Apologies for the late blog. A literary set appears in this puzzle.
The set in the crossword’s title is the Bloomsbury Group, a group of intellectuals who based themselves in 46 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury early in the 20th century. The name of the group appears in the puzzle alongside VIRGINIA & LEONARD WOOLF, VANESSA (or Clive) BELL, E.M. FORSTER and DUNCAN GRANT. I am unsure of my parsing for VILLAS and can’t find a satisfactory parsing for ORINOCO, but I’m sure someone will put me right.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WILDCAT STRIKE |
Western Lake District rambling is not approved by the Union (7,6)
|
| *(w Lake District) [anag:rambling] where W = West | ||
| 9 | ORINOCO |
Rio’s crime writer, Romeo, going round in circles (7)
|
| I haven’t got a satisfactory parsing for this, sorry! | ||
| 11 | ARABICA |
A faith leader disregarding bishop about drink (7)
|
| A + RAB(b)I (“faith leader”) [disregarding B (bishop) + ca. (circa, so “about”) | ||
| 12 | GRANT |
Theme word (5)
|
| 14 | DUNCAN |
Theme word (6)
|
| 16 | LIENS |
Uninitiated outsiders getting rights to property (5)
|
| [uninitiated] (a)LIENS (“outsiders”) | ||
| 17 | AERO |
Australian officer accepting off and on fear of flying (4)
|
| A (Australian) + O (officer) accepting [on an off] (f)E(a)R | ||
| 20 | ANOUILH |
‘A flipping cat eats uniform’ by hot dramatist (7)
|
| A + {flipping] <=LION (“cat”) eats U (uniform) by H (hot)
Jean Anouilh was a 20th century French dramatist, most famous for his version of Antigone. |
||
| 21 | EGOISTS |
Self-absorbed people like Oscar getting firsts (7)
|
| e.g. (for example, so “like”) + O (Oscar, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) getting 1sts (firsts) | ||
| 23 | TRAIPSE |
Playing ‘Pairs’ in the empty pad (7)
|
| *(pairs) [anag:playing] in T(h)E [empty] | ||
| 24 | SENOR |
Mr Speaker’s gutted to host regressive individual (5)
|
| S(peake)R [‘s gutted] to host [regressive] <=ONE (“individual”) | ||
| 25 | FUGGY |
Close vacant factory storing footwear (5)
|
| [vacant] F(actor)Y storing UGG (“footwear” brand) | ||
| 27 | LEONARD |
Theme word (7)
|
| 30 | VANESSA |
Theme word (7)
|
| 31 | REENACT |
Without Victoria, sadly can’t ever perform again (7)
|
| *(cant eer) [anag:sadly] where EER is E(v)ER without V (Victoria) | ||
| 35 | BELL |
Theme word (4)
|
| 36 | GROUP |
Theme word (5)
|
| 37 | TIRADE |
Harangue artist in retrospective review (6)
|
| RA (Member of the Royal Academy, so “artist”) in [retrospective] <=EDIT (“review”) | ||
| 38 | LEGER |
Dance backwards, embracing grand old swindler (5)
|
| <=REEL (“dance”, backwards) embracing G (grand) | ||
| 39 | EVEN OUT |
Make up for almost never returning from home (4,3)
|
| [almost] <=NEVE(r) [returning] + OUT (“from home”) | ||
| 40 | ACRONYM |
A close friend beginning to mock POTUS? (7)
|
| A + CRONY (“close friend”) + [beginning to] M(ock) | ||
| 41 | CLOTHES-HORSES |
Disparaging reference to models of dryers (13)
|
| Double definitions | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WOOLF |
Theme word (5)
|
| 2 | LIGER |
Hybrid car engine giving Ferrari feel finally when reversing (5)
|
| <=((ca)R (engin)E (givin)G (ferrar)I (fee)L [finally, when reversing] | ||
| 3 | COAST |
Go in neutral jacket featuring sequins at the front… (5)
|
| COAT (“jacket”) featuring S(equins) [at the front] | ||
| 4 | TOTEMS |
… to premiere of The End of Love with Mississippi idols (6)
|
| TO + [premiere of] T(he) + [end of] (lov)E with MS (Mississippi) | ||
| 5 | SATRAPS |
Governors and special forces taking part in uprising (7)
|
| SAS (Special Air Service, so “special forces”) taking <=PART [in uprising] | ||
| 6 | RAUCOUS |
Spooner’s choir is hoarse (7)
|
| [Spooner’s] CHORUS (“choir”) might have come across as RHO-CUS | ||
| 7 | KICK IN |
Start to work from home after strike (4,2)
|
| IN (“home”) after KICK (“strike”) | ||
| 8 | MANCHURIA |
Chairman wrongly accepted university place, many years ago (9)
|
| *(chairman) [anag:wrongly] accepted U (university) | ||
| 10 | RAIN GAUGES |
They record fall of a US ageing Republican in turmoil (4,6)
|
| *(a us ageing r) [anag:in turmoil] where R = Republican | ||
| 13 | NASTILY |
Sprinkle stain extremely lightly with caustic spirit (7)
|
| *(stain) [anag:sprinkle] + [extremely] L(ightl)Y | ||
| 15 | NEUTERED |
Fixed term contracts in EU end badly (8)
|
| TER(m) [contracts] in *(eu end) [anag:badly] | ||
| 18 | BLOOMSBURY |
Theme word (10)
|
| 19 | VIRGINIA |
Theme word (8)
|
| 21 | E M FORSTER |
Theme word (9)
|
| 22 | TENABLE |
Playing table tennis isn’t cleared or sustainable (7)
|
| *(table en) [anag:playing] where EN is (t)EN(nis) with the letters of ISNT cleared | ||
| 26 | YEAR DOT |
Start of 2027? Party time! (4,3)
|
| YEAR (“2027?”) + DO (“party”) + T (time) | ||
| 28 | ENTENTE |
Understanding amongst government enterprises (7)
|
| Hidden in [amongst] “governmENT ENTErprises” | ||
| 29 | PETREL |
Bird in gnarled tree by lake is under pressure (6)
|
| *(tree) [anag:gnarled] by L (lake) is under P (pressure) | ||
| 30 | VILLAS |
Somewhat sought after clubhouses? (6)
|
| Not 100% sure, but I think the parsing is:
[somewhat] S(ought) after (Aston) VILLA (football “club”) |
||
| 32 | AGGRO |
Trouble when a horse starts to roll over (5)
|
| A + GG (“horse”) + [starts to] R(oll) O(ver) | ||
| 33 | HORNS |
Some animals have these hard or nodulous extremities (5)
|
| H (hard) + OR + N(odulou)S [extremities] | ||
| 34 | SPAMS |
Sends junk plans back; success in the end (5)
|
| <=MAPS (“plans”, back) + (succes)S [in the end] |
Thanks for the blog loonapik.
I agree with your parsing of VILLAS, which is not to say I particularly like it.
For ORINOCO I think it is CON (crime) I (writer) R (Romeo) all reversed and inside OO (circles). I spent ages looking for crime writers!
I lived in Bloomsbury as a student, but to my shame I needed a reference source for the full complement of unclued lights.
Thanks to the Fiery foursome.
I think that this was the first time that I have cracked the title before starting the puzzle. That gave us a promising start.
We failed to parse ORINOCO or VILLAS but managed the rest without too many problems.