Greetings, barred-grid fans!
I remember whizzing through the top half of this, but grinding to a halt at the bottom to the point where I was going to get in touch with our setter and ask if there was something that got messed up in the printing. I was utterly convinced that 24 down was FREYA and could not figure out how anything else could fit in there.
Eventually I erased the whole bottom half and got there at the end. As the most famous resident of the pun in the top row would say, “Que?”.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | A lot bound to accept councillor being overturned (6) |
| PARCEL – LEAP(bound) containing CR(councillor) reversed | |
| 5 | I advance nothing in passage before Spenser’s conclusion (6) |
| LOANER – O(nothing) inside LANE(passage) then the last letter of spenseR | |
| 10 | Perhaps pet witness got round weak couple — welcome luxury (10) |
| SWEETIE-PIE – SEE(witness) surrounding W(weak), then TIE(couple) and PIE(welcome luxury) | |
| 12 | Set out with logic one dares to differ (8) |
| REASONED – anagram of ONE,DARES | |
| 13 | Can edition subjected to forfeit (5) |
| LOOED -LOO(toilet, can), ED(edition) | |
| 14 | Old and fast is funky, as Yanks say (5) |
| OLENT – O(old) and LENT(fast) | |
| 15 | Rascal set about half of wonderful bit of bacon (7) |
| LARDOON – LOON(rascal) surrounding half of WIZARD(wonderful) | |
| 17 | Previously recognised knots in outstanding first piece of walnut (6) |
| ACKNEW – KN(knots) inside ACE(outstanding) and the first letter of Walnut | |
| 19 | Nag monkey to skip about (6) |
| TITTUP – TIT(inferior horse, nag), TUP(a pile-driving monkey) | |
| 20 | First in sequence gets better Highland huts (6) |
| SHEALS – first letter in Sequence then HEALS(gets better) | |
| 22 | Catch mate endlessly turning round (6) |
| ENTRAP -PARTNER(mate) minus the last letter reversed | |
| 25 | Explanation need not put out (7) |
| ENDNOTE – anagram of NEED,NOT | |
| 27 | Wood features behind a loch (5) |
| ALMUG – MUG(face,features) after A, L(loch) | |
| 28 | Comparatively healthy brass in Prague (5) |
| HALER – double definition based on HALE being healthy | |
| 29 | Most of ditch runs beside a coastal inlet supplying piscinae (8) |
| SACRARIA – SACK(ditch) minus the last letter, then R(runs), A, RIA(coastal inlet) | |
| 30 | With United stamina is synthetic, a savvy doctor admitted (10) |
| SYNANDROUS – SYN(synthetic), A then NOUS(savvy) containing DR(doctor) | |
| 31 | Property established by a hollow truce (6) |
| ESTATE – EST(established) by A, and the external letters of TrucE | |
| 32 | Proper end being fixed for El Cid’s ghost (6) |
| DUENDE – DUE(proper) and an anagram of END | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Helper without issue flipped over insect (6) |
| PSYLLA – ALLY(helper) and SP(sine prole, without issue) all reversed | |
| 2 | Had second thoughts concerning take in PC department (8) |
| REWORKED – RE(concerning) then R(recipe, take) inside WOKE(PC), D(department) | |
| 3 | Wrapped ecstasy cracking the sine qua non of street life (5) |
| CERED – E(ecstasy) inside CRED(the sine qua non of street life) | |
| 4 | Fib over Scots flame, therefore keep your head down (6, two words) |
| LIE LOW – LIE(fib) and LOW(Scots flame) | |
| 5 | Local channel featuring Royal Navy gained skill (6) |
| LEARNT – LEAT(local channel) containing RN(Royal Navy) | |
| 6 | Wild onion’s packed with positive stuff that’s good for blood (7) |
| OPSONIN – anagram of ONION’S containing P(positive) | |
| 7 | Dressing fish with fresh oil (5) |
| AIOLI – AI(fish) with an anagram of OIL | |
| 8 | Turned out European Unionist slipped into failed vendetta (10) |
| EVENTUATED – E(European) then U(unionist) inside an anagram of VENDETTA | |
| 9 | Aujourd’hui en France peut-être soit autrement de trop (6) |
| RED TOP – anagram of DE TROP. We haven’t seen one of these for a while, but sometimes Paul McKenna drops in a clue in French. This is based on the former newspaper. | |
| 11 | Least special tutor beginning to confuse girl (10) |
| COACH-CLASS – COACH(tutor), the first letter of Confuse, then LASS(girl) | |
| 16 | Gasp of disbelief from disciple grasping offensive note (8, two words) |
| STROLL ON – SON(disciple) containing TROLL(offensive note online) | |
| 18 | English inclined to accept “good gracious” (7) |
| ELEGANT – E(English) and LEANT(inclined) containing G(good) | |
| 20 | Old burnt wick is almost awful close to sepulchre (6) |
| SNASTE – ‘S(is), then NASTY(awful) minus the last letter and the last letter in sepulchrE | |
| 21 | Time to move away from pink organs (6) |
| SERRAE – remove T(time) from SERRATE(pink, cut) | |
| 22 | With popular filling complete wrap (6) |
| ENWIND – W(with) and IN(popular) inside END(complete) | |
| 23 | Check a point (6) |
| PERUSE – PER(a), USE(point) | |
| 24 | French on one voting for elevating god (5) |
| SURYA – SUR(French for on) then AY(one voting for) reversed | |
| 26 | Commission endlessly raised poetic word for closer (5) |
| NARRE – ERRAND(commission) reversed minus the last letter | |
The pun was particularly bad. Oh my Gaudi art!
I rather liked 9d
On the whole not too difficult.
I found this mostly pretty straightforward but like you I had a very confident FREYA which slowed me down a lot. I confess I cheated by putting AL?RG into the Chambers app and establishing that there was definitely no word that would fit. Even then I had to question each of the crossing answers in turn because they all seemed perfectly valid. In the course of doing this I eventually thought of ‘mug’ which led me to ‘sur’ and the realisation that AYE was in fact AY. Streuth.
Another vote for FREYA. My Chambers ’98 suggests the vote is “generally aye” (rather than “ay”); my older version only gives it as “aye”. I’ve never seen it written as AY in this meaning.
4dn: where does “therefore” come in? The rules of good clue writing specify that there should be no extraneous words; if a link word was deemed necessary, I think “hence” or “therefrom” would have been a better choice, implying that the answer (defined as “keep your head down”) derives from the foregoing. (I realise this is pedantic, but “therefore” doesn’t mean quite the same.)
Freya didn’t throw me: I know two people with the name! But SYNANDROUS did. I was doing an alphabet trawl for the first letter, and G comes before S and means much the same thing, though can’t really meet the synthetic bit.
Thankfully FREYA (which in a way is a better answer, given the AY versus AYE mentioned above) didn’t occur to me. Bit of a breeze, this one.