A very pleasing selection of unusual words, with one fiendish clue and one rather puzzling one. Thank you Azed.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SLANTINGWAYS | Way t’ inn glass is swirled round obliquely (12) |
| anagram (is swirled round) of WAY T’ INN GLASS | ||
| 10 | TO-WORNE | Once exhausted in mood line retreats (7) |
| TONE (mood) contains (in…is…) ROW (line) reversed (retreats) | ||
| 12 | ROOT | Source for grub (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 13 | CROMBIE | Thick coat, black one pinched by crook (7) |
| B (black) I (one) inside (pinched by) CROME (a crook) | ||
| 14 | APIOL | Palio out of control? It may bring about termination (5) |
| anagram (out of control) of PALIO | ||
| 15 | SOGERS | Local troops? Many lost, nation gripped by call for help (6) |
| GERmany (nation) missing (with…lost) MANY inside (gripped by) SOS (call for help) – local indicates dialect | ||
| 17 | LONGBOAT | Invasion craft? Number stuffing loot bag freely (8) |
| N (number) inside (stuffing) anagram (freely) of LOOT BAG | ||
| 18 | SPICAS | Bandages head of san applied to artist? Not so (6) |
| San (first letter, head of) and PICASso (artist) missing SO | ||
| 22 | BAGH | Dhobi service was carried out in local garden? (4) |
| BAGwasH (Dhobi service) missing (…carried out) WAS – a garden in India, local to a dhobi | ||
| 23 | HOSS | Colt maybe, what no cowboy could do without? (4) |
| I can see a HOSS (horse) may be a colt, and no cowboy can do without a HOSS (horse). What I can’t see is how this is a cryptic clue. Can anyone help me out? | ||
| 24 | CANTED | On edge, a hundred runs short (6) |
| CANTrED ( a hundred, division of a county) missing (short of) R (runs) | ||
| 25 | OUTSTRIP | Leave behind jaunt after moving to US (8) |
| TRIP (jaunt) following anagram (moving) of TO US | ||
| 29 | KIBITZ | Interfere in sleep skipping piano pieces, we hear? (6) |
| KIp (sleep) missing P (piano) then BITZ sounds like (we hear) “bits” (pieces) | ||
| 31 | SEMIE | St Andrews student from Italy in first half of term (5) |
| I (Italy) inside SEMEster (term, first half of) – a semi-bajan | ||
| 32 | TINAMOU | SA bird forming part of nest in a mound (7) |
| found inside nesT IN A MOUnd | ||
| 33 | VERS | Section of Baudelaire, not his first in speech units (4) |
| VERbS (speech units) missing (not) Baudelaire (his first letter) – scraps of verse, French | ||
| 34 | UNGOWNS | Defrocks unruly nuns about to leave, weak (7) |
| anagram (unruly) of NUNS containing (about) GO (to leave) W (weak) | ||
| 35 | RETENTIONIST | One favouring capital punishment (twitching on tree it isn’t!) (12) |
| anagram (twitching) of ON TREE IT ISN’T | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | LOOPY | Work loading Murphy’s spade, dotty (5) |
| OP (opus, work) inside (loading) LOY (a spade, Irish) | ||
| 3 | NOT ON | Unacceptable idea I abandoned (5, 2 words) |
| NOTiON (idea) missing I | ||
| 4 | TRULLAN | Misguided turn holding everything up concerning church council (7) |
| anagram (misguided) of TURN contains ALL (everything) reversed | ||
| 5 | NERONIC | Imperial, fuzzy on chin, Henry trimmed – see monarch in it (7) |
| anagram (fuzzy) of ON ChIN (missing, with…trimmed) H (henry) containing ER (the monarch) | ||
| 6 | GLOGG | Yule warmer consumed in gallons (5) |
| LOG ( a winter warmer, on the fire) inside G G (gallon, twice) – definition is &lit, though hopefully not all consumed on the same night | ||
| 7 | WAME | What’s exhibited prominently in women and men equally? (4) |
| first letters (what’s exhibited prominently) in Women And Men Equally – the belly, both men and women have one | ||
| 8 | ARBROATH | Place for smokers in the Wild Boar & Hart (8) |
| anagram (wild) of BOAR and HART – a town in Scotland renown for its fish smokers | ||
| 9 | SHEATHDRESS | Close-fitting number female threads intricately, special (11) |
| SHE (a female) then anagram (intricately) of THREADS and S (special) – Chambers 2014 lists this as two words, if anyone cares about such things | ||
| 10 | TRAPSHOOTER | One aims for high-flying discs, keeping rhythm initially in drums and horn (11) |
| Rhythm (initial letter) inside TAPS (drums) HOOTER (horn) – a clay pigeon shooter | ||
| 11 | VISAGE | Face group of old wiseacres one short (not the last)? (6) |
| VI SAGES (The Seven Sages, the wise men of Greece, old wiseacres, missing one so only six) and not S (the last letter) – the definition was obvious but I cheated copiously to get the wordplay. Hats off to anyone who got this unaided! | ||
| 16 | DISTINCT | Given rise, I had task round college, well-defined (8) |
| I’D (I had) reversed (given rise) then STINT (task) containing (round) C (college) | ||
| 19 | POUKIT | Jock’s pinched, from seven days in the highlands occupying filthy hole (6) |
| OUK (week Scots, seven days, in the highlands) inside (occupying) PIT (filthy hole) | ||
| 20 | SURTOUT | Protective part of parapet, thick round centre of course (7) |
| STOUT (thisk) containing (round) coURse (centre of) | ||
| 21 | SAPSAGO | Weak ninny given nutritious cereal and hard cheese (7) |
| SAP (saphead, a weak ninny) with SAGO (nutritious cereal) | ||
| 26 | TIMON | Rear of boat I am attached to – or was (5) |
| boaT then I’M (I am) ON (attached to) – an archaic term (or was) for a helm, something attached to the rear of a boat | ||
| 27 | DEVON | Volume, old, kept in private room, an allurement (5) |
| V (volume) O (old) inside DEN (private room) – an angler’s lure | ||
| 28 | GIRNS | Rising in a state I released displays of peevishness (5) |
| anagram (in a state) of RiSING missing (…released) I | ||
| 30 | BAYE | Souse as of old was barking (not quite all there) (4) |
| BAYEd (was barking) unfinished (not quite all there) – Spenserian (of old) to bathe, to wash oneself thoroughly | ||
I write these posts to help solvers get started and to improve. If there is something you don’t understand please ask, there is probably someone else wondering the same thing.
In 23 I saw that Colt could also be a cowboy’s firearm.
Thanks for parsing VISAGE; as you say, the definition was obvious, but I didn’t know about the Seven Sages. As for HOSS, I assumed that it was just a very weak cryptic definition.
Not just me then who couldn’t find much of a cryptic element in the clue for HOSS. I can’t help wondering if it was an oversight rather than intentional?
Defeated this week, several I couldn’t get. I couldn’t convince myself that VISAGE was right for 11dn and I’m sure I couldn’t see BAGH in (electronic) Chambers but I just checked and it’s there. Three others, I just had no idea.
Sorry, I assumed PeeDee hadn’t spotted Colt as a gun because he didn’t mention it in the blog. Anyway, it’s wordplay enough for me.
(I checked the lyrics of the Bonanza theme tune (Hoss Cartwright), but there’s nothing to see there!)
It took some digging for me to track down the intended sense of TIMON and DEVON, and I also wondered what was cryptic about HOSS (so technically a guess, for me), and I had no idea how to parse VISAGE, besides “something to do with SAGES, apparently.” That one is exceptionally farfetched, IMHO. APIOL as an abortifacient was before my time, but simple enough to confirm. I was initially thrown off by the double appearance of “way” both in the clue and anagram answer for 1A. Thanks, PeeDee.
Blorenge – I wanted the clue to be about Bonanza and Hoss Cartwright too. I wasted so much time clinging on to this idea, even after it was patently clear that it had to be wrong.
Couldn’t get GLOGG; and although I live in DEVON, didn’t discover that it means an angler’s lure. But an enjoyable puzzle as ever.
Blow me down. I didn’t know CANTRED. I was trying to figure out how CANTER (gallop, run) could possibly be made to fit.
I too thought HOSS was weak. And there must be a pleasing lot of old-timers still around if we remember Hoss, Adam and Little Joe…
Stefan
Finally finished an AZED thanks to my wonderful wife buying me a Chambers for Xmas.
But even then some were in there from guesses so thank you very much for your help PeeDee for parsing VISAGE and BAGH and CANTED.
But at last I’m playing in the major league!
Congratulations yesyes, and welcome!
Welcome to “newbies”. My first Ximenes was in the mid-fifties!
HOSS does seem to lack something. Has anyone sussed it?
Re December clue comp, STUDENTY, Azed’s slip warns against misspelling clue entries- whn a checked mine I’d done just that so will never know whether what I intended would have caught his eye. Ancient keyboards and arthritic fingers are wont to miss letters.
Now we await the result of the “Presents Round Trees” Christmas special. And the January comp to complete. Happy New Year All.
I’m not too sure about reasoning behind 11D. The Seven Sages were wise men, but a wiseacre is not a wise man – anything but! Chambers gives wise guy for wiseacre but then goes on to indicate that a wise guy is not the same as a wise man.