Peto’s puzzles are never easy, but I really got bogged down about three-quarters of the way through this one.
I cannot fault the clues, which are excellent, although CARABINERO and TALMA are perhaps a bit obscure for a daily crossword. I thought that the level of difficulty might have been in the service of some theme, but I do not see one.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PATENT |
Obvious when persevering without hint of inconvenience (6)
|
| PAT[I]ENT (persevering) minus (without) first letter of (hint of) I[NCONVENIENCE] | ||
| 4 | EDUCATED |
Learned of the French whip found in river on the way back (8)
|
| {DU (of the [in] French) + CAT (whip)} inside (found in) DEE (river) reversed (on the way back) | ||
| 10 | TRANSFORM |
Convert managed to fill extremely tedious document (9)
|
| {RAN (managed) inside (to fill) outside letters of (extremely) T[EDIOU]S} + FORM (document) | ||
| 11 | RELIC |
Roman Catholic priest breaking souvenir (5)
|
| ELI (priest) inside (breaking) RC (Roman Catholic) | ||
| 12 | AVER |
Allege as a fact when edging away from partygoers (4)
|
| [R]AVER[S] (partygoers) minus outside letters (when edging away from) | ||
| 13 | SKATEBOARD |
Means of transport with broad seat designed to carry king (10)
|
| Anagram of (designed) {BROAD SEAT} around (to carry) K (king) | ||
| 15 | COSIEST |
What is suffered to obtain seating at the front that’s most comfortable (7)
|
| COST (what is suffered) around (to obtain) {first letter of (at the front) S[EATING] + I.E. (that’s)} | ||
| 16 | CONCUR |
Run together with Italian scoundrel (6)
|
| CON (with [in] Italian) + CUR (scoundrel) | ||
| 19 | SLAP-UP |
Excellent debut of singer to delight in (4-2)
|
| First letter of (debut of) S[INGER] + LAP UP (delight in) | ||
| 21 | HARISSA |
Expression of disapproval over soldiers returning with Afghan’s original hot sauce (7)
|
| {HISS (expression of disapproval) around (over) RA (soldiers) reversed (returning)} + first letter of (original [of]) A[FGHAN] | ||
| 23 | OPERATIONS |
Companies providing musical dramas forced into cuts (10)
|
| Anagram of (forced) INTO inside (cuts) OPERAS (musical dramas) | ||
| 25 | LACK |
Want chop left for husband (4)
|
| [H]ACK (chop) [exchanging] L (left) for H (husband) | ||
| 27 | WORKS |
Goes for frying pans stocked by Rackhams primarily (5)
|
| WOKS (frying pans) around (stocked by) first letter of (primarily) R[ACKHAMS] | ||
| 28 | BALLERINA |
Elegance at the outset possessed by L Blair amazing North American dancer (9)
|
| First letter of (at the outset) E[LEGANCE] inside (possessed by) anagram of (amazing) {L BLAIR} + NA (North American) | ||
| 29 | BALANCED |
Weapon hidden in disagreeable stable (8)
|
| LANCE (weapon) inside (hidden in) BAD (disagreeable) | ||
| 30 | FORGED |
Devised in order to acquire endless diamonds (6)
|
| FOR (in order to) + GE[T] (acquire) minus last letter (endless) + D (diamonds) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PITTANCE |
Nathaniel briefly turns to the church after depression caused by poor wage (8)
|
| PIT (depression) + NAT (Nathaniel “briefly”) inverted (turns) + CE (the church) | ||
| 2 | TRAVERSAL |
Right about a woman going over, seconds before closure of level crossing (9)
|
| RT (right) inverted (about) + A + {VERA (woman) around (going over) S (seconds)} + last letter of (closure of) [LEVE]L | ||
| 3 | NOSE |
Announcer’s familiar with narrow margin of victory (4)
|
| Homophone of (announcer) KNOWS ([is] familiar with) | ||
| 5 | DEMOTIC |
Popular book about head of ICE in Washington (7)
|
| {TOME (book) inverted (about) + first letter of (head of) I[CE]} all inside (in) DC (Washington) | ||
| 6 | CARABINERO |
Chilean cop’s vehicle seen by graduate around one in front of coffee shop (10)
|
| I think this parses as: CAR (vehicle) + BA (graduate) inverted (around) + I (one) + [Caffè] NERO (coffee shop) | ||
| 7 | TALMA |
Cape Town’s top dancing girl (5)
|
| First letter of (top [of]) T[OWN] + ALMA (dancing girl) | ||
| 8 | DECIDE |
Settle for some homemade cider (6)
|
| Hidden in (some) [HOMEMA]DE CIDE[R] | ||
| 9 |
Appropriate for Yeats perhaps to embrace luck? Not half (6)
|
|
| POET (Yeats perhaps) around (to embrace) second half of (not half [of]) [LU]CK | ||
| 14 | KEEP TABS ON |
Monitor the activities of son after quick look over bill (4,4,2)
|
| PEEK (quick look) inverted (over) + TAB (bill) + SON | ||
| 17 | UNSPARING |
Merciless international organisation hits back in Gabon (9)
|
| UN (international organisation) + RAPS (hits) inverted (back) + IN + G (Gabon) | ||
| 18 | BACKHAND |
Endorse article after Henry died from a stroke (8)
|
| BACK (endorse) + H (Henry) + AN (article) + D (died), as in tennis | ||
| 20 | PLIABLE |
Penny likely to be easily influenced (7)
|
| P (penny) + LIABLE (likely) | ||
| 21 | HANDLE |
Deal with bad weather reportedly around North Dakota (6)
|
| Homophone of (reportedly) HAIL (bad weather, i.e., HALE) around ND (North Dakota) | ||
| 22 | COBWEB |
Horse we bought at the start from fairy queen’s retainer (6)
|
| COB (horse) + WE + first letter of (at the start) B[OUGHT], referring to one of Queen Titania’s attendants in A Midsummer Night’s Dream | ||
| 24 | ENROL |
Record producer’s last to be gripped by reflective single (5)
|
| Last [letter of] [PRODUCE]R inside (to be gripped by) LONE (single) inverted (reflective) | ||
| 26 | VETO |
Withhold assent to examine duck (4)
|
| VET (to examine) + O (duck) |
Glad I’m not alone in making hard work of that. Thanks both
Thanks for puzzle and blog. Agree about parsing of CARABINERO, though I can’t imagine myself saying “I’ll see you in Nero” rather than “… in Caffè Nero”. On the other hand I might well abbreviate Pret a Manger to Pret. Can’t really explain the inconsistency.
I am of the age where the first Alma that comes to mind is Alma Cogan, rather than the Alma of “Dance With Me”, although she did sing Mambo Italiano and Tennessee Waltz. Is “caused by” in 1d just a link word? I was another who found this hard.