A standard and typically sound and pleasant Plain from Azed this week. Most of the clues allow a very straightforward and brief parsing. One or two of his ways are a bit beyond me, and 8dn is completely beyond me, but I trust someone will explain.
As usual I won’t trouble you with explanations of the rare words: they are all there in Chambers.
Definitions underlined.
Across
1 Yucca container, form of dish in clay box (13, 2 words)
SPANISH DAGGER
(pan (dish)*) in sagger
11 Younger son acted strangely (5)
CADET
(acted)*
13 Host alongside barrels fermenting (5)
BARMY
b army
14 Brew gathering in kitchen shredder (8, 2 words)
RICE BEER
rice(bee)r
15 Gloomy Scots male replacing leader of local church? (4)
MIRK
kirk with the first k replaced by m
16 Straw melts unusually when used to wrap spirit (8)
STRUMMEL
rum in (melts)*
17 Sun circling, hot, left one requiring hood (7)
BASHLIK
bas(h l 1)k — to bask in the sun is to sun yourself
20 US playwright from musical theatre initially (5)
MAMET
Mame t{heatre}
22 Cook having to include blubber makes one cross (5)
DSOBO
d(sob)o — to blubber
25 Dazzling break-in, no tool required as opener (5)
GLARY
{bur}glary
27 Clubs and a heavy stick in fruit baskets (7)
CALATHI
c a lathi
28 Outlining teary novel, plot given away (8)
BETRAYED
(teary)* in bed
31 Extraneous particle in Yorkshire wool? Here’s way of working it (4)
MOIT
mo [modus operandi] it
32 Lacking ardour? Exercise consoles (8)
COOLNESS
(consoles)*
33 Pa here and there dropped from dramatic spectacle in rep (5)
AGENT
{p}age{a}nt
34 Wife replacing husband at centre of the family? (5)
TRIBE
The centre of ‘the’ is ‘h’, which is replaced by ‘rib’ — t(rib)e
35 Tanker and bargees can disturb this seafish (13, 2 words)
SERGEANT BAKER
(tanker bargees)* — the site has ‘and’ in italics (and incidentally lacks a space after ‘and’); I am doing this blog before the paper comes out so I don’t know whether that also will have the italics — this habit of Azed’s, to put various words into italics as if they are terribly important, is beyond my understanding: no doubt there is a good reason, but I can’t see it
Down
1 Wretched bum in grip of heroin – what might you call one such? (7)
SCUMBAG
(bum)* in scag
2 Outcast, one replacing second in local community (6)
PARIAH
a replacing the s in parish — as a Times solver, where one always = i, I trip up on these clues where one = a
3 Title for e.g. Schmeling getting in clinch and old-style rabbit punch (11)
NECK-HERRING
neck(herr)ing
4 Continue capturing lives in sculpted busts (7)
SUBSIST
is in (busts)*
5 A wee bittie drink, hot, served up (4)
HAET
(tea h)rev. — the Scottishness indicated by the language
6 The red’un may be one hunt butchered (4)
DEER
A comp. anag. where [the red’un] … [deer hunt], the anagram indicated by ‘butchered’, &lit.
7 Radiation recorder got from school, mum turned out having radium (11, 2 words)
GAMMA CAMERA
gam Ma came ra
8 Cabin-boy once morose studying the weather? (7)
GRIMMET
grim Met [Meteorological Office] — he says very confidently, not actually having a clue who the cabin-boy is and not being comfortable with ‘studying’, so please could someone enlighten us
9 Pro — has broadcast? He’s a compère perhaps (5)
EMCEE
Another comp. anag. where [pro emcee has] … [he’s a compere] — and there I was, thinking that Azed had contradicted himself by using ‘perhaps’ as an anagram indicator (he hasn’t: it’s ‘broadcast’, and ‘perhaps’ is used, quite correctly, to show that compere is only an example of an emcee); this is what he wrote in one of his slips (in 1982, and he hasn’t changed his mind since):
“‘perhaps’ and ‘maybe’ can in context be synonymous with ‘possibly’ but this does not in my view entitle the clue-writer to use them as equivalents of’ possibly’ to indicate an anagram. ‘Possibly’ suggests to me ‘having the potential of becoming’; ‘perhaps’ and ‘maybe’ do not, being altogether more static in connotation. I know this sounds finicky and many crossword compilers use the three words interchangeably where anagrams are intended. I stick to my guns, however, so you know where you stand.”
10 Bit of old gold group in playroom turned up (4)
RYAL
Hidden rev. in pLAYRoom
12 Informed Scots, dry, bypassing litres (5)
TELL’D
te(l l)d — litres = l l, not just l
18 Well dry, concerned with getting up spray of water (7)
SPATTER
spa TT (re)rev.
19 One to avoid after date involved in what’ll damage one’s reputation? (7, 3 words)
A BAD LOT
a b(ad)lot — ad = after date
21 Chirpy noise made by women in a bit of a laugh (7)
TWITTER
t(w)itter
23 Rank and file half thrown in, not shuffled around (5)
OLENT
{fi}le in (not)*
24 Flute part – what can –– (6)
THISBE
what can this be? — Thisbe was the part played by Flute in Midsummer Night’s Dream
26 Stale dregs? Mine may be seen in third of bottle (5)
LEGGE
l(egg)e, where le is {bott}le
28 Neckwear? One who’s behaved badly switches halves (4)
BOAS
ASBO with the first and second halves switched — an ASBO is according to Chambers an Antisocial Behaviour Order, a court order that is placed on someone, not the person receiving it; no doubt at some point it will become this person, but the rubric does say that Chambers 2011 is recommended, so is this premature?
29 What a Yiddisher momma disapproves of, climbing exercises? (4)
YOGA
(a goy)rev.
30 Dawn‘s a one, very funny (4)
EOAN
(a one)* — the anagram indicated by ‘very funny’, although I can’t see what ‘very’ is doing since it seems to me that the clue would be perfectly all right without it
*anagram
8d is GRUMMET, grum = morose,surly
8dn. GRUMMET is a cabin boy, and grum = morose.
Sorry, didn’t see sidey’s comment.
Thanks Azed and John
Further to earlier comments on 8dn, the “met” bit works as “studying the weather” is you take it as met² meteorology.
… and of course I meant “if” not “is”.