Another set of interesting and obscure words to figure out and look up. Thank you Azed.
Unrelated to the puzzle, but I just noticed that this is my 900th blog for fifteensquared!
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PSILOPHYTALES |
Early land plants I cut in slash, type grown wild (13)
|
| I LOP (cut) inside anagram (grown wild) of SLASH TYPE | ||
| 10 | LORIKEET |
Little Poll issuing shriek in Austrian region? It’s all over (8)
|
| EEK (shriek) inside TIROL (Austrian region) all reversed (over) | ||
| 13 | ROPY |
Portion of belly pork sent back, glutinous (4)
|
| found inside (portion of) bellY PORk reversed (sent back) | ||
| 14 | PREMIERE |
Leading lady? Father clutches fresh recording, blowing kiss? (8)
|
| PERE (father, priest) contains (clutches) REMIx (fresh recording) missing (bowing) X (a kiss) – leady lady of a ballet company perhaps. A pedant might argue that the a remix does not involve a fresh recording, only a fresh mixing of an existing recording. | ||
| 15 | CROAKS |
Cask cracked, most of German red inside passes out (6)
|
| anagram (cracked) of CASK contains (with…inside) ROt (red in German, most of) | ||
| 16 | BARRIO |
Endless revelry at rear of bottega in Madrid slum? (6)
|
| RIOt (revelry, endless) following (at rear of) BAR (bottega) | ||
| 17 | SICKLEMEN |
Harvesters become unwell, yellow inside, on being laid off (9)
|
| SICKEN (become unwell) containing (with…inside) LEMon missing (with…being laid off) ON | ||
| 19 | ASPEN |
One exhausted, given time off, shivering (5)
|
| A (one) SPENt (exhausted) missing (given…off) T (time) | ||
| 22 | CRISE |
Soaks by the sound of it in acme of distress (5)
|
| sounds like “crees” (softens by soaking) | ||
| 24 | TORTELIER |
Ace cellist, head giving way to pinnacle in studio (9)
|
| aTELIER (studio) with first letter (head) being replaced by (giving way to) TOR (a pinnacle) | ||
| 28 | SLURPY |
Syrup spilled round edge of bowl, showing messy table manners? (6)
|
| anagram (spilled) of SYRUP containing (round) last letter (edge) of bowL | ||
| 29 | RAT-TAT |
Knocker’s noise? Oil hinges next to it briefly (6)
|
| ATTAR (oil) reversed (hinges, swings round) then ‘T (it, briefly) | ||
| 30 | WINERIES |
Chateaux yielding success with English grape (not half) (8)
|
| WIN (success) with E (English) RIESling (grape) missing half | ||
| 31 | STEM |
Breast grasped by artist, emboldened (4)
|
| found inside (grasped by) artiST EMboldened | ||
| 32 | HATTERIA |
Reptiles posing a threat I caged (8)
|
| anagram (posing) of A THREAT containing (with…caged) I | ||
| 33 | POSTMENSTRUAL |
Agitated ultras following delivery staff after a period (13)
|
| anagram (agitated) of ULTRAS following POSTMEN (delivery staff) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PLACCAT |
Piece of armour once: man has incomplete set on top (7)
|
| CAT (man, jazz slang) follows (has…on top) PLACe (set, incomplete) | ||
| 2 | SORRA |
Paddy’s abusive term succeeded, worthless in Scotland (5)
|
| S (succeeded) then ORRA (worthless, Scots) | ||
| 3 | LIPASE |
It breaks up fat, lifting vitality in lean (6)
|
| SAP (vitality) reversed (lifting) inside LEAN (lie) | ||
| 4 | PEPSIN |
It aids digestion and gives added vigour to heart of mine (6)
|
| PEPS (gives added vigour) with middle letters (heart) of mINe | ||
| 5 | HERACLITEAN |
A hit with cleaner, correctly applied? It’s favouring idea of permanent flux (11)
|
| anagram (correctly applied) of A HIT with CLEANER | ||
| 6 | TAMAL |
Steamed dish from Mexico ? Mediterranean island switches its parts (5)
|
| MALTA (Mediterranean island) with MAL and TA (its parts) switching places | ||
| 7 | AFIRE |
Blazing fury starting with a fine (5)
|
| IRE (fury) preceded by (starting with) A and F (fine, mark on a pencil or pen) | ||
| 8 | EYRIES |
Lofty nests: rook on one is kept in sight? (6)
|
| R (rook, chess) with I (one) inside (kept in) EYES (sight, one of the senses) | ||
| 9 | SKEO |
Barracoutas removed from tin up in Orcadian cabin (4)
|
| snOEKS (barracoutas) missing (removed from, separated from) SN (Sn, tin) reversed (up) | ||
| 11 | ROOTPRUNE |
Power range cutting to ore roughly, cut deep down (9)
|
| P (power) RUN (range) inside (cutting) anagram (roughly) of TO ORE | ||
| 12 | PERMITTER |
Letter, by hand, accompanied by Her Majesty’s initials? (9)
|
| PER (by) MITT (hand) with ER (Elizabeth Regina, Her Majesty’s initials) | ||
| 18 | NEUTRAL |
Renault may be got out of this (7)
|
| anagram (what may be got out of) of RENAULT | ||
| 20 | SOLITO |
Crowning (if indefinable) quality discernible in Napoleon, as usual? (6)
|
| IT (crowning, if indefinable quality) inside (discernible in) SOLO (Napoleon Solo, the Man form Uncle) | ||
| 21 | VERSTS |
Russian travel may be covered uncomfortably in Uralian ones (6)
|
| RUSSIAN TRAVEL is an anagram (may be covered uncomfortably in, a match, but in a forced ordering) of URALIAN VERSTS (ones, the solution, units that Russian travel may be measured in) | ||
| 23 | RUTTER |
‘The Mercenary Horseman’? Choirs often have a go at me (6)
|
| double definition – former cavalryman and a piece of music by composer of choral works John RUTTER (choirs have a go at me, me being the solution) | ||
| 25 | TREAT |
Handle on one divides middle of kettle (5)
|
| RE (on, regarding) I (one) inside (divides) middle letters of keTTle | ||
| 26 | EPROM |
Computer chip, additional, turned up with page stored (5)
|
| MORE (additional) containing (with….stored) P (page) | ||
| 27 | ZAMIA |
Most of maize, ground, contains a possible source of starchy pith (5)
|
| anagram (ground) of MAIZe (most of) containing A | ||
| 28 | SWAP |
Plump hands going up (4)
|
| PAWS (hands) reversed (going up) |
Well done PeeDee.
Today I did need your help with the odd parse. The great thing about an Azed is you can usually see the parsing, even if the word is a little uncommon – as many are. That is all part of the fun.
Thanks for that fun Azed.
Thanks for the blog, SICKLEMEN was nice and VERSTS was cleverly done, a word I did know from literature.
For RATTAT , hinges is a bit of a stretch and Chambers does not give much support, your idea of swings round is about the best I have seen.
SKEO , I am never totally happy with the phrasing ” removed FROM tin ” , it sort of works. I suppose it is a reference to WW2 when snoeks became the standard fish here in tins, instead of salmon, sardines etc.
Agree Roz about “removed from tin”. It feels a bit clunky.
Re RATTAT, Chambers 2014 has hinge as to “turn as on a hinge” which to this engineer means to rotate.
I’m not sure if “The Mercenary Horseman” is a piece by John RUTTER PeeDee. I just took the double definition to be the (obsolete) word for a mercenary cavalryman and Rutter, J (choirs often have a go at me). Congratulations on your 900th.
Hi Tim, I mean “Rutter” is a piece of music by Rutter, as in “We will have a go at the Rutter now”, “Lets try the Mozart” etc. I will update the blog to add a double definition indicator and make it clearer.
Tim C @3 – Rutter is a bit of a choir staple, to the extent that some years ago Private Eye had a cartoon showing a chorister looking at a piece of music and declaring “I can’t believe it’s not Rutter“. Apparently JR was so delighted by this that he acquired the original.
I’d never heard of him NeilH so had to do a quick google as it was clear I was looking for a choral composer. I like the Private Eye story.
Afternoon all! I can’t get used to the Tuesday deadline.
Thanks to Azed and PeeDee. A good mixture of unknowns and knowns. with most of the “parsings” having Azed’s usual clarity. VERSTS was a wonderful example of the compound anagram, sadly very apt to the moment..
Awaiting next week’s ruling on the Fifty Years special.
Thanks Azed and PeeDee
29ac: Azed’s note on this clue says “hinge=turn”. This is supported by Chambers 2014 as noted by Tim@3. While many doors are prevented from rotating through as much as 180 degrees by the frames, I have managed to get one door in my flat to open at least 150 degrees and even then it was heavy furniture that stopped it going further. I think the use of “hinge” for reversal is fully justified, even under Azed’s strict rules.