29 Cryptic Crosswords - Know your teams

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

Learn your teams
Famous football teams come into crossword setting as well.

Team running last in oval (5,5) -Advertiser 8/2/2016

Last on oval is an anagram of Aston Villa
Running is the indicator for the anagram
Team is the straight clue

Race courses also come into the mix
I had one the other day that required me to know that Epsom is a racecourse!
It's lucky that I have been afan of Dick Francis books for many years, so I had somehow retained this information.

Here is another racecourse one:
Caledonian with a first course (5)
There is the course as an indicator.
Every good admirer of bagpipes (like me) knows that a Caledonian is a Scot.
Put A with Scott and you have another racecourse... Ascot!


The possibilities and scary, and endless.  So good luck with that.