Azed 2238 – Fifteensquared

After my run of specials, it’s almost a relief to have “just” a Plain Azed to blog. I didn’t get off too lightly, though: I did about three-quarters of this quite quickly and without aids, but ground to a halt to in NE corner and took longer to do that than the rest of the clues put together. Some of the parsing was tricky to work out, but I hope I’ve got everything satisfactorily explained. Thanks as always to Azed.

Across
1.	PUPPY FAT	Pressure mounted on wretched pa, 50? Not if it goes with maturity (8, 2 words) P + UP + (PA FIFTY)* less IF
11.	YELLOWCAKE	Metallic solution – something like lemon sponge? (10) A lemon sponge might be a YELLOW CAKE
12.	STAPH	Cause of e.g. pneumonia or recurrent mild strokes requiring hospital (5) PATS< + H
13.	DEARIE	Blossom, say, to wither at edges of auricle (6) EAR (auricle) in DIE – reference to the jazz singer Blossom Dearie
14.	TROT	One of Macbeth’s witches, initiator of toil or ditto of trouble, boiling? (4) Anagram (just about) of T[oil] OR T[rouble]. TROT is an old word for “and old woman, a crone”: it appears in The Taming of the Shrew: “Why give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby; or an old trot with ne’er a tooth in her head?”
15.	MACEDON	Edward’s tucking into wine in Philip’s place (7) ED in MACON – reference to the ancient Greek Philip II of Macedon (there were Philips I and III as well, but they seem to be less famous)
16.	GADI	Symbol of Raj state severally dropped by Gandhi? (4) GANDHI less NH (New Hampshire), “severally” indicating that the N and H are not consecutive. GADI is “an Indian throne”
17.	STILETTO	Dagger produced by drunk forced to retreat in argument (8) LIT< in SET-TO
19.	RICCIA	Genus of liverworts: 201 found in submerged valley (6) CCI in RIA
24.	SARNIE	No time for bottled retsina? Certain bars will serve it (6) RETSINA* less T
25.	DANCETTY	Heavily scored and suitable for discos (alcohol-free inside) (8) TT (teetotal) in DANCEY (like disco music)
27.	ALAS	Woe created by mild smallpox, being out of trim (4) ALAS[TRIM]
28.	CAPSTAN	Device for winding pasta one cut and put in tin (7) P[A]STA in CAN
30.	DUSH	Part of Hindu shrine that gives Scots quite a jolt (4) Hidden hinDU SHrine
31.	ACCITE	To hail, as a rickshaw, doubling emolument initially (6) Reverse of TICCA (Indian word for “hired”, as a rickshaw might be) + E[molument]
32.	PISTE	Place for e.g. fencing enlarged by adding part, we hear (5) Homophone of “pieced” – Chambers gives “to enlarge by adding a piece” as a definition of “piece”. A piste can be an area used for fencing
34.	TORTELLINI	Italian dish? Orderin’ in receptacles (10) TELLIN’ in TORI (plural of torus: “the receptacle of a flower”)
35.	MISTIMED	Almost an air shot, lower back being out of sync? (8) MIS[S] (an air shot on golf is a miss) + DEMIT<
Down
1.	POSTGRADUATE	Spot urge a tad deviant in aspiring doctor? (12) (SPOT URGE A TAD)*
2.	UPTRAIN	The old educate in residence at uni with retinue (7) UP (at university) + TRAIN
3.	PYA	What’s group in Mandalay paying up? (3) Hidden in reverse of manadalAY Paying, &lit, Pya being a Burmese unit of currency
4.	PEPTICS	Digestive organs taking part in dissolving spice (7) PT in SPICE*
5.	FLOATANT	Tan after Lilo’s blown up? Could be lier with this aid to buoyancy (8) Composite anagram: (TAN AFTER LILO)* = FLOTANT + LIER
6.	TWEELY	Woven Scottish fabric, No. I in yuckiness? In that fashion! (6) TWEEL (Scots form of twill) + Y
7.	ECAD	Environmentally determined species, reverse of dead one (4) Reverse of D ACE
8.	CAROTIN	What’s bread dipped in to preserve pigment? (7) ROTI in CAN
9.	SKINT	Stony track’s beginning at bottom of fell (5) SKIN (fell=”a skin, membrane”) + T[rack]. Stony = Stony broke
10.	KEEP ONE’S HEAD	Remain calm and avoid execution? (12, 3 words, apostrophe) Double definition – rather a banal clue by Azed’s standards, thought
18.	INSTALLS	Places in an office relatively close to dramatic goings-on (8) If you’re IN the STALLS in a theatre then you’re close to the action
20.	CONACRE	Rented Irish smallholdings? Tin’s turned up in central part (7) CAN< in CORE – this is the third time CAN has been used in wordplay, and the second time it's defined as “tin”
21.	GRADINI	Altar decorations arranged in a grid (7) (IN A GRID)*
22.	PIASTRE	One of those pieces of eight buried by pirates? (7) PIRATES*
23.	RESTEM	Force upstream formerly meets raggedly following river (6) R + MEETS*
26.	ACCOY	Poet’s still a name described as “real”, though lacking money (5) A + [The real] MCCOY less M
29.	PITA	Soft palm fibre (4) P (soft) + ITA (the miriti palm). I spent a while vainly trying to justify PITH here.
33.	SIM	Schism’s half converted evangelical (3) Anagram of [sch]ISM – short for Simeonite

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