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9. Forage plant:
observes a heap round for example middle of byres (11,2 words)
17. Slightly
bulging outline unaltered under battered tent (7)
21. Sensitive
adult one captivated by springtime in the highlands? (5)
11. Old piece of
cloth fabric like velvet. PAN(N)E (2
meanings). The clue breaks down as ‘old piece of cloth’ (pane – an old word
for a piece of a patchwork) and ‘fabric like velvet’ (panne).
13. Traditional
shorts a Sikh cuts? This sits loosely.
KUC(C)HA (comp. anag.). Removing ‘sits’ from ‘a Sikh cuts’ provides
the anagram material. There looks to be the possibility of an & lit. here,
but Azed would normally avoid a comp. anag. & lit. with this type of clue,
as it would require the ‘this’ to stand for two different things: the defined solution and the non-word to be
entered in the grid.
14. Heads don’t
bob up and down so much for the most part.
NO(O)DLES or NOD(D)LES (nod les(s)). The clue leads to two possible solutions.
Either will do as there’s no significance to the omitted letters.
18. Firm open
reforms, as standard? PEN(N)IFORM
(anag.). ‘Penniform’ means feather-like, and Dr Watson initially thought
Azed had mixed up ‘penna’ and ‘pennant’ (a flag or standard), but Chambers
gives ‘a streaming wing feather’ as one definition of ‘standard’.
25. Cheers
pugilism administering part of old punishment?
TAR(R)ING (ta ring). ‘The ring’ is a term for boxing. Tarring
would be part of the punishment of tarring and feathering.
28. With leg
spinning out, acknowledges place for swinging.
GALLOWS-LE(E) (allows in anag.). The surface of the clue refers to cricket,
in which leg spinning and swinging are bowling techniques. Dr Watson isn’t
entirely happy that ‘with A out, B’ accurately indicates ‘B with A on the
outside’, but it’s a fairly common and accepted cryptic device.
30. One maybe
delivering Delphic oracle is nosy, reverse of formal. PRIESTES(S) (pries + set, rev.).
The prophecies of the oracle at
Delphi were delivered by the priestess Pythia.
31. Good times
for yachtsmen at sea with empty rig, blown about? REGAT(T)AS (anag inc. r(i)g). ‘At sea’ is such a familiar anagram indicator
that it’s an excellent bluff to use it, as Azed does here, for anagram
material. ‘Empty’ is a cryptic instruction to discard all but the end letters
of a word.
32. Issues
old-style matrix (not US) section.
UT(T)ERS (uter(us) + S). ‘Matrix’ is an old term for the uterus.
Removing ‘US’ only to put S back on is a rather roundabout way of cluing the
solution, but Azed probably did it to avoid ambiguity over which U to remove.
1. Punch to
finish slowcoach? That was a humdinger.
SOCKDOLAGGER (sock do lagger). It’s unfortunate that the eighth letter is
unchecked, since a slowcoach could be a lagger or a ligger, and ‘sockdolager’
and ‘sockdoliger’ are listed as alternative spellings in Chambers. It’ll
be interesting to see how Azed handles this.
2. Pour out
universal pennies no longer, anything but flush. PROUUD (anag. + U + d). A very nicely worded clue, taking advantage
of the obsoleteness of ‘d’ for pence, and the different senses of ‘flush’ and
‘proud’ as ‘level with’ and ‘standing out from’.
6. Toffee-nose,
contemptible person. SNOOT (2
meanings). ‘Snoot’ and ‘snot’ are very close in meaning, one ‘an expression
of contempt’ the other ‘a contemptible person’, so the working of the clue is a
little ambiguous, even though the solution isn’t.
8. Infuriate
e.g. Glasgow player, header given ultimate put-down. ANGERR (Ranger with R to end). Dr Watson has
never heard a Glasgow Rangers player referred to as a Ranger, but it’s logical.
The wording that indicates the move of the first letter to end is precise and
clever.
22. Sunni
geriatrics will accept this old black man.
NNIGER (hidden). Azed
has been pulled up before for including solutions that might be considered
racist words, but this one seems unexceptionable, despite being close to an
alternative with a different double letter.
23. Wallop: soak
imbibes litre, and the same again. SLLOG
(l,l in sog). Dr Watson wondered about SLLOP as a solution (slop and wallop are
weak liquors) until the checking light was solved. This is really just a normal
clue to SLOG extended to indicate the extra L, but it’s the only example of
that in the puzzle.
Across: 1. SPO(O)RS (spor(t)s); 5. RUS(S)ULAS (r + anag. + s); 10. ORWEL(L)IAN; 12. COB COT(T)AGE (OB + cot all in cage); 16. DUCAL(L)Y (cud, rev., + l in ay); 20. LARGHET(T)O (anag.); 26. GAL(L)EON (gale on); 27. SEA-(A)IR (I in sear); 29. ER(R)OR (rore, rev.). Down:
3. OWL-CCAR (C in anag.); 4.
RECHARGGE (char in egger, rev.);
5. RIBEYEES (eye in Ribes);
7. LAA-LA (aa in all, rev.);
9. SEESAME GRASS (sees + a + e.g. (by)r(es) in mass); 15. DEFOREEST (fed, rev. + 0 +
reest); 17. ENTTASIS (anag. + as
is); 19. OPIATTE (O + I in
patte); 21. AWAARE (A + a in
ware3); 24. COOPT (2
meanings, cf. co-opt).
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