I don’t know my solving time so I’ll break with the tradition of the last few blogs. I often solve puzzles piecemeal, here and there, and interspersed with bits of Listener solving, daily puzzles, etc, and so I don’t record the times. All I remember of this one is that I solved about 60% of it on a 35 minute bus journey with no dictionary available. I finished off the puzzle at home with Chambers providing confirmation and Bradford’s providing a crutch. There are two answers that I’m not certain about, 13 and 32.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BISCACHA | BIS+CACH(e)A | one of several spellings of a South American burrowing rodent. |
| 11 | SAUTERNE | E in (NUTS ARE)* | great surface. |
| 12 | THUJA | H in (A JUT)< | |
| 13 | STANDS | T in SANDS | a stand is a tub, I assume that T is beached, ie in SANDS. The surface reads like it is reference to something. |
| 14 | TONEME | TO + (E + MEN)< | at = TO. |
| 15 | TAVERT | AVER in TT | great Scottish word, excellent clue. |
| 17 | PARLEYVOO | A in (POOL VERY)* | slang term for a Frenchmen defined by slang for a Frenchman. |
| 18 | RHEUM | “room” | lovely clue. Niobe wept tears for her daughter. |
| 19 | AMASS | atacAMA’S Sands | |
| 22 | SORTS | SHORTS – H | reference to Henry Cooper. |
| 25 | PERST | P+ERST | |
| 26 | CREPITANT | (NICE TART + P)* | the anagram indicator is ‘pickled’ but it could have been either end before I knew what CREPITANT meant. |
| 28 | OIRISH | IRIS in OH | another great clue, IRIS Murdoch but ref. Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid press. |
| 30 | ETRIER | TR in EI(g)ER | another fine clue. |
| 32 | TZETZE | ZZ in TETE | I assume this is ZZ intermittently positioned in TETE. However, I couldn’t find ZZ = buzzing even if it makes sense. This wouldn’t be so bad if the second Z wasn’t unchecked as TZETSE also fits the grid. |
| 33 | WILCO | W + LOCI* | |
| 34 | CONTINUO | (I COUNT IN ON)* | |
| 35 | CAMISADE | (IS AD) in CAME | |
| Down | |||
| 1 | BUTTERSCOTCH | (UTTERS+C) in BOTCH | |
| 2 | IMHO | H in I+MO | IMHO = ‘in my humble opinion’ can be read as ‘if you ask me’. |
| 3 | SHUNTER | SHUN + RET< | |
| 4 | CAJEPUT | (PUJA ETC)* | |
| 5 | CAMERA | CA+M + ARE* | |
| 6 | HUSTLE | ju(ST) in HULE | |
| 7 | PEAVY | P + ‘EAVY | |
| 8 | ERNE | sheERNEss | |
| 9 | UNDROSSY | (SUN SO DRY)* | my favourite answer and clue. It’s such a good word and the clue is just sublime. |
| 10 | TESTOSTERONE | STORE* in TEST+ONE | |
| 16 | C-HORIZON | CHORIZO+N | this was the last answer I actually put in despite it’s obviousness. It isn’t listed in Chambers between CHOZIRO and CHORIZONT (which is a fantastic word) so I dithered for a while and then discovered it was listed under C. Pah! |
| 20 | METRICS | (ST CRIME)* | |
| 21 | ARMILLA | A+RM+ILL+(ra-r)A | jolly = RM (Royal Marine) but giving a good surface about bits of skirts. |
| 23 | ATHENA | A THEN A | another great clue. The centre or Baal is ‘A then A’. |
| 24 | CAECUM | “Secombe” | reference is to Harry Secombe, singer and Goon. It’s good to see two words that are spelt so differently but are reasonable homophones. |
| 27 | PITTA | double def. | |
| 29 | REND | N in RED | |
| 31 | ECAD | ACE< + D | |
16A – one of the definitions in Chambers for STAND is “to assume the attitudea and duties of (guard, sentinel)”. So “assumes” is an extra definition and I think the the T is a “beached one”, not just “beached”.
32A – maybe the “intermittently” means that a single Z occurs twice.
Now, on to the Spoonerisms!
Thanks Andrew.
16a – surely ‘assumes’ couldn’t do duty for ‘assumes the attitude…’ That’s quite a specific meaning which would have to be alluded to in the clue.
Re: 32a – yes I considered this too but does a single Z mean a buzzing sound? ZED appears in Bradford’s under BUZZ(ING) but I didn’t notice the reverse in Chambers.