I managed to charge through this pretty quickly at my desk while pretending to work (and listening to The Rolling Stones on YouTube — unrelated I think). A couple of wordplays still to resolve which I fully plan to… (best laid plans…)
| Across | ||
| 1 | SCHWARMERISCH |
Fighting club before and after school getting one wildly enthusiastic (13)
SCH,WAR,MERI,SCH – so… well, sch=school of course. Twice. And MERI=a club (in NZ). I’m not that schwarmerisch about this clue since feels kind of overwrought. Thanks to Sidey for pointing out my meri error. |
| 10 | PROB |
Thorny matter: candidate likely to be chosen but not able (4)
PROB[able] and it’s short for problem. So kind of a thorny matter indeed — it was my last solved clue. |
| 11 | UNSETTLE |
Disturb tutees with Latin noun, irregular (8)
(TUTEES, L, N)* and our anagrind is “irregular” rather than “disturb” which is the definition. |
| 13 | LINGO |
Slice of ball in golf produces such language! (5)
Hidden and “slice of” is our containment indicator. I suppose you could argues this is is almost a kind of an &lit. |
| 15 | BEE,B |
Auntie Beatrice in association with bishop (4)
I had to explain to some people (non-Brits) at breakfast today how this worked. A glazed look resulted — since outside of England who knows that the BBC=the Beeb is “fondly” known as Auntie? |
| 16 | INPHASE |
Variegated ash and pine sharing a developmental stage (7)
(ash, pine)* |
| 17 | THUGGEE |
Time skirt got together with suit – it involved killing goings-on! (7)
T,HUG,GEE (“”practices of the Indian thugs”) and ref. GEE=to suit (in America). |
| 19 | TAMIS |
South Indians maybe extracting litre in strainer (5)
Basically, TAMI[l]S where Tamils are our S. Indians and the definition is TAMIS=tammy=strainer. |
| 21 | BROWNNOSERS |
Old copper rebuffs toadies (11)
BROWN=obs. copper (coin) and NOSERS=rebuffs. When I checked Chambers, I was wondering if the etymology is there. It isn’t. |
| 23 | POPPA |
Dad pees in the grass (5)
PO(PP)A — another clue explained at breakfast. Someone asked, “so give me an example” — I hadn’t solved any yet and my eyes fell on this clue — I hazarded PAPPA — the “pees” hinting at PP. As it were. Anyway, backed into it once I realized that PAA isn’t a grass but that POA is. |
| 24 | INGROSS |
Flighty signoras, though not adult, are absorbing as of old (7)
(signor[a]s)* – archaic “absorbing”. Clue could just as well have been: “Flighty signors are absorbing…” — but maybe a bit of sexism was needed for a more credible surface? |
| 28 | SUBSERE |
Secondary ecological grouping succeeded, though it’s hell getting back round it (7)
S in rev(erebus=hell) |
| 30 | EGIS |
English and native troops giving US protection (4)
E,GIS – American spelling of aegis. |
| 31 | OLLIE |
Dog without lead making jump in sport (5)
[c]OLLIE which apparently is a skateboard jump kind of thing. Or maybe it was snowboard. |
| 32 | SENTENCE |
Stretch marks may punctuate it (8)
Very nice double meaning. |
| 33 | HERN |
Wader, half from one direction and half from the opposite (4)
I had tern here at first but they don’t wade and couldn’t get the wordplay to fit. It’s HERN=heron and [sout]HERN and [nort]HERN. |
| 34 | CATERCORNERED |
Diagonal free kick coming in was entertaining (13)
CATER(CORNER)ED – our free kick was a corner in this case. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SPLIT-UP |
Lacking children, drunk – separation resulting (7)
SP,LIT-UP – sp=abbrev(sine prole)=without children. |
| 2 | CRIT,H |
Brief judgement on hospital unit quantifying mass (5)
CRIT[icism],H – one of my last solved clues. Who knew (unless you work at CERN) that CRITH is a unit in physics. |
| 3 | HONOURPOINT |
King maybe put on cape – it’s just above centre of shield (11)
HONOUR,POINT – a king is an example of an honour in cards (e.g. in bridge) and point=cape. And of course we experts in heraldry know that it’s just above the fesse-point (the center). Or something like that. |
| 4 | ALONG |
A record containing end of expansion in company (5)
I had among initially and did my valiant best to prove that MOG=company. But it’s just A,LO(N)G where LOG=record. |
| 5 | RUMP-END |
Minor cut arranged under ‘member being installed’ (7)
Clever clever clue. MP=member in under* for a cut of meat that I suppose isn’t particularly popular (?) |
| 6 | ESDA |
Forensic test on documents, some read separately from the bottom up (4)
Hidden reversed. |
| 7 | REASTS |
Props being placed round centre of stage, goes off (6)
RE(A)STS=goes rancid=goes off. Center of stage=A. |
| 8 | STEAMROLLER |
Crush some bread in cooking pot (11)
STEAM(ROLL)ER |
| 9 | HE,BE |
Male, live, youth personified (4)
|
| 12 | LEWIS |
Freemason’s son women wreathed in garlands (5)
LE(W)IS – this required a bit of research to work out that a mason’s son is indeed named a lewis (technical description here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Masonic). |
| 14 | RHENISH |
What’s often white and hard, found in crumbling shrine (7)
R(H)ENISH – H in shrine* – usually German white wine. |
| 18 | MONEYER |
Former capitalist making millions on sight, right? (7)
M,ON,EYE,R – archaic term for a fat cat. |
| 20 | SUSPEND |
Put on hold mashed spuds, with chicken (not hot) going in (7)
[h]EN in spuds* |
| 21 | BOUGE |
Candle I put out causing stir of old (5)
BOUG[i]E – archaic budge. |
| 22 | WAUKER |
Guitar (of a kind) in fierce contest becoming fuller (6)
WA(UKE)R – a fuller (of cloth!) |
| 25 | GROAN |
Complaint that’s developed in one’s hearing? (5)
sounds like “grown”. |
| 26 | SWIRE |
Father with wife in embrace neck no longer (5)
S(W)IRE – archaic neck (I used to know a Susan Swire — are you there?) |
| 27 | AESC |
Rune represented by one computer key (4)
A,ESC – hands up if you had ICON at first. Well, I did. |
| 29 | BANC |
Whereon judges sit in urban courts (4)
hidden. |
Thanks ilancaron, small point, the club in 1a is a meri, the ‘one’ in the clue is part of the definition, sort of almost. I really liked HERN, classic, tern being very tempting to write in if you can’t count the number of letters in eastern and western like I couldn’t for a while.
Now I can’t add up the captcha…
15A – the use of Auntie for the BBC is common throughout the UK, not just in England, I think.
Glad I wasn’t alone in filling in tern at 33A – trying to convince myself that it IS a water bird and must, therefore, do some wading occasionally.
Ah… England vs. the UK. When I was growing up in London decades ago, they were used rather interchangeably. But yes, I do know that there are four countries in the UK and yes Scotland almost won independence and yes point taken.
On a topic completely unrelated to crosswords, what’s considered more jingoistic nowadays: flying the Union Jack or flying the St. George thingy?