Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I remember starting this one late on Saturday night and not getting very far before I was having difficulty focusing. I came back to it on Sunday afternoon and found it pretty tricky to get the last few parts together, I hope I have it all correct.
There was a lot of looking at wordplay elements and trying to piece them together into possible words here, several terms I did not know or words I’d seen but can’t tell you the meaning off straight away.
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Genus of fruit breeds needing pruning at the start (5) |
| RIBES – TRIBES(breeds) minus the first letter | |
| 5 | Rumour about English dress material (7) |
| KITENGE – KITE(rumour, like “fly a kite”) surrounding ENG(English) | |
| 10 | Verse I found in shed, one in Anglo-Norman (7) |
| HUITAIN – I inside HUT(shed) then I(one) inside AN(Anglo-Norman) | |
| 11 | Royal form of address accepted in Mayan language (4) |
| MAAM – A(accepted) inside MAM(Mayan language) | |
| 12 | Guess late queen’s entered place above? (9) |
| SUPERPOSE – SUPPOSE(guess) with ER(late queen) inside | |
| 13 | What grows on rose patch alongside eastern legume (8) |
| BEDEGUAR – BED(garden patch) next to E(eastern), GUAR(legume) | |
| 15 | Red alga expected to absorb lake sulphur (5) |
| DULSE -DUE(expected) containing L(lake) and S(sulphur) | |
| 17 | Honorary title, eg one daughter used about Yemen’s leader (6) |
| SAYYID – SAY(eg), I(one), D(daughter) surrounding the first letter in Yemen | |
| 19 | Dandy old leg strap girl’s chasing (7) |
| JESSAMY – JESS(leg strap in falconry), then AMY(girl) | |
| 22 | Awfully amusing small dog runs in lake (7) |
| SCURRIL – S(small), CUR(dog), R and R(runs), I(in), L(lake) | |
| 24 | Relaxed, like university in California (6) |
| CASUAL – AS(like), U(university) inside CAL(California) | |
| 26 | Naval detection system — captain having it returned (5) |
| ASDIC – CID(captain), and SA(it) all reversed | |
| 27 | What can limit inspiration running open days (8) |
| DYSPNOEA – anagram of OPEN,DAYS | |
| 29 | See drunk one among game river goddesses (9) |
| VALKYRIUR – V(see), ALKY(drunk) then I(one) inside RU(game), and R(river) | |
| 30 | Golf club pulling out with advantage (4) |
| EDGE – WEDGE(golf club) minus W(with) | |
| 31 | Catalogue old monkey in North America (7) |
| NOTITIA – O(old), TITI(monkey) in NA(North America) | |
| 32 | When travelling I daren’t step down onto the platform (7) |
| DETRAIN – anagram of I,DAREN’T | |
| 33 | Vast quantity of processed cane (5) |
| OCEAN – O(0f) and an anagram of CANE | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Had rub working with small piece of sponge (7) |
| RHABDUS – anagram of HAD,RUB, then S(small) | |
| 2 | Guarantee banning nuclear ship by law (4) |
| IURE – INSURE(guarantee) minus NS(nuclear ship) | |
| 3 | Parasite left in aviary, hard to get eradicated (9) |
| BIRDLOUSE – L(left) inside BIRDHOUSE(aviary) minus H(hard) | |
| 4 | Fish dish that’s good for canine (6) |
| SAUGER – SAUCER(dish) with G(good) replacing C(canine) | |
| 5 | Primate acceptable in wild pink, I judge? (7) |
| KIPUNJI – U(acceptable) in an anagram of PINK,I,J(judge) | |
| 6 | Legal land decision gets reversed (5) |
| TERRA – ARRET(decision) reversed | |
| 7 | Vain relative spitting blood (8) |
| EMPTYSIS – EMPTY(vain), SIS(relative). A term I was rather happy too not know, can I forget it now please? | |
| 8 | What’s been used to purify government advanced moral filth (7) |
| GASLIME – G(government), A(advanced), SLIME(moral filth) | |
| 9 | Polish European reform (5) |
| EMEND – E(european), MEND(reform) | |
| 14 | Tawny-toed wild bird (9) |
| WYANDOTTE – anagram of TAWNY-TOED | |
| 16 | Aggressive salesman, one rejecting news item about fraud regularly (8) |
| SPRUIKER – SPIKER(one rejecting a new item), surrounding alternating letters in fRaUd. You’ll SPIKER under SPIKE in Chambers, and in about 1989 I had a job as a SPRUIKER, standing outside discount stores in Melbourne trying to get people to come inside with promises of cheap kids shoes and the like. I wasn’t very good at it, I kept throwing jokes in that were not appreciated. | |
| 18 | Assault succeeded on a boy in church (7) |
| SCALADE – S(succeeded) on top of A,LAD(boy) inside CE(church) – think of assaulting a fort using ladders | |
| 20 | Escape throwing ninety out of bar (7) |
| ELUSION – remove XC(ninety) from EXCLUSION(bar) | |
| 21 | Cassava and cane region of Mexico (7) |
| YUCATAN – YUCA(cassava) and TAN(cane) | |
| 23 | Chinese leader concealing deposited capital (6) |
| MAPUTO – MAO(Chinese leader) containing PUT(deposited). Capital of Mozambique | |
| 24 | Made with an arch man finally demolished (5) |
| COVED – COVE(man) and the last letter of demolisheD | |
| 25 | Sacred settings that Lovelace has penned (5) |
| ADYTA – YT(that) inside ADA Lovelace | |
| 28 | Lamb was sickly being brought up, losing tail (4) |
| ELIA – AILED(was sickly) reversed, minus the last letter | |
I admit this was a bit challenging. Yes, there were a few write-ins like ASDIC and detrain, but having to decline an Old Norse noun was tough – where did they come up with this plural? Well, we had childru and childen in English, leading to children, so anything is possible.
I even recognized Sayyid and wyandotte, but there were quite a few unknowns that had to be tracked down. However, I did finish.
Pea is another English noun that’s been mangled over time, with Pease being the more accurate singular and Peason the plural. And many other examples. There seems to be an inexorable tide that insists on singularising plurals.
How long will it be before ‘datas, bacterias, criterias, or phenomenas’ are considered correct? When doctors speak of ‘a bacteria’ there is no hope.
Plurals in Swedish are similar: they are usually formed by adding -ar, -or or -er. So a flower is ‘en blomma’, flowers are ‘blommor’.
I didn’t find this too bad, certainly easier than last week’s. All wordplay understood and in agreement with George’s.
I found this quite tough but I never got really stuck, which makes for a very enjoyable solve. Often there are a few double-obscurity clues in these puzzles that I find frustratingly difficult to crack.
I found this remarkably amenable – just as well, as I didn’t have a dictionary to hand until I’d finished. My one issue was that I’d initially written in 5dn as Kipanji, but then I was sure 13ac should be Bedeguar, not Bedegaur (since I’d heard of Guar); then I realised that U could be “acceptable” and a subsequent dictionary check confirmed Kipunji.
That’s impressive. I’m heavily reliant on the dictionary.
Although I was in Chicago attending a conference, I actually managed to solve most of this during my vacation, and I’m gratified to discover that a few older hands at this found it hard (though a bit dissatisfied with myself for not entirely finishing it, as the few answers left blank don’t seem that hard now!). It may be a bit late for me to get started on the latest one.