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 2,739 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

This puzzle, which was probably somewhere close to the middle of the difficulty spectrum, had a few issues ranging from the minor (eg the misspelling of ‘bloodsucker’ in 13a) to the major problem with 28d. There were some nicely deceptive definitions, along with a couple of slightly iffy ones.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 32a, “Scottish millstream on the market? This’ll be included (8, 3 words, apostrophe)”. The wordplay involves a (1,3,4) phrase equating to ‘an offering of a Scottish millstream to potential buyers’ (although I would have preferred this to be suggested by something where the the subject was not the noun being used adjectivally, eg ‘A Scottish millstream auction?”), and the answer is (5,3) with a possessive apostrophe-s at the end of the first part. The real item of interest, though, is the enumeration. This was raised by a correspondent, who writes “I suggest that the ‘3 words’ should be ‘2 words’.”

I have always avoided answers including apostrophes in my own puzzles, simply because I don’t know whether to indicate them. In the slip for AZ 1,806, Azed wrote:

“I am less certain about the best way of indicating words and phrases that include apostrophes [than about hyphenated words], and my uncertainty may have led to some inconsistency. Is, for example, J’ADOUBE one word or two, KWOK’S DISEASE two words or three? Significantly, the old edition of Chambers Words, which excluded phrasal compounds, included J’ADOUBE among the 7-letter words. If I clue it, should I mark it ‘(7)’, ‘(7, apostrophe)’ or ‘(7, 2 words)’? I am inclined to go for the second of these options.”

The example of J’ADOUBE is a good one – clearly two words have been run together here to produce the contraction, so there could be an argument for any of Azed’s three suggested options. KWOK’S DISEASE is a different matter – there have only ever been two words here, as the apostrophe simply marks the omission of a letter or letters from a single word (almost certainly the ‘e’ from the old genitive suffix ‘-es’). There seems no doubt that this, and the answer to 32a in today’s puzzle, should be shown as ‘2 words’, as my correspondent suggests, not ‘3 words’; the answer FO’C’SLE would undoubtedly be shown as ‘6’ rather than ‘6, 3 words’. Incidentally, Chambers describes the apostrophe-s as a ‘sentence element’ – I’m not exactly sure what one of those is, but it’s not the same as a word. A  better example than KWOK’s DISEASE would have been THAT’S THAT – “that’s” is a contraction formed from two words, but I suspect that most solvers would see the expression as consisting of just two words rather than three, given that there is only one space separating the components.

Whether the apostrophe should be mentioned in the enumeration is a different matter, with Azed (despite his observations above) erring on the side of generosity to the solver. My personal view is that if the setter isn’t going to mention hyphens or diacritical marks (as in 24a), there seems little reason to make an exception for apostrophes. 

Across

1a Modernization rendering one strangely agog about international decoration (13)
An anagram (‘strangely’) of AGOG contains (‘about’) the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘international’ and an eight-letter term for decoration.

11a Old serviceman, in essence reverse of free but filled with energy (8)
A four-letter word for ‘essence’ is followed by a reversal of a three-letter verb, frequently indicated by ‘free’ in cryptic clues, containing (‘filled with’) the usual abbreviation for ‘energy’.

16a Forewings become reversed on Asiatic bird (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘become’ is reversed ahead of a four-letter spelling for an Asiatic bird famed  as the Mike Yarwood/Rory Bremner/Alastair McGowan (select according to your age) of the avian world.

17a Peter keeping folio in cover? (4)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘folio’ is kept in (ie contained by) a three-letter abbreviation for ‘stamped addressed envelope’. I think it’s reasonable to describe the latter as a ‘cover’, ie “an envelope, esp one with a stamp and postmark, as in first-day cover“, 

19a He’s freed from road accidents, insensitive (5)
The consecutive letters HE are removed (‘freed’) from a seven-letter word for ‘road accidents’.

22a Spot, in short, is endless contamination (5)
The single-letter shortened form (‘in short’) of ‘is’ combines with a word for contamination from which the last letter has been omitted (‘endless’) in order to produce the answer.

23a Reputation once made in battle (4)
A double-definition clue which struck me as somewhat unsatisfactory. The Spenserian (‘once’) reputation is fine, but ‘made in’ seems a rather cumbersome way of saying ‘and’, while ‘battle’ should surely be something more along the lines of ‘battleground’, since we are looking for the the site of a particular 1915 battle. I suppose you could argue that ‘battle’ alone would be acceptable for something like ‘Waterloo’, given that the name is pretty much synonymous with the engagement, but I don’t think it would work for ‘Britain’.

24a Waiters chatter about recipe to scan (7)
Here we have a three-letter word for ‘chatter’ containing (‘about’) both the standard abbreviation for ‘recipe’ and a three-letter word (shown by Chambers as ‘archaic’ but very much current when it comes to crosswords) meaning ‘to scan’.

31a Flow of mud? How surprising when it splits both sides (5)
A three-letter interjection expressing ‘exultation, pleasure, surprise or contempt’ (probably best not used in emails, then) is put inside (‘when it splits’) the single-letter abbreviations for the two sides.

Down

2d Walter’s wench regarding cheesy pastry (7)
Walter Scott’s five-letter word for a wench (Fair Maid of Perth: “The ????? knows her trade”), which shares its spelling with a verb meaning ‘to scoop out’, is followed by that ubiquitous bit of commercial jargon meaning ‘regarding’ or ‘with reference to’.

3d Advertisement boosted big mouthful (4)
Without a checker, there’s no way of knowing whether the advertisement should be reversed (‘boosted’) to produce the big mouthful or vice versa. It is in fact the piece of favourable publicity that undergoes manipulation.

12d A bit of Scotch, giving one good boost (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘good’ is followed by a four-letter ‘boost’. The answer is shown by Chambers as being not just Scottish but also obsolete (the spelling here is not given at all by the OED); initially I was dubious about whether ‘bit’ was valid, but this example (courtesy of Sir Walter, albeit using the more common spelling) suggests that it is fine: “Where is Edith? Gone to her room‥.and laid down in her bed for a ?????”

18d Such as Brown Bess, girl tucking into strong drinks (7)
A three-letter dialect form of ‘girl’ is contained by (‘tucking into’, not a favourite of mine in the active form, except when it comes to food) the four-letter plural of a particular ‘strong drink’. Brown Bess (formerly ‘brown musket’) was the name given to the flint-lock musket used by the British Army, apparently due to the colour of its walnut stock (note: it’s always good to have a walnut stock at this time of year).

21d Trooper former monarch despatched, making money abroad (5)
Shades of 11a here, where a seven-letter ‘trooper’ has the two-letter cipher of the previous British monarch deleted (‘despatched’) to produce some old Italian coins.

27d College harem, wherewith story ends? (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘college’ is followed by a three-letter word for a room in a harem; it seems that it can also be applied to the occupants of the room, so ‘harem’ alone is adequate.

28d Alternate bits of sphere on heraldic fur (4)
A perfectly sound wordplay, which involves taking alternate letters from (‘bits of’) SPHERE ON, leads to PEEN. A perfectly sound definition leads to PEAN, a heraldic fur “represented as Sable powdered with ‘spots’ of Or”. Which is the intended answer? I’d go for PEEN, on the basis that Azed thought it was an alternative spelling of PEAN (which it is, but only in relation to the end of a hammer).

29d Siamese twins in three pairs? (4)
The answer comprises two pairs of conjoined letters (ie ‘twins’) from ‘three pairs’.

(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 2,738 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

This one was quite tricky in places, earning it a difficulty rating just a little above the halfway mark. Those of us who aren’t overkeen on repetitions will have noted two appearances each of the ‘tea word’, a word for ‘like this’ (indicated thus in both instances), and the abbreviation for ‘energy’, as well as different past tenses of the same verb featuring in a couple of wordplays. I believe that one of the clues is ambiguous (5d – see below), although I’m in little doubt about the intended answer.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 18a, “Heroin included in drug folded in surplice (5)”. Here the single letter representing heroin is contained by (‘included in’) a reversal (‘folded’) of a four-letter word for a drug (or, indeed, ‘to drug’).  I recently had an exchange of thoughts with a crossword editor regarding reversal indicators, perhaps the most contentious of all the elements to be found in cryptic crosswords. There are not very many which clearly indicate that the letters of a word must be placed in reverse order (whether horizontally or vertically), and I suspect that is why setters have cast their nets into somewhat murkier waters over the years. There are some reversal indicators to be seen in  published puzzles which I find unacceptable, and many others (a lot of them included in the list on this site) that strike me as questionable. I am inclined to cut setters (including myself!) some slack because of the paucity of options available, but ‘folded’ seems to me unjustifiable. When something is folded it might be ‘doubled over’, but that patently isn’t the same thing as it being reversed. I’m comfortable with the first question that setters ask themselves being “Will the indicator I’m proposing to use be understood by solvers?”, but I think that needs to be followed by “And could it conceivably suggest that the entire sequence of letters is reversed?”

Across

1a Tidy vehicle like this flipped tiny crustacean (8)
The answer is produced by the reversal (‘flipped’) of a three-element charade, made up of a two-letter verb meaning (inter alia) ‘tidy’, a four-letter vehicle, and a two-letter word meaning ‘like this’.

12a See e.g. Mexican measure his jacket (loose) – no use (4)
This one is far from easy. A seven-letter word for a loose jacket is deprived of the consecutive letters USE (‘no use’) to produce a variant spelling of a Spanish/Portuguese linear measure used in Spanish America and also known as a Spanish yard. The jacket is shown by Chambers as ‘Southern US’, although it’s a French word and I can’t find any corroborating evidence regarding its association with the America – perhaps a reader in that part of the world can advise. I also wonder whether Donald Trump has been told that Mexico is part of the US.

13a Female with energy curbing e.g. Louis, star player? (7)
The combination of a three-letter word for a female of various species and the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘energy’ contains a three-letter French word exemplified by eighteen or so specific individuals named Louis, although ‘Louis’ on its own seems slightly inadequate.

20a Player at table, upset about one of his opponents? (4)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] upset’ (as in “What’s upsetting you?”) contains the single-letter designation applied to one of the four players at the bridge table. The opponent on their right provides the answer.

23a Hammer cold locking spring for ice vehicle (11)
A six-letter type of hammer (not to be used on your nuts at Christmas) is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘cold’ and a term for ‘a locking spring or other safety contrivance in a firearm’, or anything small and fine. The answer is hyphenated, 6-5. 

28a United no longer making huge sum, admitting little energy (5)
An old (‘no longer’) word for ‘united’ is the result of a four-letter word for the sort of huge sum that someone might make through a successful business being put around the usual abbreviation for ‘energy’, last seen in 13a. That huge sum reminds me of a piece of graffiti recorded by Nigel Rees in one of his books, where someone had embellished the road sign on the outskirts of Llantrisant with the addition of ‘…the hole with the ???? in it’. I’m sure it’s a very nice place really.

29a Topers? One of them retires with rash (8)
A reversal (‘retires’) of a three-letter word for a toper (‘one of them’) is followed by a five-letter plural which very much suggests a rash.

32a Therapist taking in foreign wood wind player (6)
A two-letter abbreviation for a particular sort of therapist contains (‘taking in’) a foreign word for ‘[a] wood’. If a cryptic clue includes a foreign word that isn’t in Chambers, the odds are extremely short on it being a French one, a knowledge of schoolboy/schoolgirl French being assumed of solvers.

33a Meteorologist experienced open country (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘experienced’ or ‘suffered’ and a three-letter word for ‘open country’ (more often spelt with an ‘a’ as the last letter) combine to produce the surname of the eighteenth-century lawyer and amateur meteorologist known for his pioneering work in the field of atmospheric circulation. He gave his name to the Met Office’s centre for climate research and prediction, founded in 1990 and currently known as the ?????? Centre for Climate Science and Services. In 1973, a crater on Mars was named after him.

35a Bass denied, drunk becomes spooky (4)
A five-letter word  loosely meaning ‘drunk’ (specifically due to excessive consumption of a particular beverage) is deprived of the usual abbreviation for ‘bass’ (‘bass denied’).

Down

2d Colourful blanket skymen folded up on centre of bed (6)
A peek at ‘skyman’ in Chambers will confirm the five-letter word which needs to be reversed (‘folded up’) above the middle letter (‘centre’) of ‘bed’.

3d Rotating tea wagon less than half unloaded, containing its cargo? (7)
A seven-letter word for the type of ‘tea wagon’ that formerly made steady progress (its approach heralded by much rattling and clinking) at mid-morning and mid-afternoon around many an office, often under the direction of ‘ladies of a certain age’, loses slightly less than half of its letters (‘less than half unloaded’) before being put around (‘containing’) a three-letter word for the sort of thing that would be found in its urn.

5d Tucked up – that’s me with book replacing No. 2 (4)
I feel sure that the intended answer here is ABED, ie ‘ABED – that’s AZED with B replacing the second letter’. But an alternative interpretation would be ‘ABED – that’s me [AZED] with B replacing the second letter’. The use of ‘me’ is the problem, as it can stand for the answer in a clue like this; something like ‘your setter’ would leave no room for doubt.

6d What sounds like a mandolin resounded round after tea (8)
A four-letter word meaning ‘resounded’ and the single letter indicated by ’round’ follow the word for ‘tea’ previously served up in 3d.

8d Like a turtle recorded round a herd swimming on edge of lake (12)
A six-letter word meaning ‘recorded’  contains (’round’) an anagram (‘swimming’) of A HERD plus the last letter (‘edge’) of ‘lake’.

10d Cuts once? They may accompany snicks (5)
This clue is barely cryptic, the solution being an obsolete (‘once’) word for ‘cuts’ which can be found following ‘snicks and’ in an expression wherein the ‘snicks’ means ‘thrusts’ and the answer here means…’cuts’.

24d Unproductive, not lit up, no longer together (6)
A nine-letter word meaning ‘unproductive’ has the consecutive letters TIL (ie ‘lit up’) omitted.

30d Tasty sauce like this tops vessel? Not quite (4)
A two-letter word meaning ‘like this’ is followed by (‘tops’) a three-letter vessel (of the kind that might contain hunny) without its last letter (‘not quite’).

31d One monkey pinching bit of kernel for another (4)
A three-letter monkey is taking hold of (‘pinching’) the first letter (‘bit of’) ‘kernel’ in order to produce a four-letter monkey (ie ‘another’).

(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 2,737 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

I felt that the high proportion of unfamiliar answers, when combined with the paucity of ‘gimmes’, put this one slightly above the halfway mark of difficulty, certainly for those solving it without the assistance of electronic aids. There were some nice clues in there, with several inventive, and at times playful, definitions.

Clue Writers’ Corner: There are certain conventions in the world of the cryptic crossword which appear, on inspection, to be somewhat arbitrary. One of these is the acceptance that a verb in its uninflected state (eg ‘eat’) can be indicated by another verb preceded by ‘to’, such as the infinitive ‘to consume’. The justification for this seems far from obvious, indeed a verb with an infinitive marker would seem more suited to indicating a gerundive, eg ‘to consume’ for EATING, since ‘To consume éclairs is a pleasure’ and ‘Eating éclairs is a pleasure’ come to pretty much the same thing (ie no éclairs). But the rule is the rule, and jolly handy for clue writers it is. We can get around problems with singular subjects and plural verbs, eg ‘Stokes to remove support’ for STAKE, and when the answer (or word to be indicated in wordplay) is a verb, and we have a synonym which can also be another part of speech, such as a noun, the marker ‘to’ can take on a different role in the surface reading – as in ‘Son rushed to house’ for STORE.

Across

1a Bairn’s worn out its bunny perhaps (6)
A child’s bunny could, I suppose, be described thus, but the individual whom I most associate with the ‘word’ is the consistently unfortunate Elmer J Fudd, not least because his catchphrase is “Shhh! Be vewy vewy quiet. I’m hunting ??????s”.

6a Church portico from source of gypsum – see inside (6)
The usual single letter abbreviation of the Latin word for ‘see’ is put inside the name of a city; a particularly useful substance which takes its name from that city was originally produced by heating gypsum from a large deposit found there.

11a Such as The Scotsman locally? Chairman has page within set aside (5)
A nine-letter term for someone who is chosen to control meetings of a society etc has a four-letter word for a page (of paper) removed from within. The presence of ‘The Scotsman’ in the definition serves not only as an example of the answer but also an indication that it is a Scots spelling that we are looking for. The choice of the last word in the clue seems less than ideal.

18a Call-girl with guy? One’ll be responsible for split (8)
A three-letter poule de luxe is followed by a word meaning ‘[to] guy’ or ‘make fun of’.

24a Garment of fibrous ‘grass’? It’s never taken off (4)
It took me a little while to spot that this was a double-definition clue, but it made me smile when I ‘got’ it. I’m not sure whether the second definition would be adequate in a single-definition clue, since there are more things that haven’t ever taken off than have, but it’s fine as a corroborating indication. For some reason I think I’d have put “One’s” rather than “It’s” at the start of the second sentence, perhaps because it seems less specific.

29a Extract from The Gondoliers? Shepherd’s pipes flanked by drumbeat (8)
A four-letter word for shepherd’s pipes (from the source of the straw out of which they were made) is contained (‘flanked’) by the sort of sound that I would associate with Big Ben rather a drum.

32a This rake, with gen, sorts out gardening (6)
A composite anagram, where the letters of the answer (‘this rake’) and GEN can be rearranged (‘sorts out’) to form GARDENING. Is the answer quite the same thing as ‘rake’? I leave that to the reader to decide.

33a Succeeded in ballet leap on one’s posterior, or butt (6)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘succeeded’ is contained by a four-letter ballet leap and the last letter (‘posterior’) of ‘one’. The answer is shown by Chambers as being specifically a coinage of Laurence Sterne, which I feel ought to be indicated in some way (although I can see that it would have been detrimental to the surface reading). In Tristram Shandy, Sterne wrote:

The Mortgager and Mortgagee differ the one from the other, not more in length of purse, than the ????er and ????ee do, in that of memory.

Down

3d It may be deployed (by Scot) for boring, cutting in (4)
This is an &lit clue, in the sense that the whole thing stands as a definition of the answer, although the qualifying ‘(by Scot)’ plays no part in the wordplay, which involves an anagram (‘deployed’) of BORING from which the consecutive letters IN have been removed (‘cutting in’). Since Azed felt the need to indicate the Scottishness of this word, I’m surprised that he didn’t flag the Sterneness of 33a.

5d On the doorstep I’m leaving under control (6, 2 words)
A (2,6) Latin phase meaning ‘on the doorstep’ or ‘on the threshold’ has the consecutive letters IM deleted (“I’m leaving”) in order to produce the (2,4) solution.

7d Acknowledgement once, one on left-hand page to use as before (6)
A 1+2+3 charade of a word meaning ‘one’, an abbreviation for the left-hand page of an open book, and an obsolete word for ‘use’, with which it shares all but the central letter.

9d Fruit sections volunteers tucked into apace (6)
Since the Territorial Army is now known as the Army Reserve, most editors insist that if the term ‘volunteers’ is being used to indicate TA it must be qualified to indicate that today’s volunteers do not go under that name, so ‘volunteers formerly’ or suchlike; the direct indication ‘Territorial Army’ for TA is fine, just as ‘National Union of Teachers’ is fine for NUT, because the abbreviations live on even if the body which they represent does not. Here the TA is ‘tucked into’ a musical term taken directly from the French for ‘fast’.

14d E.g. pun going wrong in bar, showing inconsistency (10)
An anagram (‘going wrong’) of EG PUN is contained by a five-letter (chiefly Scottish, according to Chambers) word for a prop or bar; the answer is a familiar word, but the definition takes advantage of a less familiar sense.

21d Sheltering abroad in S. Italian region avoiding outsiders (6, 3 words,apostrophe)
The eight-letter name of the region that forms the ‘toe’ of Italy is deprived of its outer letters (‘avoiding outsiders’), the result being a (1,1,4) French phrase.

23d Jock’s special spade Paddy let out (6)
I’m not sure that there are any first names which can match the number of possible diminutives offered by ‘Elizabeth’, but here it is another form of the name ‘Patrick’ which must be followed by an anagram (‘out’) of LET.

28d Instruction to act? It’s worth little or nothing (4)
The instruction to act comprises a pair of two-letter words, and usually demands at least one exclamation mark.

(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 2,736 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

I think I may have overrated the difficulty of last week’s puzzle, but I feel fairly confident about placing this one just below the middle of the difficulty spectrum. There were a few tricky clues, but three ‘hiddens’ and some other straightforward wordplays served to balance them out. This puzzle seemed to have received a bit more ‘polishing’ than some other ones of late, with no duplications of indicators, abbreviations etc that I spotted – and they’re only really an issue when they stand out.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clues 5d and 6d, “The old dress up in religion following gods (5)” and “Transport worker trained animal to follow rule (7)”. The first of these has a three-letter religion following a plural of the Latin word for a god, while the second – which immediately put me in mind of this story – has an anagram following the usual abbreviation for ‘rule’. The point that I wanted to raise, though, was the appearance of ‘following’ and ‘to follow’ in two consecutive clues, in both instances to indicate postposition. Coincidentally, in the draft of a recent puzzle I found that I had used ‘after’ in two consecutive clues. Such a thing is not an error in any shape or form, and it’s rather different from repeating (say) an anagram indicator, but I do feel that it detracts a little from the artistic impression, particularly when it occurs in consecutive clues. I changed one ‘after’ to something else, and I would have modified one of these clues, perhaps by getting the animal to ‘uphold’ the rule.

I will mention in passing that I do have a Word macro which checks for duplicated words in a set of clues. It saves me some work, as I used always to do a manual trawl for repetitions.  If anyone is interested in using it, let me know and I will make it available for download on the site.

Across

12a Misanthrope in play? Phrase he arranged maybe (5)
A composite anagram, where the letters of MISANTHROPE when reordered (‘in play’) come to the same thing as a rearrangement (‘arranged’) of PHRASE plus the solution (‘he‘). Since the earliest known production of the play in question was based on Thomas Shadwell’s adaptation entitled The History of ????? ?? ??????, The Man-hater, the definition is entirely apt. I don’t think that the clue can be viewed as a true &lit, not least because the subject of the main clause (such as it is) in the second sentence is ‘Phrase’.

16a ‘There’s power in strong drink’ – Shakespeare’s frank (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘power’ is put into a word for ‘strong drink’ which crops up from time to time in cryptics and is an abbreviated form of a 17th century perversion of the Dutch for ‘High Mightinesses’, the title of the States-General. It was originally used contemptuously to mean ‘high and mighty’ and subsequently, of drink, to mean ‘strong’ or ‘heady’. Looking up frank² in Chambers will clarify the definition. 

23a Love holding end of rudder making differences of latitude at sea (8)
A seven-letter word which equates to ‘love’ in the Wimbledon sense containing (‘holding’) the last letter (‘end’) of ‘rudder’ produces a term which would surely be better indicated by a singular than a plural.

28a Roller in river resulting in delay (5)
The ‘Roller’ which finds itself in a Scottish river is not a wave but a famous car marque abbreviated to two letters.

29a Low buzz spouted endlessly? (6)
A three-letter word for a ‘buzz’ is followed by a four-letter word meaning ‘spouted’ as Moby Dick might have done, deprived of its last letter (‘endlessly’).

33a Reaches within money charged for seppuku? (8, 3 words)
A five-letter word for reaches of water, or, more commonly, veins containing metallic ore, is contained by (‘within’) a familiar word for ‘money charged’, the result being a (4,2,2) term for something of which ‘seppuku’ is a rather grisly definition by example.

34a Sort of ‘windy’? Being empty, given food, bird twice tucked in (8)
A three-letter word meaning ‘given food’ loses its middle letter (’empty’) before having two instances of the same female bird put inside (‘tucked in’). The solution is hyphenated, 4-4.

Down

1d Waste food? Tick off chickens, hard to chew, we hear (12)
An anagram (‘off’) of TICK is followed by a four-letter word for ‘chickens’ and a homophone (‘we hear’) for ‘hard to chew’, the solution being 7-5. I’m not keen on partial homophones like this, although the four letters involved do at least constitute a real word.

2d Loose robe, with nothing on top? It’s ornamental in Japan (7)
A loose robe very much associated with Japan has the usual single-character representation of ‘nothing’ placed on top.

4d Culmination? With this one comes to earth (4)
Azed periodically comes up with clues where the answer needs to be ‘plugged into’ the wordplay, typically replacing a demonstrative pronoun (here, ‘this’) and with one or more spaces inserted. Here the answer must be split into a pair of two-letter words, so ‘with ?? ?? [the word] ONE comes to [the usual abbreviation for] earth’.

10d The Bard’s delicately framed offer he’s accompanied by deft twirling (12)
A six-letter word meaning ‘offer’ combines with the letters HE (from the clue) and an anagram (‘twirling’) of DEFT to produce the (6-6) answer, which is a hapax legomenon from the Bard. Lear tells his daughter:

No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse.
Thy ??????-?????? nature shall not give
Thee o’er to harshness.

I imagine that she understood him, but I’m not sure anyone else can be certain about exactly what he meant.

17d Tragic incident in office, safe at first (8)
A three-letter word for a facility euphemistically referred to as an ‘office’, or ‘the usual offices’, is preceded by a five-letter word for a safe (ie ‘safe at first’), probably more commonly seen suffixed with ‘-man’ to describe a safe-blower.

22d Understanding medical field doubled energy (7)
At the sight of ‘hospital department’ or ‘medical field’, the seasoned cryptic solver will immediately think of three initials; in this instance, those letters must be repeated (‘doubled’) before the usual abbreviation for ‘energy’ is tagged on the end.

25d What may feature at openings of Latin residences? (5)
A low-end &lit, where the answer comes from the first two letters of the penultimate word in the clue and the first three letters of the last word.

26d Calf’s first to last in range (5)
A word meaning ‘relating to the calf of the leg’ (ie “calf’s”) has its first letter moved to the end.

(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 2,735 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

After last week’s uber-friendly offering (ie you could have solved it during a taxi ride), this week we have a horse of a significantly different colour. Quite a few anagrams to help the solve along, but also a good helping of obscurities and some wordplays that pushed the boundaries of acceptability.

Note that, as pointed out by correspondent Rick, the enumeration for 22d should be (6) rather than (5).

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 1a, “What covers wound discharge? Woman may use it in boudoir (12)”. The wordplay is a charade separately indicating the two elements of the (8-4) hyphenated solution, the first being a word for something which covers a wound and the second being a verb meaning ‘to discharge’ or ‘to dismiss’. So far, so good. But the solution is shown by Chambers as ‘obsolete’, which means that it is defunct in terms of modern usage. There are two ways that setters can indicate such words in clues: either through a qualifier such as ‘old’ or ‘neglected’, eg ‘old sign’ for GEST, or (in particular for nouns) by the use of a past tense in the definition, eg ‘It was a sign’ for GEST. Here, though, we have neither, and that is unsatisfactory. In this instance, ‘route 2’ was the way to go, something along the lines of ‘Woman may have used it in boudoir’.

Across

12a Regarding clergyman, not ‘priest’ outwardly (4, 2 words)
A six-letter word for a clergyman has the two-letter abbreviation for ‘priest’ stripped from the outside (‘not…outwardly’).

14a Score here and there, returning single unimportant? Not I (6)
A three-letter word for a ‘single’ scored in cricket is reversed (‘returning’) and followed by a four-letter word meaning ‘unimportant’ from which the letter I has been removed (‘not I’). The answer is also a cricketing term, often encountered in harness with ‘nudge’.

16a Violet Grey having smirk about foreign food place? (8)
A four-letter ‘smirk’ containing (‘about’) an informal word for ‘a place which sells high quality, often foreign or unusual prepared foods’ leads to a term for ‘violet-grey’. Over time, I have become increasingly picky about words whose only purpose is to link definition to wordplay (or vice versa) – I originally had a moan about ‘having’ here, but (as per discussion with RJHe below), this was probably unfair to Azed. However, I stand by my comments about such words when, as in 11d, they indicate that the definition leads to the wordplay rather than the other way round.

19a Religious deputy, man from Rome holding cases (5)
The Latin word for a man (‘man from Rome’) contains (‘holding’) the two-letter abbreviation for ‘cases’, with the definition drawing on a less common sense of a familiar word.

20a Element of climatic graph is first to include US island (7)
The letters IS (from the clue) are followed by a three-letter word for ‘first’ containing (‘to include’) the two-letter abbreviation for a well-known US island.

21a Chemical flask, in tangles round point (7)
A four-letter word for ‘tangles’ (noun or verb, take your pick), often used in reference to hair, is put round a “setter’s friend” which can describe either a headland (ie ‘point’) or an Ethiopian prince.

26a Stalks ancient paths round mine shaft (8)
A five-letter obsolete (‘ancient’) word meaning ‘paths’ (or, in current usage, ‘pens for pigs’) contains a word for a mine or a mine shaft. The plural which constitutes the answer is to be found in Chambers under the five-letter singular form which will be familiar to all REM fans.

28a Ferries old men traversing river (5)
I’m sure correspondent Tim C will have had no problem with the wordplay here, but I can’t recall previously coming across ‘old man’ as a term for an adult male kangaroo. An informal word for kangaroos is here found containing (‘traversing’) the usual abbreviation for ‘river’, producing a hyphenated solution, though there really ought to be an indication that ‘old men’ is an definition by example.

30a Jersey etc with parasites, get-up for penitents (6)
The two-letter abbreviation for the geographical group of which Jersey is a part precedes a familiar word for ‘parasites’, this being one of those Azed clues where you can be almost certain about the correct answer even if you’ve never come across (or, indeed, donned) the ‘undergarment worn by penitents, originally made of haircloth but now usually a band of pronged wire’. Now that’s gotta hurt.

Down

1d See Jock’s strut, pale for love of Scottie? (5)
The wordplay here just about works, I think, with a three-letter word for ‘pale’ replacing (‘pale for’) the usual single-character representation of ‘love’ in (‘love of’) the sort of animal exemplified by a Scottie (‘Scottie?’). My dislike of ‘link words’ extends also to words like the ‘See’ at the start of this clue, which serves no purpose other than to enhance the surface reading.

3d Saw wee boy died in it (6)
A three-letter word for a little lad (more American than Scottish, despite the ‘wee’) and the usual abbreviation for ‘died’ are contained by a two-letter abbreviation which, in the land of the crossword, often equates to ‘it’. A good excuse for me to repeat  Dorothy Parker’s observation on a character in Elinor Glyn’s novel It: “And she had It. It, hell; she had Those.”

4d What Sandy may have spent for pop endlessly? (6)
One of those awkward clues where you may not know either the word which goes in the grid or the word which is the key element of the wordplay. Here a seven-letter word for a champagne (‘pop’) produced near Rheims is deprived of its last letter (‘endlessly’) to produce a Scots word for a familiar element (differing in its spelling by one letter), and thus for money.

7d What’s caught off US coast in sound, reddish-brown (6)
A strange homophone clue, in that neither of the pronunciations offered by Chambers for the horse-mackerel matches that given (‘in sound’) for a reddish-brown or light chestnut colour.

11d Gland yielding fluid, mostly jaundiced within (11)
A five-letter word for ‘fluid’, often seen referring to one containing antibodies and used for immunization, has inside it (‘within’) a word meaning ‘jaundiced’ from which the last letter has been omitted (‘mostly). You will probably have guessed by this time that I was less than enthusiastic about the ‘yielding’.

18d Sun out before canonical hour is up, concealing nothing (8)
An anagram (‘out’) of SUN is followed by a reversal (‘up’) of a word for one of the hours of the Divine Office, originally held at the third hour of the day (hence the name).

25d Is fed without second, hot, salt-free (5)
A word meaning ‘is fed’ (or ‘gets on’, often with ‘well’) is deprived of its second letter (‘without second’) and followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘hot’.

27d Race whose winner is auctioned without right saddle once (5)
The six-letter term for a horse race where the winner is offer for sale loses the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘right’, the result being an obsolete (‘once’) word for a saddle.

29d Get penny for leak (4)
A three-letter word meaning ‘get’ (as you might ‘get’ what someone is trying to say) is followed by the current abbreviation for ‘penny’.

(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 2,734 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

Just before I started on the puzzle, I found myself explaining the meaning of the term ‘yakka’, which I first came across in the title of cricketer-turned-pundit Simon Hughes’ book A Lot of Hard Yakka. The first clue that I looked at in this puzzle happened to be 7a, which (in addition to being mildly spooky) boded well for the rest of the solve. This indeed turned out to be one of Azed’s very friendliest offerings – in general, even if the entry was obscure the wordplay led straight to the answer (or just a couple of possibilities). The only exceptions of any significance were 1a and 5d, and it was only their presence that inched the difficulty rating past 1.

Note that the definition in 3d is slightly awry – instead of ‘referring to ancient deity’ it should be something like ‘sacred to ancient deity’.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 29a, “Account’s settled in return of price paid – in this? (6)”. The usual two-letter abbreviation for ‘account’ is ‘settled in’ a reversal (‘return’) of the price paid for the temporary use of something, with the definition being (loosely) provided by the whole clue. It is clear that qualifying the ‘price paid’ further would make an ‘&lit’ unfeasible, but can the setter simply leave bits of the Chambers definition out when it suits them? I don’t think there is a simple answer to that – ROULETTE is defined as a ‘game of chance’, but ‘game’ on its own would surely not be unfair, as it belongs to the general class of ‘games’, just as FLUTE belongs to the ‘instruments’. But RANSOM, say, is the ‘price of redemption or reclamation’, and it seems to me that there is no class to which prices belong, so neither ‘the price paid for the use of anything’ nor ‘price of redemption or reclamation’ can legitimately be pared down to just ‘price’ or ‘price paid’.

Across

1a Scottish dress (old-fashioned) one kept in sanctuary once (6)
One of those clues where the answer and the key wordplay element are both obscure (the former being Scottish and obsolete, the latter historical). An alternative wordplay would be ‘grand name given to Rovers in Kircaldy’.

13a Printer’s odd-job man returned written work at fault (5)
A two-letter abbreviation for ‘manuscript’ (‘written work’) must be reversed (‘returned’) ahead of a word meaning (among many other things) ‘at fault’ or ‘inaccurate’. If ever a word sounded like a candidate for ‘origin obscure’, this one does, and it doesn’t disappoint in that respect.

14a Dance to jazz stuff – nothing found in music authority? (6)
The usual single-character representation of ‘nothing’ is contained by (‘found in’) the surname of the engineer and author famed for his Dictionary of Music and Musicians. As well as editing the original four-volume work, he contributed several entries to it including the biographies of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schubert. The dictionary, with regular revisions, has remained a standard work of reference, and is now available online. Apparently, the 1980 edition included a couple of hoax entries (for Dag Henrik Esrum-Hellerup and Guglielmo Baldini); neither lasted beyond the first printing. 

19a Like a sourpuss dancing reel in the grass in America (9)
An anagram (‘dancing’) of REEL is contained by an American word for a type of grass which grows as a weed among wheat (also the name of a popular board game).

26a No longer last, race’s leader coming in directly (4)
The first letter of ‘race’ (“race’s leader”) is contained by (‘coming in’) a word for ‘directly’ which is only ever seen these days when followed by one of the four main points of the compass.

30a Evergreen timber, lustreless, of prime quality (5)
A three-letter word for ‘lustreless’ (spelt by Dulux et al with four letters) is followed by the two characters which for many years were used in the Lloyd’s Register of Shipping to designate a vessel whereof both the hull (the first character) and the fittings (the second character) were in good order.

33a Painter accompanying crumbling residence (6)
I am all in favour of setters coming up with innovative ways of disguising ‘hidden’ clues, given their lack of inherent difficulty, but I think ‘accompanying’ is a bridge too far. The strange thing is that it seems to make no sense in the context of the surface reading. Shouldn’t the painter be ‘inhabiting’ or ‘occupying’ the residence?

Down

4d Measure in physics child on a lathe got wrong (9, 2 words)
A three-letter word for a small child (or drink) is followed by an anagram (‘got wrong’) of A LATHE. The answer is (5,4).

5d Mangle leg twisted under hole in bog (6)
An anagram (‘twisted’) of LEG follows a word which is used in two opposite senses – it can either mean a pit or softer area in a bog (Scott: “To assist his companion to cross the black intervals of quaking bog, called in the Scottish dialect ???s, by which the firmer parts of the morass were intersected”) or a piece of firmer ground rising out of a peat bog (Sir Walter again: “A small and shaggy nag, That through a bog, from ??? to ???, Could bound like any Billhope stag”). The answer is more often associated with assertive price negotiation than mangling..

9d Smart person with small bottle of Scotch – one may fashion dough in US (12)
The first part of the 6-6 solution doesn’t describe a smart person, it’s simply a person; they are only ‘smart’ when the word is so qualified, similarly if they are ‘tough’ (interestingly, the ‘smart’ example has been replaced in Chambers by the ‘tough’ one, perhaps something to do with data protection). Without that ‘Smart’, the clue is fine. The bottle holds half a mutchkin, which is really not mutch at all [it was either that or a Wizard of Oz ‘joke’].

11d Chaps putting away litre in content of tankard? Rarely pleasant (5)
A three-letter word for ‘chaps’ is replacing (‘putting away’) the usual abbreviation for ‘litre’ in a three-letter word for the sort of stuff that could be served in a tankard.

23d Tree yielding both oil and nuts? Draw up between two (6)
A word meaning ‘to draw’ is reversed (‘up’) in the pair of Roman numerals representing two (‘between two’).

25d Like a king or queen abandoned by prince beforehand (5)
A six-letter word describing festively attired costermongers is deprived of (‘abandoned by’) the usual abbreviation for ‘prince’.

27d Wizard picture I dashed off (4)
A clue with an ‘invisicomma’ between ‘picture’ and ‘I’ has the letter I (from the clue) being ‘dashed off’ a five-letter word for a picture.

28d Domiciled by Bohemia as was, wherein His Excellency resides (4)
The IVR code for the country which includes the area formerly known as Bohemia has the abbreviation for ‘His Excellency’ inside (‘wherein…resides’). The rather ungainly start to the clue, where ‘Domiciled in’ would be much more natural than ‘Domiciled by’, is the result of the answer having as its object a person rather than a place. Even ‘Domiciled by’ strikes me as unsatisfactory. It needs to be something more like ‘In place of’, which would, I suspect, mean the clue having to be rewritten.

(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 2,733 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

Some of the clues in this one looked harder at first blush than they turned out to be, so overall I’ve given it a difficulty rating right in the middle of the spectrum. I didn’t spot any exceptionally fine clues (although 24d was neat), but the overall standard was pretty good.

Clue Writers’ Corner: Azed’s instructions for competition puzzles include a request for you to ‘include a brief explanation of your clue’. In the notes for comp 1,268, he answered the question ‘How concise does the explanation of clues have to be? Can we ramble or will that affect your final decision when it comes to printing VHCs?’ as follows: “Two things to say here: I often edit your explanations for the slip to make the style of these reasonably consistent, or add an explanation when none has been supplied by the competitor. I do like you to supply an explanation, even if you think it hardly needs spelling out, but prefer this to be as brief as absolute clarity will permit. It just helps to make the judging process quicker and easier. And, as I’ve said before, if a clue needs a paragraph or more to explain it, it may be over-complex, a weakness in itself.” In an earlier slip, he had made the telling remark, “A lengthy analysis of a clue’s structure can indicate that its author is not wholly confident of its acceptability.” Yes, that rings horribly true. I would suggest that the explanation of the clue’s cryptic structure should be kept to a few words, eg “B(oris) + anagram of CON HEAD”. However, where clues refer to people, places, events and such, and particularly where the intended references in the surface and cryptic readings are different, I would advise explaining them separately, albeit briefly, eg “Miranda = HART (actor/comedian) / Carmen (singer, dancer)”. If the people etc are so unsung that they require more than a quick ‘nudge to the judge’, then they are almost certainly too obscure for a successful clue.

Across

11a Beef or duck served in wild onion (5)
The usual single-character representation of ‘duck’ (as might be experienced at Lord’s) is contained by (‘served in’) a four-letter wild onion (Allium ????, from the magic herb given to Odysseus to ward off the spells of Circe), producing one spelling of a word for a hornless cow or, indeed, any sort of cow.

16a Traveller going to and fro in playsuit? (6)
Should the ‘traveller’ in the clue be ‘travellers’? Probably, since the traveller that is going forward is a different one from the commercial kind that is going backwards.

18a Drink knocked back, old poet’s addled (4)
A term for the sort of drink that might be described as ‘wee’ (but very likely wouldn’t be!) is reversed, producing a Spenserian past participle of a word meaning ‘to spoil’.

23a What rattles – look at price involved – varied shellfish (12) One of the two similar two-letter words for ‘behold!’ (ie ‘look’) and a four-letter word for ‘price’ are contained (‘involved’) in a word for something that rattles – normally found in pairs and often associated with Mick Jagger, who used his to good effect in the early days of the Rolling Stones.

24a Vagrant person, parasite avoided by CID (4)
A seven-letter parasitic insect loses the consecutive letters CID (‘avoided by CID’); the adjective ‘vagrant’ is used here in the sense of ‘travelling about’.

25a Henry’s included in derisive shout – it omits nothing (8)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘henry’ is contained by the sort of derisive shout that might be directed at a ‘turn’ who is not going down well. The answer is hyphenated, 5-3, and is an adjective rather than a noun, so might better be defined at ‘omitting nothing’.

32a Rankers in army abroad going for foreign lady (6)
The ‘rankers’ are the non-commissioned members of the armed services, ie the ‘other ranks’, and their abbreviation is contained by an Indian word for an army, particularly the paramilitary sort.

33a Primer, once new, held in spoon? (5)
The obsolete name given to an ancient Latin primer (perhaps more familiar to some in the context of Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps) is produced by putting the usual abbreviation for ‘new’ inside a less common spelling of a word meaning ‘to show excessive love’ or ‘to be weakly affectionate’, ie ‘spoon’ in the sense of ‘to indulge in (esp sentimental) courtship’.

34a Founder of democracy (John), first in Seychelles, getting agent’s fee (8)
A three-letter surname and a three-letter word meaning ‘first’ or ‘single’ are contained by the IVR code for the Seychelles, resulting in a 3-5 hyphenated answer. The surname belongs to John (1584-1643), a key supporter of the Petition of Right who played a major part in drafting what was termed the Grand Remonstrance to the King, which didn’t go down well with Charles I. He was one of the five members of parliament whom the monarch arrived at the Commons to arrest on 4 January 1642. The Speaker, William Lenthall, refused to tell the King where they were, saying: ” I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as this house is pleased to direct me whose servant I am here.” The King replied that he had eyes too, and said: “I see the birds have flown”. The solution might suggest not John but Magnus of that ilk.

Down

3d Bomb work mounting: it’s armed at sea (5)
A three-letter slang term for a bomb or mine (reflecting the general shape of some examples thereof) and the usual two-letter abbreviation of the Latin word for ‘work’ are reversed (‘mounting’). The Chambers entry for the answer explains the definition nicely.

4d Weedy group, half crazy to get stuck into beer (5)
Which half of a four-letter word for ‘crazy’ is to be put inside (‘get stuck into’) a word for ‘beer’? Either, since they’re the same.

6d Lewd display? I buzz off following earlier probe (7)
The letter I (from the clue) and a two-letter word answering to ‘buzz off’ follow an obsolete (hence the ‘earlier’) word for a probe.

8d Lamb’s fur, reverse of dark – it lost value (7)
A four-letter word for ‘dark’ or ‘gloomy’ (probably not the spelling that one first thinks of) is followed by a five-letter word for ‘value’ deprived of the consecutive letters IT (‘it lost value’). The cryptic reading requires one of those ‘invisicommas’ to be inserted by the solver between ‘lost’ and ‘value’.

9d What’ll make Jack pack fine porcelain (4)
If you break the answer down into  a (1,2,1) expression, the word JACK with that expression applied will produce PACK.

20d Bad actor circling beach in precious antique? (7)
A three-letter overactor contains (‘circling’) a word for a bathing beach, or the sort of thing which Droitwich has since 1935 offered to those without ready access to the briny.

24d Peevish? Not what I am doffing topper (5)
‘Not what I am’ refers to the type of clue which this patently is not, the resulting six-letter word losing its first letter (‘doffing topper’) to produce the solution.

27d Poll’s associated with me? Poll led by adult maybe (5)
Almost certainly the toughest clue in the puzzle, particularly if you aren’t a G&S (Gilbert and Sullivan, not Gin and Soda) aficionado. The wordplay has a four-letter slang term for the head (as in the Australian expression off one’s ????, according to Chambers) following the usual abbreviation for ‘adult’. The definition references the central character in WS Gilbert’s Bab Ballad The Bumboat Woman’s Story, Pineapple Poll, which inspired the comic ballet Poll Pineapple, choreographed by John Cranko and arranged by Sir Charles Mackerras. It includes music from almost all the G&S operas, and has a happy ending in store for Poll, unlike the ballad:

It’s strange to think that I should ever have loved young men,
But I’m speaking of ten years past—I was barely sixty then;
And now my cheeks are furrowed with grief and age, I trow!
And poor Poll Pineapple’s eyes have lost their lustre now!

(definitions are underlined)