A relatively straightforward plain puzzle this week.
It actually took me less time to solve this puzzle than it did to solve the previous day’s prize puzzle in The Guardian (by Enigmatist), but of course I couldn’t do it without constant reference to Chambers. It’s worth mentioning the exceptionally generous checking (e.g. 9 down is a 7 letter word with only one letter unchecked) which does make it a lot easier once you get started.
Many thanks to PeeDee, who correctly diagnosed that I was using an outdated version of my browser, which prevented me from being able to access his very useful utility (which is essential for someone like me to compose this blog).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ESPRIT FOLLET | Feel lot going wrong, including spar? Gremlin possibly (12, 2 words) |
| SPRIT (a kind of spar) in *(FEEL LOT). | ||
| 10 | POROSE | Spongy place round moor, half submerged (6) |
| POSE (place) round (mo)OR. | ||
| 11 | MOOLA | Cash needed to get a weaver’s machine turning (5) |
| A LOOM (rev). | ||
| 13 | BALMORAL | Petticoat causing guessing game in the course of dance (8) |
| MORA (a guessing game) in BALL. | ||
| 14 | SCUFT | Where sucker-punch has landed, tender? Copper shown for nothing (5) |
| CU for O in SOFT. It means the nape of the neck. | ||
| 15 | SPET | Eject clique round priest (4) |
| P(riest) in SET. It’s an old form of SPIT. | ||
| 17 | TELPHER | Cable-car system, maybe help when working in region short of rain (7) |
| *HELP inside TER (rain). | ||
| 18 | POLIS | I’ll be nabbed by copper back in Irish force? (5) |
| I in SLOP(rev). One of the meanings of SLOP is a policeman (back-slang). | ||
| 21 | BAILMENT | Baron’s complaint following delivery of goods in trust (8) |
| B AILMENT. A term familiar to law students – or at least it was when I was one! | ||
| 23 | RATAPLAN | Tattoo went round palm, left (8) |
| I think that this parses as TAP L(eft) inside RAN (went). The difficulty is equating TAP with palm, but both can mean the sole of the foot or shoe. | ||
| 24 | GRATE | Wicket restricting runs making one fret (5) |
| R in GATE. | ||
| 25 | PICRATE | Flint (say) with opening for start of combustion in explosive stuff (7) |
| C(ombustion) in PIRATE. | ||
| 29 | CREW | Ship’s company prison officers released from ship’s hold (4) |
| (s)CREW(s). | ||
| 30 | EASED | Relaxed, taking some tea sedately (5) |
| Hidden in “tea sedately”. | ||
| 31 | REED-ROND | Rook and eider nod off (not I) in waterside thicket (8) |
| *(R(ook) E(i)DER NOD). | ||
| 33 | LET ON | Reveal one alone denied sing (5, 2 words) |
| (sing)LETON. | ||
| 34 | IDIOCY | I do shiver in very cold folly (6) |
| *(I DO) in ICY. | ||
| 35 | INSTANTIATED | Exemplified opponent creating division, placed in office? (12) |
| ANTI inside INSTATED. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | SOUCE | The old plunge in river emerging from spring (5) |
| SOU(r)CE. This had to be either SOUCE or SOWCE: the wordplay resolved any doubt. | ||
| 3 | PROUL | Mooch historically as Prince, endless reign containing nothing (5) |
| P(rince), O in RUL(e). | ||
| 4 | ROOF PLATE | Hammered peat floor, whereon rafter rests (9, 2 words) |
| *(PEAT FLOOR). | ||
| 5 | TEASE | Rag suggesting leaders from The Times to audience (5) |
| Homophone of “Tees”. | ||
| 6 | FILARIA | Harmful worms almost cram a valley (7) |
| FIL(l) A RIA. Ria is defined in Chambers as “a normal drowned valley”, which seems to suggest that undrowned valleys are abnormal! But no doubt it means something to geographers. | ||
| 7 | LOO | Facing king’s left in card game (3) |
| LOO (king). | ||
| 8 | LORELEI | Femme fatale that is turning up in support of good-for-nothing (7) |
| IE (rev) after LOREL (a worthless person). | ||
| 9 | ELATING | Cheering such as welcomes M. Antony’s speech (7) |
| LATIN in EG. Presumably Mark Antony spoke Latin! | ||
| 10 | POSTER GIRL | Pin-up maybe excited ogler with strip (10, 2 words) |
| *(OGLER STRIP). | ||
| 12 | ALAS THE DAY | A final dance with date one embraced? What a sad time! (10, 3 words) |
| D(ate) A in A LAST HEY. | ||
| 16 | POMERANIA | In translation a poem about queen in part of Poland (9) |
| RANI (queen) in *(A POEM). | ||
| 19 | NARCEEN | Opioid substance even after measure of fish that’s given a lift (7) |
| E’EN after CRAN (a measure of capacity for herrings) (rev). | ||
| 20 | STARETS | Hollywood wannabes leaving out pound for spiritual guide (7) |
| STAR(l)ETS. | ||
| 22 | ALPHORN | Constant gold buried in cryptic plan, with which ‘the hills are alive’? (7) |
| H OR (gold) in *PLAN. The reference is to the title song of The Sound of Music, set in the Austrian Alps. | ||
| 26 | INNIT | Pub with attractive quality? It doesn’t mean much (5) |
| INN IT (IT equates to sex appeal in some contexts). A difficult word to define! | ||
| 27 | ASCOT | One from the north in a sort of cravat? (5) |
| A SCOT. | ||
| 28 | TERCE | Part of intercession that features in the Divine Office (5) |
| Hidden in “intercession”. | ||
| 32 | DOT | Partner to carry climbing ivy bush? (3) |
| TOD (rev). As in the phrase “dot and carry”, used (or it was when I was at school) to teach arithmetic. | ||
Thanks bridgesong. RATAPLAN is ATAP L in RAN – atap is ‘the ripa palm’.
… and a technical DNF for me as I wordsearched the FOLLET part of 1 before I realised it was French. Also, I didn’t even notice 32dn – generous crossing indeed! I would have been bemused, as ‘dot and carry’ rings no bells. Thanks Azed.
Definitely on the easy side. I think I finished it in one sitting before dinner on Sunday evening.
My only problem was 23ac. I knew the word and had enough crossers to be sure I had the right answer, but I couldn’t parse it. Thanks for the explanations.
It’s been a long time since I first saw the definition of RIA in Chambers and I still don’t know exactly what it means, but reading it has never made me think that there can’t be normal undrowned valleys.
So: we can have the drowned and the undrowned valley. And each of those can be normal or abnormal. That means we need four words. Is Chambers incomplete?
Stefan
I suppose a reservoir could be called an abnormal drowned valley – and a cutting an abnormal undrowned one ?
Looking in Chambers under ‘Natural’ – Normal is one of the defs.
So it’s a natural drowned valley as opposed to an artificial drowned valley.
As to the drowned bit – it is either drowned or not, not undrowned.
This is getting ridiculous. We can have drowned and undrowned valleys. They can be normal and abnormal. Now we have the “artificial”.
Despite decades of searching in Chambers, I have not yet learned the word for the unartificial, abnormal undrowned valley. Azed will know it, of course.
Stefan