I sometimes have trouble with Grimshaw puzzles, but this one was not particularly difficult. There are definitely a few easy ones to get you started, and for once one across was a write-in. Ultrarapid, etherism, and womenswear were easy anagrams and produced a lot of useful crossing letters. I did have to look a few things up in the end, but most of it fell nicely into place.
| Across | |
| 1 | Marketplace absolutely typical of our country? (4) |
| SOUK – SO UK, a write-in for me. | |
| 4 | Something delightful like this about Australian hotel (8) |
| GASTHAUS – GAS + TH(A)US. | |
| 10 | What few men assume some new war is brewing (10) |
| WOMENSWEAR – Anagram of SOME NEW WAR. | |
| 12 | Small monkey? Yes, some say small, small monkey (8) |
| OUISTITI – OUI + S + TITI, another monkey. | |
| 13 | Peron impostor is regularly failing by that very fact (6, two words) |
| EO IPSO – [P]E[r]O[n] I[m]P[o]S[t]O[r]. | |
| 14 | British nettle tree found in the north (4) |
| BIRK – B + IRK. Scots equivalent of birch. | |
| 15 | Troop fuel goes missing in commotion (4) |
| TURM – TURM[oil] | |
| 17 | Pointed observations on game being played (6) |
| GNOMAE – Anagram of ON GAME. | |
| 20 | Palm tree pious people of Yemen once formerly put round square (8) |
| PIASSABA – PI + A (S) SABA. To clarify the parsing, I believe PI = pious, A = ante, formerly, S = square, and SABA = people of Yemen, once. | |
| 22 | Ministers in Rome query vessel carrying waste outside Italy (8) |
| QUIRINAL – Q + U(I)RINAL. | |
| 24 | Group of proteins once unknown in beer now fashionable (6) |
| ALEXIN – ALE (X) IN. | |
| 25 | Group of villages in revolt in South Africa (4) |
| ZUPA – Z(UP)A. ZA is the country code for South Africa, since Saudi Arabia has taken SA. | |
| 26 | What’s ornamental and twisted candlestick in France but not here (4) |
| TORC – |
|
| 28 | Specifically metallic part for lighter bicycle (6) |
| TERBIC – Hidden in [ligh]TER BIC[ycle]. Pertaining to terbium, so highly specific. | |
| 30 | Stoned hits — mere addiction (8) |
| ETHERISM – Anagram of HITS – MERE. | |
| 31 | Lovely girl in LA, one with chaperone, unfortunately (10) |
| PEACHERINO – Anagram of I + CHAPERONE. Not specific to California. | |
| 32 | Understanding very up to date equipment of mine (8) |
| HEADGEAR – HEAD + GEAR. Gear is UK slang for the latest and greatest. | |
| 33 | Stimulant about to be concealed in cake (4) |
| PAAN – P(A)AN. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Plant tare in brush by running water (8, two words) |
| SWEET PEA – SWEE(T)P + EA. | |
| 2 | Referee’s role — I’m not sure irrational anger is what’s needed? (8) |
| UMPIRAGE – UM + PI + RAGE. | |
| 3 | Competition in gathering wool? (4) |
| KEMP – Double definition – you could look it up. | |
| 4 | Disciple turning up is after good spiritual knowledge (6) |
| GNOSIS – G + SON backwards + IS. | |
| 5 | Traditional pity about Great Britain chasing victory — this is boxing rubbish (8) |
| SWING BIN – S(WIN, G.B)IN. | |
| 6 | Pitched up with society heroine (4) |
| TESS – SET upside down + S, for a Hardy character. | |
| 7 | Deerstalker perhaps has predicament, a guard around Balmoral? (6) |
| HATBOX – HAT + BOX, as you could be said to be in a box. | |
| 8 | Take adult pair cavorting? Such a film is quickly exposed (10) |
| ULTRARAPID – Anagram of R + ADULT PAIR. | |
| 9 | Dicky in Glasgow denying girl’s young man heroin (4) |
| SEIK – S[h]EIK. | |
| 11 | British and French certainly put up tax on the heartless gambling game (10) |
| BOUILLOTTE – B + OUI + TOLL upsidedown + Th]E. | |
| 16 | Disease diabetes insipidus interrupting tiring local trip (8) |
| JAUNDICE – JAUN(D.I.)CE. | |
| 18 | Seas holding bunch of fibre parts of jellyfish (8) |
| MANUBRIA – MA(NUB)RIA. | |
| 19 | Fish noted for greasiness turned out lean? Ouch! (8) |
| EULACHON – Anagram of LEAN? OUCH!. | |
| 21 | Selected extracts from missing report are outstanding (6) |
| EXCEED – EXCE[rpt]ED | |
| 23 | Glass engineers put up under half of roof (6) |
| ROEMER – RO[of] + R.E.M.E upside-down. | |
| 26 | Letter, the one in Old English (4) |
| TETH – T’ + ETH, giving a Hebrew letter. | |
| 27 | Kill strawberries with lack of air (4) |
| FRAG – FRAG[aria]. | |
| 29 | What regularly takes group rope? (4) |
| RURP – [g]R[o]U[p] R[o]P[e], a rather clever &lit. | |
There were a couple I had to return to, to see how the wordplay worked. One was PIASSABA, which I believe is Pia(pious L.) Saba(people of Yemen once) S(square).
Some rather good clues here. Learnt a lot about the history of Yemen.
Thanks for blog.
Agree with your parsing – but not sure why the clue had both once and formerly?
Same here. It looks like a mistake to me – perhaps the setter or editor meant to change it from one to the other?
I have now updated the blog to explain what I think the intended parsing is, but I agree it is not exactly clear.
I don’t think this works. Indirect abbreviations are not permitted, and even if you accept that they are ‘formerly’ does not mean ‘ante’. And even allowing for that the word order doesn’t work: ‘pious people of Yemen once formerly’ gives you PI, SABA, A, which you then have to put round S. This cannot give the answer.
Apart from that Mrs Lincoln…
My thoughts exactly!
I didn’t do this crossword. But when I lived in France, I discovered the french equivalent of saying “cheese” to get a smile for a photograph is to say “ouistiti”.
26a where does torch come into it?
33a can pan=cake?
26ac: it’s “torchere” (not torch) – French for a candlestick – without “here”.
33ac: pan = cake as a verb
Agreed. ‘Cake’ for ‘pan’ (like ‘predicament’ for ‘box’ elsewhere) is one of those obscure-seeming equivalences where I just confirm it in Chambers without worrying too much about what it actually means!
I enjoyed this one: I found it difficult but never got completely stuck.
Thank you
Incidentally, while I appreciate the idea of 29dn, it’s maybe not quite as clever as it appears. A rurp is a very small piton that is not very strong and is generally used for aid climbing, which is normally done in pairs. A group rope would more likely be associated with mountaineering, when something bigger and stronger than a rurp would be required. All the same I enjoyed seeing it, as it’s one of my favourite obscure words.
Good obscure knowledge!
If we required the setters to have complete technical knowledge of all the obscure words they use, I don’t think we would have many puzzles to solve!