Another very tough week, I found. Let’s hope it’s not just me losing my faculties.
This took quite a lot of looking things up on the internet to finish, not least because there were several proper nouns/names involved, which meant that Chambers was less of a help than usual. Still, there’s no harm in extending one’s general knowledge from time to time.
17 across could use confirmation.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SUGAR SNAP PEA – (ASPARAGUS + NEP)*. |
| 10 | LINNAEUS – LINN + (E in AUS). A LINN is a “force” as in waterfall, while Carl Linnaeus was the chap who began the system of biological classification used to this day. |
| 11 | AMOK – A MOK[e]. |
| 13 | STRATA – ST + RATA. |
| 14 | NO-MAN’S-LAND – (N + S + LAN[e]) in NOMAD. |
| 15 | GEORGIC – GEORGI[a] + C. |
| 17 | OURS – I think this is [l]OURS, but I can’t find a source for “ours” meaning “of the monarch”. The clue was Looks gloomy, without leadership of the monarch. |
| 19 | SURCOAT – CO in SURAT. |
| 21 | HUMMUMS – HUM + MUMS. |
| 23 | ALGA – [m]AL[a]GA. |
| 24 | DEBACLE – (A + B + C + D + E)* + LE. |
| 25 | INGOLSTADT – (LAST* + D) in INGOT. |
| 27 | GALLEY – GALLE[r]Y. A “galley proof” is an first draft of e.g. an article for publication. |
| 28 | ETUI – E + TUI. |
| 29 | SISYPHUS – homophone of “sissy fuss”. |
| 30 | REASSESSMENT – (STRESSES NAME)*. |
| Down | |
| 1 | SLANG-WHANGER – SLANG + W + HANGER. A great word meaning “one railing” as in complaining or ranting. A “slang” is a watch chain, while a “hanger” is a short sword. |
| 2 | GNOMON – OM in NONG<. NONG is “Victorian” as in Australia, rather than late eighteenth century. |
| 3 | RAIN – [d]RAIN. |
| 4 | SENSISM – (N + S) in SEISM. |
| 5 | ASTAIRE – STAIR in (A + E). Fred, of course. |
| 6 | PERNOCTATE – PER + (C in NOTATE). |
| 7 | PRAD – R in PAD. PAD and PRAD are indeed both words which can refer to horses. |
| 8 | ENTHRALL – from ENTHRone, with ALL in place of “one”. |
| 9 | ANAESTHETIST – H in (IN A STATE SET)*. |
| 12 | KARAMANLIS – (ARA + MAN) in SILK<. Konstantinos Karamanlis was unfamiliar to me. |
| 16 | EVULGATE – E + VULGATE. |
| 18 | BURGESS – B + URGES + S. That’s “strangeness” in its specific scientific sense, and Anthony Burgess of “A Clockwork Orange” fame, amongst other works. |
| 20 | USELESS – Monica SELES in US. |
| 22 | SCATHE – SCAT + HE[w]. |
| 25 | ILEA – I LEA[d]. |
| 26 | SAYS – S[t]AYS. |
Don’t recall this taking too long last week, but 6dn and 8dn I couldn’t parse. 8dn was obvious from the definition, but 6dn I had to search Chambers for and I was sidetracked in parsing it by assuming “pen” was “write” and then got stuck.
17ac I thought this was the monarch using the first person plural when referring to themselves, as in “We are not amused.”
Aha, the royal “we”. Yes, that does make sense, thanks.
The late and unlamented Queen Mary, whenever she took a fancy to an artefact in someone’s residence, used to say ‘you have our permission to present us with that’.
Beelzebub is still my highlight of the week. Long may the lesser spotted Phi (as John Henderson calls him) reign.
This was one of mine, so thank you for the comments, but please don’t overlook Colin Gumbrell’s contributions.
Back to ‘If it’s Tuesday, this must be Tewkesbury’ mode (the other half was born here, so we had to make the pilgrimage, being in Cheltenham and all).
Phi, I would not ever dream of overlooking CG’s contributions. (Are you still turn and turn about btw?) Despite the joy of Dac, I am still in mourning for the lack of a Columba on Wednesdays.