An excellent crossword, not easy but — as should be the case — its difficulties were conquerable with some persistence. It seems to me that, with one or two very very slight exceptions, Gemelo has been scrupulous in his accuracy.
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)*
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MILLS-AND-BOON |
Overly romantic plant coming with Polish blessing (12)
|
| mill sand boon — mill = plant, not for once a type of plant — when you see Polish in a crossword you can be pretty sure that it will be something like rub or hone, in this case sand | ||
| 9 | AXIOMS |
Alliance accepting over a thousand principles (6)
|
| axi(o m)s | ||
| 10 | GRIFFE |
Claw rarely retracted, say, around familiar figure (6)
|
| (e.g.)rev. round riff — since griff is an alternative spelling of griff it won’t be the architectural ornament definition | ||
| 12 | STOP-OFF |
Sons memorably finish visit (7)
|
| s top off — memorably finish as in e.g. icing a cake | ||
| 14 | BOUGH |
Where swingers are mostly accepted (5)
|
| bough[t] — I suppose the swingers are things on the bough, since it is singular | ||
| 15 | SPITE |
Venom and Spawn finally battle (5)
|
| spit [battl]e — it took me a while to establish an equivalence between spit and spawn, but under spit(1) the fourth definition is spawn; I can’t find spit under spawn | ||
| 17 | OOLITIC |
Prudent to start late on ring of limestone (7)
|
| o [p]olitic | ||
| 18 | GREBE |
Diver from end of Titanic putting off leading couple when upset (5)
|
| ([ic]eberg)rev.— an iceberg was the end of the Titanic | ||
| 19 | BESPEED |
No longer help on board engaging S&P (7)
|
| be(S pee)d — I thought it was just a clever way of incorporating S and P but on looking I see that it stands for Standard & Poor — their 500 is a stock market index | ||
| 21 | ATLASES |
Vertebrae finally reduced, with less on the inside (7)
|
| at las(t), with [l]es[s] | ||
| 22 | PERCE |
Elizabethan writer’s to enter a church (5)
|
| per CE — a = per (“a church” rather than just “church” seemed rather sloppy, but the fact that it arguably reads better without the a alerted me to the fact that a is there for a purpose) — the Elizabethan writer is Spenser, who spelled pierce this way | ||
| 25 | CREEPER |
Sycophant‘s previous answer confused queen (7)
|
| The previous answer is PERCE, so it’s (PERCE)* ER | ||
| 28 | SWADS |
Local soldiers at first spend loads of money (5)
|
| s[pend] wads — “local” alerts us to the fact that it’s dialect | ||
| 29 | BOFFO |
Excellent entertainment with Oscar to follow (5)
|
| boff O — I never knew that a boff = an entertainment (slang; esp US) | ||
| 30 | AUSTERE |
Who wrote Emma, without finishing name on grave? (7)
|
| Auste[n] re | ||
| 32 | ILLIPE |
Mahwa tree stimulated to shed bark (6)
|
| [f]illipe[d] | ||
| 33 | TEAING |
Being mother for rogue agent enthralls one (6)
|
| 1 in *(agent) — a very odd word, and I can’t see myself using it, but it’s there | ||
| 34 | ELECTROCLASH |
Choose Wow over hit dance music (12)
|
| elect (cor!)rev. lash | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MANBAG |
US court organisation featured in publication where personal items may be placed (6)
|
| ma(NBA)g — the National Basketball Association, so in a sense a court organisation | ||
| 2 | LIGURE |
Stone from Bible story surrounding Asian tent (6)
|
| li(gur)e | ||
| 3 | LONGOBARD |
Germanic tribesman‘s vowel sound used in Globe by Shakespeare? (9)
|
| In “Globe” the vowel sound is a long “o”, Bard | ||
| 4 | ASTILBE |
Something akin to London Pride is ale brewed with skin of beetroot (7)
|
| (is ale b[eetroo]t)* — a plant, rather like the plant London Pride | ||
| 5 | NGONI |
African element of Dancing on Ice (5)
|
| Hidden in DanciNG ON Ice | ||
| 6 | BIO |
History writer dropping resistance (3)
|
| bi(R)o | ||
| 7 | OFF THE CUFF |
How link might be taken without rehearsal (10, 3 words)
|
| 2 defs — a cufflink might be taken off a shirt cuff | ||
| 8 | NEREID |
President dismissing 13, separately failing to get to moon (6)
|
| ([P]re{s]iden[t])* — 13 being PST, the letters P, S and T are separately removed — I don’t think there is anything significant in “to get to”: “failing” is the anagram indicator and the three words following it are a link, there for the surface — Nereid is a moon of Neptune | ||
| 11 | FOURTH WALL |
Theatrical contrivance regularly seen at show, in exciting draw? (10, 2 words)
|
| ([a]t [s]h[o]w)in four-all, which could be said to be an exciting draw in football | ||
| 13 | PST |
Listen to me after losing acceleration (3)
|
| p[a]st | ||
| 16 | PIPERONAL |
Retrograde way to include yellow bit of lemon, say, in perfume (9)
|
| (lan(or)e pip)rev. | ||
| 20 | ESPARTO |
Port running wild with sea grass (7)
|
| (port sea)* | ||
| 21 | AUSSIE |
60% German immigrant such as Eric Bana (6)
|
| aussie[dler] — aussiedler is German for immigrant, and Eric Bana is Australian | ||
| 23 | RAFFIA |
Bottom might get this from palm in stormy affair! (6)
|
| *(affair) — Bottom the Weaver in MND might use this, which comes from a palm tree since raffia is used in weaving mats etc — not sure why there’s an exclamation mark — I suppose the surface is about having a stormy affair and slapping a bottom | ||
| 24 | ENOUGH |
Fairly upsetting joke that’s disgusting (6)
|
| (one)rev. ugh! — fairly is under enough in Chambers, not the other way round — I can’t think of a sentence where they are interchangeable | ||
| 26 | EST |
Feature of superlative awareness programme (3)
|
| est is a philosophical and psychological programme designed to raise awareness, and superlatives end “-est” | ||
| 27 | EMEER |
Islamic leader uncovered people at liberty to return (5)
|
| ([f]reeme[n])rev. | ||
| 31 | SIC |
Chase dryness, leaving Manchester? (3)
|
| sic[city] — I had quite a hunt to find how they were equivalent, but it’s there under sick(2): to set upon, chase (its origin is a dialect variant of seek) |
I found this a bit tricky but I eventually managed to fill most of the grid even if I needed Chambers to confirm quite a few answers. I failed to guess ILLIPE which I’m sure I’ve seen before, but I couldn’t remember it and also couldn’t think of ‘filliped’. I liked the NBA being a ‘court organisation’ and needing to know that Bottom was a weaver, which is the only profession of the ‘rude mechanicals’ that sticks in my mind. I only worked out 22a after I thought it should be an anagram of CREEP after guessing 25a. I didn’t know the verb sense that justified TEAING but the clue reminded me that I only learned the expression ‘be mother’ from an Azed puzzle.
When I solved 14a I was imagining a child’s swing attached to a bough, but after seeing in Chambers that ‘bough’ can mean ‘the gallows’ I started to imagine the swingers were people who had been hanged.
For 19a, I had ‘board’ = BD and ‘S&P’ = ES PEE, but I had wasted a lot of time trying to put a board around SP.
I noticed the unchecked letters at the top of the tenth column spell OFFICE but I couldn’t see anything else related to this, so I hope it’s just a coincidence.
Thanks, John and Gemelo.
Thanks for the blog , another excellent , tough Plain puzzle , Just what we need with the occasional Special . LONGOBARD is very neat with the use of Globe . NEREID is clever and a reference to Trump and Kennedy , barring a miracle NASA will not land on the moon by 2029 . Great definition for RAFFIA .
I messed myself up for a while putting BORNE for 14AC , Borne(o) is the home of Orangutans who swing a lot . LIGURE took a while until I had corrected myself and I could not find GUR in Chambers 93 .
London Pride and ASTILBE are very different but actually closely related .
Very good blog. I thought some of the wordplay was “imaginative” this time, but nothing too exotic. I recall taking the longest time justifying the parsing for SPITE and CREEPER, for some reason.
A few quibbles: TEAING apparently means to provide tea for, whereas “being mother” specifically means to pour tea (I know pouring tea out could be said to be providing it, but I don’t think it’s quite the same). Aussiedler (21ac) is in Chambers with the definition of immigrant, so we have to accept it, but I believe in German the “Aus” (meaning out) would signify an emigrant; a different word is used for immigrant. 31ac: I thought the clue would have benefited from a question mark, as Manchester is not the only city in the world (and Manchester City is not the only football team to have that appendix).
Generlly, though, a good puzzle. Like Matthew@1, I thought BOUGH here referred to gallows and, like Roz@2, I couldn’t find GUR in my elderly Chambers.
Thanks for the blog.