A plain puzzle from Gemelo.
Of all the Gemelos I’ve solved (not that many, to be fair), this was the closest to an Azed plain. A little pop culture was required, especially for the last clue I solved (EDH), but I think I’ve managed to parse everything.
Thanls Gemelo
| ACROSS | ||
| 2 | WARMBLOOD |
Horse with a jolly young man (9)
|
| W (with) + A + RM (Royal Marine, so “jolly”) + BLOOD (“a young man”) | ||
| 10 | MALI |
African country gardener (4)
|
| Double definition, the second referring to an Indian florist or gardener. | ||
| 11 | ECBOLE |
Where French children learn about British digression (6)
|
| ECOLE (French word for school, so “where French children learn”) about B (British) | ||
| 12 | PHLEGMATICAL |
Unemotional place might change, reflecting Hollywood location (12)
|
| *(place might) [anag:change) + [reflecting] <=LA (“Hollywood location”) | ||
| 13 | ASPARAGUS |
Watcher circling area after potential killer shoots in the kitchen (9)
|
| ARGUS (“watcher”) circling A (area) after ASP (“potential killer”) | ||
| 16 | IONA |
Where abbey is found in dictionary (4)
|
| Hidden [in] (dict)IONA(ry)
There is an abbey and nunnery on the gholy island of Iona in the Inner Hebrides. |
||
| 17 | EDH |
Pollock actor dropping hard edge for character (3)
|
| ED H(arris) (American “actor” who played Jackson “Pollock” in a 2000 biopic) dropping ARRIS (“hard edge”)
Eth or edh – Ð is a character from old English which still exists in Icelandic. |
||
| 19 | ESKER |
Bank of Scotland’s search on the back of charge (5)
|
| SKER (“search”) on [the back of] (charg)E | ||
| 21 | TURN |
Twist ending for spoilt ballot box (4)
|
| [ending for] (spoil)T + URN (“ballot box”) | ||
| 22 | VIAL |
Spirit level is extremely important when short of time (4)
|
| VI(t)AL (“extremely important”) when short of T (time) | ||
| 23 | ELITE |
On reflection, most common Scrabble piece is best (5)
|
| [on reflection] <=E-TILE (“most common Scrabble piece”) | ||
| 24 | TAY |
Guy downing first drink in Dublin (3)
|
| (S)TAY (“guy”) downing first (letter) | ||
| 26 | USER |
Drug addict to begin again, backsliding without me (4)
|
| [backsliding] <=RESU(me) (“to begin with”, without ME) | ||
| 28 | STILETTOS |
Step too much, having to return special shoes (9)
|
| STILE (“step”) + <=OTT (over the top, so “too much”, having to return) + S (special) | ||
| 29 | HARMONIUMIST |
Musician arranged sham mini tour (12)
|
| *(sham mini tour) [anag:arranged] | ||
| 31 | INGENU |
Man without experience confused 30 + 32 – 50 (6)
|
| *(nun gei) [anag:confused] where NUN = answer to 30dn and GEI = answer to 32 across less L (50) | ||
| 32 | GLEI |
Earth covered in mostly slick clay (4)
|
| E (earth) covered in [mostly] GLI(b) (“slick”) | ||
| 33 | SCUNNERED |
Glaswegian hated Scottish Education Department welcoming American swimmer (9)
|
| SED (Scottish Education Department) welcoming CUNNER (an Anerican wrasse, so “American swimmer”)
Chambers has “scunner” meaning to feel loathing, but as a Scot who has lived in Glasgow for nearly 40 years, I have only ever heard the word used to mean “fed up”. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EMPTIEST |
With least content people, MP ties twice when sampling (8)
|
| Hidden in [when sampling] “peoplE MP TIES Twice” | ||
| 2 | WAHOO |
Tree in western that’s amazing when top’s trimmed (5)
|
| W (western) + (y)AHOO (“that’s amazing”, when top’s trimmed) | ||
| 3 | ALLEN KEY |
Broken knee trapped in associate’s tool (8, 2 words)
|
| *(knee) [anag:broken] trapped in ALLY (“associate”) | ||
| 4 | MAG-STRIPE |
Local steals rubbish bit of card to read (9)
|
| MAGS (dialect word for “steals”) + TRIPE (“rubbish”) | ||
| 5 | BUMPSTART |
This gets car going, but tram struggles without additional thought (9)
|
| *(but tram) [anag:struggles] without PS (postscript, so “additional thought”) | ||
| 6 | LEA |
Some yarn plainly missing beginning and end (3)
|
| (c)LEA(r) (“plainly”) missing beginning and end | ||
| 7 | OBIAS |
Old fetishes; old prejudice (5)
|
| O (old) + BIAS (“prejudice”)
Obia is an obsolete version of obi, a fetish or charm. |
||
| 8 | PLAUDIT |
Twin getting upset about receding praise (7)
|
| [receding] <=(TIP (“upset”) about DUAL (“twin”)) | ||
| 9 | BELS |
Regressive name for Indian trees (4)
|
| [regressive] <=SLEB (“name”, as in celeb) | ||
| 14 | ADULATION |
Wave when leaving UN following American sycophancy? (9)
|
| UN leaving (un)DULATION (“wave”) following A (American) | ||
| 15 | REREMOUSE |
Ordinary war-club turned into trick bat (9)
|
| <=(O (ordinary)+ MERE (“war-club”), turned) into RUSE (“trick”) | ||
| 17 | EMISSILE |
Eastern Mass is still pushing out holy books able to be pushed out (8)
|
| E (Eastern) + M (Mass) + IS + SILE(nt) (“still”, pushing out NT (New Testament), so holy books) | ||
| 18 | HIERATIC |
Priestly belt inscribed with period in charge (8)
|
| HIT (“belt”) inscribed with ERA (“period”) + IC (in charge) | ||
| 20 | STATANT |
Like some heraldic creatures right now, having brown interior (7)
|
| Stat. (immediately, so “right now”) having TAN (“brown” ) interior | ||
| 25 | OLMEC |
Salamander with extremely elastic tongue (5)
|
| OLM (a cave-dwelling “salamnader”) with [extremely] E(lasti)C | ||
| 27 | EASED |
Gradually moved out, having got rid of relative (5)
|
| (rel)EASED (“out”), having got rid of Rel. (relative) | ||
| 28 | SHIP |
Send Stokes in (4)
|
| S (stokes, a unit of kinematic viscosity) + HIP (“in”) | ||
| 30 | NUN |
Joshua’s father and sister (3)
|
| In the Bible, Joshua’s father was called NUN |
The DSL supports both loathing and fed up for SCUNNERED. The entry for the word has a lot of quotes as examples. One of them indicates that there isn’t an adequate English synonym…
Sc. 1988 Scotsman (15 May) 10:
To use a Scots word, for which there is no adequate synonym in the English language, most people in Scotland, whatever their basic politial(sic) affiliation, have developed a scunner of Mrs Thatcher.
I needed Chambers to work out SCUNNERED because I didn’t know it or the fish, and I also didn’t know who the actor was in 17a but since that entry was fully checked it couldn’t be anything else.
I thought it was funny when I solved 3d because I have probably heard the term ALLEN KEY more times in the last few weeks than in the rest of my life in the lead up to the opening of the first IKEA store in New Zealand this week.
Thanks, loonapick and Gemelo.
I agree about scunnered – I’ve never heard it used to mean loathing; I thought it meant something like fed up or stymied. 19ac, ESKER: I think the definition is simply “Bank” and “of Scotland” refers to SKER being a Scottish word for search.
I found this remarkably straightforward for a Gemelo; the only one for which I had to consult Google (I didn’t have my dictionary to hand) was OLMEC, as I didn’t know either the whole word or OLM, but the parsing was otherwise obvious.
On the whole I have enjoyed Gemelo’s puzzles. If I have a quibble it is with the clues which rely on rather obscure general knowledge rather than clue-solving ability, for example 13A, which requires us to know the name of an actor in a not particularly well-known film released a quarter of a century ago.
For what it’s worth, my Edinburgh-born mother used to use scunner in the “disgusted” sense. Maybe a regional difference?