Azed/2031- plain embroidery

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A rather incomplete effort since I’m travelling sans Chambers and only have an hour in between flights.  So… most of the bottom-right is undone and there are several wordplays left behind. All fixed now thanks to Wil and Chris! And I have been happily reunited with my Chambers (albeit 2003).

Across
1 A(FT)ERCLAP – ft in palace*
8 SMA[shed] – Scots small
11 G(RAP)O – was unfamiliar with this particular group of left-wing terrorists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_of_October_Anti-Fascist_Resistance_Groups
12 R(EDRO)OT – redo* in rot.  A plant, indeed Ceanothus
13 R(IBOS)E – Ibos (remember the Biafran war?) in [b]RE[w]
14 CO(R)OT – ref. the painter.  [a]r[t] in coot=silly
16 K(IM,ON)O – “I’m on”=”you can include me” in KO=knockout=stunner
17 NO(MOTHE[r])TES – lawgiver though seems like should be plural (lost my Chambers so…) — rest of wordplay? Chambers says this is singular as well and mother=scum.  Hmm…
19 NERONIAN – comp. anag. (NERONIAN, rig)* = (an iron reign)*
21 GEROPIGA – a near port, usually spelt jeropiga it seems.  Wordplay? pig (Orwell’s) replaces N=navy in Gerona (Spain).  Thanks Chris!
25 EMBROIDERY – the competition clue
26 NO MORE – dead. wordplay? rev(Rom) in rev(eon) — thanks Wil.
29 G(R)ONE – archaic groan.  R=medieval Roman numeral 80.
30 ENVOYS – V in (yes,no)* where ENVOY is  the “concluding part of a poem…”.  Thanks Chris!
31 ENVIO,U,S – ovine* and I think U/S is unserviceable? if not, it should be!
32 TO,TEM[plate] – thanks Chris.  Again.
33 RUE – groan (see 29).  Ref. Je ne regrette rien.
34 CEL(TIBER)I[bate] – Iberian Celts! – another contribution from Chris. 

Down
2 FRI(JOL)E[d] – JOL is a S. African party and beans indeed are fried often so holds together well.
3 TABI – (a bit)*, socks.  From Japan.
4 ROST[rum] – archaic roast thus traditional.  And rostrum is beak.
5 C(REC)HE – Ref. CHE, he of the t-shirt.
6 LEAKE,R – (a keel)*
7 PRO(MEN,A)DE – yes, a college dance (probably Brit speak).  (men,a=area) in roped*
8 SOROS,IS – ref. George SOROS
9 MOO,NY – low=moo (for cows).
10 ATTORNEYISM – (is rotten, may)*
11 GRENZGANGER – Cold War era wall-crosser.  Wordplay? gr(e(NZ)g)anger — again thanks Wil! Ref. Wellington, NZ and ref. “a lodger of the order of Patrons of Husbandry (US)”.
15 SOLO,[har]MONIC[a]
18 P,REMOVE – prompt to action and remove is also intermediate class.
20 A,RR,AYER –  Right Reverend = bishop and  A.J. AYER is our philospher.
22 IREFU,L – (furie[s])*
23 GO WEST — (well) hidden and also means to die (thus snuff out)
24 CORN,U[p] – old hat as in trite = corn and CORNU is horny which a goat (butter!) is.
27 ANTI[c] – from Chris again.
28 BOTE=”boat” – tender is an example thereof and BOTE is “compensation for injury…”. Ditto.

11 comments on “Azed/2031- plain embroidery”

  1. 26ac: (eo(Rom)n)rev.
    11dn: gr(e(NZ)g)anger

    Is a promenade Britspeak? Surely it’s just the American word for a college dance, ‘prom’, in full.

    I couldn’t believe that Azed had used what seems to me a very weak clueing device in 15dn — saying that monic is harmonica’s part. He doesn’t like A (or B or C or …) for note because there are so many possibilities (at least I think that’s what he’s said: my apologies if he hasn’t); there are many more possibilities for harmonica’s part.

  3. @Wil surely the Proms (classical music concerts) comes from promenades so is English rather than American? Maybe your point has gone right over my head. 🙂

  4. 30. ENVOYS (last letter of volume in anag of yes/no).
    32. TO TEM(plate).
    34. CELTIBERI (Tiber in celi(bate)).

    27. ANTI(c).
    28. BOTE (a tender is a type of boat).

  8. Re 15d I was also surprised by the clueing strategy – exactly the sort of thing that people have been muttering about on the Guardian site (Araucaria for one sometimes does something similar). The setters always seem to manage to use this sort of looseness where it doesn’t do any harm (it didn’t make 15d particularly difficult) so I don’t really mind (so far…) but I have to agree with Wil Ransome that this is the last place you’d expect to find it!

    Well done everyone – all the clues are now explained I think. I found this even harder than the usual Azeds and only finished it on Wednesday (somewhere between 5 and 10 hours actual solving time, I’d guess!) and very nearly gave up. Finally getting Grenzganger was a joyful moment though. I enjoyed doing Embroidery too – it’s a fertile word for clueing.

  9. The wordplay for 11dn. ‘grenzganger’ is ‘E.G.’ around ‘NZ'(New Zealand, Wellington’s place!) all in ‘GRANGER'(see under ‘grange’ in Chambers).

    Well, another word I couldn’t get a sensible clue for…

    Nick

  10. Re 17 – If you were wondering where “mothe” comes from, it’s “most” of “mother”, a word for scum I only know from doing Azed crosswords! And Chambers confirms that Nomothetes is an alternative to Nomothete.

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