Another very enjoyable excursion through the lesser-visited areas of the dictionary led by our expert guide Azed. Thank you Azed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SPOD | One who’s swotted excessively, back to front in schools (4) |
| PODS (schools, of dolphins) with S (the back letter) at the front | ||
| 4 | SPRATTLE | Scramble for Scotch? Positive shake after second (8) |
| P (positive) RATTLE (shake) following S (seconds) | ||
| 10 | CROUPIER | Dealer: publisher has one calling round (8) |
| OUP (Oxford University Press, publisher) inside (with…around) CRIER (one calling) | ||
| 12 | REPAID | Cleared nappy from behind (6) |
| DIAPER (nappy) reversed (from behind) | ||
| 13 | FOLIAR | Like leaves with respect to limiting return of indisposition (6) |
| FOR (with respect to) containing (limiting) AIL (indisposition) reversed (return of) | ||
| 15 | GENRE | Oxygen respirators will include this kind (5) |
| found inside (will be included in) oxyGEN REspirators | ||
| 16 | WOOING | Paying court to fix wig on? Nothing included (6) |
| anagram (fix) of WIG ON including O (nothing) | ||
| 17 | NANKIN | Grandma and family in cotton cloth (6) |
| NAN (grandma) and KIN (family) | ||
| 18 | CRINOLETTE | Small wired petticoat French girl put round centre of midriff, fashionable (10) |
| COLETTE (French girl) containing (put round) midRiff (centre of) and IN (fashionable) | ||
| 21 | DEVASTATES | Ruins god imposed on nations (10) |
| DEVA (god) on STATES (nations) | ||
| 24 | PHILEM | Short letter (epistolary): I help when unravelling marks (6) |
| anagram (when unraveling) of I HELP then M (marks) – short for The Epistle to Philamon | ||
| 26 | SAPELE | Wood for furniture one’s replaced by copy in auction (6) |
| SaLE (auction) with A (one) replaced by APE (copy) | ||
| 27 | PESAH | Festival holds record turns (5) |
| HAS (holds) EP (extended play, record) all reversed (turns) | ||
| 29 | ELANCE | Fling: second in tangle moving back a bit? (6) |
| ENLACE (tangle) with N (the second letter of enlace) moving further back. Thanks to Gaufrid for helping me out on this explanation. | ||
| 30 | JURANT | Project that’s managed in taking oath (6) |
| JUT (project) containing (that has … in) RAN (managed) | ||
| 31 | DRESSAGE | Equestrian event: leading character in show has grade adjusted going round (8) |
| ESS (the letter S, leading character in show) inside anagram (adjusted) of GRADE | ||
| 32 | COTTISES | Heraldic figures elaborated in Scot’s tie (8) |
| anagram (elaborated in) of SCOTS TIE | ||
| 33 | EWER | Jug: regret once having to go back after end of sentence (4) |
| REW (regret once, old spelling of rue) reversed (to go back) following sentencE (end of) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCREW-CAPPED | Exhausted, rowers caught tucking in like much of what’s in larder (11) |
| SAPPED (exhausted) containing (with … tucking in) CREW (rowers) C (caught) | ||
| 2 | PREFORM | Shape in advance head of putter, capital club (7) |
| Putter (head, first letter of) and REFORM (The Reform Club in London, the capital) | ||
| 3 | DUALIN | Explosive number I eulogize, given a lift (6) |
| N (number) I LAUD (eulogise) all reversed (given a lift) | ||
| 4 | SPIN | Very good tin rings for plough (4) |
| PI (pious very good) in (ringed by) SN (tin, chem symbol). I can’t find plough in the dictionary as a definition for spin. Have I been missing something? Update: plough and spin can both mean “to reject at an examination”. Thanks to Matthew for this. | ||
| 5 | PIDOG | Party nipped by farm animal, a pariah (5) |
| DO (party) inside (nipped by) PIG (farm animal) | ||
| 6 | REFINES | Purifies, sin-free, with conversion (7) |
| anagram (with conversion) of SIN-FREE. A very easy clue compared to the rest here. I like the way that Azed writes his clues seemingly irrespective of the obscurity of the vocabulary, it gives his puzzles a formal quality. | ||
| 7 | TALENT | Red wine, one litre bottled, a gift (6) |
| TENT (red wine) containing (botttling) A (one) L (litre) | ||
| 8 | TRINKETER | Head round racecourse with useless ruse one plotted (9) |
| TETE (head) containing (round) RINK (racecourse) with Ruse (without use, use-less) | ||
| 9 | LAARI | Bit of money in island state (a rial’s different) (5) |
| anagram (different) of A RIAL – a monetary unit of the Maldives, island state | ||
| 11 | TRENDSETTER | Dog having to t-tear away in the lead, one ahead of the pack? (11) |
| SETTER (dog) following (with…in the lead) T- REND (tear) | ||
| 14 | SOI-DISANT | Financially sound but left out, is model of industry nominal? (9) |
| SOLID (financially sound) missing L (left) then IS and ANT (hard worker, a model of industry) | ||
| 19 | LAMPERS | Bad news in the stables to clobber somebody (not on) (7) |
| LAM (clobber) PERSon (somebody) missing ON – a disease of horses | ||
| 20 | MELANGE | You may find gleeman in one (7) |
| anagram (melange) of GLEEMAN – the definition is a sort of self-referential &lit | ||
| 22 | ELANET | Line cast in river to catch predator (6) |
| L (line) inside (cast in) EA (river, especially in fenlands) with NET (to catch) | ||
| 23 | A-PER-SE | A blue achieving something unique in excellence (6) |
| A PERSE (blue) | ||
| 25 | HELLO | I do declare there’s nothing lower than the underworld (5) |
| O (nothing) following (lower than) HELL (the underworld) – definition is an exclamation | ||
| 26 | SUJEE | Deck cleaner, the first person from Marseille appearing in court (5) |
| JE (the first person in French, from Marseille) inside SUE (court). Later printings of The Chambers Dictionary (2014) edition have the missing entry mentioned in the postscript restored. | ||
| 28 | PUSS | Moggy mush (4) |
| double definition – cat and the face | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
After solving the rest of the puzzle and reading the appropriate entries in Chambers several times I eventually noticed under plough ‘to reject in an examination (old inf)’ and under spin ‘to reject at an examination (sl)’.
Well spotted Matthew, I didn’t expect Azed to be wrong.