A medium-strength Azed, with a fairly high proportion of unfamilar words, in the wordplay as well as the answers. My solving pattern turned out to be more or less from top left to bottom right, which ought to have made things a bit easier… Thanks as ever to Azed.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | COMPLIMENTER | One offering praise, threshold of a sort in old-fashioned counter (10) LIMEN (“the threshold of consciousness”, as found in “subliminal”) in COMPTER |
||||||
| 9. | LAURA | Lecturer with distinctive character where anchorites gather (5) L + AURA – it’s “a group of recluses’ cells”, from a Greek word (the girl’s name comes from laurel, possibly via Laurence) |
||||||
| 11. | VERST | Short journey for droshky, first of vehicles formerly (5) V[ehicles] + ERST (formerly) – it’s a Russian unit of length, just over 1 km |
||||||
| 13. | UP-TO-DATE | State-of-the-art auto dept. given a make-over (8) (AUTO DEPT)* |
||||||
| 14. | TWIT | With OU first this fool becomes best (4) If you put OU before TWIT you get OUTWIT = to best |
||||||
| 15. | RUFIYAA | I’ll get in a fury changing small advance in Maldivian money (7) I in (A FURY)* + A |
||||||
| 16. | CANON | Clergyman, one trapped in scam (5) AN in CON |
||||||
| 18. | PETALS | Priest has to criticize regressive standards? (6) P + SLATE< – among many definitions of “standard”, Chambers includes “the uppermost petal of a papilionaceous flower” |
||||||
| 19. | PARGANAS | Timber tree planted in past succeeded for parts of zillah (8) ARGAN (Moroccan timer tree) in PA (abbreviation for past, in the grammatical sense, I guess) + S. A zillah is an administrative district in India, of which the pargana is a subdivision |
||||||
| 21. | CAVESSON | Noseband: five kept in case puzzled lad (8) V in CASE* + SON |
||||||
| 25. | AVOCET | Viv failing oral test initially – wild bird (6) [VIV]A VOCE + T[est] |
||||||
| 27. | STROP | Censure that gets to upmarket inn with a bug found crawling around (5) |
||||||
| 28. | DOLLIER | Trolleyman oiled left and right liberally (7) (OILED L R)* |
||||||
| 30. | HULE | One’s regularly tapped litre in the shade? (4) L in HUE – variant of “ule”, a rubber tree |
||||||
| 31. | OLIGOMER | What could be gloomier? Chemical substance formed of smaller units (8) GLOOMIER* |
||||||
| 32. | TENET | It’s held firmly, even in grip of one who’s given up? (5) ENE in TT (teetotaller) |
||||||
| 33. | AREAR | Once behind, right at back of field? (5) AREA (field) + R |
||||||
| 34. | RESPLENDENCE | Land specially set aside requiring loan in cash for glorious show (12) RES ([Native American] reservation) + LEND in PENCE |
||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | CLUTCH | Loose group to take firmly in hand (6) Double definition – “loose” because Chambers says “(loosely) a number, group” |
||||||
| 2. | MUTINE | Rebel of old, part of a small group and unable to speak about it (6) IN in MUTE – old variant of mutiny or (as here) mutineer |
||||||
| 3. | PROTORE | Opening about to weaken? Later enrichment may change it (7) ROT in PORE – also spelt proto-ore |
||||||
| 4. | LADY | Ma lost to illness? She wore the trousers perhaps (4) [MA]LADY – not sure why she might “wear the trousers”, particularly |
||||||
| 5. | MOTU PROPRIO | Losing money, pump-room tiro gets confused, without consulting others (11, 2 words) (PUMP ROOM TIRO) less (one) M – it means of one’s own accord |
||||||
| 6. | NEPIT | Salary, limitless, rising in computer unit (5) [S]TIPEN[D]< – it's short for Naperian digit, aka nat or nit, and more related to mathematical information theory than computers in particular |
||||||
| 7. | TROYAN | A try-on arranged for e.g. Cressida? (6) (A TRY-ON)* |
||||||
| 8. | ESCALADO | Help when investing in variety of laces on bustle (8) LACES* + ADO – using ladders to scale castle walls (investment = miitary blockade). It’s also the name of a horse-racing game which I had as a child (it was rather disappointing) |
||||||
| 10. | BARBASTELLE | Bank on support – instruct incoming bat (11) BAR + TELL in BASE |
||||||
| 12. | TRASS | Stone lifted with point inserted for sort of cement (5) RAS (point) in ST< |
||||||
| 17. | A LA VOLEE | A rodent found in beer on the flight (8, 3 words) A VOLE in ALE |
||||||
| 20. | ASTHORE | Mavourneen on the beach, dipping tip of toe in (7) T in ASHORE (on the beach) |
||||||
| 21. | CADET | Trainee investigator on the up receiving bit of promotion (5) AD in reverse of TEC (detective, investigator) |
||||||
| 22. | VOLANS | Star group, aging but not dead, needing vehicles to get around (6) OL[D] in VANS – Volans is a constellation of the southern hemisphere, depicting a flying fish |
||||||
| 23. | CRUMEN | Plane staff, we hear, revealing whence stags secrete stuff (6) Homophone of “crewmen” |
||||||
| 24. | SPERRE | Wild spree? Bachelor’s last occurs in this old-fashioned bar (6) R in SPREE |
||||||
| 26. | CLEEP | Old name? Uncle Epaminondas certainly has this (5) Hidden – related to the (possibly) better-known “yclept”, meaning “named” |
||||||
| 29. | EGAD | ‘Go to work on …’, not good? At least it wasn’t blasphemous (4) “EGG AD” (of which “Go to work on.. “ was the start of the slogan) less (one) G. Fay Weldon was involved in creating the campaign, though she denies coming up with the actual words – “egad!” is a minced oath, an evasion of “oh God” or similar |
||||||
Does parsing of 27 across need adjusting? [GA]STROP[UB], not [G]ASTROP[UB] as printed.
Enjoyed the characterisic Azed fun with foreign-derived phrases (5d, 17d).
Thanks to him and to Andrew.
Thanks to Azed and Andrew. I enjoyed this – it took me all week to get there, with at one stage almost all of the op filled but not the bottom. Enjoyed memories of the cartoon “go to work on an egg” ads.
Thanks quenbarrow – you’re right about STROP. Now corrected
Yes, the bottom right corner was hard work. PARGANAS held me up and the parsing for STROP escaped me though it was obviously right. Thanks to quenbarrow for enlightening us.
It was the NE corner I struggled with, with lots of question marks at the end to boot. Or possibly just ran out of steam at the end of a long day. Another week without any typos?