Another interesting trip though the English language with an expert guide. Thank you Azed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SACRIST | Old church officer stirs uncomfortably before food’s taken in (7) |
| anagram (uncomfortably) contains (…taken in) AC (before food) | ||
| 6 | CARACT | Shakespeare’s sign, once worth about 100 bucks (6) |
| CARAT (worth, once=obsolete) contains C (100 bucks) | ||
| 11 | CURIET | Old breastplate, short, that is on the inside (6) |
| CURT (short) contains (…on the inside) IS (that is) | ||
| 13 | SEGAR | Havana, say, is violent with revolution (5) |
| RAGES (is violent) reversed (with revolution) | ||
| 14 | DIANA’S TREE | Silvery deposit, see, radiant, flickering (10, 2 words, apostrophe) |
| anagram (flickering) of SEE RADIANT | ||
| 15 | TEXEL | Section of latex elasticating source of wool (5) |
| found inside laTEX Elasticating | ||
| 16 | TROPE | He’s freed from example of one (capital punishment) (5) |
| THE ROPE is an example of a trope (a figurative expression). Remove HE and you get TROPE | ||
| 17 | TRANSIENTNESS | Rani’s drunk, stuck into wine; head follows – it’s not lasting for long (13) |
| anagram (drunk) of RANI inside TENT (wine) followed by NESS (head) | ||
| 23 | REFRIGERATION | Rule e.g. fire out, on the dole? It’s freezing (13) |
| R (rule) then anagram (out) of EG FIRE followed by RATIOn (dole) | ||
| 25 | FILES | Puts on record, yielding scratches? (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 27 | SOFIA | I tucked into one of the canapés – capital (5) |
| I inside SOFA (canape) | ||
| 29 | HERALDSHIP | Job of announcer? He has worked hard with lisp (10) |
| HE then anagram (worked) of HARD with LISP | ||
| 30 | OTARY | Recorder missing first note? One’s at sea, with prominent listeners (5) |
| nOTARY (recorder) missing Note (first letter of) | ||
| 31 | EPICAL | Type size in fragments of early Latin comprising many lines? (6) |
| PICA (type size) inside first letters (fragments of) Early Latin | ||
| 32 | TIPTOE | Turn over new leaf in bond? Tread softly (6) |
| PTO (please turn over page/leaf) inside TIE (bond) | ||
| 33 | BRICOLE | Rib mistreated by old king making rebound (7) |
| anagram (mistreated) of RIB then COLE (old king) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCATTERSHOT | Indiscriminate splurge of threats received by Jock? (11) |
| anagram (splurge) of THREADS inside SCOT (Jock) | ||
| 2 | AUBERGE | Taxi service comes in time – best not to drive after visit here? (7) |
| UBER (taxi service) inside AGE (time) | ||
| 3 | CRUX | Puzzle presented by roof supports, we hear (4) |
| sounds like (we hear) “crucks” (roof supports) | ||
| 4 | RIDENT | With a smile I had stopping tear (6) |
| I’D (I had) inside (stopping) RENT (tear) | ||
| 5 | STARING | Wide-eyed, one breaks tape (7) |
| A (one) inside STRING (tape) | ||
| 6 | CHAR | I like that (of some Chinaware being nicked)! Help! (4) |
| CHARming (I like that) missing MING (of some Chinaware) | ||
| 7 | ASSOTS | Old fools when about to throw up (6) |
| AS (when) contains (about) TOSS (throw) reversed (up) | ||
| 8 | AGREED | Leaders of Republican elite in grey perhaps, suited (6) |
| first letters (leaders) of Republican Elite inside AGED (grey perhaps) | ||
| 9 | CAEN | Five going en vacance, possibly – it’s maybe seen twice (4) |
| anagram (possibly) of EN vACANCE missing V (five) contains CAEN twice. Caen is a town in France, which I suppose five (The Famous Five?) might see twice if on holiday in France. This seems a very tenuous explanation indeed. Can anyone do better? | ||
| 10 | TREASONABLE | Committee accepts motive, deserving ultimate punishment? (11) |
| TABLE (committee) contains REASON (motive) | ||
| 12 | INTERESSE | Sprinter essentially conceals this former concern (9) |
| found inside sprINTER ESSEntially | ||
| 18 | NORTHER | Gale sweeping e.g. Texas and not the Rand (7) |
| NOR (and not) THE R (Rand) | ||
| 19 | STOICAL | Job was such special work involving chief accountant (7) |
| S (special) then TOIL (work) contains CA (chief Accountant) – Job the biblical character | ||
| 20 | AFFRAP | Strike historically producing a very strong debate (6) |
| A FF (fortissimo, very strong) RAP (debate) | ||
| 21 | BILLY-O | Lilo by being blown up like this means ‘vigorously’ (6) |
| anagram (blown up) of LILO BY | ||
| 22 | ATOPIC | Hypersensitive to allergy? Sunhat’s essential on temperature control (6) |
| TOPI (sunhat) inside (essential on) AC (air conditioning, temperature control) | ||
| 24 | YETI | Fanciful hairy type? ——, harpy, possibly (4) |
| HAIRY TYPE is an anagram (possibly) of YETI HARPY | ||
| 26 | EDGE | Low, without aspiration, displaying bitterness (4) |
| hEDGE (low) missing H (without aspiration) | ||
| 28 | FICO | Straw evident in plaited coif (4) |
| anagram (plaited) of COIF | ||
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 had an unparsed TRONE for 16. An unusual clue.
I agree on 9.
Another TRONE here. Couldn’t parse 6dn either so thanks for explaining that. I think both clues went a step too far for me in their misdrection.
Thanks to Azed and PeeDee.
I marked three clues that held me up, for CHAR, TROPE and CAEN. Eventually the penny dropped for the first two but the last still seems a bit lacking somewhere- en vacance implies somewhere in France and twice points to the double anagram- but? It’s always the short words that seem awkward to explain. Still another splendid demonstration of Azed’s superiority to the rest.
Isn’t that funny. I also had problems with the same three clues. Everything else was as fine and smile inducing as ever but those three…
Daylight saving start means I am an hour grumpier this morning but thanks to both for the engagement and elucidation. I am always grateful to both setters and bloggers for the enjoyment.
I join the crowd. Got trope ok, and admired it. Char and Caen I settled for, but came here for elucidation.
Another thing about “en vacance” – I always understood en vacances (with an s) to mean on holiday and en vacance (without the s) to mean something like empty, everyone having gone away. The five’s home would be en vacance, the five themselves would be en vacances.
I was shown a paragraph from the Academie francaise once that had something specific to say about this but it was in rather technical French and I didn’t fully understand it. Are there any French speakers out there who could enlighten me?
If Azed is indicating a letter by simply putting “first” before a word starting with it then I would be surprised and disappointed, perhaps even a little sad.
Def in 21d is “this”.
Hello Dansar, thank you for the correction on 21dn.
Re the “first” issue: are you referring to 30 across OTARY Recorder missing first note? One’s at sea, with prominent listeners (5) ?
I wondered about this clue too, I was in two minds about what to write. Writing “first note” to indicate the first letter of the word note is not Azed’s style, it is definitely at the libertarian end of the spectrum. On the other hand removing the first N (abbreviation for note) from NOTARY doesn’t seem right either as there is only one N to remove. One could argue that the only N is still the first N (and the last etc..) but this seems obviously redundant and not Azed’s style either.
I was stuck.
Hello PeeDee
Yes that’s the clue. I think it’s probably an editing oversight, but it could just possibly refer to “n” and “a” ( a musical note ), and we are to remove the first of them, but that is also not Azed’s style.