Greetings barred-grid fans
Interesting puzzle – after putting in the first few answers right away I thought I was in for a canter, but I found this puzzle got progressively more difficult and spent a lot longer on the bottom half.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Some forces securing billet (4) |
| CESS – hidden inside forCES Securing | |
| 4 | Cissy frequently in drink (8) |
| SOFTLING – OFT (frequently) inside SLING (drink) | |
| 10 | Drive one mile with a lot of speed (5) |
| IMPEL – I (one), M (mile) and PELT (speed) minus the last letter | |
| 11 | Plant one is cutting unknown in North America (6) |
| ZINNIA – I (one) inside Z (unknown) IN, NA (North America) | |
| 12 | Stubby for Oz gent and guy getting drunk (7) |
| NUGGETY – anagram of GENT and GUY | |
| 13 | Hydraulic cement one used for centre of lock (5) |
| TRASS – A (one) instead of the E in TRESS (lock) | |
| 15 | Optical instrument fitting includes tropical wood (7) |
| APLANAT – APT (fitting) containing LANA (tropical wood) | |
| 17 | Root of wild ginger, a small plant (6) |
| ASARUM – A, S (small), ARUM (plant) | |
| 19 | Soak eastern mohair sent west — this sizes fibres (9) |
| ERIOMETER – RET (soak), E (eastern), MOIRE (mohair), all reversed | |
| 21 | Full old cargo ship rounded head by day (9) |
| OROROTUND – O (old), RO-RO (cargo ship), then NUT (head) reversed and D (day) | |
| 24 | Fire up delegate over backing European Parliament (6) |
| DELOPE – DEL (delegate), O (over) then EP (European Parliament) reversed | |
| 26 | Money in compensation for what’s damaged footwear (7) |
| BOTTINE – TIN (money) inside BOTE (compensation for injury) | |
| 28 | Famine killing first inhabitants of the world (5) |
| EARTH – DEARTH (famine) missing the first letter | |
| 29 | Stone Egypt associated with Cleopatra’s head ornament (7) |
| CROCKET – ROCK (stone) and ET (Egypt) with the first letter of Cleopatra | |
| 30 | Lived years with infectious diseases because of protein inhibiting vitamin absorption (6) |
| AVIDIN – AV (annos vixit, lived years), ID (infectious diseases), IN (because of) | |
| 31 | Surprisingly early use of mocking language once (5) |
| RAYLE – anagram of EARLY | |
| 32 | Friar concerned with depression obstructed service (8) |
| RECOLLET – RE (concerned with), COL (depression), LET (obstructed service in tennis) | |
| 33 | Defence lawyer losing the way (4) |
| LAER – LAWYER minus WY (way) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | What might have man with no carbine running? (12, two words) |
| CINNAMON BEAR – anagram of MAN and NO CARBINE | |
| 2 | Machine making mayonnaise, say, large in height breaking eggs up? (7) |
| EMULSOR – L (large) inside SUM (height) inside ROE (eggs) all reversed | |
| 3 | Smoke fumes drifting upwards (5) |
| SEGAR – RAGES (fumes) reversed | |
| 4 | Swing greatly impressed large number of Trump’s people (4) |
| SLEW – three definitions | |
| 5 | Who might be in seraglio a little under too much? (8) |
| OTTAMITE – A then MITE (little) after OTT (too much) | |
| 6 | Bird the French give a name to (5) |
| TITLE – TIT (bird), LE (the in French) | |
| 7 | Raising cuckoo egg has one close to exhaustion (9) |
| INANITION – reversal of ANI (cuckoo) then NIT (egg), I (one) ON (close to) | |
| 8 | Car manufacturer wanting a second thirty days (5) |
| NISAN – NISSAN (car manufacturer) minus one S (second) | |
| 9 | Greet barista, struggling worker from abroad (12) |
| GASTARBEITER – anagram of GREET,BARISTA | |
| 14 | On reflection censor part mostly full of comic potential (9) |
| CATOPTRIC – CATO the Censor, PT (part) then RICH (full of comic potential) minus the last letter | |
| 16 | Declared once that only half must leave (4) |
| ARED – one half of DECLARED | |
| 18 | Heartless cad that is sulking (8) |
| BOUDERIE – remove the middle letter from BOUNDER (cad), then IE (that is) | |
| 19 | Letraset being regularly used in former times (4) |
| ERST – alternating letters in lEtRaSeT | |
| 20 | Guinea coin we’ll keep in circulation, but not pound (7) |
| EKPWELE – anagram of WE’LL KEEP minus L (pound) | |
| 22 | See prayer come to a head (5) |
| LOAVE – LO (see), AVE (prayer) | |
| 23 | Nothing in raised mound, reportedly (5) |
| NIHIL – IN reversed, then a homophone of HILL (mound) | |
| 25 | Large cola drunk here, perhaps? (5) |
| LOCAL – L (large) then an anagram of COLA | |
| 27 | Death of old salmon (4) |
| MORT – double definition | |
Finished this quicker than expected, Monday. My Chambers (app on phone) has RAYLE as an alternative spelling for rail #4, to flow, gush, and not for rail #1, “To use vigorously or mockingly reproachful language.” That sounds like the definition here, but it’s a verb. It also has it as Spenserian for a noun meaning “reviling,” which comes to the same thing, I guess. I needed to take a second (or fifth…) look at that.
The Spenserian “reviling” is under the same headword as rail(2) – to use vigorously or mockingly reproachful language, so I figured it was close enough association.
I had similar thoughts about RAYLE. If you follow REVILING in the app you get close to the wording of the clue.
I started in the bottom RH corner. Took me a while to sort out the wordplay for CATOPTRIC, OROROTUND and ARED. The first two to were more involved but ARED was hiding in plain sight – just didn’t see it until I came back to the puzzle on Monday.
Another enjoyable puzzle
Quite tricky. I spotted the problem with RAYLE and to my mind this is simply an error.
Funny to see ASARUM two weeks in a row!
14dn took me longer than it should have done – my first thought for “censor” was CATO, but I was convinced “On reflection” was part of the wordplay and I already had the A in place. It was only when I got OROROTUND that I reformed my thinking! Otherwise, I didn’t find this too hard. I liked DELOPE as a word – quite literally meaning “fire up”.
Thanks George and John Grimshaw. I found this of average difficulty after a quick start at the top. Also struggled with CATOPTRIC- very clever. Couldnt parse the delightful OROROTUND or SLEW.