A very pleasant solve this week, once again. I thought I might be on for a rare unaided finish but alas the big red book had to come out to finish the NE corner – primarily to confirm some elements of the wordplay in 12ac, 6dn and 8dn.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | TAPAS – TAP + AS. |
| 5 | GOULASH – ULA in GOSH. |
| 10 | INCLEMENT – MEN in CLIENT*. |
| 11 | OCTA – [th]AT CO[cktail]<. |
| 12 | ABATED – ABA + TED. |
| 13 | ROPE-DRILLING – (OP in RED) + (ILL in RING). |
| 14 | OVERSET – O + VERSE + T. |
| 17 | PARSONIC – PAR + SONIC. |
| 19 | GRABBLER – RABBLE in GR. |
| 23 | SCALENE – A L in SCENE. |
| 25 | BOROUGH-REEVE – (ROUGH in BORE) + EVE. |
| 26 | APORIA – (P + 0) in ARIA. |
| 27 | GRIP – dd. |
| 28 | HORSETAIL – (THE SAILOR)*. A “Turkish standard, marking rank by number”, though I’m not sure that really clears things up! |
| 29 | SINCERE – SIN + C + ERE. |
| 30 | LAYER – [p]LAYER. |
| Down | |
| 1 | THOROUGH BASS – (HUGS TOO BRASH)*. |
| 2 | ALCOVE – A + (C in LOVE). |
| 3 | ANAEROBE – B in (ONE AREA)*. |
| 4 | SCADS – SC + ADS. |
| 5 | GLAREAL – GLARE + AL[l]. |
| 6 | UMBLES – [r]UMBLES. |
| 7 | ANTIENT – ANTI + ENT. |
| 8 | STENT – S + TENT. |
| 9 | HEDGE-CREEPER – HE + (G[ang] in DECREE) + PER. It’s fairly common to see PER clued as “a”, yet I continue to find it find it very easy to overlook in the clue. |
| 15 | COLLEGIA – CO + (LEG in AIL<). |
| 16 | TAPROON – TA + PRO + ON. |
| 18 | RECHATE – REC + HATE. |
| 20 | BRUISE – hom. of “brews”. |
| 21 | INVITE – IN + VITE. |
| 22 | TOPHI – TOP + HI. |
| 24 | ARVAL – [cle]AR VAL[ue]. |