Greetings barred-grid fans
Can’t remember a lot about solving this one as I have come down with a bad case of strep throat and my everything is a bit of a blur. Hopefully I’ve got it all sorted out, but I’ll keep things brief today.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Sounding alert to increase cut from apiculture (7) |
| BEEPING – remove EKE(increase) from BEEKEEPING | |
| 6 | Brass item protecting small metal plate (5) |
| TSUBA – TUBA(brass item) containing S(small) | |
| 11 | Partner driven insane by heat leaving Turkey (4) |
| OPPO – TROPPO(driven insane by heat) minus TR(Turkey) | |
| 12 | Flimsy trifle to collapse — what’s learned on reflection? (8) |
| FOLDEROL -FOLD(collapse) then LORE(what’s learned) reversed | |
| 13 | Ship left for India scuppering many a pirate vessel (8) |
| SALLYMAN – SAIL(ship) with L(left) replacing I(India) then an anagram of MANY | |
| 15 | Fish dish with crust covering from cellophane bag (8) |
| CODPIECE -COD(fish) PIE(dish with crust) and the external letters of CellophanE | |
| 16 | Sanction renouncing US pollution (5) |
| STAIN – SUSTAIN(sanction) minus US | |
| 17 | More tea, coffee and chocolate (5) |
| MOCHA – MO(more), CHA(tea) | |
| 19 | Photo in African capital reflecting front of head (8) |
| SINCIPUT – PIC(photo) inside TUNIS(African capital) all reversed | |
| 22 | Surgical instrument for cutting your bits off! (8) |
| BISTOURY -anagram of YOUR,BITS | |
| 23 | Rouse once the morning’s nearly ended (5) |
| AMOVE -AM(the morning), then OVER(ended) minus the last letter | |
| 25 | Childless if and only if smart (5) |
| SPIFF – SP(sine prole, childless), IFF(if and only if) | |
| 28 | Predict wood to be cut and cut (8) |
| FORESHEW – FOREST(wood) minus the last letter, then HEW(cut) | |
| 30 | Thatchers topping frail structure that is outside of Ross (8) |
| HELLIERS – remove the first letter from SHELL(frail structure), then IE(that is), and the external letters of RosS | |
| 31 | Old salve, balmy aromatic? (8, two words) |
| LAD’S LOVE – anagram of OLD,SALVE | |
| 32 | See me, a little elderly, round Zambia? (4) |
| MZEE – ME, and the first letter of Elderly surrounding Z(Zambia) | |
| 33 | Gorge chump of pork, dessert about to follow (5) |
| KLOOF – last letter of porK, then FOOL(dessert) reversed | |
| 34 | Chap’s skinned after claim revolving around tax (7) |
| GABELLE – FELLER(chap) minus the external letters after BAG(claim, as in “Bags this cake is mine”) reversed | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Truck’s back in to bulldoze thickets (5) |
| BOSKS – last letter of trucK inside BOSS(to bulldoze, order around) | |
| 2 | Start of Easter needing agreement on age of Moon at Jan 1 (5) |
| EPACT -first letter of Easter, then PACT(agreement) | |
| 3 | Voting I see extremely ominous signal from crowd (12, two words) |
| POLLICE VERSO -POLL(voting), I, C(see), then EVER SO(extremely) | |
| 4 | French name of southern department (5) |
| NOMOS – NOM(French for name), O(of), S(southern) | |
| 5 | Rebuffed swine with a large sword (7) |
| GLADIUS – SUID(swine) and A, LG(large) all reversed. Anyone else know this one from the video game? | |
| 7 | Spooner’s garbled sentence entertaining international maths student at Cambridge (12, two words) |
| SENIOROPTIME – anagram of SPOONER, then TIME(sentence) containing I(international) | |
| 8 | Pointed gun when unsheathed … (4) |
| URDE – a PURDEY gun minus the external letters | |
| 9 | … cowboy’s upset gripping Colt (7) |
| BOTCHER – BOTHER(upset) containing C(colt). Cowboy can mean someone who is carless or slipshod | |
| 10 | Before very early shifts worker’s home (7) |
| ALVEARY -A(before), V(very) then an anagram of EARLY. The worker is a bee. | |
| 14 | Missing one broken toenail that’s shed (6) |
| LEAN-TO – remove I(one) from TOENAIL, then form an anagram | |
| 18 | Uncovered pickpocket after vintage pen (6) |
| CRUIVE – remove the external letters from DIVER(pickpocket) after CRU(vintage) | |
| 19 | Sailors safe drifting right around lake (7) |
| SEAFOLK – anagram of SAFE, then OK(right) surrounding L(lake) | |
| 20 | Reprobate lasting no time (7) |
| IMMORAL – IMMORTAL(lasting) minus T(time) | |
| 21 | Pooh-pooh ego trips? Charming (7) |
| PISHEOG – PISH(pooh-pooh), then an anagram of EGO | |
| 24 | Dense forest in Mosel valley (5) |
| SELVA – hidden inside moSEL VAlley | |
| 26 | Parchment’s role to play attached to folio (5) |
| FOREL – anagram of ROLE after F(folio) | |
| 27 | Match due to involve me (5) |
| FUSEE – FEE(due) containing US(me) | |
| 29 | Further attempt to comb over (4) |
| REDO – RED(comb),O(over) | |
Are you sure it’s strep throat G? The strain of covid that is going round here at the moment seems to feature a rasping sore throat.
Quite a gentle Mephisto this week.
Thanks – yeah I had heard that too, but I got my positive strep test this afternoon.
Yuck. Get well soon!
I finished and understood most of it, but could figure out senior optime, an obvious biff. There was a lot of stuff I knew – gladius, why, that’s just the Latin word for sword. And when a little boy gets bored in church, he reads the appendix in the prayer book that describes how the date of Easter is calculated.
I really like the clue for mzee – a brilliant clue.
There were a couple of mathematical references here that took me back to my undergrad days: iff, which my notes were filled with. It meant a logical equivalence (a iff b: a implies b and b implies a). Is this used in other disciplines?
Senior Optime was the other mathematical reference. A very clever surface deception. Initially I groaned at the thought of having to work a Spoonerism clue in Mephisto – not my favourite type of clue – and was relieved when I realised it wasn’t.
Agree with vinyl1 that MZEE was a brilliant clue.
Very enjoyable puzzle this week.
Interesting that suid has come up twice this weekend? Did Robert Teuton set Saturday’s cryptic as well?
Slight typo in 10dn – it’s before = A, then an anagram of “v early”. (I noticed this because I kept trying to make it AVLEARY or AVELARY etc – although, when I hit on the right answer, I vaguely recognised it as a word I’d come across before.)
I thought this was pretty benign overall.
Ta – fixed. I’m surprised I only had one mistake (now watch for more).
Surprised nobody’s mentioned the following.
13a Since ‘scupper’ is only transitive, surely ‘scuppered’ is required?
30a Similar observation: since this sense of ‘top’ is transitive, ‘topped’ surely required?
7d Isn’t “Spooner garbled” required to put the anagram fodder in what some call ‘the same voice’?
21d Similar observation: isn’t “tripping” required?
At least that’s what seems to be the norm in, eg, Azed, EV and Listener.