A plain puzzle from Gemelo.
Of all the Gemelos I’ve solved (not that many, to be fair), this was the closest to an Azed plain. A little pop culture was required, especially for the last clue I solved (EDH), but I think I’ve managed to parse everything.
Thanls Gemelo
| ACROSS | ||
| 2 | WARMBLOOD |
Horse with a jolly young man (9)
|
| W (with) + A + RM (Royal Marine, so “jolly”) + BLOOD (“a young man”) | ||
| 10 | MALI |
African country gardener (4)
|
| Double definition, the second referring to an Indian florist or gardener. | ||
| 11 | ECBOLE |
Where French children learn about British digression (6)
|
| ECOLE (French word for school, so “where French children learn”) about B (British) | ||
| 12 | PHLEGMATICAL |
Unemotional place might change, reflecting Hollywood location (12)
|
| *(place might) [anag:change) + [reflecting] <=LA (“Hollywood location”) | ||
| 13 | ASPARAGUS |
Watcher circling area after potential killer shoots in the kitchen (9)
|
| ARGUS (“watcher”) circling A (area) after ASP (“potential killer”) | ||
| 16 | IONA |
Where abbey is found in dictionary (4)
|
| Hidden [in] (dict)IONA(ry)
There is an abbey and nunnery on the gholy island of Iona in the Inner Hebrides. |
||
| 17 | EDH |
Pollock actor dropping hard edge for character (3)
|
| ED H(arris) (American “actor” who played Jackson “Pollock” in a 2000 biopic) dropping ARRIS (“hard edge”)
Eth or edh – Ð is a character from old English which still exists in Icelandic. |
||
| 19 | ESKER |
Bank of Scotland’s search on the back of charge (5)
|
| SKER (“search”) on [the back of] (charg)E | ||
| 21 | TURN |
Twist ending for spoilt ballot box (4)
|
| [ending for] (spoil)T + URN (“ballot box”) | ||
| 22 | VIAL |
Spirit level is extremely important when short of time (4)
|
| VI(t)AL (“extremely important”) when short of T (time) | ||
| 23 | ELITE |
On reflection, most common Scrabble piece is best (5)
|
| [on reflection] <=E-TILE (“most common Scrabble piece”) | ||
| 24 | TAY |
Guy downing first drink in Dublin (3)
|
| (S)TAY (“guy”) downing first (letter) | ||
| 26 | USER |
Drug addict to begin again, backsliding without me (4)
|
| [backsliding] <=RESU(me) (“to begin with”, without ME) | ||
| 28 | STILETTOS |
Step too much, having to return special shoes (9)
|
| STILE (“step”) + <=OTT (over the top, so “too much”, having to return) + S (special) | ||
| 29 | HARMONIUMIST |
Musician arranged sham mini tour (12)
|
| *(sham mini tour) [anag:arranged] | ||
| 31 | INGENU |
Man without experience confused 30 + 32 – 50 (6)
|
| *(nun gei) [anag:confused] where NUN = answer to 30dn and GEI = answer to 32 across less L (50) | ||
| 32 | GLEI |
Earth covered in mostly slick clay (4)
|
| E (earth) covered in [mostly] GLI(b) (“slick”) | ||
| 33 | SCUNNERED |
Glaswegian hated Scottish Education Department welcoming American swimmer (9)
|
| SED (Scottish Education Department) welcoming CUNNER (an Anerican wrasse, so “American swimmer”)
Chambers has “scunner” meaning to feel loathing, but as a Scot who has lived in Glasgow for nearly 40 years, I have only ever heard the word used to mean “fed up”. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EMPTIEST |
With least content people, MP ties twice when sampling (8)
|
| Hidden in [when sampling] “peoplE MP TIES Twice” | ||
| 2 | WAHOO |
Tree in western that’s amazing when top’s trimmed (5)
|
| W (western) + (y)AHOO (“that’s amazing”, when top’s trimmed) | ||
| 3 | ALLEN KEY |
Broken knee trapped in associate’s tool (8, 2 words)
|
| *(knee) [anag:broken] trapped in ALLY (“associate”) | ||
| 4 | MAG-STRIPE |
Local steals rubbish bit of card to read (9)
|
| MAGS (dialect word for “steals”) + TRIPE (“rubbish”) | ||
| 5 | BUMPSTART |
This gets car going, but tram struggles without additional thought (9)
|
| *(but tram) [anag:struggles] without PS (postscript, so “additional thought”) | ||
| 6 | LEA |
Some yarn plainly missing beginning and end (3)
|
| (c)LEA(r) (“plainly”) missing beginning and end | ||
| 7 | OBIAS |
Old fetishes; old prejudice (5)
|
| O (old) + BIAS (“prejudice”)
Obia is an obsolete version of obi, a fetish or charm. |
||
| 8 | PLAUDIT |
Twin getting upset about receding praise (7)
|
| [receding] <=(TIP (“upset”) about DUAL (“twin”)) | ||
| 9 | BELS |
Regressive name for Indian trees (4)
|
| [regressive] <=SLEB (“name”, as in celeb) | ||
| 14 | ADULATION |
Wave when leaving UN following American sycophancy? (9)
|
| UN leaving (un)DULATION (“wave”) following A (American) | ||
| 15 | REREMOUSE |
Ordinary war-club turned into trick bat (9)
|
| <=(O (ordinary)+ MERE (“war-club”), turned) into RUSE (“trick”) | ||
| 17 | EMISSILE |
Eastern Mass is still pushing out holy books able to be pushed out (8)
|
| E (Eastern) + M (Mass) + IS + SILE(nt) (“still”, pushing out NT (New Testament), so holy books) | ||
| 18 | HIERATIC |
Priestly belt inscribed with period in charge (8)
|
| HIT (“belt”) inscribed with ERA (“period”) + IC (in charge) | ||
| 20 | STATANT |
Like some heraldic creatures right now, having brown interior (7)
|
| Stat. (immediately, so “right now”) having TAN (“brown” ) interior | ||
| 25 | OLMEC |
Salamander with extremely elastic tongue (5)
|
| OLM (a cave-dwelling “salamnader”) with [extremely] E(lasti)C | ||
| 27 | EASED |
Gradually moved out, having got rid of relative (5)
|
| (rel)EASED (“out”), having got rid of Rel. (relative) | ||
| 28 | SHIP |
Send Stokes in (4)
|
| S (stokes, a unit of kinematic viscosity) + HIP (“in”) | ||
| 30 | NUN |
Joshua’s father and sister (3)
|
| In the Bible, Joshua’s father was called NUN |
The DSL supports both loathing and fed up for SCUNNERED. The entry for the word has a lot of quotes as examples. One of them indicates that there isn’t an adequate English synonym…
Sc. 1988 Scotsman (15 May) 10:
To use a Scots word, for which there is no adequate synonym in the English language, most people in Scotland, whatever their basic politial(sic) affiliation, have developed a scunner of Mrs Thatcher.