Stepping back from last week’s anagrammatic convolutions, this week’s “plain” Gemelo seemed relatively straightforward by comparison. Completion of the grid was helped considerably by solving the four perimeter clues.
I did not notice anything that I found too challenging, although the construction of some of the clues strikes me as perhaps a bit unconventional. I am never entirely certain of the distinction between &lit, semi-&lit, and clue-as-definition, and with any given specimen, the distinction might be debatable in any event, so, in blogging, I tend to lump clues of this type into the “&lit” category, trusting that my fellow solvers will get the idea. There are multiple examples of the species this week.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GREAT-BELLIED |
Expecting one-time alleged biter to reform (12)
|
| Anagram of (to reform) ALLEGED BITER, listed in Chambers as “archaic; Shakespeare,” thus “one-time” | ||
| 9 | RATSBANE |
Killer that’s annoying Batman villain (8)
|
| RATS! (That’s annoying!) + BANE (Batman villain), i.e., a poison | ||
| 11 | ANTE |
Pay poet to remove introduction (4)
|
| [D]ANTE (poet) minus first letter (to remove introduction) | ||
| 13 | GOTCHA |
Chad invading former Portuguese territory? That was a trick! (6)
|
| TCH (Chad) inside (invading) GOA (former Portuguese territory) | ||
| 14 | SIB |
Bit of blood that may be seen after shedding foul skin (3)
|
| [VI]SIB[LE] (that may be seen) minus the wraparound of (after shedding . . . skin [of]) VILE (foul), in the sense of “kinsman” | ||
| 15 | RETOUCH |
Improve gag about Oxford University (7)
|
| RETCH (gag) around (about) OU (Oxford University) | ||
| 16 | SNAILY |
Extremely slowly covering a few centimetres? (6)
|
| &lit and outside letters of (extremely) S[LOWL]Y around (covering) NAIL (a few centimetres, specifically: 5.5 cm) | ||
| 18 | ARC |
Discharge a Catholic (3)
|
| A + RC ([Roman] Catholic), referring to electricity | ||
| 20 | TRECENTO |
Against embracing late 14th-century (8)
|
| TO (against) around (embracing) RECENT (late) | ||
| 21 | LACROSSE |
Vacuous league taking over sport (8)
|
| Outside letters of (vacuous) L[EAGU]E around (taking) ACROSS (over) | ||
| 24 | ADO |
Difficulty accepted by 31, on reflection (3)
|
| Hidden in (accepted by) [I]ODA[TE] ([solution to] 31) reversed (on reflection) | ||
| 26 | CATALO |
Cross German off Harvard’s list of courses (6)
|
| CATALO[G] (list of courses) minus (off) G (German), with “Harvard’s” indicating the American spelling, referring to a hybrid of “the bison (‘buffalo’) and the domestic cow” | ||
| 27 | ABUSAGE |
Misuse of vehicle covered by AA before getting sent back, say (7)
|
| {BUS (vehicle) inside (covered by) AA} + E.G. (say) reversed (getting sent back) | ||
| 30 | TIL |
Mostly cultivate sesame (3)
|
| TIL[L] (cultivate) minus last letter (mostly) | ||
| 31 | IODATE |
I see starboard of old salt (6)
|
| I + {DATE (see) to the right of (starboard of) O (old)} | ||
| 32 | TOLL |
Legally take away the right of striking (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 33 | GLORIOUS |
Noble old pets not having time to tour state capital (8)
|
| GLOU[T]S (pets, listed in Chambers as “archaic,” thus “old”) minus (not having) T (time) around (to tour) RIO [de Janeiro] (state capital [of Rio de Janeiro]) | ||
| 34 | EBULLIOSCOPE |
This shows when liquid transforms unusually blue ice pools (12)
|
| Anagram of (unusually) BLUE ICE POOLS, specifically, when a liquid reaches it boiling point | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GROSSULARITE |
Native American hiding cash in Georgia under solid stone (12)
|
| GROSS (solid) + UTE (Native American) around (hiding) LARI (cash in Georgia) | ||
| 2 | RAPINE |
Carrying off kind of music like Vivaldi’s Spring (6)
|
| RAP (kind of music) + IN [the key of] E (like Vivaldi’s Spring) | ||
| 3 | ÅSAR |
Ridges in finely-jointed masonry abandoned by House of Lords (4)
|
| AS[HL]AR (finely-jointed masonry) minus (abandoned by) HL (House of Lords) | ||
| 4 | BALT |
US city deporting one additional European (4)
|
| BALT[IMORE] (US city) minus (deporting) {I (one) + MORE (additional)} | ||
| 5 | ENGORE |
Make bloody English necessary for Abba (6)
|
| ENG. (English) + ÖRE (necessary [i.e., money] for Abba [i.e., in Sweden]), referring to the Swedish pop group | ||
| 6 | LATCHED |
Daughter found with scanty thong no longer secured (7)
|
| LATCHE[T] (thong, listed in Chambers as “obsolete,” thus “no longer”) minus last letter (scanty) + D (daughter) | ||
| 7 | ETHER |
This will get you out in company without dress (5)
|
| [TOG]ETHER (in company) minus (without) TOG (dress), in the sense of “anaesthesia” | ||
| 8 | DEALCOHOLISE |
Reduce strength of contract before fish lies abandoned (12)
|
| DEAL (contract) + COHO (fish) + anagram of (abandoned) LIES | ||
| 10 | TABASCO |
Try – when missing ‘hot’ in Mexican food – this? (7)
|
| &lit and BAS[H] (try, i.e., attempt) minus (missing) H (hot) inside (in) TACO (Mexican food). Quite clever | ||
| 12 | MELTON |
Material used to cover Mark and John? (6)
|
| M (mark) + ELTON (John, referring to the pop star), “a strong cloth for overcoats” | ||
| 17 | ICE AGE |
Made out spring of water, wise when there’s hard water everywhere (6, 2 words)
|
| Homophone of (made out) {EYE (spring of water) + SAGE (wise)} | ||
| 18 | ANNATTO |
What produces orange colour – not a tan, unfortunately (7)
|
| Anagram of (unfortunately) NOT A TAN | ||
| 19 | PROBALL |
For The Globe – it’s plausible? (7)
|
| &lit and PRO (for) + BALL (the globe), attributed in Chambers to Shakespeare, thus “for The Globe [Theatre],” explained in Chambers as “apparently a contracted form of probable.” Also quite clever | ||
| 22 | SESELI |
String of roses eliminated plant (6)
|
| Hidden in (string of) [RO]SES ELI[MINATED] | ||
| 23 | SLIP-UP |
Raised central spots in error (6)
|
| PUPILS (central spots) inverted (raised) | ||
| 25 | DROOB |
Primarily despicable plebeian from down under? (5)
|
| &lit and first letter of (primarily) D[ESPICABLE] + BOOR (plebeian) inverted (from down under), with “from Down Under?” also indicating Australian slang | ||
| 28 | ALOO |
Car not taking south or north side of India (4)
|
| [S]ALOO[N] (car) minus (not taking) S (south) and (or) N (north), “side” in the sense of “dish,” specifically, potato | ||
| 29 | ERIC |
Offer price? Idle to give an example (4)
|
| Double definition, the first, “the blood-fine [‘price’] paid by a murderer [‘off-er’] to his victim’s family in old Irish law”; the second, the comedic actor |
[Sorry to post off-topic straight away, but can anyone confirm if today’s (Sunday’s) Azed is indeed a clue competition puzzle, as there’s no asterisked clue. I guess it’s 31 Across, if so. I’ve had a few problems with the change to online entries, so perhaps it’s me on the wrong page.]
MR@1: [31 has an asterisk in the PDF.]
[Thank you! Apologies for not looking there.]
I came pretty close to solving this without looking things up, but I eventually looked for words starting with GROSS in Chambers to help get 1d, and then regretted it because I knew the other components of the wordplay, and felt I probably should have been able to work them out. I also didn’t know the ‘pets’ for GLORIOUS and or the ‘thong’ for LATCHED but guessed those answers from the definition and partial wordplay.
Thanks, Cineraria and Gemelo.
I actually finished this, sort of. I made a typo entering 22dn and ended up with IODATA for 31ac, which I couldn’t find in Chambers.
Several I couldn’t parse and I used the Chambers anagram tool for some of the long entries.
Well, I struggled with this. Some of that was down to me, but there were, I thought, some dodgy clues. 17dn: a bt too “clever” for my liking. 2dn: “like Vivaldi’s Spring” = in E? I understand it, but it’s clutching at straws for cluing, in my view! 10dn: TABASCO is a sauce, which isn’t exactly “food” (ok, I’m probaby being fussy there). 25dn: DROOB wasn’t in my dictionary, but from what I gather online it means a pathetic person, which doesn’t really equate to despicable or plebeian. Certainly not “primarily”! A case where the integrity of the clue has been compromised for the sake of the surface.
I’m with MunroMaiden@6 in finding this a lot trickier than some earlier ones with quite a few answers being the result of a painstaking search through Chambers online to find words that might fit and vaguely plausible parsings. Everything made sense in the end but I am in awe of people who, like Matthew @4, could work these convolutions forwards and also not have to rely upon Mrs Byrne’s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words.
A good challenge and thank you to Gemelo and Cineraria. I hope I make better sense of today’s offering.
Thanks Gemelo and Cineraria
2dn: I agree with MunroMaiden@6 about using “like Vivaldi’s Spring” to mean IN E. Perhaps Gemelo could have put “with four sharps”.
25dn: I can confirm that the entry droob defined as “(Aust inf) n an ineffectual or contemptible person” occurs in Chambers 2011, 2014, and 2016 (p 471 each time). I am not going to attempt to justify the wording of the clue, but it is certainly reasonable for Gemelo to include DROOB in the grid, given the recommendation to use the current edition of Chambers.
PB@8: I wasn’t querying the right for DROOB to be in the grid, just the definition – but if Chambers says “contemptible”, that’s fine. I hadn’t seen that elsewhere.
I like the idea of “with four sharps” – that would have been more directive.