The usual monthly delight of entertaining words from the dark corners of the dictionary and inventive wordplay. This one took me 1hr 12 minutes, so about average for me for the MCS. With answers or elements of the wordplay from around the world (France, Italy, Malta, South-East Asia, South America, India, China, Japan and Australia) it was quite a cosmopolitan puzzle. Plenty to choose from but I pick NUMMULARY as my Word of the Month, and the wordplay for FALDETTA as the most inventive. Thank-you clever setter!
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Mob from Republican party covering eatery with fliers (5-4) |
| SCAFF-RAFF – CAFF (eatery) RAF (fliers) in SF (Sinn Fein; Republic of Ireland party) | |
| 9 | Scot’s generous welcome during regular journey (7) |
| ROUTHIE – HI (welcome) in ROUTE (regular journey). | |
| 10 | Agriculturalist almost breaks through resistance of calves (7) |
| VITULAR – (Jethro) TUL{l} (agriculturalist) [almost] in VIA (through), R (resistance). | |
| 11 | Spinning, stretch in quad-emphasising form of exercise (5) |
| MEDAU – Reverse hidden [spinning, stretch] in qUAD EMphasising. | |
| 12 | Supporting band’s meaningless lyric including “live, see you in DMs” (9) |
| TRABECULA – BE (live) CU (see you in Direct Messages) in TRALA (meaningless lyric). | |
| 13 | Palm and ankle bones fitting exactly (7) |
| TALIPAT – TALI (ankle bones, plural of talus) PAT (fitting exactly). | |
| 15 | Neglect to pen book about climber in Amazon (5) |
| TIMBO – B (book) in OMIT (neglect), all reversed. | |
| 17 | Missing son, off course after cycling pilgrimage in India (5) |
| YATRA – A{s}TRAY (off course) without the S and [cycling] starting at the Y. | |
| 18 | Pierre’s body temperature not so good when losing weight (5) |
| TORSE – A French word, T (temperature) {w}ORSE (not so good) without the W (weight). Pierre being the name of a Frenchman here. | |
| 19 | Part of your heart’s constant burden (5) |
| CONUS – C (constant) ONUS (burden). | |
| 20 | Perhaps making more noise with paper, having dismissed inventory’s head stocktaker (7) |
| RUSTLER – RUSTL{i}ER (making more noise with paper, perhaps) without the first letter of Inventory. You need to split “stocktaker” to get the definition – not something you normally see in a Times crossword but common enough in Guardian-land. | |
| 23 | Being morally required, thug crashed into a person’s Sierra (9) |
| OUGHTNESS – (thug)* [crashed] in ONE’S (a person’s) S (Sierra in the phonetic alphabet). | |
| 25 | Chinese official’s American denunciation (5) |
| AMBAN – AM (American) BAN (denunciation). | |
| 27 | Without question, French article on cooking stock recalled Provençal sauce (7) |
| ROUILLE – LI{q}UOR (cooking stock) without the Q (question), [recalled] -> ROUIL, LE (French article). | |
| 28 | Refusal to swallow Samoan port plugged by enchanting woman (7) |
| APHAGIA – HAG (witch; enchanting woman) in APIA (Samoan port). | |
| 29 | Largely insensitive rejection of younger ex-student in States of Change? (9) |
| NUMMULARY – NUM{b} insensitive [largely], and YR (younger) ALUM (ex-student in USA) reversed -> MULARY. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Parisian woman of letters disregarding new form of boxing (6) |
| SAVATE – SAVA{n}TE (Parisian woman of letters) without the N (new). A French form of boxing, so that excuses the (unknown to me) French word in the wordplay. | |
| 2 | Promoting commercial it’s not a reason for swallowing pain (10) |
| ANTIADITIS – ANTI (not a reason for) AD (promoting commercial) IT IS (it’s) | |
| 3 | Maltese cape where third parts of fertile alluvial area change over (8) |
| FALDETTA – FAT (fertile) DELTA (alluvial area), swapping the third letters – > FAL DETTA. Innovative wordplay. | |
| 4 | Classical pianist pairs read up on loss of odd parts (5) |
| ARRAU – Lose the odd letters of pAiRs ReAd Up. | |
| 5 | Thanks to Japan surrendering lead for fine working ship in Venice (9) |
| FRIGATOON – {a}RIGATO (Thank-you in Japanese) replacing the leading letter with F (fine) -> FRIGATO, ON (working). | |
| 6 | Dandy spurning one of each side makes a leisurely journey (6) |
| BUMMEL – (Beau) B{r}UMMELL{l} (dandy) without one of each of R and L. | |
| 7 | Steep decline of Henry with fist mostly raised for boxing (4) |
| KHUD – H (Henry) in DUK{e} (fist) [mostly] all reversed -> KHUD. I’ve not seen “with” as a containment indicator before. | |
| 8 | Training day includes time in Kiwi country to get rock used in China (8) |
| PETUNTZE – PE (training) and then a double insertion, T (time) in NZ (New Zealand; Kiwi country) all in TUE (day). | |
| 14 | Australian herb in pop with aniseed-flavoured spirit lay in ferment (10) |
| PARAKEELYA – PA (pop; father) RAKE (aniseed-flavoured spirit) (lay)* [in ferment]. | |
| 16 | Long-lived French president curbing unending prejudice (9) |
| MACROBIAN – BIA{s} (prejudice) without its last letter in MACRON (French president). | |
| 17 | Digger’s horse upset SE Asian war arrangement (8) |
| YARRAMAN – NAM (SE Asian war) ARRAY (arrangement) all reversed -> YARRAMAN. | |
| 18 | University requirement repeatedly dropping mark over wrapping art (8) |
| TSUTSUMU – U (University) MUST {m}UST (requirement) [repeatedly], dropping the second M (mark), all reversed -> TSUTSUMU. | |
| 21 | Previous descent from small horse covered by very basic solution (6) |
| LYNAGE – NAG (small horse) in LYE (vary basic; i.e. alkaline solution). | |
| 22 | Morally repudiating church’s lack of a central core (6) |
| ASTELY – {ch}ASTELY (morally) without the CH (church). | |
| 24 | Fish relish sport among group of whales (5) |
| GARUM – RU (Rugby Union; sport) in GAM (group of whales). | |
| 26 | Large transport centre sent up inlaid furniture (4) |
| BUHL – L (large) HUB (transport centre) all reversed -> BUHL. | |
Ta for the blog. There’s a bit more to 1ac, in that Sinn Fein has had an historic association with the Irish Republican Army, though it has been very firmly a political party only for the past twenty or thirty years.