Polished this one off in pretty short order while proctoring an exam. My only real hold up was hazarding a guess at CHICH as the answer at 1 down (so convinced that was what it meant I didn’t even bother to look it up in Chambers) which rendered the top left quadrant unsolveable until the rest was filled in and I discovered the error of my ways.
There were some nifty clues in here, and quite a few subtraction clues, I’m never good at writing subtraction clues without totally giving the game away.
Away we go!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | CLASS WAR: LASS,W in CAR |
| 6 | BLAT: double definition (one being found under BLATT in Chambers) |
| 10 | HEMIPARASITE: (THE,SPIREA,I’M)* |
| 11 | EPACRIDS: EPS containing ACRID |
| 13 | KATA: hidden in tasK A TAsk |
| 14 | TABOUR: T then the LABOUR party missing the first letter |
| 17 | TIERING: TIRING containing E |
| 18 | T-PLATE: TATE containing PL |
| 19 | SEBAT: Jewish month and a reference to a S.E. BAT |
| 21 | PECKS: SPECK with the S moved to the end |
| 23 | GROMAS: (ORGASM)* – I guess some folks get really excited about surveying? |
| 25 | REB(mister),RACE |
| 29 | REITER: rather liked this one – REITERATE missing ATE |
| 30 | UT(do),IS |
| 31 | GRIMOIRE: 0 and IRE after GRIM |
| 33 | STED: take the middle letter away from STEED |
| 34 | LADRONES: or L.A. DRONES |
| Down | |
| 1 | CH,ETH: and not CHI,CH |
| 2 | AMA |
| 3 | SPRUIT: SUIT(diamonds as an example) containing PR – don’t recall seeing PR as an abbreviation for PRESENT before but it’s in Chambers |
| 4 | ARDRIS: anagram of ADMIRERS without ME |
| 5 | RASSE: a civet that sounds like WRASSE |
| 7 | LIAS: SAIL reversed |
| 8 | ATTENTAT: A, then TENT in TAT |
| 9 | TEAR GAS: |
| 12 | CO,NACRE: this one slotted in immediately as I’d been to a talk on the origins of glassmaking last week where NACRE figured in pretty prominently |
| 15 | ARBORIO: ROB(fruit syrup) reversed in A RIO – this may stump a few as the word is a relatively recent entry in Chambers |
| 16 | APPESTAT: A PAT(a name that could belong to a boy or girl) surrounding PEST |
| 18 | TARGUMS: reversal of SMUG,RAT |
| 20 | AMATION: ANIMATION missing NI |
| 22 | SCARPA: CAR in SPA – another spelling of SCARPER |
| 24 | ROEMER: ROME(holy see),R |
| 26 | ARGO,L |
| 27 | DRESS: to manure – DRESSAGE missing AGE |
| 28 | PICE: an aromatic SPICE missing the S |
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