Not so many obscure words this time. Thank you Azed.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CLATCH |
Glasgow slattern, fastener covering front of Levis (6)
|
| CATCH (fastener) contains (covering) first letter (front) of Levis | ||
| 6 | AWARDS |
Terribly sad about hostility resulting in prizes (6)
|
| anagram (terribly) of SAD contains (about) WAR (hostility) | ||
| 11 | GOOSEFOOT |
Something akin to beet, soft and mostly gooey when cooked with egg in (9)
|
| anagram (when cooked) of SOFT with GOOEy (mostly) containing O (an egg) | ||
| 12 | FLAT RACE |
Man maybe after apartment in e.g. Derby (8, 2 words)
|
| RACE (man maybe) following FLAT (apartment) | ||
| 13 | FUNGO |
Sport activity? It gives catching practice (5)
|
| FUN (sport) and ACTIVITY (go, it’s all go here today) | ||
| 14 | MELEE |
This writer takes shelter in scrum (5)
|
| ME (this writer) with LEE (shelter) | ||
| 16 | ANTIPASTO |
One hint regarding starter for meal (9)
|
| AN (one) TIP (hint) AS TO (regarding) | ||
| 17 | NETT |
Annoyed, not having leader in final? (4)
|
| NETTLED (annoyed) missing (not) LED (having leader) | ||
| 19 | BURSAR |
Money controller keeping star group within bills receivable (6)
|
| URSA (star group) inside BR (bills receivable) | ||
| 21 | DRAGEE |
Number of candles within fancy red cake decoration? (6)
|
| AGE (number of candles, on a cake) inside anagram (fancy) of RED | ||
| 24 | SWIG |
Drink? Once gulping disposes of pin (4)
|
| SWIpinG (gulping, archaic) missing PIN | ||
| 25 | OSTRACION |
Hard-shelled sea creature displaying form of iron coats (9)
|
| anagram (form of) IRON COATS | ||
| 28 | DOUAR |
One confined to grim desert camp (5)
|
| A (one) inside (confined to) DOUR (grim) | ||
| 29 | VIALS |
They establish level by means of line and bit of string (5)
|
| VIA (by means of) L (line) then first letter (a bit of) of String | ||
| 31 | QUAVERED |
Was wobbly English vicar, retiring, housed in part of college? (8)
|
| E (English) REV (vicar) reversed (retiring) inside QUAD (part of college) | ||
| 32 | EASTERNER |
New Englander always clutching behind (9)
|
| E’ER (always) containing (clutching) ASTERN (behind) | ||
| 33 | REMEDE |
Treatment for Jock in grip of extreme dengue (6)
|
| found inside (in grip of) extREME DEngue – for Jock indicates a Scottish word | ||
| 34 | TRUTHY |
Hut collapsing in strain, rarely to be relied upon (6)
|
| anagram (collapsing) of HUT inside TRY (strain) – rarely indicates rare use | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | COFFIN-DODGER |
Rude name for oldie, bloke coming round about experience (12)
|
| CODGER (bloke) containing (coming round) OF (about ?) FIND (experience) | ||
| 2 | LULU |
Play girl, very bad person (4)
|
| double definition – two plays by German playwright Frank Wedekind are collectively known as The Lulu Plays | ||
| 3 | AMANITA |
Fungus I found inside a huge fish (7)
|
| I inside A MANTA (huge fish) | ||
| 4 | CORONA |
Trumpet played tenderly (no more) grips other ranks (6)
|
| CON Amore (played tenderly) missing MORE contains (grips) OR (other ranks) | ||
| 5 | HOAST |
Hack locally, amateur among crowd (5)
|
| A (amateur) inside (among) HOST (crowd) | ||
| 6 | ASCRIBE |
Attribute i.e. mixed up with carbs (7)
|
| anagram (mixed up) if IE with CARBS | ||
| 7 | AFFEAR |
Iron plugged in some way off giving the old shock (6)
|
| FE (Fe, iron) inside (plugged in) AFAR (some way off) | ||
| 8 | ROLLS |
Food for breakfast is getting under way (5)
|
| double definition | ||
| 9 | DOVETAIL |
Joint, OK, in a lido swinging (8)
|
| VET (OK, to check and approve) inside anagram (swinging) of A LIDO | ||
| 10 | ST GEORGES DAY |
Greasy stodge ordered for festive occasion (12, 3 words)
|
| anagram (ordered) of GREASY STODGE | ||
| 15 | PERSONAE |
Child in a theatre brought up with English characters (8)
|
| SON (child) inside A REP (theatre) reversed (brought up) then E (English) | ||
| 18 | LECTURE |
Address etc adjusted after being taken in by spinner? (7)
|
| anagram (adjusted) of ETC inside (after being taken in by) LURE (spinner, fishing equipment) | ||
| 20 | SWEAR AT |
Inveigh against pirate taking wife on board (7, 2 words)
|
| SEA RAT (pirate) contains (taking on board) W (wife) | ||
| 22 | GRASTE |
Compartment in Agra’s temple poetically adorned (6)
|
| found inside (compartment in) aGRA’S TEmple – the poet is Edmund Spencer | ||
| 23 | BOVVER |
Gang violence? Name applied to wars covers volumes (6)
|
| BOER (name applied to wars, The Boer Wars) contains (covers) V V (volume, twice) | ||
| 26 | TUISM |
Apostrophe one’s getting in the middle (5)
|
| I’S (one’s) inside TUM (stomach, the middle) | ||
| 27 | IDANT |
Chromosome? It contains a form of DNA (5)
|
| IT containing anagram (form) of DNA | ||
| 30 | LECH |
Improper desire for winter sports venue (4)
|
| double definition – upmarket ski resort in Austria |
I took “not LED” as meaning “not having leader” as you did PeeDee. This one needed less thumbing through Chambers for me and my favourite was ANTIPASTO.
Thanks for the blog, FUNGO and COFFINDODGER not in my Chambers93 but both fairly obvious.
SWIG was in very recently using exactly the same idea with pin.
Thanks Azed and PeeDee. Small suggestion for 17ac: If you take “having leader” = LED, and keep the “not” separately as the deletion indicator, I think it works more smoothly.
Thanks, PeeDee. I had a question-mark against COFFIN-DODGER as well.
Thanks Pelham, that is a more Azed way of explaining 17ac. I have updated the blog.
Hello all. Just been to get a booster so am late as usual. As PeeDee comments in the excellent blog it was rather less thick in rarities. I do remember thinking that the clue for NETT was very neat.
As always thanks to Azed. Does any other setter have such a CV.
Hope to meet some on Saturday and shall be bringing memorabilia going back to the fifties.
Either my solving ability is improving or this recent batch of grids has been gentler with the cluing. I even finished the Wrong Number from a few weeks ago–not so very hard as it seemed at first. Method: I physically sliced up the clues and regrouped them by word-length. That made the cross-references much easier to spot.