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ACK to normal for
competitors with the friendly DREAMSCAPE to clue after the the
travails of VOX POP and BRUHAHA. Can we expect an abundance of melting timepieces
in the next Slip? Azed’s clues are probably a little
on the difficult side this time, though their references remain largely within Chambers.
One Elizabethan writer who clearly isn’t Shakespeare or Spenser features, along
with a familiar chanteuse, and a little German comes in handy for one of the acrosses. Azed also spots an amusing way to clue ANIME.
7. Starting
with piece of drawing room furniture, back to front AS OF (sofa with a to start) Neither the
definition nor the wordplay is obvious (even to those who have a drawing room),
and the unchecked third latter might tempt the solver towards ‘as if’.
11. Daughter
backing Indian city as place for cremation DARGA (d + Agra, rev.) ‘Indian city’ in
a crossword clue is most likely to be Goa, Agra or Delhi, though Ooti is also a convenient one.
12. Mysterious,
or fish-y? SHADY (i.e. shad-y)
It’s nice to see
Azed indulging in a simpler wordplay like this one, even if Dr Watson’s heart sank
briefly at the prospect of identifying the four-letter fish.
18. It’s no good
with any old wrapping that’s waxy ANGRY (ng in ary) The wrapper isn’t ‘any’ but its obsolete
alternative ‘ary’. The definition refers to wax3
meaning a fit of anger.
22. Form of
cinema requiring no head of casting? ANIME
(anag. less c, & lit.) A brilliantly spotted
& lit., whose penny drops with a satisfying clink. Let’s not argue whether
the voice talents in an anime film need to be cast.
32. Enduring
performer beloved of Parisians CHER (2 mngs.) It’s obvious once you spot it of course, and
Azed provides a kind definition for the now 73-year-old trouper.
2. Oxford table
talk on appropriate habitat for salmon OUANANICHE (OU ana
niche) A much less well-known fish than our earlier
shad. ‘Oxford’ often refers to the gown as well as the town. Regular solvers
will have come across ana, meaning gossip, before.
6. Among
the fallen at Ypres? Certainly not including lively
OAP NAPOO (anag.
in no) Even the survivors of Ypres are sadly all gone now, so a lively OAP wouldn’t
be among them. ‘Napoo’ is a soldiers’ corruption of ‘il n’y a plus’.
7. Walking
stick and hat’s adjusted, with OS map pocketed?
ASHPLANT (plan in anag.) Nothing too
difficult, but why an OS map? Azed seems to intend OS for ‘outsize’ rather than
Ordnance Survey, a plan being defined in Chambers as a ‘large scale map’.
9. Part
of intersection? Swat’s aimed to get —— the head FLY-UNDER (i.e. get fly under the head) A rare use of the missing word dash to
complete a sentence. The ‘head’ is that of the swat rather than the fly.
19. Squares
cut up into two small ones? SCARVES (carve in S S) A
neat double use of ‘square’ as definition and abbreviation.
28. Note penned by (contemporary) playwright,
Spenser’s sort KYND (n in Kyd) A reference to Thomas Kyd, an almost exact
comtemporary of our favourite Edmund.
Other solutions:
Across: 1. WOBEGONE (OB + anag.); 10. AIR
MARSHAL (anag.);
14. INOSITOL (anag.); 17. TOLLMEN (m in toll en); 19. SPAYAD (pay in sad); 20. MIDAIR (anag.
in mir1); 24. SCOPULA (copulas
with s to start); 27. FOREDECK (cede,
rev., in fork); 29. REALS (hidden; real4); 30. APPAY (appa(rent
l)y); 31. INTERREGNA (anag.); 33. LESSENED (essen
(Ger.) in led).
Down: 1. WADI (I
d(R)aw, rev.); 3. BARONG (baron +
g(lass)); 4. GRAIP (a in grip); 5. OMITTER (anag.); 8. SHAMMY (sham my!); 13. DREAMSCAPE; 15. SAMSARIC (anag.); 16. GRAPPLER (Gr apple r); 21. DOGATE (dog ate); 23. ICE PAN (‘I span’); 25. LOURE (0 in lure); 26. PEAGS (Ag in pes).
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