Happy New Year, everybody! Here is the blog for our final Monthly Club Special of 2024 – a crossword for the connoisseur with some entertaining wacky vocabulary from the dusty corners of the dictionary and witty wordplay. Word of the month goes to DOUROUCOULIS and favourite clue to MONOCARP. In all it took me just over 1 hr, but with plenty of wordfinding from guessed and checked letters. Thank-you clever setter.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
Across | |
1 | Tofu regularly dunked in grim sauce for primates (12) |
DOUROUCOULIS – Alternate letters of tOfU [regularly] in DOUR (grim) COULIS (sauce). | |
9 | Dog knocking beetle off lips (5) |
LABRA – LABRA{dor} (dog) losing the DOR (beetle). | |
10 | Boarding boat in need of vacation, scrap transport arrangement in Chennai (9) |
BUNDOBUST – UNDO (scrap) BUS (transport) in B{oa}T without the middle letters. | |
11 | Don’t go across river east of Berlin in noble estate (8) |
STAROSTY – R (river) OST (east in German; of Berlin) in STAY (don’t go). | |
12 | Second piece of scale on some future fish dish (6) |
ROESTI – ROE (fish eggs; some future fish) S (second) TI (note; piece of scale). | |
13 | State ignoring a period of affluence and growth in Joburg (8) |
SPEKBOOM – SPE{a}K (state) without the A, BOOM (period of affluence). A small leafed succulent plant from South Africa – read about it here. | |
15 | Prevent leaks in Foreign Office? Briefly attempt to check ambassador (6) |
FOTHER – F.O. (Foreign Office), H.E. (His Excellency; ambassador) in TR{y} (attempt) [briefly]. | |
17 | Rebellious slave packs united, showing pluck (6) |
AVULSE – U (united) in [rebellious] (slave)*. | |
18 | Small antelopes mostly adore getting knocked over in legendary race (8) |
VOLSUNGS – S (small) GNUS (antelopes) and [mostly] LOV{e} (adore) all reversed -> VOLSLUNGS. Read about them here. | |
20 | Are bosses in the oil industry displaying system for leasing land? (6) |
RUNRIG – RUN RIG (are bosses in the oil industry). | |
21 | Arguments going back and forth about gutless ironic devil from Glasgow (8) |
WORRICOW – Outside letters of I{roni}C in WOR and ROW (arguments) [going back and forth]. | |
24 | Discover kind of skirt receiving top grade in local rating (9) |
SUSSARARA – A (top grade) in SUSS (discover) RARA (kind of skirt). | |
25 | Ancient scion of Teutonic noble with redoubled force (5) |
GRAFF – GRAF (Teutonic noble) with an extra F (force) [redoubled force]. | |
26 | Made crackling from old, engrossing recipe after cooking tons (12) |
DECREPITATED – (recipe)* [cooking] T (tons), in DATED (old). |
Down | |
1 | Enthralling custom, for the most part, not interesting old family member (7) |
DULOSIS – DUL{l} (not interesting) without the last letter, O (old) SIS (family member). | |
2 | Shady quality of boss, admitting fury over case of useless projection, in the main (14) |
UMBRAGEOUSNESS – RAGE (fury) in UMBO (boss on a shield) over outside letters of U{seles}S, NESS (projection in the main). Nice charade. | |
3 | Books a drive in Antipodean region (5) |
OTAGO – OT (Old Testament; books) A GO (drive). | |
4 | Alchemist’s work book supports one probing particle in electrolysis (8) |
CIBATION – I (one) B (book) in CATION (particle in electrolysis) | |
5 | Launch bombs, wanting check for arm component (4) |
ULNA – (laun{ch})* [bombs], losing the CH (check). | |
6 | Having equal rights, I really sense, must include terms from MeToo (9) |
ISONOMOUS – Outside letters [terms] of MetoO, in I SO (really) NOUS (sense). | |
7 | Problem about school repeatedly including French in a paper for group of German learners (14) |
BURSCHENSCHAFT – RUB (problem) [about] -> BUR, EN (in in French) in SCH SCH (school) [repeatedly], A FT (paper). | |
8 | Climber may put their foot in it, or arriviste ultimately — one sparing no effort (6) |
ETRIER – Last letter of arrivistE, TRIER (one sparing no effort). | |
14 | Sole punishment ordered when pocketing cash, following overturned appeal (9) |
BASTINADE – SA (sex appeal; appeal) [overturned] -> AS, TIN (cash) in BADE (ordered). “To beat with a baton or stick, esp on the soles of the feet“. | |
16 | Cleaner accepting reason to walk? It’s fruitful, but only once (8) |
MONOCARP – NO CAR (reason to walk) in MOP (cleaner). Ho ho! | |
17 | President manquée with head down in field (6) |
ARRISH -A reference to Kamala HARRIS (president manquée) moving the first letter to the end -> ARRISH. | |
19 | Swine loudly scoffed and whistled up north (7) |
SOWFFED – SOW (swine) F (forte; loudly) FED (scoffed). | |
22 | Rubbish bags for one upset figure synonymous with synonymy (5) |
ROGET – EG (for example, for one) [upset] GE, in ROT (rubbish). Creator of the eponymous thesaurus. | |
23 | China, according to Indian, has area covered in sunshine towards the north (4) |
YAAR – A (area), in RAY (sunshine) [towards the north] -> YAR. An Indian informal friendly form of address. |
A touch easier than usual, which is no bad thing. No typos, and it’s always a pleasure to work out something like BUNDOBUST, then find out it actually exists. Ta for the blog.
Alas, not really a typo, I discovered when I did the blog and couldn’t parse LABIA for 9A that I had a letter wrong and the answer was actually LABRA.