A plain Azed where most of the answers slotted in readily enough…
…apart from one.
I just can’t see 7dn at all, and I’ve been staring at it for almost a week (alright, I did go to work and play fives and badminton, and blog a Guardian and an FT, and sleep and eat etc, so maybe it wasn’t 24/7), but I still can’t work it out.
I have thought of and discounted remex (a feather) (Edit: and yet, that appears to be the answer), resex (a slang word not in Chambers) and redex (short for reducible expression, also not in Chambers), which seemed most likely to me, but doesn’t quite fit the wordplay.
I would be interested in people’s views of “introduced” in 4d, which I felt needed a TO or something like it to make sense.
Thanks Azed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | STRETCHERBOND | Method of building whopper with security (13) |
| STRETCHER (a type of lie, so “whopper”) with BOND (“security”)
A method of building using stretchers only. |
||
| 11 | WAKA | Wife with pen-name of ‘Dugout’ (4) |
| W (wife) + AKA (also known as, so “pen-name”)
A waka is a Maori dug-out canoe. |
||
| 12 | OVERREV | Gun accounting for old French glass, see (7) |
| O (old) + VERRE (“french” for “glass”) + V (vide, so “see”) | ||
| 14 | LEGOLAND | Fun place for the young, being conducted round the heights (8) |
| LED (“conducted”) round the GOLAN Heights | ||
| 15 | TEFF | Source of cereal stored in depot efficiently (4) |
| Hidden [stored] in “depoT EFFiciently”
Teff is a cereal grass from Northwest Africa.. |
||
| 16 | BEHAVE | Two auxiliaries to maintain decorum (6) |
| BE + HAVE (“two auxiliary” verbs) | ||
| 17 | BLACKER | Increasingly bad-tempered, a supporter about league (7) |
| BACKER (“a supporter”) about L (league) | ||
| 18 | EXOCET | Pilot in rear of boat redirected low-level missile (6) |
| (<=COX (“pilot”) in TEE ([rear of] (boa)T)) redirected | ||
| 20 | CATAPAN | Governor as of old planting palm in container (7) |
| ATAP (“palm”) planted in CAN (“container”)
A catapan was a provincial governor in the Byzantine Empire. |
||
| 24 | THRIPS | Small insect is dancing round centre of orchids (6) |
| TRIPS (“is dancing”) round [centre of] (orc)H(ids) and &lit. | ||
| 27 | BABESIA | Parasite infecting cattle, reverse of ideal with newborn ones (7) |
| [reverse of] <=A1 (“ideal”) with BABES (“newborn ones”) | ||
| 28 | TOMCAT | Moggy caught tucking into beef maybe (last bit left out) (6) |
| C (caught) tucking into (beef) TOMAT(o) [last bit left out] | ||
| 30 | SHAN | A bit of mishandling, for which smasher was responsible? (4) |
| Hidden in [a bit of] “miSHANdling”
A shan was a counterfeit coin, and a smasher a dealer in such. |
||
| 31 | SHEETING | Set hinge in position for protective boards (8) |
| *(set hinge) [anag:in position] | ||
| 32 | REPLETE | Full theatre: great tragedy, casting bad actor, English (7) |
| REP(ertory) (“theatre”) + (ham)LET (“great tragedy with HAM (“bad actor”) cast out) + E (English) | ||
| 33 | CHOC | What may be Neapolitan log, last bit polished off (4) |
| CHOC(k) (“log”, last bit polished off)
Neapolitans are individually wrapped squares of chocolate of various flavourings. |
||
| 34 | PAPER FASTENER | Dad given free art pens, shuffling part of stationery set? (13, 2 words) |
| PA (“father”) given *(free art pens) [anag:shuffling] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SALT-BUTTER | Drunken blast, downright gross in Shakespeare (10) |
| *(blast) [anag: drunken] + UTTER (“downright”)
From The Merry Wives of Windsor: FALSTAFF:Hang him, mechanical salt-butter rogue! I will |
||
| 2 | TWEELY | Scottish fabric that’s woven with end of shoddy in quaint fashion (6) |
| TWELL (“Scottish fabric that’s woven”) with [end of] (shodd)Y | ||
| 3 | RAGFAIR | One’s in RAF rig being given a going over? (7) |
| A (“one”) in *(raf rig) [anag: being given a going over] and &lit.
A ragfair is a kit inspection. |
||
| 4 | TALUKA | University introduced lecture on a collectorate (6) |
| U (university) introduced to TALK (“lecture”) on A | ||
| 5 | CHARET | Old-fashioned vehicle the car replaced (6) |
| *(the car) [anag:replaced]
An old word for “chariot” as in Spenser’s The Faerie Queen: “Before the dor her yron charet stood, |
||
| 6 | HONER | One using special stone from river, first to last (5) |
| (r)HONE-R (River Rhone with its first letter moved to last) | ||
| 7 | You’ll find exams’re being reset as this (e.g. primary) (5) | |
| see intro and comments below. | ||
| 8 | BREHON | Ancient judge taking dash of brandy before 6, confused (6) |
| [dash of] B(randy) before *(honer) (“the answer to 6dn”) [anag:confused] | ||
| 9 | ORCA | Murderous sea creature of northern isles (only half thereof) (4) |
| ORCA(dian) (“of northern isles”, only half thereof) | ||
| 10 | NERVE | Run in high-altitude snow requiring strength (5) |
| R (run) in NEVE (“high altitude snow”) | ||
| 13 | VOETGANGER | Boorish promenader against reggae not being represented (10) |
| V (“against”) + *(reggae not) [anag:being represented]
A voetganger is a South African infantryman or pedestraian (or a locust), and Dutch colonists in South Africa (more commonly known as Boers, were also known as Boors) |
||
| 19 | CUSHION | Buffer opposed to accepting American greeting (7) |
| CON (“opposed to”) accepting US (“American”) + HI (“greeting”) | ||
| 20 | CICALE | Noisy chirpers providing some farcical entertainment (6) |
| Hidden in [providing some] “farCICAL Entertainment” | ||
| 21 | PAREUS | Skirts for men matter but are seen as divisive (6) |
| PUS (“matter”) seen to divided by ARE
A pareu is a Polynesian loincloth. |
||
| 22 | ABJECT | Very low jab etc punished (6) |
| *(jab etc) [anag:punished] | ||
| 23 | FIANCE | Hand church about fourth of donation as one promised (6) |
| FIN (“hand”) + CE (“Church” of England) about [fourth of] (don)A(tion) | ||
| 25 | HOSEA | Author of book one found under drawers (5) |
| A (“one”) found under HOSE (“drawers”) | ||
| 26 | PACER | One not expecting to win, top performer having entered prize ring (5) |
| ACE (“top performer”) having entered PR (prize ring) | ||
| 27 | BOHEA | Guy given something like gunpowder, a low-grade tea (5) |
| BO (“guy”) given HE (high explosive, so “something like gunpowder”) + A | ||
| 29 | MOPP | She does work in the Met briefly (4) |
| OP (“work”) in MP (Metropolitan Police, so “Met, briefly”)
Mrs Mopp is a term for a cleaner or a “woman who does”. I suppose these days it should be “one does”, although I’ve never heard of a Mr Mopp (yet!) |
||
*anagram
Thanks for the blog, loonapick.
For 7d I had REMEX with the definition being ‘e.g. primary’ with ‘primary’ meaning ‘a primary feather’, and the wordplay being a compound anagram i.e. EXAMS’RE is an anagram of AS REMEX.
Same as Matthew@1.
4d needs either a “to” or a comma after “introduced” for strict X_ean rigour, but I had no trouble solving it as it is.
Just noticed some typos; I’ll edit when next at a PC.
Many thanks to both. With 7d I also removed AS and had a look at what it left. Then I convinced myself ‘e.g. primary’ was the definition. So same as Matthew. I got myself tied up for days by using TWEEDY for 2d, which meant 17a defeated me until later in the week. All in all, another good way to spend some time in contemplation.