Beelzebub 1,014 (26/07/09)

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The usual flawless clueing and a good handful of new words for me. Clarification would be appreciated at 24dn – I assume it’s a combination of two of the many soldier-related acronyms, but I haven’t been able to pinpoint which.

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

Across
1 GREATCOAT – (A COTTAGER)*.
12 BARRIO – BAR + RIO[t].
13 BREECH – B + REECH.
14 HEMICHORDATA – HE + (A CHROMATID)*.
16 FROM – F[lies] + ROM.
17 UINTAITE – U + IN + (1 “probes” TATE). “Tate” seems to be a Scots word for “a small portion, pinch, tuft”.
19 SNUB – BUNS<.
20 MAEV – (ME “embraces” A) + V. One tends to worry a bit on realising that what’s sought is a distinctly Irish name: they tend to be quite unfamiliar to us here in South London, and Chambers isn’t much help with them! Disaster was of course avoided by tight clueing.
21 RADIATE – RAD + 1 + ATE.
23 BUSHISM – (BUS HIM) “round” S[peech].
25 T-BAR – T[he] B[est] A[lpine] R[esorts]. A type of ski-lift so a very nice &lit.
27 UNTO – [co]UNT O[ften].
28 CHESIRE – CH[e]ES[e] + HIRE.
29 DARN – AND* “concealing” R. Another &lit.
33 GREEN VITRIOL – (REGRET VIOLIN)*.
34 EMEUTE – (‘EM + U) in ETÉ.
35 NEARLY – NEATLY “with R doing for T”.
36 BEADY-EYED – (BEA DYED) “embracing” YE.
Down
2 RAETIA – (A1 TEAR)<.
3 ERMINE STREET – (MERE INTEREST)*. A Roman road that ran from London to York via Lincoln.
4 ARIA – [m]ARIA.
5 TICK – dd.
6 COHEIRS – HEROICS*. “Those of some will” is a nice, misleading def.
7 OBOE – OB + O’ + [lan]E. “Stop” in the sense of an organ stop.
8 ARREEDES – (DEER + R “into” SEA)<.
9 LEARNABILITY – (BRILLIANT + AYE)*.
10 ACT OUT – AC + TOUT.
11 CHAMBERER – CHAMBER[s] + RE<.
15 MUM-BUDGET – (M + BUDGE) in MUT[e].
18 ALICANTE – ALICE “embracing” ANT.
22 AMERIND – AMEND “about” RI.
24 UNARMS – the def. is “Removes weapons from…“, but I can’t explain the wordplay: “…one soldier surrounded by others? Not initially“.
26 AREOLE – (A ROLE) “around” [op]E[ra].
30 UVEA – UV + EA.
31 STEY – S[cots] + YET<.
32 BRAE – BRA[c]E.

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