Monthly Club Special 20,242: Christmas Comes Early

I thought this was hard but most entertaining – 15ac being worth the price of admission all on its won. I also very much liked 22ac, an audacious word to try to clue at all, to be sure. Good luck doing this one without the aid of a dictionary! So many words that barely look like words at all… and that, of course, is what we love about the MCS. Thanks as ever to the setter!

ACROSS
1 Sea getting at other times called on for fish (6)
MEDAKA – MED [sea] getting AKA [at other times called] on. I saw MED quickly, AKA took a lot longer to resolve (as obviously I’d never heard of the fish)

4 Drug swallowed, now losing weight: I’m laughing! (8)
ATENOLOL – ATE [swallowed] + NO{w} + LOL [I’m laughing!]. Once I saw that this was going to end with LOL it fell quickly into place.

10 Dad managed pub in Morecambe, perhaps, close to vital waste filtering facility (11)
PARANEPHRIC – PA RAN + PH in ERIC. FOI

11 Circuit of Doone country, missing odd parts (3)
XOR – {e}X{m}O{o}R

12 Is one who’s permitted initially satellite dishes with lights? (7)
HASLETS – HAS LET [is one who has permitted] + S{atellite}. This is lights as in the lungs of an animal, as haslets are cakes of pig entrails, lovely!

14 Ring within ring, close to anther elsewhere? (7)
COROLLA – so I think this is O [ring] within COLLAR [ring], having moved its {anthe}R. In any case it’s all in the service of being an &lit.

15 A number from Berlin recycled which Stasi term (it is Wehrmacht’s, also)? (5,9)
WHITE CHRISTMAS – (WHICH STASI TERM*) or (IT IS WEHRMACHT’S*). Once I realised that this was Berlin the person rather than a German song it became much easier.

17 German engineer, old one in shock, before long becoming calmer (14)
BENZODIAZEPINE – BENZ + O + I in DAZE + PINE. Once you think of BENZ you’re pretty much there.

21 One gives support to organ, not to Scottish miners (7)
FRAENUM – FRAE [Scottish from, not to] + NUM

22 Jealous, with last letter being the very last, and after a Scrabble tile! (7)
AZULEJO – (JEALOUZ*). Nice anagrind

23 Make more of Shakespeare, less of dramatic heroines (3)
ICH – hidden in {dramat}IC H{eroines}. Shakespearean for “eke” or “augment”

24 One leading different parties, all on the same side (11)
IPSILATERAL – I + (PARTIES ALL*)

26 State control, shadowy, about to tamper with lives (8)
DIRIGISM – DIM “about” RIG + IS

27 When very dry, becoming drunk? (6)
ASSOTT – AS SO TT

DOWN
1 Aussie howler upset visiting Brit? What a week! (8)
MOPEHAWK – reversed POM + EH? A WK

2 Old rag added to waiter’s tips (3)
DOR – {adde}D {t}O {waite}R. This is an archaic word for “scoff” or “mock”, and not a beetle, for a change.

3 What Finn plucks from leaping deer impaled on stake (7)
KANTELE – I had the ANTE in before I found the reversed ELK to impale on it. A kantele is some kind of Finnish zither!

5 Indian city’s current police, once welcome, blame everyone in it after rising (14)
TIRUCHIRAPALLI – I + RUC + HI + RAP + ALL, in reversed it. If you weren’t up on your Tamil Nadu geography you might have had to look this up to check you had all the right pieces in the right order.

6 Bright colour cheers one handy with paint tin up (7)
NACARAT – TA + RA [one handy with paint] + CAN, all reversed. A bright orange-red, I’m told.

7 Rare stone is indulgence after changing hands over an evening, informally (11)
LUXULYANITE – LUXU{r->L}Y + A NITE

8 Old chest or “box” used by speaker, not unknown around area (6)
LARNAX – LAR{y}NX, “around” A

9 Back rooms requiring work: one’s nonetheless to be suitable for lawgiver (14)
OPISTHODOMOSES – OP + I’S + THO + DO + MOSES

13 Crack heard every so often under small wooden sleeper in Victoria (5-6)
SPINE-BASHER – BASH [crack] + {h}E{a}R{d}, under S PINE. That’s Victoria Australia of course.

16 Old friar’s touching prayer, second about to be forgotten (8)
RECOLLET – RE COLLE{c}T. A recollet is a Franciscan friar who aims for detachment from creatures and recollection in God, much like many crossword solvers.

18 Old-fashioned clowning to go with some butting in (7)
ZANYING – ZING [go] with ANY “butting in”

19 Mostly being just low grades for class fluent in Latin? (7)
EQUITES – EQUIT{y} + E’S

20 No longer trusted, if deaf to reform (6)
AFFIED – (IF DEAF*)

25 Auditor’s rank that’s used for a spell in Greece (3)
RHO – homophone of ROW. Greeks use rho to spell words with

5 comments on “Monthly Club Special 20,242: Christmas Comes Early”

  1. Struggled a bit to get through this, got becalmed with half a dozen left, but managed to finish it eventually, in a time too embarrassing to record.

    I did like 15ac.

  2. “Great stuff!!”, it says on my copy. It took me two sessions totalling 1hr40mins, of which 1/2 hour was on my last 7 clues. The great WHITE CHRISTMAS was my FOI. I loved BENZODIAZEPENE too, which also came quickly, so those two gave me lots of checkers for the downs. I also liked the wordplay for AZULEJO. I’m looking forward to tackling this month’s later. Thanks V and setter.
  3. In my Leeds Poly days I used top have haslet sandwiches for lunch. To me it was just a cheap source of meat from t’market. It seemed ok at the time and it was only many years later that I discovered I’d been eating earholes, eyeholes, arseholes, hoof scrapings etc.
  4. A Lincolnshire speciality – very delicious – but nowhere near as tasty as ‘brawn’ (head cheese). Also good in Normandie.
  5. Sausages are about the most delicious of all meat products (IIRC) and I expect it doesn’t pay to be curious about what goes into those tubes of delight…

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