Definitely one from the hard end of the Azed scale. Starting this last Sunday morning, I failed to solve more than a smattering of clues, so I put it aside and didn’t get back to it till Saturday. I hoped that the muses would be kinder to me then, but it was hard work to finish it off. I think this was a least partly due to an unusually high proportion of unfamiliar words (or, as in 24a for example, a familiar word given an obscure definition).
| Across | ||
| 1. Dandy returned cereal in antique cupboard (8) | ||
| BEAUFFET | BEAU (dandy) + reverse of TEFF(an Ethiopean cereal grass) | |
| 7. Scottish bear top BBC official released from net (4) | ||
| DREE | DREDGE less D[irector] G[eneral]. “Bear” as a verb in the sense “tolerate” | |
| 10. It’s hard in varied tree range (10) | ||
| GREENHEART | H in (TREE RANGE)* &lit | |
| 11. Thicket has stunted old hedge (4) | ||
| SHAW | S (“has”, stunted) + HAW (old word for hedge) | |
| 12. Fortress devastation mostly overturned, dammit (6) | ||
| CASBAH | Reverse of SAC[k] + BAH! | |
| 14. Fish to eat? He fumbled with it imbibing spirituous liquor (8) | ||
| TERAKIHI | RAKI in (HE IT)*. A bit of a dictionary chase here: Terakihi in Chambers refers to the spelling “tarakihi”, defined as “a morwong”, which is “an Australian food fish” | |
| 16. Fashion, integral part of futurism, I think (5) | ||
| SMITH | Hidden in futuriSM I THink. Finally an easy clue! | |
| 18. A plate of insects from Roman province, second held back till last (4) | ||
| GULA | GAUL, with the A moved to the end. The “plate of insects” is a protective structure on an insects back, nothing to do with I’m a celebrity, ger me out of here. | |
| 19. Fishing vessel – or what she resembles closely? (9) | ||
| HERRINGER | What she resembles closely is “HER RINGER” | |
| 20. Arab with power vested in observance – one on the make (9) | ||
| ARRIVISTE | AR + VIS in RITE | |
| 22. Backward lout retaining name as astringent (4) | ||
| KINO | N in reverse of OIK | |
| 24. Coarse linen that goes into the making of Lycra shirts (5) | ||
| CRASH | HIdden in LyCRA SHirts – easy wordplay but using an obscure definition | |
| 26. Cut back on fish, limiting recipe (8) | ||
| RETRENCH | R in RE (on) TENCH | |
| 29. Messenger more open to view clutching latest from battle (6) | ||
| BEARER | [battl]E in BARER | |
| 30. Pen brief CV including last item in career (4) | ||
| BIRO | [caree]R in BIO[graphy] | |
| 31. Not disputing a tennis set, injured (10) | ||
| ASSENTIENT | (A TENNIS SET)* | |
| 32. Sandal wood (old-style) gate (4) | ||
| GETA | GATE*. “Wood2” is Scots or Shakespearian (hence “old-style”) “mad, fierce, furious” | |
| 33. Fairy’s kept in by swirling snow, not wanting drill? (8) | ||
| SELF-SOWN | ELF’S in SNOW* | |
| Down | ||
| 1. Punch ruined carousal (4) | ||
| BUST | Triple definition | |
| 2. To propound theories about myth, he and I use mere waffle (10) | ||
| EUHEMERISE | (HE I USE MERE)* | |
| 3. Fungus – farming in short must contain one (6) | ||
| AGARIC | I in AGRIC[ulture] | |
| 4. Old Scottish tenor did this with last bit of folk (4) | ||
| FECK | FEC – abbreviation of Latin “fecit” = [he] did (or made) [this] – + [fol]K . Interestingly and rather surprisingly, Chambers doesn’t give the “Father Ted” sense of this word. | |
| 5. Literary society paid money to hold ancient books, German (9) | ||
| FELIBRIGE | LIBRI (Latin for “books”) + G in FEE (money paid) | |
| 6. Opposite of us up north, with the intention to be rid of English (5) | ||
| THAIM | THE AIM less E – Scots form of “them” | |
| 7. Draughtsman lumping it when extreme characters are switched (8) | ||
| DESIGNER | RESIGNED (“lumping it”) with its outer letters exchanged | |
| 8. In gathering of spring grain, crop first half of cabbage (4) | ||
| RABI | [KOHL]RABI | |
| 9. Popular controller managing the ranch (8) | ||
| ETHNARCH | (THE RANCH)* – “popular” as in “of the people” rather than “liked” | |
| 13. It has its own key, being within all eight? (10, 2 words) | ||
| ALLEN SCREW | ENS (being) in ALL CREW (eight, as in rowing) | |
| 15. I’ll provide stuff for those bowing – and scraping? (9) | ||
| HORSETAIL | I think this refers to the fact that horse [tail] hair is used to make both barristers’ wigs (“those bowing”) and violin bows (“scraping”) | |
| 16. Fighting cock, beak ripping into old quail (8) | ||
| SHAKE-BAG | BEAK in SHAG (shag and quail are both obsolete words for, as Chambers puts it, a whore) | |
| 17. Thyroid inhibitor hit a roué being treated (8) | ||
| THIOUREA | (HIT A ROUE)* | |
| 21. Revered figure I cloaked in loose old gown (6) | ||
| MANITO | I in MANTO – form of “manteau”, a 17-18c woman’s loose gown, cf. “mantle” | |
| 23. Serving girls having to get right inside nasty spots (5) | ||
| WRENS | R in WENS. The Wrens were the female branch of the Royal Navy (my late mother was briefly a member during WW2, though she always claimed they spent most of their time doing amateur dramatics), incorporated into the RN in 1993 | |
| 25. What’ll make one change veal to duck? It’s considerable (4) | ||
| VAST | V AS T would change VEAL to TEAL | |
| 27. Bank charging nothing? Head should be forced to last! (4) | ||
| REEF | FREE with the first letter moved to the end | |
| 28. Aussie sledger (maybe) against pursuing moderation (4) | ||
| HOON | HO (moderation – apparently from “ho!” meaning “stop!”) + ON (against). Hoon is an Australian/NZ word for a lout or yob, and to sledge is a cricketing term meaning to upset a batsman’s concentration by insulting him, as such a person might do. | |
15. HORSETAIL. I interpreted “those bowing” as the violinists, and the scraping to refer to the plant horsetail, also known as scouring-rush, formerly used for scouring pos and pans.