I found this generally plain sailing (or at least as much so as Azed ever is), except for the NW corner, which held me up at the end, for no very obvious reason now that I look back at it. Thanks as ever to Azed for another high-quality puzzle.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | WASH-WIPE | Screen cleaner we’ll install like a flailing whip (8) AS (like) + WHIP* in WE. The redundant “a” seemed a minor blemish, but I suppose SHWI is “a flailing whip” |
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| 7. | BUMF | Dud leader in financial paper (4) BUM (dud) + F – originally meaning toilet paper, from “bum-fodder”, later a derogatory term for official documents |
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| 10. | HEPAR | Former compound in the parade-ground (5) Hidden in tHE PARade-ground |
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| 11. | GABELLE | Salt tax grand, a beauty (7) G A BELLE |
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| 12. | ÉOLIENNE | Fine dress material: eastern one’s about right (8) LIEN in E ONE – a light silk material, from the same Greek origin as “aeolian”. |
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| 14. | FLIES | Players may look up to these old coaches (5) Double definition – flies in the theatre (players = actors) and fly=a horse drawn cart |
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| 15. | SKART | Seabird follows way back after dropping cod’s head (5) Reverse of TRACKS (follows way) less C |
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| 17. | RAMILIE | Old-style wig, international line in China grass (7) I L in RAMIE (plant known as China Grass) |
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| 18. | STUTTERER | Hush preceding absolute monarch, one finding speech difficult (9) ST (hush!) + UTTER (absolute) ER |
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| 20. | REST ROOMS | Enthusiasm in traveller section – they have their own loos (9,2 words) This took me a while to parse: it’s ESTRO (enthusiasm, poetic inspiration) in ROM (Romany, traveller) + S[ection] |
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| 23. | MORICHE | Palm tree hem with coir matting (7) (HEM COIR)* |
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| 26. | APPAL | Shock amateur with mate, capturing pawn (5) A + P in PAL |
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| 28. | TAKHI | Wild horse hit a truck’s rear, galloping (5) Anagram of HIT + A [truc]K |
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| 29. | BRAINIAC | Very bright American requiring support at first clue? (8) BRA IN 1 AC[ross] |
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| 30. | HIRUDIN | Greeting collapse with intake of doctor’s first anticoagulant (7) HI + D[octor] in RUIN |
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| 31. | RONNE | Lost race having end of velskoen stuck in gutter (5) [velskoe]N in RONE (Scots word for a gutter). Spenserian (i.e. old or “lost”) form of “run” = “to race”; and in case you were wondering, velskoen is “a shoe made of rawhide” |
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| 32. | ITEM | Close couple tie knots, getting married (4) TIE* + M |
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| 33. | WAYPOSTS | They guide travellers – tops sway when it’s windy (8) (TOPS SWAY)* – though hardly an anagram at all (I did wonder briefly if WAYSTOPS might be a word) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | WHEFT | Signal flag with number of sheets fastened together (5) W[ith] + HEFT |
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| 2. | AEOLOTROPY | Turning poorly, ate about nothing, variation depending on direction (10) O in (POORLY ATE)* |
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| 3. | SPLIT-UP | Youngsters turned up divided having landed in divorce? (7) LIT in PUPS< |
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| 4. | WREST | Distort main point about what’s central to differences (5) R (middle letter of diffeRences) in WEST |
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| 5. | IGNORE | Bypass transformed region (6) REGION* – another very easy anagram clue |
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| 6. | PANDAR | Procurer providing pa with a bit of rumpy? (6) P AND A + R[umpy] |
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| 7. | BECK-IRON | Anvil bone broken, nasty rick involved (8) RICK* in BONE* |
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| 8. | ULVA | Edible seaweed available in plentiful variety (4) Hidden in plentifUL VAriety |
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| 9. | FETTERS | Rule introduced in public school is binding (7) R in FETTES (Edinburgh public school, whose former pupils include cricketer Malcolm Jardine, composer Sir Michael Tippett, and Tony Blair) |
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| 13. | TRIUMPHANT | Cock-a-hoop president has not become less formal, I held (10) I in TRUMP (he gets everywhere!) + AN’T |
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| 16. | STRIATUM | Part of prosencephalon, one embedded in layer (8) I in STRATUM |
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| 18. | SAMADHI | Dimension embodied in form of ahimsa, what yoga can lead to (7) D in AHIMSA* |
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| 19. | JOSKINS | Beloved strips for old clowns (7) JO (Scots beloved + SKINS |
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| 21. | SHARIA | Strict law shut up regular feature of opera (6) SH (shut up!) + ARIA |
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| 22. | TETANY | Nervous excitement still rising about bronze (6) TAN in YET< |
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| 24. | STIRP | Sensation over positive pedigree (5) STIR + P |
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| 25. | DICES | Takes big risks? Pointers are in these (5) Pointers are INDICES |
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| 27. | PURE | Climbing up sides of ridge, sheer (4) PU< + R[idg]E |
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6dn
(P and A) + R
‘P and A’ is PA.
Thanks Norman, don’t know what I was thinking there.. now corrected.
25dn I was put off by ‘these’ since DICES isn’t a plural. Should it not be ‘this’ or possibly ‘these letters’?