The grid seemed to be almost divided in half diagonally by a long chain of bars; I filled in the NE half quite quickly but took rather longer over the SW. All successfully solved and (I hope) parsed in the end: thanks to Azed.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | ESPLANADE | Prom one’s included in elapsed riotously (9) AN in ELAPSED* |
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| 11 | BURAN | Stream swollen with a violent snowstorm (5) A in BURN (stream) |
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| 12 | CENSOR | Crone’s miscast as protector of public morals (6) CRONES* |
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| 13 | NUMERO UNO | The most important thing, half of what’s due (9, 2 words) “Due” is Italian for the number two, which NUMERO UNO is half of. A double definition, I suppose, though the two meanings are very close |
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| 14 | CUTCHA | Do without tea as a temporary expedient (6) CUT (do without) + CHA (tea) |
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| 15 | HATS | Is Holding about the ultimate in fast bowlers maybe? (4) [fas]T in HAS (“is holding”), with a misleading (but permitted) capital to suggest the cricketer Michael Holding. Sadly it seems that Brian Johnston’s remark “the batsman’s Holding, the bowler’s Willey” is apocryphal, or was made up by Johnners after the event |
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| 18 | DOVELET | Tiny thing clutching old covering – for which cot is doubly suitable? (7) VELE (Spenserian version of “veil”, covering) in DOT (a tiny thing). “Cot” is a variant spelling of “cote”, but also a baby’s bed, so suitable for a baby dove in two ways |
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| 19 | STUPA | Shrine: sanctified one erected by academy (5) ST (saint, sanctified one) + UP (erected) + A[cademy] |
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| 21 | SALISH | Group of NA dialects, 51 in belt (6) LI in SASH |
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| 23 | CASABA | Melon when stuffed into shopping bag (6) AS in CABA |
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| 24 | TERSE | Extract from writer’s eulogy, anything but wordy (5) Hidden in wriTERS Eulogy |
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| 25 | ART BRUT | Primitive pictures brat scrawled on tedious course? (7, 2 words) BRAT* + RUT (a tedious course, as in “in a rut”) |
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| 29 | TRAT | Ristorante? You may get pickled roes in this one (4) Composite anagram – RISTORANTE* less (ROES IN)* |
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| 30 | AVANTI | Azzurri’s forward one’s opposing twice? (6) A (one) + V[ersus] ANTI (two ways to say “against”); avanti is Italian for “forward”, so as might be said by “the Blues”, the Italian national football side (and some other teams) |
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| 32 | TIGHT-KNIT | Like well-drilled pack, promptly (as before) getting name sewn into strip (9) TIGHT (old word for “promptly”) + N in KIT (sports gear, strip) |
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| 33 | ELUATE | Liquid from chemical process? Cheer when it includes uranium (6) U in ELATE |
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| 34 | SHUNT | Get rid of last of glühwein in bar (5) [glühwei]N in SHUT (to bar, e.g. a door) |
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| 35 | PARAPETED | Left outside, primate entered, with defensive protection of a kind (9) APE in PARTED (left) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | SUSU | Savings scheme that’s contributed to as usual (4) Hidden in aS USUal |
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| 3 | PROTEUS | Cave dweller in ooze enveloping sea’s roar (7) ROTE (the roar of surf) in PUS. The cave-dweller is an aquatic salamander, also called the Olm, not the shape-shifting Greek god |
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| 4 | LANCH | Dart of old making you go pale, head disappearing (5) [B]LANCH – it’s an old form of “launch”, with “dart” as a verb for the definition |
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| 5 | NOMAD | Rover Matt’s turned up in (5) Reverse of DAMON (Matt D, actor) |
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| 6 | ACETOSE | Sour, one drunk up with a dash of Evian (7) ACE + reverse of SOT + E[vian] |
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| 7 | DERIVATE | Word formed from another, i.e. crafted with advert (8) (IE ADVERT)* |
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| 8 | USUAL | Deviously Ursula’s refused what’s central for Boris – typical (5) Anagram of URSULA less [bo]R[is], with the surface referring to Ursula von der Leyen, president of European Commission since December 2019 |
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| 9 | CONTESSA | She memorably lacked footwear – scan toes wriggling (8) (SCAN TOES)* The definition is a reference to the Barefoot Contessa |
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| 10 | PROSTHETIST | Racing star embracing nymph – one providing aid to the legless? (11) THETIS in [Alain] PROST |
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| 11 | BACKSCATTER | Supporter accepts tax as before for deflection of radiation (11) SCAT (tax – apparently unrelated to the similarly-named tax “scot”, as in “scot-free”) in BACKER |
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| 16 | STARRILY | Fab performer in short song one released in twinkly style (8) STARR (Ringo, one of the “Fab Four”) + I (in) + LAY less A |
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| *17 | CABRETTA | A soft leather (8) The competition word |
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| 20 | CAULKER | Ruckle tipsily swallowing a wee Scotch? (7) A in RUCKLE* – it means “a dram”, so a small whisky, or “wee Scotch” |
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| 22 | IRON OUT | Clear up club completely (7, 2 words) IRON (gold club) + OUT (completely) |
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| 26 | TAGUS | Follow American river (5) TAG + US |
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| 27 | TANKA | Reservoir, answer for boat-dwellers (5) TANK + A[nswer] |
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| 28 | RATHE | Heart throbs, quick no longer (5) HEART* – an old word that survives only in its comparative form “rather” |
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| 31 | TONE | Weight nag shed creating bodily firmness (4) TON[nag]E |
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I think I had the same parsings as you, Andrew, and no question marks over anything – apart from my usual ponderousness.
I particularly liked the disguised “due” at 13a and the topical 8d.
The story I heard about the Holding/Willey incident was that Brian J didn’t say it and never claimed to have said it. It came from a letter sent to the TMS team either telling him to be careful about what he says, or accusing him of having said it. (I think Blofield said the letter was signed “Tess Tickle”, so a spoof no doubt, if true.)
Thanks, Andrew and Azed. Some very felicitous clues this time.
For DOVELET, I definitely did not know “vele,” and thought maybe the “doubly suitable” was somehow an oblique reference to “dovecot” and “cotlet.” But that seemed extra-obscure, even for Azed. Your solution makes a lot more sense.
TRAT was a guess, and I did not see the anagram at first, but I figured this was one of those UK words. (To my mind, eating in a “trat” sounds distinctly unappetizing.)
BURAN I knew, oddly enough, from the Soviet space program.
Henry Blofeld probably wrote the letter himself, Blorenge. (Do all our overseas number understand what these references are? I myself, an ex-pat, had no idea what was going on in 8 Dn. I assumed it was something topical, got bored, and left it).
Thanks for “due” 13, Andrew, but…
I’m also sorry. PeeDee threw in the towel last week. Now you. Can you tell me where the “misleading (but permitted) capital” is permitted? I quote our Don Manley. He calls the false capital “a very minor offence (if it is an offence at all)”.
I disagree. It never was permitted. Just as Gateshead, Weatherhead, Leatherhead aren’t.
There is no point having a Ximenes if we’re going to vote for capital punishment in our enlightened times.
Stefan, fuming
Lovely crossword, very useful blog. Was a very rare finish for me without Chambers at all which shows how immaculate the cluing was, just had to check a few things afterwards.
Brian Johnson used to include the quote as part of his after dinner speaking and claimed a letter had been written telling him to be more careful. Maybe it was the other way round as allegedly Peter Willey never bowled to Michael Holding.
Roz @4 – I’m impressed that you did this without using Chambers. I had to look up quite a few, but it all went in eventually. Couldn’t parse NUMERO UNO. Many thanks to Azed and Andrew.
drofle@5 I had a few educated guesses to check afterwards but I always like to try without the dictionary first and rarely succeed. The most difficult clue is when we have one obscure word inside another obscure word giving a final obscure word, none of them this week.
I must admit NUMERO UNO went in as a single definition, thanks for the blog, I had no idea for the second part of the clue.
Azed himself in his book A-Z of Crosswords says ‘I equally reject the notion that the capital initial of a proper name can be downcased in a clue because it suits the setter to do this. (The converse of this — upgrading a lower-case initial to a capital one I regard as acceptable — just.)’
So you could say he makes his own rules. But others have said much the same thing. Ximenes said ‘…, at a pinch’.
Roz @ 4, yes, it’s the other way around every time I’ve heard the story. I think Andrew probably got it wrong from memory.
As to the deceptive capitalisation, I’m amazed this keeps coming up – it’s been an acceptable device for as long as I’ve been solving crosswords, and it’s not as if the opportunity to do it convincingly arises that often. I’m pretty sure Azed has awarded prizes and VHC’s for clues with upcased words.
Downcasing is rightly forbidden – eg BOWLER: ‘He could be holding hat’, wouldn’t be allowed (apart from it being boring!).
You do yourself an injustice, Blorenge. As the Don pointed out many years ago, you can just turn the sentence around: “Holding hat, perhaps?” Perhaps here doing double duty but I’d pass that more readily than the false capital.
Stefan
Yes, I’ve written clues where I’ve disguised the downcasing by putting it at the start of the sentence – “Patience possibly […] ” for ‘strong’, but there are some people here who think that downcasing in the middle of a phrase should be allowed, and I was trying to demonstrate why I think it’s less fair than upcasing.
I am firmly in the uppercase NO camp in the middle of a clue. ‘Is Holding’ does not make a grammatical part of the written word – it is designed to deliberately mislead the solver (unfair).
If you do need to give a misdirection like that, then the clue should be reworded so that the capital is at the beginning. As per Blorenge #10, in my one and only published puzzle I had:
Time magazine’s final back number (3) (E + NO rev.)
OK, not really any other way to clue that with that idea, but you can’t have ‘Time magazine’s final’ stuff in the middle of a clue for ‘eone’ (when the answer is [somEONEs] etc.)- it is wrong.
Nick
P.S. Top tip. The word to clue here is a great opportunity to get an HC, if you make it a cricket reference – the ‘leather’ made it for me with nice anagram fodder. Azed likes cricket referenced clues.
As for the clue writing competition Nick, I did consider the leather connection, with bat + trace / react and other possibilities, but went with something else that seemed better at the time (until the moment it dropped into the pillar box, obviously!).
I never even attempt writing clues, pretty good at solving but no imagination for setting.
As always many thanks to Azed (now subtitled AstraZeneca of the soul) and Andrew.
Lovely to join in the chat. Don’t get much chance these days. A satisfying solve- the capital for holding did seem a bit off-colour. It was good to display my rudimentary Italian in “due” very neat. Did AZ read languages?
To Roz @14 do try to send AZ a clue however ungainly even if only to swell the numbers..
Like Blorenge @13 I always think of a better way of wording my entry as I cross the road from the pillar-box.
Keith, with a long and excellent roll call of clues to your name, you’re way too modest.
It is weird how the clues one shortlists but decides against often seem more attractive when it’s too late though, isn’t it?
My first full Azed completion for many a year, a Guardian Cryptic completer (usually), it was a delight to have the time to tackle this one. Lots of new words and a real mental tussle. Da iawn Diolch!
Thanks Blorenge-@ 15 my achievements are only League 2 and I never raised the necessary energy to invent a clever pseudonym!