I found this one challenging enough, but still manged to finish in one sitting – not that it wasn’t pretty late into Saturday evening, but I finished. I couldn’t explain some of the cryptics, so now I have to figure them out – the frequent fate of the Mephisto blogger.
Having finished the blog, I see there are one or two obscurities that I can only offer a tentative explanation for.
| Across | |
| 1 | Green university put into confusion when name’s advanced (8) |
| UNDERAGE – U + DERANGE moving the N to the beginning. | |
| 7 | Old man’s shed in city garden (4) |
| BAGH – BAGH[dad] – one I parsed while solving, but nearly forgot a week later. I should take notes. | |
| 10 | Gathering around Dorothy, actress once dear (9) |
| BELAMOURE – BE(LAMOUR)E. Whether once goes with actress or dear is unclear, but it works either way. Dorothy Lamour, 1914-96. | |
| 11 | Top four for Arsenal, fantastic for periods of time (4) |
| ERAS – Anagram of ARSE[nal]. | |
| 13 | Grilling party intelligence largely accepts answer (5) |
| BRAAI – BRA(A)I[n]. | |
| 14 | Panic-stricken following a reflex attack (6) |
| AFRAID – F + A backwards + RAID. Reflex is a novel reversal indicator. | |
| 15 | Pressing swelling squeezing out head (6) |
| URGENT – [s]URGENT. | |
| 16 | Drills around Angola for fuels (7) |
| BORANES – BOR(AN)ES. | |
| 19 | Shook with fear at not having succeeded, possibly? Not me! (10, three words) |
| HEART OF OAK – Anagram of SHOOK + FEAR AT without S for succeeded. | |
| 20 | Cornerstone awry once bent by heel of trowel (10) |
| SKEWCORBEL – SKEW + CORBE + [trowe]L. A bent and a corbe may both be some sort of bracket, but that is not explicitly given in Chambers. | |
| 24 | Borders of gauze section added to sheer dress fabrics (7) |
| BAREGES – BARE + G[auz]E + S, for section. | |
| 25 | Fancy pigeon that is cooking on the grill? (6) |
| BARBIE – Double definition. | |
| 26 | Folk dance headed by shy bride’s neat (6) |
| LOBOLO – LOB + OLO, I believe. A sale olo is a folk dance in the Solomon Islands, but there is no trace of it in Chambers. Comments welcome. | |
| 28 | Number barperson’s regularly put on? (5) |
| APRON – [b]A[r]P[e]R[s]O[s] + N, a clever &lit. | |
| 29 | Jailhouse Rock’s No 1, it’s making a comeback (4) |
| STIR – R[ock] + IT’S, all backwards. | |
| 30 | Promoted I advanced avoiding acting like a mercenary? (9) |
| SOLDIERLY – SOLD + I + E[a]RLY. | |
| 31 | Resent deputy deficient in nothing (4) |
| ENVY – ENV[o]Y. | |
| 32 | Large rodent? Better to prevent one crossing yard (8) |
| CAPYBARA – CAP (Y) BAR A, one I just biffed. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Labour eagerly reveals number one constituent? (4) |
| UREA – Hidden in [labo]UR EA[gerly]. | |
| 2 | Angrily carp on about people concerning red herring (12, two words) |
| NORFOLK CAPON – Anagram of of CARP ON around FOLK + ON. An expression taken from 18th century dictionaries of thieves slang. | |
| 3 | Loose rear, I had … this? (8) |
| DIARRHEA – Anagram of REAR, I HAD, another &lit. | |
| 4 | Queen about to trap on the first file? (6) |
| REGINA – RE + GIN + A, where A is the first file in chess notation. | |
| 5 | Terrible ordeal, bitten by an insect by stealth (10, three words) |
| A LA DEROBEE – A(anagram of ORDEAL)BEE. | |
| 6 | Homebuyer so upset with ramshackle house wanting new beginning? (6) |
| EMBRYO – Compound anagram of HOMEBUYER SO minus HOUSE. | |
| 7 | Nip back to pass by Italian market town (5) |
| BORGO – ROB backwards + GO. | |
| 8 | Fashion retailer and good primarily (12, two words) |
| GRAND ATELIER – Anagram of RETAILER AND G, a semi-&lit. | |
| 9 | Ornament I fasten round back of neck during greeting (7) |
| HEITIKI – H(I TIE backwards + [nec]K)I. | |
| 12 | Breed of hen flourishing in a rural spot (10) |
| AUSTRALORP – Anagram of A RURAL SPOT. | |
| 17 | Vexed expression of dismay after piece of wood’s thrown over burial ground (8) |
| GOLGOTHA – LOG backwards + GOT + HA. Expression of dismay is a bit of a stretch for ha! | |
| 18 | I provided groundwork that shows level of upheaval (7) |
| ISOBASE – I + SO + BASE. | |
| 21 | Hospital to get on well with a cut nicking hip (6) |
| CLINIC – CL(IN)IC[k]. | |
| 22 | Times about to swagger, it covers come rain or shine (6) |
| BROLLY – B(ROLL)Y. | |
| 23 | Up north everyone retired may do bargain stores (5) |
| ABODY – Backwards hidden in [ma]Y DO BA[rgain]. | |
| 27 | Worthless darts returned having lost points (4) |
| ORRA – ARRO[W,S] backwards. | |
LOBOLO
I parsed it as LOB + (P)OLO (headed as in beheaded). See POLO2 in Chambers.
Taxing at times, but generally within normal limits. Thanks to vinyl1 and setter.
A couple of clues give me trouble even now.
Like vinyl1, I biffed 32a. I can see the BAR and the Y(ard) and the A; and I suppose that to CAP (something) may be mean to “exceed” or to “better” it. But the cluing feels (to me) convoluted without being clever.
I would also contend that 8d lacks a definition, or that the proposed definition fails. FASHION is the anagrind, and RETAILER+AND+G is the anagrist, but a GRAND ATELIER is not a “fashion retailer”. There may be an association of ideas between those two things, but it is too tenuous to serve as a definition, attractive and ingenious as the attempt may be.
In the Chambers defs, “grand atelier” is “fashion house”, and “fashion house” is “an establishment in which fashionable clothes are designed, made and sold”. If Louis Vuitton counts, they certainly have a website where you can buy their products.
Presumably this clue is meant to be &Lit? The ‘good primarily’ part is a little ungainly.
Correct – For a semi-&lit as I understand it, the content other than the def needs to supply the whole wordplay and simultaneously provide an alternative def when added to the def.
I was also puzzled by the OLO part of LOBOLO. I mush check out the POLO connection mentioned above. Biffed BAGH not twigging the Baghdad connection. Other than those this week’s didn’t cause too much trouble – but no a walkover by any means.
17D
How does got fit into the answer
I can see log and ha
Chambers has ‘to irritate’ for ‘get’, hence vex.
‘Dismay’ may be a stretch for HA but it’s in Chambers so all must be forgiven!
For lobolo I came up with kolo for the folk dance
Yes that’s what I thought. POLO also works but KOLO is specifically defined as a ‘folk dance’ in Chambers.
20A: corbe = bent: see “courb or curb” in Chambers
17D: “dismay” is one of the meanings of “ha” in Chambers
Agree with KOLO for the dance, and CORBE meaning bent. GOT = vexed, no problem.
15d I had as (T)URGENT rather than (S)URGENT.
And BARBIE is BARB + I.E.
BAREGES I thought was very good. Pity I had a typo in the online entry.