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13. Old soak, in avoiding wine etc, missing clubs WEET (w(in)e + et(c)) A double subtraction,
but it looks like ‘wine’ is avoiding ‘in’ rather than vice versa.
14. Rogue sailor on junk possibly mixing up his
port and starboard? RASCAL (lascar with
l and r swapped) ‘Lascar’
conveniently has l on the left and r on the right, so the wordplay can be
interpreted in two ways.
16. Oxford dreamers heading for renown in MI6? SPIRES (r in spies) A
clever reference to both Matthew Arnold’s description and Oxford’s history of
producing spies (though the notorious Cold War double agents were Cambridge men
of course).
18. Huge ——’s whizzing? ‘See me go with
huskies!’ ESKIMO (comp. anag. & lit.) The
explanation is that ‘huge Eskimo’s’ is anagram of ‘me
go huskies’. Not Dr Watson’s favourite type of clue, and it’s not really clear
why the Eskimo needs to be huge from the definition point of view.
29. Like M. Antony addressing crowd? TOGATE (to gate) Dr
Watson spent a while looking for a word that would relate to ear-lending, but a
more visual idea of Mark Antony is required. The reduction of Mark to M. doesn’t
seem to serve any purpose.
32. With being gripped by spirit, I instal converted anti-Lutheran? ZWINGLIANIST (w in zing + anag.) A
fine word, offering a rare excursion to the last page of Chambers for those who
use the paper version. Huldrych Zwingli’s creed would probably be regarded as more
anti-Catholic than anti-Lutheran – he took up arms against the Catholics of
Switzerland and died in battle.
7. R. Blanc’s art goes into exotic bread and
potato dish ROESTI
(es (Fr.) in
roti) Perhaps
this abbreviation of names is a space-saver. ‘Es’ for
‘art’, as in ‘thou art’, is a fairly common crossword setters’ trick.
Other solutions:
Across: 2. CUNCTATORY (anag. in anag.); 10. XANTHOCHROIA (X ant + 0 in anag.);
11. TRIG (2 mngs.); 15. TOUSLE (L in to use); 17. VEXT (X in vet); 21. ALDINE (d in a line); 23. GOAF (go af(t)); 26. URTICA (a citru(s),
rev.); 28. AVOCET
((Viv)a voce + t);
30. NOME (n to start in omen); 31.
PLEA (hidden); 33.
SCANDALISE (scan Dali + s(auvagism)e).
Down: 1. EXTRAVAGANZA (extra vaga(Bond)
NZ a); 2. CARAVEL (a rave in CL); 3. UNISEX (sin, rev.
+ E, all in ux); 4. CHEAPEN (anag.); 5. TOILINETTE (line
in anag.); 6. THROE (hr in toe); 8. YIELD (2 mngs.);
9. GATES OF DEATH; 12. STRELITZIA (St + el in Ritz I a); 19. SECONAL (a in
lance’s, rev.); 20.
MALTESE (l in anag.); 22. DROMIC (I’m in cord, all rev.); 24. OXALIS (lax,
rev., in O is); 25.
AVOWS (0 in a VW + s);
27. REIGN (reign(iting)).