I rather liked this puzzle, it was not too difficult, and the grid design led to a pretty even solve, with lots of scattered crossings of words.
I hope everything is in the blog, as I am traveling this weekend (I am in Washngton DC as I type this), and will not be able to make any corrections until I get back home which will be early Monday morning GMT. Check comments if you have any quibbles.
Definitions are underlined and can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on the wordplay in the clues.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Hour of prayer in winter ceremony (5) |
| TERCE – hidden in winTER CEremony | |
| 5 | Knight taken by chess champion in school (7) |
| BORSTAL – this was my last one in and the one I had the most difficulty with. The knight is the Arthurian Sir BORS de Ganis, and the chess champion is Mikhail TAL. Put them together and you get a youth detention center, which is about an accurate description of a school. | |
| 11 | Learned man in house across promenade set back (6) |
| OLLAMH – HO(house) surrounding MALL(promenade), all reversed | |
| 12 | Travelling box ripped apart — drug found inside (6) |
| PETARA – anagram of APART containing E(drug) | |
| 13 | Miss at home always is a dish (9) |
| MUFFINEER – MUFF(miss as in fail), IN(at home), EER(always) | |
| 16 | Bits of foreign money are collected by little members (5) |
| TOEAS – A(are, unit of measurement) inside TOES(little members) | |
| 17 | Desperate to move, having to abandon area denuded of trees? (8) |
| ESTREPED – anagram of DESPERATE minus A(area) | |
| 19 | Relevant vision ace brought to the fore (5, two words) |
| AD REM – DREAM(vision) with the A at the front | |
| 21 | Pear mum cut the wrong way (5) |
| NELIS – SILENT(mum) missing the last letter and reversed | |
| 22 | Fish near danger, avoiding current (5) |
| TORSK – TO(near), RISK(danger) missing I(current) | |
| 24 | A hat, one old award to be returned (5) |
| TERAI – I(one), ARET(award) all reversed | |
| 27 | Alarm about cat in fight once (8) |
| SCARMOGE – SCARE(alarm) surrounding MOG(cat) | |
| 29 | A Conservative nut seen in retrospect as a mug (5) |
| BOCCA – another reversal, this time of A, C(conservative), COB(nut) | |
| 32 | Ship repair brings trouble and anger, not right (9) |
| CAREENAGE – CARE(trouble) and ENRAGE(anger) missing the R(right) | |
| 33 | Staff given fish — what a surprise! (6) |
| TAIAHA – TAI(fish), AHA(what a surprise) | |
| 34 | More revolutionary, even after revolution (6) |
| REDDER – a palindrome | |
| 35 | Chaps losing head with foxy female lacking self-control (7) |
| ENCRATY – MEN(chaps) missing the first letter, then CRAFTY(foxy) missing F(female) | |
| 36 | Plant, something brownish-yellow I uprooted (5) |
| SENNA – SIENNA(brownish-yellow) without I | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Cat on plot getting below ground level? (6) |
| TOMBED – TOM(cat) on BED(plot) | |
| 2 | Month with little energy, mostly quiet (4) |
| ELUL – E(energy), then LULL(quiet) missing the last letter | |
| 3 | Depression very much evident in bounder (6) |
| CAFARD – FAR(very much) inside CAD(bounder) | |
| 4 | Issue of US magazine held up (4) |
| EMIT – TIME magazine reversed | |
| 6 | Tree people chucked with Noel finally gone (5) |
| OPEPE – anagram of PEOPLE missing the last letter in noeL | |
| 7 | Pet is quiet with mist falling (6) |
| STROKE – ST(quiet) and ROKE(mist) | |
| 8 | Roman scribe not liable to err (9) |
| TABELLION – anagram of NOT,LIABLE | |
| 9 | Architectural feature with modern design encompassed by a circle (8) |
| ARCADING – CAD(computer-aided design) inside A RING(circle) | |
| 10 | Slip made by you and me after drinks (6) |
| LAPSUS – US(you and me) after LAPS(drinks) | |
| 14 | A sailor with a cold, twitching, gets tranquilliser (9) |
| ATARACTIC – A TAR(sailor), A, C(cold), TIC(twitching) | |
| 15 | Drop of rain ultimately bothers pussy? (4) |
| SPET – last letter in botherS, then PET(pussy cat) | |
| 18 | Form of martial art Hans took up (8) |
| SHOTOKAN – anagram of HANS,TOOK | |
| 20 | Anthropologist enthusiastic about first bit of evidence (4) |
| MEAD – MAD(enthusiastic) surrounding the first letter in Evidence for the anthropologist Margaret MEAD | |
| 22 | Like cannelloni in food container getting devoured (6) |
| TUBATE – TUB(food container), ATE(devoured) | |
| 23 | Jock’s firm, so compassionate, not half (6) |
| SICCAR – SIC(so) and then half of CARING(compassionate) | |
| 25 | Fine fellows in port abandoning navy (6) |
| AMENDE – MEN(fellows) in the port of ADEN missing N(navy) | |
| 26 | Ivy can be explosive, dear, when upset (6) |
| HEDERA – HE(high explosive) then an anagram of DEAR | |
| 28 | Bit of old armour fashioned to protect artist (5) |
| CURAT – CUT(fashioned) containing RA(artist) | |
| 30 | Deposit five hundred away from city (4) |
| LEES – remove D(500) from the city of LEEDS | |
| 31 | Poet’s once more taking time over noun (4) |
| AGEN – AGE(time) over N(noun) | |
I suspect the lessons learned in a Borstal were as much to do with not getting caught next time as they were to do with discipline and educational attainment
Failed to parse ENCRATY, so thanks for that one George. Really, I made heavier weather of this than I should have done.