*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
I thought this was going to be the week that Beelzebub defeated me. I wrote in entirely the wrong answer at 3dn which left the NW corner rather empty until the mistake was spotted. But I got there in the end, with just the one query at 21ac.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ERUPTED – PURE< + TED. I think “adolescent” here is TED, as in “Teddy boy”. |
| 6 | EAGER – AGE “interrupting” ER. |
| 10 | CALENTURE – (A + LENT) “inside” CURE. |
| 11 | RIGHT-AND-LEFT – (FLING THAT RED)*. |
| 12 | ENROOTS – (STONE “containing” OR)<. |
| 14 | D-DAY – D[odge]D A[bruptl]Y. |
| 16 | NADIR – D[ad] “captured by” NAIR. The Nair were “a people of Kerala…who practised a peculiar system of polyandry and matriliny”. |
| 19 | DRAISENE – (IN RED SEA)*. Another name for the “dandy-horse”, an early bicycle whose name alone makes we want one. |
| 20 | POINDING – INDI[a] in PONG. |
| 21 | SPOON – The wordplay is “rather reduced circling river”. I take PO to be the river, and perhaps SO to be “rather”, but I can’t really make it work. “Spoon” is an old nautical term meaning “to run before a gale with reduced canvas”. |
| 23 | ERST – [que]ER ST[reet]. |
| 26 | TWASOME – SAW< in TOME. |
| 27 | DISCOMEDUSAE – CO “implanted in” (SEASIDE MUD)*. A wonderfully-named “order of jellyfishes with flattened umbrella”, inspiration for the most terrifying chandelier I’ve ever seen. |
| 28 | AILANTHUS – AIL + AN + THUS. |
| 29 | LAY TO – LAY + TO[o]. “Lay” as in “laity”. |
| 30 | CRASSLY – CRY “about” (ASS + L). |
| Down | |
| 1 | EARED – dd. |
| 2 | RAINDROPS – (R AND R “absorbing” 1) “on” OPS. |
| 3 | UNGRACIOUSLY – (CURSING YOU AL[l])*. |
| 4 | TATOU – TATU “involving” O. |
| 5 | ELATERIN – LATER “swallowed by” EIN. |
| 6 | ENDS – [b]ENDS. |
| 7 | AT LEAST – (ATLAS “containing” E) + T. |
| 8 | GUELDER ROSES – (LODGE USES)* “without” ERR. |
| 9 | RETIREE – 1 “involved in” RETREE. “Retree” is a term meaning slightly damaged paper. |
| 13 | SING SMALL – (SINS “seen around” G) + MALL. |
| 15 | LANDWEHR – L + (HAD NEW)* + [wa]R. |
| 17 | APSIDAL – (LAD IS PA)<. |
| 18 | SNOWCAT – NOW “brought in” SCAT. |
| 22 | PADUA – PAD + (A U)<. |
| 24 | TEENY – TEEN + Y. |
| 25 | MONO – MOON*. |
21a is actually SPOOM – PO in SOM(e). I didn’t see at the time, alas, that that meaning of ‘some’ is ultimately marked ‘(dialect)’ in C.
I can’t speak for Columba, but, if faced with an option between an unusual and a common word, I’ll probably go for the oddity, if only because I’ve almost certainly clued the common version several times already!
Aha, so it did beat me after all! Thanks for the clarification.