Nick: Straight Azed this week with no real difficulty – 6/10.
Two slight queries at 33ac and 6dn.
| Across | |||
| 2. | Sober duke, festal possibly, ready to set off with hunt? (10) | ||
| SADDLEFAST | SAD+D+(FESTAL*) | ||
| 10. | Wherein graddan first grew, part of rustic kernel (5) | ||
| ICKER | hidden: rustIC KERnel | ||
| 11. | One gets reverse of thanks in turbulent reign … from such a one? (7) | ||
| INGRATE | (TA<) in (REIGN*) | ||
| 12. | Thomas maybe catching start of rabies then died – not the drink (7, 2 words) | ||
| DRY LAND | (DYLAN[thomas] around R(abies))+D nice misleading definition |
||
| 13. | ‘Very good’ – where you may hear that tucking into snake (5) | ||
| BONZA | NZ in BOA sort of self-referential type clue, although there are no snakes in NZ! |
||
| 15. | ‘Life’s last scene’ – quotation in John? (6) | ||
| DOTAGE | TAG in [john]DOE | ||
| 17. | Moving unsteadily back, pair ending up splits – it includes telephone links (4) | ||
| I-WAY | YAWI(ng)< | ||
| 18. | Junior rep maybe busting gut with beans (8) | ||
| SUBAGENT | (GUT+BEANS)* | ||
| 20. | Noisy old bird, ample after stone’s put on (6) | ||
| STRICH | RICH after ST | ||
| 22. | Spent time with tarts, a great number we hear (6) | ||
| WHORED | homophone: |
||
| 26. | Medicinal powder, i.e. boxes I do try when taken poorly (8) | ||
| IODYRITE | I.E. around (I DO TRY*) | ||
| 27. | Public fountain in Glasgow? Rubbish is seen in more than one of them (4) | ||
| PANT | pun on PANTS=rubbish | ||
| 30. | Old-style candied confection the disciplined ignore (6) | ||
| ERINGO | (IGNORE)* | ||
| 31. | Drinking cup I was last to drink my fill, one over the eight (5) | ||
| KYLIX | (drin)K (m)Y (fil)L+IX (i.e. 9) | ||
| 32. | Bone, if cut from blade, fashioned a pen (7) | ||
| KNEE-PAN | KN(IF)E+(A PEN*) | ||
| 33. | What’s in this? Unfavourably I shall separate (7, 2 words) | ||
| ILL PART | I’LL PART – I don’t get the first 3 words here? | ||
| 34. | Rout at Bannockburn a very long time back – king involved (5) | ||
| SNORE | R in (EONS<) | ||
| 35. | Porky created by young, taking in jaunty drunken sot (10) | ||
| FAIRY STORY | FRY around (AIRY+(SOT*)) C has this as two words |
||
| … Down |
|||
| 1. | Deception to end nap, that is for wee one in nursery? (12) | ||
| KIDDIEWINKIE | KID+DIE+WINK+I.E. | ||
| 2. | Take parts lower in old inventory (6) | ||
| SCROWL | R[take] in SCOWL | ||
| 3. | One who hesitates to bet with buck around? (7) | ||
| DELAYER | DEER around LAY | ||
| 4. | Road up, stages reset to include run for racing cars (9) | ||
| DRAGSTERS | (RD<)+((STAGES*) around R) | ||
| 5. | Billed artistes almost feebly given lift receiving minimum of éclat (6) | ||
| LINE-UP | (E in PUNIL(y))< | ||
| 6. | Odd bits? Sidonie’s turned up (4) | ||
| ENDS | alt. letters reversed SiDoNiE‘s is ‘odd bits’ doing double duty here – unless that is what the question mark is for? |
||
| 7. | Being aligned, one’s first war goes amiss (4) | ||
| AROW | (O(ne)+WAR)* | ||
| 8. | Those born to immigrant parents without East Indian sons (7) | ||
| SANSEIS | SANS+E+I+S | ||
| 9. | We’ll never darken your doorstep, honest, dressed in a suit! (12) | ||
| HEARTSTONES | (HONEST*) in HEARTS | ||
| 14. | Element, not alas for gypsy women (4) | ||
| ZINC | ZINC(alas) | ||
| 16. | Shakespearean most properly present in dissemination of arts (9) | ||
| RATHEREST | THERE in (ARTS*) | ||
| 19. | Coarse tow: the whole lot I cut short mostly from below (7) | ||
| CODILLA | (ALL I DOC(k))< | ||
| 21. | Form of iron e.g. cobbler inserted as reinforcement (7) | ||
| RIPIENO | (IRON*) around PIE | ||
| 23. | Plain American husband – aw gee! (4) | ||
| HOMY | H+O MY! homy=homily=ugly person[US] |
||
| 24. | Taxes wine taken on board ship (6) | ||
| STENTS | TENT in SS | ||
| 25. | Right to commandeer stuff in war – one storehouse ran out (6) | ||
| ANGARY | AN+G(ran)ARY | ||
| 28. | It’s no good leaving very hot shellfish (4) | ||
| PIPI | PIPI(ng) | ||
| 29. | Bill gets out of bed, and likewise out of risqué spot (4) | ||
| SKRY | S(ac)K+R(ac)Y | ||
| … | |||
Thanks, Nick. I think the first three words in 33A ILL PART is a clarification that the solution is not a complete adverb, ‘i.e in bad part’ referring to the absence of ‘in’ in Chambers’ entry: ‘in bad or ill part’.
re 33A
Bob is correct, but I would explain the first three words this way:
‘THIS’ is a reference to the answer – ILL PART
‘IN THIS’ is thus IN ILL PART.
If you look up PART in Chambers it gives “In bad or ill part [=] uhfavourably”
So IN THIS is UNFAVOURABLY – The first FOUR words of the clue go together
re 6 down
I saw no problem with 6 down.
ODD BITS is the definition ENDS is the answer.
The apostrophe S is doing its usual job in the subsidiary indications.
SIDONIE’S means ‘those of SIDONIE’ – i.e. the ODD BITS of SIDONIE.
6/10 — what exactly does that mean? It looks a rather low mark to me for a setter of consistent excellence!
#4 Quixote, the 6 out of 10 mark is just my measure on the difficulty of the puzzle – I base this on how long it takes me, the words I know etc., and also the clues.
I am still not convinced that ‘odds bits’ is not doing double duty here, question mark or not.
Nick
Thanks for the clarification, Norman, and Nick for explaining his marking system. I’ve always wondered myself. However, its null points for ‘hoard’, Nick. This should be ‘horde’, I fancy.
I give you that Bob 😉 I didn’t even think about, as I just thought if you hoard something you end up with a lot of stuff.
Nick
Thanks Azed for the usual enjoyment and Nick for the blog. I agree with Norman@3 about 6dn.
Small point about 8dn: I think this is better read as SANS + EI + S. EI for East Indian is explicitly in Chambers 2011, but I could not find I for Indian.