Once more we are treated to a cornucopia of wacky words and entertaining wordplay that puts the Monthly Club Special into a class of its own. The NW corner went in first followed by the SE, SW and then NE. Trickier than last month, in all it gave me just under 1 hr 10 minutes of fun. I was pleased to remember the ash tree at 16D and enjoyed being introduced to all those words with Js and Ks. Thank-you clever setter!
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Unfinished dig on gray, dry sediment rich in nutrients (6) |
| GYTTJA – GY (gray) TT (teetotaller; dry) JA{b} (dig) [unfinished]. A great word to start with. | |
| 4 | Swindling beggar once having US cellist in knots following clash (7) |
| JARKMAN – JAR (clash) and MA (Yo Yo Ma; US Cellist) in KN (knots). Yo Yo’s recording of the Bach Cello Suites is one of my all-time favourite relaxation music. Here he is playing the entire set at the BBC Proms in 2015. | |
| 9 | Customary feature of acoustic set? (5) |
| NOMIC – An acoustic set would have NO MIC. | |
| 10 | Stupid male quits amid mostly stupid bloomer (9) |
| DORONICUM – {m}ORONIC (stupid) without the M (male) in DUM{b} [mostly]. | |
| 11 | Craving for news contained by following Arabian article (9) |
| INFOMANIA – IN (contained by) F (following) OMANI (Arabian) A (article). | |
| 12 | Alpine antelope outstanding with leaves (5) |
| IZARD – {w}IZARD (outstanding) without the W (with). | |
| 13 | It’s one hassle to pay a Norse goddess (4) |
| IDUN – I (one) DUN (hassle to pay). | |
| 14 | UK citizen behind story that probes Señora’s very womanhood (10) |
| MULIEBRITY – LIE (story) BRIT (UK citizen) in MUY (very in Spanish). | |
| 18 | Social recluse taking long walks on island of dragons at risk, never seeing last pair (10) |
| HIKIKOMORI – HIKI{ng} (taking long walks) KOMO{do} (island of dragons) RI{sk} all without the last 2 letters. | |
| 20 | With Khalkha evacuated there’s no good place for the rest of the Chinese (4) |
| KANG – K{halkh}A [evacuated] NG (no good). The Khalkha have been the largest subgroup of Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. | |
| 23 | Things done legally, not anything stopped by law (5) |
| FACTA – ACT (law) in FA (Fanny Adams; F*** All; not anything). | |
| 24 | Juristical brief perplexed top legal arbitrator (9) |
| JUSTICIAR – (Juristica{l})* [perplexed], losing the last letter [brief] to create the anagrist. | |
| 25 | Gliding like this across heavens, pull apart (9) |
| SCORRENDO – COR (exclamation; heavens) REND (pull apart) in SO (like this). | |
| 26 | Without sauce, it’s dire for Dubliners (5) |
| WOJUS – W/O (without) JUS (sauce). I couldn’t find this in the usual dictionaries but it is in Wiktionary and the Urban Dictionary. Also spelt woegeous. | |
| 27 | Declaration of selfhood, wearing coy loose undergarment (7) |
| SHIMMEY – I’M ME (declaration of selfhood) in SHY (coy). Nice one. | |
| 28 | Service manual essential to plan my holiday’s return (6) |
| HYMNAL – Reverse hidden in pLAN MY Holiday | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Pagan blasted hit single (9) |
| GENTILISH – (hit single)* [blasted]. | |
| 2 | Scotch bonnet provided core of invaluable antiviral protection (7) |
| TAMIFLU – TAM (Scotch bonnet) IF (provided) and middle letters of invaLUable. | |
| 3 | Mexican Tuber’s current vlogging equipment used in short chat (6) |
| JICAMA – I (current in physical equations) CAM (vlogging equipment), in JA{w} (chat) without the last letter. | |
| 4 | Elder council judge what two Muslim states share about capital in Gulf (5) |
| JIRGA – J (judge) and first letter of Gulf in IRA (what IRAn and IRAq, two Muslim states, share). Nice invention in the wordplay. | |
| 5 | Every time missing payment for using lots of money and coin, that of China (8) |
| RENMINBI – REN{t} (payment for using) MIN{t} (lots of money) and BI{t} (coin) all without the T (time). Bravo. | |
| 6 | Old lady stuff one threads with knots (7) |
| MACRAMI – MA (Old lady) CRAM (stuff) I (one). | |
| 7 | Number set up to block roaming (5) |
| NOMAD – NO (number), DAM (block) [set up] -> MAD. | |
| 8 | Gold-plated muck emporium cleared out with precision (2,6) |
| AD UNGUEM – DUNG (muck) in AU (gold), E{mporiu}M [cleared out]. | |
| 15 | Difficult time exposed in cruel mockery (8) |
| IRRISION – {c}RISI{s} (difficult time) without the outer letters in IRON (cruel). | |
| 16 | Ash covering the world with lithium, sinking in parts over road to the north (9) |
| YGGDRASIL – LI (lithium) and RD (road) in SAGGY (sinking in parts) all [to the north]. | |
| 17 | Shadowy figure’s read superficially when touring city in Uttar Pradesh (8) |
| SKIAGRAM –AGRA (city in Uttar Pradesh) in SKIM (read superficially). | |
| 19 | Filling of paprika, chorizo, lentils etc fried in pastry (7) |
| KACHORI -Hidden in papriKA CHORIzo. | |
| 21 | An offer on one of the Breughels, City with a Lagoon (7) |
| ABIDJAN – A BID (an offer) JAN (one of the Breughels). | |
| 22 | Nice looking for some whiskey in Fenland city after six (6) |
| VIEWLY –VI (six in Roman numerals), W (whiskey in the phonetic alphabet) in ELY (Fenland city). | |
| 23 | Fine American people — and some molluscs (5) |
| FUSUS – F (fine) US (American) US (people). | |
| 24 | Ship’s police officer has success apprehending foremost of navy’s troublemakers (5) |
| JONTY -First letters of Navy Troublemakers in JOY (success). | |
An unusual MCS I found, as some of the clues could be solved without the help of magic Chambers. I remembered the tree, and how to spell it, and the top left was especially kind, apart from GYTTJA.
Reasonably straightforward, though with the now traditional typo – AD UNGUUM. Third time in a row. And just caught SKIINED in today’s in the nick of time. Don’t know whether it’s the eyesight or the typing, or a combination of both.