Standard Mephisto fare of reasonable level of difficulty. A “once in 50 years” event is recorded at 31A.
The worrying news is occurring off the pitch with Rupert Murdoch once again obliged to jet into London and Sun staff arrested for alleged wrongdoing. With the News of the World gone the closure of the revenue generating Sun could result in the closure of the loss making Times and Sunday Times, which would be a sad day for us.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | CRAFT – RC reversed – AFT; RC=Red Cross; |
| 5 | BY,HEART – B-Y(HEAR)T; B=Bishop (chess); old word for “that”=YT; (off) pat is definition; |
| 10 | SANGAREE – SAN(GARE)E; misely=GARE; WI sangria; |
| 11 | THEA – THE-A; (by) how much=THE-2; are=A (a measure); evergreen shrubs; |
| 12 | BROACHING – BRO-ACHING; birth place, say=BRO; |
| 14 | RIOT – R(I)OT; |
| 16 | DUPPED – D-UPPED; director=D; Waggledagger for opened (see dup in C); |
| 18 | NICETY – (certainty – art)*; |
| 19 | HOT-COCKLES – HOT-COCKLES; old word for named=HOT-2; puckers=COCKLES; old flirtatious guessing game; |
| 21 | SHOOFLY,PIE – S(HOOF)LY-PIE; chatterer=magpie=PIE; baked molasses that attract flies that have to be shood away!; |
| 24 | BURGOO – BUR-GOO; sweetbread=BUR; Jack=sailor; in the Royal Navy boiled oatmeal – sounds delightful – or a term used more generally in the USA to describe a stew of say opossum; |
| 25 | IO,MOTH – (him to)* arround O=Ohio; large moth born of stinging caterpiller; |
| 27 | OLPE – (g)OLPE; purple=golpe; a roundel; |
| 29 | STARCH,GUM – STAR-CH(G)UM; leading=STAR; bud=CHUM; good=G; |
| 30 | SEPS – SE(x sho)PS; |
| 31 | AULNAGER – (a real gun)*; inspector of cloth; amazingly the same word appeared in AZED 2070 published on the same day; |
| 32 | IDIOTCY – I(DIOT(a))CY; old vase=diota; distant=ICY; old word for folly; |
| 33 | KAYLE – KAY-L-(rotherith)E; old wharf=KAY; a skittle; |
| Down | |
| 1 | CSARDAS – C-SAR-(SAD reversed); cold=C; fish=sargus=SAR; a Hungarian dance; |
| 2 | RAKI – RAKI(sh); but=without=removal indicator; |
| 3 | ANGOPHORA – (agraphon + o=ordinary)*; a tree; |
| 4 | TARGET – TA-R-GET; |
| 5 | BROADCLOTH – B-ROAD-CLOT-H; wally=CLOT; byway=B-ROAD (UK road classification); hospital=H; |
| 6 | HECTIC – H(E-CT)IC; latin this=HIC; E=European; CT=court; |
| 7 | ETHE – hidden (m)E(a)T (s)H(i)E(s); |
| 8 | RENITENT – sorry=penitent then replace p=priest by r=right; |
| 9 | TAGGY – TA(GG)Y; the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879 as immortalised by William McGonagall;
Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay! and so on; |
| 13 | ANNOYINGLY – (lying on any)*; |
| 15 | TELEOLOGY – T(hucydide)-EL(EOL)OGY; ex-officio line=EOL; a teleological argument is also known as a design argument. So, for example, a universal God exists because there is a design to the universe is a telological statement; |
| 17 | UNHUNTED – UN-HUN-(DET reversed); |
| 20 | SPHEARE – S(P)HEAR-(teas)E; prince=P; old spelling of sphere; |
| 22 | FORCAT – F(ORC)AT; a convict (from the French). The word came to fame in the description of participants in the Tour de France as “Les Forcats de la Route” |
| 23 | PODUNK – P(OD)UNK; supposed force=OD; miserable=PUNK; in the USA an imaginary old fashioned country town; |
| 24 | BASSI – B(aldassare)-AS-SI; yes Italian=SI; singers; |
| 26 | OR,SO – (c)OR-SO; race=corso; C (note)=$100; |
| 28 | PEEL – two meanings 1=young sea trout (peal); 2=strip off; |
I found this quite straightforward but had one wrong: SANEARNE for 10ac. The wordplay was spot on so I figured it might be a 12th edition addition (the app is only the 11th). No such luck.