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1. After siting’s feast, port was drunk POST-WAR (B;
fighting’s ceased; anag.).
7. Martin Peter, a creation of William Boyd’s IAMB (B; part
in meter; hidden) A
very neatly disguised definition and wordplay. William Boyd is
probably best known for his James Bond revival novel Solo.
10. Trade Mac’s concealed involves bit of extortion HIED (B;
made tracks; e in hid).
11. Cooking eastern nan (roti) one applies an ocean
of lard, say ANOINTER
(B; a lotion of nard; anag. inc.
E) The setter inevitably
resorts to definition by example in Spoonerisms clues more than other types to
achieve effective wordings. Nard lotion is of course just one of many things an
anointer might apply.
12. Partridge e.g. with tiger’s heart for
greedy ras
ALANG (B; reedy grass; Alan + g) A reference to the Steve Coogan character
in a surface that doesn’t bear much scrutiny.
14. Base part of leg, this, is missing smear of
oil THOLI (A;
low thigh; th(is) + anag.) The first of several Spoonerised
body parts. Chambers supports the pronunciation ‘tho-lie’
rather than ‘tho-lee’.
15. Recognize base types: sleek one deviously
captures hearts
KNEEHOLES (A; know heels; H in anag.) The vowel-swaps are usually harder to spot
than the consonants.
17. Sailor to mix article in honey MARTEL (A; tar mell;
art. in mel) The use of ‘mel’ in
the wordplay and ‘mell’ in the type A definition
makes the parsing tricky.
19. Pot off niche, left out, plainly cracked IN PLAY (B;
not off pitch; anag. less l) Is
niche pronounced ‘nitch’ or ‘neesh’?
Chambers supports both.
22. Time to suit US river bird DEEJAY (A; day gee5; Dee
jay) A
second vowel-swap that will have solvers muttering possible solutions to
themselves.
27. It follows end of cigarette being dropped
in seat – very small hole
PEEWIT (A; wee pit; e in pew + it) Azed achieves a
very plausible surface reading from unpromising material.
28. We’ll divide to eke out, as before, see,
struggling? The old will
EWE-CHEESE (A; ye choose; we in eche + anag.) Azed knows as well as anyone that the Y in ‘Ye’ is a
substitute for the character Þ, and so strictly sounded as ‘th’,
but again Chambers supports his
choice as the common pronunciation.
29. Charge for fish? If doubled, round the bend FARCI (A; sar1
fee; arc in if, rev.)
More evidence that setters have a fish for every occasion. Using ‘charge
for fish’ rather than ‘fish charge’ adds an extra twist to the definition.
30. Section for pa in fence of stakes – it
rings flocks SLING
(B; flings rocks; S for pa in paling).
31. Frond between bends, one holding spike left
from behind ALLIANCE
(B; bond between friends; nail l, rev. in ace) A great choice of Spoonerised
definition produces a convincing heraldic surface.
32. Speak grace for students before entering it STOA (B; Greek
space; to in SA)
The & lit. Archive has
examples of this use of ‘it’ in clues as far back as 1951, and some even
earlier examples of ‘sex appeal’ and ‘glamour’ for SA.
33. Lion fed with new joint, dejected LENO (A; knee low; n in Leo) A companion for 14 a’s
low thigh?
34. Chopped liver in tin, small community
business of old
SILVERN (A; vill cerne;
anag. in Sn) Easy
wordplay compensates for two obscure components in the definition.
DOWN
1. Champagne crazy as I’m working to enter
higher degree PHASMID (A; fizz mad; anag. in PhD)
Pretty much the perfect word for a type A Spoonerism.
2. Modest stretch of water that is nursing
watery lack, with duck coming over OILCAKE (A; coy lake; 0 + anag. in i.e.) To Dr Watson’s ear the Spoonerism sounds more
like ‘coil ache’ than ‘coy lake’, but it’s close enough.
3. See zebra bursting with energy, highland
stock to grab SEA
BREEZE (A; bree2 seize; anag. incl. e).
4. One responsible for sting often raged,
name appearing in bet
WAGNER (B; Ring often staged; n in wager) Proper names can give scope for imaginative Spoonerised definitions, as this clue and 18 down
demonstrate.
5. Sad times, rent heaps mounting, bound
around? ROSE-LIPPED (A; lows ripped;
piles, rev., in roped) The
last clue Dr Watson solved, thanks mainly to the four unchecked letters in the
grid.
6. Be a model female in the mine team
formerly? SITHEN (B; meantime; sit hen).
7. Wherein the weird sisters cooked joints
hard in simmering poison
INHOOPS (A; oon hips; H in anag.)
There’s no evidence in Macbeth
that the witches cooked in anything but a cauldron, but their Scottish oon (oven) is an intriguing idea.
8. Might that’s fixed, sheltered with Middle
East dominant MELÉE
(B; fight that’s mixed; ME + lee).
9. Last character to cry loudly ‘Run’ with
cold wind around BRISÉ
(A; zee bray; r in bise).
13. In Paris I and Ben sally out for swell denims JELLY BEANS
(A; belly jeans; je + anag.) Azed usually avoids
connecting words between the wordplay and definition in Spoonerisms,
but doesn’t rule them out as he does for Letters Latent and other
special clue types.
16. ‘Basket not heavy,’ I yell frantically,
‘Only a straw in it’
LILYWHITE (A; willy light; whit in anag.) A willy is, amongst other things, a willow
basket.
18. A judge with proceeds from cocaine (nearly
new cut) bought home for young pony AJACCIO (B; port home for young Boney; a J + anag. less ne(w))
The surface may be improbable and the
wordplay a bit stretched, but the Spoonerism is a corker, providing the
outstanding penny-drop of the puzzle. Ajaccio in Corsica is the birthplace of
Napoleon.
20. One heaving loam (say) elsewhere and not
under a siding ALIENOR
(B; leaving home; a lie + nor) An alienor isn’t leaving home in the sense of
travelling, but leaving their property in the possession of another, hence ‘(say)
elsewhere’.
21. Dirk’s ‘tagger’, a label to intercept any wandering YATAGAN (B;
Turk’s dagger; a tag in anag.).
23. Sin to call? One who was so pi, ha-ha (funny) APHIAH (B; kin
to Saul; anag.) Aphiah earns a
single mention in 1 Samuel as an ancestor of Saul, so an internet search is
likely to be required to confirm his identity. Dr Watson can imagine Ximenes
chiding solvers who failed to recognise a solution like this one as
insufficiently up on their Scripture.
24. Sub at tea, maybe, contribution to wives
selling VESSEL (B; tub at sea; hidden) Mr Clark’s brilliant clue to FILIBUSTER from Ximenes 148 no doubt
came to mind as Azed produced this Spoonerism.
25. Duck, initially frozen within, still
forming inside TEFAL
(A; foetal; f in teal)
The only clue to feature a one-word Spoonerism of the solution.
26. A shady spot SWALE
The competition word, for which solvers
must provide their own type B clue.