Azed 1859 (Plain)/ Tricky Stuff

[New comment layout] - details here

Solving Time: around 75 minutes.

A tough challenge from Azed this week with some straight-forward stuff, but one or two really tricky clues that took me a while to work out. 

Music:  Maria Callas giving her all to Puccini.  Un Bel Di is one of the few pieces of music that genuinely moves me to tears.  You try too:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z3-yBlDckY&feature=related

ACROSS     * = Anagram  CH = Chambers Dictionary

1  SHAPE    HEAPS*

5 SPIN-OFF   NO (short for number) inside SPIFF

10  TOUSY TEA  OUT* + YEAST*  See under TOUSY in CH.

12  BANG TAIL   In CH, under Bang2, it relates to hair bangs (fringes / tufts).  BANG = Beat  +  TAIL as in tail-enders of cricket team (an Azed pet subject), usually the low scorers of a side.

13  ALOHA  Replacing P in ALPHA with an O.

14  ZERDA   RD inside ZEA (Mrs Bradford came in handy here)

15 KAMEEZ  MAKE* + EZ, which is the abbreviation for the biblical book Ezra.

16 AIRGAS  I R inside AGAS

17 MOONCALF   MO+ ON CAL(L) + F (following)

20  LACROSSE  L + A + SCORES*  One of my favourite clues.

23 DRIVEL    DR + VEIL*

25 AUNTER  (H)AUNTER

28  PELES  Hidden answer

29  STORE   T inside SORE

30 ALIGARTA  G inside  A TRAIL A reversed

31 WELL-SEEN  WELLS + EEN

32  KYANISE   INKY SEA*

33 MESNE     Hidden answer.

DOWN

1  STRAK    KARTS (rev)

2  HOLLA   O inside HALL*  (Wes Hall – W Indian  cricketer)

3  AUTOMOBILIA    A + OUT* + MOB + ILIA

 4  PSCHENT    SCH inside PENT

5   MOZART    Was CONSTANZA a girlfriend of Mozart?  Otherwise I am not sure about this one.

6  PENNAL   PENN + AL

7  NOTER     RE + TON (Rev – “from a worm’s eye view”)

8  FRIDAYS  I’D inside FRAYS

9  FILASSE   ASS inside FILE

11  BARGE STONES  BARGEST + NOSE* Bargest is a large mythical black dog from round the Lancashire hills, where I live.   Wouldn’t have described it as a goblin, but Ch gives it.

17  MUDPACK   PAD* inside MUCK “coated in dirt”.

18  OWRELAY  OW! + LAYER*

19  CONTUSE   NOSE CUT*

21  ALURES    LURE (see Ch) inside AS “an antique copper!)

22  CANTLE  Hidden answer

24  VEGAN  Pythagorean = vegetarian (acc to Ch) AS inside VAN

26  ERVEN   NERVE moving its first letter to last place

27  RENNE Hidden answer