A nifty design where the perimeter is comprised of four hyphenated repeats
Across
1 Spa’s private room asked for during Prohibition BADEN-BADEN
DEN (private room) BADE (asked) all in BAN (prohibition)
11 English sailor brought in catch – fur seal SEA BEAR
E (English) AB (sailor) in SEAR (catch)
12 Recalled a little information DATA A TAD< (a little back)
14 An éclair’s adulterated with poison ARSENICAL (AN ÉCLAIR’S)*
15 Company backing man in playing position OCHE CO< (company backing) HE
17 Swimming snakes not losing oxygen NAIANT NAIA (snakes) N(o)T
18 Nurse put in dull old note GREENY (£1) EN (nurse) in GREY (dull)
19 Unpleasant stuff from Rev Kirkpatrick? GUNK
GUN (rev[olver]) K (Kirkpatrick)
21 Roof collapsed amidst burning damage to supports? HOOF-ROT
(ROOF)* in HOT (burning)
23 US writer’s spirit almost entirely quenched ANGELOU (Maya)
ANGEL (spirit) OU[t] (quenched almost entirely)
26 Old fetish: headless West Indian fish OBIA [c]OBIA (WI fish)
27 Success in restricting harmful material for bats WILLOW (cricket)
ILL (harmful) in WOW (success)
28 King’s position: all for one having slavery THRALL
THRONE (king’s position) swapping ONE for ALL
31 Side spurning new criticism FLAK FLANK (side) minus N (new)
33 Religious movement, when reforming, accepting agitator ousting new NEW CHURCH CHUR[n] (agitator minus N) in (WHEN)* cannot explain the C
34 Scandalous conclusion to marriage? GAMY dd –GAMY as suffix means marriage
35 All upset about cold cuppa with milk LACTEAL
C (cold) TEA (cuppa) in (ALL)*
36 Unknown section from informal language: it means ‘essential oil’
YLANG-YLANG Y (unknown) SLANGY (informal minus S (section)) LANG[uage]
Down
2 Old character remains on the radio? AESC sounds like ASH (remains)
3 Hanging around aircraft, mostly showing style DASHINGLY
SHI[p] (aircraft mostly) in DANGLY (hanging)
4 Flowering plant occupying corner in England NERINE
hidden in [cor]NER IN E[ngland]
5 African people go round clutching Old Testament BASOTHO
OT (old testament) in BASH (go) O (round)
6 Region about to appear in articles AREA RE (about) in A A (articles)
7 Railway carriage, old, ready for America? DINERO Spanish word for money
DINER (railway carriage) O (old)
8 Correct trend picked up EDIT TIDE< (trend up)
9 Jars: one on rug’s knocked over STAMNOI I (one) ON MATS<
10 Wino, cornered by teetotaller, heading off perverse chatter TALKY-TALKY
ALKY (wino) in TT (teetotaller) [b]ALKY (perverse)
13 Vine’s succeeded – currently rising with nuts around WONGA-WONGA
WON (succeeded) NOW< (currently rising) in GAGA (nuts)
16 Infusion – heart able to be treated HERBAL TEA (HEART ABLE)*
20 Higher education arrangement less than perfect? UNIDEAL
UNI (higher education) DEAL (arrangement)
22 Excel in theatrical beauty, as encapsulated by rising actress OUTBRAG
UT (as) in GARBO< (actress rising)
24 Lake I accepted will show discharge LOCHIA LOCH (lake) I A (accepted)
25 Caught cricket club boarding boat – sweet CHOCCY
C (caught) CC (cricket club) in HOY (boat)
29 Acid commonly removing centre in aluminium ACYL C[ommonl]Y in AL
30 Wound in arms: very unpleasant, large and nasty at first VULN
V[ery] U[npleasant] L[arge] N[asty]
32 Guy on shore losing daughter ALAN
ALAND (on shore) minus D (daughter)
( )* = anagram [ ] = omit < = reverse dd = double definition
definitions in bold italics
Having a trees not woods kind of mind I completed it without seeing the wit and ingenuity of the perimeter entries. Fortunately my significant other enlightened me.
Great puzzle (as always) and thanks Jed for the blog.
Same here, CC, except that I have no significant other to point this out, and didn’t spot it till I read this blog.
Well, having only JUST got round to completing this after our return from holiday we needed to check the blog for 36 ac as we couldn’t parse it! So thanks to Jed for the explanation.
Thankfully we did see the perimeter doubles which helped a lot, especially as we have a few more Beelzebub puzzles to catch up on!