Trademark cheek-puffing anagrams and some evocative surfaces from Sayang this morning.
The two monster-grams also seem to form a mini-theme of Chinese landmarks though I can’t see much beyond them. Otherwise, a very satisfying solve. Thanks, Sayang.
| Across | ||
| 1, 6 | TERRACOTTA ARMY | Crematory art at assembled collection of sculptures (10,4) |
| Anagram (‘assembled’) of CREMATORY ART AT. Nearly 9,000 lifesize soldiers of the army of Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of China. | ||
| 10 | ENNUI | Don left out innuendo – producing boredom (5) |
| Anagram (‘producing’) of INNUENDO without DON. Are we missing an ‘of’ here? | ||
| 11 | THESAURUS | House he’s found in reference book (9) |
| TAURUS (the astrological ‘house’) contains HE’S. | ||
| 12 | FIREBALL | Live wire at the dance after excitement (8) |
| FIRE (‘excitement’) then BALL. | ||
| 13 | NONCE | Name a single occasion for the present (5) |
| N (for ‘name’) + ONCE. Nice word, ‘nonce’. Pity it’s been bagged as prison slang. | ||
| 15 | ANIMATE | Enliven a Northern Ireland colleague (7) |
| A NI mate is a ‘Northern Ireland colleague’. | ||
| 17 | SATISFY | One down rising to please (7) |
| The reverse (‘rising’) of 1 Down – TEEM – gives us ‘meet’, to ‘satisfy’. | ||
| 19 | AMNESIA | Mother back with anise treatment for loss of memory (7) |
| MA (‘mother’) + anag. of ANISE. | ||
| 21 | See 27 | |
| 22 | LOCAL | Watering hole in the neighbourhood (5) |
| Double definition, though slightly tautologous, I think. The pub is your local presisely because it’s in your neighbopurhood. Though maybe it’s a whole-clue, not-very-cryptic definition | ||
| 24 | ELECTRIC | To re-elect Richard Nixon was essentially startling (8) |
| Inclusion (‘essentially’) in ‘re-ELECT RIChard’, the ‘Nixon’ being a piece of tricky-dicky misdirection. America seems periodically to wish ill on itself. Not this time, we trust. | ||
| 27, 21 | GREAT WALL OF CHINA | Territorial protection from a whole flat racing programme (5,4,2,5) |
| Remarkable 16-letter anagram – Sayang’s specialitiy – of A WHOLE FLAT RACING. | ||
| 28 | OMEGA | Watch a precious stone beginning to opalise back (5) |
| A+GEM+O (first letter of ‘Opalise’), all reversed. | ||
| 29 | CORD | Rope in agreement without a consensus at first (4) |
| ACCORD without its first 2 letters. | ||
| 30 | KEEP TABS ON | Monitor to continue to wear labels? (4,4,2) |
| Double definition. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TEEM | To be full of private emotion (4) |
|
Inclusion in ‘privaTE EMotion’, the definition doing double duty as the inclusion indicator. |
||
| 2 | RENDITION | Performance I crashed into after break (9) |
| REND (‘break’) then ‘I’ then anag. (‘crashed’) of INTO. | ||
| 3 | ABIDE | Put up with a tender knee finally (5) |
| A+BID+E (‘kneE’, finally). | ||
| 4 | OUTRAGE | Resistance during power failure resulted in fury (7) |
| OUTAGE – good word, imho – seems to have been imported from the U.S. to replace ‘power break’. Here, it surrounds ‘R’ for ‘resistance’. | ||
| 5 | TRELLIS | Framework measure at risk without walls surrounding (7) |
| My CoD and last parsed. ELL is an old word for, roughly, an arm’s length. Around that, we place ‘aT RISk’, omitting those outside letters or ‘walls’. | ||
| 7 | RERUN | Another broadcast on career (5) |
| ‘RE’ (‘on’ or ‘concerning’)+RUN, (‘career’ as verb). | ||
| 8 | YESTERYEAR | Yes, tyre crack received attention in the past (10) |
| Anagram of YES TYRE, then EAR (‘attention’). | ||
| 9 | MAGNETIC | Attractive take-home pay in the occult (8) |
| Your ‘take-home’ pay is your NET wage. Put it into MAGIC (‘the occult’). Probably safer then a pension pot these days. | ||
| 14 | PARAPLEGIC | Physically challenged soldier floating down with leg wrapped in film (10) |
| Pleasing image. A PARA (parachuting soldier, one ‘floating gently down’), then LEG surrounded by PIC for ‘film’. | ||
| 16 | ABSOLUTE | Total absence leads to old lover undergoing tearful emotions (8) |
| Nice misdirection in ‘total absence’ and a neat parse, too. ABS (for ‘absence’, as in a school register), then the ‘leads’ – i.e. first letters – of the last 5 words. | ||
| 18 | SLIMINESS | “I’m sinless” articulated disgusting quality (9) |
| Anagram (‘articulated’) of I’M SINLESS. | ||
| 20 | AVERAGE | State takes a long time – this is mean (7) |
| AVER (‘state’)+AGE. | ||
| 21 | OVERLAP | Friend upset after deliveries coincide (7) |
| PAL reversed after OVER (6 ‘deliveries’ in cricket). | ||
| 23 | CHEER | Support companion always (5) |
| CH (for ‘Companion of Honour’) then E’ER, poetic for ‘always’> | ||
| 25 | TRONA | Electron accelerator producing a native salt (5) |
| Inclusion in ‘elecTRON Accelerator’. ‘Trona’ was new to me, as was the use of ‘native’ to mean ‘naturally occurring’… | ||
| 26 | MAIN | Principal game of chance (4) |
| … as was MAIN to mean ‘a game of chance’ in this double def. Educational chaps, crosswords. | ||
*anagram
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