Superfluous words to be removed to generate a thematic word and extra letter. These can then be used to fill the two unclued entries. Now that is a simple preamble for once.
I got quite lucky here in spotting a drinks connection fairly early on – unroped in 11ac got me thinking of pernod and my hunch was correct. The across clues had alcoholic drinks to find and the down clues non-alcoholic drinks. I must admit that 12 down has me flummoxed for the drink.
The extra letters spell out A DRUNK MAN’S WORDS ARE and A SOBER MAN’S THOUGHTS leading to IN VINO VERITAS and IN ACQUA SANITAS as the two unclued entries.
Cheers proXimal – I did enjoy this one which had complexity but was not too tough on the clueing but did take some effort to find all the drinks. Also nice to see God’s own town Gateshead get a mention in the clueing.
Key: * anagram; DD double definition; rev. reverse; underline definition; italics extra word
| DRINK | ACROSS | |
| RIESLING | 1 Laments, realising swinging movement after cycling (5) | |
| A | Sweep (swinging movement) cycling = WEEPS | |
| GENEVA | 5 Danseur turning avenged Juliet in cool lift (8) | |
| D | Rev. j(Juliet) + in + in (cool) + sky (lift) = NIJINSKY | |
| VODKA | 10 New direction for musician Dvorak gives US agent (5) | |
| R | N(New) + Arco (direction for musician) = NARCO | |
| PERNOD | 11 Unroped multi-coloured part of harness fop picked up (7) | |
| U | Homonym of Rein(part of harness) + Beau (fop) = RAINBOW | |
| LAGER | 14 Aspiring angler cast low, due to catch bass (7) | |
| N | (low due)* around b (bass) = WOULD-BE | |
| GIN | 15 The Spanish king tucked into pancake and mixed drink (7) | |
| K | El (the Spanish) in blini (pancake) = BELLINI | |
| SYRAH | 16 Cross centre of marshy parish with great tenacity (4) | |
| M | Ri (centre of parish) in gt (great) = GRIT | |
| GROG | 17 Aggro losing opener of most valuable antique (5) | |
| A | Golden(most valuable) – g = OLDEN | |
| DRAMBUIE | 18 Lakeside city street housing Bermudian university and hospital (8) | |
| N | Lane(street) around u(university) + san (hospital) = LAUSANNE | |
| PORT | 19 Raving stepfather’s strop dismissing gross journalists (8, two words) | |
| S | (stepfathers)* – fat (gross) = THE PRESS | |
| ROSE | 22 Fish are consumed in church bishop swore (5) | |
| W | A(are) in ch (church) + rr (bishop) = CHARR | |
| RETSINA | 25 Drugs senorita smokes in Gateshead (4) | |
| O | DD TABS | |
| ALE | 26 Southern earl draped in tailored orange cloth befitting snotty type (7, two words) | |
| R | S(southern) in (orange)* = NOSE RAG | |
| ASTI | 28 Having staid relative round, stop paying attention (7) | |
| D | Aunt(relative) around die (stop) = AUDIENT | |
| PINOT | 30 Disheartened, ask price to repair one piston stuck in organ (7) | |
| S | ((ask) – s + (price))* = EARPICK | |
| PERRY | 31 Associate hearing prayer not having left chambers (5) | |
| A | A (associate) + trial (hearing) – l = ATRIA | |
| MALBEC | 32 Boys clamber around northern edge and fall from cliff (8) | |
| R | Lads (boys) around n (northern) + lip (edge) = LANDSLIP | |
| CLARET | 33 Analyses special treacle tins (5) | |
| E | S(special) + cans (tins) = SCANS | |
| Down | ||
| PERRIER | 1 Magnum repairer, say, shot Lee with two-bit gun in the end (10, two words) | |
| A | (two-bit + lee + n)* = WINE BOTTLE | |
| RIBENA | 2 Serbian guy in shelter overturned paint (6) | |
| S | Rev. man (guy) in lee (shelter) = ENAMEL | |
| ASSAM | 3 Preserve best with large samosa depleted (6) | |
| O | Pick(best) + le (large depleted) = PICKLE | |
| LATTE | 4 Start to sobriety, immediately battle cocaine (4) | |
| B | S (start to sobriety) + now (immediately) = SNOW | |
| SQUASH | 5 Ignoring independence, quashes idea that’s unacceptable (5, two words) | |
| E | Notion (idea) – I (independence) = NOT ON | |
| EVIAN | 6 Japanese ravine topped intense green (7) | |
| R | Zealous(intense) swapping j (Japanese) for z = JEALOUS | |
| TEA | 7 One mate sits on plants (6) | |
| M | I(one) + rides (sits on) = IRIDES | |
| TONIC | 8 Quiet action with force cutting whiskers for dog (9, two words) | |
| A | St(quiet) + rn (force) in beard(whiskers) = ST BERNARD | |
| CORDIAL | 9 Nothing iron-clad erected with wood and ductile material (6) | |
| N | Rev. nil (nothing) + oak(wood) = KAOLIN | |
| BABYCINO | 12 Clock great Welsh cabin-boys drunk with girl (10, two words) | |
| S | (great + w)* + lass (girl) = WATER GLASS | |
| MILK | 13 Nearly all of French graduate artists name Klimt as star (9) | |
| T | Al(nearly all) + de (of French) + ba (graduate) + ra (artists) + n (name) = ALDEBARAN | |
| NECTAR | 18 Chanter of words beginning to lift team in tie to the north (7) | |
| H | L(beginning to lift) + Rev. xi(team) in lace(tie) = LEXICAL | |
| TISANE | 20 Capital of Estonia that’s pleasurable to go round having secured transport (6) | |
| O | Rev. Aah (that’s pleasurable) around van (transport) = HAVANA | |
| ESPRESSO | 21 Radioactive material exposures diminished small bone (6) | |
| U | Radium (radioactive material) – m + s (small) = RADIUS | |
| COKE | 23 Rushed to monitor gecko shedding skin with convulsive movement (6) | |
| G | Check(monitor) – ck (skin) + tic (convulsive movement) = HECTIC | |
| WATER | 24 Wreath printed with internal diameter and SI unit (6) | |
| H | ran(printer) around dia (diameter) = RADIAN | |
| SODA | 27 Not totally up-front, toads appallingly kept in cask (5, two words) | |
| T | Hidden frONT APpallingly = ON TAP | |
| CHA | 29 Wants cash missing with bust and bronzes (4) | |
| S | (wants – w)* = TANS |
I didn’t got access to this puzzle. However, I loved reading the blog. Thanks twencelas.
12 D: sought the help of an anagram finder online & it says BABYCINOS.
There’s a Setter’s Blog for this crossword here: https://bigdave44.com/2024/09/05/ev1657-setters-blog/#more-201401
I thought that this was tremendous fun. What a clever construction from proXimal. I didn’t twig that all the across clues were alcoholic drinks, and the downs softies.
12D extra also had me stumped
Thanks to twencelas for the blog and applause to proXimal for a lovely puzzle.
Great fun. Thanks proXimal and twencelas.
I had RIBENA + S for Serbian and BABYCINO (a discovery) + S for cabin-boys, but KVa was quicker
to point it out.
Thanks Manu and KVa – have updated accordingly