I thought this was going to be hard at first, but it turned out otherwise. I had to check a few things in Chambers, but at least they turned out to exist when I looked them up. There were a lot of answers I knew – yes, even Neasden. Most of the parsing are pretty straightforward, although there are one or two that require a little thought, and maybe even a little texting.
| Across | |
| 1 | Shopping bag backed with a type of hemp (5) |
| ABACA – CABA backwards + A. Cabas is the more common form of this word taken from the French. | |
| 8 | Scots put question over cleaner (4) |
| Q-TIP – PIT + Q. Yes, pit is the Scots dialect version of put. | |
| 11 | Expedient concerning bad financial minister (8) |
| RESOURCE – RE SOUR C.E, i.e. Chancellor of the Exchequer. | |
| 12 | City completely embracing nuclear environmentalist (6) |
| ECONUT – EC + O(N)UT. | |
| 13 | Youth seen round one local disused area with grass (5) |
| LAUND – LA(UN)D. | |
| 14 | Urban rider dropping pupil round back of college (12) |
| SKATEBOARDER – SKAT ([colleg]E) BOARDER. | |
| 15 | One quoting a doctor about Mussolini? (7) |
| ADDUCER – A D(DUCE)R. | |
| 17 | Blush, working with lawbreakers (7) |
| CRIMSON – CRIMS + ON. | |
| 20 | Language control in speech (5) |
| CZECH – Sounds like CHECK. | |
| 21 | Visualising element xenon in volume (5) |
| VOXEL – VO(XE)L. A 3-D pixel. | |
| 23 | Area of London — as in new paradise? (7) |
| NEASDEN – N E(AS)DEN. | |
| 25 | Civil War Republican colonel captured by force (7) |
| LINCOLN – LIN(COL)N. A linn is a waterfall, so the literal of force is a bit metaphorical. | |
| 28 | Point nearest to moon by cold ninth ring in orbit? (12) |
| PERICYNTHION – PER + ICY + anagram of NINTH O. | |
| 30 | Screen may show such a novel energy reserve (5) |
| EBOOK – E + BOOK. | |
| 31 | Chub’s relative is among whitish fish (6) |
| PAIDLE – PA(ID)LE. The id fish is more often spelt ide. | |
| 32 | After strike, union’s leader’s mostly bad with small branches (8) |
| RAMULOUS – RAM + U + LOUS[y]. | |
| 33 | Down with garments covering women (4, two words) |
| A BAS – Double definition, but the literal must be down with because of the enumeration. | |
| 34 | Delays steamship crossing river (5) |
| STAYS – S(TAY)S. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | God of Milton’s Paradise Lost? Could be pair with him (4) |
| ADES – PAIR + ADES is an anagram of PARADISE, where Lost is an anagram indicator. | |
| 2 | Advocate lower setting (8) |
| BACKDROP – BACK + DROP. | |
| 3 | Major route in foreign parts avoided by British (5) |
| A-ROAD – A[b]ROAD. | |
| 4 | Awfully meticulous on making scornful insults (12) |
| CONTUMELIOUS – Anagram of METICULOUS ON. | |
| 5 | Refrain from touching Beatles’ song is lacking it (5, two words) |
| LET BE – LET [it] BE. | |
| 6 | Criminal robs one former royal residence (7) |
| OSBORNE – Anagram of ROBS ONE. A place on the Isle of Wight that Edward VII got rid of as soon as Queen Victoria died. | |
| 7 | Dance LPO plays accompanied by alto (7) |
| POLACCA – Anagram OF LPO + ACC + A. | |
| 8 | Sandstone — reported quantity he sculpted here initially is tons (12) |
| QUARTZSCHIST – Sounds like QUARTS + SC + H[ere] + IS T. SC is an abbreviation of sculpsit, he sculpted, used for signing statuary. | |
| 9 | Dogged plod right about five hundred grand (6) |
| TRUDGE – TRU(D G)E. | |
| 10 | Editor standing in for Spaniard? (5) |
| PEDRO – P(ED)RO. | |
| 16 | Reserve money — not a treat for rainy days? (8, two words) |
| ICE LOLLY – ICE + LOLLY, where the literal refers to what you might buy on a sunny day at the beach. | |
| 18 | Not strictly secretive without need (7) |
| SLACKLY – S(LACK)LY. | |
| 19 | Very curmudgeonly to off-Broadway shows (7, two words) |
| ONLY TOO – Hidden in [curmedge]ONLY TO O[ff-Broadway]. | |
| 22 | Problem with seeing a second king overturned (6) |
| XEROMA – A + MO + REX, all backwards. | |
| 24 | Old theatre mounted adult stage show (5) |
| OPERA – O + REP upside-down + A. | |
| 26 | Scotland’s contribution consisting of transport (5) |
| INPUT – IN + PUT. | |
| 27 | Forms of fungus one repeatedly found in room at Topkapi? (5) |
| OIDIA – O(I)D(I)A. An oda is a chamber in a harem, from which we get odalisque. | |
| 29 | Catmint plants climbing shed endlessly (4) |
| NEPS – SPEN[d] upside down. | |
‘Force’ is (North of England) dialect for ‘waterfall’.
Yes, it’s a variant of Foss and both are listed in Chambers as meaning waterfall.
I think for 25A, it’s relying on “force (2) or foss, n a waterfall [ON fors]” in Chambers.
For 13A I wasn’t sure exactly how “local disused” fitted in. My Chambers has “un” as dialect for one, so I wondered if it was “one local”. And then LAUND is “Shakesp”, so then the definition would be “disused area with grass” (so, Shakespeare is taken as old -disused- but not local?).
Many words that were once widely used are now only found in local dialects, so maybe that’s what he’s getting at.
I took it as local one = UN (as per Chambers) with LAUND being a Grassy Place, disused because it’s a Shakespearian word.
I agree with Peter that ‘local’ must apply to ‘one’ since UN is marked in Chambers as ‘dialect’ and LAUND isn’t.
I found this reasonably straightforward. I have absolutely no idea how ‘put’ means ‘convey or transport’ but Chambers says it does so that’s that!
I was surprised to see that INPUT = contribution is Scottish. That usage seems to me to be in common parlance across the business world.
Not a lot to add, solved this while watching The Night Strangler do did it in dribs and drabs, all seemed to come together pretty readily.
14 across I am not getting
Skat = dropping, boarder = student, all around the last letter of college.
Many thanks
I can only find skat to mean a German card game
In Chambers, “skat” is an alternative spelling of “scat”, the more familiar “dropping” term. If you ever want a challenging trick-taking card game that doesn’t involve learning bidding conventions, skat is recommended.