I have the honour of blogging Gemelo’s first puzzle in The Observer, and very nice it is too: fairly similar in difficulty to Azed and the clues are so far as I can see sound, with pleasantly convincing surfaces. The only apparent difference from Azed is that two of the answers have all their letters checked, something I don’t remember from Azed.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ARMOUR |
Rector opening loved one’s mail (6)
|
| a(r)mour | ||
| 5 | CARIBE |
Piranha caught by guy in A&E (6)
|
| c. A(rib)E — rib = guy in the tease sense | ||
| 9 | MOVIEOKE |
Walk around that is certainly overacting? (8)
|
| mov(i.e. OK)e — a new word to me on the principle of karaoke, providing dialogue to films whose sound is muted, so a sort of ‘over-acting’ | ||
| 11 | AFTERS |
Where I can be seen in conversion course? (6)
|
| I can be seen in converSIon, i.e. it comes after S —not sure of the need for a question mark here | ||
| 12 | SAPAN |
Southern nation originally cut Brazil-wood (5)
|
| S [J]apan | ||
| 13 | CAIRN |
Near 1ac: Rolling Stones (5)
|
| (nr iac)rev. — rolling = reversing | ||
| 15 | EMULGE |
Expired milk turned blue in the fridge, ultimately (6)
|
| [th]e(mulg)[fridg]e where the mulg = (glum)rev. — the definition ‘expired milk’ means that it’s an archaic word for milk, giving a very nice surface | ||
| 16 | DUCK SOUP |
1930s comedy eludes publisher (8, 2 words)
|
| ducks OUP — the Marx Brothers film | ||
| 19 | NAVICERT |
Nuclear craft hiding fault in maritime paperwork (8)
|
| N. a(vice)rt | ||
| 22 | CREAM BUN |
Treat from menu, with crab being off (8, 2 words)
|
| (menu crab)* | ||
| 23 | DEAD HEAT |
Academic fellow mostly hated funny tie (8, 2 words)
|
| dea[n] (hated)* | ||
| 26 | OWLERY |
In East London, mistake yard for where parliament sits? (6)
|
| ‘owler y — all cockneys/East Londoners in Crosswordland drop their aitches — in crosswords the word ‘parliament’ is a pretty sure sign that owls are involved (a parliament of owls) | ||
| 28 | SCUSE |
Pardon self-contained exercise (5)
|
| s/c use | ||
| 29 | PAEAN |
A eulogy, primarily, welcomed by god? (5)
|
| P(a e[ulogy])an, &lit. | ||
| 30 | ASHPAN |
Representation of Jesus’ heart replaced by high priest? Remains to be seen here (6)
|
| I’m unable to parse this: it seems to be something like as*an where the * (any length) is replaced by hp but I can’t think of or find any word as*an which means ‘representation of Jesus’ — Aswan or Asian look likely, but … — it looks as if this is the correct answer, though, and no doubt someone will explain — or is it as an = representation? Seems a bit thin, and it doesn’t really have a heart unless you regard the space as its heart, and in any case what then is Jesus doing? — in Chambers it is given as ash-pan not ashpan, so I may be wrong. [As several commenters mention, Aslan is in the Narnia books (which, if I was even aware of them, I disliked and have always avoided) as a representation of Jesus. Was completely unaware of this] | ||
| 31 | RAILCARD |
OAP might have this on track to banter with comic (8)
|
| rail card — why the OAP, who typically has a Freedom Pass (bus pass)? Can’t anyone of any age buy a railcard? | ||
| 32 | NELLIE |
Weakling’s life (6)
|
| 2 defs, one of them as in ‘not on your nellie/life’ | ||
| 33 | ERSATZ |
Substitute amongst defenders at Zagreb (6)
|
| Hidden in defendERS AT Zagreb | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ARACHNID |
Principal tackling a commotion, reversing tick? (8)
|
| ar(a)ch (din)rev. | ||
| 2 | MOTIF |
Adjust order to back up theme (5)
|
| (fit OM)rev. | ||
| 3 | OVERKIND |
Too nice about blood diamonds (8)
|
| over kin D — kin = blood | ||
| 4 | RESCUER |
I deliver surprisingly secure rule (7)
|
| *(secure) r | ||
| 5 | CODEC |
Mock executive committee’s electrical apparatus (5)
|
| cod EC | ||
| 6 | REAU |
The Emirates runs up temperature scale (4)
|
| (UAE R)rev. — Réau is short for Réaumur | ||
| 7 | BLAGUEURS |
Humbug merchants stirred blue sugar (9)
|
| *(blue sugar) | ||
| 8 | EINE |
Readers of old article from Hamburg (4)
|
| 2 defs, the first one referring to an obsolete word for eyes | ||
| 10 | APLOMB |
Coolness in A Level after dropping university for nothing (6)
|
| A plumb with the u (= U) dropped and replaced by o (= 0) | ||
| 14 | AGATEWARE |
People who’ve come to break up pottery (9)
|
| gate (people who’ve come) in aware (up: Chambers definition 31, well-informed, versed) | ||
| 17 | SO MUCH AS |
Somerset capital gets even (8, 3 words)
|
| Som[erset] uc has — uc = upper-case = capital | ||
| 18 | PINCENEZ |
Help to see king abandoning his son before religious uprising (8)
|
| P[r]ince (Zen)rev. | ||
| 20 | VEALER |
See medic dropping head a little lower to eat? (6)
|
| v [h]ealer — the cattle sense of lower, an animal that lows | ||
| 21 | REAL ALE |
Drink after getting left in Scottish enclosure (7, 2 words)
|
| re(à la L)e | ||
| 24 | EYRIE |
Heroine circling island’s inaccessible place (5)
|
| Eyr(i)e — the heroine is Jane Eyre | ||
| 25 | SUPRA |
Above page is found in chapter of the Koran (5)
|
| Su(p)ra | ||
| 26 | OPEN |
Obvious negative when cycling (4)
|
| nope cycling, i.e. it starts with the o and the first letter moves to the last | ||
| 27 | EARL |
Almost edged equal to count (4)
|
| A bit convenient this, because all the letters are there and I’m not all that confident of the parsing: I think it’s that in the hierarchy of the aristocracy an earl is equal to a count and the wordplay is earl[y], but is edged = early? |
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