A plain puzzle from Gemelo, with the usual collection of unfamiliar words to add to our vocabularies (and, at least in my case, to forget shortly afterwards). Thanks to Gemelo.
| Across | ||||||||
| 2 | FALCATE | Feline bitten by flea, after treatment, is sickly? (7) CAT in FLEA* |
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| 7 | LIMA | Bean that’s by the kilo? (4) Double definition – Lima comes immediately after Kilo in the NATO alphabet |
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| 10 | MATURE | Well-thought-out ending of chess game is covering for primitive opening (6) UR (prefix meaning “primitive”) in MATE (end of a chess game) |
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| 11 | REMEN | Ancient Egyptians’ measure of followers backing their god (5) The Egyptian god is RE, more commonly Ra, so his followers are RE-MEN |
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| 12 | ASTROLOGIST | A short walk round, meaning one is house-trained? (11) A STROL[L] + O (round) + GIST (meaning) – an astrologist is trained in the astrological houses |
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| 14 | APOSTIL | Gospel preacher briefly penning one marginal note (7) I in APOSTL[E] |
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| 16 | EGRESS | Go out with European, 18, after losing head (6) E[uropean] + [O]GRESS – I was initially confused by this, thinking the man-eater must be a TIGRESS, who would have to lose two heads |
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| 19 | WIND-BORNE | Dead then alive, stopping to drink up? (9) D[ead] + BORN (alive) in WINE, which can be a verb meaning to drink |
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| 20 | ARC | Part of circular contour? (3) Hidden in circulAR Contour, &lit. Gemelo is fond of including 3-letter answers in his grids: they appear much more often than in Azed’s |
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| 21 | ORE | Mineral that’s regularly sourced (3) Alternate letters of sOuRcEd |
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| 23 | DEMI-LANCE | Old soldier to give way when cycling around Italian city (9) MILAN in DECE, a “cycled” version of CEDE |
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| 25 | ASTERN | Unopened New Yorker perhaps in the back (6) [E]ASTERN – it can mean an Easterner |
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| 27 | STENCIL | Clients reworked template (7) CLIENTS* |
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| 29 | IN CHARACTER | Creep arranged to hold court in A&E, dressed appropriately (11, 2 words) INCH (creep) + CT in AE, in ARR |
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| 31 | INDIE | No longer compose timeless kind of music outside the mainstream (5) INDITE (archaic “compose”) less T[ime] |
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| 32 | OUREBI | Gabonese agreed to carry about black antelope (6) RE (about) B in OUI (yes or “agreed” in French, the official language of Gabon) |
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| 33 | PEED | Went low in return (4) Reverse of DEEP |
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| 34 | DEPLORE | Disapprove of deputy lecturer, 21 (7) DEP + L + ORE (answer to 21ac) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | IMAGE‑WORSHIP | Pagan practice is engaging sorcerer without doctor ultimately knowing (12) MAGE + W/O + [DOCTO]R in IS + HIP (knowing) |
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| 2 | FAST | Not running quickly (4) Double definition – fast is an interesting word in having two almost opposite, though etymologically related, meanings; firmly fixed and moving quickly (and also to refrain from food) |
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| 3 | ATTORNEY | Brief sporting competition getting United expelled after attending (8) AT (attending) + TOURNEY less U |
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| 4 | CROSS | Indian distance runner initially hides in Ford? (5) R[unner] in COSS |
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| 5 | TROPARIA | Thessaloniki possibly reflected on song stanzas for local church? (8) Reverse of PORT (Thessaloniki is one) + ARIA (song) |
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| 6 | ERGOT | Queen caught disease (5) ER + GOT |
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| 7 | LEI | Garland is limelit, but not in prime locations (3) L[IM]E[L]I[T] excluding the letters in positions 2, 3, 5 and 7 – all prime numbers (1 is not considered a prime) |
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| 8 | MÉTIER | Line of current seen in gauge (6) I (electrical current) in METER – as in “what’s my line?” |
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| 9 | ANGLOCENTRIC | Girl somehow with no accent, ignoring non-British parts (12) (GIRL NO ACCENT)* |
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| 13 | LEDDEN | Spenserian dialect was chief study (6) LED (was chief) + DEN |
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| 15 | SHEATH | Quiet about US police, in case (6) HEAT (US slang for police) in SH |
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| 17 | SOMNIATE | Dream on, as time flies (8) (ON AS TIME)* |
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| 18 | MAN-EATER | What male lion may have, chasing missing female tiger? (8) MANE + AFTER (chasing) less F |
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| 22 | RATINE | Wearing through standard dress fabric (6) IN (wearing) in RATE |
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| 24 | ACHED | Did Long Acre coach expand when empty? (5) Outer letters of AcrE CoacH ExpanD |
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| 26 | SPAUL | Limb of biblical author shortly presented (5) S[aint] PAUL |
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| 28 | HEBE | Content of birthplace of Heracles, offspring of Zeus (4) Heracles was born in [t]HEBE[s] |
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| 30 | CID | Captain determined to drop external action (3) DECIDED less the outer DEED |
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I guessed FALCATE from the wordplay and checking letters, so I had a good laugh when I checked its definition in Chambers, and I liked building up ASTROLOGIST from the wordplay and then understanding the definition. I also originally thought of TIGRESS for 16a; I think we must have been influenced by the definition in 18d being ‘tiger?’ and the word ‘female’ next to it, even if it is part of the wordplay. I’ve solved clues where I had to take the letters in prime positions before, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen the non-prime positions used.
In 24d, I think ‘Acre’ should just indicate A. For 11a, I thought it was just MEN ‘backing’ RE rather than having to form the compound RE-MEN.
Thanks, Andrew and Gemelo.
Thanks for the blog , another good , solid Plain puzzle . I like the prime trick for LEI but the word prime always gives these away and difficult to think of another word for prime .
IMAGEWORSHIP is in Chambers93 but no definition or explanation is given , the whole entry simply ends . I suspect a printing mistake .