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Quite easy for a Cinephile I thought but no less enjoyable for it.
| Across | ||
| 1 | See 12 down | |
| 4 | STAFF CAR | Trauma about Welshman nearly getting official transport (5,3) |
| SCAR (trauma) about TAFFy (“Taffy was a a Welshman…” nursery rhyme) nearly complete. I think ‘nearly’ is unnecessary, Taff is a name for a Welshman anyway. | ||
| 9 | VIENNA | Capital built in vane (6) |
| (IN VANE)* | ||
| 10 | OFFENDER | One breaking rule of protection against fire or collision (8) |
| OF and FENDER (protection against fire or collision) | ||
| 11 | See 23 | |
| 12 | KERCHIEF | King, queen and prince of the cloth? (8) |
| K (king) ER (The Queen) and CHIEF (prince of) – a pice of cloth. I think prince=chief is a little iffy but it makes for a nice clue so forgiven. | ||
| 13, 25 across,15, 16 | ONE FOR HIS NOB | Jack Point’s funny on fsh or bone (3,3,3,3) |
| (ON FISH OR BONE)* funny=anagram – a point in cribbage for holding the jack. | ||
| 14 | See 6 | |
| 17 | AIR-COOL | Tune of sophisticated nature – work without radiator (3-4) |
| AIR (tune) COOL (of spophisticated nature) – as opposed to water cool say (of an engine) | ||
| 21, 27, 5 | BUTTERSCOTCH TOFFEE | Sheep or goat to squash superior type of nose with hard sweet (12,6) |
| BUTTER (sheep or goat, head-but) SCOTCH (squash) TOFFEE-nosed (superior, posh) | ||
| 25 | See 13 | |
| 26, 29 | SHERIDAN LE FANU | Ghost writer for dramatist with admirer in currency (8,2,4) |
| Richard Brinley SHERIDAN (Irish playwright) with FAN (admirer) in LEU (currency of Moldova) – writer of ghost stories | ||
| 27 | See 21 | |
| 28 | EGGSHELL | China incites the underworld (8) |
| EGGS (incites) HELL (the underworld) | ||
| 29 | See 26 | |
| 30 | PETULANT | Favourite article in last month’s cross (8) |
| PET (favourite) AN (indefinite article) in ULT (last month) | ||
| 31 | ENZYME | Catalyst in a frenzy, methinks (6) |
| found in a frENZY MEthinks | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENVELOPE | Sword without point to cover novel – that’s novel cover (8) |
| NOVEL* (novel=anagram) in (covered by) EPEe (sword) misssing E (east, point fo the compass) – definition is ‘cover’ | ||
| 2 | FREE FALL | Flying start with knot complete before parachute opens (4,4) |
| F (first letter of of flying) with REEF (knot) ALL (complete) | ||
| 3 | CONTESSA | Foreign lady to study former savings scheme (8) |
| CON (to study) TESSSA (former Tax Exempt Special Savings Account) | ||
| 5 | See 21 | |
| 6, 14 | FRENCH POLISH | Double European gloss? (6,6) |
| FRENCH ( a european) POLISH (another european) | ||
| 7 | CADDIS | Immature swimmer, no end ungentlemanly (6) |
| CADDISh (ungentlemanly) missing the end – water-bourne larva of the caddis fly | ||
| 8 | RAREFY | Refine (or about half refine) the light? (6) |
| RAY (light) about REF (half the letters from refine) – definition is ‘refine’. I put in ‘verify’ at first (from Very light), but didn’t think it through properly. | ||
| 12, 1 across | KNOCK-ON EFFECT | Criticise one very noisy shock treatment, as with dominoes (5-2,6) |
| KNOCK (criticise) ONE FF (very loud) ECT (shock treatment) | ||
| 15 | See 13 | |
| 16 | See 13 | |
| 18 | LUNCHEON | Trotsky entertaining a foreign companion to a meal (8) |
| LEON (Trotsky) containing (entertaining) UN (a, French) CH (companion, of Honour) | ||
| 19 | STATUARY | Berbers missing for example in visit with sculptures (8) |
| TUAReg (Berbers) missing EG (for example) in STAY (visit) | ||
| 20 | ART HOUSE | Old solvers in live uncommercial cinema (3,5) |
| THOUS (thou=you, archaic and S added for plural) in ARE (live, to be). Initially I thought this was going to be ART=is/are archaic, an old Cinephile/Araucaria favourite, but it was not to be. | ||
| 22 | See 25 | |
| 23, 11 | WEIGHT LIFTER | Remain as told for the paper in situation by river in atlas? (12) |
| WEIGHT sounds like (as told) ‘wait’ (remain) then FT (the paper) in LIE (situation) and then R (river) – Atlas holds up the world | ||
| 24 | WITHAL | Half we know it half as well (6) |
| we knoW IT HALf (half the letter of) – definition is ‘as well’ | ||
| 25, 22 | FALLEN ASLEEP | Run away without Barbara or Lily equally quiet having dropped off (6,6) |
| FLEE (run away) outside (without) ALLEN (Barbara or Lily Allen) AS (equally) then P (quiet) | ||
I think you have a minor typo in the answer for 1D. Envelope
Corrected, thanks.
Surely 8 is ‘rarefy’ not ‘rarify’. If it were the latter, it would be an uncharacteristically clumsy clue; and I’m not even sure that there is such a word!
Otherwise, as you say, a straightforward but enjoyable puzzle: thanks to the Rev and to PeeDee.
hi jillfc, not a clumsy clue but a clumsy blogger I’m afraid, fixed now. I think I still had ‘verify’ fixed in my mind.
I didn’t find it as easy as you, PeeDee, for some reason being held up by the little puzzle in the SW.
Probably because of the ghost writer who I’d never heard of.
However, that quarter contained my CoD: WITHAL (24d) – very nice.
It also contained my only real GoD (groan of the day): the lower case of ‘atlas’. I can see why Cinephile did it and, of course, one can justify quite a lot by putting a question mark at the end of a clue, but still ….
In 7d I found ‘no end ungentlemanly’ a bit clumsy, and also RAY for ‘the light’ (including article) is, in my opinion, not extremely clean.
But apart from that there was a lot to enjoy (as you say 12ac but also the amusing surface at 1d, for example).
Many thanks to Cinephile for the puzzle and to PeeDee for the excellent blog.
Funny business this ‘easy’. I couldn’t finish Monday’s Rufus in the Guardian even though I tried hard. No-one else seemed to have much of a problem.