A relatively simple preamble: eight answers require modification based on a quotation and author running round the perimeter.
Although some parts of the puzzle were a bit tricky, it helped seeing ?IRS?????LB? in the top line, which led me to “FIRST …”, and pretty soon “… SHALL BE LAST …” and the biblical quotation from Matthew ch 19 which finishes “… AND [the] LAST SHALL BE FIRST” plus “ST MATTHEW”, the author. This is the passage that also has the camel, needle, rich man and kingdom of heaven bit.
The eight answers which needed transforming before entry therefore had their first letter moved to the end, or the last letter moved to the front. It was a TOSS-UP as to what happened to each answer, although there were four HEADS AND four TAILS moving. A similar theme to EV882: Two Extremes by Oxymoron with its movement of beginning and end letters, and exactly the same theme as Magpie Issue 82, October 2009: In the Final Accounting by Chalicea, where ten answers had first and last letters swapped.
Solving time: about 90 minutes, so a quick completion to hopefully beat the postal stike.
Legend:
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
X = the letters moved to the front or end before entry
| ACROSS | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | WREATHS | snowdrifts: (WATER + H [drop of Hail])* + S (top of Snowdon) |
| 9 | DUEL | contest: first letters of Dubrovnik Underestimated Electorate’s Leanings |
| 10 | EARTH | courage (= HEART): HEAR (try) + T (initially To) |
| 12 | LARVA | unploughed land (= ARVAL): AVAL (grandparent’s) retaining R (right) |
| 14 | KLEE | artist: K (knight) LEE (sheltered); Klee was an early 20th century Swiss painter |
| 15 | TINGE | slight colouring: TINGLE (ring) – L (left) |
| 16 | METRIST | versifier: ME (note) TRIST (sorrowful, old) |
| 17 | TAWPIES | heedless girls (Scottish): (IT + W [with] + PEAS)* |
| 20 | CILIA | hip’s (= ILIAC): C (constant) AIL< (trouble) after I (touch of Infection) |
| 22 | ANGER | row (= RANGE): RAN (amounted to) GE (empty GabblE) |
| 23 | STEMSON | timber on ship: STEMS (checks) ON (forward) |
| 24 | MIASMIC | of unhealthy air: S (sun) in MIAMI (Florida resort) + C (primarily Cause) |
| 28 | TEIND | Scottish tithe: in debaTE IN Dundee |
| 31 | ALAE | fruity outgrowths: AL(G)AE (seaweed with middle vanishing) |
| 33 | SOLON | US Congressman: SO (very good) + LON (Lon Chaney) |
| 34 | PAISA | small amount of money: PA (old man) + IS + A (advanced) |
| 35 | TOOT | blast: TOO (extremely) + T (tense) |
| 36 | BOURSES | exchanged in these: (S [seven] + B (billion) + EUROS)* |
| DOWN | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | IRANIAN | national: ANI (bird) swamped by RAIN* |
| 2 | RERUN | repeat broadcast: in heaRER UNderstanding |
| 3 | SATE | Malaysian dish: EATS* |
| 4 | SHALM | instrument: SHAL(E) (rock, nearly all) + M (Music’s intro) |
| 5 | ABLET | board (= TABLE): T (time) + ELBA< (island) |
| 6 | LURGI | disease: L (finally hospitaL) + U (beginning to Use) + RG (dRuGs regularly) + I (in) |
| 7 | BEVY | 2 meanings: company & drinking session; I initially had BEND here |
| 11 | REEST | possibly planes (+ TREES): STEER* |
| 13 | ABRIM | full to top: A + B (black) + GRIME – GE (earth) |
| 14 | KEIR | vat: (RE [rhenium] I [iodine] K [potassium])* |
| 18 | PESTO | old bar: TOPES* |
| 19 | ESILE | vinegar: E (Easy at first) SILE (strain) |
| 20 | CETE | group of badgers: C (caught) + ETE (summer in French) |
| 21 | IONISES | produces electrically charged particles: ION (press reportedly, ie sounds like IRON) + IS (Iceland) + E (energy) + S (Sector originally) |
| 25 | AULOI | ancient Greek instruments (singular is aulos): AU (gold) + LO (look) + I (Irridescent at the outset) |
| 26 | MANSE | house: NAME’S* |
| 27 | CAROL | song: CA (about) ROL(L) (wind doesn’t finish) |
| 29 | IRISH | poet (= RISHI): in ecuadoR IS HIghly |
| 30 | MOOR | heath: MOR (layer of humus) permeated by O (oxygen) |
| 32 | PARA | 2 meanings: soldier who’s dropped into & Brazilian estuary; why this city, state and estuary in Brazil is in Chambers, when very few other geographical places aren’t, escapes me! |
Quite an enjoyable, relatively easy puzzle.
I managed to confuse myself with 8a – I was convinced that it was THAWERS (thawing snow causing snowdrifts, though I couldn’t fully justify it) “knowing” that I “knew” what WREATHS meant I didn’t even look it up – d’oh!
Then I saw MATTHEW at the end of the quotation but it took me ages to realize that I needed to stick an ST (saint) in there – double d’oh!
All came right in the end though 😀