Greetings barred-grid fans, and apologies for the late post.
A couple of airport snafus later and I am typing this from the international terminal at LAX. I was hoping to get this written up before I left, but like with all holidays, things got hectic!
I didn’t find this one too difficult, except for one odd clue that I don’t know if I’ve completely parsed. Robert Teuton popped me by including a reference to Viz, which I used to subscribe to when they ran an Australian version. Robert’s Profanisaurus anyone?
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Sorted out wordplay — one part (8) |
| PUNISHED – PUN(wordplay), I(one), SHED(part with) | |
| 7 | Woolly mass, a lot of sheep en masse? (4) |
| FLOC – a FLOCK of sheep minus the last letter | |
| 11 | College directed towards energy provider largely with a common focus (10) |
| CONCENTRIC – fortunately the definition is generous – C(college), ON(directed towards), and CENTRICA(a UK energy provider) minus the last letter | |
| 13 | Member of parliament about to take night tram (6) |
| OWLCAR – OWL + CA + R. | |
| 14 | Young blood rebuffed title of respect for Malayan prince (5) |
| TUNKU – KNUT(young blood, found under NUT in Chambers) reversed, the U(title of respect) | |
| 15 | The solution to this you knew finally yielded “scavenger” (8) |
| CLEANSER – hmmm… one of the definitions of SCAVENGER is a person who cleans the streets. A cleanser is a solution. I can’t make anything of the middle bit. | |
| 17 | Focus perhaps on neat footwear (6) |
| OXFORD – Focus is a make of FORD, put it after OX(neat) | |
| 18 | Had to renounce God with replacement prayer beads (5) |
| SUBHA – HAD mind D(God) with SUB(replacement in front) | |
| 20 | Set foot on spiritual enchanting place of old (6) |
| FAERIE – F(foot) next to AERIE(spiritual) | |
| 22 | Adult comic’s associated with dog, not the black dog (6) |
| VIZSLA – VIZ’S(adult comic’s) then LAB(dog) minus B(black) | |
| 24 | Spam left out getting mould as before (5) |
| PLASM – anagram of SPAM,L(left) | |
| 26 | Nice cover of dance hit in the style of Shangri-Las? (6) |
| EDENIC – anagram of NICE and the external letters of DancE | |
| 30 | Tips good Italian fashion house to release latest in menswear (8) |
| BONAMANI – BON(good), then ARMANI(Italian fashion house) minus the last letter in mensweaR. Found in Chambers under BUONAMANO | |
| 31 | G Bale suffering defeat at Wimbledon, 6-0 (5) |
| BAGEL – anagram of G,BALE | |
| 32 | One flying to get on Israeli airline leaving terminal (6) |
| ELANET – NET(get) after EL AL(Israeli airline) minus the last letter | |
| 33 | Robert’s involved in square, getting one in order? (10) |
| NORBERTINE – anagram of ROBERT inside NINE(the square of three) | |
| 34 | Big cat associates caught (4) |
| LYNX – homophone of LINKS(associates) | |
| 35 | Separate gases break down after splitting atom (8) |
| ATMOLYSE – LYSE(break down) after an anagram of ATOM | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Written report for boss reveals openings for best candidates (12) |
| PROCES-VERBAL – PRO(for) then an anagram (indicated by boss) of REVEALS and the first letters of Best Candidates | |
| 2 | Curt expression of admiration for Macbeth’s crowns? (5) |
| NOLES – NO LESS(expression of admiration) minus the last letter | |
| 3 | Old royalty, Henry having money (6, two words) |
| IN CASH – INCAS(old royalty) and H(Henry, the unit). Big electromagnetic week for me, having H today and GB on Thursday | |
| 4 | Shocked feeling cold in narrow boat (7) |
| SCANDAL – C(cold) in SANDAL(narrow boat) | |
| 5 | Harrow and others wanting to back Eton’s head (5) |
| HERSE – OTHERS minus TO reversed, then the first letter in Eton | |
| 6 | Nut with iron fist’s first to accept owning surrender (7) |
| ENFEOFF – EN(nut) then FE(iron) and the first letter of Fist containing OF(owning) | |
| 8 | Part of journal in gobbledygook jargon (5) |
| LINGO – hidden inside journaL IN GObbledygook | |
| 9 | It’s flipping irksome accommodating constant Australian boorishness (8) |
| OCKERISM – anagram of IRKSOME containing C(constant). Some may beg to differ with this definition, OI OI OI | |
| 10 | Media put out in characteristic masterstroke (12, three words) |
| COUP DE MAITRE – anagram of MEDIA,PUT inside CORE(characteristic) | |
| 12 | Pope more abrupt spurning outsiders (5) |
| RUFFE – GRUFFER(more abrupt) minus the external letters | |
| 16 | Substance sickly and ultimately syrupy (8) |
| QUIDDANY – QUID(substance), an anagram of AND and the last letter of syrupY | |
| 19 | Black capturing a rook getting material (7) |
| JACONET – JET(black) containing A, CON(rook) | |
| 21 | Italian monopoly to dismay tax officer (7) |
| APPALTO – APPAL(dismay), TO(tax officer) | |
| 23 | Gibe cut old Queen (5) |
| SNEER – SNEE(old cut), R(queen) | |
| 25 | Essential ingredient for sherlocks — correspondence’s covering in dust? (6) |
| LIMAIL – the middle letter of sherLocks and MAIL(correspondence) containing I(in) | |
| 27 | Cruel person reverting back to Mephistophelean work (5) |
| ERGON – OGRE(cruel person) reversed, then the last letter of mephistophelean | |
| 28 | Unarmed marine avoiding a shot (5) |
| INERM – anagram of MARINE minus A | |
| 29 | US behind news breaking foreseeing calamity? (5) |
| FANNY – N and N(news) inside FAY(foreseeing calamity) | |
15A is a devious subtraction clue. “The solution to this” indicates CLUE ANSWER, which yields (=concedes) ~U and ~W.
Just confirming that 13A is OWL CA R with “parliament” as a collective noun.
Since George is evidently very busy, I have added the omitted parsing of OWLCAR to the blog.
18a takes a lot of re-reading to realise it’s not a substitution clue. Only just realised that, thanks George.
Agree with Peter’s explanation of 15a and 13a. 15a was another rather fine clue that took some thinking about.
15ac was one of those clues where, the moment I read it, I thought I wouldn’t be able to work out the wordplay until I actually had the answer. 13ac was a nice piece of misdirection.
17ac, 18ac and 32ac: I’m not a big fan of clues where the second half of the wordplay precedes the first part in the answer without this being indicated – and here we have three of them in one puzzle. Just saying….
I agree re 17 and 32. I had a ‘discussion’ over the use of ‘on’ with one of the bloggers of the Sunday cryptic who just couldn’t see why this felt unnatural to a relative newcomer. In the end I just accepted the any natural interpretation of ‘on’ had to be abandoned. 18’s similar but uses ‘with’ instead of on, which is arguably more natural in not implying any order of precedence in a natural usage.
The In 29 down how does double n come from news breaking. Really struggled with the parsing this week.
The double n comes from news- n(new) plus n(new). “Breaking” just indicates these n’s go inside fay.
I had to finish solving this last night, as I am behind again. I was quite pleased at being able to parse cleanser, but I didn’t have a clue about proces-verbal. I did appreciate the clever &lit for quiddany, my LOI.
Was helped with the last two – QUIDDANY and SUBHA – by the realisation that this was a pangram.
I must have been tired. not sure what I originally wrote for owlcar but I must have made a bish of it. Now I have been told, cleanser is very clever. Greetings from Australia! I will post the blog for 3393 well before I leave. maybe.