A puzzle of two halves, I found: I whizzed though about two-thirds very quickly and without aids, then struggled rather more to finish it off. As promised, I’ve done this blog in the style Nick introduced last week. The lateness of this post is mostly due to some (rather unsuccessful) last-minute tinkering with the layout. Comments on the format are welcome (as well as on the blog and the puzzle, of course).
| Across | |||
| 1 . | We’ll work magic, getting hock in French bar (7) | ||
| SHAMANS | HAM in SANS | ||
| 8 . | Philosopher in squad not getting on (5) | ||
| PLATO | PLATO[on] | ||
| 12 . | Shifting to green area or fitting wind-powered device (13) | ||
| AEROGENERATOR | (TO GREEN AREA OR)* | ||
| 13 . | Winter quarters for some deer, low and indeed turned over by old plough (9) | ||
| MOOSEYARD | MOO + YES< + ARD | ||
| 14 . | Braidwork one found in core of quilting (5) | ||
| LACET | ACE in [qui]LT[ing] | ||
| 15 . | Fail to justify most of intuition (5) | ||
| BELIE | BELIE[f] | ||
| 16 . | Stop soft-pedalling past history contained within tome’s covers (8, 2 words) | ||
| TRE CORDE | RECORD in T[om]E | ||
| 19 . | Savoury snack that a party’s included (4) | ||
| TAPA | Hidden (and pretty much &lit too) | ||
| 20 . | Cook displaying sardonic humour, a natural gift (5) | ||
| DOWRY | DO (cook) + WRY (sardonic) A dowry can be “a natural gift”. “Humour” seems to be redundant. |
||
| 21 . | Late-night bugle-call maybe bugs (4) | ||
| TAPS | Double definition | ||
| 23 . | Page escort holding end of robe, wearing wooden shoes of old (8) | ||
| PATTENED | P + [rob]E in ATTEND | ||
| 26 . | Greek island temple with cross inside (5) | ||
| NAXOS | X in NAOS | ||
| 28 . | It may give some tar a meal! (5) | ||
| ARAME | Hidden &lit | ||
| 30 . | A club rule ultimately withholding name for cocktail (9) | ||
| AMERICANO | A MERI CANO[n]. It’s a cocktail of Campari, vermouth and soda (also a fancy name for “black coffee”). MERI is a Maori war-club. |
||
| 31 . | Acceptable in court, service about reached – it’s very low in the wind (13) | ||
| CONTRAFAGOTTO | ON in CT, RAF< GOT TO | ||
| 32 . | Part of bow creating wash at sea either side of engine (5) | ||
| HAWSE | E in WASH* | ||
| 33 . | Feet apart, plays fantastically as centre, giving impressive display in the air (7) | ||
| FLYPAST | PLAYS* in FT | down | |
| 1 . | Bellow e.g. ‘Time’, making one jump once? (5) | ||
| SAULT | SAUL + T | ||
| 2 . | Man below par? Quite the opposite – this old sulphur compound does the trick (5) | ||
| HEPAR | PAR below HE | ||
| 3 . | Treatment for dementia or paretic malfunctioning (7) | ||
| ARICEPT | PARETIC* | ||
| 4 . | Gig creating grimaces in audience (4) | ||
| MOZE | Homophone of “mows”. MOZE is “to gig, raise a nap on” (of textiles). The third entry in Chambers for MOW gives “to make grimaces”. |
||
| 5 . | One struggling with current round river typical of Amazon area? (11) | ||
| NEOTROPICAL | ONE* + R in TOPICAL | ||
| 6 . | Apple flakes (4) | ||
| SNOW | Double definition A white-fleshed apple, and the wintry falling stuff |
||
| 7 . | Saucy having got stuck into ales and vin drunk of an evening (11) | ||
| VESPERTINAL | PERT in (ALES VIN)* The root “vesper-” recalls the ecclesiastical “vespers”. |
||
| 8 . | Lay in stocks of food for hunters, bully less than half consumed (6) | ||
| PRE-BUY | BU[lly] in pREY | ||
| 9 . | Clothes for baby that’s overdue (still inside) (7) | ||
| LAYETTE | YET in LATE | ||
| 10 . | Part of Puerto Rico that bulges out? (5) | ||
| TORIC | Hidden | ||
| 11 . | They’re full in the priesthood – what’ll one waiting take? (6) | ||
| ORDERS | Double definition A priest has full holy orders, and waiters take orders. |
||
| 17 . | Frolics about having endlessly struggled up (7) | ||
| CAVORTS | CA + STROV[e]< | ||
| 18 . | Meld when tucking into half a melon? (7) | ||
| CANASTA | AS in CANTA[loupe] | ||
| 19 . | Sacred Jewish texts one kept in biblical fastener (6) | ||
| TANACH | AN in TACH | ||
| 20 . | Longing to get free of parent, one assumes? (6) | ||
| DESIRE | “DE-SIRE” | ||
| 22 . | Aussie state with former resident of NZ and Pacific islands (5) | ||
| SAMOA | SA + MOA | ||
| 24 . | Issues Times dealt with (5) | ||
| EMITS | TIMES* Times has lots of anagrams: I first thought this should be ITEMS, and MITES almost workds – mites = children = issue.. |
||
| 25 . | Bus station for one on foot after a lift (5) | ||
| DEPOT | (TO PED)< | ||
| 27 . | Incompetent, reverse of c-cool (4) | ||
| NAFF | (F-FAN)< | ||
| 29 . | Scottish frog (in specific location) making inadequate leap (4) | ||
| ROOP | Reverse of POOR Roop is “a hoarse sound” so the “specific location” is the throat. |
||
No particular
clue stood out for me, but I was pleased to get CONTRAFAGOTTO from the word play.
Thanks, Andrew. I found this somewhat easier than usual, but I still managed to get one wrong — I had MOUE at 4dn, even though I knew it should be a homophone of something.
Didn’t find ‘Naxos’ in Chambers.
‘paretic’ ? I had to use word wizard which resulted no anagram answer,
then I was then stuck with about five clues left to answer.
Thanks for blog Andrew. Apart from my laziness in not looking up the
remaining clues (due to time) this was a great puzzle.
Nice one.
Azed doesn’t always mention when proper nouns used in a puzzle aren’t in Chambers. Naxos, as I should perhaps have said in the blog, is the largest of the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea (as well as a low-price record label).
I found the top left hard going, but found amusement on finishing in 1D. There is extra wordplay there in a phonetic “‘s all!” – i.e. how say an umpire or landlord might bellow it.
Andrew –
I just knew it had to be Naxos, the cluing was a perfect lead to that answer,
but not being in Chambers, Azed usually says if certain words ‘pro-nouns’
may not be in Chambers, and often mentions SOED – which Naxos (in my 1950’s version isn’t).
But as there was no indication for this, and me not using my brain! it held me up.
Silly me.
Thanks for the info though Andrew!