Another fine collection of words, with one clue I can’t explain. Thank you Azed.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ESCRIBANOS | Foreign notaries prohibit nothing in breaking crises (10) |
| BAN (prohibit) O (nothing) inside anagram (breaking) of CRISES | ||
| 11 | MARON | Mainly Australian crustaceans found in Tamar once (5) |
| found inside taMAR ONce – a mainly Australian variant of camaron | ||
| 12 | HOOFROT | Bad news for farm stock, roof collapsing in heat (7) |
| anagram (collapsing) of ROOF in HOT (heat, as a verb) | ||
| 14 | TASTABLE | Like distinctive flavours borne around, company dining (8) |
| SAT (borne) reversed (around) then TABLE (company dining, the company at a table) | ||
| 15 | LAMPERN | Eye Queen, name for one of those that did for over-indulgent monarch? (7) |
| LAMP (eye) ER (Queen Elizabeth) and N (name) – king Henry I supposedly died from overeating lampreys | ||
| 16 | SLAW | Starter of leaves in cut salad (4) |
| Leaves (first letter, starter of) inside SAW (cut) | ||
| 17 | ADOWN | Poet’s behindhand, having to finish cutting beard (5) |
| DO (to finish) inside (cutting) AWN (beard) | ||
| 18 | EPOCHA | It’s hard to manage going back before a period of time (6) |
| H (hard) with COPE (to manage) reversed (going back) then A | ||
| 21 | TARRIER | One lingers behind abroad, mostly after end of treatment (7) |
| most of ARRIERe (behind in French, abroad) follows treatmenT (either end of) | ||
| 24 | PINTAIL | Duck bucket contains in it (7) |
| PAIL (bucket) containing IN ‘T (it) | ||
| 26 | EPERDU | Reckless, but last to take the lead, un peu distrait? (6) |
| PERDUE (reckless) with last letter moved to the front | ||
| 29 | ARETE | The area’s rocky – has this ridge possibly(5) |
| a possible anagram (rocky) of THE AREA’S is HAS ARETE (this, the solution) | ||
| 30 | RIVO | Consuming volume in endless carouse? Bottoms up! (4) |
| V (volume) inside (consuming…in…) RIOt (carouse, endless) | ||
| 31 | REDDLES | Puts slap on old revolutionary, reverse of rare once (7) |
| RED (revolutionary) then SELD (rare, once=obsolete) reversed | ||
| 33 | BLUDGING | What idlers are up to, shifting round back of hotel (8) |
| BUDGING (shifting) contains (round) hoteL (last letter, back of) | ||
| 34 | OUT LOUD | Lout played stringed instrument audibly (7, 2 words) |
| anagram (played) of LOUT then OUD (stringed instrument) | ||
| 35 | EARDS | Graves (old) in the kirkyard rased after development (5) |
| anagram (after development) of RASED – in the kirkyard indicates Scottish, graves as a verb | ||
| 36 | GENDERLESS | English tailored slender fits in grammar school, unisex (10) |
| E (English) and anagram (tailored) of SLENDER inside GS (grammar school) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | SAMADHI | Result of deep meditation aims had worked out (7) |
| anagram (worked out) of AIMS HAD | ||
| 3 | CREMORNE | Band less weak with sombre old wind instrument (8) |
| CREw (band) missing W (weak) then MORNE (sombre) | ||
| 4 | ROMP | Ladette from Paris? That’s where you’ll find her (4) |
| found inside (that’s where you’ll find her) fROM Paris | ||
| 5 | INTEND | Contemplate papers, new number included (6) |
| ID (papers) contains (…included) N (new) TEN (a number) | ||
| 6 | BHARATI | Indian art sahib flogged, not special (7) |
| anagram (flogged) of ART sAHIB missing S (special) | ||
| 7 | NOT UP | Still in bed, indicating failure to play ball properly? (5, 2 words) |
| double definition – a call in tennis | ||
| 8 | OF A SORT | Rough circle men got into quickly (7, 3 words) |
| O (a circle) then OR (other ranks, men) inside FAST (quickly) | ||
| 9 | SOLAH | Lavish topi? See VIP kitted out with this possibly (5) |
| Sorry, I can’t get anything to work here. Can anyone help me out? | ||
| 10 | STEWARDESS | Cabin staff member we rated unusually special on board? (10) |
| anagram (unusually) of WE RATED S (special) inside SS (on board, in a steam ship) | ||
| 13 | CLAPPERBOY | Part of bell by limiting ring gives a signal on set (10) |
| CLAPPER (part of bell) then BY containing (limiting) O (a ring) | ||
| 19 | CISELURE | Chasing decoy dogs sice trained (8) |
| LURE (decoy) follows (dogs) anagram (trained) of SICE | ||
| 20 | STRODLE | The old stand with legs apart, stick gripped lest wobbling (7) |
| ROD (stick) inside (…gripped) anagram (wobbling) of LEST | ||
| 22 | ALLENDE | Novelist quite finished? Not quite (7) |
| ALL (quite) ENDEd (finished, not quite) | ||
| 23 | EXTENDS | Time lost, book’s content concludes – offers looked for (7) |
| tEXT (book’s content) missing T (time) then ENDS (concludes) | ||
| 25 | BADGER | Second class failing grade worry (6) |
| B (second class) then anagram (failing) of GRADE | ||
| 27 | PILUS | I needed to cut excess hair (5) |
| I inside (need to cut) PLUS (excess) | ||
| 28 | DAGON | Biblical deity filling tribe with energy (5) |
| DAN (a tribe of Israel) containing (filling…with…) GO (energy) | ||
| 32 | DIAL | Mug switching sections in bargain store? (4) |
| ALDI (bargain store) with the first and second parts switched | ||
Thanks PeeDee, in the same boat re SOLAH. I think it might be intended as a compound anagram
LAVISH TOPI is an anagram of VIP SOLAH TO
and solah is the hat, or its material. Best I could do.
Sorry, VIP SOLAH IT
“This VIP kitted out with it possibly”?
Don’t remember much about this, as usual, but I did have a couple of question marks as reminders on the grid: 7dn and 9dn. The former, I didn’t know the tennis term, but I now see it’s in Chambers. For the latter, like Gonzo I tried to work out a compound anagram but I can’t see where “it” comes from.
I can’t find NOT UP as a tennis call in my edition of Chambers. I thought it was Azed winking at us: NO TUP. I.e. the ram “not playing ball” with the ewe.
Can’t help with SOLAH either.
Stefan
Ref SOLAH I was thinking on the same lines as Gonzo and got to VIP + SOLAH + IT = “VIP kitted out with this” but was always struggling to convince myself.
Stefan, NOT UP is in Chambers towards the end of the entry for UP.
Count me as another who couldn’t parse SOLAH.
I’m guessing that the original clue for SOLAH read “…kitted out with it, possibly” but Azed later changed “it” to “this” and forgot to adjust the anagram accordingly?
The advantage of using the Windows app version of Chambers: I just had to type “not up” and it came up with the definition. My paper edition (13th) has just about totally fallen apart but I just checked and it is there , but it took some finding.
The definition is “Called when the ball bounces twice before the player manages to hit it”.
cruciverbophile@8 – that is my suspicion, and of course “Lavish topi? See VIP kitted out with it possibly” is no good as a composite anagram &lit because the ‘it’ is doing double duty in the wordplay as both the letters IT and the representation of the solution. Gonzo’s suggestion @3 fixes the wordplay nicely but could only define a VIP, not a hat. “Lavish topi? See VIP kitted out with it and this possibly” would be ok. Alternatively, a reworking along the lines of “Lavish topi? Ordered VIP this together with it, possibly” would be an option.
SOLAH
I thought at first that I should remove LA (for See) from the compound anagrist.
When that didn’t work I tried removing I & T (for This) instead, which did work.
NOT UP
The tennis umpire usually calls this when one player plays a drop shot and the other rushes to the net to try to return it before it bounces twice.
If the umpire judges that he didn’t quite get there he calls Not Up
20d
The old stand with legs apart, stick gripped lest wobbling?
The opposite methinks! Left wobbling gripped stick.
Perhaps someone missed ‘by’ out of the clue.
DRC@10 – Maybe Azed realised that “it” was doing double duty, changed it to “this” and forgot to put the “it” back in the anagram fodder?
I must admit I didn’t notice the issue at time of solving. I’m not a great fan of compound anagrams and generally take it on trust that it all works out – unlike unfamiliar words and allusions, which I always confirm with a reliable source of reference.
cvop@13 – I have mixed feelings about the comp anag. I appreciate that it opens up a range of additional possibilities for words that have already been clued ‘many times, many ways’, but for every good one there tend to be several, well, less good ones, with very strained wording being a common problem. I also start to get decidedly twitchy when as many letters are added to the solution as are in the solution itself. Azed has in the past (based on feedback from some competitors) floated the idea of banning them from the competitions; personally I think it’s fine to allow them, but they should have a low ‘tariff’, such that they need to be exceptionally good relative to clues of other types in order to achieve high honours. I reckon Colin Dexter’s “It’s this Littlewoods could make you” for WELL-TO-DO (which back in 1986 Littlewoods certainly could have made you) is a terrific clue and fully deserved to win the cup, but I couldn’t say the same about some other winners over the years.
Norman@12 – I’ve seen “A contained B”, with an implied comma after the containment indicator to mean “B contans A”, in some daily puzzles. Notably the Guardian and occasionally the Times (I think). I’m surprised to see Azed do it though!
I have seen Azed use the ‘implied comma’ before, but I’m not at all keen on it. Incidentally, ‘X gripped Y’ to mean ‘X contains Y’ is a definite no-no – the use of the simple past tense tells us that the gripping happened at some point in the past and then stopped; indicating containment using a past tense requires the perfect tense, ‘X has gripped Y’.
Excellent comments this week. I too dislike the compound anagram. They are sometimes so contrived that I can’t be bothered checking how an obviously correct answer really is correct. Some even win the competitions. The “implied comma” is also something I dislike. Azed is on record as saying that he is “more Ximenean than Ximenes” but I think, perhaps because of his longevity, he has become less so in recent years. In 2463’s comments, Andrew thought the implied comma could be construed. bridgesong at 2468 pointed out that there was an indirect anagram. If these are lapses at all, we should allow them.
And thank you to bridgesong: I have found NOT UP. But NO TUP still amuses me!
Stefan