The usual Azed, full of neat and tightly-constructed clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | KEKS — keks are trousers and kex is a dry hollow herbaceous stalk |
| 4 | POPESHIP — (hopes)* in pip, and the Pope is the Holy Father |
| 10 | N(A R)K — watch as a noun |
| 11 | I R-R(IT)ATE — nark as a verb this time — this device, which always seems rather artificial and a bit silly to me, is popular with Azed |
| 12 | ORGAN DIE |
| 14 | STA(N)G |
| 15 | BOD HI — a bod is a person is a soul, and the bodhi tree (the compound term about which Azed warns us) is the holy tree of the Buddhists under which Buddha found enlightenment |
| 17 | C(A DR)ANS — dr. is drawer (of a cheque etc I suppose) and a cadrans is a singular word despite its appearance |
| 19 | SPASMODIST — ‘rarely’ refers to the rarity of the word — (tips Mossad)* |
| 20 | SCALOPPINE — (lop pin) in (case)* — strange spelling, which made me suspect a mistake in the clue, but of course all is well |
| 23 | PA(TROO{p})N |
| 26 | PA(R)IS{e/a} — the paisa (plural paisa or paise) is a hundredth of a rupee |
| 28 | AN({stic}K)US — this is I suspect an example of something Azed once explained in a slip (I never really quite understood what he was saying) and which I’d never dare to do in one of his clue-setting competitions, the definition of the form ‘should get elephant moving’ rather than the more conventional ‘this should get elephant moving’ — he said it was OK, but I am unsure about it — granted this, a lovely clue |
| 29 | P(IAN IN)OS — refers I think to Ian Bell the England cricketer (and long may he remain so) — pos are chamber-pots |
| 30 | ENTER(S)ON |
| 31 | C(AT)O — refers to either of the two severe Roman censors |
| 32 | S TONKERS — stonker can be a verb meaning to kill or maim, so tops is a verb here |
| 33 | whisKY A Tumblerful — hidden — necessary in the money sense |
| Down | |
| 1 | KNOSP — k (son)rev. p — a knosp is the unopened bud of a flower |
| 2 | EARTH-PEA — p in (reheat)* |
| 3 | SKA N(K)S |
| 4 | PINGO — GPO IS ‘P in GO’ |
| 5 | PRIMA DONNA — ad in (p{lenty} in Norma)* — &lit. |
| 6 | STOORS — (roots)* S |
| 7 | HARD AT IT — (A-rd) in (that I)* (as pointed out below, I had stupidly omitted this) |
| 8 | IT CH |
| 9 | PELISSE — (is sleep)* |
| 13 | D(ECO LORIS)E{ad} — the definition is ‘pale’ |
| 16 | CASTRATO — (star)* in Cato — ‘rarely seen today’? — I wonder where — Cato’s second appearance in this crossword |
| 18 | NON-QUOTA — it took me some time to see just how this works — it’s (on qu) in (a ton)rev. |
| 19 | S(APPLE)S — quarantine is quarrender, a type of apple, and sapples are soapsuds |
| 21 | CRIMEN — (mincer)* |
| 22 | P(AN)ICK |
| 24 | B A(N N)S |
| 25 | ASSOT — a{bout} (toss)rev. — I can’t see why the word ‘shortly’ is there, since Chambers gives ‘a’ as an abbreviation of ‘about’, and I’m also not quite comfortable with the equivalence of getting pie-eyed and befooling or besotting. |
| 27 | {fl}AUNT{ing} I think, although I’m not confident here: OK it’s obviously AUNT because it fits and because of Aunt Sally, but how is it ‘aunt’ escaping from ‘fling’ when it seems to me that it’s ‘fling’ escaping from ‘flaunting’? |
Re 32A I remember stonkers from my schooldays used as a general expression of approval. It’s connected to the second def in C (2008), (but missing from earlier editions) meaning something impressive or large of its kind. Thus tops may be read in both senses. A brilliant clue evoking all the joy and excitement of playing and watching cricket years since.
I thought this was a tough one. 1a KEX, for KEKS isn’t a word pairiing that comes readily to mind, although I do seem to recall KEKS being referred to in ‘Brookside’ when it was on C4
You must have been too “hard at it” to have missed entering the solution for 7 dn!
Re 10ac I take watch as a verb, clearly defined in C. None of the noun defs has ‘watch’ as a synonym.
24D is an ‘&lit’ clue. Banns – which might be issued by a bishop as by any other parson – typically include the names of those to be married.
Thanks, John. Yet again missed getting this out correctly by one letter. I had ENTERS IN at 30ac.
I missed the verbal definition of ‘nark’, but I think it could perfectly well be a noun as well, since it is defined as a police spy, which is a sort of watch.
My question at 27dn hasn’t been answered: surely there is some wise person out there who can explain?
I share your puzzlement. Perhaps an allusion to removing her clothing, made up of fling (throw), leaving her naked.