Greetings, barred-grid fans.
A fun puzzle this week from Don Manley, with the usual precise clueing of unusual words. I thought it was interesting that the two long entries were both unusual words clued as anagrams, so I did not get off to as quick of a start as I expected, fortunately with a few checking letters in place neither were ambiguous.
I didn’t have a lot of notes about this one, most of my scibble on the paper is working ou the anagrams and compound anagrams.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Moths — dearie me! — got rampant (11) |
| GEOMETRIDAE – anagram of DEARIE,ME,GOT | |
| 9 | Chinese official, a fellow seen around Beijing primarily? (5) |
| AMBAN – A, MAN(fellow) around the first letter in Beijing | |
| 11 | Firm bound to receive audio signal (6) |
| EARCON – CO(firm) inside EARN(to receive) | |
| 12 | A cricket club ace laid into spoilt child in game (8) |
| BACCARAT – A, CC(Cricket Club), A(ace) inside BRAT(spoilt child) | |
| 13 | Suppression of measure is restricting Greek character (8) |
| ELLIPSIS – ELL(measure of cloth), then IS containing PSI(Greek character) | |
| 15 | Shock of long ago — David’s missile brought about alien’s end (6) |
| STONNE – David bonked Goliath with a STONE, insert the last letter of alieN | |
| 16 | Mollusc Nellie found to the west of Torbay (6) |
| TELLEN – ELLEN(Nellie) after the left side letter in Torbay | |
| 17 | Cunning needed to have a pound as a unit of weight (5) |
| ARTAL – ART(cunning), A, L(pound) | |
| 19 | Second worker a bit useless? (5) |
| SHAND – S(second), HAND(worker) | |
| 21 | Meal giving minimum of enjoyment in Lent? (5) |
| FEAST – first letter of Enjoyment inside FAST(Lent – definition by example indicated by the question mark) | |
| 24 | It’s heathen god I am following? (5) |
| PANIM – nice all-in-one where the whole clue is the definition – PAN(heathen god), then I’M | |
| 26 | Like many a plant sheep devoured (6) |
| RAMATE – RAM(sheep) ATE(devoured) | |
| 28 | Minister is wanting end of service to change (6) |
| REVISE – REV(minister), IS, and the last letter of servicE | |
| 29 | Sketch-writer maybe supporting office secretary in record-keeping role? (8) |
| PROFILER – PRO(supporting), FILER(office secretary in record-keeping role) | |
| 31 | Santa travelling with gig — a big mover seen above? (8, two words) |
| GAS GIANT – anagram of SANTA and GIG | |
| 32 | An inauthentic person’s loss of voice (6) |
| APHONY – A PHONY(an inauthentic person) | |
| 33 | Entreat outside wordsmith to provide material (5) |
| SUEDE – SUE(entreat) surrounding ED(editor, wordsmith) | |
| 34 | Young delinquent in the bar larks about (11) |
| HALBSTARKER – anagram of IN,THE,BAR,LARKS | |
| Down | |
| 1 | God exciting last of the pagans, not the first (6) |
| GANESA – anagram of the last letter of thE and PAGANS missing the first letter | |
| 2 | Toss something round up — an old coin (4) |
| OBOL – LOB(toss) and O(something round) all reversed | |
| 3 | Trendy area in ruins — where the yacht clubs are (7) |
| MARINAS – IN(trendy) and A(area) inside MARS(ruins) | |
| 4 | Problem with major Christian festival — the time shifting (6) |
| TEASER – EASTER(major Christian festival) with the T moving to the start | |
| 5 | Read out liturgy outside church, having been lifted up (6) |
| RECITE – RITE(liturgy) surrounding CE(church) reversed | |
| 6 | Slow speech an attraction to learner (5) |
| DRAWL – DRAW(an attraction) next to L(learner) | |
| 7 | Cleaner hair? See this fibre here appearing replenished (7) |
| ACRILAN – anagram of CLEANER,HAIR minus HERE | |
| 8 | Purpose of home nurse (6) |
| INTEND – IN(home), TEND(nurse) | |
| 10 | Drink whisky maybe, then tear around? You’ll get abuse (8) |
| MALTREAT – MALT(to drink malt liquor), then an anagram of TEAR | |
| 14 | Something oily I detect in bishop with purpose (8) |
| BENISEED – I, SEE(detect) inside B(bisop) and END(purpose) | |
| 18 | Word of thanks about a TV comedy series providing entertainment (7) |
| TAMASHA – TA(word of thanks) containing A, M*A*S*H(TV sitcom from the 70s and 80s) | |
| 20 | Old-fashioned conduct of rescuer, new leader (7) |
| HAVIOUR – SAVIOUR(rescuer) with the first letter changed | |
| 21 | Economical father dealt with “superior” girl (6) |
| FRUGAL – FR(father) and U(superior), GAL(girl) | |
| 22 | Communist revolutionary, say, being transformed — no longer goes wild (6) |
| DERAYS – RED(communist) reversed, then an anagram of SAY | |
| 23 | Sea-monster surfacing, catcher of fish — it’s hairy (6) |
| CRONET – ORC(sea-monster) reversed, then NET(catcher of fish) | |
| 25 | Man of the cloth in car preceding Queen (6) |
| MERCER – MERC(Mercedes-Benz car) then ER(Queen) | |
| 27 | Star’s success embraced by everyone (5) |
| ALGOL – GO(success) inside ALL(everyone) | |
| 30 | Plant with bottom side turned over (4) |
| LEEK – KEEL(bottom side) reversed | |
Malt is such a verb in Chambers, marked as facetious. It should really be marked as obsolete too, as it is in the OED, where the citations for that meaning are from the first half of the nineteenth century.