Nick: A fairly easy stroll for an Azed this week.
18dn was the last in, as the instruction ‘The Chambers Dictionary (2008) is recommended‘ always steers me in the wrong direction when proper nouns are involved in the grid, expecting them to be in Chambers.
Having said that though, when I cracked the obvious parsing of the clue, I had flashbacks of the disaster as a young boy from the news reports at the time on television.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Balkan assembly, a variant of UK’s in past (9) | ||
| SKUPSTINA | (UK’S IN PAST)* | ||
| 10. | Before appearing in court abroad one’s concerned with this (6) | ||
| HEREOF | ERE in HOF | ||
| 12. | Matador’s cape team messily used to wrap bull’s heart (6) | ||
| MULETA | (TEAM*) around (b)UL(l) | ||
| 13. | Girl entering audition for radio? (6) | ||
| TRANNY | ANN in TRY I was looking for a homophone here |
||
| 14. | US gull is playing on the green, we hear (4) | ||
| PUTZ | homophone: PUTTS putz is a fool, as is a gull3! |
||
| 15. | Birthday treat that is put behind cupboard? (7) | ||
| PRESSIE | I.E. after PRESS(a cupboard) | ||
| 16. | European in Samoa, friend given a present, half cut? (6) | ||
| PALAGI | PAL+A GI(ft) | ||
| 17. | It’s hard to row backwards (5) | ||
| STERN | dd – stern also means to ‘row backwards’ | ||
| 20. | Teens and under rampaging, accepted without demur (10) | ||
| UNRESENTED | (TEENS UNDER)* | ||
| 22. | Eclectic Persian holding civet back in front of a place for carpets? (10) | ||
| BESSARABIA | ((RASSE<) in BABI)+A a carpet from Bessarabian, a region mostly of Moldova and Ukraine |
||
| 23. | Kept in step, some nags race here (5) | ||
| EPSOM | hidden: stEP SOMe | ||
| 25. | What a setter suggests … and a superior baker rejects? (6) | ||
| RED-DOG | a pun on (red)Setter – red-dog is a poor type of flour | ||
| 28. | Hindu decorative art, proclaimed, with mixture of oil (7) | ||
| RANGOLI | RANG+(OIL*) | ||
| 31. | First rule ignored by e.g. Franciscan, no life-renter (4) | ||
| FIAR | F(r)IAR | ||
| 32. | One making attempt on Eiger’s face? This’ll aid mountaineer (6) | ||
| ETRIER | TRIER after E(iger) | ||
| 33. | Hock equivalents? Drank less in large measure (6) | ||
| ANKLES | hidden: drANK LESs | ||
| 34. | Tropical rain – poet’s dry at home (6) | ||
| SEREIN | SERE(see sear1)+IN | ||
| 35. | Correspondence that reveals one doting (as of old) on Nelly (9) | ||
| ASSONANCE | ASS+O(n)+NANCE doting means to be foolish, as does ass nance is the same as nancy, the same as nelly, an effeminate man |
||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Roger, do be quiet! United lost (5) | ||
| SHTUP | SH(u)T UP to copulate; reminds me of the urban myth about ‘Captain Pugwash’ and ‘Roger the cabin boy’ |
||
| 2. | Old poet switching parts? Gray measures this (5) | ||
| KERMA | MAKER(an old word for poet) with MA moved to the end | ||
| 3. | Small pocket knife halved minnow (4) | ||
| PENK | PENK(nife) strange clue, as knife is in the clue and used in the word play |
||
| 4. | Visual representation of sound thus transformed organ mass (8) | ||
| SONOGRAM | SO+(ORGAN*)+M | ||
| 5. | Reps energetically taking porcelain round as showmen (9) | ||
| IMPRESARI | (REPS*) in IMARI | ||
| 6. | ____ padrone employed: undraped one possibly (4) | ||
| NUDE | composite anag: UNDRAPED ONE losing PADRONE = (UNED*) | ||
| 7. | Fresh employment in monastery turning out chart (5) | ||
| RE-USE | (chart)REUSE | ||
| 8. | Not 6, but could be made to eat dirt (7) | ||
| ATTIRED | (EAT DIRT)* | ||
| 9. | Large estate, worry and to be broken up (7) | ||
| FAZENDA | FAZE+(AND*) | ||
| 11. | Water-birds spotted in littoral, lustrous (6) | ||
| RALLUS | hidden: littoRAL LUStrous | ||
| 15. | Girl overcome by gripe after cracking long mirror (9, 2 words) | ||
| PIER GLASS | (GRIPE*)+LASS | ||
| 17. | Fruit-based medicine judged about tops (8) | ||
| SEBESTEN | BEST in SEEN | ||
| 18. | Disaster scene, RAF crashing into a peak (7) | ||
| ABERFAN | (RAF*) in A BEN terrible disaster in 1966 at Aberfan — (documentary) |
||
| 19. | Has it had a make-over, using distillation of pine tar? (7) | ||
| REPAINT | (PINE TAR*) | ||
| 21. | Tot in marriage, one of many emerging from Aussie spawn (6) | ||
| TADDIE | ADD in TIE an Australian word for tadpole |
||
| 24. | One’s held up by the weather, treacherous (5) | ||
| SNAKY | (AN<) in SKY(weather) | ||
| 26. | Old sheep, more than half trimmed of fat? (5) | ||
| OLEIC | O+LEIC(ester) | ||
| 27. | Type, after one reversal within, look amused no longer (5) | ||
| GERNE | GENRE with NR switched | ||
| 29. | Love, certainly something proclaimed in Shakespeare (4) | ||
| OYES | O+YES | ||
| 30. | Jock’s unmatched sporran pouches (4) | ||
| ORRA | hidden: spORRAn | ||
| ———
|
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I filled in the paper copy directly (I normally print off a grid from the website, and post in a neat version from ‘The Observer’ review), so it must have been relatively easy. I hope I haven’t made a NOLL,NOLE mistake like I did the week before!
My old Chambers really let me down this week – I had to go Interwebbing to confirm quite a few definitions. I looked all over for ‘maker’ as an old poet – my dictionary gives ‘makar’. I did find a Bengali poet, Ekram (cf KERMA) Ali, but he’s only 60. 🙂
It didn’t help that I always thought roger was the same as goose – a pinch on the botty! Then, when I put ‘shtup, definition’ in Google, the first word that greeted me was …
10A merits a special mention. An alternative solution, ‘hereon’, seemed possible (having a similar meaning to ‘hereof’). Additionally, the cryptic part suggests an alternative parsing: ‘her’ (one’s) following something meaning ‘appearing in court abroad’. The correct reading, however, leaves ‘one’s’ apparently redundant. The explanation lies in its being used as a device to flag the formal nature of the solution.