This one was not too difficult, and for the first time Paul’s pun proved useful in getting started. I was able to biff quite a few answers, such as Oberon, rapparee, junta, in point of fact, cruets, and barricade. This sort of thing will definitely speed up your solve, but it also left me hanging on the parsing of cruet.
| Across | |
| 1 | Before getting in perhaps Flintstone got on (5) |
| FARED – F(A)RED. | |
| 5 | Arrival seen as passé by Catholic ’ospice (6) |
| INCOME – IN + C + ‘OME. Passé because income now usually means something else. | |
| 10 | Titania’s mate in cool, flowing robe (6) |
| OBERON – O(anagram of ROBE)N. On and cool in the sense of acceptable. | |
| 11 | With sigh of surprise for right to study in advance (5) |
| AHEAD – (-r,+AH)EAD, a substitution clue. | |
| 12 | Knock off small bit of software or pirate in some other way (11) |
| APPROPRIATE – APP + anagram of OR PIRATE. Appropriate as in steal ideas or designs. | |
| 13 | Great deal on a little pot (4) |
| LOTA – LOT + A. | |
| 14 | Possibly Turkey’s back out with name changed (7) |
| NOTAEUM – Anagram of OUT + NAME. | |
| 16 | Council junior cheers (5) |
| JUNTA – JUN + TA. | |
| 17 | Kid flipped fashion for chemist (6) |
| DALTON – LAD backwards + TON. | |
| 19 | One pays homage only in cowboy bar I tend (11, two words) |
| TRIBUTE BAND – Anagram of BAR I TEND containing BUT. | |
| 23 | Turned? Past tense from memory (6, two words) |
| OFF PAT – OFF + PA + T. | |
| 26 | Tether ram that is inside (5, two words) |
| TIE UP – T(I.E.)UP, a write in for hardened Mephisto solvers. | |
| 28 | Roast fresh crayfish, hard to pass over (7) |
| SCARIFY – Anagram of CRAYFISH – H. | |
| 29 | Date outstanding swimmer (4) |
| DACE -D + ACE, an escaped Quickie clue. | |
| 30 | Dear America freely giving a feeling of fellowship (11) |
| CAMARADERIE – Anagram of DEAR AMERICA. | |
| 31 | Saw a miner’s wedge overturning mine’s closure (5) |
| ADAGE – A + GAD backwards + [min]E. | |
| 32 | Once commoner’s excluded heads for ceremonial vessels (6) |
| CRUETS – CRU(mp)ETS. Crumpet is a slang word for the head, and an MP sits in the House of Commons. Thanks to George for this one. | |
| 33 | Most young people in general will be in residence (6) |
| NEWEST – NE(WE)ST. | |
| 34 | Lost award? American soak stands by it (5) |
| ARETT – A + RET + ‘T. Lost in the sense of archaic. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Foreign Office on broken deal being delivered (6) |
| FOALED – F.O. + anagram of DEAL. | |
| 2 | Early reputation rests on shrubs revealing a class of creepers? (8) |
| REPTILIA – REP + TILIA. | |
| 3 | Quixotic concerning rising storm (6) |
| ERRANT – RE backwards + RANT. | |
| 4 | Australian quilt is turned up although having Scots wool inside (5) |
| DOONA – AN(OO)D upside-down. | |
| 5 | Really popular fix capping right process (13, four words) |
| IN POINT OF FACT – IN + POINT + OFF + ACT, where the off side is the right in cricket. | |
| 6 | Slipped up with obligation to stock Japanese fruit (7) |
| NARTJIE – RAN upside-down + T(J)IE. | |
| 7 | Greek characters grabbing gold fleece (6) |
| CHIAUS – CHI(AU)S. | |
| 8 | In the morning lacklustre until being lively around afternoon (9) |
| MATUTINAL – MAT + anagram of UNTIL. | |
| 9 | Educated about unchanged lumps (6) |
| EDEMAS – ED + SAME backwards. | |
| 15 | Capo ringing international blighter’s fence, say (9) |
| BARRICADE – BARR(I,CAD)E. | |
| 18 | Refuse to entertain cut Irish Rover (8) |
| RAPPAREE – RAP(PARE)E. | |
| 20 | Unionist, sitter in Westminster wanting lead employs sticklers (7) |
| UMPIRES – U + MP + [h]IRES. | |
| 21 | Court is to drop examination (6, two words) |
| CT SCAN – CT’S + CAN. | |
| 22 | European sauce pushed up levy in the past (6) |
| MURAGE – E + GARUM upside-down. Garum is the Roman fish sauce. | |
| 24 | Macron’s dullness shown by trifling taste reversing his way? (6) |
| FADEUR – FAD + RUE backwards. | |
| 25 | Vacuous text about short times in Scotland is most cute (6) |
| TWEEST – T(WEES)T. | |
| 27 | Some noteworthy dragon, one Herakles did for (5) |
| HYDRA – Hidden in [notewort]HY DRA[gon]. | |
In some ways not as easy as last week’s. I couldn’t sort out the parsing of CRUETS – thank you George. Similarly in 5d my parsing was muddled. It was the significance of ‘capping’ that caused me trouble – thanks Jonathan
I assume the in 1a that A comes from the A- entry in Chambers with the meaning of ON? I needed the pun to be sure of this one.
Finally I think MATUTINAL definition is IN THE MORNING and the parsing is MAT, UNTIL anag, about A (afternoon).
This was the easiest in a long time for me, completed in under 20 minutes.
I think ‘ceremonial’ is part of the definition for CRUETS. I agree with richard about MATITUTINAL. And in 5dn OFF is not a cricket reference: it’s’ only the right-hand side for a right-handed batsman, i.e. not definitionally so. However Chambers also has ‘(of a horse of vehicle) right’ as a definition of OFF.
32ac: I don’t doubt the parsing suggested, but I’m not sure the clue quite works…. “Once commoner’s excluded heads” suggests that heads is a definition for a word AFTER commoner is excluded, not before. “Heads, once commoner’s excluded, become ceremonial vessels” would make better wordplay sense, although obviously it’s nonsense as regards the surface.
14ac: I dislike deceptive upcasing, but apparently it’s regarded (by Azed, among others) as “acceptable – just”.
I don’t get the pun!
fair dinkum
adjective
slang, Australia
: unquestionably good or genuine : excellent —often used as a general expression of approval
“these cigars are fair dinkum”
Much obliged! I have heard that!