Another monthly treat of interesting words and inventive wordplay. I was all done and parsed (bar FOVEATE which I spelt wrong with an I instead of an E – Grr) in 1hr 12 minutes. LOI PICA. My favourite bit of wordplay is “tutu for an audience” and favourite word IMPUNDULU. Lovely stuff! Thank-you clever setter.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Broods about fleet’s problems on Jutland, say (8) |
| SITFASTS – SITS (broods) about FAST (fleet). Lumps under a horse’s skin… Jutland being a breed of horse. | |
| 6 | Bill Bryson and sponsor’s principles brought back spelling convention? (6) |
| SABBAT – TAB (bill) and first letters of Bryson And Sponsor all reversed. Great definition and surface! | |
| 9 | Geezer wants names circulated (4) |
| SPIV – VIPS (names) reversed [circulated]. | |
| 10 | Side-by-side team enters capital mostly in shock (10) |
| APPROXIMAL – XI (eleven; team) in ROMA (capital), all in APPAL (shock). | |
| 11 | Concerned with adverse publicity amid Mrs Simpson’s endogamy (10) |
| INMARRIAGE – IN (concerned with), AIR (publicity) reversed -> RIA in MARGE (Mrs Simpson). | |
| 13 | Unknown out-of-bounds spaces on which many have met (4) |
| ZOOM – Z (unknown) {r}OOMS{s} (spaces) without the boundary letters. | |
| 14 | That Parisian Monsieur spreading poison about bewitching influencer of dreams (5,3) |
| QUEEN MAB – QUE (that in French) and M (Monsieur) in BANE (poison) reversed. | |
| 16 | Merriment of one absorbed by risqué new splits (6) |
| RIANCY – I (one) and N (new) separately in RACY (risqué). | |
| 18 | American tree cut with odd bits of flimsy springs (6) |
| FUSTIC – (cut f{l}i{m}s{y})* [springs]. | |
| 20 | Late sideways growth beginning to loosen your aged grips (8) |
| THWARTLY – WART (growth) and first letter of Loosen in THY (your, aged). | |
| 22 | Craving still the tiniest bit of attention (4) |
| PICA – PIC(photograph; still) and first letter of Attention. | |
| 24 | Excommunicates one third of Christian eunuchs abroad (10) |
| UNCHURCHES – (chr{istian} eunuchs)* [abroad]. | |
| 26 | Lively sort of dance function that’s run for clubs (4,2,4) |
| BALL OF FIRE – BALL (sort of dance) OFFICE (function) replacing the C (clubs) with an R (run) -> OF FIRE. | |
| 28 | Humming bird’s tail found by tailless coal-tit cat’s left in bits? (4) |
| OLID – COAL-TI{t} without the CAT -> O L I and birD [‘s tail]. | |
| 29 | Layer of hydrogen over far side of bayou and at sea (6) |
| HOUDAN – H (Hydrogen) O (over) last letter of bayoU (and)* [at sea]. | |
| 30 | Be puzzled by Caledonian film being packed with loveless narrative (8) |
| MISTRYST – ST{o}RY (narrative) without the O (love) in MIST (film). The definition is in Collins but not Chambers. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Magical South African bird nearly seizes missing ring Zulus uncovered (9) |
| IMPUNDULU – IMP{o}UND{s} (seizes) [nearly] and missing the O (ring), {z}ULU{s} | |
| 3 | Pitted against destruction, barely stopping enemy (7) |
| FOVEATE – V (against) {d}EAT{h} (destruction) without its outside letters [barely] in FOE (enemy). Rats I mis-transcribed this as FOVIATE from the dictionary. No wonder I couldn’t parse it. No win for me this month. | |
| 4 | As a reward, gets rising Scottish augur (5) |
| SPAER – REAPS (gets as a reward) [rising] -> SPAER. | |
| 5 | Bribe high-level singer? (3) |
| SOP – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint – SOP is the standard abbreviation for SOPRANO (high-level singer). | |
| 6 | Marked unhemmed tutu for an audience? (5,4) |
| SCORE DRAW – SCORED (marked) RAW (unhemmed). “tutu” sound like “two-two”. Nice one. | |
| 7 | Carriage starts to bring King Abdullah around luxury hotel (7) |
| BRITZKA – RITZ (luxury hotel) in first letters of Bring King Abdullah. | |
| 8 | Blowing cover, Somalian revolutionary leaves current mission (5) |
| ALAMO – ({s}omal{i}a{n})* [revolutionary]. Losing the outside letters and I (current). | |
| 12 | Cooper for one not quite grasping small piece of a mineral (7) |
| ALBITIC – BIT (small piece) in ALIC{e} (Cooper for one) [not quite]. | |
| 15 | Film Trigger’s adorable Cockney gran initially cutting cupcake (9) |
| MACGUFFIN – First letters of Adorable Cockney Gran in MUFFIN (cupcake). | |
| 17 | Veins curl grotesquely in old arms (9) |
| CULVERINS – (veins curl)* [grotesquely]. | |
| 19 | According to locals, hoisted tense raptor died (7) |
| TEAGLED – T (tense) EAGLE (raptor) D (died). | |
| 21 | Scraper found inside upturned vitriol carboy (7) |
| RACLOIR – Reverse hidden in vitRIOL CARboy. | |
| 23 | International Celtic characters backing ultimate stage for WASP? (5) |
| IMAGO – I (international), OGAM (Celtic characters) reversed -> MAGO. | |
| 25 | Ignoring opening in hearing, guides legal presumptive rights (5) |
| USERS – US{h}ERS (guides) without the first letter of Hearing. | |
| 27 | Leaderless post-split factions eschewing church doctrine (3) |
| ISM – {s}{ch}ISM (post-split factions) without the first letter and ch (church). | |
All solved and parsed, but it remains to be seen if correctly transcribed. Ta for the blog.
Yes thanks for the blog.