This was largely a gentle puzzle with lots of clues and no long answers.
There were a few slightly tricky words or word associations (9 and 25 come to mind) but most of it was straightforward. The only one which lost me completely was 6.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | INSECTS |
Popular groups for insignificant people (7)
|
| In(=popular) + sects | ||
| 5 | TREASON |
Briefly deal with child’s perfidy (7)
|
| Trea[t](=deal with shortened) + son(=child) | ||
| 9 | FLYING JIB |
Hasty stop to get sail (6,3)
|
| Flying(=hasty) + jib(=stop). I was unsure about jib for stop but one of the meanings of jib can be to balk at doing something or to refuse to move forwards, so that is a possible synonym. | ||
| 10 | SURGE |
Confident about government’s upswing (5)
|
| Sure about g{overnment} | ||
| 11 | DOCK |
Reduce area of court (4)
|
| DD, the first definition used in the sense of “docking points from a team”. | ||
| 13 | AUDEN |
Linesman held by fraud enforcement (5)
|
| Hidden in fraud enforcement. Refers to the poet WH Auden. | ||
| 14 | SEAL |
Small details oddly missing in stamp (4)
|
| S{mall} + even letters (oddly missing) of details | ||
| 16 | LANDOWNER |
A new lord arranged to imprison northern laird (9)
|
| (A new lord)* around n{orthern} | ||
| 19 | ANT |
Worker and attendant leaving procession (3)
|
| [Page]ant | ||
| 22 | HER |
That lady‘s selfless successor (3)
|
| He[i]r. Selfless indicates removal of “I”(=the self). | ||
| 23 | ROCHESTER |
See Jane Eyre’s husband (9)
|
| DD. The first part refers to Rochester’s status as a diocese with the office of bishop in it. | ||
| 25 | UNCO |
Odd Scottish suit found in card game (4)
|
| C{lubs}(=suit in cards) in Uno(=card game developed in the US) | ||
| 27 | ASCOT |
A way around county racecourse (5)
|
| A st{reet}(=way) around Co{unty} | ||
| 29 | MING |
Not in favour of creating dynasty (4)
|
| [For]ming | ||
| 32 | TEACH |
College employing adult tutor (5)
|
| Tech(=short for technical college) around a{dult} | ||
| 33 | EYE SOCKET |
Sees spacecraft heading off in orbit (3,6)
|
| Eyes(=sees) + [r]ocket | ||
| 35 | CARRION |
Finish off horror movie dealing with rotten meat (7)
|
| Carri[e](=Stephen King horror film) + on(=dealing with) | ||
| 36 | AVENGES |
Pays back Sweden after redevelopment of Geneva (7)
|
| Geneva* after S{weden} | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | INFIDELS |
Atheists find lies out (8)
|
| (Find lies)* | ||
| 2 | SHY |
Short cautious shot (3)
|
| Triple def. The first def is used in the sense of “two points shy of winning” and the third is in the sense of coconut shy. | ||
| 3 | CONS |
Tricks leaders of community of Nova Scotia (4)
|
| Initial letters of “community of Nova Scotia” | ||
| 4 | SOJOURNER |
Therefore short trip’s run for visitor (9)
|
| So(=therefore) + journe[y] + r{un} | ||
| 5 | TABLE |
Propose the Spanish cricketer returns (5)
|
| (El(=the in Spanish) + bat(=cricketer, as in opening bat))< | ||
| 6 | ERSE |
Gaelic prince departs by himself (4)
|
| Don’t get this | ||
| 7 | SCREE |
Native Americans cycling to see geological feature (5)
|
| Crees with the S cycling to the front. I thought that Cree was the plural form for the Native American people but dictionaries confirm it can be pluralised with an S. | ||
| 8 | NEEDLE |
Reportedly struck the French obelisk (6)
|
| Hom of “kneyed” + le(=the in French) | ||
| 12 | CINCH |
Commander-in-Chief originally has piece of cake (5)
|
| C-in-C(=commander in chief) + h[as] | ||
| 15 | CAFE |
In New York Joe may be served here (4)
|
| CD referring to joe as a US slang term for coffee. | ||
| 17 | OGRE |
Ring work unit about Shrek? (4)
|
| O + erg<. An erg is a non-SI unit of work which is used in some specific contexts. | ||
| 18 | ROCK OPERA |
Tommy perhaps crafting a cork and rope (4,5)
|
| (A cork rope)*. The def refers to the rock opera by The Who. | ||
| 20 | TUTTI |
Teacher has note for soldiers performing as one (5)
|
| Tutor with the OR(=ordinary ranks i.e. soldiers) replaced by ti(=note in the doh,re,mi scale) | ||
| 21 | FRIGATES |
Gas fitter half-heartedly repaired vessels (8)
|
| (Gas fi[t]ter)* | ||
| 24 | RUSTIC |
Uncouth criticism curtailed after game (6)
|
| RU(=Rugby Union, a game) + stic[k](=criticism, as in “he got some stick for that”) | ||
| 26 | CHAIR |
Leader of church music (5)
|
| Ch{urch} + air(=music) | ||
| 28 | STERN |
Breastbones without a back (5)
|
| Stern[a](=plural of sternum, the breastbone) | ||
| 30 | THAI |
Indian meal left out for Asian national (4)
|
| Tha[l]i. Thali is an Indian meal consisting of several dishes of meat and vegetables. | ||
| 31 | TORE |
Charged with revolutionary on-line rubbish (4)
|
| (E rot)< | ||
| 34 | KEG |
Potassium, say, in storage unit (3)
|
| K(=chemical symbol for potassium) + e.g.(=say) |
ERSE
Is it (p)ER SE (himself) less p?
NEEDLE
Hom of kneed. Right?
KVa@1 yes, that’s all I could come up with, “per se”, as in “in or by itself”. Tried Perseus, but no joy.
Not the best clue, I think, unless someone has found a more cunning explanation.
per se
(Chambers)
by himself
Our parsing looks all right E.N.Boll&@2
Especially liked 6d [p]ER SE, involving Latin and Irish. And my LOi 29a [For]MING – it took me longest to twig. Fun puzzle! 🙂
Good fun, quite a quick solve but a couple of challenging parses along the way – especially ERSE, the ‘kneed’ of NEEDLE and UNCO, with ‘suit’ for C quite rarely seen, although very tractable.
Thanks both.
Thanks to those who sorted out 6d, the one bit of parsing that had defeated me – and our blogger as I was relieved to discover.
Thanks to Kairos for the puzzle and to Neal for the review.
This grid is super strange, with the upper right and lower left barely connected to the rest, and those two little loops of short words in the middle. But hey–it’s not actually against any of the rules.
CAFE wasn’t cryptic at all if AmEng is your native dialect.
The blogger is correct that Native tribal names are usually their own plural (as in “the Cree live primarily in the upper Midwest, Ontario, and Manitoba”). You only see plurals with an S when referring to specific individuals (“only five Crees attended the local powwow this year”), and even then it strikes at least me as odd. Full disclosure: I have no Native blood, so I’m not speaking with any inside knowledge.
[PS: my understanding is that use of the word “powwow” in any other than its literal sense of a traditional Native gathering is now frowned on, but since that is what I meant, I’m in the clear.]
All ok until completely defeated by 25a never having heard of Uno or unco.