Great cluing from AZED this week.
There are three ‘gotchas’ (mentioned below), and several other clue wordplays that are truly great. A joy to be able to complete it, which I think, after 30 odd years of doing crosswords does prove you do improve 🙂
Due to the fact the grid can be completed without having to work out each clue part (i.e. using computer/dictionary searches), I give this 6/10, but as some of the clues are (or seem) so unique, I will make it 7.5/10.
Bad news at 22dn; being a (50ish) elderly lager lout, I think this clue definition is wrong 🙁
Good stuff!
| Across | |||
| 1. | Tailor fascinating woman who’s rounded thigh parts with time (10) | ||
| WHIPSTITCH | HIPS+T in WITCH a word for a tailor, apparently |
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| 11. | Part of rhythm section has almost kept within beat (5) | ||
| HI-HAT | HA(s) in HIT clapping cymbals drivel by a foot pedal – old memories of ‘top of the pops’ intro here for me |
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| 12. | Plane mostly flying out for Jewish festival (7) | ||
| SHAVUOT | SHAV(e)[plane]+(OUT*) see SHABUOTH in Chambers |
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| 13. | Type of veggie to exert influence moulding circles (8) | ||
| OVOLACTO | ACT in OVOLO(a type of moulding) ‘circles’ here indicates OVOLO goes around ‘ACT’ |
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| 14. | Fleet Street’s first to be nosy (4) | ||
| SPRY | S+PRY | ||
| 16. | Greenland native originally grinding pearl ash (8, 2 words) | ||
| HARP SEAL | (PEARL ASH*) | ||
| 17. | Booty (from NA) that is offloaded by buccaneer, tons (5)k | ||
| PRATT | P(i)RAT(e)+T ‘that is’ = i.e., which correctly have to be removed in order from ‘pirate’ to make the clue sound |
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| 19. | Composer giving final touches to sonata for violin and oboe (4) | ||
| ARNE | last letters from ‘sonata for violin and oboe‘ is the ‘and’ superfluous or a ‘link’ word? |
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| 20. | Monkeys use chimps, note, roughly (13) | ||
| SEMNOPITHECUS | (USE CHIMPS NOTE*) a genus of monkeys |
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| 22. | In Rome I love catching bishop in pulpit (4) | ||
| AMBO | B in AMO(Latin for love, not Italian, which I first checked for) | ||
| 24. | Empty moneybox? Put pound in (5) | ||
| BLANK | L in BANK a simple clue that I couldn’t see for ages |
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| 26. | Patron, a menace when drunk requiring seconds (8) | ||
| MAECENAS | (A MENACE*)+S | ||
| 29. | It shortly fills extra storage space (4) | ||
| BYTE | (i)T in BYE clever clue – it steers the mind away from the real solution |
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| 30. | Wild onion in a set that’s rotten, separate gaseously (8) | ||
| ATMOLYSE | MOLY(wild onion) in (A SET*) | ||
| 31. | Arty US type dislikes the telethon hosts (7) | ||
| ESTHETE | hidden: dislikES THE TElethon ‘hosts’ the verb here; great clue… took me a long while to see it |
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| 32. | Deity lacking colour in biblical text? The opposite (5) | ||
| WOTAN | OT in WAN(not WAN in OT) the first ‘gotcha clue’ – need to solve the wordplay, else the more common ‘WODAN’ looks good as the solution |
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| 33. | Suitor having to pay attention when tricky parent’s around (10) | ||
| PRETENDANT | TEND in (PARENT*) | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Hollers, ‘Silly me!’ (6) | ||
| WHOOPS | dd good stuff – when first read, how can a clue be so concise? |
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| 2. | Apiarist creating reaction to cold with removal of lid? (5) | ||
| HIVER | (s)HIVER | ||
| 3. | Source of oil? It may be greased (4) | ||
| PALM | cdd my first entry in the grid |
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| 4. | A little to soak up with careful handling held pipette (11) | ||
| STACTOMETER | TACT in (SOME+(RET<)) the second ‘gotcha clue’ – can also be spelt with a ‘k’, so you do need to work out the wordplay correctly |
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| 5. | Handlebar maybe shows this clasp nipped by rodent (4) | ||
| TACH | (mous)TACH(e) handlebar moustache } |
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| 6. | One gets hotter messing around with this radioactive mineral (7) | ||
| THORITE | (HOTTER*) with I | ||
| 7. | Pigment from pan chap smeared round forehead (11) | ||
| CAPPAH-BROWN | (PAN CHAP*) around BROW | ||
| 8. | Divine grotto, quiet mostly, housing freshwater fishes (8) | ||
| LUPERCAL | PERCA(genus of fishes, namely perch) in LUL(l) | ||
| 9. | Holy book posing question before answer, note (5) | ||
| QORAN | Q+OR(before)+A+N the third ‘gotcha clue’ – so easy to enter ‘KORAN’ here if not worked out correctly |
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| 10. | Design index for old literary work (5) | ||
| STYLE | three definitions | ||
| 12. | Population that’s frozen e.g. to stuff full of curried balti (9)k | ||
| STABILATE | (BALTI*) in SATE(to stuff) | ||
| 15. | Redshank (rare): marks lay buried in an identifier turning up (8) | ||
| GAMBETTA | M+BET(lay, as in a bet) in (A TAG<) | ||
| 18. | Urchin-like, in ragged panties (7) | ||
| SPINATE | (PANTIES*) | ||
| 21. | Slope at Aviemore? What’ll be seen there is going fast (6) | ||
| SKLENT | SK(is)+LENT very cryptic – take ‘is’ from what could be seen at Aviemore (skis) then add a word for ‘fast’ = lent |
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| 22. | Like Castlemaine fluid, a medium drink, one English put away? (5) | ||
| AMBER | A+M+BE(e)R surely the clue is wrong? Fosters is the ‘amber nectar’, Castlemaine is ‘XXXX’ |
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| 23. | Discarded form of auxiliary mass stay mobilized (5) | ||
| MAYST | M+(STAY*) very difficult clue to read and work out |
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| 25. | March/April for some? If so it’s mean for men (5) | ||
| NISAN | Phew: To make ‘MEN’=’MEAN’, N is AN | ||
| 27. | Escort protects maiden, any of several birds (4) | ||
| SMEE | M in SEE | ||
| 28. | Latin in school, may be PC (4) | ||
| PLOD | L in POD(school of whales) PC Plod… great clue again, but this will perhaps defeat a few people |
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| …… | |||
Thanks for that The Trafites. The definition in 5d is ‘clasp’, a very devious clue. I think 22d is fine as Fosters pinched the phrase, possibly from Barry Mckenzie. Somewhere I have a very old Punch cartoon, two ducks on a pond, one is saying ‘I’m a smee, I’m only found in crosswords’.
Thanks for that The Trafites. The definition in 5d is ‘clasp’, a very devious clue. I think 22d is fine as Fosters pinched the phrase, possibly from Barry Mckenzie. Somewhere I have a very old Punch cartoon, two ducks on a pond, one is saying ‘I’m a smee, I’m only found in crosswords’.
Can’t let Sidey have all the posts! 🙂
Thanks, Traffites. I completed this one but was stuck for a few explanations of the parsing.
13. I was convinced the Os were the circles so couldn’t explain the rest.
4. Couldn’t see this construction at all.
5. I thought ‘nipped by rodent’ was superfluous, – didn’t notice the ‘mouse’!
9. I assumed AN was answer and wondered why ‘note’ was there.
25. Phew, indeed – well done – how long did that penny take to drop?
On the plus side, I really loved the clue for SKLENT – beautiful surface and construction. PLOD was very neat, too.
I entered MAYST, then rubbed it out, then remembered bits about ‘may I’ and ‘can I’ and auxiliary verbs.
I also wondered how I was going to fit 4 Xs in a 5-letter word. 😉