In the blog, the definition in the clue is underlined and followed by the answer; the parsing; any comments
ACROSS
1 Catholic young woman mostly seen in Covent Garden (6)
ROMISH: RO-MIS(s)-H; ROH=Royal Opera House;
6 Fine ship coming from US city (5)
FARGO: F-ARGO;
10 Cross and rather disturbed about North American edentates (9)
XENARTHRA: X-(rather)* surrounds NA;
11 Marine creature found in smack getting load switched (4)
SALP: “s-la-p” becomes “s-al-p”;
13 Comparatively thoughtless climber runs around highest in range (6)
VAINER: V(A)INE-R;
14 Rustic loves religious type in India (6)
HINDOO: HIND-OO;
16 Took as before without a bit of authority — that’s distraint (4)
NAAM: NA(A)M; old word for took=NAM;
18 Empty street surrounded by University, almost nothing to be seen (6)
UNSTOW: U-N(ST)OW(t);
20 Erratic chap scratching 100 — he could hold you up (10)
ARCHPIRATE: (erratic chap – c=100)*; what is the anagrind?;
21 Electoral malpractice upset one special command (10)
EATANSWILL: EAT-AN-S-WILL;
24 Each in rotation gets a container (6, two words)
TEA,URN: T(EA)URN;
25 Cut and cut extremely stupid returns (4)
SNED: DENS(e) reversed;
28 Prince in this country with good plan gets backing (6)
TENGKU: UK-G-NET all reversed;
30 Make less money for female in the end (6)
MINISH: the end = finish and swap “m” for “f”;
31 Artist coming from Russian commune with nothing (4)
MIRO: MIR-O; Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist;
32 A force on European border for the present (9, two words)
AD,INTERIM: A-DINT-E-RIM;
33 Rather heavy newspaper with aspiration, according to reporter! (5)
HEFTY: H-sounds like FT=Financial times;
34 One pushing for cut not a little loud (6)
PROKER: PRO-KER(f); cut=kerf;
DOWN
1 Ringing about native worker (8)
RESONANT: RE-SON-ANT;
2 Fish over on Maori settlement (4)
OPAH: O-PAH;
3 Lime’s out with one aged group of trees (9)
MELIACEAE: (lime)*-ACE-AE;
4 Last to have drink outside in parody (6, should say “two words”)
SEND,UP: S(END)UP;
5 My pet piddled in Roman venue (10)
MAVOURNEEN: (roman venue)*; “piddled” is anagrind!
6 One close friend initially suffered reverse in ligaments (6)
FRAENA: A-NEAR-F(riend) reversed;
7 Working with latitude in part (4, two words)
AT,IT: hidden (l)AT-IT(ude); usually suggests criminal or sexual activity rather than working with;
8 Fancy long beer in French city (8)
GRENOBLE: (long beer)*;
9 Ancient cut head off with blades (4)
OARY: (h)OARY;
12 Insect’s trapped so I help out with flowers (10)
POLIANTHES: (so I help)* surrounds ANT;
15 Cravat seen in line before church (9)
STEINKIRK: STEIN-KIRK;
17 Poison perhaps behind bird’s nest (8)
ARSENIDE: ARSE-NIDE;
19 Furious with nothing inside except strong meat (8, two words)
WILD,BOAR: WILD-B(O)AR;
22 Well-behaved prisoner and copper on time (6)
TRUSTY: T-RUSTY;
23 Sister takes against musical instrument (6)
SANTIR: S(ANTI)R;
26 Maid’s served up meat after one (4)
AMAH: A-HAM reversed;
27 Poet’s twisted humour holding centre of attention (4)
WINT: WI(N)T;
29 Press well up on getting leader sacked (4)
URGE: (s)URGE;
I was surprised to remember EATANSWILL, though not its provenance.
I think the anagram in 20 across is meant to be indicated by the “he could”, though it would be doing something approaching double duty. It is how I arrived at the solution, but maybe it fails closer inspection.
One of the pleasures of this thing is to work out an unknown solution from the wordplay: MELIACEAE was a case in point. MAVOURNEEN would have been but for my insistence (prompted by the piddle?) of putting a W in place of the first N.
We live and learn.
It was only when I came to write the blog that I realised I couldn’t find an anagrind at 20A. It was almost a write in when solving as I spotted “pirate” amongst the fodder very quickly
Agree with you on the pleasures of derivation – still gives me a kick after more than 50 years of solving them!