I found this one pretty tough for a few reasons. There were two pieces of geography that were way out of my range of knowledge. I also confidently wrote in a few incorrect answers that seemed quite plausible at the time (I had three different entries for 1 across). The grid is of the type that divides the puzzle into four quarters, with really only one entry connecting two of them (the 10-letter entries). I tend to use the longer words as starting points in the grid, but they weren’t all that easy in this puzzle.
I think I have everything sorted out though. Better type this up before passing out.
Away we go!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BARBOLA: A LOB(lout) all reversed after BAR(counter). Took a lot of convincing that this wasn’t MANDALA after it was originally written in as TABBOYA |
| 6 | TAPIS: tricky clue – if you added NT(new testament books) to it you would get TANT PIS, every Australian schoolboy’s favorite phrase to shout out |
| 10 | MALABAR-RAT: A, BARRA(an Hebridean island) in MALT |
| 11 | TRONES: remove the H from THRONES |
| 13 | HO,GG |
| 14 | BHISTEE: BEE(busy person) containing HIST(quiet) |
| 15 | STILTY: remove the 0 from TOIL and put it in STY |
| 16 | O,VERT |
| 17 | BEDEMAN: NAME DEB all reversed – fortunately this appeared in another barred-grid puzzle recently |
| 22 | REGREDE: R(Rex, king), EG REDE(advice, counsel) |
| 23 |
DIMER: ME in DIR |
| 24 |
SCIROC: anagram of CORSIC |
| 27 | MOODILY: MOLY(magic herb) with ODI(one day international – cricket match) inside |
| 29 | DIT,A |
| 30 | FROWIE: rancid – FIE(expression of disgust) around ROW |
| 31 | SAG,1,NATION |
| 32 | HAYLE: double definition, one being a pretty-obscure seeming town |
| 33 | SPONDEE: SEE(understand) surrounding Ezra POUND without the middle letter |
| Down | |
| 1 | BATHS: double definition |
| 2 | ACROTERION: anagram of CREATION containing OR reversed |
| 3 | BANGLED: BANG, LED – was surprised that the singluar BANG meant a fringe, I’ve always heard it as BANGS |
| 4 | OLENT: VIOLENT(rough) missing VI |
| 5 | AB,THANE |
| 6 | TA,LION: This had me head-scratching for a while, since my print-out made it look like the clue read “gratitude to Asian”, but of course it is “gratitude to Aslan”, C.S. Lewis’ lion |
| 7 | ARES: take the middle letter from ARIES |
| 8 | P,RATED |
| 9 |
STRETTE: STREE |
| 12 | PERIDOTITE: (POET,TIDIER)* |
| 17 | BADMASH: Spoonerism of MAD BASH |
| 18 | ARALIAS: ALIAS containing RA |
| 19 | BRIDOON: a bit – BOON(blessing) containing RID(empty) |
| 20 | S,MOGGY |
| 21 | TRIUNE: anagram of UNITER |
| 25 | CUR,I,0 |
| 26 | CAESE: sessa – CEASE with the middle letters jumbled |
| 28 |
DAIL |
Found the rest of it a reasonable challenge