Another enjoyable hour or so trawling through the Big Red Book. Thank you Azed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SKYJACK | Blue flag to rustle aloft? (7) |
| SKY (blue) JACK (flag) | ||
| 6 | BURET | US chemist may measure liquid in it, yet holds on (5) |
| BUT (yet) contains RE (regarding, on) | ||
| 10 | HITHERSIDE | British driver’s left – after collision he rides unsteadily (10) |
| HIT (collision) then anagram (unsteadily) of HE RIDES | ||
| 11 | WONGIED | Aussie talked about Gower’s first that’s cut wide bowling (7) |
| ON (about) Gower (first letter of) inside (that has cut) anagram (bowling) of WIDE | ||
| 12 | AGGER | Elevation bringing back almost all 1960s music style (5) |
| REGGAe (1960s music style, almost) reversed (bringing back) | ||
| 13 | DONATED | Gifted adolescent (unruly) trailing sweetheart (7) |
| TED (unruly adolescent) following DONA (sweetheart) | ||
| 16 | GRAVITAS | Life in rags changed, gaining importance (8) |
| VITA (life) inside anagram (changed) of RAGS | ||
| 17 | SCRAW | Thin sod, unhealthily thin, leaving New York (5) |
| SCRWny (unhealthily thin) missing NY (new York) | ||
| 18 | GROMA | Part of equipment for surveying Romans (5) |
| found inside (part of) surveyinG ROMAns – definition is &lit | ||
| 21 | THORN | Start of hike in rent – it can be painful (5) |
| Hike (starting letter of) in TORN (rent). A thorn can cause pain but can it be painful? | ||
| 24 | BONES | Practitioner producing good art on the Rive Gauche? (5) |
| BON (good) ES (art, to be 2nd person sing) in French (as spoken on the Rive Gauche) – bones is nickname for a doctor | ||
| 25 | ABSENTEE | Malingerer maybe transported when a hard worker’s around (8) |
| SENT (transported) inside (when…is around) A BEE (hard worker) | ||
| 28 | ASTERIA | Precious stone set crookedly in song (7) |
| anagram (crookedly) of SET in ARIA (song) | ||
| 29 | GRIKE | Former king and president informally meeting in deep gorge (5) |
| meeting of GR (George Rex, former king) and IKE (Eisenhower, president) | ||
| 30 | COSTEAN | Dig in prospecting caught a stone that’s friable (7) |
| C (caught) thenanagram (firable) of A STONE | ||
| 31 | ANNUNTIATE | Herald opposed to including sister, worried (10) |
| ANTI (opposed to) incuding NUN (sister) then ATE (worried). Chambers lists this spelling of annunciate as “now obsolete”. Two observations here: firstly it is unusual for Azed not to indicate obsolescence in the definition and secondly what does it mean for something to be obsolete now? That it wasn’t obsolete previously? How could it be otherwise? | ||
| 32 | STINT | Economize just in time? Several outsiders lost (5) |
| found inside (several outsiders lost) juST IN Time | ||
| 33 | ENTENTE | Obsessive about small number forming agreement (7) |
| ENTÊTÉ (obsessive) containing N (number, small=abbrev) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SAWDUST | Studs adjusted, a wicket captured – did it help bowler’s run- up? (7) |
| anagram (adjusted) of STUDS containing (captured) A W (wicket) – sawdust may be used in cricket to prevent slipping in damp conditions | ||
| 2 | KLOOTCH | Wife of brave weaving cloth, OK? (7) |
| anagram (weaving) of CLOTH OK | ||
| 3 | JIGAMAREE | Gadget, one good when entering tight spot, an enclosure (9) |
| I (one) G (good) inside (when entering) JAM (tight spot) then A REE (an enclosure) | ||
| 4 | CHEERY | Genial man, head of enterprise getting to call round (6) |
| HE (man) with Enterprise, first letter, head of) inside (getting…round) CRY (to call) | ||
| 5 | KEDDAH | Catching a jumbo, fly? One not taking off, held up (6) |
| KED (fly, one not taking off) then HAD (held) reversed (up) | ||
| 6 | BRAY | Support yen or pound (4) |
| BRA (support) Y (yen) | ||
| 7 | RIGATONI | Pasta: half of parmigiano’s sprinkled with it, right? (8) |
| anagram (sprinkled) of parmaGIANO (half of) with IT R (right) | ||
| 8 | EDEMA | River swelled by rising sea, unhealthy accumulation of fluid (5) |
| EA (river) contains (swelled by) MED (sea) reversed (rising) | ||
| 9 | TERAS | Time ages grotesque creature (5) |
| T (time) ERAS (ages) | ||
| 14 | PIROUETTE | Endlessly stoned debauchee’s in spin (9) |
| PITTEd (stoned, endlessly) containing (with…in) ROUE (debauchee) | ||
| 15 | CROSTINI | Crunchy finger food, cold potato dish in filling (8) |
| C (old) ROSTI (potato dish) contains (with…filling) IN | ||
| 19 | MEDIANT | Middling tone observed in BBC etc, not clipped (7) |
| MEDIA (BBC etc) and N’T (not, clipped: isn’t for example) | ||
| 20 | ASKANCE | Like a neck that’s skewed sideways (7) |
| AS (like) than anagram (skewed) of A NECK | ||
| 22 | STACTE | Content of thurible cloudy in condition (6) |
| C (cloudy) in STATE (condition) | ||
| 23 | BESOIN | One in 24 struggling in need (6) |
| I (one) in anagram (struggling) of BONES (24 across) | ||
| 25 | AVGAS | Refined petroleum, volume stored by ME leaders (5) |
| V (volume) in AGAS (middle eastern leaders) | ||
| 26 | BURNT | Lancaster encompasses what ends in Dresden being this (5) |
| BURT (Burt Lancaster) contains dresdeN (ending of) | ||
| 27 | FENT | Contemporary poet not on crack (4) |
| FENTon (contemporary poet, James Fenton) missing ON. One might also have the lesser known contemporary poet Ellen Renton giving RENT. | ||
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.
Typo in your answer to 33ac, which should be:
ENTÊTÉ (obsessive) containing N (number, small=abbrev)
I entered RENT for 27dn, not knowing FENT and not being that familiar with contemporary poets.
I didn’t understand 5dn, but I see that a ked is a wingless fly, which explains the not taking off part. Surely a wingless fly is an oxymoron.
Thank you Norman. I tried to be clever putting in the accents and bungled it completely.
I was going to say that this was a fairly straightforward Azed, but see that I had 27d horribly wrong as well. Contemporary poets, eh…
Dormouse #2
Interesting about the ked fly that isn’t.
Have a read here – fascinating:
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/deer_ked.htm
Nick
Nick – that is fascinating. So ked flies do fly and so do take off after all.
Peedee – only some. It does say some are wingless when hatched, but some aren’t and lose the wings when it’s found a host.
But even so, nature is unbelievable sometimes.
Nick
I thought it said that all ked flies have wings initially. Otherwise how do they find their wayback to a deer to feed on after they have hatched on the ground?
Yes, you are right – I misread the article.
So, Azed used the dictionary definition, which is OK, but that in itself is not really correct.
Nick
Interesting. That article is about the deer ked. Chambers just says it infests sheep. Wikipedia says there are also keds that infest birds
So – a deer ked has wings but a sheep ked does not. As Azed doesn’t state explicitly which form of ked he is referring to I think he gets away with it.