More references to people than recently, I think. No time at all to work on a clue for WEST, sadly; as it is I’m typing up this in between rehearsal and concert. Oh well. Maybe next month...

  • 1ac: PSYCHASTHENIA: Pay is adjusted with mostly modest woman involved in mental affliction: *(PAY IS) around CHAST(e) (modest) + HEN (woman)
  • 10ac: BULLA: Game played on deck with a seal
  • 11ac: JEHU: Driver best given a wide berth, for whom it’s a game injecting heroin: JEU (game) around H(eroin)
  • 12ac: SIDA: A Queensland native, it could be said: *(SAID)
  • 14ac: UNPAYS: A country using French currency is making good financially: UN PAYS (“a country” in French)
  • 16ac: ROGER: Bacon, say, OK for goose?: Triple Definition (ref. Roger Bacon)
  • 17ac: SAUTERNE: Tea-urn’s misused with English wine: *(TEA URNS) + E(nglish)
  • 18ac: DISTENT: What’s bloated in poetry captured by parodist entertainingly: paroDIST ENTertainingly
  • 20ac: OSTEOPETROSIS: Bone disease ties stooper so in knots: *(TIES STOOPER SO)
  • 24ac: HORNIST: Musician trapping nurse in lift: RN (nurse) in HOIST (lift)
  • 26ac: URUSHIOL: Ancient ox, last to munch oil secreted in juice of poison ivy: URUS (ox) + (munc)H + *(OIL)
  • 28ac: SADZA: Porridge from South Africa, doughy at first: ZA (South Africa) after SAD (doughy)
  • 29ac: OSTEAL: Of bone: O (of) + STEAL (bone) &lit.
  • 30ac: TWEE: Former interval Ben’s shrugged off, sickly: BETWEEN (interval) - BEN
  • *31ac: WEST: Cardinal point
  • 32ac: ETTLE: Scots aim to annoy, ignoring north at the outset: NETTLE (to annoy) - N(orth)
  • 33ac: UNSYMMETRISED: Direness, with tummy spreading, not kept in proportion: *(DIRENESS TUMMY)
  • 2dn: SUNI: Antelope, one found in part of NZ: UN (one) in SI (South Island)
  • 3dn: CLATTER: Yak cart let out: *(CART LET)
  • 4dn: HAYLE: Mills maybe mostly producing sound for poet of yore: HAYLE(y) (ref. Hayley Mills)
  • 5dn: SENATE HOUSE The USA’s one reverberates with ultimate in eloquence?: *(THE USAS ONE) + eloquencE &lit.
  • 6dn: THRUST: Force? It briefly worsened ...: T (“’t”, it briefly) + *(HURTS) (...)
  • 7dn: HURTS: ... Such wounds – unit required by the sound of it: homonym with Hertz (SI unit)
  • 8dn: NIGROSINE: Drink up wine that’s bottled in very dark colour: GIN (drink) reversed + ROSE (wine) with IN inside
  • 9dn: IDENT: Tell-tale sound sequence – it’s absorbing study: IT around DEN (study)
  • 10dn: BUNDOBUST: Indian settlement British dismantle, insolvent: B(ritish) + UNDO (dismantle) + BUST (insolvent)
  • 13dn: AREOSTYLE: Colonnade having ruined storey guarded by porter?: *(STOREY) inside ALE (porter)
  • 15dn: POSTLUDES: Posset drunk, lord bedded – we’ll finish off works: *(POSSET) around LUD (lord)
  • 19dn: NONETTI: Chamber pieces? Count me out – that’s about conclusive: NET (conclusive) in NOT I (“count me out”)
  • 21dn: PHILEM: Brief letter, one from Greece that’s yellow on fading: PHI (Greek letter) + MEL (yellow) reversed; ref. Epistle to Philemon
  • 22dn: DRAWN: Rule in e.g. French described: R(ule) in DAWN (ref. Dawn French)
  • 23dn: SHAWM: Gently (G) – who’s playing that period instrument?
  • 25dn: RISER: End of gutter is on inverted vertical pipe: (gutte)R + IS + RE (on) reversed
  • 27dn: BALE: E.g. Christian wretchedness, as of old: Double Definition; ref. Christian Bale