Apart from a couple of quibbles noted below, I found this pretty straightforward.
When I was solving the puzzle, it felt as though there was more than the usual number of obscurities this time out, but now that I have completed the review, I am not sure why. On more than one occasion, I found myself following through with what the wordplay was telling me, e.g., “Add this element to that element,” then asking myself, “Is that a word?,” only to flip to the entry in Chambers to discover, yes, that is a word.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ARC DE TRIOMPHE |
Vigorously march with pride to end of avenue – and this? (13, 3 words)
|
| Anagram of (vigorously) {MARCH + PRIDE + TO + last letter of (end of) [AVENU]E} | ||
| 11 | MORIA |
Folly? I’ll have one to rear of grand house, not Anglo-Norman (5)
|
| M[AN]OR (grand house) minus (not) AN (Anglo-Norman) + I + A (one) | ||
| 12 | SOLER |
Landing fish with end of catcher (5)
|
| SOLE (fish) + last letter of (end of) [CATCHE]R | ||
| 14 | AMASSABLE |
With power to gather in piles, albe crookedly, master pocketed (9)
|
| MASSA (master) inside (pocketed) anagram of (crookedly) ALBE | ||
| 15 | QUAT |
Poet’s botch, omitting rain from stanza (4)
|
| QUAT[RAIN] (stanza) minus (omitting . . . from) RAIN. Chambers labels this usage “dialect,” and attributes a different meaning to Shakespeare, so I am not sure why Azed indicates “poet’s” here? Update: See Tim C@2 |
||
| 16 | VENIN |
Time for vigil, avoiding e.g. poisonous stuff (5)
|
| [E]VENIN[G] (time for vigil) minus (avoiding) {E + G} | ||
| 17 | SHINER |
Mouse trapped by mesh in error (6)
|
| Hidden in (trapped by) [ME]SH IN ER[ROR] | ||
| 19 | THEMATA |
Cheers welcoming fringe melodies? (7)
|
| {TA + TA} (cheers) around (welcoming) HEM (fringe) | ||
| 20 | STONE-DEAF |
Like a post, completely ordinary, fastened badly at the edges (9)
|
| Anagram of (badly) FASTENED around (at the edges [of]) O (ordinary) | ||
| 23 | HAIRDOS |
Song before party’s introduced by H. Styles (7)
|
| H. + AIR (song) + DO’S (party’s), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 26 | INJERA |
Foreign bread requiring a long time following order without being warm (6)
|
| INJ[UNCTION] (order) minus (without) UNCTION (being warm) + ERA (a long time) | ||
| 27 | ARGAN |
Timber tree yielding oil, not quite enough for oil lamp (5)
|
| ARGAN[D] (oil lamp) minus last letter (not quite enough for) | ||
| 29 | COPS |
Force brake by the sound of it (4)
|
| Homophone of (by the sound of it) COPSE (brake) | ||
| 31 | CHONDRULE |
Granular item stirring under loch (9)
|
| Anagram of (stirring) {UNDER + LOCH} | ||
| 32 | KELLY |
Top pipe requiring something to tune round lines? (5)
|
| KEY (something to tune) around (round) LL (lines) | ||
| 33 | GULES |
Birds leaving Luxembourg for Spain, red of coat (5)
|
| GUL[L]S (birds), substituting (leaving . . . for) E (Spain, IVR code) for L (Luxembourg, IVR code), in heraldry | ||
| 34 | UNDERESTIMATE |
Marry – after it endures shakily, a miscalculation (13)
|
| Anagram of (shakily) {IT + ENDURES} + MATE (marry) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ROMO |
Bit of publicity shifting No. 1 in pop revival (4)
|
| [P]ROMO (bit of publicity) minus (shifting) first letter P (No. 1) | ||
| 3 | CRASIS |
What can create diphthong like this turns up when ‘headland’ is inscribed (6)
|
| RAS (headland) inside (is inscribed [in]) SIC (like this) inverted (turns up) | ||
| 4 | DISENTRAYLE |
Led astray, I dispatched beam inwardly, once void of lights? (11)
|
| {I + SENT (dispatched) + RAY (beam)} inside (inwardly) anagram of (astray) LED, attributed to Spenser, thus “once,” with “lights” in the sense of “lungs” | ||
| 5 | TEA URN |
Source of cuppas: move round holding running water (6, 2 words)
|
| TURN (move round) around (holding) EA (running water) | ||
| 6 | RABAT |
Tunic cut short from below, cause to change planes? (5)
|
| TABAR[D] (tunic) minus last letter (cut short) inverted (from below), a term from geometry, “to rotate a plane so that it is aligned with another plane” | ||
| 7 | ILLTH |
Parts of shaft getting switched? Opposite of ease resulting (5)
|
| THILL (shaft) with the TH and ILL parts “getting switched” | ||
| 8 | MORE MAJORUM |
Mum tucked into rather large drink, just as our forebears did (11, 2 words)
|
| MA (mum) inside (tucked into) {MORE (rather) + JORUM (large drink)} | ||
| 9 | PLAN |
Scheme noisy gent abandoned (4)
|
| PLAN[GENT] (noisy) minus (abandoned) GENT | ||
| 10 | HERITOR |
Legatee of female with attractive quality, and gold (7)
|
| HER (female) + IT (attractive quality) + OR (gold) | ||
| 11 | MARSH HAWK |
Hen harrier, unusually harsh, tucked into maggot (9, 2 words)
|
| Anagram of (unusually) HARSH inside (tucked into) MAWK (maggot) | ||
| 13 | RUNAGATES |
Vagabonds smuggle stones (semi-precious) (9)
|
| RUN (smuggle) + AGATES (stones, semi-precious) | ||
| 18 | HEARTEN |
Having run in eliminating round, almost finish? Buck up! (7)
|
| R (run) inside (having . . . in) HEAT (eliminating round) + EN[D] (finish) minus last letter (almost) | ||
| 21 | DIP-NET |
Angler’s has a long handle – gutted pollan goes into food selection (6)
|
| Outside letters of (gutted) P[OLLA]N inside (goes into) DIET (food selection) | ||
| 22 | FECULA |
Fellow, one admitting faulty clue, yielding grounds (6)
|
| {F (fellow) + A (one)} around (admitting) anagram of (faulty) CLUE | ||
| 24 | OCHRE |
Money needed when centre of routine is moved to the fore (5)
|
| CHORE (routine), with the central letter O moved to the beginning (when centre . . . is moved to the fore). I suppose doing chores would be part of one’s routine, but I am not sure this clue quite parses? | ||
| 25 | SOOKS |
Toadies locally requiring approval in appeal for help (5)
|
| OK (approval) + SOS (appeal for help), listed in Chambers as “dialect,” thus “locally” | ||
| 28 | GELD |
Sort tax (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 30 | BLET |
Bit of old salad? Her leaves showing incipient decay (4)
|
| [HER]BLET (bit of old salad) minus (leaves) HER, attributed to Shakespeare, thus “old” |
Thanks Cineraria. Perhaps your perception of more obscurities was coloured by their use in the wordplay – ‘mouse’ and ‘botch’ come to mind. I think you are right about OCHRE.
Spent a while trying to tie BLETHER to salad for 30.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
I think the ‘poet’ for QUAT refers to the definition for “botch” as Miltonian (“a boil, pimple or sore (Milton)”). I agree “routine task” would be better than just “routine” in OCHRE
Favourite was STONE-DEAF for the definition.
?? chore n a routine (Chambers 2006).
Stefan
Stefan @3, C2016 has “n a routine, esp household, task”
Thanks for the blog, I agree with you concerning chore and so does Chambers93.
I thought ARC DE TRIOMPHE was very good. AMASSABLE a bit clumsy with the able around and at the end. Not keen on the fake capital for HAIRDOS , I know this is conventional but I do not see why.
THEMATA I just had Cheers=TATA as in cheerio , not a double thank you.
Roz@5: I try my best with UK colloquialisms, which are not always thoroughly explained in any reference. I am familiar with TATA = goodbye and with TA = thanks, but not really with “cheers” as either a greeting or a farewell, but I will defer to the native speakers.
It must be very difficult , cheers means many things in the UK including goodbye , but I do not think it stretches to hello.
Oops… Thanks, Tim C. I wonder if Azed made the misreading I did.
Stefan
THEMATA
TATA cheers…
Is ‘cheers’ used to mean ‘thanks’ in the UK? Seen it being used like goodbye in some British tele-series.
KVa @9 I would say the main meaning is “Good health” when you have a drink and touch glasses , the Germans say Prosit , the Greeks Yamas.
It also seemed to spread, mainly among the young , to mean thank you.
Also used for goodbye ( so many words for this ) , perhaps from cheerio , which is now very old-fashioned.
Stefan @8, I think that’s a good assumption.
Thanks Roz@10
A footnote to Roz@10: Yamas in Greek literally means ‘health to us’; they also say Yasou or Yasas (health to you, singular and plural), which are also used as a greeting.
Two clues, 9dn and 26ac, where we had to subtract part of a word. In 9dn, we were told it was ‘gent’ that was missing; in 26ac, we were given only a definition, although I would say INJERA was a less common word than PLANGENT.
I liked SOOKS – I often tell my dog he’s a sook, because he’ll go to anyone for a bit of attention!
Interesting MunroMaiden @13 re SOOKS. I hadn’t heard the word until I came to Aus many years ago (in the first sense of Chambers rather than the second sense you apply to your dog). “He’s a bit of a sook” is fairly common usage here, what would be called a “mummy’s boy” more commonly in UK English. It makes sense from the etymology in Chambers of a suck-calf or the Scots pronunciation of suck.
Didn’t want to be left out.
Thanks Azed & Cineraria and greetings all.
Congrats to monthly listers.
Viewing Olympics is responsible for lateness this week. Today’s Azed seemed a bit o the kind end.
I do remember admiring ARC DE TRIIOMPHE (seen a lot of it this week.