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1. Famous result for Sitting Bull, aka Old
Stone Face BUSTER
KEATON (A; Custer beaten; def.) A most unusual double definition clue. They’re more common in Letters Latent puzzles, where the
modified grid entry is a real word, but Dr Watson has never seen an example in
Spoonerisms before. A great spot, though, whose twelve letters Azed clearly couldn’t resist. The references are to the Battle of the
Little Bighorn for the def. of the Spoonerism, and to the silent movie actor for
the grid entry.
10. Pear batch is a pear mixed with it APTERIA (B; bare
patches; anag.) It’s easy to mistake ‘is’ for a joiner between definition
and wordplay, but the solution is a plural and ‘pear batch is’ constitutes the
Spoonerised definition.
11. War that tips monarch’s end, in grip of
secret society THONG
(B; taw that whips; h in tong1) The unfamiliar ‘taw’ (a leather whip) has
potential to leave some newer solvers perplexed.
12. Iran’s swirling tints discolour gutters RAINSTONES
(A; stain rones; anag. + tones) Even
rarer than ‘taw’ is ‘rone’, a roof gutter. It might have been kinder to
indicate its Scottish origin.
14. Eat up messily what could be made of shoal TAUPE (B; shade
of mole; anag.) A
superbly neat anagram, with a moderately tough Spoonerism to undo. Taupe, the
colour, comes from the French word for a mole.
16. Goan booze supported trend that includes
return of snack bar
BENEFACT (A; feni backed; café, rev., in bent) ‘Goan booze’ looks like a possible Spoonerised
definition, but it points to feni, an Indian alcoholic spirit. ‘Bent’ is used
in the sense of an inclination.
17. Age of sold wines to relish – look inside NESTOR (B;
sage of old; hidden)
Purists may object to Spoonerisms in which only one initial phoneme
moves, and Azed uses them sparingly. Nestor was the
legendary wise king of Pylos who appears in the Trojan sagas.
18. Date with bog’s long delayed after start of storm SLATE (B; bait
with dogs; s + late) A
nicely adulterated version of the definition that appears in Chambers
under slate2.
20. Please help yourself to pig bunch DOUSE (B; big
punch; i.e. do use)
It’s always a pleasure for the setter to indicate a common phrase in
this way. The definition shouldn’t have caused much bother.
The true def. is for douse3, a nautical term for a heavy blow.
23. Without leader peal’s changing is limited –
its chime never ranges
LAISSE (B; rhyme never changes; is in anag. less p)
A laisse is a verse with a single rhyme, much
heard in hip-hop these days.
25. Tuck into a Scotch – the double English gin
is awful EIGHTEEN
(A; eat ane; anag. of the E E gin) Could
it be Azed is marking his eighteenth Spoonerisms competition? In the right
hands even something as unpromising as this word can be spun into a decent clue,
…
29. I’m in business as a magistrate (very old) IDEAL (A;
aedile; I deal) …
and the same goes for the vowel-heavy ‘ideal’. An aedile was a Roman magistrate,
pronounced ‘e-dial’.
30. Cosmologist following celestial body –
kindly follow instruction
PLANE-TREES (A; train, please; planet + Rees) One of Dr Watson’s last clues standing. As
mentioned in the footnote, it’s to be found in earlier
editions of Chambers. With all the checked letters in place, it was
clear where the clue was pointing, but it still needed a search to find the
Astronomer Royal Martin
Rees. A nice complement in style to 20 across.
31. Tarty popper, a feature of purple
pendant LE PEN (B; party topper; hidden) The
Spoonerism’s easy to spot, but the solver could be forgiven for thinking they
were looking for a paper hat, and not the father and daughter leaders of the Rassemblement (formerly
Front) national.
32. Genuine when exchanging bits, giving my man
(contemptuously) coin in Tokyo CERESIN (A; sirrah sen; sincere with
parts exchanged)
It needs the slightly awkward ‘sirrah’ to achieve the right
pronunciation.
33. Company saturation to heed once, in spin,
e.g. when struggling
STOREKEEPING (A; corps steeping; to reke in anag.) Azed avoids the more obvious ‘core’ for the Spoonerism, and relies on Spenser’s ‘reke’ for the wordplay.
DOWN
1.
Sailor pub crawl to wind up in
exchange deal
BARTENDER (A; tar bender;
end in barter).
2. Primate food put out with headless fish UPTAKE (A; ape
tuck; anag. + (h)ake) As
usual, it’s anybody’s guess which fish it’s going to be.
3. Racing brod? Could give thrust whipping
punch’s rear STRUT
(B; bracing rod; anag. less h) To
the solver it matters not what a brod is, but to Azed it does. It’s a prod or goad used to spur on a horse, and perfectly
fits the surface.
4. Work held up, dummies water drinks TEAPOTS (A;
pee tots; op, rev., in teats).
5. Outside PE rest ruined – fixed stoppage RINDERPEST
(A; pinned arrest; rind + anag.) The Spoonerisms that lead to quite
different-looking words can be the most satisfying to solve.
6. Jean’s to mock such as Dixie going topless ETTLE (B;
means to Jock; (k)ettle) The familiar Scotsman comes in handy. A dixie is a
camper’s kettle.
7. A house party’s last ball to coat? AHOY (B; call to boat; a ho. + y).
8. Call Indian smart, new in classical garment TONGA (B;
small Indian cart; n in toga) The first of two lovely type B Spoonerisms.
9. Suggesting Pliny may cane lot carelessly
neglecting Latin ONE
ACT (B; mini play; anag. less L) Even though the
wordplay sticks out a mile, it took Dr Watson a while to find the solution, and
yet longer to wrestle the definition from Rev. Spooner.
13. Curtain rod, look, to celebrate permitted
feminine ruff
SINGLETREE (A; tringle see; sing let ree) Everyone knows a ree (see reeve3)
is a female ruff, but a tringle is less familiar. As for a singletree, Chambers
leads the curious to its entry for ‘swingle’, and perhaps the most opaque collection of definitions in the book
(‘scutching tool’, ‘swipple’, ‘whippletree’, ‘swing-stock’).
15. The Scots learn to cheat English with
British money around
STEERLING (A; lear1 sting; E in sterling) Again Azed avoids the obvious ‘leer’ to give
solvers extra meat to chew on.
19. Sloping jump? I look slyly round diameter
after length LIP-DEEP
(A; dip leap; l + d in I peep).
21. Coal for horde once, fuel on rising mound OILLET (B; hole
for cord) Dr
Watson wonders why Azed didn’t use ‘hoard coal’ here. Perhaps he felt obliged
to indicate the obsolete term with ‘once’, but then ‘The old hoard coal…’
maybe?
22. Cass including garb an Andalusian’s seen in
continental summer
ETHENE (B; gas … carbon; hen in été (Fr)) Only one
translation required. An Andalusian is a variety of poultry. We’ll
never know who Cass is, but they’re clearly a last resort.
24. Disease in horses SPAVIN (B) Azed very fairly offers competitors a
promising word for Spoonerising, with several wordplay possibilities, and a
wide range of equine and veterinary terms to combine into the definition.
26. Settlement to cultivate river entering
forest often flooded
GRAPO (A; pa2 grow; R in gapó) Happily Chambers provides a pronunciation for
the acronym that is the solution. ‘Pa’ meaning a Maori settlement is close to
pure crosswordese, and ‘gapó’ is maybe not far off either.
27. He’s gassed moles I found under unpleasant clutter MESSI (B;
massed goals; mess + I) A howler that one can imagine Spooner himself
might have uttered, had he ever had cause to pay tribute to Lionel Messi, …
28. Sharpener that’s dispatched head of harpoon
topping whale ONER
(B; whopping tale; (h)oner) …
and perhaps his views on political discourse would also involve the slaughter
of animals.