Another fascinating tour though Chambers by our expert guide. Thank you Azed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CLAPTRAPPERY | Applaud attempt lined with crinkly paper for fudge? (12) |
| CLAP (applaud) TRY (attempt) containing (lined with)anagram (crinkly) of PAPER | ||
| 10 | EUROPHOBIA | Mixed up extremes of outrage I abhor in what drives Brexiteers (10) |
| anagram (mixed) of UP and OutragE (extremes of) I ABHOR | ||
| 11 | WUSS | Weak American son – what’s he called? (4) |
| W (weak) US (American) S (son) | ||
| 12 | EBOR | Primate’s title, nuisance if back to front (4) |
| BORE (nuisance) back letter to the front – of York, part of the title for the Archbishop of York | ||
| 14 | BREEM | Edmund’s keen on being entry for medal (5) |
| RE (regarding, on) inside (being entry for) BEM (British Empire Medal) – Edmund Spenser’s usage | ||
| 15 | KANAK | Melanesian canoe, number having replaced its centrepiece (5) |
| KAyAK (canoe) with centre letter replaced by N (number) | ||
| 17 | TERRENE | Region after renewing houses (7) |
| found inside (housed by) afTER RENEwing | ||
| 19 | ACATES | Close friend deserted by husband earlier bought provisions (6) |
| AChATES (close friend) missing H (husband) – earlier indicates archaic | ||
| 20 | EMEUTE | Popular outcry met EU falling out with English (6) |
| anagram (falling out) of MET EU with E (English) | ||
| 22 | CERUSE | Pigment shade finally seen in earthenware pot (6) |
| shadE (finally) inside CRUSE (earthenware pot) | ||
| 24 | SUNGOD | Deity celebrated with feast coming round (6) |
| SUNG (celebrated) then DO (feast) reversed | ||
| 25 | KONGONI | O, no! King’s scattered antelopes (7) |
| anagram (scattered) of O NO KING | ||
| 28 | BUBAL | Ruminant, very young one in NZ, entirely ecaudate (5) |
| BUB (very young person, NZ) then ALL missing last letter (ecaudate, tailless) | ||
| 30 | GISMO | Component of thing is motorized doohickey (5) |
| found inside (component of) thinG IS MOtorized | ||
| 31 | GLEI | Good time away from work, sure to go for pottery stuff? (4) |
| G (good) then LEIsure (time away from work) missing SURE | ||
| 32 | PLED | Learner’s gone into walker, it’s alleged in court (4) |
| L (learner) inside PED (pedestrian, walker) | ||
| 33 | ROADRUNNER | Run out, one departs with duck – cuckoo! (10) |
| RO (run out) A (one) D (departs) then RUNNER (breed of duck) | ||
| 34 | DISINTEGRATE | Crumble made with fruit? Ties in when cooked with grain inside (12) |
| DATE (fruit) containing (…inside) anagram (cooked) of TIES IN with GR (grain) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | COW BLACKBIRD | It copies a cuckoo clock, barb mostly wide, fluttering (12, 2 words) |
| anagram (fluttering) of CLOCK BARBand WIDe (mostly) | ||
| 2 | LAURACEOUS | Like a flower family, gold family, in grip of parasitic insect, tailless (10) |
| AU (gold) RACE (family) inside LOUSe (parasitic insect, tailless) | ||
| 3 | PUSEY | Tractarian, certainly well-informed, on the rise (5) |
| YES (certainly) UP (well-informed) all reversed (on the rise) | ||
| 4 | TREMIES | Alternative to me cutting wood, do they help in laying bridge foundations?(7) |
| MI (alternative spelling of me, note of scale) inside (cutting) TREES (wood) | ||
| 5 | ROBOTS | Turmoil coming up about second-class sets of lights in Durban (6) |
| STOOR (turmoil) reversed (coming up)containing B (second class) traffic lights in South Africa | ||
| 6 | APOGEE | Highest point reached by river in a long time, end of June (6) |
| PO (River Po) inside AGE (a long time) then junE (end of) | ||
| 7 | POLAR | Directly opposed cut that’s overturned annual return (5) |
| LOP (cut) reversed (overturned) then AR (annual return) | ||
| 8 | EBON | Rare form of tree, impressive from below, dropping first of leaves (4) |
| NOBLE (impressive) reversed (from below) missing Leaves (first letter of) – the Ebony tree, rare usage | ||
| 9 | YANKEE-DOODLE | American mountain song about rambling Ed O’Kane? (12) |
| YODLE (mountain song) contains anagram (rambling) of ED O’KANE | ||
| 13 | CANTONMENT | Part of China, it briefly houses troops as winter quarters maybe (10) |
| CANTON (part of China) ‘T (it, briefly) contains (houses) MEN (troops) | ||
| 16 | HARN | Coarse linen cap mostly donned by our sailors (4) |
| HAt (cap, mostly) on top of (donned by) RN (Royal Navy, our sailors) | ||
| 18 | EUGE | ‘Bravo’ some of the guests will be coming up with (4) |
| found inside (some of) thE GUEsts reversed (coming up with) | ||
| 21 | MUGGING | Pulling a face, having good liquor in unsuitable receptacle for it (7) |
| G (good) GIN (liquor) in MUG (unsuitable receptacle for it) | ||
| 23 | ENGLUT | Swallow song that embodies extremes of longing, soaring (6) |
| TUNE (song) containing (that embodies) LonginG (extremes of) all reversed (soaring) | ||
| 24 | SILENE | Flowering plant about lost in oblivion (6) |
| SILENcE (oblivion) missing C (circa, about) | ||
| 26 | GAUDI | Architect for all to see occupying ceremonial seat (5) |
| U (for all to see, film rating) inside GADI (ceremonial seat) | ||
| 27 | PIPER | Young pigeon, one associated with Dagenham (5) |
| double definition? The only Piper and Dagenham connection I could find is the Dagenham Girl Pipers, a favourite topic for of Eric Morcambe. | ||
| 29 | BOAS | Crow surrendering tail for coils of feathers, say (4) |
| BOASt (crow) missing tail letter | ||
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 PeeDee, I think I needed the parsing for DISINTEGRATE (sic).
Thanks to both for the expected dictionary tour and the elucidations. The thing about these is they are eminently gettable but require a good think followed by scrabbling around in the dictionary to confirm your answer. I like that.
And PeeDee, after all that working out you may well feel like burying the grid in the underworld. Well done.
Mystrogre puts it well – thanks to both. I didn’t need to look up 25s KONGONI, because of the memory of reading the scores of a cricket team active in colonial days, the Kenya Kongonis. Founded 1927 and evidently still going strong.
https://www.kenyakongoniscricketclub.com/
Mystogre et al – I have disinterred the grate and it is now back how it should be. Thanks for the corrections, as always.
If you rummage deep into search engines you can find a poem “The Pied Piper of Dagenham” and a reference to Sir Alf Ramsay as “the Dagenham Pied Piper” but both of these seem to me to be just as obscure as the Dagenham Girl Pipers.
A question for old timers as I missed three decades of Azeds before they started appearing on the internet: it used to be customary to read things like “Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary is recommended but it does not give one proper name”. Azed uses it now only rarely (and obviously not in 2461). It doesn’t really bother me: I wondered if I had missed some specific announcement?
Stefan
The Dagenham Girl Pipers were a comedy trope in the 1970s, and they’d been around a long time by then. (This was probably an old joke already when it appeared in (I think) one of Ronnie Corbett’s armchair monologues: “He’d only been unfaithful twice – once with the barmaid at the Dog & Duck, and once with the Dagenham Girl Pipers.”) Anyway, I made the association straight away with 27d, but today’s young shavers and bobbysoxers might have struggled.