A straightforward plain after last week’s Carte Blanche.
I found this puzzle fairly straightforward to solve, with no obscure Scottish words for a change. Indeed, I couid only find one dialect word (15 across). I wondered about the anagram indicator at 12 down; is it a breach of Azed’s (self-imposed) rule never to use a noun anagram indicator? Other than that, nothing to add except my continued thanks to Azed for forty five years of puzzles: long may he continue to set!
| Across | ||
| 1 | SEPS | Ladder, second missed? Here’s horrid old snake (4) |
| S(t)EPS. Chambers says it can refer to a “very venomous snake mentioned by classical writers” but I confess that it was new to me. | ||
| 4 | GOSSYPOL | Yard in Glossop converted for cottonseed extract (8) |
| Y in *GLOSSOP. | ||
| 10 | EGOTRIPPER | Cockney’s false claim about Victorian murder investigator, a self-aggrandiser? (10) |
| Could be written as “‘e got Ripper”. And that must be a false claim because nobody was ever convicted of the Ripper murders. | ||
| 11 | ABROAD | Sailor travelling in foreign parts (6) |
| AB ROAD. The eleventh sense of road in Chambers is “travelling, tour”. | ||
| 13 | HOOTS | Reverse of silence, also included loud laughter? (5) |
| TOO in SH (all rev). | ||
| 15 | REMBLE | Quake, not the first, making Geordie move out? (6) |
| (T)REMBLE. | ||
| 16 | STOPGO | South African country admits little positive in hesitant policy (6) |
| S, P in TOGO. Of course Togo is a West African country; the South was a clever piece of misdirection. | ||
| 17 | GUAM | Pacific island one introduced to eucalyptus (4) |
| A in GUM. | ||
| 19 | TUBERCLED | Having small swellings cut, bleed badly round centre of perforation (9) |
| (perfo)R(ration) in *(CUT BLEED). | ||
| 21 | SOCIOPATH | One seriously disturbed? Coop is wrong in place of hospital (9) |
| *(COOP IS) AT H. | ||
| 24 | RIMU | Heads for refuge in monsoon under conifer (4) |
| Initital letters of Refuge In Monsoon Under. It’s a New Zealand tree. | ||
| 25 | STUDIO | Macho man with ‘Whoopee!’ joined film company (6) |
| STUD, IO. | ||
| 27 | SNIPER | Control’s back, seizing power one picks off the unwary (6) |
| P in REINS (rev). | ||
| 29 | CALID | Warm or cold, requiring a hat (5) |
| C A LID. | ||
| 30 | JUDOGI | After party in prison I’ll be seen in sporting get-up (6) |
| DO in JUG, I. As the name suggests, it’s the costume worn by those who practise judo. | ||
| 31 | ERGOPHOBIA | Hating hard work? So pub’ll have charm (10) |
| ERGO, PH, OBIA. It may be worth pointing out that obia is an obsolete version of the fetish or charm usually spelled obi. For another type of obi, see 26 down. | ||
| 32 | BEDRESTS | Requests doctor replacing hospital for confinements (8) |
| DR for H in BEHESTS. | ||
| 33 | GINS | Hard drinks? Try some oulong instead (4) |
| Hidden in “oulong instead”. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SEAMSTER | Sewer, a mess when it’s burst, to soak up (8) |
| *(A MESS), RET (rev). Nothing to do with drains. | ||
| 2 | PORNO | Small number after soft or hard stuff? (5) |
| P OR NO. | ||
| 3 | STOOPE | Old bucket, mostly bent (6) |
| STOOPE(d). | ||
| 4 | GRAD | Riotous rag before degree? One probably avoided that (4) |
| *RAG, D. I think that this qualifies as a semi-& lit, as the last four words comprise the definition but only make sense by reference to the rest of the clue. | ||
| 5 | SPIRALIST | One that’s ambitious furled spritsail (9) |
| *SPRITSAIL. | ||
| 6 | SPHENE | Rock king replaced by name in field of activity (6) |
| N for R in SPHERE. It’s otherwise known as titanite. | ||
| 7 | PROBUS | Upmarket retirement association favouring public transport (6) |
| It’s a contraction of Professional and Business, so nothing to do with buses. | ||
| 8 | OUTLASTING | Surviving excursion with cargo on board (10) |
| LAST (which can mean cargo) in OUTING. | ||
| 9 | LYSE | Break down ‘alternative facts’ de nos jours, we hear (4) |
| Sounds like “lies”. A topical reference. | ||
| 12 | BITUMINATE | A minute bit in mixture to prepare as road surface? (10) |
| *(A MINUTE BIT). Isn’t this a noun anagram indicator? Or does the use of “in” make a difference? “Dolly mixture” to mean an anagram of dolly is one of the examples given (to illustrate its unsoundness) in Azed’s book A-Z of Crosswords. | ||
| 14 | SOCCEROOS | Aussie footballers score O so freely (about 100) (9) |
| C in *(SCORE O SO). Luckily I knew this term and was pleasantly surprised to see that it is to be found in Chambers. | ||
| 18 | MAHONIAS | Members of barberry family: chap circling house is holding one (8) |
| HO in MAN, A in IS. | ||
| 20 | SMILED | Not on the right track? Third taking lead looked pleased (6) |
| MISLED with the third letter moved to the front. As a child, reading the word in books, I assumed that there must be a verb to misle of which this was the past tense, and pronounced it accordingly. | ||
| 22 | ON EDGE | Tense person departs, say when climbing (6, 2 words) |
| ONE D(eparts) EG(rev). | ||
| 23 | PUG DOG | Crufts entry maybe turned up good and clean, with grand following (6, 2 words) |
| UP (rev) G(ood) DO G(rand). “Clean” here is used as a synonym for “do”. Another topical clue, Crufts having taken place earlier this month. | ||
| 26 | DHOBI | Laundryman in Frankfurt that is given sash (5) |
| D(as) H(eisst) (German for that is), OBI (this time not meaning a charm but a sash worn with a kimono). | ||
| 27 | SCAB | Holder of weapon that’s slashed bard – here’s mark of earlier wound (4) |
| SCAB(bard). | ||
| 28 | PUHS | Signs of dismissal of old, as ‘Push off!’ (4) |
| *PUSH. | ||
*anagram
As I understand it, Azed’s point is that standalone nouns are unsatisfactory as anagram indicators, but nouns used with certain prepositions are OK. “In (a)mixture” and “mixture of” both suggest something has been made into a mixture, but the word “mixture” on its own does not. On those terms 12 is sound.
I remember reading somewhere that Ximenes made an exception for certain common phrases such as “gin cocktail” for ING due to the phrase meaning “cocktail of gin”.
Nice puzzle which was relatively gentle.
Thanks, cruciverbophile, that’s what I suspected; it’s just that in his book (A-Z of Crosswords) he doesn’t make it clear that he’s referring only to standalone nouns.
A gentle outing from Azed, NW corner last to fall. I don’t seem to have had any troubles parsing anything, which is always a sign that Azed’s in a benign mood.
Yes – very easy!
If I hadn’t misremembered the ending of gossypol (I had gossoply) and had got judo/gi instead of juod/ki (latter should be judo/ka for someone that does judo…), I would have completed it in about 40 mins (starting at about 00.05 on Tuesday morning) without the aid of a dictionary!
No idea where I dredged up goss**** from – it was probably another crossword.
BTW Bridgesong, there’s an extra ‘r’ in your parsing of 19 across – it should be (perfo)R(ation)