I enjoyed this one very much. The dictionary got off lightly this time as I seemed to know (or at least vaguely remember) most of the words here, unusual for me. Thank you Azed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | APPLE STRUDEL |
Pud – all pester cook for this? (12, 2 words)
(PUD ALL PASTER)* anagram=cook |
| 10 | VILIACO |
Shakespearean coward, Trojan, left page outside (7)
ILIAC (Trojan, from Ilium) inside VO (verso, left page) – a scoundrel or coward. As far as I can tell Shakespeare spelled this VILLIAGO not VILIACO |
| 11 | ULEMA |
Learned theologian contributing to useful emails (5)
found inside usefUL EMAils |
| 14 | CORSELET |
Protective body covering? King with season confined to bed (8)
R (Rex, king) with SELE (season) inside COT (bed) |
| 15 | PANIM |
The old man beside Indian tree, a Muslim formerly? (5)
PA (the old man) with NIM (Indian tree) |
| 16, 24 | SMART ALECKS |
Alert at sea aboard e.g. yawls, they think they know it all (11, 2 words)
ALERT* anagram=at sea inside (aboard) SMACKS (boats, eg yawls) |
| 17 | E-NUMBER |
Identification code, British, in paying back rating lost (7)
B (British) inside |
| 20 | LOME |
Burrower turns over regular parts in this? (4)
MOLE (burrower) swaps (turns over) L and M (regular parts of, every other letter) – lome is a varian tspelling of loam, soil. The deinition could also be read as &lit. |
| 21 | COARSEN |
Make crude scam, taking in bum (7)
CON (scam) containing ARSE (bum) |
| 22 | UM AND AH |
Classy chap experienced returning dither (7, 3 words)
U (classy, upper class) MAN (chap) HAD (experienced) reversed (returned) |
| 26 | USED |
Second-hand blouse, darned in part (4)
found inside bloUSE Darned |
| 28 | DESMINE |
Mineral in bundles? Could be this left in lab urn (7)
DESMINE plus L (left) IN LAB URN is an anagram (could be) of MINERAL IN BUNDLES – the mineral stilbite, occuring in bundles |
| 29 | KREWE |
Organizers of carnival were excited with king opening it (5)
WERE* anagram=excited with K (king) st the start (opening it) |
| 31 | ZANZE |
Source of music from South Africa, New Zealand and Spain (5)
ZA (South Africa) NZ (New Zealand) and E (Espana, Spain) |
| 33 | ENCARPUS |
Swag enclosed above back (8)
ENC (enclosed) and SUPRA (above) reversed (back) – a festoon, often decorating a frieze |
| 34 | RAKEE |
Gay dog consuming eastern liquor (5)
RAKE (gay gog) containing E (eastern) |
| 35 | TSARINA |
—— Iseult, oddly, displays a Russian title! (7)
TSARINA + ISEULT is an agaram (oddly) of A RUSSIAN TITLE. TSARINA is almost an anagram of TRISTAN, lover of Iseult. That would have been spectacular! |
| 36 | DYSAESTHESIA |
Lack of feeling, being reverse of yielding among shadiest, crooked (12)
EASY (yielding) reversed inside SHADIEST* anagram=crooked |
| Down | ||
| 2 | PIKA |
Hare up mountains, requiring a rest when climbing (4)
A KIP (rest) reversed (when climbing) – a tailless hair living on mountain sides |
| 3 | PLENUM |
Full assembly that indicates choice introducing measure (6)
PLUM (choice) contains EN (printing measure) |
| 4 | LINIMENT |
Unguent? Very little is taken up in time of abstinence (8)
MINI (very little) reversed (is taken up) in LENT (time of abstinence) |
| 5 | SCOW |
Looked like thunder? Led off in yacht over the pond (4)
SCOWled (looked like thunder) missing LED – ‘over the pond’ indicates American |
| 6 | TORERO |
Carmen’s passion was racing before being laid up? (6)
TORE (was racing) then OR (before) reversed (laid up) – Escamillo, bullfighter and lover of Carmen |
| 7 | RUSSIANS |
Welsh girl in e.g. Conway presenting foreign nationals (8)
SIAN (Welsh girl) in RUSS (Russ Conway – entertainer) |
| 8 | DELAYS |
Always involved, drag up slippages? (4)
AY (always) inside (involved in) SLED (drag) reversed (up) |
| 9 | EMERGE |
Master involved in university award (first missed) brought up issue (6)
M (master) inside (involved in) dEGREE (university award) missing first letter and reversed (brought up) |
| 12 | ATTENDEES |
Conference delegates, number inside seated uncomfortably (9)
TEN (number) inside SEATED* anagram=uncomfortably |
| 13 | SPELUNKER |
Ask Scots about blockhead cave man (9)
SPEER (ask, Scots) contains LUNK (blockhead) |
| 18 | BUDGEREE |
Good old Aussie mate’s victory, English involved (8)
BUD (mate) has GREE (victory) containing E (English) – good, Australian, archaic |
| 19 | BRUMAIRE |
Autumn period that didn’t last, warm and dry but fogbound (8)
AIR (warm and dry) inside (bound by) BRUME (fog) – an Autumn month in the French revolutionary calendar, now obsolete |
| 23 | MORNAY |
Eel, new in, served with a cheesy sauce (6)
MORAY (ell) contains N (new) |
| 24 |
See 16
|
|
| 25 | ADAPTS |
Gets fit, notice, when taking in gym activity? (6)
AD (notice) and AS (when) contains (taking in) PT (gym activity) |
| 27 | SINDIS |
Some Pakistanis representing Diss? (6)
DISS is S IN DIS |
| 30 | FUST |
Part of column, stuff mostly rehashed (4)
STUFf* (mostly) anagram=rehashed |
| 32 | ZUNI |
Variable educational institution for Native American (4)
Z (variable, maths) and UNI (educational instiution) |
definitions are underlined
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee. I’m not sure about ENUMBER. Your parsing makes sense, except that “renumerate” doesn’t seem to exist – it’s not in Chambers. I wonder if Azed meant “remunerate” and got confused?
bridgesong – it is not only Azed getting the two confused – I had not noticed that renumerate is not a word either. Maybe someone will come along and rescue the situation somehow?
Azed is not confused, it is RENUMErating containing B. I have just had a bit of a malfunction when writing up the blog thats all.
Aaaggh! I mean REMUNErating containing B. I just can’t stop mistyping that damn word.
In fact it is REMUNERATING minus RATING, but with a reversal (“back”) as otherwise the letters aren’t in the right order.
Thanks Azed and PeeDee
I missed this on the day, and do not normally catch up, but somehow I managed to download this one instead of the correct puzzle yesterday (31 January). Not having already done it, I did not notice my mistake until I had finished. Anyway, thanks to PeeDee and bridgesong for sorting out E NUMBER, which I entered on trust and without parsing.
I assume that no-one has bothered to point out the typing error in the parsing of 19dn because it is obvious that you meant to say BRUME (fog) instead of MIST.
I do not normally own up to my own mistakes, although I make at least as many as instances on which I offer corrections – after all, why give a wrong answer when the right answer is already there? This time, however, I will admit to carelessly putting TSARIST (which clearly does not work) at 35ac. This left me ZUSI at 32dn, which just about works, given that USI could be the University of Southern Indiana, and there is an American soccer player called Graham Zusi, who was apparently born in Florida, but the expression Native American is not usually used to mean anyone born in America. Possibly if Azed had written “native” without the capital N it might just about be a valid alternative solution to 32dn in isolation without the checked N. In any case, we now have the official answer as per the blog.
Thanks for pointing that out Pelham. I must have had some auto-translation mechanism running in my head at the time. I had not thought of BRUME as an English word before.
I must admit to getting lucky on TSARINA. I entered it mistakenly believing it to to be an anagram of TRISTAN. It was only when I came to write up the blog I realised my mistake.