “rein beau” (restrain fashionable chap) – I think ‘ordering’ indicates ‘spoken out loud’, as when placing an order, but I am not sure about this. It seems to me that one could place an order in all manner of ways, there is nothing intrinsically verbal about it. |
| 20 | LOLLARD |
Abbreviated text written by fat layabout (7)
LOL (a common abbreviation in text messages) with (written by) LARD (fat) |
| 21 | PIRACY |
Express features unclothed girl? Dodgy publication (6)
PACY (express) contains (features) gIRl (unclothed) – the act of publishing something illegally |
| 23 | SOFIA |
Capital of India seen when in militia (5)
OF I (India) seen in SA (Sturmabteliung, Nazi militia) |
definitions are underlined
I found the south-west quadrant tough until the light dawned with Anne Frank. I think it’s a bit of a pity that Aardvark should use the same conceit twice of Rot around two other letters in the answers to 12 and 24 across.
I found the SE tough (as Steven mentions Anne Frank, I think that might be what he means too)
I thought 18a was lacking a homophone indicator and like PeeDee am not entirely convinced by ‘ordering’
Thanks to him for the blog and Aardvark for the crossword.
Really enjoyed this one
16d I think you meant UNIT for one
I too missed the homophone indicator in 18d (Crypticsue)
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
Got to this on Sunday and enjoyed it a lot – a good variety of clue types and there were many times with the parsing, where you thought … “Ahhh, that’s what he means!” – e.g. in 23d having to put the OF as well as the I for India and look for a SA militia instead of a SOFA one.
Had no idea that was supposed to be looking for a homophone with RAINBOW and that went through unparsed.
Finished in the SE with SOFIA and SALVO the last couple in and also needed ANNE FRANK to break that corner open. .