The usual Azed, where the wordplay is so precise that you can often be pretty sure of the answers without knowing the words. I solved most of this when away for the weekend and came home with many unknown words written by the clues but not yet in the grid, ready for me to look them up in Chambers.
I thought that 19dn was very good, but my godson had a point when he opined that the ‘e.g.’ takes away from the surface reading. However, Azed (but not all setters, including some in The Times) clearly abhors a definition by example. And rightly so in my opinion.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 Liable to have been pelted with rotten veg, thus conk-tip’s battered? (12)
STOCKPUNISHT
(thus conk-tip’s)*
10 Amateur music society, English, going into wards, often? (8)
ORPHEANS
E in orphans, who are often wards
12 Extract from Annal of India not particularly well reproduced (4)
LO-FI
Hidden in AnnaL OF India — lo-fi as opposed to hi-fi. This defeated me for a while because I thought it led to LOFI, a word I didn’t know that meant not particularly well reproduced.
13 Bone left in Church, riddled? (6)
CRIBLÉ
C(rib l)E
14 Shape for cooking the French put on counter (6)
DUMPLE
dump le — dump = counter, le = the French
15 Old sewer? Not old when fish is found in it (5)
NEELE
n(eel)e
17 Feature of e.g. Arnhem road damaged in blast (8)
PARADROP
(road)* in parp
18 Minor planet, dry and cold when viewed from behind (5)
CERES
(sere c)rev.
20 Spy dropping out acquires unprepared bit if thin turf (5)
SCRAW
At least this is what the clue says, both in the paper and on the website, but it looks to me as if it should be ‘of’ not ‘if’ — sc{out} raw
22 Central heating working properly when on, making Scots fidget (5)
HOTCH
hot CH — when it’s working properly the central heating is hot
23 Meat preservative? Portion of tripe treated (5)
PETRE
Hidden in triPE TREated
25 After the tide turns, former drudge becomes … (8)
AESTHETE
(sea)rev. thete, the definition ‘One absorbed by arts’ in the following clue
28 … One absorbed by arts, adrift in ‘rock period’? (5)
TRIAS
1 in (arts)*
29 Acting against gossip from the past, the old move on (6)
AVAUNT
a v aunt
31 Count no longer fed with duck or fruit pudding (6)
COMPOT
comp(0)t
32 Old mount is obliging, moving rear to the front (4)
STIE
ties with the rear letter moved to the front
33 X inscribed in leaf – it involves interaction with the public (8)
FRONT-END
fron(ten)d
34 En suite trend transformed, rendering one apathetic? (12)
UNINTERESTED
(En suite trend)*
Down
2 The old wag that could cause annoyance if penning book (6)
TROULE
If troule pens b you get trouble
3 Computer group with particular functions maybe approach apparatus (7)
CHIPSET
chip set — chip as in golf, maybe an approach
4 Film star princess appearing endlessly in film? (4)
KELL
Kell{y} — ref Grace Kelly, who became Princess Grace of Monaco
5 The old man has bottled beer in this receptacle (5)
PALEA
p(ale)a
6 Lift ban on exercise involving neuter dog (7)
UNCURSE
u(n cur)se
7 Lake neglected, furious about how it ends, overgrown (5)
IVIED
{l}ivi(e)d — the e comes from the end of ‘lake’ — how it ends
8 Salt from America coming up before reprimand (8)
SUBERATE
(US)rev. berate
9 Who’s bemused about the whole bang shoot? Bless! (6)
HALLOW
(Who)* around all
10 Nick Compton’s opener featuring in varied Lord’s chat (10, 2 words)
OLD SCRATCH
C{ompton} in (Lord’s chat)* — Nick the devil
11 Edward aboard his bathyscape? It’s in the blood (10)
DEEP-SEATED
If Edward is aboard his bathyscape he can be referred to whimsically as ‘deep-sea Ted’
16 Some primates, old-maidish about bits of obscene speech I repeated (8)
PROSIMII
pr(o{bscene} s{peech})im I I
19 Gaiety e.g. as mad Hatter grabs dormouse’s tail (7)
THEATRE
(Hatter)* round {dormous}e — ref the Gaiety Theatre
21 Switches part of current account put into reserve funds (7)
RECASTS
CA in rests — reserve funds = rests, nothing about res = reserve here
22 E.g. dynamite blasted iron junk? (6)
HEROIN
H.E. (iron)* — H.E. is High Explosive
24 Might it be synonymous with ‘sublingual’, artist muses? (6)
RANINE
RA Nine — the Nine Muses
26 Gettin’ the measure of a simple putt (5)
TAP-IN
tapin’
27 What pipe cleaner clears round half of bowl – something you get with a pipe (5)
TABOR
ta(bo{wl})r
30 Climber from Argentina getting lost at head of gorge (4)
VINE
{ra}vine — Argentina is R.A.
*anagram
Thanks for the blog, John. It took me best part of a week, on and off, to finish this, but when I finally cracked 1 across, things seemed to fall into place.
I agree about 19 down, which I also thought was a very good clue. However, I’d be inclined to raise an objection to it if the “e.g.” wasn’t there. “Gaiety” as a definition of “theatre” would be pushing things a bit, but “Gaiety, for example” seems fine to me.