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1. Harden pot around Afghan(1)
furnace(2) arrangement(3). (P)ATHAN OR(DER).
6. Country house(2) hop, cad arranging male(3) room for
concubines(1). (O)DA CHA(P).
11. Device for counting(1) parasitic plants(2) has one cross by grass amid US wheat(3) (S)OROBAN CHES(S). Chess is a US name for a type of grass.
The preamble indicates that the plural ‘Orobanches’
(unexpected because the singular is a Latin genus name) is attested on the
Internet – a first for Azed as far as Dr Watson is
aware. The minimal packaging is impressive.
12. Backs(2) put off(1) sport(3) emerged tarnished. (DE)TER GA(ME). The tergum is the dorsal part of an arthropod.
14. Military encounters seasonable(3)
shower(1), familiar(2). (RA)IN TIME(LY).
15. Mouths(1) taste old-style(3) Italian sauce(2), sugar-topped. (O)RA GU(ST).
16. Tavern(1) customers(3) don’t
fear a darn
muskrat(2) (F)ONDA TRA(DE).
17. Waste(3) compounds(2) resisted,
I manipulated
African knife(1). (S)IMI DES(ERT). One of the hardest clues to parse, not helped by the vague
definition of IMIDES.
19. Italian moor to raise bridge(3)
relating to choral work(2) he’s loved(1).
(INAM)ORATO RIAL(TO).
22. Scottish spiders(2) confine(1) fruit bug(3) (the spider act). (T)ETHER CAPS(ID).
28. Clean(1) record formerly(2), pup later gets form(3).
(PU)RE GEST(ALT).
29. Grow(1) wolf(2) mouth(3) fangs, i.e.
rare magic. (RA)ISE GRIM(ACE). Isegrim or Isengrim is a wolf in
the medieval Reynard fable.
30. Catch sight of(1) school(3) bird, Scots(2): Topsy Nelson.
(S)PY ET(ON). For
Dr Watson the most straightforward of the clues, helped by its shortness and
the fairly obvious anagram material, though the grid entry, a Scottish magpie,
is still reasonably obscure.
31. Top secret radio edit(3)
supplied(2) quickly(1). (PRE)STO RED(ACT).
32. Disease of
horses and cattle. NGANA. Solvers will have been relieved to finally enter
this solution, and launch the second stage of the challenge. It appears to be a
fairly flexible contents word, and time will tell what it can offer
clue-writers.
33. Robe(1) sweetheart(3) (single in a way(2)) in love, I mean not knowingly. (KI)MONO VALENT(INE).
34. In feast, nip’s delicate(1)
decoction(3), unsuitable(2). (F)INE PT(ISAN).
35. Steer(1) synthetic(3) gamble(2), i.e. pretty lonely. (PI)LOT TERY(LENE).
1. One-time engineer(2), a fellow
from Oz, to compress(1) SA plant(3).
ASTR(INGE NER)INE (a Strine). Chambers defines Strine as
the Australian dialect rather than a person. It’s unfortunate to have a misdefinition, but perhaps less distracting to have it in
the subsidiary indication than in one of the parcel’s definitions.
2. Shrew(2), breast laden
with large amount, set bounds for(3) disloyalty(1). TREA(SON DELI)MIT
(ream in tit).
3. Round grand, choir upset abnormally sensitive(3), kindly Scots tenant(2), bristling(1) HOR(RENT ALLER)GIC (G in anag.). ‘Kindly’ here is an historical term for a Scottish tenant whose family has occupied the same land for several
generations.
4. Wintergreen(3)/seaweed(1) ceremony(2) HM discovered in eccentric barony.
NO(RI TE)ABERRY (ER in anag.).
5. Petty officer(3), one conducting(2) dark spectral feature(1) in a sailor beset by beaks. RAIN(BAND
MASTER)-AT-ARMS (in a tar in rams). An impressively large package, concisely clued.
7. Set(2) pickle(1): it’s
essential to extract a line of teeth(3).
AC(HAR DEN)TAL (hidden).
8. More than
one moulding(3) salad leaf(2) curving inwards(1) – girl has it inverted. CHI(CON CAVE)TTI
(chit + it, rev.). Dr Watson’s
favourite surface reading, showing what’s possible with ostensibly unrelated
words. It
helps a bit that ‘cave’ has the same Latin derivation in both ‘concave’ and
‘cavetti’.
9. Liking(2) fibrous(1) border
ma removed from Our Lady chapel(3). HEM(PEN CHANT)RY (hem + (Ma)ry).
10. A large body of water left to bespatter(1) perfect(3) meteor(2). AS(PERSE ID)EAL (a
sea l). The Perseids are one
of the most active meteor showers regularly visible from earth.
13. Oriental(2) skin disease(1), cold sore mostly aia’s given treatment of
drug(3)? ROSAC(EA
STER)OIDAL (anag. of cold sor(e)
aia). An unusual definition of ‘easter’ and a loose-ish one of
‘steroidal’ make this one of the harder clues.
18. To manage a seine, say, download(2) fish food(1), something that clicks(3). COPE(POD CAST)ANET
(cope a net).
20. Declare as before(1) some
soreness after one’s thrown up little bird(2) meal(3). ASSE(VER DIN)NER
(hidden rev.). It’s difficult to interpret the
wordplay here because ‘after one’s’ could be read as indicating the A or AS at
the start of the solution.
21. Bairn(1)
jargon(2) lecherous(3)? It’s tattily garbled.
LITT(LIN GO)ATY (anag.).
23. Hound(2), historically
tall, one relating to rain(1) like some crosses(3). HYE(TAL BOT)ONÉ (hye one). Botoné is a heraldic term for crosses
with knobs on.
24. Entrance(3) Turkish bigwig formerly fed better
than(1) Scots shower(2) BEY(OND ING)ATE
(Bey ate). This parcel has very obscure
contents with only a definition to indicate them, and ‘Turkish bigwig’ offers
both ‘bey’ and ‘dey’ as
possibilities. One of the last clues Dr Watson solved.
25. Steelyard(1) wine (sweet)(2) spiced sausage(3) twice – I’m turning up. BIS(MAR SALA)MI (bis + I’m, rev.). A clue with hidden depths. ‘Bismar’
is defined as ‘a kind of steelyard’ of Orkney and Shetland. On further investigation
Dr Watson confirmed that a steelyard in this sense is a weighing machine.
However Steelyard is also
the historical site in London of the trading centre of the Hanseatic League, renowned
as the source of ‘Rhennish wine’, but possibly also
of spiced sausage. The Wikipedia entry asserts that the machine was named after
the location, but OED indicates it was probably a proprietary name.
26. Notes abused right of tenant(1)
several pints(3) inflame completely(2). EST(OVER GALL)ON (anag.). A package whose contents there was
little incentive to identify once the anagram was solved. There are many liquid
measures, after all, even though the one here happens to be familiar.
27. Opening bars(2) once smilingly(1) to be off(3), adult fondle mostly follows.
AGR(IN TRO)OP (A grop(e)).
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