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11. Strong
home-brew, not bad in a saki mixed before noon.
SKOKIAAN (OK in anag. + n) The
first cryptic clue in this puzzle
involves strong drink, as does the last. ‘Saki’ is a convenient alternative
spelling for sake2.
16. Scottish
isle ay denied short stops. COLONS (Colons(ay)) No mooring here. Sail on! The ‘For Sale & Wanted’ link on
Colonsay’s
own website showed at the time of writing that the more intrepid
sailor might find shelter there. Visitors actually very welcome.
18. Whist
excursion, for crying out loud. SHOUTING (‘sh!’ + outing; s.v whist2)
A good knowledge of whist and its variants proves
useful here. Happy evenings at the whist drive will have been evoked for many
solvers.
19. Divine
sun outside in Cannes, but with half of us inside. HORUS (u(s) in hors) Azed often disguises use of a French word by
reference to a French location.
22. Take
that (last one to head)! It could render you senseless. ETHER (‘There!’ with
final ‘e’ moved to front) Azed
has indicated the exclamatory ‘there!’ in more direct fashion than that used at
18 Across.
28. Lecturer
on ancient Greek capital - such should not be hurried. LARGOS (L + Argos) The conjunction of ’ell and Argos may seem peculiarly
apt to many solvers. The real Argos may provide some diversion
from that unpleasant thought.
30. Take
a turn off for commuters’ short cut? RAT RUN (r + anag.)
Azed has
been careful to indicate RAT RUN as a noun, the only usage yet authorised in
Chambers. Dr Watson suspects that it may be in common use in a verbal sense as Wikipedia’s article
inadvertently suggests.
31. White
crystalline mineral: see iron mixed with it (early English cladding) ERIONITE (anag.
in EE) The anagram is formed from the letters of ‘iron’
and ‘it’. Solvers may judge how apt the surface reading may be at the link
given.
33. Jeweller’s
mineral, quartz-like, I tackle as of old in washing
trough. TIGER EYE (I +
gere, all in tye1) Edmund Spenser’s ‘gere’, meaning gear, is disguised in the surface as ‘tackle’,
used as a verb.
2. Reggae dance: special skill’s being given
upward jerk, not constant. SKANK (s + kna(c)k (rev.)) Chambers’
entries for Ska
and Skank appear
curiously to have been listed, each in ignorance of the other. Azed has achieved a tellingly apt surface reading in this
clue.
6. Opponent
of dualism in chair easily creating consonance? HARMONISTIC
(monist in anag.) Dr Watson thought instantly of ‘monist’ as the filling in the
anagram. Quickly solved.
7. Riparian? Steersman goes into one, both
losing heads. NILOTE ((p)ilot
in (o)ne; s.v. nilot) The riparian here is a
resident of the banks of the Nile.
12. Self-confidence shown by e.g. American
leaping over bar. ASSURANCE (as + US(rev.) + rance)
Whenever ‘bar’ is used to indicate a possible
word ending, ‘-rance’ is always favourite.
17. Mouldy game I found in store. FUNGOID (go2 + I, all in fund) The
clue for LAMITER in the last competition puzzle featured game2 as an
anagram indicator, and so it was interesting to see if this clue could be made to form a word meaning ‘store’ (I in anag. of ‘mouldy’).
23. Left in place sacred to Muslims, wherein
blacks predominate. HARLEM (l in harem) The less common definition for ‘harem’ -
‘any Muslim sacred place’ - is the feature of note in this clue.
25. Male for head left off helmet? He’s belted!
ORION ((m)orion; s.v
morion1) Dr
Watson suspected a revisiting of the ‘belted earl’ in some guise, but was
delighted to find a loftier prize, the hunter himself.
26. Stand? Eton turns to pop superstar with
this. EASEL (i.e. ‘Eton’ with ‘E’ as ‘El’) This
type of clue can perplex many solvers, especially those new to Azed’s puzzles. The parsing
of the indication is found essentially by reading the solution as a phrase,
rather than in interpreting wording within the clue. Even so, in this example,
the mere mention of Eton and ‘pop superstar’ should evoke the name of Elton John, and provide a
hint that a transformation of one word into another is involved.
29. Make
down payment on what goes into strong ale (not by round) ARLE ((b)arle(y); s.v.
arles) The
most troublesome part of solving this clue was finding the entry in Chambers.
Dr Watson was still merry from his skokiaan/sake
snifter.
Other solutions:
Across:
1. A STITCH IN TIME (The competition phrase) 13. PAND (i.e. “panned”)
14. TROLLIUS (roll in suit (rev.)) 15. INK-SAC (in + cask (rev.)) 24. CONTRITE (tri(p)
in conte) 32. BLOC (hidden) 34.
DENDROCALAMUS (d + anag; s.v.
dendro-)
Down:
3. TONKER (re + knot (rev.); s.v. clew) 4. TIKAS (anag.) 5. CATCHY (c in
Cathy) 8. TILLITE (lit in tile) 9. INION
(0 in in, in) 10. MAUN (u in man) 11. SPINHALER (h in anag.) 20. STONER
(one in str(and)) 21. STREGA (hidden) 27. KUO-YÜ (you in UK (all rev.))