I thought this had more that its fair share of clues on the harder end of the spectrum. Dare I say I understand all definitions and wordplay (yes, I know, I’m begging to be corrected).
| Across | ||
| 1 | BLUSH-ROSE |
Beauty in bed, attractive, getting stuck in to porridge? (9)
B(LUSH)ROSE – LUSH=attractive and BROSE is a Scots (of course!) porridge. The Scots seem to have as many words for porridge as, you know, Eskimos for snow etc. And a BLUSHROSE is a beautiful rose you’re likely to find in a flower bed. |
| 11 | ALKIE |
Compulsive boozer, not silent after first is polished off (5)
[t]ALKIE – straightforward in retrospect — but I fixed on silent=sh (you know, a shilent drunk) |
| 12 | BULLION |
Two strong males overlapping, raw material for future sovereigns? (7)
Our two strong males are a BULL and a LION that overlap to produce something from which hard money can be minted. |
| 13 | D,RAUNT |
Old-fashioned drawl produced by duke, a turn off (6)
dialect for drawl and D=duke followed by (a turn)* |
| 15 | DUCAT |
Old coin one found in conduit (5)
DUC(A)T – recall one can be A or I though usually A (conveniently) in advanced cryptics and I in dailies. |
| 17 | UPSTATE |
Rebellious phase away from the capital (7)
UP=in revolt,STATE=phase and it’s an Americanism for, well, anywhere not Manhattan! |
| 19 | INLAYER |
One doing e.g. marquetry I nearly sacked (7)
(I nearly)* |
| 21 | OYER |
Hearing formerly in anteroom (less loud initially) (4)
[f]OYER – archaic “hear ye!” |
| 22 | SCALAR PRODUCT |
Significant number could part with cars when getting about (13, 2 words)
(could part, cars)* – which I suppose is a significant number in that it “signifies” the product of the magnitudes of two vectors etc. |
| 23 | AWDL |
Bardic ode, boring thing – departs in the course of it (4)
AW(D)L – a Welsh bardic ode thingy. |
| 25 | LATINER |
US cheers welcoming elected cardinal formerly? (7)
LAT(IN)ER – See you later, alligator! If you’re one of the INs, then you might have been elected. And I suppose cardinals were (no longer?) experts in Latin? |
| 26 | TENIATE |
Ribbon-like US or eastern bream, catch brought back (7)
rev(E,TAI=bream, NET) – US spelling of TAENIATE (the implied spelling in Chambers!) |
| 31 | TRECK |
Drag act’s last, daring though with less removed) (5)
[ac]T,RECK[less]- drag. |
| 32 | TOERAG |
Tramp, a long time in garment (6)
TO(ERA)G – tramp |
| 33 | VESICAL |
Live sac, active, may be this (7)
(live sac)* – &lit since describes an active urinary bladder and how annoying it can be. |
| 34 | ELMEN |
Even bits of deal chaps put together, like many old coffins? (5)
[d]E[a]L,MEN – “made of elm” – I take it on faith that elm was a popular choice for coffins. |
| 35 | CLARENCES |
Nuns taken round new Church in carriages (9)
CLARE(N,CE)S – where clares are an order of nuns and CLARENCES are carriages. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BODHISATTVA |
One of spiritual purity, guy I had seen idly taking in satellite telly (11)
BO,DHI(SAT,TV)A – bo=guy then sat tv in (i had)* – a “future Buddha” |
| 2 | LARK |
Bag some birds for a bit of fun (4)
Two meanings where the verb “to lark” also describes the activity of hunting larks. |
| 3 | SKUG |
Shelter king surrounded by flattery (not a queen?) (4)
S(K)UG[a,r] – our king=K and our queen=R[egina]. And a skug is a shelter. |
| 4 | HINAYANA |
Greeting no gossip? It’s part of Buddhism (8)
HI,NAY,ANA – where ana=gossip with more buddhism (one of the main sub-systems). |
| 5 | RETTERY |
Place for soaking flax, right weird if it’s dry inside (7)
R,E(TT)ERY – I kind of knew that ret has something to do with soaking, so wasn’t a big leap to rettery – with eery=eerie=weird and TT=teetotaller=dry. |
| 6 | SU,MP |
Bilge from rising political leader, American (4)
rev(PM,US) |
| 7 | PLUTO |
Philosopher losing his heart to universal god (5)
Take Plato our philosopher, and replace his “heart” (A) with U for a Roman god. |
| 8 | PICAYUNE |
Old US coin? There’s always one lurking among obsolete Indian ones (8)
PIC(AY,UN)E – pice are old Indian coins. And a PICAYUNE isn’t worth much (5c?). AY=always and UN=one. |
| 9 | BO(A)T |
Fly circling a vessel (4)
I had UPSTAGE for 17A for a long time so this was hard to crack. Bot=botfly I guess (not a robot). |
| 10 | INTERTRIGOS |
Chafings of the skin from working stonier grit (11)
(stonier grit)* – an intriguing word! |
| 14 | PURPLES |
Swine-fever giving wretched leper less energy, with discharge around (7)
PU(RPLE)S – (lep[e]r)* in PUS==discharge – another term for “swine-fever”. |
| 16 | GLADNESS |
Finish up tucking into a drink? Good cheer (8)
rev(end) in GLASS |
| 18 | SHOTHOLE |
It’s hot in Lesotho, awfully – fire can go through it (8)
H in Lesotho* — it’s where the charge goes through in a gun. |
| 20 | GRANTER |
Declamation in German, one involved in conveyancing (7)
G(RANT)ER – this had me mystified for a long time — in fact, was my last clue solved. I was obsessed by DE=Germany and insisting on drafter. Oh well. |
| 24 | LICIT |
Within the bounds of what’s OK? Girl’s fey about it (5)
[fe]LICIT[y] – another tough clue though looks like should be easy. |
| 27 | ERED |
Part of GCSE redone, ploughed earlier (4)
hidden in “GCSE redone” but I can’t find direct support for this in Chambers — ear=(archaic) plough but why is past tense ERED? |
| 28 | TEAL |
Weed no longer covering lake – duck revealed (4)
TEA,L — the cryptic grammar misled me initially since I was expecting “covering” to indicate containment. And if you’re an aging beatnik, you’ll remember when weed=pot=grass was also tea. |
| 29 | NEMN |
Name of old characters regularly omitted in interment (4)
alternate letters of iNtErMeNt. Obsolete “name”. |
| 30 | MANE |
Spirits without a dash of soda – can you keep it under your hat? (4)
MANE[s] – Not my favourite clue — partly because it was so hard to solve! Manes=spirits for the Romans. Not the kind you drink. And your hair is normally between your scalp and your hat. |
Thank you ilancaron. Definitely harder than average.
LATINER is a bit odd, the solution was obvious but I can see no reason why cardinals in particular should be any better than any other RC clergy at Latin, and C of E cardinals possible don’t know any.
Elm is sometimes known as coffin-wood, possibly popular as it doesn’t rot easily, always seemed an odd requirement to me.
MANE is one of Azed’s clue types that I find a bit frustrating at times, look up either manes or mane and the other is staring you in the face, it only really works with Chambers.
Ilancaron,
To answer your query against 27d, first I guessed what might be going on, then got it confirmed by referring to Chambers.
It has
ere (2) – same as ear (2) – which is plough
So ERED is past tense of ‘ere (2)’.
This won’t be of any use to me in all the rest of my life, but I like words and dictionary work.
I agree. Hard. Had to give up and resort to electronic aids, but once completed, I understood how the clues worked.
Thanks Sidey — I suppose non-rotting wood for a coffin is just extra insurance that you won’t try to get out.
And thanks Rishi for tracking down ear/ere — you’re absolutely right and I wonder why I wasn’t able to decipher the relationship myself (not for lack of trying).
A slight aside, re ERE, in the Chambers App for Android it has ERE(1) meaning ‘before’. ERE(2) is missing, I’m almost sure I’ve noticed similar omissions, I will be making my displeasure known to the vendors.
Ered – is not in the iOS app, but it is in the printed edition. And indeed there are similar omissions with archaic past tense forms…and I have emailed them about this.
For 21, I think ‘oyez’ was the cry for people to listen.
OED has ‘oyer’ as ‘A criminal trial held under a commission of oyer and terminer’