Sorry for the late posting. All good, as usual. Thank you Azed.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BADASS | Tough US fish cut by heavy knife (6) |
| BASS (fish) contains DA (heavy knife) | ||
| 6 | CADENT | Falling for Shakespeare, acted in plays losing oneself? (6) |
| anagram (plays) of ACTED iN missing I (oneself) | ||
| 11 | YOWIE | Wee Soay that is following Mac’s grandchild round, weak (5) |
| IE (that is) following OY (grandchild, Mac’s = Scots) reversed (round) W (weak) – a small sheep | ||
| 12 | LOURIE | Colourful bird? My lot’s taken in by the myth (6) |
| OUR (my lot’s) inside LIE (myth) | ||
| 13 | GROO-GROO | Tropical palm increased in size twice, we hear (8) |
| sounds like (we hear) “grew grew” (increased in size, twice) | ||
| 14 | GILLIES | Hunters’ guides badly enthralled by their Grants? (7) |
| ILL (badly) inside GIES (gives, grants Scots) | ||
| 15 | DEERE | Due degrees regularly lacking for poets grievously (5) |
| every other letter (regularly lacking) of DuE dEgReEs | ||
| 17 | STROP | Drink’s going the wrong way causing hissy fit! (5) |
| PORT’S (drink’s) reversed (going the wrong way) | ||
| 19 | RELAXEDLY | Given sack (litre) count goes round in chilled-out fashion (9) |
| AXED (given sack) L (litre) all inside (…goes round) RELY (count) | ||
| 21 | RAFFINOSE | Sugar in some veg, no safer if granulated (9) |
| anagram (granulated) of NO SAFER IF | ||
| 24 | TRYON | Trains with weight snatching – it establishes one’s fit (5) |
| RY (railway, trains) inside (with…snatching) TON (weight) | ||
| 27 | ISSUE | Disputed point – half of it’s covered at start of paper (5) |
| tISSUE (paper) with iT (half of) missing from the start | ||
| 29 | REUNITE | Brussels number in ceremony to undo Brexit? (7) |
| EU (Brussels) N (number) inside RITE (ceremony) | ||
| 30 | SHERATON | Hotel chain identified by style of furniture (8) |
| double definition | ||
| 31 | KORERO | Discussion down under giving coup de grâce to error mostly misguided (6) |
| KO (coup de grace) to anagram (misguided) of ERROr (mostly) | ||
| 32 | UMBEL | Small marks in mottled blue inflorescence (5) |
| M (marks, small=abbreviation) inside anagram (mottled) of BLUE | ||
| 33 | STALKO | Gentleman without prospects? Gossip’s accordingly circulating (6) |
| TALK (gossip) inside (…circulating) SO (accordingly) | ||
| 34 | PARSEE | Standard experience of early Indian immigrants (6) |
| PAR (standard) SEE (experience) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BEGGAR STICKS | Fails to move after e.g. garb is tangled in burrs (12, 2 words, apostrophe) (12) |
| STICKS (fails to move) following anagram (is tangled) of EG GARB | ||
| 2 | AYRIE | Lofty spot, one featuring in old song (5) |
| I (one) inside AYRE (old song) | ||
| 3 | DOOLALLY | Loiter around the offce, having turned up – crazy (8) |
| DALLY (loiter) contains (around) LOO (the office) reversed (having turned up) | ||
| 4 | SIGIL | A lost signet like this varlet rediscovered – silver-gilt possibly (5) |
| SIGIL (this) VARLET is an anagram (rediscovered) of SILVER-GILT | ||
| 5 | SERENE | Poise renewed, in part unruffled (6) |
| found inside (in part) poiSE RENEwed | ||
| 6 | CLOSED | Warm day came to an end (6) |
| CLOSE (warm) D (day) | ||
| 7 | DUVETYNE | Shivery nude, yet clutching very soft fabric (8) |
| anagram (shivery) of NUDE YET contains V (very) | ||
| 8 | ERTE | Artist-designer who’s displayed in beer tent (4) |
| found inside beER TEnt | ||
| 9 | NITROUS | Regarding gaseous element: within reason, it’s first to react (7) |
| NOUS (reason) contains IT and React (first letter to) | ||
| 10 | TELEPRESENCE | Peer let off – nasty scene follows – it shows what VR could do (12) |
| anagram (of) of PEER LET followed by anagram (nasty) of SCENE | ||
| 16 | CAROUSEL | Vehicle going over bird – case on it is often moving (8) |
| CAR (vehicle) on OUSEL (bird) – at an airport perhaps | ||
| 18 | RHODITES | Gallfly: it’s found in Aegean island (8) |
| IT inside RHODES (Aegean Island) | ||
| 20 | EARSHOT | Formerly (but no longer) admits cessation for hearing (7) |
| EARST (formerly, obsolete) contains (admits) HO (cessation) | ||
| 22 | FORHOO | Abandon Scotch in favour of house Orvieto initially (6) |
| FOR (in favour of) HO (house) and Orvieto (first letter, initially) | ||
| 23 | FREE UP | Release from commitment following breakdown of Europe (love lost) (6, 2 words) |
| F (following) then anagram (breakdown) of EURoPE missing O (love lost) | ||
| 25 | BURMA | Name of Asian state, wrong but including right one (5) |
| BUM (wrong) contains (but including) R (right) then A (one) – not the official name, another name | ||
| 26 | STOLE | Lifted old gold coin out of pit (5) |
| piSTOLEt (old gold coin) missing (out of) PIT | ||
| 28 | SORA | Rail transport arose with no end in sight (4) |
| anagram (transport) of AROSe (missing end letter) | ||
Thanks, PeeDee.
Looking at today’s Observer, it looks as though the monthly clue-writing competition is still going ahead, but without any prizes at this point (and perhaps never!).
Thanks PeeDee – in 4, the A of VARLET is not part of the fodder : ‘A lost’. Tricky. PISTOLET to STOLE took me a long time to see.
Lots of glyphs mistranslated by the automation – I make it
1ac,17,24,30,32,3,5,9,10,18,
Also 1d STICKS of course.
Thanks Azed as ever.
SIGIL and STOLE were the two I couldn’t parse, too.
In 11A, the Scots grandchild is, surely, not YO, but OY or YO (rev. – “round”), making the s.i. IE following YO + W(eak), rather than the “round” indicating that the W is to be inserted (which would anyway have been dubious with that comma between “round” and “weak”).
Thanks Robin and Gonzo for the corrections. I had forgotten it was my turn to write up the puzzle so I bashed this blog out in a big rush, trying to remember why I had chosen all these answers a week ago.
Hopefully all fixed now.
No comments apart from thanks to Azed & PeeDee. Just greetings to all and hopes that we’ll meet again at least in that moment when the penny drops.
It was a shame that the 2500th celebration had to be postponed even though I shouldn’t have been up to getting there. It’s good to see the quibblers are still busy! It’s always a pleasure to spot one of the stars slipping.
Keith – as an Azed ‘old hand’ (in the nicest possible sense) you might enjoy tackling the puzzle I recently put together to celebrate the approach of AZ 2,500, featuring eight of my favourite prizewinning clues from the 48 years of comps, plus one of my favourites from the maestro himself:
http://www.clueclinic.com/index.php/2020/03/29/azed-a-2500-deza-vu/
Thanks DRC. I’ll have a go. It must have cost you a lot of grubbing through andlit.
Can anyone clear up what exactly is the status of No. 2595? No “prizes” but will JC judge the entries as usual and allocate mentions and moral prizes? (After all, surely no-one enters it for the hope of winning the cash. Still got the vouchers from my last prize unspent…) Did my entry as usual – almost a definition of the T of H over E – hoping that not everything has succumbed to the Dread Bug.