The Monthly Digest

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,666 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

I had the luxury of solving this puzzle early, since it appeared on the Guardian site at the same time as 2,665. I thought this was a pretty tough one, particularly for anyone relatively new to Azed.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at a clue that I noticed recently on one of the help forums ‘Company retains large broken deck saw (7)’. The answer is CLOCKED, L (large) in CO (company) being followed by an anagram of DECK. On the face of it, assuming that you accept ‘large’ for L (which I do, although for some unknown reason it is not given by Chambers), the clue is sound. But look again – the wordplay consists of two discrete elements, the CO/L part and the DECK anagram, but a main verb such as ‘retains’ here only works if the wordplay can be interpreted as consisting of just a single element. So ‘College boy entertains female’ is fine for CLASHED, since this can be read as ‘(C LAD) contains SHE’, but  ‘Money enthrals liberal journalist’ would not, as this has to be read as (CASH around L) plus ED – this wordplay would only be valid for CASH around LED. The fix is almost always to use the present participle – ‘Company retaining large broken deck’ and ‘Money enthralling liberal journalist’ both work nicely.

Across

1a Jazzer rap, strong, was confused? Make do with inferior stuff (13, 3 words)
Quite a tricky wordplay to start with, a three-letter ‘Jazzer’ being followed by a four-letter word for ‘rap’ (or ‘informal discussion’), a three–letter abbreviation for ‘strong’, and an anagram (‘confused’) of WAS. The answer is divided (5,2,6).

11a Funeral ceremonies over, had a snack afterwards (4)
The abbreviation for ‘over’ (in a cricketing context) is uncontentious, but the word indicated by ‘had a snack’ which follows seems a bit of a stretch – I would have been much happier with ‘having snack afterwards’.

17a Islander finding odd bits to eat in freshly landed herring (6)
The odd letters from EAT are contained by the name of a measure of capacity for herrings freshly landed in port, set by the Fisheries Board at 37.5 gallons (the equivalent of around 750 fish, it seems), and the first ‘only in crosswords’ word that I remember learning.

24a Clay became this – a red blob fashioned with it is Della-Robbia (3)
A compound anagram involving a lot more chaff than wheat, a rearrangement  (‘fashioned’) of the answer plus A RED BLOB producing DELLA-ROBBIA. The ‘Clay’ is of course Cassius of that ilk.

25a The general population in Ireland wander round centre of Newtown willingly as before (11)
This is another long answer with a chewy wordplay, which has an Irish word meaning ‘[to] wander’ containing (’round’) the middle letter (‘centre’) of NEWTOWN and a rare spelling of an archaic (‘as before’) word for ‘willingly’. The solution is hyphenated, 6-5.

29a Fool, one interested in birds losing beloved in Paris (4)
An eight-letter term describing someone whose interest in birds is primarily spotting as many rare species as possible is deprived of (‘losing’) the French word for ‘beloved’.

32a Satellite, one inside – isn’t it wrong way round? (7)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is put inside a (4,2) phrase which represents an informal was of saying “isn’t it”. Fans of Pink Floyd’s early recordings will recognise the solution as being astronomically linked to Oberon and Miranda, although Syd was seemingly unable to work in Ariel and Umbriel (the latter a malevolent spirit in Pope’s The Rape of the Lock).

33a Fondle a pretty shell (4)
The three-letter word for ‘fondle’ which precedes the letter A (from the clue) is perhaps closer to ‘grope’. It puts me in mind of Posy Simmonds’ description of a lecherous king – ‘He never reigns but he ???s’.

Down

1d Number entering crypt go dancing – that’s plenty (11, 3 words)
A specific cardinal number is contained by (‘entering’) an anagram (‘dancing’) of CRYPT GO, producing a (4,2,5) expression which refers to the aged Jacob’s instructions to his sons in Genesis 42:2

Behold, I have heard that there is ???? ?? ?????: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence.

5d Old pub sign cut up and put in a shelter (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] cut’ is reversed (‘up’) and put inside A (from the clue) and a word for ‘shelter’ which should be familiar to all solvers.

6d In this is matching kitchen feature by the sound of it (4)
A homophone for a feature of every kitchen, which when preceded by the word IN (ie ‘in this’) means ‘matching’ or ‘sharing a common rhythm’.

7d/8d Lecherous old expression he left out of the cable, … (5) / … Typical of this, right – right in a tone of voice? (6)
The wordplay in the first of the pair has THE with HE left out being followed by another word for a cable, whether flex or telegram. The definition in the second clue refers to its precursor, indicating that ‘typical of this’ (ie of the answer) would be a lecherous expression. In the wordplay, one instance of the usual abbreviation for ‘right’ is followed by another instance inside A (from the clue) plus a three-letter word for a tone of voice.

9d Trick I cast for a fish, not requiring a swim (7)
A four-letter word for a trick or ‘pleasing artifice’ has the letter I discarded (‘cast’) in favour of A (from the clue) and the three-letter name given to various flatfish.

10d What’s Scots rock containing within there? Sparkle (11)
I had to work back from the answer to decrypt the wordplay, where a six-letter Scots word for a sort of rock which the English spell without the C contains another Scots word, this one meaning ‘within’ or ‘into’ (‘within there’, ie in Scotland).

19d Mogul governor, one clothed in absurd frippery (7)
I can’t recall ever seeing ‘frippery’ used as anagram indicator (it’s a rare visitor to crosswords in any guise), but here we have a single-letter word for ‘one’ being contained by (‘clothed in’) an anagram of ABSURD.

28d Fleece? Mine’s got a bit of tar on (4)
It’s an old slang term for the sort of mine which presented a grave danger to shipping that must be placed underneath the first letter (‘bit of’) TAR.

30d What sounds briefly like a major dish on the menu? (4)
My musical education began and ended with the recorder at junior school, so I will leave it to those with greater knowledge than I (which means just about everyone) to accurately explain the homophonic bit.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,665 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Those of us dependent on the availability of the puzzles online have had an interesting few weeks.  After the recent no-shows of 2,659 and 2,662, last week we had 2,664 masquerading as 2,663, and this week we get not only 2,665 but also next week’s puzzle, 2,666. The correspondent who asked last week “What will they think of to confuse us next?” now has their answer.

Regarding 2,665, this struck me as quite tricky, with not too many easy starters. I almost rated it as 3.5/5, but on reviewing the clues prior to writing these notes I decided that it wasn’t that far above the average difficulty of recent times. It perhaps lacked the élan of Azed’s finest, but it was still an entertaining solve.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m not going to look at a clue but a book! Eric Chalkley was a one-off when it comes to crossword setters, a carpenter who started setting in his 50s and was the first compiler to receive an honour specifically for it (the MBE). He was inspired by Ximenes, in particular his book Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword, and chose the pseudonym Apex as he hoped to imitate Ximenes (ie ‘ape X’). He became a prolific setter of themed puzzles, the subjects of which were often people whom he admired. For 30 years he sent out his Christmas crossword (A Puzzle Every Xmas) to a group of friends, including Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein.

He corresponded regularly with Derek Harrison, creator of the Crossword Centre web site, who drew the illustrations for a number of the Christmas puzzles. Derek kept all the letters from Eric, and has used many of them as the basis for ‘The Apex Letters’. I received my copy last week and enjoyed reading it very much; for anyone interested in crossword history, it is a worthy addition to their library. More details, including how to order a copy, can be found at The Crossword Centre: The Apex Letters.

Across

12a Soak English tux, shabby, then comb, given dry-cleaning treatment? (10)
The three-letter word meaning ‘[to] soak’ that is a boon to setters – and appears again later in this puzzle – is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘English’, an anagram (‘shabby’) of TUX, and another favourite, a ‘chiefly Scot’ word meaning ‘to comb’ or ‘to tidy’.

14a What’s assumed in address? In this is example (6)
When the answer is preceded by IN (‘in this’), a word meaning ‘example’ is produced. The definition is mildly oblique, and refers to the position assumed by a golfer when addressing the ball (“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face…”).

15a The old aim for vehicle operated remotely to partake of? (6, 2 words)
A three-letter abbreviation for a remotely operated vehicle is followed by a word meaning ‘partake of’ (such as one might when faced with a blackberry and apple crumble or a chocolate roulade, say), producing an archaic (4,2) phrasal verb. I was initially slightly puzzled by the apparent conflict between aiming and shooting at random, but I think it’s probably just a question of the size of the target, and that King Harold was a victim of the latter. This quotation clarifies the ‘random’ usage:

A certain man drew a bow without any aim or intention of any speciall marke but only ???ing in common at the army.

17a Piece of outstanding Italian art? Cheers (loudly) about position (7)
A four-letter exclamation heard at Elizabethan revels and drinking-bouts (of which, I suspect, there were many) is set about a word for position such as might be used in connection with a golf ball that has strayed into the rough.

20a Small fish, one nibbling on end of simple line (8)
A six-letter word for someone who eats a little at a time is followed by the last letter (‘end’) of SIMPLE and the usual abbreviation for ‘line’.

24a Scrubbing return of TV in nightclub (8)
A reversal (‘return’) of a four-letter (informal) word for TV  is contained by a word which could not fairly be applied to all nightclubs, although a disreputable one could be thus described. The definition is an adjectival noun (as in ‘scrubbing brush’).

29a One endlessly waited for party having learnt about it (5)
Note how Azed has crafted an accurate definition which integrates seamlessly with the remainder of the clue – he makes it look easy, but then he is a master of the art. It’s worth trying a few definitions for yourself to see how you have to play around with words and word sequence in order to get something that does the job.

32a Has (briefly) death-notice around life’s end provided as once (6)
A shortened form (‘briefly’) of ‘has’ is followed by a short form of a word for a death notice containing (‘around’) the last letter (‘end’) of LIFE.

33a Lewdness free? Aged, released from that, cheer about it (6)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘free’ has the consecutive letters AGED removed (‘Aged, released from that’) before being put inside a three-letter word meaning  ‘cheer’, a shortened form of a six-letter interjection which I associate particularly with Prince George in Blackadder III.

35a One rarely holds whip to improve defence in being surrounded (7)
Azed has stretched things a little with the phrasing of this wordplay, which has the letters IN (from the clue) being surrounded by a verb meaning to improve (or reinstate) one’s weaponry.

Down

3d Its flowers never fade, I see, in the country (7)
I (from the clue) and the letter with the name ‘see’ are contained by a word for a country or nation.

4d Army or navy in its natural element (4)
The standard abbreviation for ‘navy’ is contained by a word for the thing without which they would have a few mobility issues.

5d Unstable left embracing Conservative (7)
A six-letter word for ‘left’ in the ‘went out’ sense is set around (’embracing’) the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘Conservative’.

7d Rodent involved with making hole in wall as of old (6)
A two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘involved with’ is put inside (‘making hole in’) an obsolete word for a wall. The solution brings to mind Colin Dexter’s clue for MICKEY-TAKING in Azed 827, “(M)urine-extraction?”, which I must confess that I’ve never been entirely convinced by.

10d Grating, adorned, see, I love relaxing inside (12)
An anagram (‘relaxing’) of C I LOVE is contained by a word meaning ‘adorned’ or ‘carved’, albeit an archaic one.

21d Monitor? Pin gold up on one (7)
A three-letter word for a pin, stump or peg is followed by a reversal (‘up’) of the chemical symbol for gold and a two-letter word meaning ‘one’.

25d See west-country river infuse from below (6)
A slightly sub-par clue, I felt, the three-letter river being followed by an inversion of the infuse/soak word also seen in 12a to produce…the name of a cathedral city that takes its name from the aforementioned river.

31d Part of an erg, directly divisible by unit of measurement (4)
We’re looking here at erg² in Chambers, and a wordplay which has a three-letter word meaning ‘directly’ being divided by a unit of measurement from the printing trade.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,664 ‘Eightsome Reels’

Difficulty rating: (4 / 10)

The Eightsome Reels variation was originally devised by Azed, the first one appearing in November 1972, and this was its twenty-fifth outing. I rather like having normal clues but a different way of entering them in the grid; sometimes with this sort of puzzle the clues are made a little too easy in order to compensate for the extra difficulty of the format, but although there were quite a few straightforward anagrams (plus a ‘hidden’), Azed threw in a few tricky ones to go with them, so there was no sprint to the finishing line as soon as one had got a few interlocking solutions. A novelty here was the groups of unchecked letters in the corners forming words when read anticlockwise; the corner letters are usually confirmed by means of an ‘unch message’ (an anagram of the 12 letters), which is perhaps rather more helpful to the solver.

When solving an Eightsome Reels puzzle, clearly a single answer cannot be entered in the grid unless the solver possesses the relevant paranormal ability*. To get going, one needs first of all to solve the clues to two adjoining squares – let’s assume that they are side by side, and the solutions are MEPHISTO and CURTSIED. The three consecutive shared letters are IST/TSI, so there are only two ways these can be entered:

The fact that the shared letters are reversed in one solution means that the entries will both run clockwise or both anticlockwise (if they were in the same sequence, eg MEPHISTO/BRISTLED, then one will run clockwise and the other anticlockwise). If you can then solve a clue to a ’reel’ above or below either of these two, you can then confidently enter all three solutions into the grid. I got started with 5, 6 and 11, none of which are too difficult – respectively an anagram with two closing letters omitted, an anagram including a two-letter abbreviation, and an anagram followed by two initial letters. 13/19/20/25 also represent a good way in.

*The requirement to have three-letter words running anticlockwise in the corners could in theory allow you to enter a single answer, but I am struggling to think of an eight-letter word that when considered cyclically and in either direction offers exactly one sequence of three letters which constitutes a non-palindromic word. Any suggestions?

Setters’ Corner: The unusual way in which answers are entered in the grid raises a question about indicators that suggest a particular orientation of components, eg ‘back’, ‘held’. The standard approach for setters is to treat each answer as being fully assembled in a horizontal direction and then entered into the grid. Hence Azed uses ‘flanked’ in 6, even though the abbreviation for His Excellency is not  ‘flanked’ by anything to the north, and ‘put in’ in 28 despite the monster being very much on the loose. The form which the answer takes in the grid is thus entirely independent of the clue  – so ‘one from the south’ would not be considered valid for ENO even if the letters appeared in the grid one above the other. 

Notes on individual clues

1 Matched? I did so, admitted sexual attraction
I (from the clue) and a five-letter word meaning ‘matched’ (‘did so’) contain the two-letter word for the sort of sexual attraction oozed by Clara Bow in the film of the same name.

3 Hardy types showing interest in bar?
A four-letter word for ‘interest’ (often preceded in this sense by the words ‘for my’) is contained by a word for ‘bar’ or ‘without’ assimilated into English from the French language.

7 Downplay gambling stake – no longer finger one held
A four-letter word for a gambling stake, more common in the barred puzzle than at the card table, has a three-letter bit of archaic (‘no longer’) slang meaning ‘[to] finger’ or ‘pilfer’ plus the Roman numeral representing one inside (‘held’).

9 Old portraits: place pictures beside former queen, retiring
As discussed in Setters’ Corner above, the three components (3+3+2) indicated in the wordplay need to be placed alongside each other and then reversed in linear fashion. The fact that they subsequently gyrate in the grid is irrelevant to the solving of the clue.

10 Notches miss the mark cutting stuffs
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] miss the mark’ is contained by (‘cutting’) a word meaning ‘stuffs’ in the sense of ‘feeds gluttonously’.

12 Inflorescence of e.g. hops to plunder in wall crossing
A three-letter word meaning ‘to plunder’ is put inside the sort of wall crossing that one might encounter on a country walk.

14 Shield carriers are protecting fighter, last in former wars
The word ARE (from the clue) contains a three-letter abbreviation for a class of Russian fighter aircraft, the combination being followed by the final letters (‘last’) of FORMER and WARS. The answer relates to a gentleman who attended a knight to bear his shield.

15 Fine silk tears badly clothing nurse
Here we have an anagram (‘badly’) of TEARS containing (‘clothing’) an abbreviation for a nurse qualified to a certain level, the term having succeeded ‘assistant nurse’ but not used in the UK since the 1990s.

16 Wretched quality, without a hint of excellence, in singer
A three-letter musical abbreviation meaning ‘without’ (bearing a striking resemblance to the abbreviation in the previous clue) and the first letter (‘a hint’) of EXCELLENCE are contained by a word for the type of singer exemplified by Barry White, Boris Christoff, or (my personal favourite) Mr. Jetsam.

18 Don’t hurry, I mean to say in store department?
A charade of a six-letter word meaning “don’t hurry” or ‘tarry awhile’ and a familiar abbreviation often indicated by ‘that is’ but here by ‘I mean to say’.

23 Rows of housing, short, unfinished, for accommodating people
A five-letter word meaning ‘short’ is deprived of its last letter (‘unfinished’) and placed around (‘for accommodating’) a term for a people.

24 Set cutting plant in pond freeze again
A three-letter word for ‘set’ in the blancmange sense is contained by a word for water-crowfoot, which could have been indicated by something like ‘concerning, consumed’.

26 About to perish, love hillside, yielding
Containing (‘about’) a three-letter word for ‘to perish’ are the usual single-letter representation of ‘love’ and a word that I didn’t associate with a hillside, rather with any type of wiry grass.

29 A boon for asthmatics, indeed when taken in disturbed rest
A four-letter word meaning ‘indeed’ or ‘yet’ is taken into an anagram (‘disturbed’) of REST.

31 Half of us not drinking in wooden bar, old-fashioned
Half of the word US and a two-letter abbreviation meaning ‘not drinking’ are contained by an old or poetic adjective used to describe something made of a particular wood.

32 Wherein fossils may be found I missed shattered bovine, one back inside
A three-letter word for ‘one’ is reversed (‘back’) inside an anagram (‘shattered’) of BOVINE from which the I has been removed (‘I missed’).

(definitions are underlined)

The unchecked letters in the corners could be defined by: [1] ‘Junk’, [6] ‘One in south-west’, [31] ‘Lay hold of Scots’, and [36] ‘Mimic’.

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,663 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

A plain puzzle that I originally rated as being of around average difficulty, albeit not without its tricky bits, but on reflection I think that, while there may not have been too many really tough clues, there were a lot that were far from trivial. I know that one regular found it relatively hard going, and I note that there are several other clues which I could on another day have picked out for comment, so I’ve upped the rating a notch. I see from the latest slip that Azed doesn’t like the idea of getting emailed entries from UK competitors (it didn’t sound as though he thought much of the new ‘Rules and requests’ in their entirety, truth be told), but the instructions attached to this crossword suggest that the message hasn’t yet got through to the relevant person at the Guardian.

Clue Writers’ Corner: There are a couple of things to consider when writing a clue for a word like this week’s. Firstly, although the word comes directly from the French language, the headword is not shown in Chambers as ‘(Fr)’, so there is no need to qualify its definition; however, when defining it I would advise steering clear of the eight-letter English word which is much too close in terms of etymology and form. Secondly, while last month’s twelve-letter word offered a wide variety of possible anagrams (albeit pretty uninspiring ones), a seven-letter word offers far fewer permutations and if going down the anagram route I would be inclined to avoid anything that simply uses the letters to form another word or words – eg for TRAINED something like TRADE IN is just too obvious. Some sort of subtractive or composite construction, such as an anagram of AND TRIBUTE without BUT, is far less likely to be used by other entrants (remember, though, that if the bit being subtracted doesn’t appear as a single chunk in the fodder then a second anagram indicator is required).

Across

10a Parts of long robe exchanged? Their weight varies (5)
The last pair of letters in a five-letter word for a robe reaching the ankles are swapped with the first three, producing a rather odd plural form (which I can’t find anywhere except in Chambers) of a Levantine weight more often encountered singly.

15a Religious sign husband held in hand when attached (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘husband’ is contained by (‘held in’) a five-letter combining form denoting ‘hand’, most often associated these days with practors. The solution is hyphenated, 3-3.

18a River crew laughing helplessly, without ire (4)
The ‘laughing helplessly’ leads to a (3,4) French expression for helpless giggling from which the consecutive letters IRE must be removed (‘without ire’).

20a Clothes were first getting mangled (7)
A charade of a four-letter word for ‘clothes’ or ‘clothing’ and a three-letter past tense meaning ‘were at the front’ (ie ‘were first’).

27a Something in tonic to bring round without delay for Scot (8)
The wordplay here involves a five-letter word meaning ‘to bring’ containing (’round’) a Scots form of an English word which can mean ‘without delay’.

28a Sacred text without date twice translator penned (6)
You may be familiar with SD, sine die, meaning ‘without a date (set)’, but here we have its bigger brother, where die is replaced by anno, making two consecutive appearances with the usual abbreviation for ‘translator’ penned inside (though not between the two).

31a Feature of crocus? It’s seen fringing capsicum (4)
I’m not sure about the phrasing of the wordplay here, which is intended to instruct the solver to identify what could be considered as ‘fringing’ the word CAPSICUM, the answer being expressed in the form (1,2,1). I would have preferred something like “What’s on fringe of capsicum?”

35a Conservatories: large number and not seen among trees (11)
An eight-letter word for a (specific) large number has the consecutive letters AND omitted (‘and not seen’) before being placed inside (‘among’) a word for trees of the genus Platanus.

Down

1d Infestation: chunks of text I consider informally including first sign of that (11)
A five-letter shortened form of a  ten-letter word for ‘chunks of text’ is followed by the letter I (from the clue) and a four-letter word meaning ‘to consider informally’ (or throw carelessly) containing (‘including’) the first letter (‘first sign’) of INFORMALLY (ie ‘that’).

8d Poet’s dubious term in opening passage, line 500 (7)
The opening passage is the sort that the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band memorably combined with the Outro (“Princess Anne on sousaphone / Roy Rogers on Trigger”), and it’s followed by the standard abbreviation for ‘line’ and the Roman numeral for 500. The answer is a one-off from The Faerie Queene, presumed to be a corruption of…well, some other word.

In which her royall presence is ???????;
Ne euer shall I rest in house nor hold,
Till I that false Acrasia haue wonne;

12d Harms body, one slashed terribly in neck – sign of triad? (11, 2 words)
An anagram (‘terribly’) of HARMS BODY from which a single-letter word for ‘one’ has been removed (‘one slashed’) is contained by a three-letter word for a ‘neck’ frequently seen in crosswords and almost invariably indicated by ‘pass’. The solution is (5,6) and the ‘triad’ is a group of musical notes rather than oriental gangsters.

21d Fence not bowled over? His charges are loaded (7)
A seven-letter word for a fence is deprived of the usual abbreviation for ‘bowled’ (‘not bowled’) and followed by another abbreviation from the world of cricket, this time the one for ‘over’.

23d Fleshy plant: hew off nut and cut askew inside (6)
A six-letter word for a type of nut has the consecutive letters HEW taken away (‘hew off’) and an anagram (‘askew’) of CUT inserted.

24d Asian trees, ugly, even bits cut and stuck in pithoi (6)
The odd letters of UGLY (‘even bits cut’) are contained by a four-letter word which describes (at a very general level) pithoi. Our set book for O level Latin was the Aeneid, which was quite exciting at times, but its Greek counterpart was Xenophon’s Anabasis, a dreadfully boring (or so it seemed to me) account of the expedition of the Ten Thousand, which appeared to focus primarily (in the book we read, anyway) on detailed inventories of their stores and provisions, large containers of oil being high on the list. Since ‘pithoi’ is a definition by example, it really should have a question mark or a ‘say’.

29d Anacreontic, maybe? This (not epic) is creation of ancient poet (4)
A composite anagram, where the letters of the solution (‘This’) plus NOT EPIC can be rearranged to form (‘is creation of’) the solution, which relates to Anacreon through the place of his birth.

30d Gandhi, cut off early? It was monstrous (4)
We are not talking about the Mahatma being ‘cut off early’ (having his last letter deleted), rather it is the son of the (unrelated) Rajiv and former member of the Indian parliament who must suffer that fate.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,662 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Another puzzle that I felt was above average difficulty. I might have rated it half a notch higher had it not been for the neat but straightforward clue at 1a which immediately gave me the first letters of ten down entries. I thought this puzzle showed Azed on his very best form – it seemed as though he had really enjoyed writing the clues, which almost invariably makes for enjoyment in the solve.

Note that the enumeration for 23d should be (6) rather than (5).

Setters’ Corner: Since Azed rarely writes a duff clue, I plan in the coming weeks to look at some clues from other puzzles which illustrate things to avoid when writing clues. I don’t solve many crosswords other than Azed, but I look in on the help forums from time to time, and I see plenty of material there.

I’m going to start with this one from a back-pager: “English teacher’s back in a panic, providing cover for head (7)”. The surface reading is nice, and the wordplay sound, E (English) followed by R (“teacher’s back”) in A FLAP (‘a panic’), leading to EARFLAP (‘cover for head’). The problem here is the use of FLAP in the wordplay and the solution – the ‘panic’ and ‘hanging bit of material’ meanings appear under the same headword in Chambers, so they are the same word rather than homographs. It’s not something that is in any way unsound or unfair, but it’s generally considered weak, and should be avoided wherever possible. A related point applies to answers consisting of multiple words – in barred puzzles, at least, it is considered undesirable to indicate any of the words that make up the answer ‘as is’ – so ‘Secure excellent brown seaweed’ (SEAL ACE) would be much better than ‘Large number netting brown seaweed’ (SEA LACE) for SEA LACE.

Across

13a Woodland umbellifer naturalist transplanted, having cut a border (5)
The word NATURALIST must have the letter A (from the clue) and a word for a border removed (‘cut’) before the remaining letters are rearranged (‘transplanted’).

14a Like a French author favouring bombast? Not the first (9)
A three-letter word meaning ‘favouring’ or ‘in favour of’ is followed by a word meaning ‘bombastic’ from which the first letter has been omitted (‘Not the first’). The ‘bombastic’ word was first used for a kind of coarse cloth made from cotton and flax, while ‘bombast’ itself formerly described the soft down of the cotton plant, with the ‘pompous’ meaning of each developing from the idea of garments padded or puffed out with the material (the original ‘stuffed shirts’, I guess).

15a Regarding building eye something bracing (8)
The ‘eye’ is of the private kind, while the ‘something bracing’ is a medicine designed to invigorate and strengthen, perhaps a solution of quinine in carbonated water, or perhaps what Kanga provided to her somewhat undersized offspring (see 5d).

17a Band section, briefly famous, LSO exploited (6)
Azed has been just a little naughty here, ‘briefly famous’ indicating a three-letter abbreviation of a ten-letter word meaning ‘famous’. The second part of the wordplay involves an anagram (‘exploited’) of LSO.

19a Dogs covering tail I clipped – they’re docked (7)
The dogs, worthless scoundrels that they are, are containing (‘covering’) the letters TAIL without the I (‘I clipped’).

24a With no children around, give up school? Quite revealing! (7)
If this clue were a stick of rock it would have ‘Azed’ written right through it. A (4,7) phrase which might mean ‘give up school’ or ‘no longer offer classes’ has a four-letter word for children of a male persuasion removed from its periphery (ie ‘with no children around’).

25a Measure of acidity that restricts opening of this tiny cutting? (6)
The two-letter description of the number which indicates degree of acidity is followed by a ‘poetic’ word meaning ‘that’ which contains (‘restricts’) the first letter (‘opening’) of THIS.

29a Dance revealing Saudi in his element? (8)
Another neat one, this has a four-letter word describing a Saudi inside a word for the stuff that occurs in profusion in large parts of his country.

33a Tawdry lass (misspelt?) to woo once, accepting half a smacker (5)
An old word meaning ‘to court’ (now associated not with courting but taking to court) contains the first half of a four-letter word for a ‘smacker’. The ‘lass’ is Ms Tawdry, who appears in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, conspiring with Jenny Diver and Mr Peachum to engineer the arrest of Macheath. Her first name appears in various forms, but I’m not sure that the version here is often (if ever) seen, so the ‘misspelt?’ is probably appropriate.

Down

1d Repairer holding torn coat? He helped to keep tavern floor clean (11)
The repairer who contains (‘holds’) an anagram (‘torn’) of COAT is the sort whom you might expect to do a somewhat ‘quick and dirty’ job. The tavern employee would have assisted patrons who were unable or unwilling to, in the words of the Graeme Edge Band, ‘Kick Off Your Muddy Boots’.

2d Indian bean, end of vegetable doubly spiked (5)
A three-letter Indian bean is followed by a double helping (‘doubly’) of the last letter (‘end’) of VEGETABLE.

4d Near unit put up, take in plant firmly (6)
A two-letter word meaning ‘near’ or ‘close against’ and a three-letter word for a single unit are reversed (‘put up’) and the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘take’ is inserted (‘take in’).

5d Strip of plaid maybe making jumper, new? (4)
An informal term for the  sort of jumper that is exemplified, if not typified, by Tigger’s friend who receives watercress sandwiches and ‘strengthening medicine’ from his mother is followed by the standard abbreviation for ‘new’. The Scottishness of the solution is not explicitly stated but is implied by the use of ‘plaid, maybe’.

9d Sign of aging like what’s left of Ozymandias statue in part? (6)
I won a school poetry recitation contest back in…well, the second half of the last century, with my rendition of Shelley’s Ozymandias of Egypt, and, like many things learned at that age, the poem is firmly fixed in my memory. I had to start by meeting the traveller from an ancient land when solving this clue, but I didn’t need to get any further than the ‘vast and trunkless legs of stone’ to find the answer. I used a clue of this type (a ‘hidden’ where the concealing text didn’t appear directly in the clue) in a puzzle not that long ago, but the editor didn’t like it.

12d Substance enveloping dodgy snack? It’s best to keep off this (9)
The ‘substance’ here leads to a word taken directly from Latin and meaning ‘that which a thing is’ (as well as being an informal word for a pound). It is seen containing (‘enveloping’) an anagram (‘dodgy’) of SNACK.

18d Judge accepts Hants parish being put up for sitting (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] judge’ or ‘[to] regard as’ contains (‘accepts’) the reversal (‘being put up’) of the name of a village near Petersfiled.

20d Petroleum fuel residue, rubbish taken on board in a race downhill (7)
A three-letter word for rubbish or useless junk is contained by (‘taken on board in’) the letter A (from the clue) and a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] race downhill’ (with the aid of suitable equipment).

23d Fool taken in by deception at being denied dram (5)
A three-letter fool often seen in crosswords is contained (‘take in’) by a five-letter word for a deception from which the consecutive letters AT have been removed (‘at being denied’).

30d Reservation, one for former royal family (4)
There are two ‘US informal’ terms for a (Native American) reservation, but we want the one that doesn’t simply use the first three letters of the longer word. When combined with a single-letter word for ‘one’, the result is the first name of both the last Shah of Iran and his father. They were the only members of the Pahlavi dynasty, and I can’t help feeling that the answer here is not strictly speaking the name of a ‘royal family’, but I’m prepared to be corrected on that.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,661 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Another reasonably tricky puzzle, with some obscure words in wordplays contributing to the difficulty. That said, it was an entertaining solve, and a crossword which I felt Azed had enjoyed setting.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 8d, “SA drain, alright in side of road, clearing closure (5)”. When Chambers shows the usage of a word as being restricted to a specific geographical area, whether that be northern England or Australia, custom and practice demands that this should be indicated by the setter. While this convention is often a bit of a nuisance, and can on occasion be ignored (‘wee’ for ‘little’ may be given by Chambers as Scottish, but it is rarely flagged as such in clues), it does provide an added opportunity for deception. Apart from old chestnuts like ‘Nice friend’ for AMI, ‘in Perth’ could indicate a Scottish word…or an Australian one. A term from ‘East London’ may in reality be South African, and so on. When a word is shown as being from more than one place, eg ‘Aust and NZ’, only one need be indicated. Here the ‘SA’ is an abbreviation not of ‘South Africa’ but of ‘South America’, the positioning of a two-letter word for ‘alright’ inside a four-letter word for a pavement edge missing its last letter producing a Guyanese word for a sluice-gate.

Across

1a Lolly flash couple of loves put into glossy mags (12)
Quite a testing clue to start with, a four-letter word shown by Chambers under flash² followed by a double helping of the letter representing love (for Andy Murray) being enclosed by a mid-century US term for expensive or glossy magazines, as opposed to ‘pulps’.

12a Fool from Ohio welcomed by Republicans (4)
The acronym GOP for the US Republican Party dates back to 1875, at which point it stood for Gallant Old Party. It has been given several alternative interpretations over the years (most notably Get Out and Push) but the accepted expanded form is now Grand Old Party. In 2009 the Wall Street Journal instructed staff to discontinue use of the term GOP on the basis (ostensibly) that readers might not know what it meant. Incidentally, the party’s elephant symbol dates back to an 1874 cartoon by Thomas Nast, showing the Democratic Party as a donkey trying to scare an elephant depicting the Republican Party. Here the single-letter abbreviation for ‘Ohio’ is contained (‘welcomed’) by the TLA in question.

15a One expelled with the others I have returned before middle of trimester (7)
A three-letter abbreviation for ‘and the rest’ (‘with the others’) and a contracted form of ‘I have’ are reversed (‘returned’) ahead of the middle letter of ‘trimester’.

16a NZ tree beside local bracken (6)
A charade of a two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘beside’ and the name of a variety of bracken found in New Zealand (ie ‘local bracken’), and also of the Georgia plantation in Gone with the Wind established by Gerald O’Hara on land that he won in all-night poker game.

19a River twice entering Scots one causing delay (5)
The standard abbreviation for ‘River’ appears twice (in succession) inside (‘entering’) the name of a Scottish river (ie ‘Scots one’).

21a Early arrivals set to work impress, shedding coat (5)
An anagram (‘set to work’) of IMPRESS without its first and last letters (‘shedding coat’).

24a Points around hard parts of buckle (6)
I puzzled for a while over the synonym for ‘points’ which was to go around the usual abbreviation for ‘hard’, before I realised that Azed was talking about points of land.

29a Style in basic nature (almost) followed by the French (7)
A six-letter word for ‘basic nature’ or ‘something that exists independently’ deprived of its last letter (‘almost’) is followed by the  masculine form of the French word for ‘the’.

31a Opposition in deep clashing quibble (9)
The ‘opposition’ which is to be put inside an anagram (‘clashing’) of DEEP takes the form of the plural of a word for ‘a person who is opposed to anything’.

Down

2d A bit of a poser for bachelor (4)
A simple charade of a three-letter word meaning ‘for’ (cf the opposition in 31a) and the standard abbreviation for ‘bachelor’, but the clue put me in mind of this early exchange between Morse and Lewis in Colin Dexter’s Last Bus to Woodstock:

By a quarter to midnight Lewis had finished his task and he reported to Morse, who was sitting with The Times in the manager’s office, drinking what looked very much like whisky. ‘Ah Lewis.’ He thrust the paper across. ‘Have a look at 14 down. Appropriate eh?’ Lewis looked at 14 down: Take in bachelor? It could do (3). He saw what Morse had written into the completed diagram: BRA. What was he supposed to say? He had never worked with Morse before. ‘Good clue, don’t you think?’ Lewis, who had occasionally managed the Daily Mirror coffee-time crossword was out of his depth, and felt much puzzled. ‘I’m afraid I’m not very hot on crosswords, sir.’ ‘”Bachelor” – that’s BA and “take” is the letter “r”; recipe in Latin. Did you never do any Latin?’ ‘No sir.’ ‘Do you think I’m wasting your time, Lewis?’ Lewis was nobody’s fool and was a man of some honesty and integrity. ‘Yes, sir.’ An engaging smile crept across Morse’s mouth. He thought they would get on well together.

Incidentally, the surnames of all the characters in the novel are those of competitors in Ximenes/Azed competitions, something which is explored further in an article  on this site.

3d Where to log on over a latte, even holding case up? (7)
A poetic contraction of ‘even’ containing a four-letter word for a case (perhaps more accurately for a statement of facts presented in a court of law) is reversed (‘up’).

4d Former mishap originated with conclusion taken to head (6)
A six-letter word meaning ‘originated’ or ‘brought up’  has its last letter moved to the beginning (‘conclusion taken to head’).

7d Device for fixing wedge, mostly ingenious, cut up in copper, say? (9)
A six-letter word meaning ‘ingenious’ (or ‘decorative’) missing its last letter (‘mostly’) is reversed (‘up’) inside a term for the something that is exemplified (‘say’) by a copper – or by a 50p piece. The solution is hyphenated, 6-3, while the ‘cut’ strikes me as being somewhat de trop.

11d What was behind Moroccan tree being found around Spain? (5)
The Moroccan name for the sandarac tree, when placed around the IVR code for Spain, produces a Spenserian spelling of a word meaning ‘that which is in the rear or behind’, so ‘what was behind’.

20d Sound of one seeking to enter vale in desert (7)
The magazine issued every term by my college had a ‘joiners and leavers’ section headed ‘Ave atque Vale’ (‘Hail and Farewell’, a spot of Catullus), and it is that sort of ‘vale’ (‘goodbye’) that leads to a four-letter word to be inserted into a verb often indicated in cryptic slues by ‘desert’. The answer contains a couple of hyphens.

22d Speaking less than the rest, group in the middle? Reverse of that (6)
A three-letter word for a group is to be placed in an informal word that could be applied to one’s ‘middle’, and the combination is then reversed (‘Reverse of that’).

24d Second half of ring on a square wedge? (5)
The second half of a six-letter word for a ring is followed by the letter A (from the clue) and a single letter which describes the shape of a square used in technical drawing and carpentry.

25d Typical of classy folk in county resorts (6)
A single letter which designates something or someone as being of first class is contained by the five-letter abbreviation for the name of an English county.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,660 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

After last week’s issues, it was no surprise to find that the online version of the puzzle was available on schedule this morning – we should be alright for the next couple of weeks, I think. In terms of difficulty, this was a real contrast to last week’s offering, with very few ‘write ins’ and a number of quite tricky parsings. There were also a couple of clues which struck me as rather odd. Note that the enumeration of 22d should be (6).

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 1d, “Personal problem mum’s got after tripe (4)”. I think that misdirection is one of the finest tools in the setter’s box, and something that adds a great deal to a clue; personally, I am rarely satisfied with a clue where what I am saying on the surface and what I am saying cryptically are essentially the same, and I suspect that Azed’s feelings are similar. Here we have three deceptive elements, the first being the overall surface reading, which suggests that mum is suffering a personal problem (as well one might) after eating tripe – but the tripe which provides the definition is not of the edible variety. Secondly, ‘mum’ is not a person, but an interjection meaning ‘quiet!’. And thirdly, ‘got after’ in the surface suggests something along the lines of ‘suffering as a result of’, but in the cryptic reading it simply means ‘put after’.  Just six words in the clue, but three false scents.

Across

10a It’s chill in Scotland – over there I’ll be kept inside (5)
You really need Chambers in order to be sure of the spelling required here – the big red book shows three possible options for the solution (a Scots word meaning ‘chill’ or ‘dingy’), but only one viable Scottish (ie ‘over there’) form of the word ‘over’ which, with the Roman numeral for ‘one’ inside, can produce one of them. Other references, however, give Scots versions of ‘over’ which could lead to an alternative solution.

12a Returning kisses this is abandoned excess (6)
A reversal (‘returning’) of a four-letter verb form meaning ‘kisses’ is followed by THIS (from the clue) missing the letters IS (‘is abandoned’).

15a Philippine buffalo, a miniature? It returned to plunder endlessly (7)
The word IT from the clue is reversed (‘returned’) in front of a word meaning ‘to plunder’ without its last letter (‘endlessly’). The interesting element here is the ‘a miniature’ – given that the answer is an anagram of A MINIATURE minus INE, I think this may be a lingering vestige of a composite anagram which never came to fruition.

16a Home preferred to nursing home, not available? Praise be! (7)
Another slightly strange one – a 2+3+2 charade, the ‘preferred to’ simply meaning ‘put ahead of’ and the nursing home being a three-letter ‘old informal’ contraction of a ten-letter word. But in order for the cryptic reading to work, ‘Home’ needs to be ‘House’, which also avoids the repetition of the former.

18a Handsaw tot held steady I’d cut (6)
The ‘tot’ describes the sort of thing that someone suffering from arithmomania (as we discovered last week) would do compulsively; that three-letter word is contained (‘held’) by a five-letter word meaning ‘steady’ or ‘sedate’, from which the letters ID have been removed (“I’d cut”).

23a What’s a hyena’s growl, wild? We go ‘Ah!’ with this (6)
This is a composite anagram and a type of &lit, where the whole clue constitutes the wordplay but only part forms the definition. Here the letters of A HYENAS GROWL when rearranged (‘wild’) can produce WE GO AH plus the solution (‘this’).

30a Tradesman adding to the scales, according to hearsay? (6)
A homophone (‘according to hearsay’) of a word meaning ‘more obese’ (ie ‘adding to the scales’). The answer is the name which Private Eye memorably gave to Ted Heath, as a result of his role in negotiations over EEC food policies, as well as being the occupation of Margaret Thatcher’s father.

32a Japanese nerds wandering about Tokyo’s centre, lacking breadth? (5)
An anagram (‘wandering’) of ABOUT and the middle letter (‘centre’) of ‘Tokyo’, from which the usual abbreviation for breadth has been omitted (‘lacking’).

33a Crater formed in crest abroad? A result of erosion (10)
Here an anagram (‘formed’) of CRATER is contained by a word which means ‘crest’ or ‘head’ in the European language most frequently referenced in puzzles.

Down

2d Birds’ rear ends demonstrated by one fat lady? Look out! (6)
The ‘fat lady’ indicates the first name of the late Ms Dickson Wright (other forenames Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda), former barrister and celebrity cook, who joined forces with Jennifer Paterson as the Two Fat Ladies. A two-letter interjection meaning ‘lo!’ or ‘see!’ (ie ‘Look out!’) must be removed from within it.

3d Garrison commander still replacing head of tracking system (8)
A verb meaning ‘still’ in the sense of ‘to muffle’ or ‘to silence’ replaces the first letter of a system used for locating and tracking objects.  Clues of this type always put me in mind of JPH Hirst’s brilliant clue for VINEGAR in AZ comp 27, “Given unconventionally for Jack’s head” [TAR with the first letter replaced by an anagram of GIVEN].

4d Have a flutter with the hard stuff? (5)
The wordplay produces a (3,2) phrase that certainly means ‘back’ as you might ‘back a horse’, and I suppose would mean ‘have a flutter with’ when followed by, say, ‘the Tote’.

5d One brings up water, absent after strong drink (5)
The standard single-letter abbreviation for ‘absent’ follows the sort of strong drink that one might be served in Japan.

6d King introduces check limiting extremes of martial government (7)
The chess players’ abbreviation for ‘king’ precedes a four-letter word meaning ‘[to] check’ containing the first and last letters (‘extremes’) of ‘martial’.

9d Devouring even bits of pud in rolypoly – foolishness (7)
Ideally there would be a comma between ‘in’ and ‘rolypoly’ for the benefit of the cryptic reading, since it is a word for a round, podgy person which is ‘taking in (devouring’ ) the second and fourth letters (‘even bits’) of ‘pud in’. Chambers suggests that there should be a hyphen in ‘roly-poly’.

17d A peasant’s piercing pain once in cell, lacking vital part (8)
The letter A (from the clue) and a four-letter word from the Indian subcontinent for a peasant or tenant farmer are contained by (‘piercing’) an old spelling (‘once’) of a familiar word for a pain. The answer is an unlikely sort of word which I don’t remember encountering before and will have forgotten by tomorrow.

26d One of several in pack runs in to cover up (5)
Care is required here – the solution is not the obvious spelling of the word which the checked first, third and fourth letters might suggest – the wordplay, involving the usual abbreviation for ‘runs’ being inserted into a reversal (‘up’) of a word meaning ‘[to] cover’, makes clear that an alternative spelling is required.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,659 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

Firstly, my thanks to crossguesser for providing a scanned copy of this puzzle which was not (and still isn’t at the time of writing) available on the Guardian web site – the PDF produced from the scan can be found here.

Secondly, I was delighted to see the names of some regular correspondents in the slip for 2,655 (the Printer’s Devilry comp). Well done to them! Knowing where the break is in a PD clue doesn’t always make the undevilled version obvious; a question was asked on another post regarding the ‘podium’ clues, and I will repeat below the full versions which I believe the authors intended:

1. The meal served was so unfit – and a trifle cold.

The meal was soup, a confit, and a trifle (cold).

2. I feel busts a lot, but I know I need treatment so I’m willing to pay for it.

I feel BUPA costs a lot, but I know I need treatment so I’m willing to pay for it.

3. Hillary expertly wound up several guys – that one she riled badly.

Hillary expertly wound up several guys that one sherpa coiled badly.

Thankfully, when I was eventually able to get started on today’s puzzle it proved to be one of Azed’s less demanding offerings. The competition word is an interesting one, and I see that Azed has included in the instructions for entrants a list of the criteria by which he judges a clue; I don’t think these will come as any surprise to regulars or to those who have read the hints for writing Azed competition clues on this site. It would also appear that emailed entries will now be accepted from all solvers (previously this option was only available to competitors outside the UK), which is welcome news, far be it from me to add “if, like today’s puzzle a little overdue”.

Clue Writers’ Corner: Competition clue words of ten or more letters usually produce a very high number of anagram clues. Although BOTTLE-WASHER (AZ comp 2524) lent itself quite well to other treatments, all but three of the published clues involved anagrams; the problem with the alternative approaches is that they tend to be either too obvious or too long-winded, while a long word offers all manner of anagram-based options which a shorter word does not. Some of the successful clues will undoubtedly be ‘&lit’s, but there is no problem with a conventional definition + wordplay clue – as long as the definition part is original and interesting; the definition given by Chambers is unlikely to cut it (reading through the BOTTLE-WASHER clues will show you what I mean).

Across

6a United lead, a work of art to seethe from below? (6)
A (1-2-3) charade of the usual abbreviation for ‘united’, the chemical symbol for lead, and a word for a work of art created using a specific medium.

12a One old Scottish bird wraps wimple perfectly (10, 2 words)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is followed by a five-letter word for a blackbird which contains (‘wraps’) an alternative word for a wimple. The ‘old Scottish’ bird word is indeed given by Chambers as ‘archaic and literary Scot’, but it perhaps should be ‘archaic Scot and literary’, since the OED says that “in the 19th c. [it] often appears in English and American poetry from imitation of Scott or Burns.” ‘Wimple’ is close to being a definition by example, but we’ll let that pass. The answer is (1,9), and there is an accent on that first word.

13a Dress machine’s cut in length of thick cotton (7)
A three-letter word for ‘dress’ or ‘equipment’ is combined with a six-letter word for a machine from which the consecutive letters IN have been removed (“‘s [ie ‘has’] cut in”).

14a Unwillingness to speak, ignoring extreme limits…of this once? (4)
A six-letter term describing an inability or an unwillingness to speak has its first and last letters removed (‘ignoring extreme limits’), to produce a Shakespearean (‘once’) word for the sort of thing that a person affected by the condition would certainly not contribute to verbally.

15a Duck flesh parcelled by mum (6)
A four-letter word for ‘flesh’ is contained (‘parcelled’) by an interjection which equates to ‘mum!’ when used as an instruction.

25a Modest about ride with ‘ounds, being gentrified (6)
A three-letter word for ‘modest’ is put around (‘about’) a four-letter word for ‘[to] ride with hounds’ which has been  cocknified analogously to “‘ounds”.

29a Leg with last bit of gangrene requiring operation (4)
A word for a leg, which may or may not be the same as the heraldic term ‘gamb’, describing a beast’s whole foreleg, is followed by the final letter (‘last bit of’) ‘gangrene’. The ‘requiring’ is there simply to link the wordplay to the definition, although it comes close to what Azed describes in his judging criteria as ‘superfluous wording’.

31a Bowled in first stages, going back having received painful blow (7)
The standard (cricketing) abbreviation for ‘bowled’ is contained by a reversal (‘going back’) of a six-letter word for ‘first stages’ or ‘initial appearances’.

33a Oily paste absent in watery iftar’s starter (6)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘absent’ is to be put inside a four-letter word for ‘watery’ followed by the first letter (‘starter’) of ‘iftar’.

Down

1d NZ bird sounding (almost) like a dove (4)
The pronunciation which Chambers gives for the NZ bird is slightly different to that which it shows for the sound made by doves, which when repeated therefore almost constitutes a homophone.

7d One writing about bit of rock, object turning up in prehistoric time (7)
A three-letter word for an author (‘One writing’, the meaning being transferred from the implement with which one writes) contains (‘about’) both the first letter (‘bit’) of ‘rock’ and a word for an object or goal which has been reversed (‘turning up’).

8d Pale blue pants concealing worker’s muscle (6)
A four-letter word for a pale blue or green paint (try asking for it in B&Q and see where it gets you) is followed by the letters PANTS from which a word for a ‘worker’ seen almost as frequently in crosswords as in my lawn has been removed (‘concealing worker’).

10d Abuse male patients having to stand inside with temperature (12)
A (3,3) phrase that might describe male patients contains (‘having…inside’) a word meaning ‘stand’ (in the sense of ‘offer and pay for’), the whole lot being followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘temperature’. The solution is hyphenated, 3-9.

16d Chap getting drunk in group devouring like carnivores (8)
The combination of a three-letter dialect word for a chap (and also the name of a fish) and a two-letter word meaning ‘on the way to being drunk’ (ie ‘getting drunk’) is put into a word for a group.

20d Part of e.g. lobster I peer nervously over, gracing menu? (7)
The word ‘over’ sits a little uneasily in this clue, where the wordplay needs to be read as ‘[with] I peer nervously over, gracing menu?’ in order to accurately indicated that a two-letter word for ‘gracing [the] menu’ (last seen in 16d) has an anagram (‘nervously’) of I PEER above (‘over’).

21d Melodious snatch taken in a rush (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] snatch’ is contained (‘taken in by’) the sort of rush which has nothing to do with haste and everything to do with water plants.

23d Source of Asian timber, 75% dehydrated outside (6)
An eight-letter (hyphenated) word that means ‘dehydrated outside’ (given suitable weather conditions) is reduced by 25%, its last two letters being deleted.

(definitions are underlined)

In the continuing absence of the puzzle on the Guardian web site, a PDF from a scan kindly provided by correspondent crossguesser can be found here.

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,658 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

It seemed to me that a couple of tricky parsings in this 13×11 puzzle raised it above the mid-point of the difficulty range; although there were several anagram clues where the fodder was clear, they weren’t always easy to work out, and (unusually for an Azed) there were no ‘hiddens’. I thought that overall it was an enjoyable solve.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 28d, “Corner of Scotland to recognize up there having entered university (4)”. The wordplay here has a three-letter chiefly Scots (ie ‘there’) word meaning ‘to recognize’ or ‘to know’ being reversed (‘up’) around the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘university’. The point of interest here is the use of ‘enter’ to indicate containment, rather than its more common function as an insertion indicator. Setters on occasion will take a definition from Chambers and use it to their advantage, an example being ‘over’, which I see quite often used to indicate containment. The basis for this is the meaning ‘from side to side of’, but in practice this never describes something being divided by another thing – a ‘bridge over a river’ is not much use if the bridge is in two separate parts with the river in between. When I am assessing potential new entries for the lists in the Clinical Data section of this site, if the Chambers definition seems promising I then go to the OED to get clarification from the examples of usage given there. With ‘enter’, the word is given by Chambers as having a sense of ‘admit’; it has to be said that in most instances it is not the subject of the verb into which the object is being admitted, eg in “Some‥officers‥entered me into the army” it is the army which is doing the receiving, but I think that an example such as “I immediately entered another able seaman, which‥made the number six” suggests that it is synonymous with ‘admit’ in the sense of ‘allow in’. I added it to the list of containment indicators several years ago, albeit I assigned it a classification of ‘Advanced’ rather than ‘Standard’, ie suitable for use only in barred puzzles, but I subsequently removed it. I’ll probably reinstate it, because its credentials are at least as good as those of several others that are in commonly seen in crosswords.

Incidentally, if you are thinking of submitting a competition entry, or a complete puzzle, and you have a word in a clue which can be spelt either -ize or -ise in British English (as here with ‘recognize’), which should you choose? It doesn’t matter – for clue writing competitions, either spelling will be accepted; for puzzles, there will be a ‘house style’, and the editor will amend as necessary – Azed’s puzzles, as you would expect from a  lexicographer – are characterized by the ‘-ize’ forms, but the Telegraph, for instance, standardises on the ‘-ise’ spellings.

Across

1a Keenly sentimental and increasingly amorous, I, before and after school (13)
A combination of a six-letter word meaning ‘increasingly amorous’ or ‘increasingly kind-hearted’ and the letter I (from the clue) is contained by two instances of the usual abbreviation for ‘school’. For the purposes of the wordplay, the words after the second comma need to be read as ‘[with] school before and after’.

13a One decrying member of travelling troupe? (8)
The wordplay here is a second definition of a sort, being a (3,5) phrase which could describe a wanderer with a travelling theatre company.

16a People dividing view, any, regarding apartment block (11)
A three-letter word for ‘people’ contained by (‘dividing’) a five-letter word for a view or a doctrine which one holds to be true is followed by a dialect form of ‘any’, producing a word whose existence is perfectly logical but which I don’t remember encountering before.

18a Student boozer, one joint incorporating another (not the first) (6)
A four-letter joint containing (‘incorporating’) a three-letter one from which the first letter has been omitted (‘not the first’) provides a word which Chambers indicates as a venue but OED gives only as “A convivial meeting of German university students (and the like) at a tavern or restaurant”. What exactly ‘the like’ are I cannot say; in my experience, when it comes to analogues, students are like dames.

23a Having what looks like hand one pair of bridge partners fed on (6)
A charade of a one-letter word for ‘one’, the letters representing a pair of partners at the bridge table, and a three-letter word meaning ‘fed on’.

25a Like some breakfast? Against money being put into measure of grain once (11)
If you immediately thought of ‘against’ being CON, got the answer, and then struggled to make sense of the last part of the wordplay, then you are in good company! It is actually a two-letter word for (among many other things) ‘against’ and a three-letter slang word for ‘money’ which must be put inside the name of a unit of weight equal to 100lb, formerly used for measuring grain.

30a Scrap metal, inferior, including such as in Scotland, all returned (7)
A four-letter word meaning ‘inferior’ is placed around (‘including’) a Scots form of ‘such’ and the whole lot reversed (‘all returned’).

31a French art turning back on itself? It represents reality (4)
Wordplays such as ‘art master’ for TEACHEST crop up every so often (usually in Azed’s puzzles or mine), and here it is the French version of ‘art’ in the ‘thou art’ sense which appears twice, once forwards and once backwards (‘turning back on itself’).

Down

2d Basset? Crowning feature in position (7)
A five-letter ‘crowning feature’ is combined with that same two-letter word that appeared in 25a (‘in position’); if you are not of a geological bent, then like me you may need to look up both the answer and ‘basset’ to check that all is as it should be. 

3d Appropriate in female, it may prompt immune response (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘appropriate’ (in the adjectival sense) is contained by a term for many female birds, not to mention a few fishes and crustaceans (apparently).

5d One side of wagon? With that it’s shiny black (4)
When one ‘side’ (either the first or the last letter, but, as it turns out, the last letter) of the word ‘wagon’ is added to the solution, a five-letter word meaning ‘shiny black’ is produced (ie “With that it’s shiny black”). I’d come across this word in another puzzle only a couple of weeks ago, which was handy.

7d What’ll suggest clan literally conforming with others? (6, 2 words)
If you read the answer as (2,2,2) with a comma between the last two words, it suggests a four-letter word for a clan or a division of a tribe. This one is quite hard to explain, so I have added an explicit version of the explanation below.

8d Hemp genus from Q I had planted in region not far from there, yielding … (4)
The contracted form of ‘I had’ is contained by (‘planted in’) the two-letter abbreviation for the state which borders Queensland to the south-west (‘region not far from there’). Unusually for Azed,  the two clues joined by ellipses stand alone, so if you ignore the ‘yielding’ here then both 8d and 9d are perfectly normal. Why has he written ‘Q’ rather than ‘Queensland’? I think the idea is that because Q is an abbreviation, the implication is that we are similarly seeking an abbreviation for the nearby region. Could we be meant to think of Qatar and Saudi Arabia in the wordplay? No, I don’t think that works any better.

12d Butter’s given a wee bittie salt? It provides more than we really want (10, 2 words)
The ‘butter’ here is the sort that makes occasional appearances in Christmas cracker jokes (I seem to remember a very contrived one about ‘temper spent butter’), and its possessive form is followed by a four-letter Scots word for a pinch, producing a (5,5) solution.

19d Lady’s mantle from the orient in puckered fabric (7)
The usual abbreviation for ”Eastern’ (ie ‘from the orient’) is contained by a six-letter puckered fabric, and the solution really is an article of clothing rather than a plant.

26d Solid leader being somewhat demoted as formerly (4)
A four-letter word for a particular solid figure, familiar to all motorway users, has its first letter (‘leader’) being moved downwards by a couple of positions (‘somewhat’) in order to produce the answer.

(definitions are underlined)