Hello all. Time for The Ace of Hearts to serve us up a tasty snack. But will it be a picnic?
The preamble:
One letter must be added to each clue to enable solving. In clue order these letters spell most of one definition (with three words abbreviated) of a hyphenated subhead (which could be called SNACK TIME) in Chambers Dictionary (2016), to be highlighted in the completed grid; the last four words are hidden in the completed grid and must also be highlighted.
Maybe it’s just the puzzles I’ve been selecting lately, but how refreshing for a change to be able to enter answers directly into the grid without worrying about making thematic rearrangements, replacements or resolving clashes!
The message revealed itself by degrees, but I didn’t make any real attempt to find what it defined until the grid was very nearly complete. I did spend a couple of brain cells fruitlessly trying to decipher SNACK TIME. This was a more direct hint than I was trying to make it – I had fixed in my mind that it would be a charade or something similar. Fortunately, it didn’t take much grid-gazing before I saw:
FOUR–O’CLOCK
Sure enough, on looking this up in Chambers I found our definition:
A BRIGHTLY COLOURED FLOWERING PLANT Also Known As …
… THE MARVEL OF PERU
Which, lo and behold, is there in the grid ready to highlight as instructed. Thanks to The Ace of Hearts.
| # | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | |||
| Across | |||
| 1a | THEM | Goat finally <a>butting border authorities (4) | A |
| The last letter of (… finally) goaT abutting HEM (border) | |||
| 5a | ECLIPSED | <B>Locked ammunition containers in East Delaware recalled (8) | B |
| CLIPS (ammunition containers) in between E (East) and backwards (… recalled) DE (Delaware) | |||
| 11a | TAM O’ SHANTERS | Scottish bonnets, hats storeman c<r>ocked (12, three words) | R |
| HATS STOREMAN anagrammed (crocked) | |||
| 12a | OLENELLUS | Oh<i>o! The Parisian review of malignant trilobite genus (9) | I |
| O (Ohio) + LE (the, Parisian) + reversal of (review of) SULLEN (malignant) | |||
| 13a | ODONTOMAS | Tumours arising from fan<g>s of Spaniard near Provençal house (9) | G |
| O’ (of) + DON (Spaniard) + TO (near) + MAS (Provençal house) | |||
| 14a | PRIMA | Over-demure pal s<h>unning extremities first (5) | H |
| PRIM (over-demure) + pAl without outer letters (shunning extremities) | |||
| 15a | VELETA | <T>Elly turned during Virginia dance (6) | T |
| TELE (telly) reversed (turned) in (during) VA (Virginia) | |||
| 18a | ENTERIC | Italy p<l>aying with recent typhoid fever (7) | L |
| An anagram of (… playing …) I (Italy) with RECENT | |||
| 23a | CLOCKER | Heft<y> beetle in Ayr caught by small cupboard (7) | Y |
| C (caught) by LOCKER (small cupboard) | |||
| 24a | YES-BUT | In fact <c>ask for conditional agreement (6) | C |
| YES (in fact) + BUT (cask) | |||
| 25a | DRECK | Daughter to destroy scratching women’s garb<o> in Australia (5) | O |
| D (daughter) + [w]RECK (to destroy) removing (scratching) W (women’s) | |||
| 27a | DUBITABLE | Ha<l>ting to dress one flat gravestone (9) | L |
| DUB (to dress) + I (one) + TABLE (flat gravestone) | |||
| 29a | FORM GENUS | Frogs university men lo<o>se, group with similar morphological characteristics (9, two words) | O |
| FROGS, U (university) and MEN anagrammed (loose) | |||
| 30a | ORACULARNESS | Mo<u>ths snarl and curse heartlessly cavorting in prophetic state (12) | U |
| ORA (mouths) + an anagram of (… cavorting) SNARL and CUrSE without its middle letter (heartlessly) | |||
| 31a | PERUSING | Examining in detail th<r>ough taking drugs (8) | R |
| PER (through) + USING (taking drugs) | |||
| 32a | SLEW | Did Smit<e> literally almost fail to pay gambling debts in retrospect? (4) | E |
| Without the last letter (… literally almost) WELSh (fail to pay gambling debts) reversed (in retrospect) | |||
| Down | |||
| 2d | HALER | Sound of bo<d>y beginning to rattle tin in Slovakia (5) | D |
| HALE (sound of body) + the first letter of (beginning to) Rattle | |||
| 3d | EMERITUS | Retired pro<f>, English, to earn with unrestrained lust (8) | F |
| E (English) + MERIT (to earn) with lUSt lacking outer letters (unrestrained …) | |||
| 4d | MONOMER | S<l>ight molecule close to containers of opium in French sea (7) | L |
| ON (close to) and outer letters of (containers of) OpiuM in MER (French sea) | |||
| 6d | CHLORIC | Gordon Bennett choked in co<o>l containing gaseous element (7) | O |
| LOR (Gordon Bennett) choked in CHIC (cool) | |||
| 7d | IN UTERO | Routine ste<w>ed not yet born (7, two words) | W |
| ROUTINE anagrammed (stewed) | |||
| 8d | SEAM | In the country fr<e>ight of packhorse belonging to Chinese American (4) | E |
| The answer is inside (belonging to) ChineSE AMerican | |||
| 9d | ERSATZ | P<r>oxy working rats in the book of Ezra (6) | R |
| An anagram of (working) RATS in EZ. (the book of Ezra) | |||
| 10d | DSOS | Crosses duke over appeal for a<i>d (4) | I |
| D (duke) over SOS (appeal for aid) | |||
| 11d | TORPEFY | Doze<n> in Scotland until meeting prophet regularly by vacant factory (7) | N |
| TO (until) + pRoPhEt regularly + vacant FactorY | |||
| 16d | ENKERNEL | Seal in seed Rene, Len and kin<g> scattered (8) | G |
| RENE, LEN and K (king) anagrammed (scattered) | |||
| 17d | AIR-KISS | Simulate <p>ash to display drop of sealing wax (7) | P |
| AIR (to display) + KISS (drop of sealing wax) | |||
| 19d | ROUTOUS | Previously noisy in b<l>oom over in Russia (7) | L |
| OUT (in bloom) and O (over) in RUS (Russia) | |||
| 20d | CLUBMAN | Member of society to be<a>t on ship (7) | A |
| CLUB (to beat) on MAN (ship) | |||
| 21d | SCREENS | Protects crow<n>, escorted outside on Sabbath (7) | N |
| CR. (crown), with SEEN (escorted) outside + S (Sabbath) | |||
| 22d | OEUVRE | Bus<t> over EU for work (6) | T |
| An anagram of (bust) OVER EU | |||
| 26d | CAUSE | Le<a>d to about two thirds of cruise missiles exploding at the front (5) | A |
| CA (about) + two thirds of crUise miSsiles + Exploding at the front | |||
| 27d | DROP | Part with ic<k>y surprise (4) | K |
| Double definition | |||
| 28d | BOAR | Maybe sounder characters in gazebo <a>rose (4) | A |
| Characters in gazeBO ARose | |||