Greetings barred-grid fans.
I did pretty well with this one – Tim Moorey often puts in a few pop culture or sports references and I think I was familar with most of them this time around, however there is one piece of wordplay I cannot unravel to save myself (I have a word that fits the definition and most of the wordplay so I think I have the entry correct).
If you have a suggestion, check the comments – I am writing this in advance and scheduling it while I am on stage, so I will not see what I missed until Sunday afternoon UK time.
Since definitions (the most direct of which is underlined) can be confirmed in Chambers, I will focus on wordplay here.
| Across | |
| 1 | Revolutionary post boxes are beginning to catch on at home (7) |
| JACOBIN – JOB(post) containing A(are), and the first letter of Catch, then IN(at home) | |
| 6 | Old-fashioned motto’s repellent for IT person (5) |
| SYSOP – POSY’S(motto’s) reversed | |
| 10 | Gold chain seen in stock exchange regularly (5) |
| OCHRE – CH is an abbreviation for the unit chain, but I don’t know what ORE has to do with stock exchange… in Chambers OCHRE is given as gold. Thanks to commenters – it looks like it is alternating characters in bOuRsE which makes me wonder if “Paris” or “French” somehow escaped the clue to make the stock exchange unique. | |
| 11 | Hazel’s region say, is in US city (7) |
| NUTTERY – UTTER(say) inside NY(US city) | |
| 12 | Girl hit not embarrassed (9) |
| UNABASHED – UNA(girl), BASHED(hit) | |
| 15 | Brought back tea with last of black bread from the east (4) |
| KYAT – TAY(tea) and the last letter of blacK all reversed | |
| 16 | Grass in Canterbury? Double work repeatedly left for cutting (6) |
| TOITOI – TOIL(work) twice missing L(left) – Canterbury in in New Zealand here | |
| 17 | Smack fished inshore, pole cast (6) |
| HEROIN – anagram of INSHORE missing S(a pole) | |
| 18 | Spirited person holds record for violent fiction (12) |
| SPLATTERPUNK – SPUNK(spirited person) containing PLATTER(record) | |
| 20 | Beetle and suchlike indoors can make super alarm go off (12, two words) |
| PARLOUR GAMES – anagram of SUPER,ALARM,GO – I remember playing beetle at my grandparent’s house, they had the version where the beetle parts snapped together | |
| 24 | Acreage retained in French city for milk producer (6) |
| BREAST – A(acreage) inside BREST(French city) | |
| 25 | Mini-rugby ground not terribly big and not marshy (6) |
| UNMIRY – anagram of MINI,RUGBY minus BIG | |
| 26 | Return stake that’s hotly tipped in Sicily (4) |
| ETNA – ANTE(stake) reversed | |
| 29 | Talk up a Chinese mustard (9) |
| PRAISEACH – PRAISE(talk up), A, CH(Chinese) | |
| 30 | Unfortunate bias shown in bash for eastern worshipper (7) |
| TSABIAN – anagram of BIAS inside TAN(bash) | |
| 31 | Strictly judge former boxer (5) |
| BRUNO – two definitions, the game show judge Tonioli and the one I was more familiar with, the boxer Frank | |
| 32 | Unfashionable Asian satin in the end not finished (5) |
| ATLAS – AT LAST(in the end) missing the last letter | |
| 33 | PM gains weight (7) |
| WINSTON – WINS(gains), TON(weight) for Churchill | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Quite special circles love sporting contests (6) |
| JOUSTS – JUST(quite), S(special) containing O(love) | |
| 2 | Affected toff with cape mounted open carriage (4) |
| CHAY – YAH(affected toff) and C(cape) all reversed | |
| 3 | Spoken about role of path in space (7) |
| ORBITAL – ORAL(spoken) surrounding BIT(role) | |
| 4 | Old schoolma’am is hopeless, giving up Latin (4) |
| BEAK – BLEAK(hopeless) minus L(Latin) | |
| 5 | Found one part of MIT (9) |
| INSTITUTE – the I in MIT stands for INSTITUTE | |
| 6 | Scottish bluffer even turned up in serial (6) |
| STEYER – YET(even) reversed inside SER(serial) – bluffer meaning steeper here | |
| 7 | Christian Union on the radio so long (6, two words) |
| SEE YOU – sounds like C and U | |
| 8 | They establish ministries first of all in order to change society (9) |
| ORDAINERS – first letter of A inside an aangram of IN,ORDER then the first letter of Society | |
| 9 | Still following page in mag (4) |
| PYET – YET(still) after P(page) | |
| 13 | Newspaper perhaps inspires French group musician (9, two words) |
| POP ARTIST – POST(newspaper, perhaps) containing PARTI(French group) | |
| 14 | Composer who’s an angelic figure in Italy (9) |
| CHERUBINI – CHERUB(angelic figure), IN, I(Italy). I’ve heard of him, but can’t say I can sing anything he wrote. | |
| 19 | ID includes first of many babies (7) |
| PAMPERS – PAPERS(ID) containing the first letter of Many | |
| 21 | Annual value long delayed holding large number up (6) |
| RENTAL – LATER(long delayed) containing N(large number) all reversed | |
| 22 | Nut’s son opening flag (6) |
| OSIRIS – OS(opening), IRIS(flag) – OSIRIS was the son of the god Nut | |
| 23 | Divert noisy phones and one is unexpectedly dropping off (6) |
| SYPHON – remove an anagram of ONE and IS from NOISY PHONES | |
| 26 | Paper probing each trading group (4) |
| EFTA – FT(Financial Times, paper) inside EA(each) | |
| 27 | Puffin identification in Iceland ends in breeding season (4) |
| ISBN – IS(Iceland) and the outer letters of Breeding seasoN. Puffin referring to the publishing company. | |
| 28 | Gave instruction as audibly stressed (4) |
| TAUT – sounds like TAUGHT(gave instruction) | |
I found this about medium-difficulty.
BRUNO definitely comes doubly in the lowbrow section of a highbrow/lowbrow round, but I suppose it might be a come-on for people who think the Mephisto is too cerebral.
As for others, OCHRE went in with bewilderment.