I think I’m gradually getting the hang of this setter: a few tricky moments but less of a struggle than I’ve found some of his work. Thanks to Gemelo.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | GALLOP | Bitterness ahead of work Zoom (6) GALL + OP |
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| 5 | FURFUR | Dandruff in animal hair repeatedly (6) FUR, twice |
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| 9 | OCCASION | Officer in Charge – as in “OC” – arranged special ceremony (8) OC + (AS IN OC)* |
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| 10 | YAMA | Month reflecting a Hindu god (4) Reverse of MAY + A |
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| 12 | MAGDALEN | College graduate with natural depression about commercial backing (8) MA (graduate) + reverse of AD (commercial) in GLEN. Magdalen College is in Oxford, not to be confused with Magdalene in Cambridge; both are pronounced as “maudlin”, and the biblical Mary is the origin of that word |
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| 14 | ADORNS | Teaching staff framing rule on ending of 27 Dresses (6) The last letter of triviA (27 across) + R[ule] in DONS (university teachers) |
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| 16 | ACTUARIAL | Pretend film certificate with typeface of Risky Business? (9) ACT (pretend) + U (film certificate) + ARIAL (font) |
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| 17 | GREGO | Pope shedding extremely roomy overcoat (5) GREGORY (any of 16 popes) less R[oom]Y |
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| 19 | SPENCE | 6d minus 9 for Holyrood’s inner room (6) SIXPENCE (6d in old money) less IX (9) |
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| 20 | SESAME | What might come after Open for one seeded? (6) Reference to the magic password “Open Sesame” in the Ali Baba story |
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| 21 | SULKS | Pet sneaks out of the way, avoiding stick ultimately (5) SKULKS less [stic]K |
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| 23 | HAANEPOOT | A paeon composed in the grips of fiery South African grape (9) (A PAEON)* in HOT |
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| 27 | TRIVIA | Endless examination that drip feeds minor details (6) IV (intravenous drip) in TRIA[L] |
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| 28 | SEA MARGE | Army officer, casually circling local river, marks shoreline (8,2 words) EA (dialect word for a river) + M[arks] in SARGE (“casual” name for Sergeant) |
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| 29 | HERM | Woman’s medium bust (4) HER + M |
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| 30 | DEUCE-ACE | Bad luck which gives server advantage? (8) Getting an ace when at deuce in tennis would help the serving player |
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| 31 | ASTONE | Accepted e.g. cobble floor from earlier era (6) A + STONE |
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| 32 | NUTTER | Crazy nationalist, say (6) N[ationalist] + UTTER (to say) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | GOBANG | Pop’s board game (6) If a balloon pops it will GO BANG. The game of Gobang is also called Gomuko, which I think is actually a more common name, though Chambers doesn’t give it a separate entry |
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| 2 | ACID FREAK | One often getting high card if bending each king (9, 2 words) (CARD IF)* + EA[ch] + K[ing] |
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| 3 | LABRA | Effortlessly draw away from dog’s lips (5) LABRADOODLE less DOODLE |
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| 4 | PIASTRE | Piece of eight from pirates at sea (7) PIRATES* |
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| 5 | FOGOU | Cornish underground passage to confuse Oxford University (5) FOG + OU |
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| 6 | RYAL | Perhaps Old King Cole, drunk from local rye, getting muddled (4) Anagram of LOCAL RYE less an anagram (drunk) of COLE |
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| 7 | FALL IN LOVE | Somehow fill a novel with what Darcy and Elizabeth do (10, 3 words) (FILL A NOVEL)*, referring to the characters in Pride and Prejudice |
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| 8 | RANKLE | Order the French poison (6) RANK (to order) + LE |
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| 11 | POLES APART | “European”, “energy”, “earth” – briefly rendering E, and very different (10, 2 words) POLE (European) + SAP (energy) + EART[H] less E |
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| 13 | DRAPS | Glaswegian abandons Dutch criminal charges (5) D + RAPS |
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| 15 | BACKPIECE | Plate protecting large vat: item from the Louvre (9) BACK (a large vat or tub) + PIÈCE (French “item”, the Louvre being an example of a place where French is spoken) |
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| 18 | OMEGA | Nothing very good, in conclusion (5) O + MEGA |
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| 19 | SHOTGUN | Try Rev. with coercion (7) SHOT (a try) + GUN (to rev an engine) |
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| 20 | SHISHA | Proper to remove PPE – but not all together – for tobacco pipe (6) SHIPSHAPE less P, P and E |
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| 22 | SHAVER | Youngster to get hugged by sister (6) HAVE (to get) in SR |
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| 24 | PUREE | Process unadulterated drug (5) PURE + E[cstasy] |
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| 25 | TIBET | Thailand, I’m certain, is part of Asia (5) T[hailand] + I BET |
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| 26 | AMMO | Amateur doctor’s rounds? (4) AM + M.O. |
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I didn’t solve too many in my first pass though the clues but, as I often find with these puzzles, a few checking letters helped me solve more clues and with most of the checking letters I pretty confidently enter words I really don’t know like FURFUR, HAANEPOOT and SHISHA. I felt tricked a few times: I thought ‘6d’ in 19a would mean 6 Down, I wondered if DOR could mean ‘effortlessly draw’ in 3d, and I tried to remove PPE from PROPER 20d.
My last two entries were DEUCE-ACE after spending too long thinking that advantage could be USE, and BACKPIECE where I was trying to use KEIR as the vat. I eventually thought it could end in PIECE but I didn’t know that BACK could be a large vat and I thought there were other possible first letters so I had to look it up in Chambers.
I think there’s slightly more to the tennis part of 30a. An ace at any time helps the server, but when the score is deuce the winner of the next point is said to have advantage.
Thanks, Andrew and Gemelo.
Thanks for the blog , could not find FOGOU in Chambers93 but I have seen these in Cornwall . YAMA is given as the first mortal but there may be more to it .
I think Gemelo has done very well so far in a daunting task taking over from Azed but this one is simply too easy . Puzzles in this slot should be hard or very hard .