Almost an unaided finish, but unfortunately I made one slip at 18 down.
I couldn’t quite believe the wordplay and felt WADMEAL, wihch doesn’t exist, was the likely entry, even though the clue leads one unambiguously to the correct WADMAAL. One to remember for next time it crops up somewhere.
The wordplay at 30 across has me beaten, so any enlightenment is welcome there.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | YOUNGEST – YOU + ([ni]G[ht]) in NEST). |
| 11 | PISCATORIAL – (SO PIRATICAL)*. |
| 12 | RHO – homophone of “row”. |
| 15 | ALOGIA – LOGI[c] in AA. |
| 16 | BIBLIOTHECARY – (BIOTECH LIBRA[r]Y)*. |
| 17 | ASSISI – A + S + IS< + IS<, and a nice &lit clue too: A saint is repeatedly recalled here. |
| 19 | CORNI – (IN ROC[k])<. |
| 20 | BASMATI – MAT in BASI[c]. |
| 22 | ERGON – ERGO + [rodi]N. |
| 24 | DOGTAG – T’ in DO GAG. |
| 25 | MONOGRAMMATIC – (MAGIC MOTOR MAN)* and a reference to the fact that the Rolls-Royce logo is indeed a monogram. |
| 28 | ARARAT – A + (RA in ART). |
| 29 | ERA – ERA. |
| 30 | TITANIC ACID – Metal compound? Recalled a lot of banter about nickel infused with tantalum. I’m particularly curious about why the definition is given a question mark, if any boffins are passing. |
| 31 | HOLYROOD – homophone of “wholly rude”. |
| Down | |
| 1 | YERBA DE MATE – YE + R + BADE + MATE. |
| 2 | OPHISM – OP + HIS + M. |
| 3 | NILL – N + ILL. |
| 4 | ECHOISM – ECH + (IS in OM). Another word for onomatopoeia. |
| 5 | SALTIMBANCO – SALT + I’M + BAN + C + 0. |
| 6 | COLECTOMY – (C + TOM) in COLEY. |
| 7 | CROC – CROC[k]. |
| 8 | CIGARETTE – (TIGER CAT) + [knuckl]E. |
| 9 | CAIRN – C + AIR + N[ew]. |
| 10 | PLAYING CARD – (LAYING + CAR) in PD. |
| 13 | OBSIGNATE – OBS + (GNAT in IE). |
| 14 | KISANGANI – (SA in KING) + AN + I. |
| 18 | WADMAAL – AD MA[n] in LAW<. |
| 21 | HAIRDO – I in (HARD + 0). |
| 23 | RORID – OR in RID[e]. |
| 26 | ORAL – [m]ORAL. |
| 27 | AMIR – M in AIR. |
Thanks Simon
Re 30ac. I cannot answer your query regarding the ? but I can parse the clue:
DICACIT[y] (a lot of banter) around NI (nickel) all reversed (recalled) around (infused with) TA (tantalum)
Thanks for that. 30ac was the one question mark I had when solving it. (Literally, and not only in the clue. If I can’t parse the answer, I put a question mark next to the grid to remind myself to look here to see what I failed to spot.) Never heard of dicacity and it it didn’t occur to me to look it up.
Hmm – can’t quite remember why TITANIC ACID got its ? – probably because it felt a better lead-in to the other half of the clue as I was writing it. A colon would have done.