Nick: Nice AZED this week, which I rate 7/10 on the ‘AZED hardness’ scale.
Some novel cluing going on, e.g. 12ac and 23dn. My last in was 20ac, which took me a while to parse correctly.
| Across | |||
| 1. | One aboard Dutch fishing vessel to plague European neighbour? (9) | ||
| DOGGERMAN | charade of ‘DOG GERMAN’ a dogger is a Dutch fishing boat |
||
| 11. | Ale old Nan brewed for the whole group (9, 3 words) | ||
| ONE AND ALL | (ALE OLD NAN*) | ||
| 12. | Tapestry yarn wife kept in basket or old pot – little left (6) | ||
| CREWEL | W in CREEL(basket) and CREWE(a pot)+L two subsidary wordplays |
||
| 13. | West African castle, back to front (4) | ||
| KROO | ROOK with the ‘K’ moved to the front a West African from the coast of Liberia |
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| 14. | Synagogue ‘performer’ hard on muezzin’s effort? (5) | ||
| HAZAN | H+AZAN my late father used to tell me that the muezzin was shouting “can somebody bring me a ladder!” |
||
| 15. | ‘Desert Rat’, awful bore? Rommel’s certainly admitting it (6) | ||
| JERBOA | (BORE*) in JA(German for yes, certainly, hence ref. to Rommel) | ||
| 18. | Duke provided class, unlike of old (7) | ||
| DIFFORM | D+IF(provided)+FORM | ||
| 19. | Jock’s trick has confounded earlier bid (6) | ||
| SHAVIE | (HAS*)+VIE(a bid in cards) obscure Scottish word |
||
| 20. | Scottish reel: it is not permitted with English, thrill for Scots (6) | ||
| DINNLE | DIN+NL+E the Scottish word ‘reel’ means ‘(a) din’; NL=non licet, Latin for ‘not permitted’ another obscure Scottish word |
||
| 22. | To camp out in US, I occupied a position with silence all round (6) | ||
| SIWASH | I+WAS in SH | ||
| 24. | Top CD with former lover to the fore? (6) | ||
| EXCEED | EX+’CEE D’ | ||
| 25. | Offspring catching a caterpillar in the grass (7) | ||
| SACATON | A CAT in SON a type of coarse grass |
||
| 27. | Agreed sound quality in … (6) | ||
| ATONED | TONE in (see next clue) AD(commercial) | ||
| 28. | … Commercial plugging dwarf creeper (5) | ||
| TOADY | AD in TOY | ||
| 30. | Pacific coral island undiluted except for odd bits (4) | ||
| NIUE | alternate letters from uNdIlUtEd | ||
| 31. | Second-generation immigrant, Carmen — adapts to Americanness (6) | ||
| SANSEI | composite anagram: AMERICANNESS minus CARMEN = (AINESS*) this clue is perhaps wrong here – Chambers states this word is Japanese for ‘third generation’ |
||
| 32. | Typical of thuggish type thrilling girl in love? Not very (9) | ||
| GORILLINE | (GIRL IN LOVE*) | ||
| 33. | Lid-lifter casts gaze on Herts community (9) | ||
| EYESTRING | EYES+TRING(town in Herts) the muscle that raises the eyelid |
||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Size of slate, Dutch, used to cover part of pontoon deck (7) | ||
| DUCHESS | DU+CHESS2 a roof slate 24″x12″ |
||
| 2. | Old Semitic tongue, one lost at start of century before OT book? (4) | ||
| GE’EZ | (a)GE+EZ old language of Ethiopia |
||
| 3. | Wild daisy, green and pale (5) | ||
| GOWAN | GO+WAN green=go, think of traffic lights |
||
| 4. | A miscellany of lieder collected in the past (6) | ||
| RELIDE | (LIEDER*) | ||
| 5. | Mosque menial allowing Jesuits in (6) | ||
| MASJID | SJ(Society of Jesus, see jesuit) in MAID | ||
| 6. | Protective temple ornaments – insurance company protects ten if damaged (8) | ||
| ANTEFIXA | (TEN IF*) in AXA | ||
| 7. | E.g. stirrups, see, on Arab that’s uncontrolled without one (8) | ||
| EARBONES | (SEE ON [a]RAB*) | ||
| 8. | US party boss to knock flat with editorial (11, 2 words) | ||
| FLOOR LEADER | FLOOR+LEADER | ||
| 9. | Earthenware duck inside shell (5) | ||
| CLOAM | O in CLAM | ||
| 10. | Progress with arms support to China I organized (11) | ||
| BRACHIATION | BRA+(TO CHINA I*) | ||
| 16. | Women in scarlet stuff take in unfashionable bar (8) | ||
| LAWCOURT | (W in LAC(scarlet stuff))+(R in OUT) | ||
| 17. | Deviant rites among artful kind (8) | ||
| SISTERLY | (RITES*) in SLY | ||
| 21. | Tide rising it leaves dingy at sea going round and round (7) | ||
| EDDYING | ((ti)DE<)+(DINGY*) | ||
| 23. | To walk swayingly after the Scotch, ex-footballer, male imbibes rum litre (6) | ||
| HODDLE | ODD+L in HE plus two defs – HODDLE=to waddle, and Glen HODDLE, the footballer AZED could have missed an opportunity here, as Chris WADDLE was also a footballer |
||
| 24. | Political slogan succeeded after revolutionary noise (6) | ||
| ENOSIS | S(ucceeded) after (NOISE*) rallying cry of the Greek Cypriot movement for union with Greece |
||
| 25. | Organs played orally, centre of tongues inserted in bar (5) | ||
| SANGS | (ton)G(ues) in SANS see sang2 – chinese mouth organs |
||
| 26. | Sight a —? Strange – can you spot the organism? (5) | ||
| MONER | composite anagram: THE ORGANISM minus SIGHT A=(EORNM*) | ||
| 29. | Wine from east Italy? North-west actually (4) | ||
| ASTI | hidden: eAST Italy? | ||
| … | |||
Nick, I also found this hard and was grateful that it wasn’t my turn to do the blog, as I didn’t finish it until Friday evening. Even then I didn’t understand the wordplay for DINNLE, so thanks for your explanation (it was the last one to go in for me as well). However I think you’re mistaken in your criticism of the clue for SANSEI, as although it may mean third generation in Japanese, the definition in Chambers “born of the offspring of Japanese immigrant parents” seems to fit the clue pretty well.
bridgesong, not a ‘criticism’, just an observation 😉
Nick
Pretty tough, but I’m finding today’s harder! I loved the JERBOA clue.
Thanks for the blog, Nick. I didn’t finish it! I gave up on 5 of them – my old Chambers let me down and I didn’t have enough enthusiasm to go a’Googlin’.
I found ‘grandchildren of immigrants’ (Wiki) for SANSEI which is the same as bridgesong’s definition. I presumed the clue meant the second generation born in the country.
I’d never heard of Niue. Then, lo and behold, it was in the news for splitting its royal wedding stamp in two.
AJK – horses for courses. I found this week’s much easier although I’ve still got a couple to solve.