Hello one, hello all.
The preamble:
From the answers in each column, two letters are removed, one to the top row, one to the bottom. Where there are two entries in a column, the upper entry sends a letter to the top row, the lower to the bottom row. Where there is only one entry in a column, that entry loses two letters, but the first omitted letter may go either way. Clues are to the full word and solvers must determine the letters to be removed. The top and bottom rows are the TWO DOMAINS and contain appropriate items. Enumeration indicates cells available; Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
I found this puzzle somewhat harder than I expected, given that there were no clueing gimmicks and the across entries were entered normally. Those acrosses certainly helped in filling the grid.
Just as I was beginning to feel a bit stuck despite having made reasonably good progress, I managed to see BALLOON as an option across the top. This I could readily extend to HELIUM BALLOON: something you would see up in the air. Now I turned my attention downwards.
The flightless birds began to show themselves below the grid: KAKAPO, EMU and DODO. So, we have some ground dwellers inhabiting the lower of the two domains. (Although, not any more in the case of the unfortunate dodo. I hope the kakapo can be helped off the endangered list. Emus, on the other hand have proved themselves capable of winning out-and-out warfare with humans.)
All that remained was to tidy up my last remaining entries. While some of the answers had to be ground out, it was a breeze to write up. Thanks Kcit!
| # | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | ||
| Across | ||
| 1a | HANDGRIP | Feature of case? Worker’s initially gruesome observation after death (8) |
| HAND (worker) + initially Gruesome + RIP (observation after death) | ||
| 7a | GATED | Punished and irritated, seeing Republican getting off? (5) |
| G[r]ATED (irritated) with R (Republican) leaving (getting off) | ||
| 11a | IRON-ON | One name in Celtic’s list describing certain transfers? (6) |
| I (one) + N (name) in ROON (Celtic’s list) | ||
| 13a | ORSINO | Shakespearean character loves to encompass right and wrong (6) |
| O O (loves) surrounding (to encompass) R (right) and SIN (wrong) | ||
| 15a | SEGO | Very good housing for one American plant (4) |
| SO (very good) containing (housing) EG (for one) | ||
| 16a | AHERN | Article covering that woman, Irish politician (5) |
| AN (article) covering HER (that woman) | ||
| 17a | STAND PAT | Quarrel about Troy and refuse to back down? (8, two words) |
| SPAT (quarrel) around (about) T (troy) plus AND | ||
| 18a | SEPT | Clan group absorbing pressure (4) |
| SET (group) taking in (absorbing) P (pressure) | ||
| 20a | TOY | Soldier declining serviceman’s award as a trifle (3) |
| TO[mm]Y (soldier) not keeping (declining) MM (Military Medal: serviceman’s award) | ||
| 21a | ETHE | Ancient mythical river not at first simple for antiquarian (4) |
| Without the first letter (… not at first) lETHE (ancient mythical river) | ||
| 22a | ACRIMONY | I’m beset by a familiar bitterness (8) |
| I’M inside (beset by) A CRONY (a familiar) | ||
| 25a | FLAVA | Footballers embracing John’s style (5) |
| FA (footballers) embracing LAV (john) | ||
| 28a | OPAH | US student losing head when eating a large fish (4) |
| Omitting the first letter (… losing head) sOPH (US student) when taking in (eating) A | ||
| 29a | THEEKS | Glaswegian works on roofs, shooting back to take in front of house (6) |
| SKEET (shooting) reversed (back) inserting (to take in) the first letter of (front of) House | ||
| 30a | POPPIT | Small explosion linked to mine, just one item in a series (6) |
| POP (small explosion) linked to PIT (mine) | ||
| 31a | EERIE | European country turning sinister (5) |
| E (European) + in reverse (… turning) EIRE (country) | ||
| 32a | TETRARCH | Soldiers run when cornered by mostly irritable commander (8) |
| RA (soldiers) and R (run) when inside (cornered by) mostly TETCHy (irritable) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1d | HIGH AS A KITE | Stoned German endures American equipment in haste as before (9, four words) |
| G (German), HAS (endures), A (American) and KIT (equipment) in HIE (haste as before) | ||
| 2d | EARTH | Ground – attention given to this with island disappearing (4) |
| EAR (attention) + TH[is] with IS. (island) disappearing | ||
| 3d | NOVEL | Book almost completed in Holland (4) |
| Almost OVEr (completed) in NL (Holland) | ||
| 4d | GO UP IN SMOKE | GOP, working with some in UK, achieve no success (9, four words) |
| An anagram (working) of GOP with SOME IN UK | ||
| 5d | BIDET | Risk having papers in bathroom bowl (4) |
| BET (risk) having ID (papers) in | ||
| 6d | APOGAMY | Acting humourless, with scandalous absence of sex (5) |
| A (acting) + PO (humourless) + GAMY (scandalous) | ||
| 7d | GROUND FLOOR | Prepared grain with nothing for you, ultimately? Take no steps here (9, two words) |
| GROUND FLO[u]R (prepared grain) with O (nothing) in place of (for) yoU, ultimately | ||
| 8d | TINPOT | Pocket money at first of little value (5) |
| POT (pocket) with TIN (money) at first | ||
| 9d | ENOLA | Pennsylvania town, area without support, on the rise (4) |
| A (area) and LONE (without support) reversed (on the rise) | ||
| 10d | DOWN-TO-EARTH | Admit to blocking famine in a practical way (9) |
| OWN TO (admit to) inside (blocking) DEARTH (famine) | ||
| 12d | NERITIDAE | Marine creatures I retained at sea (7) |
| I RETAINED anagrammed (at sea) | ||
| 14d | SADDLE-LAP | Make-up seen around filthy skirt (7) |
| SLAP (make-up) seen around ADDLE (filthy) | ||
| 19d | PROKER | Power ray a stimulus for burning in some places (5) |
| P (power) + ROKER (ray) | ||
| 20d | TOPMOST | Leading spinner getting second stumped (5) |
| TOP (spinner) + MO (second) + ST (stumped) | ||
| 23d | CACHE | Top of Chile pine is a place to hide things (4) |
| The first letter of (top of) Chile + ACHE (pine) | ||
| 24d | ENATE | Legislature not initiating branching out (4) |
| Without the first letter (… not initiating) sENATE (legislature) | ||
| 26d | APPRO | Computer program runs start of operation, getting brief commendation (4) |
| APP (computer program) + R (runs) + the start of Operation | ||
| 27d | VEDIC | Vatican City ruling curtailed content of Mahabharata? (4) |
| V (Vatican City) + EDICt (ruling) without its last letter (curtailed) | ||
I have added a (very brief) setter’s blog at https://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/two-domains/.
VEDIC
Content of Mahabharata?
VEDIC is a noun, as per the definition. Right?
Chambers has under Vedic (noun)
The old Sanskrit language of the Vedas.
Unable to understand the link. Could someone explain this to me?
KVa: yes, I wondered about that. Is the clue saying that what you find in Mahabharata (as originally written) is [the] VEDIC [language]? On the same lines you might define ENGLISH as ‘content of Hamlet?’, but you would certainly need the question mark.
Sorry I didn’t get back to this thread earlier. My interpretation was basically as Hector’s above – including agreement that the question mark is certainly needed!