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ITH the exception of a famous
battlefield, crossworders’ one famous sitarist, and a 20c artist, there’s little
in this month’s competition puzzle to trouble solvers in possession of a Chambers
and sufficient patience. And talking of Chambers, Azed offers the solver’s and
setter’s vade mecum (at least since the more portable phone app came
out), as the competition word.
4. Cavities CHAMBERS You can be confident
that regular competitors will provide a clue to the dictionary that’s been
central to their cruciverbal lives, rather than to the cavities. It seems
almost rude not to.
16. Measure of
cloud cover, fair, that evens out OKTA (OK + odd letters of that) The clue looks
like it’s straight alternate letters on the first reading, but Azed has a
charade in mind as well. He uses the same wordplay idea for SPATE at 26 down.
18. Revolutionary,
executed maybe protecting his leader, brittle when heated REDSHORT (red + r in shot) ‘Revolutionary’ has
a dual role in the wordplay, providing both
‘red’ and the inserted R.
24. Translation
of Crito includes empty talk describing a climax ORGASTIC (gas in anag.) A reference to
the work by Plato, relating
to theories of government rather than orgastic pleasures.
27. What’s
uprooting wort from historic field? Rats!
BOSH (Bos(wort)h) Although the historical
reference is explicit, solvers might start out looking for an historic word for
a field, instead of the name of an historic
battlefield. Dr Watson is suspicious of the definition ‘Rats!’. Chambers
indicates ‘bosh’ as meaning ‘nonsense’ and not as directly expressing annoyance.
28. One playing
around with characters, a feature of moral philosophy RALPH (hidden) Ralph is the imp responsible for printers’
errors, whose wicked ways have been co-opted by crossword setters for many years.
30. Feature of
shores, lacustrine or palustrine? This splinter possibly URAO (comp. anag.) Urao is nacre or mother-of-pearl. It takes some finding is
this greatly compounded anagram.
1. Fundamentally
strengthen e.g. dam, dry, protected by spar COPPER-BOTTOM (copper + TT in boom) The dam in
question is dam4, an old Indian coin of little value.
3. Budget?
Chancellor’s last cut initially in the bag UDDER ((r)udder) And
the budget here is budget2: a rudder on a barge, and a great find
for the surface reading.
6. Sitar player
getting into first half of raga soaring rapturously? À RAVIR (Ravi in ra(ga), rev.) Fifty-one years on from his appearance at
Woodstock, there’s still only one sitar player that crossword setters can safely
reference, namely Ravi
Shankar. Equally, there’s probably only one Ravi.
7. Youngster
mounted on pre-eminent stallion maybe presenting rodeo challenge? BUCKING (cub, rev. + king) It’s
clear why Azed chose CHAMBERS and not CHAMFERS for 4 across!
19. Hammer maybe
decapitated copy in gutted engine EARBONE ((c)arbon
in e(ngin)e) Quizzers, solvers and ENT doctors need to be familiar
with the ossicles: hammer, anvil and stirrup.
25. Knight e.g.
displaying distinctive character, following Lancelot’s lead LAURA (L + aura) The painter
Dame Laura Knight, the
first woman elected to the Royal Academy, is perhaps less well-known now than in
the days of complete male domination of the arts.
Other solutions:
Across: 1. CHOU (hidden); 11. OUTDOORS (do 0 in anag.); 12. PROD (dorp,
rev.); 13. ANALCITE (anal cite); 14. PLIER (l in pier); 17. SHINIEST (n i.e. s in anag.); 21. ASSIGNER (anag.
less g incl. E); 29.
TOTTERED (0 in TT + ret, rev. + ed.); 31.
VENERATE (ER a in vent + e); 32. MENSUREN
(ensure in MN); 33. AREA (a rea(son)).
Down: 2. HURLY (l for r in hurry); 5. HONCHO (nc in
ho, ho); 8. EVITERNAL (e in anag.); 9. RETASTE (St
in anag.); 10.
STEATORRHOEA (anag. in sea); 15. INDIGOTIN (in + d + I got in); 20. SNASTES (set sans, rev.; snuff2
n.); 22. STORER (s + torer(o)); 23. SILENE (E nelis,
rev.); 26. SPATE (spa + alt. letters of Tees).
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