After my run of specials, it’s almost a relief to have “just” a Plain Azed to blog. I didn’t get off too lightly, though: I did about three-quarters of this quite quickly and without aids, but ground to a halt to in NE corner and took longer to do that than the rest of the clues put together. Some of the parsing was tricky to work out, but I hope I’ve got everything satisfactorily explained. Thanks as always to Azed.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | PUPPY FAT | Pressure mounted on wretched pa, 50? Not if it goes with maturity (8, 2 words) P + UP + (PA FIFTY)* less IF |
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| 11. | YELLOWCAKE | Metallic solution – something like lemon sponge? (10) A lemon sponge might be a YELLOW CAKE |
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| 12. | STAPH | Cause of e.g. pneumonia or recurrent mild strokes requiring hospital (5) PATS< + H |
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| 13. | DEARIE | Blossom, say, to wither at edges of auricle (6) EAR (auricle) in DIE – reference to the jazz singer Blossom Dearie |
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| 14. | TROT | One of Macbeth’s witches, initiator of toil or ditto of trouble, boiling? (4) Anagram (just about) of T[oil] OR T[rouble]. TROT is an old word for “and old woman, a crone”: it appears in The Taming of the Shrew: “Why give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby; or an old trot with ne’er a tooth in her head?” |
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| 15. | MACEDON | Edward’s tucking into wine in Philip’s place (7) ED in MACON – reference to the ancient Greek Philip II of Macedon (there were Philips I and III as well, but they seem to be less famous) |
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| 16. | GADI | Symbol of Raj state severally dropped by Gandhi? (4) GANDHI less NH (New Hampshire), “severally” indicating that the N and H are not consecutive. GADI is “an Indian throne” |
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| 17. | STILETTO | Dagger produced by drunk forced to retreat in argument (8) LIT< in SET-TO |
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| 19. | RICCIA | Genus of liverworts: 201 found in submerged valley (6) CCI in RIA |
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| 24. | SARNIE | No time for bottled retsina? Certain bars will serve it (6) RETSINA* less T |
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| 25. | DANCETTY | Heavily scored and suitable for discos (alcohol-free inside) (8) TT (teetotal) in DANCEY (like disco music) |
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| 27. | ALAS | Woe created by mild smallpox, being out of trim (4) ALAS[TRIM] |
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| 28. | CAPSTAN | Device for winding pasta one cut and put in tin (7) P[A]STA in CAN |
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| 30. | DUSH | Part of Hindu shrine that gives Scots quite a jolt (4) Hidden hinDU SHrine |
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| 31. | ACCITE | To hail, as a rickshaw, doubling emolument initially (6) Reverse of TICCA (Indian word for “hired”, as a rickshaw might be) + E[molument] |
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| 32. | PISTE | Place for e.g. fencing enlarged by adding part, we hear (5) Homophone of “pieced” – Chambers gives “to enlarge by adding a piece” as a definition of “piece”. A piste can be an area used for fencing |
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| 34. | TORTELLINI | Italian dish? Orderin’ in receptacles (10) TELLIN’ in TORI (plural of torus: “the receptacle of a flower”) |
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| 35. | MISTIMED | Almost an air shot, lower back being out of sync? (8) MIS[S] (an air shot on golf is a miss) + DEMIT< |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | POSTGRADUATE | Spot urge a tad deviant in aspiring doctor? (12) (SPOT URGE A TAD)* |
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| 2. | UPTRAIN | The old educate in residence at uni with retinue (7) UP (at university) + TRAIN |
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| 3. | PYA | What’s group in Mandalay paying up? (3) Hidden in reverse of manadalAY Paying, &lit, Pya being a Burmese unit of currency |
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| 4. | PEPTICS | Digestive organs taking part in dissolving spice (7) PT in SPICE* |
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| 5. | FLOATANT | Tan after Lilo’s blown up? Could be lier with this aid to buoyancy (8) Composite anagram: (TAN AFTER LILO)* = FLOTANT + LIER |
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| 6. | TWEELY | Woven Scottish fabric, No. I in yuckiness? In that fashion! (6) TWEEL (Scots form of twill) + Y |
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| 7. | ECAD | Environmentally determined species, reverse of dead one (4) Reverse of D ACE |
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| 8. | CAROTIN | What’s bread dipped in to preserve pigment? (7) ROTI in CAN |
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| 9. | SKINT | Stony track’s beginning at bottom of fell (5) SKIN (fell=”a skin, membrane”) + T[rack]. Stony = Stony broke |
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| 10. | KEEP ONE’S HEAD | Remain calm and avoid execution? (12, 3 words, apostrophe) Double definition – rather a banal clue by Azed’s standards, thought |
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| 18. | INSTALLS | Places in an office relatively close to dramatic goings-on (8) If you’re IN the STALLS in a theatre then you’re close to the action |
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| 20. | CONACRE | Rented Irish smallholdings? Tin’s turned up in central part (7) CAN< in CORE – this is the third time CAN has been used in wordplay, and the second time it's defined as “tin” |
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| 21. | GRADINI | Altar decorations arranged in a grid (7) (IN A GRID)* |
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| 22. | PIASTRE | One of those pieces of eight buried by pirates? (7) PIRATES* |
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| 23. | RESTEM | Force upstream formerly meets raggedly following river (6) R + MEETS* |
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| 26. | ACCOY | Poet’s still a name described as “real”, though lacking money (5) A + [The real] MCCOY less M |
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| 29. | PITA | Soft palm fibre (4) P (soft) + ITA (the miriti palm). I spent a while vainly trying to justify PITH here. |
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| 33. | SIM | Schism’s half converted evangelical (3) Anagram of [sch]ISM – short for Simeonite |
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