Greetings barred-grid fans.
I had a lot of fun with this one – the wordplay is very clear for the unfamiliar words. Don’t cry for the pun in the top row!
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Louche gents are ranked like Wilson, say (8) |
| SERGEANT – anagram of GENTS,ARE. Referring to the character in Dad’s Army | |
| 7 | Cheers gripping Number One at first — there is no alternative (4) |
| TINA – TA (cheers) containing N (number) after I (one) | |
| 10 | Cleric may compromise this threnody delaying central part (4) |
| KNEE – KEEN (threnody) with the EE in the middle moved to the end | |
| 11 | Society poets cavalierly gathering round vessels in dramas (7) |
| STOOPES – S (society), then an anagram of POETS containing O (round) | |
| 13 | With dense lists in renewal Debrett finally admitted formality (11) |
| STILTEDNESS – anagram of DENSE,LISTS containing the last letter of debretT. This one brought a smile – when I was in primary school there was a copy of one of the Debrett’s Peerage books in the library. I had fun reading the names in a silly voice. | |
| 14 | Instrument’s payment that helps around university (5) |
| GUIRO – GIRO (payment that helps) surrounding U (university) | |
| 16 | I come from north Africa, I’ll be cuddled by junior daughter (4) |
| JIRD – I inside JR (junior), D (daughter) | |
| 17 | Isolated example of press being in fixed rut (7) |
| OUTLIER – O (of), then LIE (press) inside an anagram of RUT | |
| 18 | Sausage’s zing with a vegetable on being chopped (9) |
| PEPPERONI – PEP (zing), PER (a) then ONION (vegetable) minus ON | |
| 21 | Dropping bribe in present (9) |
| BEDASHING – DASH (bribe, second headword in Chambers) inside BEING (present) | |
| 22 | Sailor’s list containing alternate rope’s end that’s discarded (7, two words) |
| SALT EEL – SEEL (nautical term for heel over suddenly) containing ALT (alternate) | |
| 24 | Draw maiden in cascade’s pool (4) |
| LIMN – M (maiden) inside LIN (cascade’s pool) | |
| 27 | Get killed moving about in the work cited by Tacitus (5, two words) |
| OP CIT – COP IT (get killed) with the C (circa, about) moving | |
| 29 | A capsule in a refreshing form of healing (11) |
| AESCULAPIAN – anagram of A,CAPSULE,IN,A | |
| 30 | Apostasy is being up to no good losing one in gathering (7) |
| RATTING – AT IT (being up to no good) minus I (one) inside RING (gathering) | |
| 31 | Excuse sensuality — certainly going free (4) |
| PLEA – PLEASURE (sensuality) minus SURE (certainly) | |
| 32 | Zephaniah carries an amount of dry material (4) |
| EPHA – hidden inside zEPHAniah | |
| 33 | In short, ceps mostly dried quickly (8) |
| PRECISED – anagram of CEPS and DRIEd | |
| Down | |
| 1 | This projects and protects borders of Sarawak, for example (4) |
| SKEG – the external letters of SarawaK, then EG (for example) | |
| 2 | Happily see unit as part of a set (7, two words) |
| ENSUITE – anagram of SEE UNIT | |
| 3 | Having switched Pirellis in Reno scrap register of reserves (11, two words) |
| RETIRED LIST – Pirelli is a make of tire, so having switched Pirelli’s could be RETIRED, then LIST (scrap, a joust or list) | |
| 4 | Von der Leyen’s lot falls short so comes out (7) |
| ECLOSES – EC (Ursula Von der Leyen is the President of the EC), LOSES (falls short) | |
| 5 | What grows in Spenser? A stanza, loosely Latin (9) |
| ASTROPHEL – A STROPHE (stanza, loosely), L (Latin) | |
| 6 | One’s own old bustle (4) |
| TO-DO – TOD (one’s own), then O (old) | |
| 7 | Fashion a line in keeping with key (5) |
| TONAL – TON (fashion), A, L (line) | |
| 8 | Resort’s name is in the language of Horace (4) |
| NEST – N (name), EST (is, in Latin) | |
| 9 | Old language behind younger Fleming, say (8) |
| ASSYRIAN – ASS (behind), YR (younger), then the author IAN Fleming | |
| 12 | Catholic in free dailies and pro magazines and the like (11) |
| PERIODICALS – C (Catholica) inside an anagram of DAILIES and PRO | |
| 15 | Youngster, one will perhaps decline time of study (9) |
| PUPILLAGE – PUP (youngster), I’LL (one will), AGE (perhaps decline) | |
| 16 | Working arrangement from bawd belonging to patient chap? (8) |
| JOBSHARE – the bawd belong to patient chap could be JOB’S HARE | |
| 19 | Nut to nibble nearly in its normal place (7) |
| ENTOPIC – EN (nut), TO, then PICK (nibble) minus the last letter | |
| 20 | One put up rich source for master in Greek department (7) |
| NOMINEE – MINE (rich source) replacing M (master) in NOME (Greek department) | |
| 23 | Most of crew will accept scan revealing roofs of a specific sort (5) |
| TECTA – remove the last letter from TEAM and insert a CT scan | |
| 25 | Cut down on additional premium (4) |
| REAP – RE (on), AP (additional premium) | |
| 26 | Crack mnemonic not socially agreeable (4) |
| QUIP – QUIPU (mnemonic) minus U (socially agreeable) | |
| 28 | Supplier of light repast departs (4) |
| TEAD – TEA (repast), D (departs) | |
Thank you very much for all this.
14A. I think the clue has got mangled in the blog. Should be “Instrument’s…” for the definition.
29A. I spent a while thinking about where wordplay ends and definition starts. I thought because AESCULAPIAN is an adjective then the definition is just “of healing”. And the anagram indicator was “refreshing form”.
That’s a weird mistake, for 14A. It’s like the blogger retyped the clue instead of using the script. Or was the clue wrong on the site for a time?
Sometimes I have a portable mouse for editing, but last night I was using the touch pad and I think when I was trying to underline the definition I pasted over part of my answer. I was definitely having copy past issues when moving things from window to window using the script.
I had a lot of fun with this week’s. 1a seemed way too easy for Mephisto. Perhaps it was a lure into false sense of ease. There were three clues whose wordplay eluded me for a while QUIP being the one I recall. As for the pun – that hit red on the groan-ometer.
3d Reno is needed to get the US spelling of tyre hence retired.
Great fun, and it only took… three?… sessions!
Quite gentle. I don’t understand the definition for 10ac – can anyone help?
There’s an ailment called “clergyman’s knee” that results from kneeling too much (just now found that).
Ah yes! Normal faithfulness to Chambers would have suggested using ‘clergyman’!
Yes same as housewife’s knee a form of bursitis.
Compromise can mean expose to risk of injury, so I think it is alluding to all that kneeling being bad for the joints.
Thanks, I missed that meaning of ‘compromise’.
So “quickly” and “happily” are now anagram indicators? Perhaps that’s “happy” in the sense of drunk and “quick” in the sense of nimble, but I don’t really approve of having to ‘solve’ wordplay indicators before I can solve the clue. I was also puzzled by the definition of BEDASHING, which my Chambers gives as bespattering or splashing, but then I found that drop can apparently mean to bespatter, which was new to me. Otherwise, I found the clueing led fairly to the answers, including those I’d not come across before, like Guiro, Jird and Salt Eel.
There’s a lot of possibilities for anagram indicators, so I take it that any unaccounted-for word in a clue could mean some sort of jumbling. The recently departed (and much missed), Michael Curl (Orlando in the Guardian, I think he might have at one point been part of the Times setting team) started putting together a list of anagram indicators and gave up when he hit about 500 possible indicators: https://bestforpuzzles.com/cryptic-crossword-dictionary/anagram-indicators.html. Tim Moorey has a pretty long list in his book, and I think Don Manley’s Chambers Crossword manual has one as well.
I understand that there can be multiple indicators, but most of those in your (very interesting) link amount to variations on the theme of wrong, (re)arranged, new, unusual or off kilter. Neither quickly nor happily (neither of which appears in that list) falls into those categories. “Unhappily” would actually be more in keeping.
Given that 500+ options are listed, I don’t think a setter should need to be using words that are unrelated to the theme of jumble!
Quick can mean shifting as in sands, which makes it a reasonable anagrind
Why is ‘en’ ‘nut’, please?
They’re two words for the same unit of measurement in printing (from in the days of hot type): a unit of measurement, half the width of an em. In html nowadays, we have ampersand-ensp-semi-colon and ampersand-emsp-semi-colon.
There’s another word for em as well. It came up in the Mephisto a while back, but I can’t recall it. Do remember it Guy?
Just remembered: mutton
Oh I see, thank you very much!