Club Monthly 20158 November 2013 – ribbon-like strip of pasta edition..

Solving Time: Don’t ask.. this took me a long time. I rattled off about half in reasonable fashion and then gradually ground to a halt. Resuming a day or two later, I got a few more.. then a few more.. and so on. Frankly I feel fortunate to have got it all correct. Hard work. The crossword itself however doesn’t seem much harder than usual, so I think it must be just me, gradually declining into a state of 15dn.

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as *(–)

Across
1	moskonfyt – doctor’s knockout – MO’S KO + resolutioN + oF + nastY chesT.
6	sowff – one dropping litter = SOW + very loudly = FF
9	Liszt – well, if L IS ZT, then aLec becomes aZTec, an old Mexican, see? I wonder if anyone parsed that before solving, rather than poring over it afterwards, as I did?
10	brinjarry – flask = JAR + Right in BRINY
11	xylenol – axes = XY + LONE + L both rev.
12	zeuxian – *(ex-nazi + Uruguay)
13	grecque meander – that for madame = QUE, in *(CRÈME), all in butchers = gander (rhyming slang: butcher’s hook = look). I had terrible trouble with this clue
17	barefoot doctor – pay = FOOT + complete = DO in BA + RECTOR. I suppose do as in “its all completed/done”
21	uraemia – AIM + EA + RU (game), all rev.
23	palatal – deadly = FATAL, with the F replaced by associate = PAL
25	Pankhurst – SPANK HURT, with the S moved to near the back.. I carelessly wrote Pankhurts to start with, which didn’t help
26	dsomo – gong = DSO + Modus Operandi. Zho and Zhomo are male and female crosses of a yak and a cow. Under zho, Chambers has a remarkable 11 alternate spellings, of which dsomo is one.
27	Wessi – Just a cd, unless I’m missing something. A West German, not to be confused with an Ossie. On edit: indeed I am missing something. As Anon points out, the old German republic is WEI(MAR) with Someone So-called in it
28	xeromorph – all rev: for = PRO + extra = MORE in Hard + X
Down
1	malaxage – MA + LAX AGE
2	sisal – Line + unaltered = AS IS, all rev.
3	ortanique – *(QUAINT) in O + RE. I couldn’t work out why the tart was there, other than for the surface, which I confess I did like
4	fibulae – pork pie = lie = FIB + both mEAt and pLUm rev.
5	tailzie – to trouble = AIL + variable = Z in to make fast = TIE. Tailzie I have come across before, it is an inheritance issue like an entail, and not a playground chant as it may sound
6	sajou – appeal = SA (Sex Appeal) + Judge + our
7	worriment – *(TIMER WORN). The def. is stew as in “Wooster was in a bit of a stew.”
8	fu yung – UtterlY in FUNGi. A most elegantly worded clue
14	elaeagnus – wElL mAdE rAp, rev., + celebrated = SUNG rev. Seeing the “regularly” I assumed it was a clue of this type, but had some trouble believing AEALE could form part of a real word..
15	noodledom – all rev: one posing had = MODEL’D, nothing = O + ON. That clue looks a tiny bit inelegant now, though I was happy enough with it at the time
16	gralloch – hidden, rev., in posH COLLAR Generously. A good hide, and such clues often cause me more trouble than they should. Not this time though as I spotted that meaning of “draw,” and indeed have a special blade on my swiss army knife which – supposedly – makes gralloching a doddle.
18	oratrix – peach = RAT, in OR + I + X. “Woman holding forth” – nice def!
19	tipster – extreme = TIP + demanding = STERn. Another nice def!
20	quapaw – question = Q + University + a hand = A PAW. Quapaw are originally from Arkansas
22	mahdi – I’D HAM rev.
24	twoer – TOWER, with the Wife moved up one space. A twoer being presumably a rugby try conversion into a goal, that being how many points are (currently) awarded for such a feat