All present and correct. I found this very pleasurable, not the hardest AZED but a nicely consistent level of difficulty from the start to the finish. Thank you Azed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BOG PIMPERNEL | Pale pink creeper people bring for arranging around noon (12, 2 words) |
| anagram of PEOPLE BRING containing M (meridiem, noon) | ||
| 9 | APART | Divorced dad getting into e.g. painting (5) |
| PA (dad) in ART (eg painting) | ||
| 11 | MEASE | Part of trawler’s catch seamen mostly scrapped? (5) |
| anagram (scrapped) of SEAMEn (mostly) | ||
| 13 | DEPORTEE | Persona non grata bound to return letter at end of imprisonment (8) |
| ROPED (bound) reversed with TEE (the letter T, found at the end of imprisonmenT) | ||
| 14 | SUMERIAN | US marine translated cuneiform script (8) |
| anagram of US MARINE – what a good anagram! | ||
| 15 | STYMIE | I’m held back in a nasty spot – falling foul of one? (6) |
| I’M reversed in STYE (nasty spot) – one nearly blind, because of a stye perhaps | ||
| 16 | DOBBY | Silly old fellow person turned away (5) |
| BOD (person) reversed then BY (away, as adverb) | ||
| 17 | SAMEY | Monotonous piece of music? Easy – turn it off (5) |
| anagram (turn it off) of Music (first letter, piece of) and EASY | ||
| 19 | LAMPION | Brave chap has some electric current introduced for this pretty old lamp? (7) |
| LION (brave chap) contains AMP (some electric current) – “lampion” and “lamp” are very similar | ||
| 21 | STARDOM | Stone on rocky road ending in money and fame (7) |
| ST (stone) on anagram (rocky) of ROAD and then (ending in) M (money) | ||
| 24 | MEATS | More than one sweet spot in Rome at springtime (5) |
| found inside roME AT Springtime | ||
| 26 | SEOUL | None is gripped by former pestilence receding in capital (5) |
| O (none) inside LUES (pestilence, archaic) reversed | ||
| 28 | UPDATE | Latest bulletin due, apt to be revised (6) |
| anagram of DUE APT | ||
| 30 | CURRICLE | Indian dish, not so hot? Sounds a bit like that – trap of a kind (8) |
| CURRI CLE sounds a bit like “curry cool” (Indian dish, not so hot). Can this be right? If so then it is the most tenuous homophone I have ever heard. | ||
| 31 | PILSENER | Low country reclaimed new lines replacing old lager (8) |
| PoldER (low country reclaimed) with OLD replaced by an anagram (new) of LINES | ||
| 32 | PHONY | Henry taken in by five fivers, counterfeit (5) |
| H (Henry) in PONY (£25, five fivers) | ||
| 33 | BRISE | Ballerina’s dancing – demonstrating this an’ all? (5) |
| BALLERINA’S is an anagram of BRISE (this) AN ALL | ||
| 34 | SCRAPERBOARD | Violinist-poet admitting love for scratchy artwork (12) |
| SCRAPER (violinist) and BARD (poet) contains O (love) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BADASS | Difficult guy, notice, going in deep (6) |
| AD (notice) in BASS (deep) | ||
| 2 | GAPPY | Parish priest gets playful about describing sermon with bits missing? (5) |
| PP (parish priest) inside GAY (palyful) | ||
| 3 | PROMMER | Do I stand for the music? Present memory largely faulty (7) |
| PR (present) and anagram (faulty) of MEMORy (largely) – one attending a promenade concert, where the audience can stand or walk around whist listening to the music. | ||
| 4 | MUTUEL | Tote workhouse fare, less grey on top? Stomach turns over it (6) |
| grUEL (workhouse fare) missing GR at the start following TUM (stomach) reversed | ||
| 5 | PREMIA | I’m a rep (irregular) getting bonuses only rarely (6) |
| anagram (irregular) of I’M A REP | ||
| 6 | RETRO | Rotor terminal partly reversed – it slows spacecraft (5) |
| found reversed inside rotOR TERminal | ||
| 7 | NAMIBIA | Country friend consigned to a bin (improperly put) (7) |
| AMI (friend) in anagram (improperly put) of A BIN. I wasted a lot of time looking for rural dialect (country) words for friend. | ||
| 8 | LEANY | Poet’s unproductive, open country no longer near (5) |
| LEA (open country) and NY (near, obsolete) – the poet is Edmund Spenser | ||
| 10 | PENTATEUCH | Author that strangely holds queue up for early books (10) |
| PAN (author) then anagram (strangely) of THAT containing CUE (queue) reversed. Both cue and queue are listed independently in Chambers as a twist/braid of hair hanging down the back of the neck but they are not shown as linked, which seems odd to me. | ||
| 12 | SEABOTTLES | Decides about sailor with love for bits of bladderwrack (10) |
| SETTLES (decides) containing AB with O (love) | ||
| 18 | MAORMOR | Chief steward, once? A couple of gypsies holding one up (7) |
| ROM ROM (gypsy, twice) containing A (one) reversed | ||
| 20 | PEDRERO | Old-style blunderbuss, clumsily repro-ed (7) |
| anagram (clumsy) of REPRO-ED | ||
| 22 | OSCINE | Science briefly used to cut open first of songbirds (albeit faultily) (6) |
| SCI (science, briefly) inside (used to cut open) ONE (first) – adjective meaning of the Oscines (songbirds). Faulty since it is incorrectly formed, it should be written oscinine. | ||
| 23 | MULLER | One producing e.g. glühwein, or wallop? (6) |
| double definition – one who mulls wine and to beat heavily | ||
| 25 | SEARED | Dried up parts of big marine inlet repositioned (6) |
| RED SEA (big marine inlet) with the words reversed (repositioned) | ||
| 26 | SCUPS | Special awards for sea swimmers (5) |
| S (special) and CUPS (awards) | ||
| 27 | URENA | Tropical plant earl kept in Roman vase (5) |
| E (earl) in URNA (vase, latin) | ||
| 29 | AMNIA | Inner membranes not left in butchered animal (5) |
| anagram (butchered) of ANIMAL missing L (left) | ||
*anagram
definitions underlined
I failed to see 24ac. I think MEATS was one of the answers I toyed with, but I neither saw the hidden word, nor could I see what it had to do with the definition. Still not sure of the definition, although I see Chambers does say the meat is the centre of a cricket bat, which I suppose could be a sweet spot.
You have a typo for 14ac, both in the blog and the completed grid. For it to be an anagram of “US marine”, the answer must be SUMERIAN.
24ac
I took the definition to be ‘more than one sweet’
with a sweet being a sweetmeat (but didn’t refer to Chambers for confirmation)
I went for the cricket connection with 24 across too, though it took a while to see it. Initially I thought along the same limes as Norman, but that left “spot” unaccounted for. As far as I remember I found this puzzle quite hard, but satisfying as always. Thanks Azed.
Sumarians, had they existed, would have been found in US marinas. Fixed now.
18d I led myself astray by putting the alternative spelling MORMAOR (which fits the clue equally well) and then struggling with crossing clues until the penny dropped
24a I went straight for the cricketing connection. I can remember Peter West being rather overfond of the phrase “off the meat of the bat” until one of his fellow commentators was eventually moved to remark “I think that meat is getting a bit overdone”
24 ac ref #3
I quickly spotted ‘meats’ in Rome at springtime, so the ‘spot’ was not unaccounted for.
But I admit that your interpretation may be correct.
The “sweet spot” on a cricket bat is the area of the bat where the ball goes furthest with the least effort from the batsman, exactly the “meat” referred to above.
Reasonably straightforward for Azed. I’m glad I wasn’t blogging this, as I assumed a mistake in 1ac (M for noon), perhaps just because we’ve got so used to errors dotted round the puzzle of late, though admittedly not by Azed himself. One or two not fully understood beside that one, so thanks for the blog.
An excellent puzzle, immaculately clued – though I must admit, like Jon_S @8, I was mystified for longer than I should have been by M for noon.
Thanks to both Azed and PeeDee.