What a good crossword Gemelo has set. The surfaces are convincing and read sensibly, and the crossword gave me much pleasure to solve.
My guess is that anyone who does these crosswords will have a copy of Chambers to hand and so won’t need everything to be spelled out. In the parsing I have confined myself to explaining when the wordplay is not immediately clear.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*
I appeal to someone who is cleverer than I am to explain 29dn, not that it really needs explaining because it’s obviously the answer. And while we’re about it, I’m a bit uncomfortable with 8dn.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DIRT-PIE |
Cast tried keeping irrational, groundbreaking outcome in play? (7)
|
| *(tried) round pi — play by children in the mud | ||
| 6 | OFFAL |
Waste of space, essentially, hiding in Florida (5)
|
| of F(a)l, where the a is [sp]a[ce] | ||
| 11 | MAESTRO |
Railway system separately taking on a second conductor? (7)
|
| metro around, in separate places, a and s | ||
| 12 | ANI |
Bird which comes between partridge and pear tree when singing round (3)
|
| (in a)rev. — “… and a partridge in a pear tree” | ||
| 13 | DEMESNE |
Manor-house in Greek township being tipped over (7)
|
| deme (ens)rev. — ens = being | ||
| 14 | BANG TO RIGHTS |
Absolutely veto government covering for members importing gold (12, 3 words)
|
| ban (g t(or)ights) — the members are the legs | ||
| 16 | ORIGIN |
Source of Japanese art ignored by American nationalist (6)
|
| orig[Am]i n | ||
| 17 | SEIS |
Without backing, legally apprehend large swimmers (4)
|
| seis[e] — seise is a legal term for seize | ||
| 18 | PLEASURER |
Bon vivant‘s drunk ales in more modest surroundings (9)
|
| *(ales) in purer — it may be hard to think of an equivalence for pure and modest, but it’s there in Chambers | ||
| 21 | ON THE CLUB |
Old and expecting to start late, previously certified unfit to work (9, 3 words)
|
| o [i]n the club — expecting = pregnant | ||
| 24 | FEUD |
Fellow justified when returning bad blood (4)
|
| f (due)rev. | ||
| 25 | FEDORA |
Indiana Jones has his and theirs sadly cut from Raiders of the Lost…? (6)
|
| A very clever clue: how on earth did Gemelo think of the anagram? You start with (Raiders of the) and remove the letters of (theirs)*, then you anagram what you have left, the indicator being “Lost” — it was news to me, since I know virtually nothing about Raiders of the Lost Ark etc, but Indiana Jones is well-known for wearing a fedora | ||
| 26 | STRETCH LIMOS |
Tailor trims clothes for particularly long rides (12, 2 words)
|
| *(trims clothes) | ||
| 28 | THIAMIN |
One’s going through watery beans and liver for this? (7)
|
| th(I am)in — slightly odd definition, but Chambers tells us that they are a supplier of thiamin | ||
| 30 | ANT |
Industrious type intended saving Gemelo (3)
|
| [me]ant | ||
| 31 | MADISON |
Unbalanced thus, entering into cycling race (7)
|
| mad i(so)n — in = into — nice to see a clue containing the word “cycling” where it isn’t part of the wordplay; in such cases it is unpopular (can never see why: it seems a perfectly reasonable part of the setter’s armoury) | ||
| 32 | PREEN |
Groom to try out Scottish name (5)
|
| pree n | ||
| 33 | ENSNARE |
Headless chickens tore around back of the trap (7)
|
| [h]ens (ran)rev. [th]e | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DIABOLO | Briefly face uppercut in top entertainment? (6) |
| dia[l] bolo —the top refers to the toy that is spun in Diabolo | ||
| 2 | IGNARO |
One with bad fake tan, perhaps – mostly backward, old, uninformed person (6)
|
| I ([orang[e])rev. — orange = with bad fake tan, perhaps (a Trump reference no doubt) | ||
| 3 | TANG |
Pungency of Dynasty (4)
|
| one of the Chinese dynasties was the Tang Dynasty | ||
| 4 | PESTILENT |
Deadly addition to mortar stopped by international doctrine? (9)
|
| pest(I)le NT — the New Testament can be regarded perhaps as religious doctrine | ||
| 5 | ETERNAL |
Like heaven that may be seen if surrendering cross (7)
|
| e(x)ternal — external = that may be seen | ||
| 7 | FOE |
Friends doesn’t include this female with Joey, naked (3)
|
| f [J]oe[y] — friend or foe? — Joey is a character in the American sitcom Friends | ||
| 8 | FISHERWOMAN |
Uncertainty over tank, including who emptied or maybe who filled it? (11)
|
| (if)rev. Sherman, containing w[h]o — not sure about the definition, which refers to fish tanks I think, but why might a fisherwoman fill a fish tank? | ||
| 9 | AUNTIE |
The BBC‘s active and free (6)
|
| a untie | ||
| 10 | LOESS |
Bad financial outcome when banking electronic deposit (5)
|
| lo(e)ss | ||
| 11 | MINIATURISE |
Make tiny sum tinier, struggling with AI (11)
|
| (sum tinier AI)* | ||
| 15 | ISSUELESS |
Apply for smaller amount under income support without children (9)
|
| (sue less) under IS | ||
| 19 | ECOCIDE |
Codpiece somehow exuding power is crime against nature (7)
|
| (Cod[p]iece)* | ||
| 20 | ROASTIE |
Potato bread containing arsenic tablet (7)
|
| ro(As)ti E — an Ecstasy tablet | ||
| 22 | NETHER |
That man’s charging rent, surprisingly lower (6)
|
| he in (rent)* | ||
| 23 | KRONER |
Expert supporting sides of Kasper Schmeichel might spend these (6)
|
| oner under (supporting) K[aspe]r — since Kasper Smeichel is Danish, and kroner is the standard unit of Danish currency, the whole sentence can be seen as the definition, making this an & lit. — in the wordplay sides = football sides | ||
| 24 | F-STOP |
Shooter’s setting affected dandy across street (5)
|
| f(st)op — the shooter is a photographer | ||
| 27 | IRON |
What’s retained by ignoring rising strength? (4)
|
| Hidden rev. in igNORIng | ||
| 29 | AME |
Soul that could be directed in bed (3)
|
| OK this is the answer — we never had to solve anything, because there are no unchecked letters, and âme is the French for soul, a word that has come into English, but the wordplay is completely beyond me I’m afraid. Over to you, dear reader. [Thanks to the several who explained that it’s [be]ame[d]] |
29D: [BE]AME[D] = directed, as on Star Trek, I suppose
8D: The person who caught the fish which are in the tank
I got stuck for the longest time by absentmindedly writing in TAPE instead of TANG in 3D, but once I cleared that up, I was able to fill in the NW corner.
Also, for 4D, I assumed NT (“New Testament”?) = doctrine, but that sounded a bit of a sour note for me on an otherwise solid puzzle.
I really liked the Indiana Jones clue to FEDORA, but I was a child of the 1980s so I was familiar with Jones and his choice of hat. I also thought the clues to ANI and FOE were funny, as was the definition of ECOCIDE.
I briefly put MING at 3d before thinking of TANG and realising that my understanding of the wordplay in 1a, which I hadn’t yet solved, meant it shouldn’t contain an M. I originally entered AME from the definition but didn’t take long to think of BEAMED as mentioned by Cineraria,
I usually try to keep out of arguments about the &littishness of clues, but in 23d the wordplay ends at ‘Kasper’ and the rest of the clue could form a definition by itself, so I expect most solvers would say it isn’t &lit.
Thanks, John and Gemelo.
Thanks for the blog , another very good set of clues with many nice touches .
FEDORA is very neat especially the correct use of an anagram for removing THEIRS .
FISHERWOMAN a good construction , a tank can be a pool or pond so she could have stocked it with fish .
ON THE CLUB – why previously ? Chambers93 just has it as slang , my parents still say it .
AME – Chambers93 does not have this as a single word .
For doctrine it has – a body of religious teaching – so NT seems fine for me .
Roz @4: Chambers 2016 edition has ON THE CLUB marked as “old sl.” And AME (with the circumflex) is in there as well.
Some good news: The Observer has announced that the monthly clue-writing competition is to return at the end of every month, starting in January, but with a trial run in November. And the &lit website archive is to be revived and relaunched.
Some very good clues here – FEDORA is a stand-out, but there were a number that had very credible surface readings. “Particularly long rides” was a nice definition for STRETCH LIMOS. Not a particularly difficult solve, I didn’t think, and no really obscure words – I hadn’t come across ON THE CLUB before or PLEASURER, but they were clear enough. Overall, good fun.