Solving time: 2h
Haven’t done one of these for a while – and I had to resort to Chambers fairly quickly. The usual smattering (flood?) of archaisms and Scots and a couple of murky wordplays. I’ve left out the few clues that were relatively straightforward, leaving nonetheless quite a lot to look at!
Across
5 | F(A)ILLE – needed Chambers to confirm that FAILLE is a type of silk. |
9 | TENE,RIFE – Again Chambers to confirm that TENE is alt. TEEN which is Scots “grief”. |
11 | ATHLETES FOOT – (E, felt hat’s too)*. Good consistent surface but needed Chambers yet again to confirm that “trilbies” is also “feet” (ref. Du Maurier). |
13 | GOA,LIES – Didn’t need Chambers for a change: “defence people” is a slightly cryptic def of GOALIES. |
14 | TAN,TO – My last clue: even with ?ANTO I had to scour Chambers: the definition is an Italian musical term for “so much” and “hit” is TAN. |
16 | J,U,GAL – Cheek-bone: needed Chambers to confirm. |
17 | REEST – Alt. spelling of REAST, which is Scots for a “fit” of stubbornness. I don’t see the rest of the wordplay: “In Scotland, fit leaders running come out on top”. (R=”running”?). |
22 | L,[b]IEN – Nice clue with good surface and reasonable wordplay. Note BIEN is “well” (French but in Chambers). |
23 | STILB – rev(blits=”blitz”). Needed Chambers to confirm that STILB is a “unit” of luminance. |
25 | CELOM – Def is “body cavity, between the body wall and intestine”. Not sure about wordplay: “See small spot around area near intestines.” C=see? LO=see? EM=small spot? Linxit notes that it’s indeed C=”see” but with rev(mole=small spot”). |
30 | LO(OP)ERS – OP in roles*. LOOPERS loop the loop (in the sky). |
31 | RUSE DE GUERRE – This was an Azed competition recently – I wonder if this was one of the clues? ([t]rain use urged)* — note how “almost totally” decapitates rather than de-tails in this case. |
32 | PROD,ROME – cryptic def of “what Catholic activists may do”, def is indeed “introductory treatise”, appropriately from the Latin. |
33 | B,REEKS – Scots breeches. |
34 | F,AT,TEN – I think that F stands for folio, a type of “book” and the “time when the news is on” is typically 10PM. |
Down
1 | STAG,ER – rev(gats=straits, re=on). |
3 | F,ELLY – The wordplay leads to FELLY but not sure how the definition leads to “guy” (FELLY can be part of a wheel rim or adj. from fell, as in cruel or severe). |
4 | T(RE)IF[f] – TREIF is non-kosher meat (from the Hebrew). |
5 | FF,ESTI=site*,NI,OG – Fortunately all but two letters were checked otherwise would never have got this. Needed Chambers to confirm that FF can be “lines”. Wordplay is a bit complex: “up” is the reversal indicator and ENTER-“go in”. |
6 | IN,FAUST – Mephisto can indeed be found in the Faust legend. Also, “unlucky” (rare) according to Chambers. |
7 | LOOT,ABLE – LOO is a card-game and a LOO-TABLE upon which it is played. LOOTABLE is a rather arch way of describing something that be looted, i.e. “can be taken away”. |
8 | EXT.,OLD – Definition is “lauded” where Spenser is our “poet” and EXT is abbrev(“extract”) and OLD as in “familiar”. My 2nd to last clue since it involved an unfamiliar abbreviation and a Spenserian term! |
10 | RONG=”wrong” – archaic past tense of ring (I used Chambers to check). |
12 | TEA,SELLERS – Chambers confirms that to TEASEL is to work with cloth. |
15 | BEDE,GUAR – needed Chambers to confirm that it’s a type of sponge, which with BEDEGU?R was easy enough. And, by gum, turns out that GUAR is a type of Indian “gum”. |
18 | S(LOVE)NE – LOVE in ens*, which is Latin existence and it’s spoken in Slovenia. |
21 | SCAR,AB – AB is in fact abbrev(Autobahn). |
24 | BE(SEE)N – BEN is the best room in Scots (as well as being a mountain: presumably unrelated). To BESEE is archaic “treat” (“as before” indicates the archaism). |
26 | LAST – nice triple meaning: 4000lb. “cargo” (Chambers), “stay fresh” and if you’re LAST, you’re “after all the others”. |
28 | A,PERT – this time, A for Australian and APERT is archaic “in public”, with the archaism indicated by “previously”. |
As for 17ac, my best guess is that it’s FREEST with the first letter removed, but if that’s the case it’s a bit weak.