Nothing really to say. The usual excellent display of sound clue-setting from Azed. I can’t understand what is given in the paper and on the site as 33ac but is really 35ac, but no doubt someone will explain.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MACHTPOLITIK | Limit hot pack violated, advocating force to gain ends (12) |
| (Limit hot pack)* | ||
| 10 | UNITION | Pressure off penalty once making one (7) |
| {p}unition | ||
| 12 | TAGS | Closely follows old snitch, first to last (4) |
| stag with its first letter moved to the end | ||
| 13 | THROWER | One responsible for dodgy deliveries? He was at home in bed (7) |
| 2 defs, the first referring to a bowler in cricket who throws and the second to Percy Thrower, the gardening expert | ||
| 14 | ERICK | Pickles wi’ a wee bittie kebbock? That was fine (5) |
| Eric [Eric Pickles] k{ebbock} — I can’t understand the Scottishness because according to Chambers it’s in old Irish law that it’s a blood-fine | ||
| 15 | LINAC | Accelerator providing some control in a car (5) |
| Hidden in controL IN A Car | ||
| 17 | EUROSEAT | Strasburg constituency had Parisian almost blushing! (8) |
| eu [French for had] roseat{e} | ||
| 18 | SHTETL | Lettish (not Italian) translated for Jewish community (6) |
| (Lettish – i)* | ||
| 20 | TAINO | Lost Indian tribe, nation cut short in upheaval (5) |
| (natio{n})* | ||
| 21 | ATOCS | Mustelines start to colonize ruined oast houses (5) |
| c{olonize} in (oast)* — ‘houses’ a verb, the inclusion indicator | ||
| 24 | HANGUP | Close communication, an obsession (6) |
| If you close a telephone communication you hang up | ||
| 27 | RACHITIS | Girl in ragged sari displaying bone disease (8) |
| chit in (sari)* | ||
| 29 | MYALL | Wild Aussie yobs avoiding observation in shopping centre (5) |
| y{obs} in mall | ||
| 31 | HASTA | The Spanish till earth, say? Rye —— flourishes there (5) |
| comp. anag. with [earth say] … [Rye hasta] — hasta as in hasta la vista | ||
| 32 | FLOREAT | Start of school song, often about entering blade in water? (7) |
| flo(re)at — many school songs are ‘Floreat [insert Latin name of school]’ | ||
| 33 | THIS | Present time, Christmas? Crams —— possibly (4) |
| Another comp. anag, where [Christmas] … [Crams this] — what seems to be a rare thing for Azed, two comp. anags in a single crossword, although he has a long way to go to match the proportion of comp. anags. he rewards in his clue-writing competitions | ||
| 34 | PLAY-ACT | Pretend to apply, entering agreement (7) |
| p(lay)act | ||
| 35 | THREE-WENT WAY | Sheep goes into what entry, straying? (See local trivia) (12, 2 words) |
| ewe in (what entry)* — but goodness knows what the definition really is; I’m assuming that it is the words in brackets since the other words are used in the wordplay, but what is happening I can’t see. A three-went way is a dialect term for a meeting of three roads. The clue both on the website and in the paper is given as 33, although it’s obviously 35. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MUTESSARIFAT | Office of Turkish official dumbs down eastern dress, gross (12) |
| mutes sari fat | ||
| 2 | ANARCH | One who’d no time for rules, a feature of bridge? (6) |
| an arch | ||
| 3 | CI-GÎT | Here lies a foreign soldier in e.g. Paris (not unknown) (5) |
| GI in cit{y} — ‘ci-gît’ is French for ‘here lies’ — I’m not quite sure if the reference to Paris is connected with the fact that it is ‘here lies’ in French — for some reason that I don’t see Azed has italicised ‘not’: in that case it seems that almost any word could be italicised | ||
| 4 | TICKET | Just the job? That’s it! Fill a box, we hear (6) |
| “tick it” — just the ticket | ||
| 5 | POTFULS | Puts fowl to cook, not with small quantities in the kitchen (7) |
| (Puts fowl – w)* | ||
| 6 | LORIOT | Golden bird – get a load of that colourful display! (6) |
| lo riot | ||
| 7 | IRON-SAND | Parts of wedge switched contents of firework (8) |
| sand-iron with the two parts switched | ||
| 8 | TAWA | Evergreen starts to thrive as winter approaches (4) |
| t{hrive} a{s} w{inter} a{pproaches} | ||
| 9 | KERATOPLASTY | A poetry talk’s arranged – it may improve clarity of perception (12) |
| (A poetry talk’s)* | ||
| 11 | PECAN | Hickory clubs are in style (5) |
| pe(c a)n — it always surprises me that setters don’t more often make use of the abbreviation a = are (the unit of area): it would seem so easy to do so | ||
| 16 | RECHARGE | Athlete, say, that’s given up injecting heroin boost? (8) |
| h in (eg racer)rev. | ||
| 19 | WHISTLE | Time and trouble spent with stone stuck in pipe (7) |
| whi(st)le — while = time and trouble — presumably as in ‘worth your while’ | ||
| 22 | TAMLA | Rhythmical musical pattern includes mark for part of record label (5) |
| ta(m)la — Tamla Motown | ||
| 23 | SILENE | Rearing eastern pear, a flowering plant (6) |
| (E nelis)rev. | ||
| 25 | ASH-PAN | Cinders may end here – has a whirl with prince in middle of dance (6) |
| I’m not quite confident here, but it seems to be (ash a)* round p [= prince] then {da}n{ce} | ||
| 26 | URTICA | A cut I treated round finger’s end – it may sting (6) |
| (A cut I)* round {finge}r | ||
| 28 | PSHAW | ‘Rubbish!’ playwright’s written at foot of page (5) |
| p Shaw | ||
| 30 | YOUR | Not my tent – leader of troop has left it (4) |
| your{t}, where the t is t{roop} | ||
*anagram
Thanks John
I didn’t solve this one but noticed your comment in the preamble. Could 35ac be a play on ‘trivia’ – tri (three) via (way)?
The etymology for ‘trivia’ in Chambers says precisely that. The question then becomes: how on earth did a word meaning where three roads meet take on the meaning of ‘unimportant details’?
Trivia. In Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, the narrator tells the audience that Oedipus is horrified when he is told about the place where three roads cross, giving the Latin term “trivia”.
I have heard two derivations of the modern meaning. One is that gossips met at crossroads and what they exchanged was known as trivia.
However, in medieval education there was the quadrivium and the trivium. The latter, grammar, rhetoric and logic, was taught first and therefore considered less important. Hence trivia, of the trivium. Apparently, someone once told James Joyce that he was a trivial writer. Joyce agreed, but added, “I’m also a quadrivial one.”
“I have heard two derivations of the modern meaning. One is that gossips met at crossroads and what they exchanged was known as trivia.”
Hah, great stuff. I have been racking my brain all day trying to remember where I heard this before – that is indeed the origin.
Village gossip that was told in the only places local people met (by chance).
Nick