A plain puzzle for this month’s competition.
The usual mix of obscure, obsolete and Scottish terms in this week’s grid presented no real problems, although I didn’t understand the parsing for (the definitely not at all obscure) REPORTER until I came to write the blog. I think that this is the last competition of the year, so those of us who submit clues for adjudication will know in a few weeks’ time where we stand in the annual honours list (which can be found here).
| ACROSS | ||
| 3 | FOLKLORIST |
Student of the customs etc of common people (10)
|
| This is the competition word, to which solvers are invited to submit clues. | ||
| 10 | BARRIO |
Area of Spanish speakers, in life comprehending Arabic (6)
|
| AR(abic) inside BRIO (life). | ||
| 11 | RECCE |
Scout in sports ground beside church (5)
|
| REC(reation ground) CE (church). | ||
| 13 | SPANGLER |
One showing sequins? No good in false pearls (8)
|
| NG (no good) in *PEARLS. | ||
| 14 | TREMA |
Part of vent remains as orifice (5)
|
| Hidden in “vent remains”. | ||
| 15 | LOURE |
Learning about what’s socially OK in slow dance (5)
|
| U (what’s socially acceptable, in contrast to non-U) inside LORE (learning). | ||
| 17 | SHIRES |
Wherein hunting is common, less ordinary horse is trained (6)
|
| *(H(o)RSE IS). | ||
| 19 | CLAUSE |
Article as seen distributed in what you are reading (6)
|
| A S in CLUE. | ||
| 20 | DITTIT |
Stopped Scotch I had returned, not drinking it (6)
|
| I’D (rev) TT (teetotal, not drinking) IT. | ||
| 21 | LIMBEC |
It was found in old distillery, main branch, copy, type lost (6)
|
| LIMB (main branch) EC(type). An ectype is a reproduction or copy. | ||
| 23 | OVERGO |
Traverse getting out of groove? (6)
|
| *GROOVE. | ||
| 25 | COELOM |
Conchy turned spy, hollow (6)
|
| CO (conscientious objector, conchy) MOLE (spy, rev). It means a body cavity. | ||
| 27 | RAINY |
Not outside, dressed in old clothes – it’s wet (5)
|
| IN (not outside) inside RAY (obsolete spelling of “array” or dress). “Old” in the clue references the fact that it’s an outdated spelling, but I’m not sure that the grammar of the clue is accurate. Shouldn’t it be “rays”, not ray? | ||
| 30 | ALAAP |
Bit of Asian music in the style of a piano (5)
|
| A LA (in the style of) A P(iano). | ||
| 31 | BORDELLO |
Doorbell not right for knocking-shop! (8)
|
| *DOORBELL. A brilliant clue, semi & lit. | ||
| 32 | CAESE |
End of sentence given in lawsuit – did that mean ‘nuff said’? (5)
|
| (sentenc)E in CASE (lawsuit); it’s a variant of SESSA, a word found in Shakespeare which is conjectured to mean “enough said”. | ||
| 33 | SIMMER |
Some eggs immersed poach slowly (6)
|
| Hidden in “eggs immersed”. | ||
| 34 | ENTERTAINS |
Record with cans one’s plugged in is amusing (10)
|
| ENTER (record) I (one) inside TINS (cans). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | OBSTACLE RACE |
Complex course: boats negotiated intervening space, a number separated out (12, 2 words)
|
| *BOATS CLE(a)RA(n)CE. | ||
| 2 | CAPRYLIC |
Nose inside cotton cloth endlessly smelling like Nanny? (8)
|
| PRY (nose) inside CALIC(o) (cotton cloth). | ||
| 3 | FRAENA |
Restraining ligaments twitching far and near (mostly) (6)
|
| *(FAR NEA(r)). | ||
| 4 | LIGAN |
Sunken wreckage filled with silver jack brought up (5)
|
| AG (silver) in NIL (nothing, or jack) (all rev). | ||
| 5 | KOLO |
Stunner – get a load of that – something to get Serbs dancing (4)
|
| KO (knockout, or stunner) LO (look). | ||
| 6 | LEECHDOM |
Sheltered child? Medic’d turned up old- fashioned remedy (8)
|
| CH(ild) in LEE (shelter); MO (medic)’D (rev). To be honest, I’m not sure if the ‘D attaches to Leech (giving sheltered) or to MO. | ||
| 7 | REPORTER |
Con man penning short letter for journalist (8)
|
| EP(istle, or letter) inside RORTER (a spiv or con man). | ||
| 8 | SCAR |
Blush? Let off nasty mark (4)
|
| SCAR(let) (blush). | ||
| 9 | TELEUTOSPORE |
Fungal growth after treatment peters out – olé! (12)
|
| *(PETERS OUT OLE). | ||
| 12 | CRUET |
Salt’s vessel revealing ship’s company no longer on time (5)
|
| CRUE (old spelling of “crew”) T(ime). | ||
| 16 | TUBENOSE |
Petrel? Clumsy vessel raised one as leaving oceans (8)
|
| TUB (clumsy vessel) ONE (rev) SE(as). | ||
| 17 | SECODONT |
Old fellow in party with sharp gnashers (8)
|
| O(ld) DON in SECT. | ||
| 18 | SIGNALED |
Maybe FBI’s sent message in criminal dealings (8)
|
| *DEALINGS. The American spelling of “signalled” is shown by the reference to the FBI. | ||
| 22 | MOIRE |
Watery fabric no less I’ll be seen in (5)
|
| I inside (MORE) (no less). | ||
| 24 | REALMS |
Areas of study to do with charity (6)
|
| RE ALMS. | ||
| 26 | RADII |
Bones creating endless racket in N. African pop (5)
|
| DI(n) inside RAI (North African pop music). | ||
| 28 | ANAN |
Grandma’s turned up? I’m afraid I don’t understand (4)
|
| NANA (rev). This is labelled by Chambers as “obsolete or dialect”, something that I might have expected Azed to indicate in the clue. | ||
| 29 | URSA |
Treasurer cutting limits (British) for star group (4)
|
| (b)URSA(r). Here Azed helpfully spells out the letters to be removed from the synonym for treasurer. |
Good blog. To make 27A work, I understood “ray” as a noun (singular), akin to “raiment,” and “clothes” can likewise be a singular (collective) noun.
Thanks bridgesong. Lee can also be an adjective, so ‘sheltered’ in 6, and the D goes with MO.
I invented ENTRE for 14 briefly.
Interesting competition word – I mused about a flower seller being caught up in Customs. Thanks as ever to Azed.
Rorter in REPORTER is listed in Chambers as (Aust inf). I’m not sure there’s any logic involved in which words (see also ANAN as you point out bridgesong) get indicated as dialect, obsolete, etc.
Thanks for the blog, I always finish the competition puzzles much faster, I never send them off so I do not mind if my grid gets messy, I just put things in without checking. Tim@3 , Azed may have missed the reference for RORTER , it is right at the start for quite a long entry. I am surprised that ANAN did not get an indication. To be fair to Azed he does not miss many usually.
Tim C @3: in fact the word in Chambers shown as (Aust informal) is RORTY, an adjective. Presumably the noun and verb forms that follow are all back-formations?
I think you’re correct bridgesong that the other parts of speech for RORTY are back formations from it. I’m familiar with rort as a word I’ve learned in Australia but can’t remember from my days in the UK. There’s an interesting article on the word from the Macquarie (Australian) dictionary with an amusing other meaning for “rort” in New Zealand which is similar to the Aus/NZ “root”
ALAAP
https://youtu.be/xx5Y7dX60QQ?si=epHcqcxrbQEXE68Q
Greetings all! Thought I’d join in earlier han usual.
Thanks Azed and bridgesong for heavy lifting. I got down to the comp promptly and finished on the day. Was delighted to have to clue FOLKLORIST, a lovely word (even though there were no E’s)
Cecil Sharp sprang to mind as in my sprightlier days I reeled, skipped and stumbled at the society’s HQ in North London.
Keith: great minds! My clue also involved Cecil Sharp…