Greetings, barred-grid fans
This puzzle must have been a beast to put together as the grid really restricts answers. This means a lot of unusual words, and I suspect most people found this a bigger challenge than the last few weeks. I did!
Hopefully got everything sorted out – just a note, I am writing this up a few days in advance since I will be out of town on the weekend, so if I’ve messed something up (and you know that is on the cards, I will not be able to fix it until Sunday evening UK time).
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Former genus use is corrupt — needs putting in a new order (12) |
| SCIUROPTERUS – anagram of USE,IS,CORRUPT | |
| 10 | Publicly announce onset of terrible plague (6) |
| TANNOY – first letter of Terrible, then ANNOY(plague) | |
| 11 | Failing to start public skatepark extension (4) |
| VERT – remove the first letter from OVERT(public) | |
| 13 | Roast whole old pigeon like a horse — not popular (8) |
| BARBEQUE – BARB(pigeon) then EQUINE(like a horse) minus IN(popular) | |
| 14 | I agree with engineering adviser (6) |
| EGERIA – anagram of I,AGREE | |
| 15 | Function taking all night has only just started (4) |
| TANH – first letters of Taking All Night Has. I remember doing hyperbolic functions in school, and then never using them since | |
| 16 | Take one involved in wordplay? It’s in my DNA (5) |
| PURIN – R(recipe, take), and I(one) inside PUN(wordplay) | |
| 17 | Apply warmth in cooking new wholemeal (7) |
| WHEATEN – HEAT(apply warmth) inside an anagram of NEW | |
| 19 | 3:50 BST in old Rome when touring capital (7) |
| TBILISI – an anagram of III(3), L(50) and BST | |
| 24 | What may catch salmon fine in one locally in Balmoral? (7) |
| HAAFNET – F(fine) inside ANE(one, locally) inside HAT(Balmoral) | |
| 26 | What’s fleshy women’s club in US (7) |
| SOROSIS – double definition, the second can be found under SORORAL in Chambers | |
| 28 | Instrument, reportedly one involved in corporal punishment (5) |
| QUENA – homophone of CANER(one involved in corporal punishment) | |
| 29 | Soundly beat Welsh to go forward (4) |
| WHUP – W(Welsh), HUP(go forward) | |
| 30 | Enthusiast capturing male black Australian marsupial (6) |
| NUMBAT – NUT(enthusiast) containing M(male), B(black) and A(Australian) | |
| 32 | Fine woman beset by falsehood? Could be (8) |
| LIBELLEE – BELLE(fine woman) inside LIE(falshood) | |
| 33 | Case existing in perpetuity (4) |
| ETUI – hidden inside perpETUIty | |
| 34 | Increasingly affected jewellers not opening (6) |
| ARTIER – CARTIER(jewellers) minus the first letter | |
| 35 | Only guy prone— awkwardly this could have him asleep (12) |
| NEURYPNOLOGY – anagram of ONLY,GUY,PRONE | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Impudent people returning one lost vandalised shrub (12) |
| STREPTOSOLEN – PERTS(impudent people) reversed, then an anagram of ONE,LOST | |
| 2 | Dynasty decapitated by China’s capital punishment there (4) |
| CANG – T’ANG dynasty missing the first letter next to C(China) | |
| 3 | Deduce moon’s right between earth and sun? (8) |
| INFERIOR – INFER(deduce), IO(moon) and R(right) | |
| 4 | Bird — it’s eating one locust (7) |
| ROBINIA – ROBIN(bird) and A(it) containing I(one) | |
| 5 | Region, primarily historical Iranian area (7) |
| PARTHIA – PART(region) and the first letters of Historical Iranian Area | |
| 6 | Trumpets sounding introduction to speech of Hamlet? (5) |
| TUBAE -homophone of TO BE(intro to Hamlet’s speech) | |
| 7 | At the very moment when a seven is thrown (6, two words) |
| EVEN AS – anagram of A SEVEN | |
| 8 | Third of gauchos dodges wild cattle (6) |
| URUSES – third letter of gaUchos, then RUSES(dodges) | |
| 9 | Inflexible as a Conservative causing irritation leading to expulsion? (12) |
| STERNUTATORY – STERN(inflexible), UT(as), A, TORY(Conservative) | |
| 12 | Bulwer-Lytton’s invention, mostly hurtful to his queen (4) |
| VRIL – most of ILL(hurtful) next to VR(Victoria Regina, Bulwer-Lytton’s queen) | |
| 18 | Group of beetles, a number one found in Spanish river (8) |
| TENEBRIO – TEN(a number) then I(one) inside EBRO(Spanish river) | |
| 20 | Reprimand about joint board arrangement (7) |
| SHIPLAP – SLAP(reprimand) surrounding HIP(joint) | |
| 21 | More than half overqualified trained cowboy (7) |
| VAQUERO – anagram of OVERQUAlified | |
| 22 | Rarely dull work employed in station (6) |
| SOPITE – OP(work) inside SITE(station) | |
| 23 | One who’ll inherit, he invested in company in rupees (6) |
| COHEIR – HE inside CO(compant), I(in), R(rupees) | |
| 25 | Eastern, initially disappearing in smoke? That’s them! (4) |
| FUMS – remove E(Eastern) from FUMES(smoke) | |
| 27 | Canopy protecting sides of unusual vehicle for one (5) |
| SULKY – SKY(canopy) surrounding the external letters of UnusuaL | |
| 31 | Sandy expanses — a tent got put up here? (4) |
| AREG – A then GER(tent) reversed | |
Found all the words, but never managed to parse HAAFNET or TBILISI (which latter, at least. I should’ve gotten). Harder for me than the last two. Some interesting words here!
There were a surprising number of easy clues – I was able to write in artier, tannoy, numbat, coheir, Parthia, barbeque, wheaten, etui, inferior, even as, tanh, and vaquero without cracking Chambers. This provided a rich harvest of crossing letters to tackle the more difficult ones. Tbilisi was my LOI, and I biffed it first, and then parsed it.
This was an excellent puzzle. Yes harder than some but eminently doable. TUBAE raised a smile. TBILISI was masterful and would have been my LOI had I not suspected that my initial attempt at FUMS was wrong, which I resolved before submitting. Nice to see TANH I don’t think I’ve written that since school either but I have thought about it from time to time. And I planted a ROBINIA only a week or two ago. Overall a nice balance of knowns with unknowns.
I actually found this easier than some and worked mainly without a dictionary. Most of the early down clues went straight in, followed by the first third or so of the acrosses. The bottom half was a bit harder and I misled myself for a while by assuming 35ac would start NEURO. Overall, very enjoyable.
I thought this was about average difficulty, which means relatively gentle for a Grimshaw. I failed to parse HAAFNET so thanks for that.
I was surprised to find that TUBAE can be pronounced that way.
Well yes I guess so if you’re using scholar’s latin pronunciation. If you use the biologist’s pronunciation of families, which I suppose is anglicised Latin, the homophone works.
I don’t know what I’m using! I’m certainly no Latin scholar. But I thought it was pronounced ‘tyoo-bye’.
Yes that would be according to school Latin rules.
I thought it a pun even Paul McKenna would be embarrassed by.