Pirouetting into sight today is Phi with a puzzle containing some well-known (and not so well-known) ballets.

Solving time: 20 Minutes, (plus a couple of Google checks for titles).

Very enjoyable with the usual mix of fine clues.  One tiny query about 3 down.

ACROSS  (*) = ANAGRAM,  (R) = REVERSAL   (CD) = CRYPTIC DEF

1  BIG APPLE    GAP + P inside BILE

5 BALLET   ALL inside BET

10  CHECKMATE    CHECK =  stop   MATE =  China (plate)  - Cockney rhyming slang for mate.  Checkmate was a one-act ballet by Ninettte de Valois

12  ABDOMEN  AB’s (sailor) +  DOME (rounded shape) + N (note)

14  SWAN LAKE  WAS* + L inside NAKE(D).  The most famous of all ballet.

19  ACRID   AC +  RID(E)

21  COPPELIA   COPPE(R) + ail (R)   My personal favourite ballet by Delibes.

24  MARTINI  MAR + TIN + I   _  A new one on me.  I wasn’t aware that a Martini is a type of rifle.

27  NUDGE     (EG + DUN) (R)

28  FANCY FREE  FANCY!  =  Well I never!  +  R in FEE  This was a ballet by Jerome Robins, with a score from a young Leonard Bernstein.

29  AROUND    A round of golf = 18 holes

30  LES NOCES  ENCLOSES*  A ballet from Nijinska with music from Stravinsky.

DOWN

 1  BUCHAN     German word for Book =  BUCH  + A + N   -John Buchan wrote amongst other thrillers The 39 Steps.

2  GLENDOWER   END in GLOWER   -  Owen, the Welsh hero of that ilk.

3  POKEMON  Was this a computer game?  PACMAN Yes.  POKEMON was a dreary Japanese TV cartoon, plus collection of trading cards.  POKE +  NO M (R).

4  LEARN  A lovely clue   -  LEAN with R (one-third of the basics - The Three R’s) inside.

6  AUGMENT   AUG + T (”Summer time”  with MEN inside.

7  LEEDS   (B)LEEDS

8  TINTAGEL   TINT + AGE + L

9  SELF-HELP  Another clue I liked.    FLESH*  + L inside E P.

15  AYCLIFFE   FIFE CLAY*

17 BRIC-A-BRAC  BBC AIRCAR*

18  RAYMONDA  R A DYNAMO*    Silly me!  I looked at the anagram and thought  NORMANDY, which of course it isn’t.  It’s a less well-known ballet by Glazunov and Petipa.

20  DRIVE IN    I’VE inside  DRIN(K)

25  RODEO  RODE + O  Aaron Copland’s splendid work with some memorable music.

Easier than it looked at first glance. Some nice clues, with concise and convincing surfaces. One or two slightly loose definitions, but I guess you can put that down to 8down!

ACROSS:

1. RE(COR)D. I thought it must be this, but wasn’t sure about the definition. I think the idea is that a record score means top score.

4. W(E)AP ON (PAW<). Good unified surface.

10. FR(ON TB)ENCH. ‘Guarding against’ as a container for ON is quite subtle.

13. TAKE STOCK. As in what a rustler does….

14. L(O)OT. …which could have linked in to this one, I suppose.

16. MIDDLEMEN. Good tricksy clue that may have foxed a few solvers. To get ‘ad’ to ‘aMENd’, you need (its) MIDDLE (to be) MEN.

22. COSTA RICAN. Good anagram - Latin as in someone from Latin America.

23. AC(N)E. I think this must be right, as the wordplay fits, but I’m not convinced by the definition. I can only assume ‘point 999 recurring?’ is meant to suggest a profusion of spots that keep coming back.

24. PE(YOT)E (TOY<). A south American hallucinogenic mushroom.

DOWN:

1. RE P(L)ICA.

2. COTTAGE INDUSTRY. (CITY STATE GROUND*). First of a couple of good long anags.

5. (s)EXTANT. Good clue - ‘aid for sailor’ gets topped.

6. PLENIPOTENTIARY. (INEPT IN REPLY TO A*). I did have a couple of letters by then, but this was one of those anagrams that leapt straight out.

8. POETIC LICENCE. Henley made me think of boats rather than poets, but I suppose that’s the point. http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/william_ernest_henley

15. PE(A)SO UP. This was listed as (7) in the paper, but surely should be (3,4)

17. DAPHNIA (AN APHID*). Nifty  anagram, not very hard if you know the word - it’s a kind of water flea, apparently.

18. EQUIN(e)OX. Another one I liked - neat wordplay, and a great definition: ’start to spring astronomically’.

19. GARRET (GAR-TER<). Another clever surface.

Having just blogged Nimrod’s Thursday puzzle (6637) I can say that I found this one the easier of the two. I’m not really a big fan of long anagrams and I was lucky to get the two here reasonably early on.

This was a corker!! I’m still not completely convinced that we’ve got it right, but here goes.

The missing letters of the across clues instructed you to “INCLUDE PUNCTUATION” while the down clues said “IGNORE DIAGONAL BITS”.

The only punctuation marks I could find were hyphens and spaces. Thus, for instance,  1A appeared as GODspaceISspaceDEAD and 33A appeared as NEVERhyphenNEVER

The “ignore diagonal bits” instruction resulted in the letters A, K, M, N, Q, R, V, W, and X (there weren’t any Zs thank goodness!) being shorn of their diagonals.

So A = -, K = I, M = N = II, Q = O, R = P, and V, W and X become spaces. This gives a very strange look to the completed grid, but sorts out all the anomalies of crossing squares. So, for instance, the M of POMPEII (24A) is also the N of DUMPLING (9D), The X of XEROSIS (5D) is the space between GOD and IS, etc.

In the answers below, column 1 indicates the word with the extra letter inserted, column 2 is the answer as entered + (the actual answer to the clue), column 3 is an explanation.

I only realised when writing this blog, that the extra A in 10D is unaccounted for. Any suggestions? 

Solving time : Ages and ages!!

As one has come to expect from Bradman (or any other of his pseuDONyms), flawless technical merit receives a healthy dollop of creative/lateral thinking. ‘Twas ever thus, it seems.

Across
10 L(I)LAC - I in call<
11 O C,A,N,ADA -the eponymous national anthem, that their neighbours to the south seem to find faintly amusing.
13 DNA - and<. The enumeration as (3), rather than (1,1,1) was the most tricky aspect here.
14 HOME STRETCH - a little convoluted, to accommodate the &literacy.  It’s a (multi-element) compound anagram.
17,18,19 THERE SHE BLOWS - shrewd dual-meaning usage of “blubber”.  Why do I suspect this phrase must have seen the light of day in a Private Eye Crossword before….?
21 HIGHT,REASON - Hight is the anachronism for “called”; presumably derived from the Old German.
27 CURRENT - Referencing the SI unit abbreviation (I).
29 A,ST,RO(DO)ME

Down
1 A,BROAD - I don’t recall the England pace bowler’s forename right now. I keep getting stuck on Chris, but that was his old man.
2 C,LEAV(AG)E - again, Bradman demurely resists the temptation to audition for Private Eye.
4 PICA - hidden
5 SAINT-SAENS - (sent Asians)*.  One of the lesser-spotted composers in the sphere of crosswords.
7 ALCO(-hol),TT - Louisa May of that ilk.  This took me far too long, given that I live a stone’s throw from where she grew up!
8 A,CAN,THUS - Multim in parvo.
16 ROBIN,GROOM - I’m not sure whether there is a collective “Robing Room” in the Houses of Parliament, or perhaps it’s just a special annexe that the nobility have built at home.
17 TA,HIT,IAN
20 ONT,HE,HOP(-e) - 98% sure on this one.  “Sharp” would seem to fit the definition, but I’m a little tentative on the “little woman” element. My best shot being that it’s Hope shortened by a letter.
24 BAT,TEN - as a cricketing tail-ender literally does!