Welcome, barred-grid fans. This one was a bit easier than usual, with many fairly common words in the answers. I finished in one sitting, taking a little more than an hour.
However, some of the parsings required research. I did write a few of them down in the margins, as I often forget the wordplay once a week has passed. So I was looking askance at bogongs while blogging, but was saved by a scribble. On the other hand, I never did parse reacted, and had to think a little to see how it worked.
| Across | |
| 1 | Smashing rinse ’n’ go places (7) |
| REGIONS – Anagram of RINSE + GO – only one N needed! | |
| 6 | Handle danger following hospital’s discharge (5) |
| TREAT – T[h]REAT. | |
| 11 | Released stock to go quicker than the rest (7) |
| OUTRACE – OUT + RACE, in entirely different senses. | |
| 12 | Beautiful people being explosive around booze (6) |
| TALENT – T(ALE)NT. | |
| 13 | Pretty Woman, that one behind Roy’s first, a hit finally (6) |
| RATHER – R[oy] + A + [hi]T + HER, a biff for me. | |
| 14 | Hippodrome’s unit not available (5) |
| ARENA – ARE + N/A – a unit of land measurement, to be exact. | |
| 15 | Curious about Independent being rumbustious (5) |
| NOISY – NO(I)SY. | |
| 16 | Learning about international cases — they offered protection (7) |
| LORICAE – LOR(I, CA)E. Yes, CA is a valid abbreviation for cases, but what kind of cases? A lorica is a leather corslet. | |
| 18 | Put a stop to the palaver and get a wiggle on (12, four words) |
| STEP ON THE GAS – STEP ON + THE GAS. | |
| 20 | He follows pair from limey pound — it’s almost free of friction (12, two words) |
| LIQUID HELIUM – LI[mey] + QUID + HELIUM, as symbolized by He. | |
| 24 | Moths mostly missing in loos (7) |
| BOGONGS – BO(GON[e])GS. | |
| 27 | Brother banjaxed air pipe (5) |
| BRIAR – BR + anagram of AIR. | |
| 28 | To them Charlie stands for this compère (5) |
| EMCEE – ‘EM + CEE, which Charlie stands for in the NATO alphabet. | |
| 29 | Flavouring is all but fab full of unlimited love (6) |
| BOVRIL – B([l]OV[e])RIL[l]. Complicated, but not difficult. | |
| 30 | Knock out rook, otherwise a small bird (6) |
| KORORA – K/O + R + OR + A. | |
| 31 | Frequently failing to appear, turned aside and swung back (7) |
| REACTED – RE[fr]ACTED. A tough one, which I biffed. | |
| 32 | Sadly it’s this scarcity in Spenser could find you thirsted (5) |
| DERTH – Compound anagram of IT’S + DERTH giving THIRSTED. | |
| 33 | Puts down flush — hyper excited in pair of spades (7) |
| SYPHERS – S(anagram of HYPER)S. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Run out interminable chatter of a canon (5) |
| ROTAL – R + O + TAL[k], pertaining to a canon in music. | |
| 2 | Outburst on the subject of offensive scenario (6) |
| GALERE – GALE + RE. | |
| 3 | Ancient tribe is perhaps brash by way of moving north (5) |
| ICENI – ICE + IN upside down. | |
| 4 | Head with backbone connects basic facts (12, three words) |
| NUTS AND BOLTS – NUT + SAND + BOLTS. Sand can mean firmness of character. | |
| 5 | Sophisticated escort and the crucial game (12, two words) |
| STREET HOCKEY – Anagram of ESCORT and THE + KEY. | |
| 6 | In Thailand old hunter adopts name for block (7) |
| TRANCHE – T + RA(N)CHE. A rache is a hunting dog. | |
| 7 | Local chief contracted naval officer as well (5) |
| RATOO – R.A. + TOO. | |
| 8 | Dramatic word making more of, say, gripping facial feature (6) |
| ECHING – E(CHIN)G. A variant of eke, which is the Germanic version of augeo. | |
| 9 | Test is about old money giving principles? (7) |
| TORYISM – T(O)RY IS + M. | |
| 10 | Gland is below standard of it (7) |
| PAROTIS – PAR O’ ‘T + IS. | |
| 17 | We measure a surprising surge after close of voting (7) |
| GAUGERS – [votin]G + A + anagram of SURGE. | |
| 18 | Lumpy bag of rocks for the most part lifted over pit (7) |
| SLUBBED – BULS[e] upside down + BED. A bulse is a small bag used for gemstones. | |
| 19 | Like Shell, say, timeless industry run by one champion (7) |
| OILRICH – [t]IOIL + R + I + CH. | |
| 21 | Case to thrill (6) |
| QUIVER – Double definition. | |
| 22 | Incorporated private ’ospital generates revenue (6) |
| INCOME – INC + ‘OME. | |
| 23 | Gill carrying about a measure of ice? (5) |
| CARAT – CAR(A)T. One of the meaning of gill is a horse-cart. | |
| 25 | Noble agreement being on the rise freed New York (5) |
| OMRAH – HARMO[ny] upside-down. | |
| 26 | Ties up willows and sets apart (5) |
| SEALS – A rather neat triple definition – you could look it up. | |
Yes indeed much easier compared with last week’s.
Didn’t get the parsing for 31 and I missed the SAND equivalence to backbone in 4. Nevertheless managed to complete Sunday evening. Thanks for the blog, always good to check one’s working with the experts.
A welcome relief after a few stinkers recently, done in about half an hour.
I always thought CA for cases was a wine thing, but according to Collins it’s legal cases.
It helped that the four long ones were very accessible. A mild surprise seeing product placement with Bovril®: not so much a flavouring as a halftime drink at a wintry match at The Lane.
Thank you for the help with 32ac DERTH. I’d forgotten about compound anagrams – I can now see the phrases in the clue that should have pointed me towards that.
Not a lot to add – gentle on the Mephisto scale, but some very enjoyable clues, particularly the ones for RATHER, GAUGERS, STREET HOCKEY and REGIONS