The Monthly Digest

In the absence – again – of the puzzle on the Guardian website, I have uploaded a copy of the scan to the Clue Clinic.

The notes on the puzzle will be available later. I will remove this post from the front page when the puzzle eventually appears on the Guardian site.

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 2,746 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

The puzzle was late to arrive in a solvable form (ie with clues*) on the Guardian site, but thankfully the Guardian digital subscription does now give access to the version in the newspaper, so I was able to print it, scan it, upload it to this site, and tackle it over my Toastie and marmalade. From my perspective, it seemed very similar in terms of difficulty to its immediate predecessors – nothing really tough, but plenty of obscurities and tricky wordplays. It was something of a collector’s item in that it contained no hiddens of any kind! Some entertaining clues, including a couple that struck me as being not entirely accurate, and a few repetitions.

*Unsolvable unless you possess an apposite solving style. In a letter to the Guardian, Michael Feast wrote: “Many years ago I played Ariel in the Tempest at the Old Vic with John Gielgud playing Prospero. Every day in the rehearsal room during tea breaks and idle moments Sir John would sit quietly doing the Times crossword. Sometimes he would complete it and put it aside within 20 minutes or so. Everyone was terribly impressed. The Times crossword was, in those days, the toughest nut in the bowl. One afternoon after this had been going on for some weeks, one of the cast idly picked up the great man’s paper – he had finished for the day and had gone off to the Garrick Club or somewhere to meet Sir Ralph or someone. Suddenly the actor who had been looking at the paper gasped and showed us the crossword. It was indeed all filled in, but apart from one or two correct answers the rest were just words that happened to fit the spaces and had no bearing on the clues. Needless to say none of us confronted Sir John with the discovery and he continued to complete the Time crossword every day with consummate ease.”

Clue Writers’ Corner: This month’s clue word raises an interesting point. There are two Chambers entries (with completely different etymologies) which share the spelling here, and there is no issue with choosing either as the answer to your clue. However, the second of them is shown by Chambers as ‘obsolete’, and Azed’s view on the use of such words is very clear. In the slip for competition 735 (MALIGN), he wrote:

“Anyone choosing one of the obsolete senses of the verb without indicating this I marked down; at this level of competition such an omission cannot be overlooked”

There are in essence two ways that obsolete words (or obsolete meanings of words) can be indicated: the first involves suitably qualifying the definition. So for the obsolete word PEISE, meaning a weight, one could use definitions such as ‘old weight’, ‘weight once’, ‘former weight’, ‘neglected weight’ or ‘weight no longer’. Anything that suggests that the word is no longer in use is likely to be acceptable, and regulars will no doubt have seen plenty of possibilities in Azed’s own clues,  6d and 22d in this puzzle offering examples.

The alternative is to indicate the obsoleteness contextually. A good example of contextual qualification can be found in 25d, where the Scottishness of the answer is not explicitly indicated but is strongly suggested by the use of the word ‘claymore’ in preference to, say, ‘sword’. With PEISE, one might choose a definition like ‘what apothecary used?’. I think that as long as Azed sees that you’ve recognized that the word is obsolete by making some attempt to indicate the fact there will be no problem.

Should you choose the first Chambers headword, defined by Azed as ‘elders’, it will, of course, require no such qualification.

Across

6a Strong wine for judgement days (5)
The four-letter (sparkling) wine which follows the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘strong’ or ‘loud’ was once ubiquitous, both in the real world and the cryptic one, but has I suspect yielded to prosecco in one domain and fallen out of favour in the other.

11a Cellar enveloped by peculiar notes? It stinks when scoured (10)
The ‘cellar’ leads to a five-letter plural describing the things that might have been ‘laid down’ there, this word being contained (‘enveloped’) by an anagram (‘peculiar’) of NOTES. The answer is an early name for anthraconite, a variety of limestone containing bituminous matter, which emits a fetid odour when struck or rubbed. Tommy Cooper (raising right arm above head): “Doctor, it hurts when I do this”. Doctor: “Well don’t do it then.”

12a Actor not required, passive, in being left out (4)
A six-letter word meaning ‘passive’ has the consecutive letters IN omitted (‘being left out’).

13a Jock’s workload second after returning degree (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘second’ follows a reversal (‘returning’) of a four-letter word for, well, someone with a degree, but not, according to Chambers, the degree itself. The OED does give the four-letter word as meaning ‘one-hundredth part of a right-angle in the centesimal system of measuring angles, also called a ????e or degree’, but it’s not in Chambers, and I wonder if Azed has simply omitted a truncation indicator.

14a Conjuror’s offering at children’s party? A minor bit of drivel!
I suppose that the conjuror might offer a scaled-down illusion for the younger audience, the wordplay leading directly to an eight-letter whimsical term for something a little sleighter of hand. The ‘drivel’ in the definition is slaver rather than nonsense.

15a Line of verse son’s left, little ‘un (4)
A five-letter word for a line of verse has the usual abbreviation for ‘son’ removed (“son’s left”) to produce the solution, a word which owes its existence  to the stage name of the diminutive music-hall comedian Harry Relph (1868–1928). He was given the nickname as a child because of a resemblance to Arthur Orton (1834–98), known as the ????borne claimant, who claimed in 1866 to be the heir to an English baronetcy who had been lost at sea.

16a Ozzie batting, rest tumbled out (6)
One for regular correspondent from ‘down under’, Jim, where we have a two-letter word from the world of cricket (something we don’t talk about at the moment) with an anagram (‘tumbled’) of REST outside (‘out’).

23a Food containing nasty smell posed threats to many serving (6)
A four-letter colloquial term for food contains a two-letter abbreviation for a particular sort of nasty smell. The term was first coined in 1919 by a company that made a deodorant for women called Odo-Ro-No, but Lifebuoy subsequently popularized it. Their radio advertisement used a foghorn followed by a sound created using a Sonovox to represent the two letters. The definition of the 1-5 answer here is one of those ‘missing subject’ ones where you have to assume a pronoun, in this instance ‘they’, so that the definition becomes ‘they posed threats to many serving’. I’m not keen myself, but Azed has said in the past that he is fine with “barks and is man’s best friend” for DOG.

29a Canon’s maybe Roman Catholic? This man Chico in disguise (5)
A composite anagram of a slightly unwieldy kind, where the letters of ROMAN CATHOLIC are a potential rearrangement (‘in disguise’) of the answer (‘this’) plus MAN CHICO. The definition here is akin to using “ear’s” to define OTIC.

30a Scottish set move to the right and left (4)
A three-letter word meaning ‘to move to the right’ is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘left’. The ‘move’ word has two alternative spellings, both of which would fit, but the Scots word for ‘[to] set’ can only be spelt in one of the resulting ways.

32a Lower grade delivered, one from the middle coming last (5)
A five-letter word meaning ‘delivered’, in the way that a blow or a playing card might be, has the single-letter word meaning ‘one’ in its centre (‘one from the middle’) moved to the end (‘coming last’).

Down

2d Starts to hearten one usually rather introverted? She may
Probably the easiest clue in the puzzle, the answer being made up of the first letters (‘starts’) of five consecutive words. But surely what the lady in question may do is ‘start to hearten’ the shy people rather than ‘starts to hearten’ them?

3d When to choose a cobra for a poet? (6)
A charade of a two-letter word meaning ‘when’ and a four-letter one for ‘to choose’ producing a chiefly poetic term for various types of venomous snake.

4d Army following whim – it’s followed by whoops (8)
A four-letter word for an army or a great multitude follows a four-letter word for the sort of whim that might have described Ray Davies or any of his bandmates.

5d Examination of data: one country’s is short of it (8)
A (2,5’1, 2) phrase meaning “one country’s is” has the consecutive letters IT removed (‘short of it’) from the name of the country.

7d Nicked Scotch right out of middle of trifle (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘right’ is omitted from (‘out of’) the middle of a five-letter word for a trifle of the sort that might be clutched at.

8d Oarsman beside river has a short swim turning up (6)
A two-letter word meaning ‘beside’ is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘river’ and a reversal (‘turning up’) of a word for a short swim. The resulting word, which describes an eight-oar boat at Oxford University, can also be applied to the crew, but not, I believe, to an individual member thereof; the definition needs to be ‘oarsmen’. The word can be used in the singular with reference to a person, but only a boy who has been at Harrow School for less than two years.

9d Shakespearean sapper, by and large one left out (7)
A (2,7) phrase meaning ‘by and large’ has a single-letter word for ‘one’ and the usual abbreviation for ‘left’ deleted (‘out’).

18d Dark brown, or dark blue, for being replaced in black WC (7)
The six-letter university city which gives its name to a dark shade of blue has the consecutive letters FOR replaced with the single-letter abbreviation for ‘black’ and a three-letter word for a WC. Is ‘replaced in’ the same as ‘replaced with’? I’m not convinced.

22d Antique overlay of excellent quality covering royal monogram? (6)
A four-letter word meaning ‘of excellent quality’ is followed by the cipher of Queen Elizabeth.

25d What claymore may give guy, ay cut before death (5)
A four-letter word for the sort of guy that might hold a tent in position is deprived of the consecutive letters AY (‘ay cut’) and followed by a three-letter word for ‘death’. The presence of the ‘claymore’ indicates that the answer is Scottish.

28d Chump from south I don’t understand as before (4)
It’ s an ‘obsolete or dialect’ word which must be reversed (‘from the south’) to produce the chump, but without a comma following ‘south’ it really should be the other way round. The answer might put you in mind of the Darling siblings’ somewhat unusual nanny, while the “I don’t understand” word immediately made me (if no-one else!) think of the Russian (male) giant panda who in the 1960s was introduced to London Zoo’s Chi Chi, object matrimony. Sadly, it didn’t work out for them, with Chi Chi preferring bamboo shoots to her Soviet suitor.

(definitions are underlined)

In the absence of the puzzle on the Guardian website, I have uploaded a copy of the scan to the Clue Clinic.

The notes on the puzzle will be available later. I will remove this post from the front page when the puzzle eventually appears on the Guardian site.

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 2,745 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Another puzzle which I felt pushed the difficulty meter through the orange and towards the red. A high proportion of relatively obscure words and some oblique definitions seemed to more than counterbalance the ‘gimmes’. There were some nice clues in there and, apart from the repetition of ‘page’ in 1a/17d and ‘mostly’ in 29a/22d, very little with which to take issue.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 31a, “One lives an austere life, being without a modicum of comfort (6)”. The wordplay here has a seven-letter word for ‘being’ or ‘distinctive nature’ losing (‘without’) the first letter of ‘comfort’, but the point of interest is the use of ‘modicum of comfort’ to indicate C. Setters use a variety of words and phrases to direct the solver to select the first letter of a word. Some of these, such as ‘start’, ‘leader’ and ‘opening’ (aka the ‘initials’) clearly refer to the first letter of the word. There is another group, which could be termed ‘the fragments’, which comprises phrases such as ‘a bit of’, ‘minimum of’ and ‘piece of’. These are often seen in cryptics as first letter selection indicators, but you could reasonably ask yourself why it should be the first letter that is to be extracted – why should ‘modicum of comfort’ not be O, M, F, R or T? I can’t answer that question, which is why I tend to avoid those indicators in my own puzzles, although I think it’s fair to say that when solvers see ‘a bit of cake’ in a clue they will immediately think ‘C’, so it’s hardly unfair. I am more kindly disposed to  the ‘glimpses’, such as ‘a hint of’ or ‘a suggestion of’, as they seem to evoke the start of something that is far from complete.

Across

7a After dinner, last of meal consumed ran (4)
A three-letter word that might describe a diner in their postprandial state has the last letter of ‘meal’ inserted (ie ‘last of meal consumed’). I can’t help feeling there’s a comma missing after ‘consumed’ – it isn’t needed by the cryptic reading, but it would surely improve the surface.

10a Bore, weak without money as introduction (5)
A six-letter word for ‘weak’ or ‘scanty’ is deprived of (‘without’) the usual abbreviation for ‘money’ at the start (‘as introduction’) . The ‘bore’ is the sort that I associate with the River Severn.

11a Pet has almost run in for a scratch? (6)
A four-letter informal word for a particular breed of dog (the most famous representative of which is surely the benefactor of ‘Uncle Herriot’ in All Creatures Great and Small, played in the Channel 5 series by Derek until his recent retirement, which has seen him replaced by Dora) contains the word RUN (from the clue) without its last letter (‘almost’). The definition requires the question mark, because a ‘scratch’ (see Chambers) is just one example of the answer.

13a Man leaving comfortable seat – it’s fragrant (4)
The consecutive letters MAN are omitted from (‘leaving’) a seven-letter ‘cushioned seat for several people’.

19a Crane maybe required to construct Greenwich abode (7)
A straightforward ‘hidden’, the reference in the definition being either to the main character in Washington Irving’s short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or an American military officer (after whom the character is almost certainly named, since Irving and Crane met in 1814). I’m sure he would have remembered the name – I first came across it in A Funny Thing Happened by Anthony Buckeridge (the squire of Little Moulting being Sir ??????? Moulting), and I have never forgotten it! The biblical figure is given the name (in 1 Samuel) because, according to his mother  ‘the glory has departed’ from Israel, because of the loss of the Ark to the Philistines, although it seems rather unnecessary to saddle one’s offspring with such a moniker. Thankfully, events such as Andy Murray’s retirement don’t seem to have prompted widespread repetition.

21a Resinous stuff? Vehicle its association filled with one (7)
A three-letter vehicle is followed by the two letter abbreviation for an association to which its owner might belong, containing a two-letter dialectal form of the word ‘one’, which is often seen preceded by adjectives such as ‘good’ or ‘big’.

27a Prepare to get hitched? Liz accepting tease (7)
This clue raises a subtle (some might say ‘pedantic’) question – someone whose name is Margaret could certainly be called Maggie, but would someone known as Mags also be called Peggy? I suppose they might… Anyway, a four-letter diminutive of ‘Elizabeth’ contains (‘accepting’) a verb meaning ‘[to] tease’ (or ‘[to] cause to decay’).

29a Cattle food not applicable for feeding to dog mostly (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘not applicable’ is contained by (‘for feeding to’) a five-letter informal term for a dog (typically one of dubious pedigree), from which the last letter has been dropped (‘mostly’).

33a Fungus like a sort of lozenge, not red (4)
One of those clues where – unless you are the Bluemantle Pursuivant or one of his College of Arms confederates – you are (like me) almost certain to have worked back from the solution (a fungus affecting plants) to the wordplay, which has a seven-letter word meaning ‘furnished with a charge having the form of a lozenge, with a round hole in the middle through which the field appears’ being stripped of the consecutive letters RED (‘not red’).

Down

5d What’s used in polish, unadulterated but with elements switched (7)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘unadulterated’ or ‘genuine’ has its first three letters exchanged with its last four (ie ‘with elements switched’).

7d Façade, fine blend of three? (7)
When setters refer to other answers in the grid, they generally use numerals to do so, but here Azed has somewhat sneakily chosen to give us the word ‘three’. The usual abbreviation for ‘fine’ must therefore be followed by an anagram (‘blend’) of the answer to 3d.

9d Like Carthage, according to old orator, consequence coming in endless deferral (7)
A three-letter word for a consequence is contained by (‘coming in’) a word for a deferral or pause lacking its last letter (‘endless’). Cato the Elder is said to have concluded each of a series of speeches with words along the lines of ‘Carthago ??????? est’, in other words just giving Carthage a bit of a going over wasn’t going to be enough – it had to be wiped from the face of the earth.

12d Ancient statue, with animals – it creates a buzz (5)
A term from ancient Egypt, not only for the spirit of a person which survived after death but also a statue in which it could reside, is followed by a word for a place where animals are kept (Gerald Durrell had such a thing in his luggage, according to the title of one of his books, which suggests that things were a bit lax at Heathrow in those days).

18d Boater maybe going round a fen, rippling – it can be full during ebb-tide (7)
A three-letter word for the sort of thing exemplified by a boater (of the straw variety) contains (‘going round’) an anagram (‘rippling’) of A FEN.

20d Garrison to house senior service, English (7)
The wordplay is a charade of a four-letter word meaning ‘to enclose in a container’, the two-letter abbreviation for the ‘senior service’, and the usual abbreviation for ‘English’.

22d The old king’s mostly laid up in postprandial periods in Perth (5)
A six-letter ‘archaic and poetic’ (‘old’) form of a familiar nine-letter word for a monarch missing its last letter (‘mostly’) is reversed (‘laid up’). The ‘in Perth’ could tell us either that the answer is Scottish or Australian; in this instance, it is the latter.

24d Paul’s correspondents out of gas, found in area round Rome? (6)
The ninth book of the New Testament is an epistle written by Paul the Apostle to a group of people identified by a nine-letter term, although exactly where they hung out seems to be open to scholarly debate (which rules out any contribution from myself). This term has the letters GAS removed from the outside (ie it is ‘out of gas’) to provide the answer.

26d One managing bovine stud (4)
Three definitions for the price of two, the relevant senses in Chambers coming under the first, third and second headwords, in that order.

28d No longer conceal nameless beauty (4)
The five-letter name of a famous beauty is shorn of the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘number’, producing a Spenserian (‘no longer’) word meaning ‘[to] conceal’. That the lady should be famed for lasting beauty is extraordinary, given that her face was involved in launching a large number of ships prior to the invention of champagne bottles.

(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 2,744 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

The needle on the difficulty meter certainly reached the mid-point of the range; part way through the solve I thought it was going to go significantly higher, but in the final analysis there seemed to be several tricky clues but nothing exceptionally difficult. In those clues where the wordplay included an obscure word, the solution didn’t, and vice versa. Generally an entertaining solve, with just a couple of minor issues.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 25a, “Theatrical entertainment? Take a tipple before one (5)”. A four-letter word for a tipple is followed by a single-letter word for ‘one’, but the point of interest is the definition. In this clue – and in those at 36a, 24d, 27d  and 30d – Azed has used a device which which he frequently calls on, splitting the clue into two sentences, with one sentence constituting the definition and the other the wordplay. The first of these ends with a question mark, thus establishing a connection between the two without requiring any further integration in the surface reading. This can come in handy when alternative single-sentence phrasings don’t work well, or where you want to reverse the order of definition and wordplay – Azed could have worded this clue as “Take a tipple before one theatrical entertainment”, but the ‘one’ then doesn’t make much sense; the best option, surface-wise, would be “Take a tipple before a theatrical entertainment”, but the ‘a’ in the clue is the same as the A in the answer. It’s a useful tool to have in one’s armoury, but I would suggest reserving it for special occasions.

Across

1a Put out about underwear once split from below? (7)
An anagram (‘out’) of PUT contains (‘about’) a four-letter plural describing items of underwear sometimes obliquely indicated by ‘supporters’, and on occasion by Azed as ‘at least four cups’.

13a Carriage, one strong wind overturned (5)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ and the name of a strong north-east wind in the upper Adriatic (etymologically linked to the Greek god of the north wind) are reversed (‘returned’) to produce one of three possible spellings for the Asian wheeled carriage.

17a Damn Highlander plotted cunningly? (8)
A three-letter euphemistic (and decidedly dated) substitute for ‘damn’ is followed by the word for a long piece of tartan cloth applied, by association, to a person who would have worn it. The answer is hyphenated, 4-4.

18a Dead-head around entry to cottage, neat (6)
You could well find yourself working back from the answer (a familiar word) to the five-letter element of the wordplay which surrounds (‘around’) the first letter of (‘entry to’) ‘cottage’, although if you start by looking up ‘dead-head’ in Chambers all will quickly be revealed.

19a Vocalize from bottom, cutting up (5)
As with 18a, you are much more likely to know the word which forms the answer than the obsolete seven-letter word for the derrière which must be deprived of (‘cutting’) the consecutive letters UP – it sounds rather like something that you might use to get money off at the supermarket.

28a Carp, English, no good in water (6)
The usual abbreviations for ‘English’ and ‘no good’ are contained by a three-letter word for the sort of water which is likely to be made or passed but, unless you’re Bear Grylls, not drunk. The answer is a nicely expressive Scots word.

29a Small distorted crystal struck in a jiffy (8)
A three-letter word meaning ‘struck’ is contained by a five-letter word for a ‘jiffy’.

36a Set with stones? Almost half disappear from the back (4)
The first four letters of a nine-letter word meaning ‘disappear’ (ie ‘almost half disappear’) are reversed (‘from the back’). I had assumed that Azed’s definition was based on a word taken directly from the French language, where it has the necessary meaning; in English it can only be a noun, which would make the definition faulty. However, as correspondent Matthew points out, there is a familiar verb with the same spelling which could, on a good day, satisfy the definition here, particularly given the question mark.

37a Wary regarding most people turning weird inside (7, 2 words)
A reversal (‘turning’) of a four-letter word for ‘people’ missing its last letter (‘most’)  contains a four-letter word meaning ‘weird’ or ‘creepy’ (‘weird inside’). For the wordplay to work, there really should be a comma (or a ‘with’) after ‘turning’.

Down

2d Zealot does without brown bread, fried (4)
A seven-letter zealot is relieved of (‘does without’) a three-letter word for ‘brown’.

3d Wild bush, old, live, about erect (6)
A two-letter word for ‘live’ contains (‘about’) a verb meaning ‘[to] erect’ or, more commonly, ‘bring up’.

8d Fix with lashes following criminal charge (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘following’ precedes a slang word for a criminal charge, of the sort that a miscreant might ‘take’.

10d Philanthrope keeps this anteater in hut (5)
An eight-letter word for a philanthrope constitutes the solution contained by the letters HUT.

11d Rarely favoured Communist dividing fortune before court (9)
The three-letter word which usually answers to ‘Communist’ in a cryptic puzzle is contained by a slang term for a fortune, paradoxically more desirable in the singular than the plural, the combination being followed by the standard abbreviation for ‘court’.

14d Large bowl to spoil pet Spooner-wise? (9, 2 words)
Other than in his ‘Spoonerisms’ specials, Azed rarely has recourse to the device (also known as a marrowsky, although the 18th century Polish count is rather overshadowed cruciverbally by his 19th century Oxonian pountercart). Here a six-letter word meaning ‘to spoil’ and a three-letter word for a young pet have their initial sounds swapped over to yield a (6,3) solution.

22d American bluish cloth – it’s uniquely excellent (6)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘American’ is followed by a word for a dark blue or bluish-grey cloth. The solution is hyphenated, 1-3-2.

27d Gadget? Force opening for one (5)
A four-letter ‘informal, chiefly US’ word for ‘energy’ or ‘force’, often spelt with a ‘j’ at the start, combines with the first letter of (‘opening for’) ‘one’.

31d Jumbled mess cheap paper abandoned – it’s a betting game (4)
A seven-letter word for a jumbled mass has a term either jocularly or derogatorily applied to a newspaper removed. The solution is a gambling game involving cards and a bank, the name deriving from the French word for an ancient Egyptian king, subsequently shortened. Popular in France – and, for a while, England – in the 18th century, the game spread to America in the early 1800s. The ‘edge’ for the bank was very small, the result being that games were almost invariably rigged; editions of Hoyle’s Rules of Games began their section on the game with a disclaimer, warning readers that an honest bank could not be found in the United States. Playing the game became known as “bucking the tiger” or “twisting the tiger’s tail”, apparently from early card backs that featured a drawing of a Bengal tiger. Places that boasted several gambling halls were often called ‘tiger town’ or ‘tiger alley’. The game’s popularity faded during the first half of the 20th century, largely because of those small margins for the house in a fair game, and by the 1950s it was virtually extinct.

(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 2,743 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

I felt that this one was comfortably above the mean difficulty level. Yes, there were a few easy ones (as always), but there were also plenty of obscure solutions, and some tricky wordplays. There were several clues that I marked as worthy of comment but which fell victim to the ‘whittling down’ process – if there are any other clues that you would like me to comment on, just let me know.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 24a, “Collects earth in county briefly (5)”, and 30a, “Lowland stream returns alongside lake (6)”. In the first of these, the usual abbreviation for ‘earth’ is put inside the abbreviated name of an English county, while in the second, an Indian word for a watercourse is reversed after the usual abbreviation for ‘lake’; the point of interest, though, is the definitions. In one of Victor Mollo’s splendid bridge books, the unfortunate player known as Papa is described as being so determined to false-card that he would do it even with a singleton. That level of skill may be beyond all but the most resourceful of crossword setters, but we can still aspire to misdirect solvers wherever we inhumanly can. When I look at an answer to be clued, my first thought is “How can I define this fairly but deviously?”, and I suspect that this owes a great deal to Azed. He is a master of the sly definition – there are plenty of examples in this puzzle, but 24a is a good one. Surely we are looking for a verb that means something along the lines of ‘gathers’? The surface reading clearly indicates that…but in a good clue the surface reading is there to send you down the wrong road. In fact, of course, we are looking for a plural noun. The other side of the coin is shown to stark effect in 30a, where the definition is not only ‘straight’, it is the English form of the Scots word which forms the answer, which seems not only somewhat weak but also ‘back to front’. This is a rare exception, though – Azed’s definitions in general are as good as they get.

Across

1a E. Asian business conglomerates, each crooked boor backed (8)
An anagram (‘crooked’) of EACH is followed by the reversal of a word for the sort of boor that might be associated with obesity.

11a Child about to take meal time – she may be assisting (9)
A four-letter word for a small child contains (‘about’) a four-letter word meaning ‘to take [a] meal’ and the usual abbreviation for ‘time’. The definition references the ‘wordplay part’ of the clue (my remarks in Setters’ Corner notwithstanding, you can’t always ignore the surface reading), and the result is a word that I don’t think I have ever come across before, either IRL or ICL (‘in crossword land’).

14a Material for a warm coat requiring money John put on? (6)
The ‘John’ who must be put after (‘on’) the usual abbreviation for ‘money’ is the the one who, until 7 January 1972, was Reggie Dwight from Pinner.

18a Shortened, delivering a cut with both hands possibly (6)
Technically, this could be described as an indirect anagram, since the fodder consists of A CUT together with the single-letter abbreviations for the two hands; the ‘delivering…possibly’ indicates the anagram.

20a Double kite? It’ll take some beating (6)
The wordplay involves the repetition of a word which is often indicated by ‘corporation’, but is here designated (deceptively, of course!) by a ‘Scot and N Eng’ word for the same thing.

23a Like a victim of Heracles, loveless one, malicious (6)
The word ‘one’ (from the clue) is deprived of the standard representation of ‘love’ (‘loveless’) and followed by a word meaning ‘malicious’. The reference in the definition is to a rather large feral cat with impenetrable golden fur and very sharp claws. Heracles (or Hercules, if you share the preference of the performer at 14a) managed to whack it over the head and strangle it (no RSPCA or Cats Protection in those days), and returned wearing its skin. This rather freaked King Eurystheus out, to the extent that he hid in a wine jar. Having emerged from the jar, and despite his commission having been successfully completed, he told Heracles in no uncertain terms that he was never to pull a stunt like that again; he went on to say that the feral cat was just by way of an appetizer, labour-wise, and that Heracles should expect to be given some much tougher tasks like fixing the Greek economy. 

32a Such as Priam, first among the royalty of Ilian capital (5)
It took me longer than it should have to spot that the wordplay simply required the selection of a series of initial letters, although in my defence I’m not sure that ‘first among’ is quite the same as ‘first letters of’.

33a Greeting of old one received in US mass? (5)
The wordplay has a single-letter word for ‘one’ being contained (‘received’) by an alternative spelling of an American word for a large number or amount, but the definition seems faulty, since Chambers only gives the answer as a verb. OED does give it as a noun, but an ‘obsolete rare’ one, the only example of its use being taken from c. 1430.

34a Millet ground through being coarse (9, 2 words)
An anagram (‘ground’) of MILLET is followed by a word meaning ‘through’, the result being a (3,6) expression. Sometimes setters have to be a bit creative when trying to fit a definition into the surface reading. One trick is to replace a noun describing a quality (eg ‘kindness’) with the gerund ‘being’ plus an adjective (eg ‘being kind’); this sometimes looks a bit strange in clues, but it passes the substitution test  – ‘Kindness is always appreciated’ / ‘Being kind is always appreciated’. In the surface reading, ‘being’ can function as a present participle. The Chambers definition of ‘coarse’ offers enough possibilities to make it suitable for indicating pretty much any undesirable trait of character.

35a Large number of birds die clutching old claw (8)
A four-letter word for ‘die’, now used in a somewhat euphemistic sense, contains (‘clutching’) an obsolete word for a claw which is also a poetic word meaning ‘dry and withered’.

Down

1d MO’s reinvented operation, in being divided into parts, world-forming (12)
An anagram (‘reinvented’) of MO’S and a two-letter abbreviation for ‘operation’ are contained by (‘in’) a term from biology meaning ‘divided into parts’. This is one of those times when finding a devious definition is a bridge too far.

3d Means of travel describing crack (not the first)? (7)
An eight-letter adjective which describes a certain type of crack loses its first letter (‘not the first’) to produce a means of travel.

4d Water bottle, maybe, to aim for in sale? (5)
The wordplay leads to a (3,2) phrase which relates specifically to a sale by auction.

6d It’s activated by electromagnetic waves on leaving graduate college (5)
Oxonians will have a distinct advantage here, the ‘graduate college’ being on St Cross Road in Oxford (not far from the Physics and Chemistry labs, as it happens). Anyway, its seven-letter name has that two-letter bit of commercial jargon for ‘on’ or ‘concerning’ deleted (‘on leaving’) to produce the contracted term for an apparatus which can, indeed, be electromagnetically activated, but whose purpose is to encourage atomic particles to get a wiggle on.

7d Legman, 45, taken in by conman (8)
When Cornershop sang about being ‘brimful of Asha on the 45’, it was this sort of 45 to which they were referring (although probably a standard 45rpm single rather than its ‘extended play’ counterpart). The two-letter abbreviation is contained by a  term for a conman taken from the Australian vernacular but not flagged as such by Azed.

8d Trouble, often in Glasgow, raised sign of impatience locally about rector (5)
A four-letter ‘chiefly Scots’ version of an interjection of impatience or reproof, often encountered in English literature in its three-letter form, is reversed (‘raised’) around (‘about’) the usual abbreviation for ‘rector’.

10d Be still losing head and being fidgety (12)
The wordplay is a cunning charade of three four-letter words indicated by ‘be still’, ‘losing’ and ‘head’.

21d State with cheek in America is getting detached (7)
The ‘state’ here is the only one in the US that I have spent more than a few hours in, since I travelled a few times to Charlotte, North Carolina. Its two-letter abbreviation and a three-letter slang word for ‘cheek’ (“none of your ???”) are contained by the usual two-letter representation of ‘America”. Azed expresses surprise that the answer is not given by Chambers, but it doesn’t surprise me – there are many participle adjectives beginning with ‘un-‘ which have no corresponding active form (note that the past participle given by Chambers relates to being uncut rather than unfastened, hence the absence of the active voice). Another example would be ‘unclued’, a term often seen in the preambles of themed crosswords, which has no active version – you can’t ‘unclue’ an answer; similarly, you can’t (unless you are Shakespeare) ‘unspeak’ something. Or unemail it, unless you’re quick.

22d Slab in centre of Bury portraying estate holder (7)
The five-letter slab which is to be put inside the two middle letters (‘centre’) of ‘Bury’ is also the surname of French actress Béatrice, star of Betty Blue, who has something of a reputation for courting controversy. Hard to understand why, although she did say in a TV interview that when she used to work in a morgue with her friends they sold body parts of corpses, and, while on acid, they ate a dead man’s ear…

28d Lace trimmings cad cut for suits? (5)
An eight-letter word for lace trimmings has the consecutive letters CAD removed (‘cad cut’), producing a word for ‘suits’ in the legal sense.

(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 2,742 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

This puzzle contained several very straightforward clues, but there were quite a few tricky ones as well; overall, taking into account the number of clues that I picked out as being potentially worthy of comment, I have placed it just above the middle of the difficulty range (my thanks to the correspondent who pointed out that the ‘blobs’ in the difficulty rating haven’t been displaying properly, and my apologies for not spotting it myself). I made the mistake of initially writing in the more common variant of the competition word (they are actually different words, with differing etymologies), but the resulting ‘U’ at the end of 17d made me immediately suspicious.

Clue Writers’ Corner: It is not uncommon for the word to be clued to have just one distinct (ie not separated by semicolons) definition in Chambers, perhaps comprising – as here – only a couple of single words. It is absolutely fine to use either of these in your clue; Azed will always try to give a definition straight from Chambers to avoid any ambiguity, but that is no reason not to use the same definition in your entry. That said, you should never think of the definition part of a clue as a necessary evil to support a bravura wordplay; rather, it is the definition that should come first, and on which a really good clue hinges – the number of potential wordplays for any given word is enormous, but the number of viable definitions is not. Spend plenty of time considering possible definitions, ranging from simple synonyms, perhaps with two or more meanings, ideally different parts of speech (eg ‘light’ for DELICATE), through negatives (TOUGH could be defined as ‘no piece of cake’) to comparisons (these are taken from successful entries) such as  ‘like the dormouse’ for ASLEEP (creating the context for an Alice-themed clue) and ‘like Micawber’ for UPBEAT (in a Dickensian setting). If you visit the Azed archive and pick a word of the same type as the word to be clued (an adjective, in this instance), you will see how an original definition can lead to a clue which stands out from the crowd.

Across

1a Attempt sale deviously, involving more than 50% flattery (3)
The answer comprises 60% of a slang term for flattery.

15a If once lacking vigour, put on hot old cloak (8)
The wordplay here needs the comma to appear immediately before ‘vigour’ rather than after it, since it is a nine-letter word for vigour, lacking an archaic, two-letter word meaning ‘if’, that is to be placed after (‘put on’) the usual abbreviation for ‘hot’.

16a Clergyman briefly has spoken of God as ruler (8)
A four-letter abbreviation for a clergyman having a particular role is followed by a word meaning ‘spoken’.

20a Lenten period was approaching – recipe with bit of excess limited (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘recipe’ (in a medical rather than culinary sense) and the first letter (‘bit’) of ‘excess’ are contained (‘limited’) by a four-letter word meaning ‘was approaching’.

22a Pigment causing dash of eosin in earthenware pot (6)
The first letter (‘dash’) of ‘eosin’ is put inside a five-letter earthenware pot, producing a term for ‘white lead’, a complex lead salt formerly used as an ingredient in lead paint and a cosmetic called Venetian ??????, neither of which is – perhaps unsurprisingly – now available.

25a Doorkeeper is needed in both directions with lookout man around (8)
The two letters IS running forwards and then backwards (‘in both directions’) are contained by a term used in the Cornish pilchard fishing industry to describe a person who directs seine-fishers from high ground close to the sea, an agent noun related to a word now only commonly seen in the expression ‘??? and cry’.

29a Spear from a long time back, thrust into a monkey (8)
A four letter word for ‘a long time’ (as in “I haven’t seen you in a long time”) is reversed (‘back’) and contained by (‘thrust into’) the letter A (from the clue) and a three-letter monkey. The spear is more commonly found in a slightly shorter (though equally dangerous) form.

31a Complimentary quota not on when getting into G & S (6)
A six-letter word for a quota is deprived of the consecutive letters ON (‘not on’) and contained by (‘getting into’) the letters G and S.

32a Turn out former court star (5)
A double definition clue, the second referring to a three-time Wimbledon champion between 1974 and 1981, a player dubbed ‘The Ice Maiden’ who at first seemed a little too cool, calm and collected for the crowds over here (and who spent far too much time behind the baseline for the serve-and-volley fans), but whose popularity grew and grew over time.

33a Old measure reached in what’s associated with carpenter? (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘reached’ or ‘encountered’ is contained by a three-letter word for an insect, some species of which are commonly referred to as carpenter-???s, ie they are ‘associated with carpenter’.

Down

1d Porpoise I’m surprised to see in leaping spells (6)
A two-letter interjection meaning “I’m surprised” (better if it were “I’m surprised to see”, but the verb ‘see’ would need some kind of object, such as ‘that’) is placed inside a reversal (‘leaping’) of a plural noun meaning ‘spells’ or ‘turns’.

4d Bird like a partridge can love having tail clipped (7)
A three-letter word for a can is followed by a five-letter word for love (ooh la la!) from which the last letter has been removed (‘having tail clipped’).

8d Fijian sarong, universal in water channel (though it’s slipped off) (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘universal’ is contained by a five -letter South African word for a water channel lacking the consecutive letters IT from the end (ie “it’s slipped off”).

9d Lyric tenor? He departs, led astray (6)
HE (from the clue), the usual abbreviation for ‘departs’, and an anagram (‘astray’) of LED combine to produce the middle name of Mr Nash, an English lyric tenor; this was the name by which he was known throughout his career (rather than his first name, William), but I have to wonder whether this is a little bit too obscure, particularly given that the answer is a perfectly good Chambers word (albeit not an easy one to define). I didn’t know anything about him, but then again opera and oratorio are far from being my specialist subjects.

17d Old drummers err badly, in grip of wasting away (8)
An anagram (‘badly’) of ERR is put inside (‘in grip of’) a word from the world of pathology describing slow progressive emaciation of the body or its parts. That doesn’t sound good, but I don’t suppose many words in the pathologist’s dictionary describe anything very nice.

21d Moorland quarry in tale going round school (7, 2 words)
A four-letter archaic word for ‘advice’ (an old spelling of a much more familiar word whose meaning has changed over time) contains (‘going round’) a three-letter word for a school of large mammals often spotted in cruciverbal waters. The answer divides (3,4), with ‘quarry’ in the cryptic reading being quarry² in Chambers, not quarry¹. Note that the answer is to be found in Chambers under the entry for its second word, near the end of the subheads.

22d Holiday house, and what it often is after tea (6)
A three-letter word for tea, another crossword favourite, is followed by a word for what a holiday house (ie ‘it’) would probably be when it wasn’t vacant.

24d Foreign river in North Dakota? One often comes across this abroad (6)
A river of Belgium and France is contained by the standard abbreviation for ‘North Dakota’. The definition strikes me as somewhat inadequate, making no reference to the meaning of the answer, but simply to the fact that it is – or was – often seen compounded with ‘abroad’. In the Butcher-Lang translation of Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope says:

So dear a head do I long for in constant memory, namely, that man whose fame is ?????? abroad from Hellas to mid Argos.

26d Society misbehaved endlessly – press close in (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘society’ is followed by a five-letter word meaning ‘misbehaved’ or ‘sinned’ missing its last letter (‘endlessly’).

(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 2,741 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

This puzzle struck me as being close to the middle of the difficulty spectrum. There were quite a few obscure answers, but (as usual with Azed) the wordplays for these led straight to the solution, and there were a fair number of ‘gimmes’ thrown in. It seemed to me that Azed had been in good form and enjoyed writing the clues; I had a couple of minor quibbles, but nothing that seriously affected the entertainment provided by the puzzle.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 14a, “Scots pickled cheesecake maybe I have stuffed (7)”. The wordplay here has a four-letter term which might be applied to a cheesecake (at least if it were one with a pastry base – a quiche might be a better example) containing I’VE (‘I have’), and the solution is a Scots word for ‘fuddled’ or drunk, ie ‘Scots pickled’. The point of interest here is the way in which the insertion of IVE is specified. Indicators in the past active tense are not considered acceptable in clues, so ‘French I have bored’ would not work as a wordplay for FIVER; it requires a verb form which suggests that the result of the ‘boring’ can still be seen, so ‘French I have bores’, ‘French I have has bored’ or ‘French bored by I have’ would be fine (‘French I have will bore’ is also permissible, though one could reasonably ask why). Here it looks at first blush as though the stuffing happened at some point in the (possibly distant) past, and that the clue should read ‘…I have has stuffed’ rather than ‘…I have stuffed’, but a look at the meanings for the transitive verb ‘stuff’ in Chambers reveals ‘to thrust in’. Thus the ‘stuffed’ can be a past participle, and the clue can be read as ‘cheesecake maybe [with] IVE [thrust in]’. I would have liked to see a comma between ‘maybe’ and ‘I’, but clearly I’m not going to get one.

Across

10a An addict that is given preference to wife? It’s no joke (9, 2 words)
A (1,4) phrase equating to ‘an addict’ is followed by a pair of two-letter abbreviations from Latin, the first for ‘that is’ and the second for ‘wife’. The answer is a (2,7) expression taken directly from a more modern European language.

12a Applies poultice to chaps in soft liquid (7)
The usual three-letter word for ‘chaps’ is contained by a cunningly-disguised anagram (‘liquid’) of SOFT. The answer is a transitive-only verb, which is why Azed has been careful to include that ‘to’ in the definition.

15a One often portrayed in kirk, special one often sainted? (5)
Azed often takes the chance to flag words which are geographically qualified in Chambers by including something similarly qualified in the definition. Plenty of opportunities are offered by Scots words such as ‘wee’, ‘bairn’, or – as here – ‘kirk’. The wordplay has the usual abbreviation for ‘special’ being followed by a word which forms part of a ‘trivial’ and rather dated expletive, a favourite of PG Wodehouse:

“Oh, my sainted ????!” he moaned, clutching at the banisters. “Now I am in the soup!”

The use of the word ‘sainted’ in the wordplay is slightly unfortunate in the light of the answer.

19a Piece of church music, end bit, hard, soon coming round (8)
A three-letter ‘end bit’ (eg of a snooker cue) and the usual abbreviation for ‘hard’ are contained by an ‘archaic or literary’ word meaning ‘soon’ (ie ‘soon coming round’). In contrast to 14a, the comma here preceding ‘soon’ nicely indicates the pause required in the cryptic reading.

24a What angler fixes to hook, making contact from behind line (5)
A four-letter word for a particular sort of ‘contact’ (which could be hard or soft) is reversed (‘from behind’) ahead of the usual abbreviation for ‘line’.

28a What’s this, involving a bit of rapacity? (7)
The first of two clues in this puzzle where the wordplay directly references the solution. Here a possible (1,4) answer to the question, “What’s this?”, where ‘this’ is the grid entry, contains (‘involving’) the letter A (from the clue) and the first letter (‘bit’) of ‘rapacity’. The whole clue serves as an indication of the solution – note that in &lit clues the setter is granted rather more leeway than in conventional [wordplay + definition] constructions.

32a Styles e.g. fence round pricey motor? (5)
Good to see that Azed is totes down with the kids, since putting an archaic word for a hedge (or a non-archaic one for dried grass) around the two-letter abbreviation for a particular marque of car takes us in just One Direction…

Down

1d See band turning to round of applause in this informal do (4)
The second of the two solution-referencing clues, this one requires us to break the answer (????) into parts, so the word BAND with ? ?? ? turns into a word for a round of applause. A device which will not be unfamiliar to hardened Azedistas, but surely that ‘in’ in the wordplay needs to be ‘with’ or ‘having’?

6d Indian manager, one from Chennai, say, first off, receiving upper class (5)
A five-letter word for a member of a people from Sri Lanka and south-east India (the name of the state containing Chennai is relevant) loses its first letter (‘first off’) and is put around (‘receiving’) the single letter originally used in 1954 by Alan Ross to designate upper-class pronunciation, writing style and vocabulary, popularized by Nancy Mitford in her essay The English Aristocracy, published later the same year. The assertion was that certain elements of your vocabulary would reveal whether you were upper class or middle class (perhaps with pretensions). Mealspeak was a dead giveaway – “U-speakers eat luncheon in the middle of the day and dinner in the evening. Non-U-speakers (also U-children and U-dogs) have their dinner in the middle of the day. Greens
is non-U for U vegetables. Sweet is non-U for U pudding.”

8d One making inferences, unusually inferior, about karzy (12)
A five-letter word meaning ‘unusually’ is followed by a four-letter word for ‘inferior’ containing (‘about’) a bit of military slang for a communal lavatory, a shortened form of a seven-letter word of Latin origin.

9d Five years denied strong drink, one shares quality with 28 (4)
A seven-letter term for a period of five years is deprived of a three-letter ‘strong drink’ (not gin, the other one) to produce a word that does indeed share a quality with the answer to 28a. I’m not sure, though, that ‘one shares quality with 28’ quite works in the cryptic reading; something like ‘I share quality with 28’ would be preferable (although such ‘first person’ definitions seem to be falling out of favour with editors).

13d Surgical transplant, with the author’s own hand, we hear? (9)
A single-word homophone (‘we hear’) of unusual length, the answer sounding like a word that means ‘signed by the writer’.

15d Green and tasty, possibly with a bit of grey in? (4)
A three-letter word meaning ‘possibly’ or ‘for example’ has the first letter (‘a bit’) of ‘grey’ inserted.

16d Keep what’s appropriate to part of coiffure (8)
A three-letter word meaning ‘appropriate to’ is followed by a term for a plait, braid, or lock of hair, which I think could reasonably be described as ‘part of coiffure’.

20d Good car model in centres of activity (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘good’ is followed by a model of Ford car slightly less pricey than the one in 32a, which is why my parents were able to afford one in 1964.

25d Picnic party without cake outside? There’s meat (4)
An eight-letter word for an informal party (not necessarily involving shellfish) has the containing letters CAKE removed (‘without cake outside’) in order to produce the answer.

27d Magic herb making one relax, life mostly passing (4)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘to relax (in severity)’ or ‘to appease’ has the first three letters (‘mostly’) of ‘life’ omitted.

(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 2,740 Christmas Playfair

Difficulty rating: (4 / 10)

My first thought was, “A Playfair, oh goody”…well, actually, “DM LBCCPK”. After I’d solved the first two italicized clues, I thought, “Oh double dear – this is looking disturbingly familiar.” And so it proved: a code word that we have seen before, hinted in the same way, which meant that the ‘endgame’ simply entailed writing out the square and encoding the last four answers. I still remember my entry from ten years ago (a VHC), so I don’t think I’ll be having another go this time round unless I have a flash of inspiration. I suspect that not too many solvers will need (or want) to break the code in the old-fashioned way, but I have appended a few notes on solving Playfair puzzles (including a link to an excellent ‘cracker’) at the end of this post for those that do. If you are working out the code word from the hints, you should identify the common feature of the answers to the italicized clues and then establish how that combination might be indicated cryptically, remembering that you are looking for a long word (possibly hyphenated) in which no letter appears more than once. You can then try encoding one of the ‘special’ answers to check that it fits with the checked letters in the grid. Always remember when encoding the two corners of a rectangle that the letter in the same row as the first letter comes first, something I regularly forget.

The puzzle itself was a bit of a mixture – a lot of pretty straightforward clues and just a couple of tricky ones. Combined with the big hint to the code word, I felt that this was one of the least taxing specials that I could remember, and, if I’m honest, perhaps just a slightly soggy cracker.

That lack of snap notwithstanding, may I take this opportunity to thank readers for their most welcome comments and messages throughout the year, and to wish you all a very happy Christmas indeed.

Clue Writers’ Corner: Writing a clue for a word which has been the subject of a previous competition presents something of a conundrum. Do you look at the list of published clues, so that you can avoid ideas that have been used before, or do you simply start afresh? With some words, it’s not so much of a problem, because there are so  many possible treatments, but with one like this there is every likelihood that you will come close to reproducing an earlier clue. However, there are two possibilities which did not exist when the word came up before.  One alternative is to make reference in your clue to the repetition itself; this is perhaps an option for those who have already clued the word. But more importantly, when this word appeared before it was not in a Christmas puzzle, so any clue that is festively themed will inevitably have novelty on its side. I would suggest not referring to the previous slip and just writing your clue as you would for any other competition, but with the fact that it is explicitly described as a Christmas puzzle very firmly in mind.

A similar repetition issue occurred with COLD TURKEY (except they were both Christmas puzzles – 1,180 in 1994 and 2,064 in 2011), and in the slip for the latter (a Playfair), Azed wrote:

It left me with the difficult decision as to how I should treat the competition as a whole, especially in relation to the fiercely contested annual honours list. After much thought and advice from a number of experienced competitors, I decided to let it stand as normal and assume that most of those who remembered or had a record of the earlier competition 17 years ago would have consciously attempted to come up with a different clue. I myself did not consult that earlier slip and still have not looked at it. A comparison would now be interesting but I won’t make it for a while yet.

Across

1a Dad enters platform (not I) for tasty crisp (7)
A two-letter word for ‘dad’ is contained by (‘enters’) a six-letter ‘platform’ from which the letter I has been omitted (‘not I’).

10a Old matter? It’s usually numbered (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘old’ is followed by the sort of matter that’s yellowish and yucky.

17a Admission made by nurse with pedigree (6)
A two-letter abbreviation for a nursing qualification no longer recognised in the UK (I think Nursing Assistant may be a near-equivalent, but I stand to be corrected on that) is followed by the sort of pedigree that might be represented in a diagram, perhaps framed and displayed on the wall.

27a Thesp in Paris seen making comeback in live broadcast (6)
There’s rather less punctuation than I would have liked in this clue, where the French word (‘in Paris’) for ‘seen’ is reversed (‘making a comeback’) within an anagram (‘broadcast’) of LIVE.

34a Time to tear and puff, like a deer walking? (8)
The usual abbreviation for ‘time’ is followed by a three-letter word for ‘[to] tear’ and a four-letter word for ‘puff’, the result being a heraldic term, typically referring to stags or bucks.

35a TV opening, not the first in retrospect (4)
A five-letter word for an opening or first appearance is deprived of its first letter (‘not the first’) before being reversed (‘in retrospect’).

37a A section in daubs presenting tricky questions (7)
The letter A (from the clue) and the usual abbreviation for ‘section’ are contained by a word meaning ‘daubs’ or ‘plasters’; this word may not be familiar, but the answer certainly will.

Down

2d Quibble over cat getting caught out in tiny apertures (6)
A three-letter word answering to ‘quibble’ (see Chambers) is followed by an anagram (‘getting caught out’) of CAT.

4d Small portion, about nothing, causing distress once? (5)
The small portion which contains (‘about’) the usual single-letter representation of ‘nothing’ is more often seen as a verb, compounded with ‘out’, and meaning to distribute in modest helpings.

7d Acidic compound as a rule kept in mug (7)
The letter A and the usual abbreviation for ‘rule’ are contained by (‘kept in’) a five-letter mug, intended to hold beer and often featuring a hinged lid.

8d Vintage tot of whisky in favour (5)
A slightly strange double definition clue, the two meanings being listed consecutively under the same entry in Chambers. In Three Men in a Boat, J writes that:

Having thus settled the sleeping arrangements to the satisfaction of all four of us, the only thing left to discuss was what we should take with us; and this we had begun to argue, when Harris said he’d had enough oratory for one night, and proposed that we should go out and have a ?????, saying that he had found a place, round by the square, where you could really get a drop of Irish worth drinking.

18d Bust according to audience was radiant (5)
The slightly odd-looking past tense here is a homophone (‘according to audience’) of a four-letter ‘bust’ in the drugs sense.

19d Waiter in robes displaying basket of goodies? (7)
Another double definition where you (like me) may well identify the word from the second definition but need to confirm the first one in Chambers.

22d I pulled out of concert midway? It’s to do with innards maybe (6)
My favourite clue in the puzzle, the letter I is removed (‘pulled out’) from the middle of a word for a concert.

24d Develop, university replacing one volume, educated to an advanced level (6)
A word for ‘develop’ has the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘university’ replacing one instance of its counterpart for ‘volume’.

26d Monastery reuse abandoned table (5)
A ten-letter word for a particular monastery has the consecutive letters REUSE deleted (‘abandoned’), the result being a table that display information in a helpful way.

(definitions are underlined)

I know that some people really enjoy Playfair puzzles, but they leave me cold,  so when no clues are provided to the code word (unlike today) I have no qualms about using a code cracker such as Quinapalus to identify it. The only real option for cracking a Playfair puzzle the traditional way is to solve the non-Playfair clues to get all of the checked letters in the Playfair solutions (or at the very least the pairs of letters which are both checked in the grid, but don’t forget that you can draw conclusions even from an incomplete quartet), work out the non-encoded answers to the Playfair clues, and then create quartets by relating the checked letter pairs from the encoded answers to the corresponding pairs in the non-coded solutions (eg solution = SOLVED, part completed light in grid = R?TPAG, hence LV encodes to TP and ED encodes to AG, while SO encodes to R?).

There are a number of ways to move forward from there, but I tend to look at the pairs of letters that (assuming the quartet represents a rectangle) are going to be in the same row (in my example L and T, V and P, E and A, D and G, S and R) and those that will be in the same column (in my example, L and P, V and T, E and G, D and A, O and R) and then link with other pairs (so if I find that L and P are in the same column and P and S are in the same column, I know that L, P and S are all in one column). And if I find that a group of letters (L, P and S, say) appear to be in both the same row and the same column? Then we are looking at a line and not a rectangle, so wherever any two of those letters appear as a pair on either side of an encoding, all four letters in that encoding are in the same row or column – so if L, P and S appear to be in the same row and the same column, and LP->IK, then L, P, I, K and S are all in the same row/column and I is (cyclically) to the right of or below L, K to the right of or below P. Oh yes, and Z is probably in the bottom right hand corner!

To which I will add a couple of points:

1. If a letter appears on both sides of an encoding, ie DR encodes to RI, that means that the letters (here D, R and I) appear consecutively in a specific sequence (cyclically) in the same line (could be either a row or a column) – for AB->BC the sequence is ABC (so in the example, DRI), for AB->CA the sequence is BAC.

2. If you can find all the letters in cyclic sequence within a column, eg SBLYU, remember that the letters which don’t appear in the code word are listed alphabetically at the end of the square, so it is likely that at least two, and potentially three, of the letters in the column will be part of this ‘remainder’; therefore they will occur in alphabetical sequence at the end of the column. And not only is Z likely to be in the bottom right-hand corner, but some of its near neighbours at the end of the alphabet will also be on the bottom row.