Quite an easy one on the Azed scale, helped by no fewer than four hidden answers. Thanks to Azed.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | UPCATCH | Cup brewed, chat freely to exchange latest news? (7) CUP* + CHAT* – another way of saying “catch up” |
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| 6 | SITCOM | I’m Scot, tight – cause of regular amusement (6) (I’M SCOT)* |
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| 11 | BURRAMUNDI | Rough sound, one stirring in mud? That was river fish (10) BURR (rough sound) + A (one) + (IN MUD)* – “that was” because it’s an obsolete form of “barramundi” |
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| 12 | STRUDEL | Pastry, its middle roughly left unfinished (7) Middle letters of paSTry + RUDEL[y] |
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| 13 | TOIL | Ball entering landed back in net (4) O (ball) in reverse of LIT. Toil can mean a net, snare or trap |
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| 14 | PION | Power, one in progress as source of nuclear force (4) P + 1 + ON |
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| 15 | CHEMISE | Item of underwear? Edge is visible in Church (7) HEM IS in CE |
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| 16 | INTERTIE | Short piece of roofing timber? There’s chopped tree in it (8) (TREE IN IT)* |
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| 18 | TIMBROMANIA | Stamp collecting – it brought back glimpses of my boyhood somewhere in E. Europe (11) Reverse of IT + M[y] B[oyhood] + ROMANIA – perhaps guessable if you remember that timbre is French for stamp |
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| 24 | EARTH-PEA | Groundnut initially planted in the area that’s wild (8) P[lanted] in (THE AREA)* |
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| 27 | HEISTER | Smart thief, one likely to succeed pinching shimmering set (7) SET* in HEIR |
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| 28 | NERD | Anorak needed in keener days (4) Hidden in keeNER Days |
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| 29 | ERNE | What may be seen in lectern emblematically? (4) Hidden in lectERN Emblematically – church lecterns are sometime in the shape of an eagle. Erne usually means a sea-eagle, but apparently can be any kind |
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| 30 | INVITEE | I mixed vin, 50% TT, for guest rarely (7) Anagram of I + VIN + TEE (half of TT). Chambers flags invitee = guest as “rare”, which surprises me |
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| 31 | SOCRATICAL | Socialist with devious art I name endlessly anti-sophist? (10) SOC[ialist] + ART* + I CAL[l] |
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| 32 | SWEENY | Equine muscular degeneration, very small in lateral duct (6) WEE in SNY (side channel of a river = lateral duct) |
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| 33 | VELVETY | Gains yard, feeling very smooth (7) VELVET (slang for gains, winnings) + Y |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | UNSPID | Verbal jokes, top to bottom, I had not noticed in Milton (6) PUNS with the top letter moved to the end + I’D |
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| 2 | PUT-IN | Appoint world leader? Responsibility of No. 9 (5) Three definitions, with the answer being either two words, one word or hyphenated: the third from Rugby Union, where the ball is put in to a scrum by the scrum-half, who has the number 9 |
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| 3 | CAROTIN | Sandwich in container showing unexpected pigment (7) ROTI in CAN; I’m not sure why the definition includes “unexpected” – maybe because this is an unusual spelling (of carotene) |
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| 4 | TUDORBETHAN | Baron buried in the rotunda fashioned in historical style (11) B in (THE ROTUNDA)* |
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| 5 | CREPT | Part of play (not amateur) including performance pieces moved slowly (5) REP (repertoire, performance pieces) in ACT less A[mateur] |
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| 6 | SACHEM | Pain when taken in by old dandy, artless crooked politician (6) ACHE in SMART less ART |
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| 7 | IMPERATIVAL | Commanding disorderly private? I’m almost entirely restricting that (11) PRIVATE* in I’M AL[l] |
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| 8 | TUTMAN | Pieceworker aunt employed casually, odd bits of time called in (6) Odd letters of TiMe in AUNT* |
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| 9 | ODISM | Reichenbach’s theory, nothing depressingly avoided by ally (5) 0 + DISM[ALLY] |
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| 10 | MILES | He may be seen in Roman units (marching) (5) A mile was originally a Roman unit of length, from mille passus, 1000 paces; also a man’s name |
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| 17 | PIPETTE | Dry after exercise, tucked into pastry and liquid measure (7) PE + TT (teetotal, dry) in PIE – “liquid measure” meaning a device for measuring liquid, rather than a unit of measurement |
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| 19 | MISÈRE | Layout to do with strong hand makes this difficult (6) MISE (layout) + RE (to do with) – misère is a bid to take no tricks in some card games – e.g. Solo Whist – which would be hard to do with a strong hand |
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| 20 | REESTY | Like Sandy’s stubborn mount, no longer sluggish around race’s end (6) [rac]E in RESTY |
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| 21 | JADERY | Tricks of perverse girl, bird that’s reverse of embarrassed within? (6) Reverse of RED in JAY |
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| 22 | CHESS | US grass snitches secretly in part (5) Hidden in snitCHES Secretly |
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| 23 | SEROW | What’s confused with goral, emitting e.g. slow roar? (5) Composite anagram &lit – EG SLOW ROAR is an anagram of SEROW GORAL |
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| 25 | RANCE | Bar – not a beautiful place for alcohol moderation (5) TEMPERANCE less TEMPE (a valley in Thessaly praised by Greek poets; more generally a beautiful place) |
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| 26 | ERECT | Build what no complete rectory can be without (5) Yet another hidden answer: its in completE RECTory |
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Thanks Andrew, especially for the rugby connection for PUTIN. You’ve missed out the underlining for SOCRATICAL and RANCE however.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
I took the whole clue to be the definition for MILES.
Otherwise I wasn’t helped by entering Catchup for UPCATCH and Heartpea (a plant but not a nut) for EARTHPEA
PUTIN
As Gonzo said. Was searching for a connection between PUTIN and ODISM. 🙂
Loved ERNE, PIPETTE and SEROW.
INVITEE
Has the word evolved from being rare to being common? In any case, the blogger’s
surprise is shared.
Thanks, Andrew for the comprehensive blog.
Thank you, Andrew. The one that got me was RANCE. I knew it would be one of Azed’s games but I never thought of Tempe.
I was also annoyed at myself for “lateral duct” at 32 Dn. Just because side can mean lateral and duct can mean channel does not mean Azed can get away with it. Then I found myself rocking with laughter:
“Come along, dear: get your rucksack on, we need to get the tent up.”
“Where are we going?”
“Just off down the nullah—the dry river-bed here. The channel; the sny. The lateral duct…”
“We’re off down a ‘lateral duct’ are we? I haven’t had so much excitement in years.”
Bless our Azed.
KVa: there used to be people called prisoners. They were those imprisoned. If you look hard enough, you will find that there are now people called PRISONEEs. Journalists make these words up.
Stefan
Thanks for the blog. Good fun I thought. Didn’t spot the Tempe reference, but was pleased to solve SEROW without the need for crossers. I wouldn’t have thought that INVITEE was ’rare’, though clearly Chambers does. Pleased to see “Jay” making a cameo appearance.
Thanks for the blog and the extras for Tempe, I guessed it was temperance but no idea for the beautiful place.
MILES is Latin for soldier so the units works in two ways , the second with (marching) .
IMPERATIVAL is not in my Chambers93 but the word play gave it. SOCRATIACALLY is there but not without the LY , Azed did indicate this.
It took me a while to get the rugby reference in PUTIN. I’d solved it before I’d come to read the clue for 9dn, but was then, like KVa @3, puzzling over the link between ODISM and PUTIN, until the penny dropped. Thought SEROW was cleverly done.
Thanks Azed and Andrew
1ac (UPCATCH): I noted when solving that Azed’s use of two separate anagrams avoids ambiguity in the answer and decided at the time that I would comment on this if no one else had already done so.
I don’t like to be left out though I spend quite a bit of Sunday on the current teaser.
Thanks to Azed and to Andrew for thorough blog.
I have to admit I didn’t spot Tempe, though I have been near to it at Olympus. Rance was very familiar because the world’s first tidal generator is in the estuary of the Rance in France.
28 and 29 both being consecutive hidden words did stand out as being unworthy of the master!
I finished this, but with a number of ???, resulting for example from my limited knowledge of rugby gameplay and classical Greek geography. Fair clues, though, if you happen to know what in the heck Azed is alluding to. Unless ERNE is an architectural term of art, I still don’t see how this clue works; it just says a lectern looks sort of like an eagle.
OK, from an image search, I see that some lecterns are evidently carved specifically in the form of huge eagles. I cannot recall ever seeing one of these (quite unattractive) items of furniture, but at least the reference makes sense now.
Cineraria @11, the wikipedia article on eagle lecterns is interesting and explains the symbolism of them.
‘barramundi’ got me stuck for a while – ‘barr’ is the sound an elephant makes apparently, I reckon they’re fairly rough.