A 13 by 11 grid this week, with generous checking and one unusual clue.
Azed has taken advantage of the grid to include two 13 letter words at the top and bottom of the puzzle. The unusual feature is to be found at 20 down where the definition is to be found in the middle of the clue. I am struggling to explain the wordplay at 4 down (surely Azed can’t just be equating “lame” with something coming from President Trump), but apart from that I have no real queries. Unless I’ve missed one, I don’t think that there are any Scottish words this week.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BLEPHAROSPASM | Cause of excessive blinking shambles – a prop going berserk (13) |
| *(SHAMBLES A PROP). Fortunately for me, I was familiar with this obscure word as a result of a series of personal ads in the London Review of Books in recent months. | ||
| 10 | AGRIMONY | Herb from the border, cutting extreme pain (8) |
| RIM in AGONY. | ||
| 13 | OSSIE | Who’ll be seen in Bondi beachwear when it’s not cold? (5) |
| (c) OSSIE. This is the word that is no longer to be found in Chambers, but which is in the Oxford Dictionary of English. Not to be confused with OSSI (former East German). | ||
| 14 | PENATES | They provided household protection, broken pane put back (7) |
| *PANE, SET(rev). | ||
| 15 | SQUAMA | Flattened shed replaced by ma in scale (6) |
| SQUA(shed)MA. This is a scale in the biological sense. | ||
| 16 | DO TIME | Between two ends of sentence I’m imprisoned – to ——? (6, 2 words) |
| I’M inside DOT (as in full stop) and (sentenc)E. An & lit clue with the answer filling the gap at the end of the clue. | ||
| 17 | SUPPAWN | Porridge at an end? Eggs brought round (7) |
| UP in SPAWN. | ||
| 18 | GAS OIL | Domestic fuel turning small element dirty (6, 2 words) |
| AG (silver)(rev) SOIL. I’m not sure what “small” is doing in the clue, unless it‘s to indicate the abbreviation. | ||
| 24 | CHICHA | Maize liquor, fashionable this year (6) |
| CHIC HA (hoc anno). | ||
| 26 | RETABLE | Altar shelf on appro maybe, with no room for urn? (7) |
| RET(urn)ABLE. | ||
| 27 | KERMES | Red matter included in quicker messages (6) |
| Hidden. It’s a cherry red mineral. | ||
| 29 | PASEAR | Stroll in small parish on fringes of the briny (6) |
| SEA in PAR(ish). | ||
| 31 | BECASSE | Game bird band’s lost and dancing ceases (7) |
| B(and) *CEASES. The surface cleverly disguises the wordplay. It’s a French word for a woodcock. | ||
| 32 | LUMPY | Feature of antebellum pyramid, far from shapely (5) |
| Hidden. | ||
| 33 | SIDEARMS | Wayward miss packing costly pistols (8) |
| DEAR in *MISS. | ||
| 34 | GREENFINGERED | Don is clearly so inexperienced if confused with gender (13) |
| GREEN, *(IF GENDER). Overseas readers may need to be told that Monty Don is a television gardener, although he was the gardening correspondent for The Observer between 1994 and 2006. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BOOS | Drink, we hear, causing hostile crowd reaction? (4) |
| A homophone of “booze”. | ||
| 2 | LASQUE | Queen ordered seal rings displaying flat diamond (6) |
| QU in *SEAL. | ||
| 3 | PRIAPIC | Being religiose shrouded Capri bust typical of satyrs (7) |
| PI in *CAPRI. I felt the clue was lacking a preposition (such as “in” or “by”) between “shrouded“ and “Capri”. | ||
| 4 | HIEMAL | Wintry greeting, reverse of conventional for Trump? (6) |
| I think this is HI followed by LAME (rev) but I can’t explain the wordplay. | ||
| 5 | AMLA | Tree Malay’s endlessly cultivated (4) |
| *MALA(y). | ||
| 6 | ON EDGE | I’ll take in study after rising – worried about exams? (6, 2 words) |
| DEN (rev) in EGO (rev). | ||
| 7 | PHAT | Power dresser’s topping feature, sexy (4) |
| P HAT. | ||
| 8 | ACTION | A court has one in progress? (6) |
| A CT I ON & lit. | ||
| 9 | MOSELLE | Second disappointment with English and German wine (7) |
| MO SELL E. | ||
| 11 | OPENARMED | Prone to get hitched with dame offering a warm welcome (9) |
| *(PRONE DAME). | ||
| 12 | SEMI | One of two after quarters housed by Chinese military (4) |
| Hidden. The definition refers to a semifinal. | ||
| 17 | SICK BAG | Precaution for travellers, big ask when it’s rough round cape (7, 2 words) |
| C in *(BIG ASK). | ||
| 19 | SEASURE | Attack formerly featuring marine, certainly (7) |
| SEA SURE. | ||
| 20 | CIRCLE | Cleric freed group left enthralled by sorceress (6) |
| Two pieces of wordplay with the definition in the middle: *CLERIC and L in CIRCE. | ||
| 21 | MASSIF | Mountainous region, service an uncertainty (6) |
| A simple charade: MASS IF. | ||
| 22 | STALAG | Camp, all male – see inside (6) |
| LA (which can mean “see!”) in STAG (all male). | ||
| 23 | ELAPSE | Pass, what those standing don’t have in mid-week (6) |
| LAPS in (w)EE(k). You can only have a lap when sitting down. | ||
| 25 | HEEL | Last bit of cheese order for Fido? (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 28 | MAZE | Bewildering construction presented by your self-absorbed setter? (4) |
| AZ in ME. | ||
| 29 | PEEN | Part of hammer-head seen in water, tip of fin (4) |
| PEE (fi)N. | ||
| 30 | RYND | Support for millstone grinding last of corn, dry (4) |
| *(cor)N DRY. | ||
*anagram
4d HIEMAL: Chambers (and also eg Collins online) defines lame as US slang for conventional, so I think Trump is just being used to represent any American.
Peen and Sick Bag were favourites, but Do Time was best for me.
Thank you bridgesong and Azed.
Nila: thanks for explaining HIEMAL. I should have checked “lame” in Chambers.
Yes, the ‘small’ in 18ac is surely there to indicate that we are to use not the name of an element but an abbreviated form thereof; ‘element’ on its own would be fine for, say, SILVER or TIN, but not for LI or CA. We still have a choice of 118 ‘small elements’ but I think it’s safe to assume that Azed wouldn’t go far beyond Ag or Au.
I agree about 3dn – I feel that at the very least a comma after ‘shrouded’ is required. I have a problem with 5dn – the wordplay expands to ‘Malay is endlessly cultivated’, which doesn’t indicate to me the removal of the last letter of MALAY followed by rearrangement; ‘Tree Malay endlessly cultivated’ would be fine. Also 6dn is questionable – “I’ll take in study after rising” (ie “I will take in study after rising”) suggests that EGO will ‘take in’ DEN after ‘rising’, giving ODENGE (or OGDENE), or possibly that EGO will take in DEN after the latter has risen, giving ENEDGO (or EGNEDO). It’s actually quite hard to construct a sound wordplay which indicates that the rising follows the taking in.
I liked the SICK BAG clue.
Looks to me like there’s a word missing in 3 down as Bridgesong suggests. A typo perhaps?
I remember raising an eyebrow at 6 down, for the same reason DRC suggests. It’s obvious what’s intended but when taken literally it does seem to suggest that DEN is reversed and EGO isn’t.
I don’t have a problem with 5 down – “Malay is endlessly cultivated” implies to me that the letters of MALAY move around without the final letter.
Thanks to Azed for more enjoyable Sunday entertainment.
I can’t see the problem with 6dn. Surely it isn’t quite as Bridgesong suggests: isn’t it simply (eg(den)o)rev.? If you’re uncomfortable with this notation, what I’m saying is that the whole of eg(den)o is reversed.
Wil @5: you’re right to point out that my notation is inaccurate; it should have been DEN in EGO (all rev). As it happens, I don’t share the doubts expressed by DRC and cruciverbophile.
I think that I was excessively hard on 5dn, given that the use of adverbs as indicators is itself something of a vexed topic. Objection withdrawn.
6dn, however, is a different matter. I don’t suggest that it’s unfair, but the wordplay cannot properly lead to ON EDGE. The (abbreviated) adverbial clause ‘after rising’ can be shorthand for ‘after I have risen’ or for ‘after study has risen’, but not both. In the sentence ‘The river will catch the sun after rising’, it’s either the river or the sun that are going to rise, not both, nor the main clause itself.