An excellent offering from Lato. Some odd words and a clever and (we thought) pretty taxing theme. Entertaining though!
The TRANSACTION referred to is 33D 23A – PART EXCHANGED and the answers had to be correctly 34A – PAIRED.
We had to complete almost all of the rest of the crossword before solving the themed words. The first possibility to appear was BREAK OFF which appeared to fulfill the clue “Stop delivery”, but closer examination led to the realisation that “Stop abruptly” and “Turning delivery” were definitions respectively of BREAK OFF and OFF BREAK. So you had to part-exchange pairs of clues (in this case “Stop delivery” and “Turning abruptly”), pairing the first part of one with the second of another, and part-exhange the answers in a different way, by reversing the word order. The resulting set was:
JOHN BARRY – English composer, BARRY JOHN – Welsh sportsman
OFF BREAK – Turning delivery, BREAK OFF – Stop abruptly
WOODWORM – Diseased condition, WORMWOOD – Bitter plant
TONGAN – Polynesian native, GANTON – Yorkshire village
BOX JUNCTION – Road grid, JUNCTION BOX – It may be feature of circuit
FISHER KING – Legendary monarch, KINGFISHER – Colourful flier
BAR STOOL – Local (pub) seating, TOOLBARS – Lists of (computer) functions
I particularly liked the last one!
Other clues were normal. Most of the definitions were obvious, so I’ve omitted them on the whole.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 10 | ASPER – double meaning |
| 12 | MORO – room* |
| 13 | NONO – NO (rejecting) + NO(ON) |
| 14 | TOLE – STOLEN minus Sn |
| 15 | BONDMAIDS – had trouble with this as there were few crossing letters to help, the first half being all thematic. BON (good) + D (God) + M(ember) + [SAID]* |
| 17 | ALBERT – ALERT round B |
| 20 | STRASS – is paste for fake gems (new word to me), STRASS(E) is a short German road |
| 24 | STAPES – bone, [PAST]* + E(cstacy)S |
| 26 | UNSEWN – UN + SEN round W |
| 27 | PREFIXION – which I had as prefixing, causing me much trouble! P(laye)R + EON round FIX I |
| 29 | AMBO – A + MB + O |
| 31 | (Wyatt) EARP – EARPLUG minus LUG (pull out) Good clue! |
| 34 | PAIRED – no definition, PED round AIR |
| 35 | LIMN – is to paint, eMuLsIoN anagrammed |
| 36 | RISEN – NE + SIR reversed |
| 37,9 | TYRONE – TYR + ONE |
| 38 | SERGEANT – SET (ready) round [GAR(D)EN]* (‘d is removed for “had gone”) |
| Down | |
| 1 | NEMN – hidden backwards in assigNMENt |
| 2,11 | TARTARE – TART + ARE. Not keen on “are” for happen! |
| 3 | ISOBATHS – are map features, I + BATH in SOS(O) |
| 4 | OPIOID – OP + I + OID which is DID with “Love for God”. Nice! |
| 5 | BRITS – B + RITS (Scottish scores or scratches) |
| 6 | RESTORES – REST + O(n) + RES(ervation) |
| 7 | ECHO – Not keen on “hint” as a definition EO is a game round CH(ildren) |
| 8 | AGELAST – (Never heard of it!) a person who never laughs (from Greek), A(re) + G(erman) + [TALES]* |
| 16 | GADE – a fish, G(R)ADE |
| 18 | BEAN – BE(G)AN |
| 19 | EXPLORER – Cook was one, EX (without) + P(ressure) + LORE + R(amsay) |
| 20 | SNUFFLER – (i)S + NUFF + REL reversed |
| 21 | SUNN – East Indian shrub, hidden in It’S UNNecessary |
| 22 | STOMATA – [MOST]* + A(ll) + TA |
| 25 | REFUSE – REF + USE |
| 27 | PEERY – really is a wooden peg-top! P + EERY |
| 28 | XEMA – are gulls, X (without) + (th)EM + A(rea) |
| 29 | APT – T(o) + PA(st) reversed |
| 30 | BIER – sounds like BEER |
| 32 | ANTA – AN(I)TA |
I thought BAR STOOL was brilliant, too – I’d been thinking of some dialect word meaning a seat. Excellent puzzle.
Many thanks for the blog and comment.
Late comment from me as I’ve been away. I tackled this before I was due to work away from home for a while. I solved all the clues, filled the grid and had a few empty squares. I’d got part exchange and realised that the clues could be PXed but I just didn’t see any obvious answers. This was because I was looking at the clues resolving to a single grid entry. I then had to shelve the puzzle so I don’t know if another hour’s staring at the grid would’ve caused the penny to drop. Having seen the solution and now the blog I do think this was a very clever puzzle.