Another different sized grid, and another theme… of looking for April Fools in the grid. It took some searching, but the hint that 14 across was relevant got me there. There are two cuckoos hidden in the grid – RAIN in 1 down and ROAD in 13 down.
Overall this was rather fun, a pretty quick solve and I think I spent almost as long looking for the theme as I did on the clues.
Definitions are underlined.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Novel, excellent symphony (13, three words) |
| BRAVE NEW WORLD – BRAVE(excellent) and then Dvorak’s NEW WORLD symphony | |
| 10 | Not good being short of clubs in card game (5) |
| RUMMY – CRUMMY (not being good) missing C(clubs) | |
| 12 | Does perhaps rush around (4) |
| DEER – REED(rush) reversed | |
| 14 | Leaving the Borders, drive away birds (4) |
| ANIS – remove the outside of BANISH | |
| 15 | Conservative newspaper for a girl (5) |
| CINDY – C, INDY(Independent newspaper) | |
| 17 | Work on attic starting with cases brought in (9) |
|
TOCCATINA – anagram of ON, ATTIC containing C |
|
| 18 | Tricky point of bow, one for the royals (5) |
| NODUS – NOD(bow), then US is the royal first person | |
| 20 | Two chaps and Ted laughed so (6) |
| HE-HEED – HE, HE(two chaps), ED(Ted) | |
| 22 | See preamble (11, three words) |
| HUNT THE GOWK – indication of the April Fool’s Day theme | |
| 23 | Little right in flipping vacuous opera (6) |
| ERNANI – R in the reverse of INANE | |
| 25 | Miss end of Martinu slow movement (5) |
|
LASSU – LASS(miss), |
|
| 26 | Very abbreviated show, free once (9) |
| VINDICATE – V, INDICATE(show) | |
| 30 | Avoid endless wine in French summer (5) |
|
EVITE – VI |
|
| 31 | Heartless ship’s officer set out (4) |
| BOUN – remove the middle of BOSUN | |
| 32 | Roger cracks joke in lively party (4) |
| RORT – R(Roger) inside ROT(joke) | |
| 33 | Mark’s daughter wearing hat (5) |
| TILDE – D in TILE | |
| 34 | Popular call by journalist covering a go-between (13) |
| INTERMEDIATOR – IN, TERM then EDITOR(journalist) containing A | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Serious complaint from genius following on record (10, two words) |
| BRAIN FEVER – BRAIN(genius), F(following), EVER(on record) | |
| 2 | Scottish list is full, nothing omitted (4) |
| RUND – ROUND(full) missing O | |
| 3 | English writer not quite right? Not quite (4) |
| AMIS – AMISS(not quite right) missing the end | |
| 4 | Reported boat race in small islands (5) |
| EYOTS – sounds like EIGHTS(boat race) | |
| 5 | Odd piece about Mad Hatter not normally staged here (11, two words) |
| EPIC THEATRE – anagram of PIECE containing an anagram of HATTER | |
| 6 | Open up northern city school (10) |
| WINCHESTER – WIN(open up in a coal mine), CHESTER(northern city) | |
| 7 | Drug agency spent a week about heroin missing (4) |
| WADA – HAD A W reversed missing H | |
| 8 | What critics write about roving wives (7) |
| REVIEWS – RE, then an anagram of WIVES | |
| 9 | Left me to trap East African rhino (5) |
| LEONE – L, ONE(me) containing E for African currency | |
| 11 | See preamble (10) |
| SCOTTICISM – pointing at HUNT THE GOWK being a Scottish term for April Fools | |
| 13 | Bird flying around north east between two rivers (10) |
| ROADRUNNER – anagram of AROUND,NE between R and R | |
| 16 | Ram on one Andean plateau (4) |
| PUNA – PUN(ram) on A | |
| 19 | Twist and turn mouse (7) |
| DUNNART – anagram of AND,TURN | |
| 21 | Mouldy old stock hidden? Not completely (4) |
| HOAR – HOARD missing the end | |
| 24 | Rush about Yorkshire racecourse (5) |
| RIPON – RIP(rush), ON | |
| 25 | Advanced in short slow passages (5) |
| LENTI – LENT(advanced), I | |
| 27 | Boy of four getting nothing right (4) |
| IVOR – IV(four), O, R | |
| 28 | Politician a little tired in club no longer (4) |
|
POLT – POL(politician), T |
|
| 29 | Terribly loud board contest (4) |
| LUDO – anagram of LOUD | |
I knew the phrase HUNT THE GOWK from research I did when I did the April 1st blog on the daily cryptic some years ago so that made this very straightforward for me
Midas