I was surprised to find this puzzle relatively approachable, as Robert Teuton has given me considerable trouble in the past. But I was able to solve a fair number of clues without cracking Chambers. Then I put the puzzle aside owing to the press of other business, and did not resume until Wednesday. I won’t say it is all easy, but if you have heard of words like mbira, cartouche, buccal, xerosis, and ettle, you can make surprising progress. Of course I had to use Chambers to finish off the real tough ones, but I would still rate this as no more than a medium-difficulty puzzle. I did have to get assistance on one answer to complete the blog, but the actual solve was not too bad.
| 1 | Stimulant one pushes after religious hangover? (12) |
| KATZENJAMMER – KAT + ZEN + JAMMER. Is zen really equivalent religious? Well, sort of. | |
| 10 | Smitten on leaving jail after getting parole finally (5) |
| EPRIS – [parol]E + PRIS[on]. | |
| 11 | Nigerians in the same place twice leading triumphant cries (7) |
| IBIBIOS – IB. + IB. + IOS. Ib. is a valid abbreviation for ibidem. | |
| 12 | Smear that makes intruder ruder? (5) |
| NOINT – NO INT, leading to the transformation mentioned. | |
| 13 | Show irritation about wedding in speech (6) |
| BRIDLE – Sounds like BRIDAL. | |
| 15 | Cover for antennae doubling change in perception of sound (6) |
| RADOME – E(MOD)AR, all backwards – doubling. | |
| 16 | Mettle’s the very thing needed in acid test? (4) |
| PITH – P(IT)H. | |
| 17 | Tight strand twangs? (6) |
| DRANTS – Angram of STRAND. | |
| 18 | Case for fireworks requiring caution about handling? (9) |
| CARTOUCHE – CAR(TOUCH)E. Cartouche may mean several other things, too. | |
| 21 | Corps desires heading for escape without withdrawing cover for privates (9) |
| CACHESEXE – C + ACHES + E[scape] + EX backwards. | |
| 25 | Bird about to force over batata (6) |
| KUMARA – A(RAM)UK, all backwards. | |
| 29 | Bigot advanced as material for paper (4) |
| ALFA – ALF + A. Refers to Alf Garnett from Till Death Do Us Part. | |
| 30 | Unscrupulous opportunist discounting never left — “cheeky”! (6) |
| BUCCAL – BUCCA[neer] + L. | |
| 31 | Gretna Green’s intended heading off high-spirited (6) |
| ETTLED – [m]ETTLED. | |
| 32 | Mammal appearing in Ratatouille? (5) |
| TATOU – Hidden in [Ra]TATOU[ille]. An armadillo. | |
| 33 | Abnormal dryness to occur saving skin to keep turning red (7) |
| XEROSIS – [e]X(SORE backwards]IS[t]. A very tricky cryptic for an answer classicists will just biff. | |
| 34 | A fish pickle (5) |
| ACHAR – A + CHAR. | |
| 35 | Royalty rides out tide failing (12, three words) |
| DROIT DE SUITE – Anagram of RIDES OUT TIDE. Royalty in the sense of revenues from copyright. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Know little spot that’s conspicuous up north (10) |
| KENSPECKLE – KEN + SPECKLE. | |
| 2 | Melody capturing solemn and narrow-minded doubt (6) |
| APORIA – A(PO)RIA, another one for classicists. | |
| 3 | Rotate palm in to haul short rope at sea (7) |
| TRIATIC – TRI(ITA backwards)C[e]. | |
| 4 | Steel’s sad chapter losing millions (5) |
| ESTOC – [m]ESTO + C. | |
| 5 | One stealing historic game snubbed club (6) |
| NIMMER – NIM + MER[e]. Nim is a card game, and a mere is a war-club. | |
| 6 | Near miss right after pair misplaced symbols in tic-tac-toe (7) |
| AIRPROX – Anagram of PAIR + R + O,X. | |
| 7 | Star clutching bass instrument (5) |
| MBIRA – M(B)IRA. A famous variable star in Cetus. | |
| 8 | Maiden international? Slip into fielding position (5) |
| MID-ON – M + I + DON. | |
| 9 | Tool turning over sesame covered by weed (6) |
| EOLITH – H(TIL)OE, all backwards. | |
| 14 | Outside of Europe USA aren’t disposed to do one’s business (10, two words) |
| EASE NATURE – Anagram of E[urop]E USA AREN’T | |
| 19 | Blessed Teresa encapsulates one most spiritual (7) |
| AERIEST -Anagram of TERESA around I. | |
| 20 | On sides of cafeteria stick fruit baskets (7) |
| CALATHI – C[afeteri]A + LATHI. | |
| 22 | Show-off missing Florida escapade as before (6) |
| AUNTER – [fl]AUNTER. | |
| 23 | Worn-out petty Shakespearean ignoring knight by end of scene (6) |
| EPUISE -E + PUIS[n]E. | |
| 24 | Solvent first of officers found in an apartment (6) |
| AFLOAT – A + FL(O[fficers])AT. | |
| 26 | Subway prepared tons more (5) |
| METRO – Anagram of T MORE. | |
| 27 | Back Ukraine oil refining, they need double pipes (5) |
| AULOI – UA backwards + anagram of OIL. | |
| 28 | Satellite company backing at least a quarter of Sky (5) |
| OCTAS – SAT + CO backwards. An octa is an eighth of the sky, so the plural must be at least a quarter. | |
Found this harder than usual, nevertheless very satisfying. I didn’t get to the bottom of the wordplay for ‘NOINT, TRIATIC and XEROSIS. Though the latter was easy to discover when you know the prefix XERO- refers to dryness. I spotted the reversal of SORE but not EXIST, which left me wondering whether there was a case for XEROSES.
I was helped significantly by the appearance of KENSPECKLE, one of my favourite words, which appears in John Buchan’s Greenmantle and by ETTLE, which occurs numerous times in Witch Wood by the same author.
Thanks to vinyl1 for sorting out all the difficult parsings.
33A I still don’t understand
EROS = sore (“red”) backwards (“turning”). This is “kept” by (ie inside) XIS, which is Exist (“to occur”), without the outside letters E and T (“saving skin”). The whole thing means “abnormal dryness”.
Thank you Munromaiden
27dn: I don’t understand why the clue says “they need double pipes”, as my Chambers defines Auloi as being double pipes. They need double reeds, but that’s surely not the same thing.
5dn: when I was a child, Nim was a game played with matches, rather than cards.
I think the aulos is often depicted as a double-piped instrument (cf a double flageolet) hence the singular instrument is double-piped but we’re asked for the plural
Didn’t find this one too difficult and there were a few biffable answers including the one that vinyl1 asked me about the wordplay for last night, which I’ll admit I biffed at the time as well.
Re: auloi – if you were making one you would need two pipes.
I found this unusually straightforward for a Robert Teuton, but I managed to stuff it up by writing in KATZENHAMMER. This was a pure error of transcription: I looked it up in Chambers before putting the answer in because I couldn’t work out what ‘one pushes’ was indicating. Certainly not HAMMER!
ALF has (or at least originally had) nothing to do with Alf Garnett. It’s Australian slang that predates the TV show by at least 5 years: see for instance here.
Interesting!
The blog title shows why I didn’t have any difficulty with 1 across.