I was determined to finish before going to bed on US Saturday night, and I did. However, I did get stuck with two to go, and had to put it aside and come back after a bit. Sure enough, the answers jumped out at me, as happens often enough. The culprits were 29 and 32, and once I worked out the garden device, the other was obvious.
I don’t quite follow Paul’s pun this week, which may be a good thing. He’s been getting more and more outrageous lately. Of course, that means it was of no help in solving, but the top line was pretty easy anyways.
| Across | |
| 1 | Bloke bound to succeed getting hold of iron cow (6) |
| HEIFER – HEI(FE)R. | |
| 5 | Constant delay developing purified sugar, say (6) |
| CLAYED – C + anagram of DELAY. | |
| 10 | Student is out — good, excellent (9) |
| UNDERGRAD – UNDER + G + RAD. Out and under probably have the sense of anaesthesized. | |
| 12 | Drink most of whisky in front of kitchen range (6) |
| MALAGA – MAL[t] + AGA. | |
| 13 | From the east, it is about Kali’s aspect primarily (5) |
| SAKTI – IT(K[ali’s] A[spect]’S, all backwards, an neat &lit, Ninja-turtlers will think of John McLaughlin. | |
| 15 | Small dosh (all but hundred bucks) for birds of prey (6) |
| SAKERS – S + A[c]KERS, a bit of Aussie slang for money. | |
| 16 | Debt is arranged till no longer left to spiral (7) |
| ARREARS – ARR + EAR + S[piral] – yes, ear(3) is a obsolete word meaning till or plough. | |
| 17 | Joy in grand old tranquillity (4) |
| GLEE – G + LEE. | |
| 18 | The condition of wanting fun and sense led afresh (11) |
| NEEDFULNESS – Anagram of FUN and SENSE LED. | |
| 21 | Condition of Italian if out of sorts (11) |
| AFFILIATION – Anagram of OF ITALIAN IF. | |
| 25 | Flabbergasted oik associated with new smiley, say (4) |
| IKON – Anagram of OIK + N. | |
| 26 | Scoutherings feasible leading to cries amongst harpooneers (7) |
| ONFALLS – ON + FALLS – you will have to ply your Chambers for these. | |
| 28 | I am back in place of setting (6) |
| MILIEU – I’M backwards + LIEU. | |
| 30 | Half must depart cheated for having tattoos? (5) |
| INKED – [hoodw]INKED. | |
| 31 | Side moving back to front in defence of Mississippi before noon (6) |
| ELEVEN – LEVEE rearranged (back to front) + N for noon. | |
| 32 | Cutting celebrity once take’s canned for box, for protection (9, two words) |
| COLD FRAME – COLD + F(R)AME, when R = recipe in prescriptions. | |
| 33 | Generally losing everything stimulated vigorous activity (6) |
| ENERGY – Anagram of GENER[all]Y | |
| 34 | Fred, for example, is born with property (6) |
| BASSET – B + ASSET. Don’t think you’ll find him in Chambers. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Kind about eccentricity of a Scottish thinker (6) |
| HUMEAN – HUM(E)AN – the eccentricity of a conic section, that is. | |
| 2 | Singer losing her head for fine gentleman (5) |
| IDLER – [m]IDLER, as in Bette Midler, I would imagine. | |
| 3 | Stood in awe of fine European pressing a type of wine (6) |
| FEARED – F + E + A RED. | |
| 4 | Logically therefore I will enter run (4) |
| ERGO – E(R)GO. | |
| 5 | Lace silken cords joined between strands? (11) |
| CROSSLINKED – Anagram of SILKEN CORDS. | |
| 6 | Spinach filling most of old platter with pasta dish (7) |
| LASAGNA – LA(SAG)NA. Sag or saag is spinach in Indian cookery; what lana is, I cannot say – discussion invited. | |
| 7 | Bumpkins picking up reed, approved as stuffing (6) |
| YOKELS – SLEY upside-down with OK inside. | |
| 8 | With rent adjusted fail over special mezzanines (9) |
| ENTRESOLS – Anagram of RENT + LOSE upside-down + S. | |
| 9 | Flowers I plucked forming canopies over altars and similar (6) |
| DAISES – DAIS[i]ES. | |
| 11 | Mock up game woefully missing one with a wordy way (11) |
| GARRULOUSLY – RAG upside-down + RU + LOUS[i]LY. | |
| 14 | Bill holding right juicy fruit up is to interject abruptly? (9, three words) |
| BREAK IN ON – B(R)EAK | |
| 19 | Displeasure died in dull bar offering support (7) |
| FIREDOG – F(IRE,D)OG, where both dull and fog are verbs. | |
| 20 | Figure of speech is back by not a small distance? (6) |
| SIMILE – IS backwards + MILE. | |
| 22 | Performer preposterously with whopper about King (6) |
| FOLKIE – OF backwards + L(K)IE. Drcrooks has pointed out that the setter is using the root meaning of preposterously, prae + posterous, so the first part comes last. | |
| 23 | Boozers not displaying Nationalist Scotsman’s ribbons (6) |
| TAVERS – TAVER[n]S. | |
| 24 | Not sufficient funds? Clear defunct academic set-up in short (6) |
| NSFNET – N.S.F + NET. | |
| 27 | On which to sit when finding discharges (5) |
| LAVAS – LAV + AS. | |
| 29 | Grass is top class in hearing (4) |
| ALFA – Sounds like ALPHA. | |
Equally, I’ve no idea about the outer element of LASAGNA. I’ll have another think.
Jeremy