This week’s puzzle has quite a few clever surfaces, with some Chambers unicorns mixed in with some crossword chestnuts.
I was initially baffled by the NW corner, but worked my way counterclockwise back around, finishing off with the comparatively straightforward ORAL.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SCHANSE |
Part of Boer’s defence maybe he scans obliquely? (7)
|
| Anagram of (obliquely) HE SCANS, noted in Chambers as “South African,” thus “Boer” | ||
| 6 | SASIN |
Antelope, last of species, a pity (5)
|
| Last [letter] of [SPECIE]S + A + SIN (pity) | ||
| 10 | JOHN-APPLE |
Jack-fruit? It’s at its best when shrivelled (9)
|
| JOHN (Jack) + APPLE (fruit), apparently also known as “apple-john,” at its peak when allowed to dry in long storage | ||
| 11 | CLEAN |
Catching nothing smoothly (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | SOKE |
District with its own legislation to tax heavily, we hear (4)
|
| Homophone of (we hear) SOAK (to tax heavily) | ||
| 14 | KOMONDOR |
Sheepdog, a stunner? Absolutely right (8)
|
| KO (a stunner) + MONDO (absolutely) + R (right) | ||
| 16 | ORAL |
Teething toy, not the first relating to sucking stage? (4)
|
| [C]ORAL (teething toy, minus the first letter [“not the first”]) | ||
| 17 | CAUTEL |
What’s this bardic craft for? Giving actor fuel possibly (6)
|
| Compound/composite anagram (“giving . . . possibly”): CAUTEL + FOR = ACTOR + FUEL, noted in Chambers as “Shakespeare,” thus “bardic” | ||
| 19 | LITHOPHYSE |
They polish rocky crystalline lump, bladder-like (10)
|
| Anagram of (rocky) THEY POLISH | ||
| 20 | MALEFACTOR |
Criminal (10)
|
| The competition word | ||
| 25 | ONE-MAN |
Solo assigned to celebrity making comeback (6)
|
| ON (assigned to) + NAME (celebrity) reversed (making comeback) | ||
| 26 | DOAB |
Fish round ring in land skirted by two rivers (4)
|
| DAB (fish) around (round) O (ring) | ||
| 29 | RITENUTO |
Routine changes round middle of sixties, slowing-down time (8)
|
| Anagram of (changes) ROUTINE around (round) middle [letter] of [SIX]T[IES] | ||
| 30 | BISE |
It blows cold, a handicap, no question (4)
|
| BIS[QU]E (a handicap) minus (no) QU. (question) | ||
| 31 | TAP-IN |
Thanks golfer’s target for simple shot (5)
|
| TA (thanks) + PIN (golfer’s target) | ||
| 32 | AGONISTES |
Saint goes wrong, one wrestling with inner demons (9)
|
| Anagram of (wrong) SAINT GOES | ||
| 33 | SEWEN |
Sea-trout Welsh will have learnt about (5)
|
| SEEN (will have learnt) around (about) W (Welsh), with an &lit flavor to the surface. An alternative suggested by the comments: W (Welsh) inside (will have . . . about) SEEN (learnt) | ||
| 34 | WORSTED |
Fine fabric formerly damaged (7)
|
| Double definition, the second noted in Chambers as “obsolete,” thus “formerly” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SOCKO |
Creation of cook’s, dramatically outstanding (5)
|
| Anagram of (creation of) COOK’S, i.e., theatre slang, thus “dramatically” | ||
| 2 | CHLORDANE |
Insecticide making husband peer inside bamboo? (9)
|
| {H (husband) + LORD (peer)} inside CANE (bamboo, for example) | ||
| 3 | HIEMAL |
Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, timeless, associated with him recast (6)
|
| Anagram of (recast) {[T]ALE minus (“less”) T (time) + HIM}, i.e., the adjectival form of “hiems” = “winter” | ||
| 4 | NON-NET |
Number in chamber piece without price being fixed at outset (6)
|
| N (number) inside (in) NONET (chamber [music] piece) | ||
| 5 | SHADCHANIM |
They arrange Jewish marriages, held constant within form of Mishna (10)
|
| {HAD (held) + C (constant)} inside (within) anagram of (form of) MISHNA | ||
| 6 | SATRAP |
Old governor displaying skill in step up (6)
|
| ART (skill) inside (in) PAS (step) all inverted (up) | ||
| 7 | APSE |
Section of cheap seats in alcove (4)
|
| Hidden in (section of) [CHE]AP SE[ATS] | ||
| 8 | SPOTTY |
Inconsistent section dominating chamber (6)
|
| S (section) + POTTY (chamber) | ||
| 9 | NEEDLES |
Passes through Channel landmark (7)
|
| Double definition, the second known as “The Needles” | ||
| 12 | LOCO CITATO |
I tap in train company in place mentioned (10, 2 words)
|
| {I + TAT (tap)} inside (in) {LOCO (train) + CO (company)}, in Latin | ||
| 15 | GESTATIVE |
Grant includes state’s refurbishment of carriage (9)
|
| GIVE (grant) around (includes) anagram of (refurbishment [of]) STATE | ||
| 18 | AMOEBAS |
Protozoa once more found in down! (7)
|
| MOE (more, “once,” i.e., an archaic form of the word) inside (in) À BAS (down [with]!, in French) | ||
| 21 | LEASOW |
Rough sea invading mean pasture (6)
|
| Anagram of (rough) SEA inside (invading) LOW (mean), noted in Chambers as “dialect” | ||
| 22 | FARCIN |
Bend in e.g. pectoral, an affliction of old horses (6)
|
| ARC (bend) inside (in) FIN (of which pectoral is a type), noted in Chambers as “obsolete” form of “farcy,” thus “old” | ||
| 23 | TEETER |
Where hole’s starting to soak up wobble (6)
|
| TEE (where [golf] hole’s starting) + RET (to soak) inverted (up) | ||
| 24 | ROUPIT |
Scots husky fully involved in dispersing riot (6)
|
| UP (fully) inside (involved in) anagram of (dispersing) RIOT | ||
| 27 | BONED |
Filleted just after being caught in river bottom (5)
|
| ON (just after) inside (being caught in) BED (river bottom) | ||
| 28 | DENE |
Sandy area, new in river (4)
|
| N (new) inside (in) DEE (river), noted in Chambers as “dialect” |
Thanks Cineraria. I had the same difficulty with the NW corner, not helped by putting in PINEAPPLE for 10 (‘jack pine’).
Thanks as ever to Azed.
Thanks, Cineraria for the excellent blog. Very neat and pleasant to read.
A minor point:
SEWEN (Nice extended def)
Is it like this? learnt=SEEN. W will have SEEN about.
Thanks for the blog, I never send off when there is a clue to write so I do not mind a messy grid. I just put everyting in from the wordplay and check later and this time I got lucky with everything. KOMONDOR and SHADCHANIM are not in my Chambers93 so I am glad to see they are correct.
Enjoyed this one. Many thanks for the blog. ‘Bisque’ and ‘coral’ are new to me in those senses so I didn’t quite get the wordplay at the time, though the answers were clear from the definitions.
I read SEWEN as per KVa@2.
Thanks to Azed
I hadn’t come across Coral, so I checked it in Chambers. I was pretty certain ORAL was correct and I wasn’t really prepared to work my way through the dictionary for the missing first letter, so it was just as well it was Coral and not, say, Toral!
Thank you. Failed at the last hurdle with 15d. having stupidly written in DOOB despite having correctly solved and parsed DOAB. Oh well, can’t win ’em all.