This one grew on me
Having initially solved the mundane double definitions CHAR, UNFAMILIAR and SNAP, I feared that this would be boring, but it turned out better than first impressions indicated, with some nice surfaces, such as 11ac, 20ac and 19dn.
I didn’t like the grid, however, as it felt like two separate puzzles, with only the two five letter down clues near the middle colums to join them together.
I don’t think there’s a theme, despite CHAR and PLAICE, but I am notorious for missing themes and NINAs, so may stand corrected.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PLAICE | Vacancy filled by international swimmer (6) |
| I in PLACE | ||
| 4 | BEGU(ILED | Married off woman of high rank then lied about being cheated (8) |
| BEGU(m) + *(lied)
A begum is a married Muslim woman of high rank. |
||
| 10 | ENGRAVE | Chase English soldiers to the outskirts of Venice (7) |
| ENG. + R.A. + V(enice)E
A new meaning of “chase” for me. |
||
| 11 | REFUTED | Union leader takes note after whistle-blower has dole initially denied (7) |
| REF (“whistle-blower”) + U(nion) + TE (“note”) + D(ole) | ||
| 12 | STAB | Go crazy in retirement (4) |
| <=BATS | ||
| 13 | DISCOMPOSE | Upset when Miles joins company in Settle (10) |
| M + CO in DISPOSE | ||
| 15 | REALLY | Old king switching sides gets extremely lucky indeed (6) |
| LEAR (“old king”) changing sides, so REAL + L(uck)Y | ||
| 16 | WELL-OFF | Comfortable footwear not entirely unavailable (4-3) |
| WELL(y) + OFF (“unavailable”) | ||
| 20 | LEATHER | Beat poet drinking at that time endlessly (7) |
| (Edward) LEAR (“poet”) drinking THE(n) | ||
| 21 | MANNER | Finally complete paper on novelist’s style (6) |
| (complet)E (pape)R on (Thomas) MANN (“novelist”) | ||
| 24 | RED HERRING | The woman’s feeding a revolutionary group with misleading information (3,7) |
| HER in RED RING | ||
| 26 | SNAP | Break in game (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | GERMANE | Relevant to language engineering primarily (7) |
| GERMAN + E(ngineering) | ||
| 29 | ERUDITE | Learned from the French about it splitting before (7) |
| <=DU (“from the French”) + IT in ERE | ||
| 30 | DECREASE | Contract law covers leases essentially (8) |
| DECREE covers le(AS)es | ||
| 31 | HEARTS | Enthusiasm shown by Somalia’s earliest football club (6) |
| HEART (“enthusiasm”) + S(omalia)
Hearts are one of two Edinburgh football clubs, and rivals of Hibernian. |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PLEASURE | Amusement park originally located on fields close to river (8) |
| P9ark) + LEAS + (river)URE | ||
| 2 | AGGRAVATE | Annoy Margo regularly by removing it from sink (9) |
| (m)A(r)G(o) + GRAVT(it)ATE | ||
| 3 | CHAR | Fish for tea (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | ENRICHES | Makes wealthy earl reproduction of Catholic shrine (8) |
| E (“earl”) + *(C shrine) | ||
| 6 | UNFAMILIAR | Foreign novel (10) |
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | LOTTO | John’s assimilating oddly neglected stats from game (5) |
| LOO (“john”) assimilating s(T)a(T)s | ||
| 8 | DUDLEY | The queen’s favourite town (6) |
| Double definition, referring to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, and the town in the West Midlands. | ||
| 9 | BEGIN | Start to get rid of nurses for example (5) |
| E.G. nursed by BIN | ||
| 14 | ALL THE RAGE | The whole article about collecting silver is in Vogue (3,3,4) |
| ALL THE RE collecting AG | ||
| 17 | FINANCIER | More elaborate housing popular with banker say (9) |
| FANCIER housing IN | ||
| 18 | FEARLESS | Nobleman interrupts to admit ignoring prisoner’s daring (8) |
| EARL in (con)FESS | ||
| 19 | PROPHETS | Priest chooses to accept what is served up in Daniel and Ezekiel for instance (8) |
| PR. (“priest) + OPTS accepting <=EH (“what”) | ||
| 22 | FRIGID | Unyielding in support of Olaf at the end of Frozen (6) |
| (ola)F + RIGID (“unyielding”) | ||
| 23 | UNDER | Terribly rude about knight’s behind (5) |
| N (“knight” in CHESS) in *(rude) | ||
| 25 | DIRAC | Head of Institute blocks return of eccentric English physicist (5) |
| (I)nstitute) in <=CARD (“eccentric”)
Paul Dirac was an English physicist and Nobel Prize winner. |
||
| 27 | SURE | Entice with first of sweeteners for Liberal to make certain (4) |
| S(weeteners) replacing L (“Liberal”) in LURE to make SURE | ||
*anagram
Thanks Peto and loonapick.
I think I agree with you that this grew on me as I worked my way through.
I often have difficulty getting on Peto’s wavelength and this was no different.
I only had DISCOMPOSE, RED HERRING and SNAP to show for my first pass and for a while thought I might be beaten. But then made progress on my 2nd visit and eventually completed at my 4th sitting.
I did query CHAR for tea – normally expecting CHA – but on checking this spelling is fine.
A few “aha” moments to be had such as the construction of PROPHETS and AGGRAVATE, so altogether a pleasant experience.
Can’t see any Ninas!
Thanks Peto and loonapick
It was a funny grid which split the puzzle into two diagonal halves. I got the two fish and STAB quite quickly and then worked my way down the left hand diagonal. Made headway in the bottom of the right diagonal and worked my way up from there.
Struggled with UNFAMILIAR – definitions seemed pretty close. Was the second time in the past week that the HEARTS (of Midlothian) FC had surfaced (here or in Guardian).
Finished with BEGUILED, DUDLEY (which was a bit of an ‘aha’ when the double definition showed itself) and back down to MANNER (where it took a while to unravel Thomas MANN).
(See that you are busy picking up the Thursday blogs as well these days … )