Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I enjoyed this one, and there’s some signature Tim Moorey touches including references to more recent people disguised as classical figures, and intricate subtractions in wordplay.
In Mephisto puzzles, definitions can be confirmed in Chambers, so I will focus on the wordplay here.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Passing rubbish container, birds on song in gardens (7) |
| ROSARIA – remove BIN (rubbish container) from ROBINS(birds), then ARIA(song) | |
| 7 | Female religious head dumps a bisexual, primarily for another woman (4) |
| BESS – ABBESS(female religious head) minus A, and the first letter of Bisexual | |
| 10 | Broadcast featuring dancer normally in the background (9) |
| FIGURANTE – anagram of FEATURING | |
| 11 | The old record can make you cry (4) |
| YELP – YE(the, old) and LP(record) | |
| 13 | Seasonal visitor lost in wood (6) |
| SANTAL – I think this is SANTA(seasonal visitor) and L(lost). Chambers doesn’t confirmed L = lost, but you can think of leaderboards that have W, L, D for won, lost and drawn. | |
| 14 | Mahogany cases viewed in one short day across the Channel (6) |
| ACAJOU – CA(cases) inside A(one) and JOUR(day in France) minus the last letter | |
| 16 | Group of stars joins in conversation (4) |
| LYNX – sounds like LINKS(joins) | |
| 18 | No governors initially like entering race that’s rather rough (6) |
| RUDISH – remove the first letter of Governors from DIG(like) and insert in RUSH(race) | |
| 19 | End of row Ring seat excites one? (9) |
| WAGNERIST – anagram of the last letter of roW,RING,SEAT | |
| 21 | Forced to go to sea, Asian people getting Government help around end of month (9) |
| SHANGHAI’D – SHAN(Asian people) then G(government), AID(help) surrounding the last letter of montH | |
| 24 | Make stronger sheep fencing unit (6, two words) |
| TONE UP – TUP(sheep) surrounding ONE(unit) | |
| 25 | Warriors clear, marches are banned (4) |
| IMPI – LIMPID(clear) minus the external letters (marches) | |
| 27 | Terms on Clyde preposterous, fish in sharp decline (6) |
| ESCARP – last letters of clydE, preoposterouS, then CARP(fish) | |
| 29 | After indisposition one’s sucked? (6) |
| PASTIL – |
|
| 30 | Stop in Aberdeen and Leith announced (4) |
| PROO – sounds like PRUE Leith, judge on the Great British Bake-off | |
| 31 | A bass seen in Dart likely to be lost! (9) |
| AMISSIBLE – A, then B(bass) inside MISSILE(dart) | |
| 32 | March with smooth easy movement, wanting Grenadier’s lead (4) |
| LIDE – GLIDE(smooth easy movement) minus the first letter of Grenadier | |
| 33 | Oil refinery feedstock, namely for cracking and ending in gasoline? (7) |
| AMYLENE -anagram of NAMELY, and the last letter in gasolinE | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Palace leak reported part of the King’s speech? (7, two words) |
| ROYAL WE – sounds like the ROYAL WEE(palace leak) | |
| 2 | Organisation foremost in oil prices ever changing (4) |
| OPEC – first letters in Oil Prices Ever Changing | |
| 3 | Swift coming from coarse grass with reasonable cover (9) |
| SALANGANE – ALANG(grass, found under LALANG in Chambers) inside SANE(reasonable) | |
| 4 | Sugar in spiced brioches Chinese rejected (6) |
| RIBOSE – anagram of BRIOCHES minus CH(chinese) | |
| 5 | Keeper of birds treasuring larks (10) |
| AUSTRINGER – anagram of TREASURING | |
| 6 | People with degrees retaining university dictionary of Latin (6) |
| GRADUS – GRADS(people with degrees) containing U(university) | |
| 7 | Romanian coins are in black nickel (4) |
| BANI – A(are, unit of measurement), inside B(black), NI(nickel) | |
| 8 | Long-distance traveller not a little tired, begins with a joint (8) |
| STARSHIP – remove the first letter of Tired from STARTS(begins), then HIP(a joint) | |
| 9 | Pulls up for pause probably in music for psalms (5) |
| SELAH – HALES(drags, pulls) reversed | |
| 12 | Introduction to poet laureate I fancy one with conversational wit (10) |
| EUTRAPELIA – anagram of the first letter of Poet,LAUREATE,I | |
| 15 | Dance on a horse beginning with equestrian whose name I’ve forgotten (9) |
| JIGAMAREE – JIG(dance), then A, MARE(horse) and the first letter of Equestrian | |
| 17 | Muslim leader getting about a year set up for South American people (8) |
| YANOMAMI – IMAM(Muslim leader), ON(about), A, Y(year) all reversed | |
| 20 | Fatty Arbuckle’s entry police officer put forward (7) |
| ADIPOSE – first letter of Arbuckle, then DI(police officer), POSE(put forward) | |
| 22 | Philosopher’s follower hard on old Manc uni (6) |
| HUMIST – H(hard) then UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) | |
| 23 | Hideous deep wound left, ending with surgery (6) |
| GASHLY – GASH(deep wound), L(left) and the last letter of surgerY. Fans of Edward Gorey know this word well. | |
| 24 | China supporting case of Turkey representative (5) |
| TYPAL – PAL(china) after the exterior letters in TurkeY | |
| 26 | Index estimated by head of finance tipped (4) |
| FTSE – EST(estimated) and the first letter of Finance reversed | |
| 28 | Strip of material in stretched corset without lines (4) |
| ROON – a ROLL-ON corset minus both L’s (lines) | |
I did this fairly easily, even though I had biffed roserys for 1 across, and it did take a while to straighten that one out. There were a number of easy answers (for experienced solvers, that is) to get started, such as impi, bess, santal, gradus, gashly, typal, rudish, tone up. With all those crossing letters, it was not difficult to finish, although I did have to look a few things up.
See everybody next week!
Much enjoyed this. I had a question mark against 1ac, 25ac, and 29ac. I did reason 29 much the same way you suggest, however I read the entire clue as a the definition much the same as 19ac (WAGNERIST). &Lit. I suppose. I don’t know why I didn’t question L=lost, maybe because WLD is used frequently in other crosswords.
Hadn’t twigged marches=boundaries. All is clear now.
Thanks for the explanations.
I thought this was on the easy side, with the newcomers to my dictionary (most of the 8-letter plus words} generously clued so that you could do that only-slightly-cheating thing of checking that they were a thing after constructing from the wordplay.
We had to find a way of disposing of the extra L in PASTILL, and I think the take that “sucking one” is doing double duty must be right.
Liked the royal wee, even if it was a refugee from the ST cryptic.
I found this tricky. I read 29ac as an &Lit too.
Strange that L for ‘lost isn’t in Chambers, considering the extraordinary number of far more obscure abbreviations it does have!
In 29A, the indisposition is “ail” (for which “indisposition” is an excact def in C), from which “a” is dropped, and the whole clue is the definition.
Ah, missed that – thanks!