Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I solved this in one fairly lengthy session, with a fair bit of checking up on the wordplay elements. It was an odd puzzle in that there were a lot of clues where I could put the answer in based on the definition or wordplay, but had to do a bit of research to be confident in the entry.
Robert Teuton has a knack for surfaces, and there are some very fun clues in here.
| Across | |
| 1 | Cereal with taste of umami for a sauce (4) |
| SUGO – SAGO(cereal) with the first letter of Umami replacing A | |
| 5 | With shoes off, very laid back with cat snuggling close to fire (8) |
| BAREFOOT – TOO(very) reversed next to BARF(cat, throw up) containing the last letter in firE | |
| 11 | Toured around Great Lake blundering (10) |
| ETOURDERIE – anagram of TOURED, then Lake ERIE | |
| 12 | Spirit drink recalled by company (5) |
| PISCO – SIP(drink) reversed, then CO(company) | |
| 14 | Sorbets lacking special flavours? (4) |
| ICES – remove SP(special) from SPICES(flavours) | |
| 16 | Largely reckoning first clue’s drossy? (7) |
| SCORIAC – remove the last letter from SCORE(reckoning), then the first clue is 1 AC | |
| 17 | Spread teeth with snow — stimulant … (9) |
| WHETSTONE – anagram of TEETH and SNOW | |
| 18 | … has spread front to back (4) |
| OWNS – SOWN(spread) with the S at the end | |
| 20 | Butler’s busy brushing off black coat (6) |
| ULSTER – anagram of BUTLER’S minus B(black) | |
| 22 | Obstacle’s concerning delay (6) |
| REMORA – RE(concering), MORA(delay) | |
| 24 | Vegetable silage husked and turned over (4) |
| EDDO – FODDER(silage) minus the external letters and reversed | |
| 26 | One building bridges over Tasmanian mountain range pressing forward! (9) |
| PONTONIER – ‘PON(upon, over), then TIER(mountain range in Tasmania) containing ON(forward). I lived in Tasmania from 1992-1995 and don’t ever remember that term for a mountain range, but it is in Chambers | |
| 29 | Local crowd that is heralding touchdown at Eton (7) |
| SCROUGE – SC(scilicet, that is) then ROUGE(a touchdown at Eton) | |
| 31 | Local Labour MP’s opening news … (4) |
| MOIL – first letter in MP’S, then OIL(news) | |
| 32 | … having fallen heavily, MP’s denied being drunk (5) |
| SLUED – SLUMPED(fallen heavily) minus MP | |
| 33 | Decoy to linger in what club? (10) |
| SHILLELAGH – SHILL(a decoy), then LAG(linger) inside EH(what) | |
| 34 | Worm’s broken back into point on network (8) |
| NEMATODE – TAME(broken, as a horse) reversed inside NODE(point on a network) | |
| 35 | Thatcher leaves thanks protected by American plan (4) |
| ATAP – TA(thanks) inside AP(American plan). Isn’t American Plan an oxymoron? | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Clamour once United press on the counter (4) |
| UTIS – U(united) then SIT(press) reversed | |
| 3 | Happy place? Fancy not once returning (6) |
| GOSHEN – GOSH(fancy!), then NE(not, once) reversed | |
| 4 | Anything Scottish? Brooch with drop of thistle (5) |
| OUCHT – OUCH(brooch) and the first letter of Thistle | |
| 5 | Safari, perhaps right to be tapping water supply? (7) |
| BROWSER – R(right) inside BOWSER(water supply) – referring to a web browser | |
| 6 | Informal meeting of scientists, current one’s starting (10) |
| RENCOUNTER – anagram of CURRENT,ONE | |
| 7 | Work with utility company around outskirts of Reading (5) |
| ERGON – I had to look this one up. E.ON is a European utility company, insert the external letters of ReadinG | |
| 8 | Founder of colony’s old English tomb (6) |
| OECIST – OE(Old English), CIST(tomb) | |
| 9 | Man in love with Pearl, perhaps bewitched (7) |
| OBEAHED – HE(man) inside O(love) and BEAD(a pearl, perhaps) | |
| 10 | Dodge perhaps after time and mouths outdated language (9) |
| TUSCARORA – A Dodge is a US CAR, put that after T(time) then ORA(mouths) | |
| 13 | Characters in some strange, lost Syriac alphabet (10) |
| ESTRANGELO – hidden inside somE STRANGE LOst | |
| 15 | One of the Three Musketeers maybe downs arms in action (9) |
| SWORDSMAN – anagram of DOWNS,ARMS | |
| 19 | Spinning thread — some section to be cut for red carpet? (7) |
| WELCOME – reversal of CLEW(thread) then SOME minus S(section) | |
| 21 | Butcher’s can seek stews (7) |
| LOOK-SEE -LOO(can), then an anagram of SEEK | |
| 23 | Cook simmer — repetition of parts? (6) |
| MERISM – anagram of SIMMER | |
| 25 | Over four times a day, starts to use any trusted herbicide (6) |
| DIQUAT – QID(quater in die, four times a day) reversed then the first letter of Use Any Trusted | |
| 27 | Shabby person completely stalling response (5) |
| OUBIT – OUT(completely) containing BI(a response in Chinese medicine) | |
| 28 | Almost nothing starts to leaf across ravine … (5) |
| NULLA – NULL(nothing) minus the last letter, then the first letters of Leaf Across | |
| 30 | … fertile plain’s area with food plants (4) |
| VEGA – A(area) after VEG(food plants) | |
Almost thought I was going to finish this in one session but set it aside after getting well over half to finish on the next session (Tuesday?). It’s always good to look over the whole thing several days later, to more firmly settle new information in your mind. For example, both REMORA and MORA were utterly new to me. As well as EDDO.… and OECIST… et al.! It’s not over until after the parsing!
ETOURDERIE—I love the frequent French invasions here.
We had PISCO in a 15×15 a few days later.
I knew SCORIAC from E.A. Poe’s “Ulalume,” of course. “These were days when my heart was volcanic / As the scoriac rivers that roll—”
And my parents had a Dodge Dart.
I don’t (nor do most of my compatriots) equate “Trump plan” (“a concept of a plan”!) to “American plan” in general. Honestly. It’s like we called all of youse Brexiters.—No, wait! This is George, a Yank. What gives, man? Ha
I had noticed I hadn’t quite finished, and had to go back and complete the puzzle before reading the blog. For some reason I thought the hidden Syriac alphabet didn’t quite fit the slot, but then I saw it did. That broke open the remaining answers, and I got shillelagh and scrouge pretty quickly. Nulla and oubit were my LOIs.
I think the puzzle was rather challenging, although I biffed answers like nematode and pontonier.
Completed in two sessions, but didn’t fully unravel the wordplay in BAREFOOT or PONTONIER. Thanks for the explanations George.
I found this pretty tricky, with a few that I didn’t parse. BAREFOOT, for instance, where I assumed that the word for ‘cat’ was also reversed, but FRAB wasn’t in Chambers. Doh!
I learned a few days after this that PISCO is actually a brandy.
5ac Barefoot – there is no indication in the clue that “very laid back” comes after the snuggling cat. Of course you can argue that “with” means accompanying and therefore the order can be either way round, but I still think it’s a bit dodgy. And unnecessary – the clue could just as well read “With shoes off, cat snuggling close to fire, very laid back”. I wasn’t familiar with American plan, but apparently it’s (among other potential references) a hotel rate, including three meals a day. 31ac: I thought “MP’s opening” was a poor clue for M; I think “opening” only really works with a word or a pronounced acronym (eg Nato). I understand it was meant to link to the following clue, but “member’s opening” would have done that and been neater (IMHO).