Sorry this is late, I’m still forgetting that the IoS is no longer a prize puzzle and is now blogged on the day of publication.
I found this tricky until I got into Kairos’s mindset and stopped looking for the obvious definitions. Very nice puzzle, though I have to admit to a little cheating at the end to get the blog out quickly. Thank you Kairos.
There is an unusual Nina in the grid – see Kairos’s comment – number 6.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ENGINE | England’s a member of European power source (6) |
| ENG (England) IN (is a member of) E (European) | ||
| 4 | EMBOSSED | Outstanding leader in Eastern Levant perhaps (8) |
| BOSS (leader) in E MED (Eastern Mediterranean, The Levant perhaps) | ||
| 9 | HELLO | Dreadful old magazine (5) |
| HELL (dreadful) O (old) | ||
| 10 | ODD MEN OUT | Strangers in scrap about university (3,3,3) |
| ODDMENT (scrap) contains U (university) | ||
| 11 | REAL | True part of a film we hear (4) |
| sounds like (we hear) REEL (part of film) | ||
| 12 | WELL | Spring‘s great when son goes (4) |
| sWELL (great) missing S (son) | ||
| 13 | SHEDS | Gets rid of outbuildings (5) |
| doublke definition | ||
| 15 | ATTUNES | Becomes acclimatised to tetanus after injury (7) |
| TETANUS* anagram=after injury | ||
| 16 | EVER | Always cut top off (4) |
| sEVER (cut) with top missing | ||
| 20 | FARE | Notes a passenger (4) |
| FA and RE are notes of the scale | ||
| 22 | SUPPORT | Second truss? (7) |
| double definition | ||
| 25 | SIMON | Disciple held back by Deuteronomist (5) |
| found reversed inside deuteroNOMISt | ||
| 27 | GLEN | Find out one leaves valley (4) |
| GLEaN (find out) missing A (one) | ||
| 28 | SHOO | Go away with vocal trainer? (4) |
| sounds like (vocal) shoe (trainer) | ||
| 30 | AFTERNOON | “Fear not”, no unorthodox form of greeting? (9) |
| anagram (unorthodox) of FEAR NOT NO | ||
| 31 | UNRIG | Strip of a continental dress (5) |
| UN (a French, continental) and RIG (dress) | ||
| 32 | ESSAYIST | One writing cryptic says, “I set” (8) |
| anagram (cryptic) of SAYS I SET | ||
| 33 | LAWYER | Brief film entertains wife (6) |
| LAYER (film) contains (entertains) W (wife) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ETHEREAL | Spiritual and other things surrounding this place (8) |
| ET AL (and other things) containing HERE (this place) | ||
| 2 | GALLANTS | Young men irritate soldiers (8) |
| GALL (irritate) ANTS (soldiers) | ||
| 3 | NEON | Physicist’s weightless gas (4) |
| NEwtON (physicist) missing WT (weight) | ||
| 5 | MIDDLE E | Musical note found in Czech and Greek Opera! (6,1) |
| czEch, grEek and opEra all have E as the middle letter | ||
| 6 | OVERS | Cleric in Somalia set up lots of deliveries (5) |
| REV (cleric) in SO (Somalia) all reversed (set up) | ||
| 7 | SMOKED | Cured magazine boss after return of illness (6) |
| OK (magazine) ED (boss) following MS (illness) reversed (return of) | ||
| 8 | DETEST | Deplore Edward turning up on estate (6) |
| TED (Edard) reversed (turning up) on EST (estate) | ||
| 10 | OMENS | Signs over “Gents'” (5) |
| O (over) and MEN’S (gent’s) | ||
| 14 | INCA | South American picnics regularly with Australian (4) |
| pIcNiCs (regularly) and A (Australian) | ||
| 17 | ESPY | See opponents start to play hockey at last (4) |
| E S (East and South, opponents at bridge) Play (start of) then hockeY (end of) | ||
| 18 | MOTHERLY | Kind of myth confused with lore (8) |
| anagram (confused) of MYTH and LORE | ||
| 19 | STRONGER | Patience maybe on about being more determined (8) |
| Patience STRONG (poet) then RE (on, regarding) reversed (about) | ||
| 21 | ENGROSS | Monopolise congress after its leader goes mad (7) |
| anagram (mad) of cONGRESS missing leading letter | ||
| 22 | STERN | Rigid back (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 23 | ESTATE | Rank group of houses (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 24 | SMITHS | Band hits heroin instead of ecstasy (6) |
| SMITeS (hits) with E (ecstacy) replaced by H (heroin) | ||
| 26 | NERDY | Socially inept duke invested in Tyneside railway (5) |
| D (duke) inside NE (North-East, Tyneside perhaps) RY (railway) | ||
| 29 | TUBA | Instrument seen in Frankfurt U-Bahn (4) |
| found inside frankfurT U-BAhn | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
As with PeeDee, took a few minutes to get on the wavelength, then a pretty quick solve. Couldn’t parse the rather novel MIDDLE E. Thought LAWYER and SMITHS rather good.
Thanks to Kairos and PeeDee.
Good Sunday fun. Some really nice crafty definitions. ‘Kind’ for MOTHERLY being my pick of a good bunch
One thing though – wasn’t it THE Smiths?
All fairly plain sailing apart from a couple of niggles. I wasn’t all that convinced by MIDDLE E – does anyone actually refer to the E above middle C in that way? And ESTATE occurred both in a clue and an answer. But they’re only minor niggles and didn’t spoil it.
Thanks, Kairos and PeeDee.
Quite liked MIDDLE E. No, I wouldn’t refer to it that way myself, but on reflection “E above middle C” sounds a bit clumsy, doesn’t it, so why not? And the clue was the nicest in the set, I thought. All those “middle Es” didn’t need the the slightly self-deprecatory exclamation point. Pleasant solve, listening to The Archers, good Sunday stuff.
Ta to Kairos & PeeDee.
Mostly went in pretty quickly, but held up in the NE corner. I enjoyed HELLO, SMOKED, ENGROSS and EMBOSSED in particular.
A good pre-Sunday dinner puzzle.
Thanks to Kairos and PeeDee
Thanks to all for the kind comments and to PeeDee for the expert analysis.
This crossword was set whilst I was changing jobs so various of the entries in the grid can be assembled to say “Farewell Eversheds, hello Shoosmiths – Real Estate Support Lawyer”
That’s not a Nina I was ever going to spot! Congratulations Kairos on getting your new job.