Azed 2710

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Another high-quality puzzle to exercise our Sunday brains, though I do have a query about 4 down. Thanks to Azed.

 
Across
1 BRITPOP Trip freely with disco music around – such as this? (7)
TRIP* in BOP (disco music)
6 GUSTO Enthusiasm and energy gripping us with time (5)
US + T in GO
10 AIR MARSHAL Senior military man, awfully rash admiral out of depth (10)
Anagram of RASH ADMIRAL less D
11 SMUG Trim eucalypts back (4)
Reverse of GUMS (gum trees)
13 SECOND Transfer forward given care of inside (6)
C/O in SEND (to forward)
14 HEBETATE Dull shrub found around foreign state (8)
ÉTAT in HEBE (shrub)
16 WORREL Lizard to pester losing tail, last character thereof? (6)
WORR[y] + EL (last letter of tail)
17 OMER Festal period, old – deserve missing it (4)
O + MER[it]
19 RENEGADE Convert a degree making switch – little new in that (8)
N in (A DEGREE)*, with “convert” as a noun for the definition
21 ASTATINE At a display, in being admitted (8)
IN in A STATE; with At being the chemical symbol for Astatine
25 CARL Miserly Scot coach has left behind (4)
CAR + L
27 EVOLVE Develop fondness, returning half of it (6)
Reverse of LOVE + half of loVE
29 LUTETIAN Parisian dans la nuit et perdu? (8)
(LA NUIT ET)*
30 ENTOIL Snare using net, unusually slick (6)
NET* + OIL
31 TOLD With duty performed, we hear, as directed (4)
Homophone of “tolled”
32 RATION-BOOK Feature of wartime, castle holding on a bit, battered (10, 2 words)
(ON A BIT)* in ROOK (chess piece)
33 SPOON Club court (5)
Double definition
34 SUNNIER Muslim presented to HM formerly, increasingly chipper (7)
SUNNI + ER (the late queen)
Down
1 BUSHWHACKERS Little weak hush oddly retained by supporters, country-dwellers (12)
Anagrajm of W[eak] HUSH in BACKERS
2 RAMEOUS Rat tailed quivering mouse, spurred? (7)
RA[t] + MOUSE*
3 TIGER BALM Soothing stuff, gimlet bar mixed (9, 2 words)
(GIMLET BAR)*
4 PRATER Purveyor of gossip supplied by Tatler (6)
Double definition? I wonder if I’m missing something here: a PRATER is one who gossips, and “tatler” (which gave the name of the society magazine) is an old form of “tattler”, which is also one who gossips, but these are essentially the same definition
5 PASTA Fare regularly served in trat, yesterday’s one (5)
PAST (yesterday’s) + A
6 GREETE Those heartlessly after poet’s favour, keening for him (6)
GREE + T[hos]E
7 SHOWMAN Entertainer presenting week in Monash reviewed (7)
W in MONASH*
8 TANA Tree creature, passerine but not German (4)
TANAGER less GER
9 OLD PRETENDER Page with English lord, devious and pathetic, one laying claim to throne (12, 2 words)
(P E LORD)* + TENDER
12 KALE Bucks, last in bank, stuff labelled ‘audit’ (4)
[ban]K + ALE – kale is American slang for money, hence “bucks”
15 BOG COTTON Sedge plant yielding unpleasant smell, dry in Congo grown wild (9, 2 words)
B.O. + TT (dry) in CONGO*
18 STRETTO Part of fugue translator included in intense contest (7)
TR[anslator] SET TO. A stretto is a part of a fugue where the voices appear in quicker than usual succession
20 DEVALUE Underrate fee, about to wash up (7)
Reverse of LAVE (wash) in DUE
22 TALION Men in the field dismissing bat for quid pro quo (6)
[bat]TALION
23 NETT Annoyed, led away, clear (4)
NETT[led]
24 EVEN ON Number occupying flat (Glaswegian) continuously (6, 2 words)
NO in EVEN (flat) – “Glaswegian” is part of the definition, rather than applying to flat, as the surface suggests
26 VULNS Love informally given up, not specified, is wounding (5)
Reverse of LUV + N/S
28 KNAP Nick part of hiking kit, bed removed (4)
KNAPSACK less SACK (bed, as in “hit the sack”)

10 comments on “Azed 2710”

  2. Thanks Andrew for the super blog!
    BRITPOP
    Whenever we have a word like ‘this’ or ‘here’ as the definition, I always look for a
    CAD or an extended def. I don’t know if this is the correct approach. I am always
    tempted to do that. Of course, experts here will make me understand how such
    clues should be dealt with.

    Liked WORREL a lot.

  3. Thanks for the blog, pretty good overall , Bucks was a neat touch for KALE , PRATER is very odd, a fake capital and basically just giving us the answer.
    OMER is not in Chambers93 but was clear , HEBETATE has hebe in the word and going round, not wrong but clumsy.
    Seemed to be a lot of subtractions in the wordplay .
    I think Jay has probably seen Glaswegian .

  4. KVa@2 , this often means what you say , the wordplay giving the answer but not precise enough for &Lit. Also watch out for “this” being used for a compound anagram.

  5. I also put a query by 4d, and I have two problems, 12d why is ALE ‘stuff labelled audit’ and 24d, what has ‘Glaswegian’ to do with the clue? Enlightenment welcome. Thanks to Azed and Andrew.

  6. nonafi @5 For 12d, “audit ale” is listed in Chambers as ale of special quality brewed for some Oxford and Cambridge colleges (originally for use on the day of audit).
    24d, Glasweigian is an Scottish indicator for the definition (continuously). Chambers has “even on = (Scot) without intermission”.

  7. nonafi@5. Audit ale is brewed in Oxford and Cambridge.
    EVEN ON is shown in Chambers as a Scots term meaning “without intermission”. Roz’s comment refers to the fact that I’ve been keeping a list of Scots indicators. Glaswegian isn’t a particularly interesting one but it’ll go on the list.

  8. Thanks Tim C@6 and Jay@7. EVEN ON had not struck me as particularly un-English, though it is an odd phrase.

  9. Thanks for the blog. I thought I was missing something in 4dn, but it seems others agree: not so much a double definition as a single definition expressed twice.
    I had a moment of wondering about ALE in 12dn before having a memory of audit ale, dredged up from nearly 50 years ago! As Roz@4 says, ‘Bucks’ was a neat definition.
    I also liked ‘la nuit et perdu’ in 29ac.

  10. The only idea I had for 4d was that ‘by’=PER and a RAT supplies (is contained) within it, but the obvious reading of the clue would require ‘Purveyor of gossip’=RAT when I think ‘Tatler’ is a more obvious synonym in the sense of an informer

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