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 2,769 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

I am reliably informed that the number of entries for the first ‘online submission available to all’ competition in July showed a very substantial increase from the June comp, which is very encouraging. This was also the first comp where the clues were anonymized prior to being sent to the judge; as a correspondent pointed out, no names from the top 10 from the 2023/24 Honours List appeared, among the prize-winners or VHCs, although it would be premature to read anything into that. In any event, given the ease of submission, there has never been a better time to enter the clue writing competition.

As for today’s puzzle, it seemed to me perhaps just a little above the average difficulty for a plain Azed. The clues appeared slightly uninspired on the whole, and decidedly ‘loose’ in places. Apart from the points covered below, a regular correspondent has suggested that the definition in 8d is rather weak; I would agree with that.

Clue Writers’ Corner: The fact that Azed is now going to be presented with a list of clues in a single spreadsheet surely makes it all the more important that your clue should ‘speak’ (or even shout) to him. A clue that appears interesting at first read is likely to stand a better chance than one that needs to be read several times before its full subtlety is revealed. That doesn’t mean that the clue needs to be of a particular type, simply that it needs to have something that is likely to take the judge’s eye, whether that is a particular word like ‘Azed’ or ‘Corbyn’, an intriguing or amusing surface reading, or a lower-than-usual word count. Never forget, though, that soundness of clue is imperative -a clue which is grammatically flawed in the cryptic reading is almost certain to fail.

As for today’s competition word, perhaps the less said the better. I would say that while accuracy in the cryptic element of the clue remains paramount, a degree of latitude will have to be allowed when it comes to the definition; the most important thing is to ensure that your definition leads to a noun which in some way describes, or at least suggests, the condition or its result.

Across

11a Husband on stage in afternoon, displaying calmness (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘husband’ and a word for a stage (perhaps of a race) are contained by two letters representing ‘after noon’ which are allowed for ‘afternoon’ in cryptics even if the two are not quite the same thing.

12a Nip power off edge (4)
The way that the clue is presented, it would appear that the single-letter abbreviation for ‘power’ should be removed from (‘off’) a word for ‘edge’, but in fact we have to assume a comma (or the word ‘with’) after ‘Nip’, so the starting point is a five-letter word for ‘nip’.

14a Accountants as a group gathering SA currency as capital (5)
A four-letter abbreviation for an association of accountants contains (‘gathering’) the abbreviation for the standard monetary unit of South Africa, producing the name of an African capital city. I’m not too keen on ‘gathering’ on its own to indicate containment (‘gathering in’ would be fine), and ‘SA currency’ should I think be ‘little SA currency’ or similar, since we being asked to use not the name of the currency but an abbreviation for it; I wouldn’t consider ‘old French currency’ acceptable for F.

17a Errand boy once pocketing two articles in lathe accessory (7)
An obsolete (‘once’) word for a person who runs errands (these days someone described thus would be a terrible rotter) contains (‘pocketing’) two articles, one definite and the other indefinite (in either order), the result being the name given to ‘an attachment to a lathe to assist in supporting long bars when they are being turned’.

18a Fabulous bird, tailless kind (4)
A five-letter word meaning ‘kind’ or, more commonly, ‘relating to people’ is stripped of its last letter (‘tailless’) to produce a fabulous bird, said to be a restless wanderer but to bring luck to anyone over whom it hovers. If you’ve concluded that the bird overhead is either one of these or a seagull, I would suggest that your luck will be greatly improved by taking cover sharpish.

24a S-sweet local chat? (4)
A rare sighting of a ‘stuttering’ clue, where the letter S (from the clue) is followed by a three-letter informal word for a sweet (Mmmm…dessert 😋). A look in Chambers will confirm that ‘chat’ is a dialect word for the sort of agricultural runt that Tom Kerridge would surely prevent from reaching the shelves of M&S.

28a Pipe I’ll fill a little? Reverse of that (5)
The letter I (from the clue) is inserted into a (1,3) expression meaning ‘a little’, and the whole lot is then reversed (‘Reverse of that’). The required sense of the answer may not be familiar, but in Latin the word means not only a shin-bone but also a flute or pipe.

31a Measure island denied land for island (5)
A slightly strange clue, where a three-letter measure (“Give him an inch and he’ll take an ???”) is followed by the word ISLAND from which the letters LAND have been removed (‘denied land’). The answer is not an island, rather it forms part of the name of a particular island in New York Harbo(u)r.

33a Guinness? One served by clubs (4)
Quite a nice clue, where the three-letter name for a type of alcoholic drink (‘one’, ie ‘Guinness’) is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘clubs’, the answer being the first name of famous English actor perhaps best known to a somewhat younger audience for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. There is a slight problem with the clue, in that Guinness is an example of the three-letter drink (porter and IPA would be others), but this is not indicated – ‘One perhaps served by clubs’ would be fine.

Down

2d Ticked off youngster giving up Latin (4)
A five-letter word for a youngster surrenders the single-letter abbreviation for ‘Latin’.

3d Swell without a blemish (5)
I’m very surprised that this clue got into print. It requires that a four-letter word for a blemish should contain the letter A (from the clue), but there are two big problems. Firstly there needs to be a comma after ‘a’, otherwise it is the ‘swell’ that ought to contain the A. Worse, though, is the use of the preposition ‘without’ to indicate containment, requiring an archaic sense which Azed has historically not allowed.

5d Exchanging money, being absorbed by the Mona Lisa? (4)
The solver first has to ‘translate’ the Mona Lisa into its Italian name, and then extract four letters from within.

9d Scratch regional runner such as S.Ovett, black (6)
I could readily identify two possible ‘runners such as S. Ovett’, one being his arch-rival S COE and the other the ‘Jarrow Arrow’ who won a silver medal in the 1500m at the 1984 Olympics (or, as they would say these days, ‘he podiumed in LA’). The initial and surname of the latter are followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘black’.

11d Forced to fit vineyards in assuming various shapes (11)
A four-letter word for ‘vineyards’ or ‘vintages’ is contained by a word meaning ‘assuming various shapes’, from the name of a shapeshifting Greek sea-god. The definition isn’t quite right; it would be ok for the rather splendid past participle ???????????IZED, but the answer here demands something more along the lines of ‘forcing everything to fit’.

22d Is shed what may start a blaze? (6)
A well-disguised double definition, the first word being a verb in the third person singular and the second being a plural noun. As I wrote those last two words, I wondered whether ‘thorax’ could be described as a ‘pleural noun’…

27d Source of middle eastern verse, say, to continue once the sun goes in (5)
A three-letter archaic word meaning to endure or continue contains the more common spelling of the two-letter name of the Egyptian sun-god (ie ‘once the sun goes in’).

30d Scots ale making one sick, finishing off yard (4)
A rather convoluted wordplay, where a three-letter word for ‘sick’ follows (‘finishing off’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘yard’.

(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 2,768 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Important note: several clues in the PDF differ from the (seemingly revised) versions in the interactive version of the puzzle and the one printed in the paper (which are very similar). If you are solving the PDF, the following clues need to be corrected:

24a : Clever clogs? One often goes with pants or boots (6)
17d: Unusual goat-trap displaying detachable cover (8, 2 words)
25d: The N. English thoroughfare? A path of yesteryear (5)

Conversely, the interactive version shows 10a as ‘(10)’,  28a as ‘(7)’, and (17d as ‘(8)’; the printed and PDF forms correctly show them all as being ‘2 words’.

In 8d (PDF version), Catch-22 should be italicized.

This puzzle represents a landmark in the Azed series, with all solvers being invited (and, indeed, encouraged) to submit their competition entries electronically. I am also given to understand that, once the grids have been checked and those with errors disqualified, the clues submitted by the remaining solvers will be anonymized and sent to Azed for his consideration. Once the judging is complete, the clues will be reunited with the names of their authors in order that the results can be published. I’d like to think that this move (and I’m sure that it will need a little while to ‘settle down’, so please be patient with the Tortoise) will satisfy those who, like myself, have long wanted to see both electronic submission as an option for all competitors and ‘blind’ judging – the latter not because I think that Azed shows conscious bias towards particular competitors, but because all suspicion can only be eliminated if the authorship of the clues at the time of judging is unknown. This is the ideal time for solvers who haven’t submitted clues before to have a go (once the clue submission mechanism is working) – it would be great to see some brand new names in the lists over the coming months.

As far as this puzzle was concerned, it was another in the sequence of relatively tricky ‘plains’, with very few easy starters. There were some nice clues in there, and a few little bits and pieces for me to quibble with! I’m sure that ‘over’ in 17d should read ‘cover’, and I suspect that the second ‘clogs’ in 24a ought to be ‘boots’ (the enumeration in this clue is missing an opening bracket).

Clue Writers’ Corner: A correspondent recently raised the subject of ‘link words’ in competition clues, ie those words (or phrases) which connect the definition to the wordplay, such as ‘[wordplay] in [definition]’ or ‘[definition] from [wordplay]’. Azed often uses link words in his clues  (eg 5a, 10a, 12a, 15a, 16a and 27a in the current puzzle for starters); there is nothing unsound about this, and Azed has never suggested that normal competition clues containing a link work would be marked down. In the slip for 1,814, he wrote:

“So now to my views on ‘linking words’ in cryptic clues. Leaving aside ‘& lit.’ clues (to which I shall return, but not this month), I suppose the simplest form of cryptic clue is the one in which the definition (one or more words) and the cryptic indication of it (sometimes called ‘wordplay’) stand side by side, either preceding the other, with no intervening verbiage, i.e. with no linking words. It is however entirely legitimate to indicate by means of such linking words that the wordplay stands for or leads to the definition, i.e. the solution to the clue. I am far less happy about clues based on the reverse process, i.e. those that imply that the definition stands for or leads to the wordplay, which I find counter-intuitive [clues such as 10a and 16a in the current puzzle suggest that his view on this point may have changed – DC]. What linking words are acceptable, then? I have no intention of attempting a definitive list, but I regard as acceptable anything that clearly and grammatically indicates the process involved. So ‘for’ (meaning ‘in reference to’, etc) and ‘in’ (meaning ‘consisting of’, etc) are clearly acceptable, as well as a wide range of other words and phrases which have the same or similar meanings. As so often in these matters, I urge you to ask yourselves whether the clues you construct include clear (albeit veiled) instructions to the solver how to proceed from the wordplay to the target solution.

That said, one of the most pleasing forms of misdirection involves the break between the definition and wordplay being heavily disguised, and both link words and punctuation tend to militate against this. Given the choice between a link word and a comma to connect wordplay and definition, I would favour the link word, because while both are likely to make the ‘join’ fairly obvious, the surface reading will almost certainly flow better without a pause. Ideally, a competition clue should contain a definition, a wordplay, and nothing else, but if your best clue will only work with a link word, then you should have no hesitation about submitting it.

A couple of additional points regarding this month’s competition: (i) there are some words of advice (‘wisdom’ would be putting it a bit strongly) for newcomers to Azed clue writing at https://clueclinic.com/index.php/writing-azed-clues, and (ii) when clueing a word which appears as a subhead in Chambers (eg ‘crossword’), you should avoid using the headword (in my example, ‘cross’) in the wordplay, in particular with a similar sense to that which it has in the subhead (eg ‘oblique’ or ‘transverse’).

Across

1a Old person, carelessly lax inside, snuffed out taper (5)
A (3,5) term for a candle or taper has a rearrangement (‘carelessly’) of the letters LAX inside removed (‘snuffed out’).

10a Whortleberry, source of an idea when opening grapery (10, 2 words)
An anagram (‘opening’) of AN IDEA and a word for something which produces grapes (I’m not sure that it can truly be described as a ‘grapery’) combine to produce the (6,4) answer.

12a Greek character, see, in boom making lolly (8)
The name of the penultimate letter of the Greek alphabet and the single letter called ‘see’ are contained by a word describing the sort of boom that controls the position of a sail.

15a 3-part area, tons in brick-earth (5)
The 3-part area was made up (according to Julius Caesar, and he would know) of Gallia Celtica, Belgica, and Aquitania. Its name is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘tons’.

19a Apple sauce? Nothing replaces second ingredient (7)
There is a ‘sauce’ (although its not usually referred to as such) for which there is no substitute on treacle sponge, and which, when mixed with bananas, allowed to cool, and topped off with a glacé cherry, is a source of great joy. Its second letter (‘second ingredient’) is replaced by the usual representation of ‘nothing’.

24a Clever clogs? One often goes with pants or boots (6)
I solved the clue from the PDF, where the last word is a repeat (or, if you’re Richard Heald, a palillogy – who knew?) of ‘clogs’. This revised clue, which puts me in mind of Ian Dury’s finest album, suggests two possible compounds starting with the answer, both of which are confirmed by Chambers.

27a Salmon in group with similar character? Not right (4)
A six-letter statistical term for a group with a shared characteristic (or a word for part of a Roman legion) is deprived of the two-letter abbreviation for ‘right’.

31a Trouble in evidence of overweight, hence thresh around (10, 2 words)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] trouble’ (as in ‘What troubles you?’) is contained by a four-letter word for something that provides evidence that a person is overweight and a three-letter interjection similar to ‘Clear off!’ or, for those of a more classical disposition, ‘Hence!’, which was memorably addressed to the damned dog of a Shakespearean anti-heroine.

Down

2d Fish bearing live young? You’ll find us in African country (8)
The consecutive letters US (from the clue) are contained by the name of an African country which, strictly speaking, includes a definite article.

3d Spread by the sound of it what’s often attached to loom (4)
A homophone (‘by the sound of it’) for a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] spread’ or ‘[to] broadcast’ produces a word which is often prefixed to ‘loom’ (the latter in the sense of ‘utensil’).

4d Type of rabbit – what might that be in Pacific tree? (6)
A (1,3) expression for what a rabbit might be is contained by a two-letter Pacific tree (regular solvers will know the one).

8d Therapeutic exercise, such as Catch-22? (10)
The wordplay leads to a (6,4) expression which could certainly describe Catch-22, or indeed Something Happened, where not much did till the end. The answer, a technique invented by another Joseph, and apparently based on Rolfing (don’t ask), is given by earlier editions of Chambers as (6,4) but is now shown as a single word.

9d First player is on my left? Perfect (5)
Azed is clearly a devotee of poker or the like, where if the first player who will bet is on my left, that means ? ????.

11d Freshwater fish? Not what angler displays! (10)
An example of the sort of angler that Azed is referring to is to be found at 1d, where what he does display is clearly described in terms that leave little to the imagination.

18d Taking gee out flexed legs round old track, i.e. part them wide (7)
A bit of a convoluted one, where the letter called ‘gee’ is removed (‘taking…out’) from an anagram (‘flexed’) of LEGS, which is then put round a four-letter archaic word for a track (cf 25d) to produce an obsolete form of a familiar eight-letter word.

21d Busy, in brief, sent abroad, we’ll regulate strikes (7)
The three-letter abbreviation for the sort of ‘busy’ whose appearance at Arthur Daley’s car lot would have presaged trouble is followed by an anagram (‘abroad’) of SENT.

23d Distant source of radiation in the capacity of timeless heavenly body (6)
A three-letter Latin word meaning ‘in the capacity of’ is followed by a four-letter ‘heavenly body’ from which the usual abbreviation for time has been omitted (‘timeless’).

(definitions are underlined)

The latest puzzles are now linked from the Observer Azed page at

Azed | The Observer

which also has links to two new articles, ‘How to Solve Azed & Gemelo’ and ‘Monthly puzzle and clue-writing competition: terms & conditions’.

The online clue submission facility is now working, with all entries going initially to Tortoise. It is important to check your grid entries before submitting – the app accepts whatever you supply, and any incorrect answers will result in your entry subsequently being disqualified, as would have happened in the past. The clues submitted by those who have correctly completed the grid will be anonymized and sent to Azed for judging; once he has made his decision, they will be reconnected with their authors and the results published. Azed will produce a monthly Slip as usual.

Currently, the steps for submission are as follows:

1. Complete the grid and click ‘Submit’.
2. You will be prompted for your name and email address. Enter these, and click ‘Submit’.
3. You will see a form with ‘Puzzle submitted’ at the top, which should have ‘COMPETITION – scroll down to submit’ towards the bottom. If you don’t see that text, you need to scroll down in order for it to display.
4. Scroll further down the Google form to see the boxes for your email address, your address, your clue, and the explanation. Enter these, and click ‘Submit’.
5. You should see a panel headed ‘COMPETITION – scroll down to submit’ (slightly confusingly) – the important thing is that below this it says “Thank you for entering the Azed monthly clue-writing competition”.
6. That’s it. You will receive an email, subject “COMPETITION – scroll down to submit” which will have confirmation of what you entered on the form. An example of the mail that you should received is linked here.

Don’t be put off by the Google form being called ‘COMPETITION – scroll down to submit’; I imagine that Tortoise are working behind the scenes to tidy this aspect up a bit, but to be honest once we’ve all gone through the process a couple of times we probably won’t be looking too closely anyway.

If you’ve accidentally submitted a blank or incomplete puzzle without getting to the point of supplying your email address, home address etc, all is not lost. The data that you have entered (or not entered!) is saved in a cookie, so if you exit the Observer site, delete all cookies from ‘observer.co.uk’, and then go back in, you should find that you have a blank grid and will be able to start again. With Edge, for instance, you can go into Settings->Cookies and site permissions->Cookies and site data->See all cookies and site data, filter the list down to ‘observer.co.uk’ and then click Remove. On Safari, it’s Settings->Apps->Safari->Advanced->Website Data->Edit, then select ‘observer.co.uk’ for deletion.

It has also been announced that with immediate effect Azed will be setting only the puzzles for the monthly competitions. The remaining puzzles will be set by Colin Thomas (who may be familiar to some solvers as Twin), under the nom de clef Gemelo (the Spanish for ‘twin’). This will enable Azed to significantly reduce his workload, which seems entirely reasonable after producing a puzzle week in, week out for 53 years 4 months. To describe his achievements as extraordinary falls a long way short of doing them justice. Let us hope that this sharing of the load will mean that Azed can continue to entertain us for a good while yet.

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 2,767 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

You wait ages for a tricky ‘plain’, and then two come along in quick succession. With the number 1 bus in Birmingham – aka the ‘Moseley 1’ – it was usually three in line astern, so perhaps by analogy we can expect another relative toughie for next week’s competition puzzle, special or nay. This was an entertaining challenge, with a few nice clues.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 30a, “Spenser’s last in litter, appearance not fine (4)”. The wordplay here has a 5-letter word meaning ‘appearance’ or ‘principal face’ being deprived of the single-letter abbreviation for ‘fine’, the result being a Spenserian form of a familiar word. However, it contains a construction which most editors now explicitly include in their proscribed lists, the use of ‘A not B’ to indicate ‘A minus B’. I can’t think of any situation in real life where the word ‘not’ on its own in such an expression suggests diminution, and I would advise aspiring setters to steer well clear. A wordplay such as ‘slow bowler not special’ seems to me (and others) not valid for INNER [SPINNER – SP]. The addition of a comma is generally considered to make the construction acceptable (eg ‘slow bowler, not special’), although a word like ‘having’ needs to be inferred in order to achieve the required effect (similarly for the parenthesized ‘not late’ in 29d). The problem lies in the inflexibility of ‘not’; a word like ‘less’ which can act as an adjective or preposition has no such issue – ‘A less B’ can indeed mean ‘A minus B’, so ‘slow bowler less special’ is good for INNER and ‘appearance less fine’ would have been absolutely sound here.

Across

1a While up at uni, having entered it ends somehow being brought to light (12)
A (2,4) phrase roughly answering to ‘while up at uni’ (or ‘not during the vac’) is contained by (‘having entered’) an anagram (‘somehow’) of IT ENDS.

12a Unfriendly Scots frequently object (5)
A charade of the  2-letter abbreviation for ‘frequently’ (which somewhat ironically is seen rather infrequently) and a word for an object or end.

13a Called back on being dismissed by herald, bad-tempered (6)
A reversal (‘back’) of a 4-letter word meaning ‘called’ (as on the telephone) is followed by the title given to the chief herald of Scotland (also the surname of a current Australian test spinner), shorn of the consecutive letters ON (‘on being dismissed’).

14a Pottery first to last lined up as before (4)
A 4-letter word for pottery, almost invariably preceded by the name of a particular factory, such as Wemyss or Meissen, has its first letter moved to the end (‘first to last’), the result being an old spelling of an adverb meaning ‘in a line’.

16a Very small Scotch, extreme in goodness! (5)
A 3-letter ‘informal abbreviation’ meaning ‘extreme’ or ‘too much’ is contained by an interjection of surprise similar to ‘goodness!’. I don’t imagine that the definition will cause too many problems for solvers, given the headword under which it appears in Chambers, but the adjective here doesn’t mean ‘very small’; it is used specifically with reference to a shaft of sunlight that shows up all those bits of dead skin etc that are floating around the house (or in our house – though not in yours, I’m sure – the cobwebs hanging from the ceiling). As Alexander Smith wrote in A Summer in Skye:

…just where the ????? sunbeam from the pane with its great knob of bottle-green struck him

18a Alexandra displaying what accompanies thrust, around centre of fashion (5)
An obsolete interjection of (self-)encouragement, originally an accompaniment to a fencing thrust, contains (‘around’) the middle letter (‘centre’) of ‘fashion’.

25a Freak garden bloom, less than half of it moved to rear (5)
You know you’ve done too many crosswords when ‘garden bloom’ calls up just two words, one being ‘rose’ and the other the name given to one of many members of a family often linked to Michaelmas. Here the latter has its first two letters (ie ‘less than half of it’) moved to the rear. Other garden blooms are available, but don’t expect to see too many mesembryanthemums making the transition from the gardening pages.

27a Tropical tree, one lacking in hard outer covering (5)
An 8-letter word for a hard covering (such as that of a tortoise) loses the name given to the ‘one’ in a pack of cards (‘one lacking’).

28a Clappers of course gripped by urge for Scotch (7)
A 5-letter word meaning ‘relating to a course or round’ (ie ‘of course’) is contained by a Scots word meaning ‘to call’ or ‘to drive on’; when followed by ‘canny’, it forms the name given to a number of holes on Scottish golf courses, including the 15th at Trumpberry, and is an exhortation to go carefully.

33a Stops on organ, flaming brittle! (7)
A 4-letter plural referring to the sort of lights that direct drivers to halt (ie ‘stops’) is followed by the name of a particular organ of the human body, producing  a word which was seen in its more regular form in 2,521 (“Revolutionary, executed maybe protecting his leader, brittle when heated”). The adjective ‘hot-short’ has a similar meaning when used to describe iron which contains an excess of certain impurities, while there is a parallel term ‘cold-short’, which when applied to a metal (or to peanuts in hard toffee, presumably) means ‘brittle in its cold state’.

Down

4d Haulier’s strap, once very small, surrounding form of lump (8)
An obsolete form of a familiar word meaning ‘very small’, apparently always preceded by ‘little’, contains (‘surrounding’) an anagram (‘for’) of LUMP.

7d Laughing hyena may account for such an antelope with a neigh! (7)
A composite anagram, where the letters of LAUGHING HYENA can be rearranged to produce (‘can account for’) the solution (‘such an antelope’) and A NEIGH.

10d Something to bind old thong? Jock’s in a tangle (6)
The wordplay yields a (3,3) phrase that could describe a string or lace with which to secure an (obsolete) thong (or a large marble).

19d Pressure on head of edible fungus forced up part of primary growth (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘pressure’ is followed by a reversal (‘forced up’) of the first letter (‘head’) of ‘edible’ plus the 5-letter name of a type of fungus which is, as it happens, edible.

24d Old ewe with bit of tangled hair covering hoof (6)
A 5-letter word for an old woman (‘derogatory’, according to Chambers) or an old ewe (not derogatory, pending ovine petition to the editors) precedes the first letter (‘bit’) of ‘tangled’.

25d Like a reflecting telescope, universal in volume (5)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘universal’ is contained by a word which can be applied to a cipher, a system of rules, a collection of writings making up a book (such as the New Testament), or a recognized division thereof, forming a volume. The stark definition ‘a volume’ in Chambers leaves plenty to the imagination.

29d One only in the pool for a while, forming pattern (not late) (4)
An 8-letter word for a pattern or model has the consecutive letters LATE omitted (‘not late’). The definition may take a minute to grasp, particularly since the relevant type of pool now tends only to feature in TV dramas set in the 1950s and 1960s (I’m thinking Endeavour, Grantchester and the like).

(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 2,766 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

First of all, it’s a ‘woo-hoo!’ and a big 👍 to the Tortoise for the announcement that “As of 6 July 2025, solvers will be able to submit their completed grids for all Azed competitions online at www.observer.co.uk/crossword. Paperless entry is encouraged; postal entries will still be accepted.” It remains to be seen how that’s going to work for the monthly comps, but it’s real progress.

This puzzle was the hardest ‘plain’ that’s been served up for quite a while. Nothing unfair, but some cunning wordplays that needed to be carefully teased out. I was hard pressed to select just sixteen clues for comment; if there are any others that you’d like me to cover, just let me know. Note that the enumeration ‘(9, 2 words)’ for 15d in the PDF is correct, but the ‘(9)’ in the interactive version is not.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look back at a clue from 2,764, “Dye incorporated in blue ribbon?” for TINCT. The wordplay has INC (‘incorporated’) contained by TT, the ‘blue ribbon’ relating to the badge of the North American temperance movement of the 19th century; there was speculation elsewhere that it might have something to do with the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, but a look at Azed’s comment on his clue for STORIETTE in the slip for Azed 2,642 should put that one to bed. The question, though, is how many solvers entered TINCT as their answer without being sure where the TT came from? It has been said many times, many ways, that the job of the setter is to do battle with the solver and lose gracefully; this means the solver having – eventually, and perhaps accompanied by a groan or two – having decoded all the clues to their own satisfaction. This must happen based only on what is in the clue, since there is no further communication between setter and solver. A brilliant reference in a clue is only brilliant if the great majority of solvers (with help from printed or online references if need be) are likely to understand it. Sometimes ‘clever’ can be ‘too clever’, particularly when it comes to wordplay elements – there is a lot more leeway with tricky definitions, because the focus for the solver is clearer. I once wrote a clue, “What you find in midst of gaggle and skein (5)”, for GEESE [GEES (in the middle of ‘gaggle’) + E (in the middle of ‘skein’), &lit]. I was awfully pleased with it, and the editor was impressed, but when the puzzle was published a number of solvers suggested that a non-cryptic clue had been included in error. In a clue writing competition, you can explain to the judge(s) why your clue is a thing of wonder, but when writing clues for puzzles, ask yourself, “Is the solver going to feel that they have vanquished a tough and worthy opponent, or that they aren’t sure whether it’s all over.”

Across

5a Old poet a monarch’s left enthralling us, held back as before (7)
The surname of an ‘old poet’ (known as Ed to cruciverbalists as well, no doubt, as to his chums Bill Shakespeare and Chris Marlowe), missing the cipher of Queen Elizabeth II (“a monarch’s left”), contains (‘enthralling’) the letters US (from the clue). The ‘as before’ in the definition tells us that the answer is no longer in use; with the sense of ‘held back’ or ‘restrained’ it seems to have appeared only once, in Johnny Milton’s Paradise Lost:

And the great Light of Day yet wants to run
Much of his Race though steep, ??????? in Heav’n
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice he heares, [ 100 ]And longer will delay to heare thee tell
His Generation, and the rising Birth
Of Nature from the unapparent Deep

10a Jewish foster-mother, married, with rations allowed (9)
A charade of the usual abbreviation for ‘married’, a 5-letter French word for ‘rations’ or “a day’s march”, and a familiar word meaning ‘allowed’. The answer sounds vaguely as though it might describe one of those information sheets that come with a pack of prescription tablets, designed to convince you that the disease is less dangerous than the cure, thus saving money for the NHS.

12a He’s expelled from chorus in a paddy (5)
‘Chorus’ here has the sense of ‘a composition sung by a chorus’, a 7-letter word for such a song in a Greek play being deprived of the consecutive letters HE (“He’s expelled from…”). Since the letters HE are at the end of the word, one might question whether they can be ‘expelled’, but I think that would be nit-picking, which should be left to…

13a Dainty to free of infestation, one might suppose? (6)
…a whimsical (‘one might suppose?’) term where a real 7-letter word that suggests the removal of a singular parasitic insect becomes a 6-letter word that suggests their elimination en masse. The answer is shown by Chambers as ‘obsolete’, although this isn’t indicated in the clue.

16a Wharf detail, might one suppose (4)
The companion piece to 13a (even down to the ‘one might suppose’ / ‘might one suppose?’), the whimsical verb here being not the answer, but the ‘detail’. I suspect that we have all at some point come across ‘detailed’ in a cryptic as a somewhat whimsical indication that the last letter of a word should be deleted, often without so much a question mark.

17a Milt’s almost all found alongside Nile, working (6)
The wordplay is straightforward, the word ALL without its last letter (‘almost all’) following (‘found alongside’) an anagram (‘working’) of NILE. You may not, though, be familiar with the original meaning of the word ‘milt’, the key to a definition which raises the perennial question, “Is x’s the same as of x, for example is “spring’s” valid for VERNAL?” Personally, I think that it’s ok.

18a T-topper isn’t curved round peak? I do regret it! (11, 3 words, apostrophe)
The letter T (from the clue) and a 3-letter word for something exemplified by a ‘topper’ (there were plenty on view at Ascot last week) are followed an anagram (‘curved’) of ISNT around a 3-letter word for a peak or rocky height (an old favourite of setters). I do feel that the definition could have been improved on. Chambers has it as an ‘expression of annoyance’, but in practice it’s more likely to be used as a slightly jokey way of venting mild irritation at a circumstance outside one’s control which has derailed one’s plans. I don’t believe that it carries any sense of regret. Something like “That’s us scuppered” would be on the right lines.

20a Scoundrel pitched tent around river, causing scraping of tissue (11)
A 3-letter scoundrel often seen lurking in cryptic clues precedes an anagram (‘pitched’) of TENT,  put around the name of one of the fastest-flowing rivers in Europe (so I understand), rising in Mid Wales and proceeding (apace) into England, joining the Severn to the south of Worcester.

28a Post-mortem payments in Scots law, tons not left in records (6)
A 6-letter word for ‘records’ in the archive sense contains the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘tons’, replacing the one for ‘left’ (‘tons not left’).

32a Competed in equestrianism, just 50% boredom (7)
A 4-letter word for ‘just’ or ‘fair’ is followed by a 6-letter word for ‘boredom’ from which the second half has been omitted (ie ‘50% boredom’).

Down

3d Running over beaches causes obese such wrack! (6)
A composite anagram, where the letters of OVER BEACHES can be rearranged (‘running’) to produce (’causes’) OBESE plus the solution (‘such wrack’).

5d Confined to port once, maybe, rages with date spoiled about year (11)
A 6-letter word meaning ‘rages’ and an anagram (‘spoiled’) of DATE are put around (‘about’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘year’, the result being hyphenated, 5-6. Despite the ‘once’ in the definition, Chambers doesn’t actually give the term as being obsolete or even archaic, though I don’t recall hearing it on the BBC travel news recently. It seems to belong to regions which experience severe winters, such as Canada and Scotland, and would typically be used in relation to, say, heavy snow, but the Chambers definition is compatible with a broader interpretation.

6d Fatty bacon doesn’t go off when turned over with centre removed (4)
A 5-letter word meaning “doesn’t go off” (or, at least, ‘remains fresh’, which isn’t quite the same thing, but is close enough) is reversed (‘turned over’) and loses its middle letter (‘with centre removed’).

8d Typical of Charles, trusty when outsiders are absent (5)
A 7-letter word meaning ‘trusty’, like the company vehicle of Trotters Independent Traders, is shorn of its first and last letters (‘when outsiders are absent’); the Charles is specifically Charles Lamb.

25d First in rank demoted somewhat, an unpleasant Scot (5)
The first letter of a common word for ‘rank’ or ‘class’ is moved downwards (‘demoted somewhat’).

27d Drunk not accepting a disgrace (4)
A 5-letter word for a drunkard (or a verb meaning ‘to swell or puff out’) is deprived of the letter A (‘not accepting a’). The answer could be a noun or a verb, although it is the verb which Chambers explicitly shows as being synonymous with ‘disgrace’.

(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 2,765 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

I got the feeling that Azed had enjoyed setting this one, with very few of the clues seeming unnecessarily laboured. Although there were no particularly chewy ones, there were enough crafty wordplays to elevate it to the middle of the difficulty range.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at 28d, “Druggie turning up to begin again? Not me (4)”. When a piece of text is subjected to two cryptic manipulations, there are times when the sequence of operations is important. This clue combines the deletion of the consecutive letters ME (‘Not me’) from a 6-letter word meaning ‘to begin again’ with reversal (‘turning up’). When the removal of a single letter is combined with a reversal, the order of events is immaterial (the result will be the same), but when a non-palindromic sequence is to be deleted, the sequence is key. That doesn’t mean to say that the solver must be unambiguously told in which order to carry out the manipulations, but they must not be explicitly directed to carry them out in the wrong order. In the clue as written here, it is perfectly reasonable to expect the ME to be removed prior to reversal. If it were written as “Druggie to begin again, turning up without me”, the removal of ME can still take place first. But in the clue “Druggie to begin again, turning up and ignoring me”, the reversal must surely happen first – this means that the letters ME have now become EM, and the wordplay no longer works. By ‘evaluating’ the cryptic version of a clue one step at a time, you will be able to spot problems of this sort – a minor rewording will typically sort them out.

Across

7a Seats arranged back to front in marshy spot (4)
A four-letter informal word for ‘seats’ (as in ‘take a ???’) has the last letter moved to the beginning (‘arranged [with] back to front’), the result being a term for a place in a field where water oozes up (yuk!); the answer is shown by Chambers as ‘dialect’, although Azed has chosen not to indicate this.

11a Dismay to cut from contract (5)
The consecutive letters TO (from the clue) are removed (‘cut’) from a 7-letter word for a contract or monopoly, an import from the Italian language.

16a Former grasp, in that case with shifting of time (4)
A familiar 4-letter word meaning ‘in that case’ has the usual abbreviation for ‘time’ moved within it (‘with shifting of time’).

17a Knight to applaud governor installed (9)
One of those clues where a comma is missing in the cryptic reading, here between ‘applaud’ and ‘governor’. A 5-letter word meaning ‘to applaud’ has the Turkish word for the civil governor of a vilayet inserted (‘installed’).

20a E.g. spoon set (4)
A double definition clue, a couple of other examples to go with ‘spoon’ being ‘mashie’ and ‘baffie’ (aka a baffing spoon, very useful when taking a baff).

23a Achievement indicated by poetry by the sound of it? (4)
A homophone (‘by the sound of it’) for the things that lines of poetry are divided into.

32a Late-flowering rot excised in net (5)
Here again a comma (or equivalent) would be nice between the first two words in the clue, because an 8-letter word meaning ‘late-flowering’ must be deprived of the consecutive letters ROT (‘rot excised’).

33a Sink to invigorate runs away (4)
A 5-letter word meaning ‘to invigorate’ or ‘to begin again’ has the usual cricketing abbreviation for ‘runs’ omitted (‘runs away’, with a preceding comma to be inferred). The answer is classified by Chambers as ‘falconry’, but frankly it’s as old as the hills, and then some. In the intransitive form it refers to a water bird plunging beneath the surface to escape the attentions of a hawk – whether ‘sink’ quite reflects the nature of this action I cannot say because I have never observed such a thing, but in Song 20 of his remarkable topographical poem sequence Poly-Olbion (1612, 1622), Michael Drayton wrote:

The fierce and eager hawks, down thrilling from the skies,
Make sundry canceleers e’er they the fowl can reach,
Which then to save their lives, their wings do lively stretch.
But when the whizzing bells the silent air do cleave,
And that their greatest speed, them vainly do deceive,
And the sharp cruel hawks, they at their backs do view,
Themselves for very fear they instantly ??????.

Down

4d Full ramble by the sound of it (4)
A homophone (‘by the sound of it’ again, as in 23a) of a familiar word for a ramble. I always feel that clues like this are devalued slightly when, as here, an alternative spelling of the ‘soundalike’ is identical to the indicated word – this means that the clue could equally well have been written as a double definition, eg ‘Full pace’.

8d Lassie’s to make trial of grip as I wrestled with late pregnancy condition (12)
A 4-letter Scots (implied by “Lassie’s”) word for ‘to make a trial of’ (especially by tasting or kissing, apparently) is followed by a 5-letter word meaning ‘[to] grip’ and an anagram (‘wrestled with’) of AS I.

9d First of brood prevailed with no outsiders (5)
A 7-letter word meaning ‘prevailed’ (often followed by ‘supreme’) is shorn of its first and last letters (‘with no outsiders’).

14d Very old woman on board sled’s awfully bold (9)
Azed chooses to indicate the obsolete sense, ‘old woman’, of a familiar word for a particular relative by turning ‘old old woman’ somewhat whimsically into ‘very old woman’. This 4-letter word is contained by (‘on board’) an anagram (‘awfully’) of SLEDS.

15d Too much booze, not good, as part of hop (4)
The 5-letter noun for a drinking spree – or conceivably the verb meaning ”[to] booze excessively’ – has the usual abbreviation for ‘good’ omitted (‘not good’).

24d Mature love in Paris, about the first thereof (5)
The French word for what Edith Piaf regretted contains (‘about’) the first letter of ‘Paris’ (‘the first thereof’). I can see that ‘love in Paris’ could be ‘amour’, a direct translation; in the context of tennis scoring, it could also be ‘zéro’. For the word required here, though, we have to turn ‘love’ into ‘nothing’, and then translate it into French. Is that reasonable? Peut-être.

27d Local flat, more than 50% financial support raised (4)
The first four letters (more than 50%) of a 7-letter word for financial support given to those in need is reversed (‘raised’).

29d See duck escape through hedge, giving us the slip (4)
A 6-letter dialect form of a term for a way of escape through a hedge (typically used by hares) sheds the consecutive letters US (‘giving us the slip’). I’m not keen on that isolated ‘See’ at the beginning of the clue, particularly given its similarity to the answer. I would have preferred something like “Duck means to escape through hedge, giving us the slip”.

(definitions are underlined)