As often happens, a Paul McKenna puzzle which is not particularly difficult but provided several hours of pleasure. A relatively high percentage of the answer words are not obscure, which helps the solver get enough crossing letters to finish off the more difficult clues.
I’m sure the usual crew managed to knock this one off fairly quickly, although they may not have been able to parse all the clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Begin from comedy movie’s end — natural order’s reversed (6, two words) |
| COME ON – COM + [movi]E + N.O. backwards. Come on has a wide variety of meanings in idiomatic English. | |
| 5 | Small change for American perfumes (6) |
| SCENTS – S + CENTS. | |
| 10 | Paradise Regained sadly cut dire greed and places for hives (8) |
| APIARIES – Anagram of PARADISE REGAINED – GREED AND. Most solvers will just biff this one, or you’ll be counting letters all day. | |
| 12 | First for Biggles — air staff near ace (5) |
| BASTO – B[iggles] + A[ir] + S[taff] + TO. Basto is the ace of clubs in quadrille and ombre. | |
| 13 | Rumpole’s venues in fights about voided offence (6) |
| VISNES – VI(S[i]N)ES. | |
| 14 | Busy reasoning engaging modern passman? (12, two words) |
| IN CONFERENCE – IN(CON)FERENCE. | |
| 17 | A pretty much uncommon tree (4) |
| ARAR – A RAR[e]. | |
| 18 | Obsequious Irishman’s brass in bearing nut (8) |
| SLEEVEEN – SLEEVE + EN. A brass can be a sleeve in mechanical device. | |
| 19 | Swamp’s unusually vile (4) |
| VLEI – Anagram of VILE. | |
| 20 | Hair things for Sloane Rangers? (4) |
| GELS – A double definition, an amusing one. | |
| 21 | Old Russian units swarm in charges lacking commander’s lead (8) |
| ARSHINES -[c]AR(SHIN)ES, where shin as a verb can mean swarm up. | |
| 24 | Women in interval look informally (4) |
| GAWP – GA(W)P. | |
| 27 | Such as may be the stuff of a classic English flower (12, three words) |
| BACON AND EGGS – Double definition – for the first one, a classic English breakfast is what is implied. | |
| 29 | Hardened judge leaving hurt (6) |
| INURED – IN[j]URED. | |
| 30 | Gather lots before noon, when special (5) |
| AMASS – A.M. + AS +S. | |
| 31 | Join squabble with no united edge (8, two words) |
| SEA MARGE – SEAM + ARG[u]E. | |
| 32 | Born truly Asian from the east but one suddenly expelled irritant (6) |
| NEESED – NEE + DES[i] backwards. | |
| 33 | Rendered with help mixed up Old Norse within (6) |
| PONIED – P(O.N.)IED. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Taxis carrying popular hampers (6) |
| CABINS – CAB(IN)S. Cabin as a verb can mean hamper. | |
| 2 | Spoiled stroke spoiled music with eccentricity (6) |
| MISCUE – Anagram of MUSIC + E. | |
| 3 | Shamefully retract fresh reasons to wed (12, three words) |
| EAT ONES WORDS – Anagram of REASONS TO WED. | |
| 4 | Honk if standing for English in forgotten bit of church (4) |
| NIFF – N(-e,+IF)F. A nef is an obsolete word for the nave in a church. | |
| 5 | Is something hard to accomplish most dangerous? (8) |
| SEVEREST – ‘S EVEREST? | |
| 6 | Vet direct from awful vermin case (12, two words) |
| EX SERVICEMAN – EX + anagram of VERMIN CASE. | |
| 7 | Relative’s bread not available (5) |
| NANNA – NAN + N/A. | |
| 8 | Symbol of the Apostles, say, erected happily outside hospital (8, two words) |
| THE CREED – Anagram of ERECTED around H. | |
| 9 | Second English isle out for plant (6) |
| SESELI – S + E + anagram of ISLE. | |
| 11 | Where to see blash run first? (4) |
| RONE – R + ONE. | |
| 15 | Good taste, for example, in English pike (8) |
| ELEGANCE – E L(E.G.)ANCE. | |
| 16 | Rarely passed through a verse, obsolete, about to rise (8) |
| PERVADED – PER + V + DEAD with the A moving upwards. | |
| 20 | Natter with one about Scott’s little curiosity (6) |
| GABION – GAB + I + ON. | |
| 22 | Hack mostly uninspired script (6) |
| NAGARI – NAG + ARI[d]. | |
| 23 | Watergate, as it was director spoke brazenly for Americans (6) |
| SASSED – SASSE + D. A sasse is a sluice, or water gate. The old capitalize-the-first-word trick. | |
| 25 | Piercing air-conditioning on sandgroper’s truck? (5) |
| ACUTE – A/C + UTE. | |
| 26 | A restraint for gaoler (4) |
| ADAM – A + DAM. The trick here is the obsolete word for gaoler. | |
| 28 | One apparently restricts ebb and flow? (4) |
| NEAP – Hidden in [o]NE AP[parently]. | |
“Finished” this Sunday but changed “come in” (“Begin” in cricket!) to COME ON just a few hours ago. The definition “Obsequious” for SLEEVE EN here is found literally in Collins but not in Chambers, at least not in the app. I wasn’t confident about how that worked, though I saw the “nut” of course.
I too had doubts about SLEEVEEN. Nowhere on the internet ex Collins is obsequious given as a meaning. I even wondered whether there was an error in the parsing. Brass used as a bearing sleeve would make a poor material. It’s too soft. There is an alternative spelling of SLEEVEEN, which is SLEVEEN, unfortunately not in chambers. Had the clue been 7 letters then it would have made much more sense:
Brass= LEV, bearing =SE, nut=EN.
I’m afraid as published, this clue doesn’t work for me.
Chambers says ‘smooth-talking’ which is close enough for me.
Somehow, I neglected to look under “brass,” where now I find “removable sleeve in a bearing.” “Smooth-talking,” however, does not seem to me the same as “obsequious.” Nor “crafty,” which suggests seeking the upper hand.
Both ‘smooth-talking’ and ‘obsequious’ can mean ‘flattering’. It’s arguably a bit of a three-point turn in a thesaurus but it’s close enough for me.
Seems it took about the same number of steps to get to RAYLE last week, which you viewed as a mistake.
Not the same thing. ‘Use mocking language’ and ‘revile’ are distinct meanings of the word ‘rail’ and the Spenserian ‘rayle’ means the latter and not the former. So it was like using ‘whip’ to define ‘puss’.
Here there’s arguably some overlap in the meanings: Chambers gives ‘flattering’ and ‘persuasive’ for smooth-talking and ‘ingratiating’ and ‘fawning’ for obsequious. To me these concepts are sufficiently close. I accept it’s a bit loose!
Well, I admit to not having read Spenser. But if you follow the definition for “revile” in Chambers, you find simply “rail,” as well as, on the other side of a comma, “use abusive language.”
I’ve read Spenser but it doesn’t help much!
I see your point but if ‘use vigorously or mockingly reproachful language’ and ‘revile’ mean the same thing then why are they given distinct entries in Chambers? If we follow Chambers (as we are supposed to do!) and treat them as distinct then ‘rayle’ means one and not the other.
Well, and the editor didn’t turn up to defend it…
Apart from 18 across I enjoyed this puzzle. I thought APIARIES, RONE and PERVADED were particularly well crafted.
Yes I agree that APIARIES was very likely to be the answer but I don’t see the point of biffing it, which to me seems tantamount to walking roughshod over the setter’s craft.
Just one small observation Jonathan: 32d I believe the definition is ‘suddenly expelled irritant’ and the true Asian is DESI. Hence NEE + (I)SED
Agree about the parsing of NEESED. Also agree about APIARIES – it doesn’t really take long to subtract the letters to address the anagram.
Yes, that was just sloppy blogging, now corrected.
20ac: “Hair things” is a very imprecise definition for GELS. “Hair treatments” might have been better and would have worked just as well for the surface. It just feels a bit lazy to say “things”.
Thanks Jonathan and Paul. I also thought this was very well crafted- and I solved reasonably quickly but had to look up 13ac and 18ac. Also could not parse 23d so grateful for the blog as always. Being a political anorak- could not see beyond political scandal to split up water and gate. Desi is commonly used among the Indian community- my Hindi speaking wife tells me it means ‘someone from your own country’ and derives from ‘desh’ which means land/country as in Bangladesh. Also can be used by Indians to mean ‘authentically/truly Indian’.