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15. Piggery, rank, old, deserted GREED (gree
+ d)
Three parts to the clue, none of them easy to pin down: an archaic
version of ‘degree’ a less familiar abbreviation, and a nicely misleading definition.
16. Periods without a dad leading to your
old-fashioned repugnance
DYSPATHY (d(a)ys pa thy; DYSPATMY) The solution is elusive until you realise
that ‘a’ and ‘dad’ need to be split.
18. What’s this in Estonia, including little
pence? SPENT (p in sent3
& lit.) Dr
Watson wasn’t entirely convinced by this self-referential & lit. clue. A sent is a former currency unit of Estonia, and so
would be spent (and is spent in the sense that it’s expired as legal tender),
but ‘including little pence’ seems incorrect in the definition.
30. Stage director strangely makes actor —— set DERIG (comp. anag.
& lit.) Having
removed the surplus letters the solver is left with letters that could make
RIDGE or DIRGE. The solution is a bit less obvious than those. Quite concise
for this type of clue.
2. Gourmet that is following cook by turning
up FOODIE (do of, rev. + i.e.; COODIE) Turning ‘cook by’ into ‘do of’ is not an
obvious piece of wordplay.
5. Churchmen releasing cry about ‘coming’? ANON ((c)anon(ry)) Azed finds a better option than the more
straightforward (c)anon. ‘Anon’ here in the sense of ‘soon’.
8. Composer I understand to be occupying
Delius’s heart LIGETI (I get in
(De)li(us)) György
Ligeti, best known for his avant
garde choral works, is poles apart from Frederick Delius,
though who’s to say he wouldn’t have taken him to heart?.
10. Part of the weekend one RA separately set
aside for reverie STUDY
(S(a)tu(r)d(a)y)
An unusual wordplay, removing
non-contiguous letters from a word.
11. After parking composer I dropped in for a
whipped café ‘special’
FRAPPUCCINO (P + Puccin(i) all in anag.; FREPPUCCINO) Another composer added
to the mix. The wordplay is quite difficult to tease out with ‘after’ and ‘I
dropped in’ being especially misleading.
26. Tree Albert’s climbing? SUMAC (Camus, rev.; STMAC) There
are more than enough possible Alberts to work through, but the clue with its
reference to the goalkeeper
of Oran works very nicely.
29. Genuine playwright, not British ECHT ((Br)echt;
ECNT) One
last literary figure
to identify.
Other solutions:
Across: 1. FAZENDA (n in fazed + a; FACENDA); 6. ALLIS ((t)allis(h)); 12. ORGAN-POINT (organ + point; ORGANPLINT); 13. GROOGROO (0 in grog + roo);
14. WIDDY (w + anag. + Y; WEDDY); 20. ERRING ((h)erring); 22. PUDENT
(den in put; PUEENT);
24. HYPER (hidden); 26. SCARLESS (S + l in caress;
SCARLENS); 28. SCLIM
(c in slim; TCLIM); 31.
SCOLDING (cold in sing; SCOLIING); 32. ANOINTMENT (men in anag.;
ANOINNMENT); 33. CONCH (conc. + H); 34. TANYARD (any in
tar + d; TANYERD).
Down: 1. FIG WASP (f + w in I
gasp); 3. ERODE
(rod in (sp)ee(ch)); 4. DARBYITE (it
in anag.); 7. LIBRARY (Libra + ry; LLBRARY); 9. INTERNECINE (intern + c in eine; INTEMNECINE);
17. SEMI-COMA (anag. + a; SEMNCOMA); 19. NERITIC (anag.);
21. GRIGGED (grig ged); 23. FALCON (l in façon; EALCON); 25. PERITI (It. in peri;
PERITE); 27. WENNY
(new, rev. + NY; WEINY).