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12. Petitioned for termination of crocodile leather SUEDE (sued +
e) Dr Watson couldn’t
quite reconcile ‘for’ with the what’s needed here, which is something meaning
‘followed by’. Perhaps it works at a stretch in the sense of ‘intended for’.
13. Barking shins, dad restrained language SPANISH (pa
in anag.) Everything is cunningly disguised in both
wordplay and definition, with a lovely misleading surface. Not especially
difficult once you spot the anagram indicator ‘barking’, but still a pleasure
to solve.
21. Borrower, person alternating with ale drunk LOANEE (one,
alternating with anag.) Not many letters, but
quite tricky to decipher visually.
25. Dido, see, on a pyre lit with toyboy finally leaving? CAPER (c + anag.
less y) Taking
his cue from another meaning of ‘dido’, Azed presents
a good précis of the section of the Aeneid where the hero
abandons the queen of Carthage en route to Troy, letting
her become, rather too literally, an old flame.
27. Reverse of old-fashioned on holding one crucifer ERYSIMUM (I
in mumsy re, rev.)
You’ll need to dig about a bit in Chambers to link ‘crucifer’ in its
non-ecclesiastical sense to the solution. It’s explained more fully here.
30. Hide that’s dropped in for clutch
stabilizers? SKEGGS (sk(in) + eggs) Another example of a
very misleading surface, and a solution that’s only obvious in retrospect.
32. Westward travellers in Italy for putti AMORINI (Roma,
rev. + in I) ‘Westward’
as a reversal indicator across is well-established. It took Dr Watson a while
to realise that ‘Roma’ meant ‘travellers’ and not a destination in Italy.
34. P. Cézanne’s friend follows rules in
postponed case REMANET (r + E. Manet) Chambers
supports ‘r’ as an abbreviaton for ‘rule’ in the
legal sense, but Dr Watson can find no evidence for the plural. The links
between Cézanne
and Manet are better documented.
2. One left phone off before service – it
produces high blasts
ALPENHORN (a + l + anag. + RN)
A fine succession of puns..
4. Endlessly soft around evening, like river
in idyllic setting PENEIAN
(ene in pian(o)) Dr Watson, admittedly
after a very short search, couldn’t find any special literary references to the
Greek river Peneios that would justify its inclusion
in Chambers, though its setting may
well be idyllic.
6. Some chap’s stentorian, attention-seeking
utterance PSST
(hidden) A
vowelless word is the best bet for hiding in plain
sight.
8. Oldie’s stiff collar and jaunty boater REBATO (anag.) After
last month’s ASPHETERISM, another solution recalling Ximenes.
The P.D. competition for REBATO was the last one judged by X before his death
in 1971. D. H. Tompsett won with “The Lord had a tho/ught: Ask for Moses” (ref. Horeb in
Deuteronomy).
23. Boarding conceals king once shut in EMBAR (embar(king)) Dr
Watson initially parsed this as embar(K), but there
is no noun sense of the word in Chambers.
26. Guest paying to imbibe a strong drink,
gauging extent? PAGING (a gin in PG) The question mark after the definition
perhaps means that ‘paging’, i.e. organising into pages, is an example of
gauging the extent (of the text, etc.).
Other solutions:
Across: 1. SPACEPORT (pace in
sport); 10.
BLUECAP (anag. in bp); 14. SEBUM (eb(b) in
sum); 15. TEBETH (hidden; i.e. part of
December); 17.
BACKSTOP (backs top);
18. CHEAT (C heat); 19. ANCORA (hidden); 31. AFARA (a Fara(day)); 33. CORAL (c + oral); 35. BATTENING (anag.).
Down: 2. OBSTACLE RACE (0 + anag. in brace); 3. SUABLE (U in sable); 5. CASHAW (as in chaw);
7. OUENS ((R)ouen
+ S); 9. SEMIPARASITE (anag.); 11. PHOCA (hoc (L.)
in pa); 16.
FOREIGNER; 20.
CATERAN (hidden); 22.
AYMARA (ay mara); 24. BUSMEN (anag.
less r); 28.
SURAT (a2 in anag.); 29. SALT (salt(ire)).