This was a very pleasant middle-of-the-road puzzle. There’s one questionable definition at 6D. In the clues definitions are underlined. Wordplay explanation is followed by very helpful comments.
ACROSS
1 Energy is absorbed by lucky chap (4)
JISM: JI(‘S)M; reference book and film “Lucky Jim” – nothing to do with me; American word for energy or force;
4 Close to fibula, peasant hurt foot (8)
ANAPAEST: (fibul)A-(peasant )*; 2 short syllables followed by 1 long one;
10 Labour paranoid enthralling House — it’s all the same to ministers (10)
ADIAPHORON: (paranoid)* surrounds ho=house; an ethical matter of indifference;
12 No dope taking ecstasy about to get reward (7)
GUERDON: NO-DR(E)UG all reversed; a reward;
13 Immature Edward holding duck and carp (7)
NONAGED: N(O-NAG)ED;
14 Lodgings in square, behind European river (4)
INNS: INN-S; the INN is a river that runs through Switzerland, Austria and Germany; S=square;
15 Neat round window? Elliptical actually (5)
OX-EYE: OX-EYE; neat=OX; round window=EYE; an elliptical dormer window;
16 With churchman away, boy shows contempt in tirades (7)
LAISSES: LA(D-D)ISSES; tirades;
18 Summons succeeded for lady about town (6)
CITESS: CITES-S; American contraction used in preference to citizeness
22 Southern whisky in coloured glasses (6)
SMALTI: S-MALT-I’;
23 Supplier of shade and quiet, say (7)
SHUTTER: SH-UTTER;
24 Boil / fish of the cod family (5)
BLAIN: two meanings;
25 Polled in part of central England almost entirely (4)
NOTT: NOTT(s); short for Nottinghamshire;
26 Hypothetical matter reportedly somehow missing red (7)
PROTYLE: (reportedly – red)*; Crookes’ name for a hypothetical base substance from which all chemical elements were believed to have been made
28 Wormwood used in labs in Thailand (7)
ABSINTH: hidden (l)abs-in-th(ailand);
29 Go away packing cold ready-cooked chicken (10)
SCARED-Y-CAT: S(C-(ready)*)-CAT; go away=SCAT; childish word for a coward=chicken;
30 Files circulating were located in place (8, two words)
DATA,SETS: STE(SAT)AD all reversed;
31 Guy’s theatrical? Not good (4)
STAY: STA(g)Y;
DOWN
1 Straightforward southern or northern bread (8)
JANNOCKS: JANNOCK-S; straightforward=JANNOCK; plain bread loaves in Lancashire
2 Heard swans and seals (7)
SIGNETS: sounds like “cygnets”; nothing to do with our blogger George;
3 Month with a person from Central America (4)
MAYA: MAY-A;
4 Adult writings with anecdotes needed on Sabbath? Leave Mephisto! (12, two words)
APAGE, SATANAS: A-PAGES-AT-ANAS; Latin for get behind me Satan;
5 American fathers’ holding out mostly for some wild sheep (7)
AOUDADS: A-OU(t)-DAD’S; the North African Barbary sheep
6 Modern pubs I’m running as investments (12, two words)
PREMIUM,BONDS: (modern pubs I’m)*; Premium Bonds are a savings account you can put money into (and take out when you want), where the interest paid is decided by a monthly prize draw (so the norm is zero interest). They are not an investment.
7 In Paris love oddly is tense — as is this (6)
AORIST: A(m)O(u)R-IS-T; a tense in Greek;
8 Inactive rock group with a kind of rock (10)
STONESTILL; STONES-TILL; TILL=shale;
9 One rejected Mediterranean port wine casks (4)
TUNS: TUN(i)S;
11 Hop it with box on fire close to Iowa, showing fear of dangerous stuff (10)
TOXIPHOBIA: (hop it box)*-IA; Iowa=IA;
17 Frank according to Will entertains with plonk in place of debauchery (8)
SWINESTY: S(WINES)TY; Waggle-Dagger’s pigsty (see frank-2 in C);
19 Respect is high for royal staff (7)
SCEPTRE: (respect)*;
20 Pretend agreement covers sleeping partner (7)
PLAYACT: P(LAY)ACT;
21 Room high up overlooking a Greek region (6)
ATTICA: ATTIC-A;
25 Weed over in ditch I extracted (4)
NARD: DRA(i)N reversed;
27 Turn over case of yoghurts and trifles (4)
TOYS: TO-Y(oghurt)S; TO=Turn Over (accountancy);
Thanks Jim for dedication to duty.
Spread through three or four sessions during the week, and with fairly liberal use of aids, I reckon I spent around an hour in all.
Since all investments carry a risk, and few guarantees, I’m not quibbling over PREMIUM BONDS.
My sole biff was LAISSES where I couldn’t see the churchman due to parsing “hisses” rather than “disses”.
APAGE SATANAS caused me the most trouble.
BLAIN added to my liberal collection of fish, but my favourite clue was PLAYACT.
An investment is a monetary asset purchased either to provide income in the future or to be sold later at a higher price for a profit. Premium Bonds don’t meet either of those criteria.
They also carry no risk. They do guarantee the return of the original deposit whose purchasing power has been diminished by inflation.
Edited at 2018-09-02 10:38 am (UTC)
Edited at 2018-09-03 05:02 am (UTC)
We don’t use the word over here but have a similar piece of slang for semen “spunk”. The word actually means “guts, heart, pluck, etc”