Azed 2270

Making do without Paul’s awesome crossword utility is hard… but I somehow managed.  Kind of a medium level difficulty Azed — usual Chambers trawling.  There’s one wordplay that I’m unsure of — and a few quite nice clues (and it seems more than average double definition clues).

Across

1 Pal shops for woolly that’s water-resistant (11)

SPLASHPROOF – (pal shops for)*

10 Yellow flowers in a festoon from behind window (5)

OR,IEL – or=yellow (gold) and rev(lei=flowers in a festoon).  Bay window.

12 Former product of refined looms making comeback (5)

OLDEN – hidden reversed.  One of my last solved clues — “former” had be thinking of the prefix “ex”.

13 Do old-style needlework I’d incorporated in fancy robe on queen (7)

BROID,ER – I’d in robe* followed by you know who.  Archaic embroider.

14 Nightingale that sang in a tree (4)

LIND – ref. Jenny Lind aka the Swedish nightingale.  Also a tree (ref. Unter den linden).

15 Player for his country goes off with a bang (3)

CAP – UK term for playing for the national team.  Two meanings.

16 One famously luckless where it’s easy to get lost in rolling hills (9)

SHLI(MAZE)L – Yiddish term for someone with no luck (where mazel=luck in Hebrew).  Maze in hills*.

20 Boom I’m having to chop in woodland area (6)

MIOMBO – (boom I’m)* — African woods.

22 Faces pilot from the rear, restricting volume (6)

RE(V)ETS – V in rev(steer=pilot) where revet is “to face with masonry”.

23 Dreadful old biddy, pain with relations (6)

MAL,KIN – according to Shak. a “dirty or lewd woman” so I suppose “dreadful old biddy” works.

24 Shelled molluscs, marine mottled rose rings (6)

O(RM)ERS – RM=Royal Marine in rose* (“rings” is our cryptic containment indicator).

28 Brae I tackled with kilt – it’s suitable for riding in rugged terrain (9, 2 words)

TRAIL BIKE – (brae I, kilt)*

29 Sea dog, possibly, endlessly roguish (3)

ARC – arc[h] roguish less its end.  Don’t see definition though which must be “sea dog”.

31 Tax bar for lawyers (4)

TOLL – two meanings.  Turns out that also means to take away/bar in legalese.

32 Belts R and A distributed, an asset in bunkers (7)

BLASTER – (belts, R, A)*.  A sand-wedge for golfers.

33 Poet’s rival, cross coming after first in eisteddfod (5)

E,MULE – Ref. Southey the poet for whom emule=emulate=rival.  Mule is our “cross” (breed).

34 Merman e.g., tail to the fore, in river of legend (5)

LETHE – ref. Ethel Merman with the last letter of her first name moved to the front.

35 It’s not far to home with Shakespeare’s Kate around? (11, apostrophe)

STONE’S THROW – well, you’re likely to think of a shrew of course but Shak. actually spelt it shrow which is why we end up with to nest=to home in shrow.

 

Down

1 Small group drawn from a larger, it must become  disciplined (12)

SUBCOMMITTEE – (it must become)* – disciplined is our anagrind.  One of my last clues.

2 Chunk of text shortened? This rubber’s useful (4)

PARA – abbrev(paragraph) — also turns out there’s a para rubber tree… usefully applied to the page I suppose.

3 Means of evading office post husband’s drawn into (8)

LOO,P(H)OLE – office is a euphemism for the toilet.

4 One attaining perfection, a dish, fantastic (5)

SIDHA – (a dish)* – “someone who has attained perfection” in buddhism? hinduism? both?  Oddly enough also an anagram of hasid.

5 Male on bender (no women), not old? Fatal weakness includes one! (8)

HE,ELBO[w],NE – an overwrought, over-engineered clue in my opinion with an awkward surface and definition.  So elbow is our bender and NE=archaic “not”.  And I suppose your Achilles heel is your fatal weakness and heel’s have to have a heel bone.  Am I missing something more subtle?

6 What’s lifted Othello and excited ire given more space? (7)

ROOM,IER – rev(moor=Othello) followed by ire*

7 Mixed dish with a pinch of valerian or sage (Irish) (5)

OLLA,V – I had orval which is a kind of sage as it happens for a while.  OLLA=olio=mixed dish of meat/veg.  Learned man for the ancient Irish.

*8 A window (8)

FENESTRA – competition word.  Definition only.

9 One coming out laces new dress tight – it produces slow motion (12, 2 words)

ENDLESS SCREW – sounds rather risque.  (l[a]ces new dress)* – “tight” (drunk) is our anagrind.

11 Grate beginning to smoke in a rush (unchecked) (4)

RI(S)P – first letter of smoke in rip=”unchecked rush” and risp=Scots grate (by the way, I never know when it’s required to indicate a Scots usage and when it’s OK to leave unindicated).

17 Vibrations damaged road in dips (8)

DI(ADRO)MS – road* in dims=dips.  

18 Short biodata present life so inaccurately (8)

PR,OFILES – biodata are CVs so I suppose short versions thereof are profiles.  PR=abbrev(present) followed by (life so)* — maybe an &lit.

19 Yeoman abandoning fine bird (8)

BEE-EATER – remove f=fine from beefeater for a bird.

21 Axe-wielders mill around cleaving tropical tree (7)

B(ILLM)EN – mill* in ben=tropical tree for men waving around axes=bills.

25 Fell over? There’s a how-d’ye-do (5)

HILL,O – hello.  Fell=hill and O=over.

26 Sudden shower during dusk at Torquay (5)

SKATT – hidden.  Clever clue since a sudden shower in Cornwall.

27 Delicate woman rising about end of elevenses (4)

NE(S)H – last letter of elevenses in rev(hen=woman) and means delicate in health (dialect).

30 She paints numbers etc on cars (4)

REGO – Two meanings.  Ref. Paula Rego, Portuguese painter and car registration.