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 2,713 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Based on relatively recent history, I’d say that this plain puzzle was slightly above the average difficulty level. It was a pleasant enough solve, although I felt that several clues were not up to Azed’s usual high standards.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 24a, “Casualty transport serving some maimed evacuees (7)”. In the interests of clarity, I’m not going to beat about the bush regarding the answer to this straightforward ‘hidden’, MEDEVAC being concealed in the last two words. A couple of days ago, correspondent RJHe expressed some surprise that I had not remarked on 17a in last week’s puzzle, where CAD (‘old errand boy’) plus IE produces CADIE (‘Messenger from Scotland formerly’), since the two words are etymologically very similar. In fact, some dictionaries suggest that one is an abbreviation of the other. This constitutes a serious weakness in a clue, and could even be described as mildly unfair, since if you don’t know one of the words you’re unlikely to know the other.

Today’s clue could not be described as unfair, but it’s weaker than Watney’s Red Barrel – MEDEVAC is simply a contraction of ‘medical evacuation’, with ‘evacuation’ and ‘evacuees’ being far too similar. Setters should be careful to avoid clues where the answer and a word in the wordplay share an etymology, particularly if (as in the CADIE clue) they appear as the same part of speech (both nouns in that instance) and there is a similarity in their meaning. Try to avoid using two words which Chambers shows (i) under the same headword (eg TOP as part of the wordplay for TOP HAT),  or (ii) as having the same root (eg POT in the wordplay for POTASH). It is generally considered acceptable to use two meanings of the ‘same’ word in double definition clues, as long as they are completely different and lead specifically to the answer. The clue ‘Rat on lawn’ for GRASS fulfils these criteria – although the definitions are of the same word, the first sense involves a contraction of ‘grasshopper’, rhyming slang for ‘shopper’, which has then evolved into a verb.

Across

4a Russian spy unit treads westward, extremely racist? Not I (8)
A reversal (‘westward’) of a five-letter word meaning ‘treads’ (verb or noun) is followed by a word applied to an extreme racist, from which the letter I has been omitted (‘not I’).

10a A male child at home with little energy requiring treatment for flu (10)
A five part (1,3,3,2,1) charade, comprising A (from the clue), a word for a male, an informal word for a little lad or a small amount, a crossword favourite for ‘at home’, and the usual abbreviation for ‘energy’ (‘little energy’).

11a Set out to capture castle, a blow of old (7)
An anagram(‘out’) of SET containing (‘to capture’) a word for the sort of castle that moves (albeit only in prescribed directions) produces an obsolete form (hence the ‘old’) of a familiar word.

13a Trumpeter maybe showing off abandoned by king (4)
My initial interpretation was that a five-letter word for ‘showing off’ or ‘ostentation’ was to be deprived of the standard abbreviation for ‘king’ as used by Magnus Carlsen et al. This works perfectly well, but as David Mansell has pointed out, Azed undoubtedly intends us to get to the same result by removing the consecutive letters KING from an eight-letter word meaning ‘showing off’ or ‘bragging’. The definition is by example (just as ‘setter’ is a definition by example of DOG, since dogs come in many different varieties), hence the ‘maybe’.

15a Coarse fellow, Henry or Bill, in poetry (4)
A three-letter ‘coarse fellow’ is followed by the usual abbreviation for…well, not ‘Henry’ but ‘henry’. And the definition is a Spenserian (suggested by ‘in poetry’) word for a ‘bill’ or headland. Setters (of the non-canine kind) are allowed to deceptively capitalize words which in the cryptic reading of a clue should start with a lower-case letter, but I find it unsatisfactory. There’s a thought that it’s okay with nouns, because they are on occasion seen with initial capitals when they appear at the start of a sentence; this strikes me as a poor argument, and I would be hard pressed to come up with a sentence beginning ‘Henry…’ which concerns the SI unit of inductance. Much better if you can ‘hide’ the capital by putting a word such as ‘Stokes’ (for ‘S’) at the beginning of a sentence in your clue.

19a Spell of contact sport? It’s murder (6)
Here the wordplay leads to a (2,4) phrase which loosely corresponds to ‘Spell of contact sport’, the first part being a two-letter abbreviation for a particular contact sport. The question mark is definitely required, as this is not an expression that you would ever hear in real life and the order of the elements from the wordplay must be changed.

26a Sri Lanka, southern, mostly producing skinny layers (8)
The IVR code for Sri Lanka is followed by a seven-letter word meaning ‘southern’ missing its last letter (‘mostly’).

29a Dance music performed by singers out of bounds? (4)
A six-letter words for ‘singers’ (shown by Chambers as ‘esp N Am’ and much more familiar in the UK as an adjective) is stripped of its first and last letters (‘out of bounds’).

32a Javanese mulberry? Erect one alongside highway mostly (8)
A two-letter word meaning ‘erect’ is followed by a single-letter word for ‘one’ and a word for a highway, shorn of its final letter (‘mostly’, an unnecessary repetition from 26a).

Down

2d Dame’s place once for Scots chemise (4)
The ‘Dame’ here is the remarkable Sibyl Hathaway, who ruled her island from 1927 to 1974, including a period of occupation between 1940 and 1945. Cars are banned from the island’s roads, with only tractors, bicycles and horse-drawn vehicles allowed; ironically, there were no hedgehogs on the island to benefit from this restriction until they were introduced in the 1980s.

3d Name in floor peg? It reveals fault in timber (8)
The usual abbreviation for ‘name’ is contained by a two-letter verb with its origins in the boxing ring, having the approximate sense of ‘[to] floor’, and a five-letter word for a pin in the side of a boat to keep the oar in place.

4d Night owl resolute about work (7, 2 words)
A five-letter word meaning ‘resolute’ contains the usual abbreviation for a Latin word meaning work. The enumeration is incorrect – while the answer could be (4,3), that would require a definition which led to a verb; here the answer is clearly a noun, and the corresponding word is hyphenated, 4-3, so should be enumerated as (7).

7d Modern trendy, joker in Rhine heading north (7, 2 words)
Another misleading capitalization, this time of ‘Rhine’. A three-letter ‘joker’ is contained by a reversal (‘heading north’) of what is just another spelling of the West Country word ‘rhine’, meaning a ditch or watercourse. I don’t know what RJHe would think, but I don’t like this – it’s much the same as using, say, ‘sett’ to indicate SET.

9d Erstwhile footie star to take dinner out weekly? (4)
We are not looking for the surname of an ‘erstwhile footie star’ from which a four-letter word meaning ‘to take dinner’ must be removed (‘out’), rather the first name of a French World Cup winner who was named FIFA World Player of the Year three times between 1998 and 2003 and is known to his footballing amis as ‘Zizou’. The definition is again by example, so the question mark is required.

17d A lady mostly dressed in sacking? A dazzler often (8)
An anagram (‘dressed’) of A LADY without the last letter (‘mostly’, for the third time this week) is contained by a word for sacking in the material sense.

20d Canoe? One difficult to understand sailor holds up (7)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ and a four-letter word meaning ‘difficult to understand’ or ‘gloomy’ are contained by a reversal (‘up’) of an abbreviation often seen in crosswords indicated by ‘sailor’. There’s a problem here, though – as Monk pointed out on this site a couple of months ago, in a situation like this where the sailor is being reversed but not the other stuff, the operand and the indicator must be next to each other – so the X in ‘X Y holds up’ must be reversed, while ‘X Y up holds’ (so here ‘One difficult to understand sailor up holds’) is the way to indicate that only the container, Y, is to be reversed.

22d Idle chat from peevish old fellow cop ignored after noon (6)
An eight-letter ‘obsolete or dialect’ word for a spider or a peevish person (spiders being well known for their peevishness) has the consecutive letters COP removed (‘ignored’) and is preceded by the usual abbreviation for ‘noon’. Strictly speaking, I suppose, ‘peevish old fellow’ should be ‘old peevish fellow’, since the ‘old’ is there to show that the word is obsolete, but I don’t think it really matters.

26d Rosette, dear in e.g. Savoy (4)
A ‘buy two get one free’ sort of clue, where the third definition is again by example, since not every ???? is a Savoy.

(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 2,712 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

Another ‘plain’, and another puzzle that seemed to me very close to that green band at the centre of the difficulty spectrum.  My thanks to Roslyn for providing a scan of the crossword in its absence from the Guardian website; when I wrote these notes it still hadn’t made an appearance, so there is a possibility of transcription errors in the clues due to manual entry – let me know if you spot any! 

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 6d, “Irani bowling introduces lifted trajectory – it’s intended to disconcert opponent (8)”. An anagram (‘bowling’) of IRANI contains (‘introduces’) a reversal (‘lifted’) of a word meaning ‘trajectory’, the result being the sumo wrestler’s version of the mandatory stare-in at every boxing world championship weigh-in. There are two points that I want to make about the clue. Firstly, the question arises from time to time about the validity of references made in clues to specific personalities – is ‘Tyson?’ acceptable for FURY? In my view, absolutely. But could it also indicate MIKE or FRANK? The fact that I’ve come up with those alternatives means that they came readily to my mind, but how many of the hundred people surveyed would consider them ‘Famous Tysons’? I think MIKE is still fine, since his fame persists, but FRANK is probably remembered now by only cricket fans of a certain age. The question a setter must ask themselves is how the majority of solvers are going to react when they work out the answer – is it ‘Aaah!’ or ‘Huh?’. Here the point is irrelevant – Ronnie Irani wasn’t exactly a household name even in his 1990s heyday, but you don’t need to know who he is in order to solve the clue. The other point this clue raises is how far a setter can stretch synonymity to produce a pleasing surface reading; I know well that feeling when you can’t find a synonym that fits the context and then when you’re about to give up hope you find one in a thesaurus that seems perfect. Consider it very closely! Do the two words really share a meaning? Thesauri include many words for things which are similar but definitely not the same, and you need to think carefully about whether you are being fair to the solver. I think that Azed has pushed things a bit too far here with ‘trajectory’, which seems quite different in meaning from the word it indicates. It’s always worth trying the ‘swap’ test – can you think of a sentence where one word could be replaced by the other without significantly changing the meaning?

Across

1a Abrasive tool limits unsightly smirch in sailor’s hobby (12)
The tool, which might be orbital or belt, contains (‘limits’) an anagram (‘unsightly’) of SMIRCH, and those familiar with the hobby from TV antiques programmes may know it by a similar nine-letter name. Incidentally, I’m no keener on ‘unsightly’ as an anagram indicator than ‘ugly’; they seem quite different from something like ‘disfigured’, which clearly suggests something that was in one state before being twisted into another form. 

9a Clan group turned up behind Scots manor? (4)
A reversal (‘turned’) of UP follows (‘behind’) a Scottish shortened form of a familiar four-letter word for a room in a house or for a manor-house.

12a Old-style lentils etc in soupes à l’étrangère? (6)
My first winning Azed competition clue featured an anagram in French, and here we have ‘à l’étrangère‘ indicating a rearrangement of SOUPES. I’m not sure that in French the phrase carries any sense of being ‘at large’, so it probably needs to be translated into ‘abroad’ before being interpreted cryptically.

18a Clubs provided with money for repetition of parts (6)
The clubs are the sort often wielded in puzzles by bellicose Maoris, and they are followed by (‘provided with’) the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘money’.

23a What’s enfolding shrimati, see? I’m this ———— possibly (5)
A composite anagram &lit, where the letters of SHRIMATI SEE are a potential rearrangement (‘possibly’) of IM THIS plus the solution. If you replace the blank with the answer, then the entire clue constitutes a (reasonably) sensible statement. The word ‘enfolding’ sits a little uneasily in the cryptic reading of the clue.

29a Court damns miscreant, one riding to hounds (8)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] court’ and an anagram (‘miscreant’) of DAMNS combine to produce the answer. I’m not convinced my ‘miscreant’, although it’s always interesting to see an indicator being used that I haven’t encountered before; I would probably have favoured ‘ruffian’ or ‘criminal’. I’m also doubtful about whether the transitive relationship of the solution to ‘foxhunter’ through ‘huntsman’ holds good,  but these are minor quibbles since the clue seems perfectly fair.

32a Head surrounded by escort going round old Jewish ascetics (7)
A four-letter ‘head’ (and a monstrous loch) is contained (‘surrounded’) by a word meaning ‘[to] escort’, and the whole lot is reversed (‘going round’).

33a The old mount special area, heart turning over (4)
The ‘special’ here does not lead to S, rather it qualifies the area as being one that is designated for a specific purpose. The resultant word has its middle letters swapped (‘heart turning over’) to produce the solution, given by Chambers as ‘obsolete’, hence the ‘old’.

Down

2d Sweet treat on marble? Skater may perform this (7)
A  charade of a four-letter ‘sweet treat’ and a ‘large or choice marble’ produces a skating term for a step from either edge on one foot in one direction to the opposite edge on the other foot in an opposite direction. This should on no account be confused with the Mohawk, a step from either edge on one foot in one direction to the same edge on the other foot in an opposite direction. Don’t try either at home.

3d Essayist’s harsh attack about capital (6)
A four-letter word for an attack contains the usual abbreviation for ‘upper-case’, shown by Chambers as representing ‘upper-case, ie capital’. It’s an odds-on chance that an ‘essayist’ will turn out to be Charles Lamb, aka Elia, and so it proves here.

5d Muslim of glorious memory has endless bubbliness (5)
The word HAS without its last letter (‘endless’) is followed by a word for ‘bubbliness’ that you might think has also lost its terminal character, but the three-letter form is an alternative spelling given by Chambers. The meaning given by that volume to the answer will explain the definition.

7d Shrines for holy ones, erected like Gaudi’s masterpiece mostly? (6)
Like the word which is going upwards (‘erected’) here, the masterpiece of Antoni Gaudi is unfinished. He started work on the ??????? Familia in Barcelona in 1883, and less than a quarter of the building was finished at the time of his death in 1926. The Spanish Civil War brought construction to a halt, although it was restarted in the 1950s and the thing is now more than half complete; another hundred years or so ought to do the trick, although it seems that some of the biggest constructional challenges remain. In 2010, what there is of it was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI.

10d Source of oil is shortly found in pork lard (6)
One of those clues that may involve getting the answer from the definition and working back to understand the wordplay, where a shortened form of ‘is’ is contained by (‘found in’) a word for lard made from pork fat, which isn’t shown by Chambers or OED as being obsolete but which I don’t remember coming across in Delia’s Complete Cookery Course.

11d Small monkey, one dashed off by Venetian master (4)
A two-letter word meaning ‘one’ is removed from (‘dashed off’) the name given in English to Tiziano Vecelli, the great Italian Renaissance painter who features in a rather fine limerick of my acquaintance, which I won’t include here for fear that it might prove a touch too risqué for the sensibilities of one regular correspondent 😉.

15d Beauty husband cut, a composite – great mishap (8)
An informal word for a beauty (along the lines of ‘peach’) with the usual abbreviation for ‘husband’ removed (‘cut’) is followed by the name of a familiar plant belonging to the Compositae (see the definition of ‘composite’ in Chambers).

19d Short blades and so on alternating with call for help (6)
The letters of a three-latter abbreviation meaning ‘and so on’ and  a three-letter appeal for help are regularly interwoven (‘alternating’) to produce the answer.

20d RC decoration encountered around part of Yorkshire? (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘encountered’  contains (‘around’) the sort of thing that you would be very disappointed not to see if you booked a holiday in a particular area of Yorkshire.

27d Second-rate tea, black – gosh! – with running water added (5)
A charade of the usual abbreviation for ‘black’, a two-letter exclamation of surprise (ie ‘gosh!’), and a dialect word for running water which frequently flows through cryptic clues.

28d Belief in supposed force? Nothing to uncover – ask away (5)
The single letter representing ‘nothing’ is followed by a seven-letter word meaning ‘to uncover’, from which the consecutive letters ASK have been omitted (‘ask away’).

(definitions are underlined)

In the absence of the puzzle on the Guardian website, and with thanks to Roslyn,  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 2,711 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

A plain competition puzzle which I probably made harder work of than I needed to, but I would still rate it as close to the middle of the difficulty spectrum. It struck me as being a perfectly good crossword, though perhaps lacking the élan of Azed’s very finest. The word ‘about’ appears as a containment indicator in no fewer than four clues, which seems to me like three too many.

Clue Writers’ Corner: There are certain ‘tricks’ that setters have to enable them to improve a surface reading without destroying the cryptic reading of a clue; these can  come in very handy on occasion. Azed uses some of his favourites in this puzzle:

1. Words linking the wordplay to the definition, or vice versa. In 15d, the wordplay is ‘getting’ the definition, while in 18a, the definition is ‘showing’ the wordplay; without these linking words the clues would make no sense.
2. Foreshadowing a wordplay element such that it can be referenced later in the clue. 5a is a good example of this, where the ‘Scotch stuff’ serves to introduce a word which does not become actively involved in the wordplay until it appears as ‘that’ at the end of the clue. The succinct version of the clue, ‘Glittering secretive about Scotch stuff’, is meaningless.
3. Using a pronoun to represent the solution, eg “I’m fat” for LARD. Plenty of examples here, including the ‘it’ in 3d (standing in for an adjective) and 4d (for a noun). The ‘She’ in 33a has two purposes – to represent the answer and to indicate that it is a feminine form.

If you’ve got a got a promising clue that nearly works – but not quite – then if you’ve run out of options in terms of changing individual words, look at how the clue might be rephrased to get round the problem. If you still can’t fix the issue, then it is probably time to ‘park’ that idea and try something else. You can always come back to it, but there’s no point submitting a clue which you know is unsatisfactory, no matter how much you like the concept.

Across

5a Glittering Scotch stuff – secretive about that (7)
A three-letter word for ‘secretive’ contains (‘about’) a Scots word meaning ‘[to] stuff’ (‘that’, ie ‘Scotch stuff’)

10a Couple of queens or a threesome? (9)
The question mark here really belongs to the ‘couple of queens’, suggesting a (4,5) phrase which equates to the (4-5) solution. In my youthful days (and long, long nights) of playing three card brag, we used to call this sort of threesome a ‘prial’ (though at the time I had no idea of its derivation, nor of how it was spelt, assuming that it was probably ‘prile’), with a prial of 3’s being the best hand of all (its happy arrival far too often coinciding with all the other players being dealt complete rubbish).

12a Sugary enzyme contained in blood vessel, right inside (8)
A (2,4) phrase meaning ‘contained in blood vessel’ (I would have preferred ‘contained by’, otherwise why bother with ‘contained’ at all) has the two-letter abbreviation for ‘right’ put inside.

16a Harsh tax north of the border about clear (8)
A five-letter Scottish tax (or a device to keep a bodily vessel such as that in 12a open) contains a word meaning ‘[to] clear’ (often indicated in cryptic clues by ‘free’).

18a One in suit showing the human body back to front (5)
‘Human body’ is probably one of the less familiar meanings of the word which is not to be turned the wrong way round but is to have the last letter (its back) moved to the start (its front); a more familiar meaning would be ‘the world’.

23a System for weighing left page caught in publicity (5)
Here the ‘left page’ doesn’t lead to two single-letter abbreviations, rather the two-letter abbreviation for the left-hand page of an open book. This is contained by (‘caught in’) a word for ‘publicity’, this one often indicated in cryptics by ‘broadcast’. The answer is the abbreviation referred to in the postamble.

27a Iris, not the character to lead in folk dance (5)
The name given to a type of English folk dance is deprived of its first letter (‘not the character to lead’) in order to produce the answer.

32a SA chap involved in disturbed matter with English, a minor affair (9)
A two-letter informal South African word for a man is contained by (‘involved in’) an anagram (‘disturbed’) of MATTER, the whole lot being followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘English’.

34a Will’s beetle we released from prong? (4)
The consecutive letters WE (from the clue) are released from a six-letter word for a type of prong used in cookery, the result being a Shakespearean word – this is Azed, so we can be pretty sure that the ‘beetle’ is not a relation of Alexander, but what Alexander chose to do after Nanny mistakenly opened the door of his match-box house.

Down

2d Start of hole in tooth causing anxiety (7)
A cryptic mindset is generally very helpful when reading clues, but here I saw ‘Start of hole’ and immediately translated it into H. As I eventually worked out, that isn’t what needs to be put inside a four-letter word for a tooth, instead it is a term for the starting point of a hole at golf.

3d Note Mac’s ball comes in – it’s not appropriate for wicket (7)
A Scots word for a ball ‘comes in’ (ie ‘arrives inside’) the sort of note that might be found in a wallet. The definition is intended to suggest that the (4-3) adjective which results would be inappropriate to describe a wicket gate.

4d Lung infection about over – it lasts a very long time (5)
The acronym applied to a respiratory disease first identified in 2002 contains (‘about’) the usual cricketing abbreviation for ‘over’. A cycle of 6,585 days (and eight hours) might seem astronomical enough, but in Babylon the answer here was the name given to the number 3,600, and thus (supposedly) to a period of 3,600 years, although a contrasting view that it consisted of 3,600 days has been proposed in order to rationalize the seemingly incredible statements of Berossos with regard to the lengths of the reigns of the antediluvian kings of Babylon.

9d Non-professional, i.e. amateur, I’ll appear in left centre (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘amateur’ and the letter I (from the clue) are contained by the theatrical abbreviation for ‘left centre’.

15d Resentment about wretch getting trading licence (8)
A five-letter word for ‘resentment’ or ‘vexation caused by wounded pride’ contains (‘about’, once again) a word for a wretch or a despicable person.

20d Give a ticking-off for singular mess (7)
In its plural form, the singular answer can be a mess, or nonsense; as it appears here, it means something along the lines of ‘[to] give a ticking-off’, although I think that might suggest something rather milder. It is usually seen as the verbal noun, eg in this snippet from the TLS:

Sir John French, CIGS, came down for open day at ‘The Shop’, gave everyone a ???????ing for slackness and indiscipline, and shortly afterwards retired the Commandant.

25d Liquors (Scotch) making pound by the sound of it (5)
The homophone could be for ‘beers (English)’ as well as ‘[to] pound’ (the required meaning of the latter is confirmed by Chambers).

26d Heads for the Levant, food containing hint of spice (5)
I was less interested by ‘Heads for’ as a first letter selection indicator than ‘Start of’ in 2d, ‘TL’ being an unlikely start to a word (‘Tlingit’ notwithstanding). An informal term for food contains the first letter (‘hint’) of SPICE; the second definition in Chambers for ‘Levant’ makes it a perfect fit in this clue, by dint not just of its sense but also of its age.

(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 2,710 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

The recent numbering issue seems to have been sorted out on the Guardian website, which this week brings us a puzzle that I found hard to assess from a difficulty perspective. Very few ‘gimmes’, but nothing that took me too long to solve/parse either, so I’ve taken the easy way out and put it right in the middle of the range.

Incidentally, I see that in the solution notes for 2,707, Azed confirms that the ‘itchy’ word in 8d that was reduced by half was indeed PRURIENT; this always seemed more likely than the equally valid, but less familiar, PRURITIC.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 33a, “Club court (5)”. Clues consisting of just two words are likely to be of the ‘double definition’ sort, and so it proves here. The ‘club’ is a golf club, while the ‘court’ is a verb, having the the sense of ‘to woo’. This is a good example of a ‘2 defs’ clue, a type which when nicely executed will fulfil certain basic criteria. First and foremost, the definitions must lead either to two entirely different words or (as here) two completely  different senses of the same word – ‘Be careful to pay attention’ for MIND would be a very poor clue. Misdirection is important – suggesting different parts of speech in the surface reading is good (here ‘court’ appears to be a noun but is a verb in the cryptic reading), likewise (particularly if the two definitions relate to the same headword) the definitions being of different parts of speech. Glaringly obvious senses of the word(s) being defined should be avoided, and the clue as a whole should establish a misleading context (here, tennis). The word clued is almost certain to be relatively short, and at least one sense should be familiar to most, if not all, solvers. Double definition clues can add variety to a puzzle and be enjoyable to solve, but they should not be overused, and as much care should go into their construction as any other sort of clue.

So let’s pick a word with plenty of meanings, SPOT. Informal or slang senses can be a good place to start, and ‘spot’ has an informal meaning of ‘a small quantity’. A one-word synonym  is ‘little’, a noun which could appear to be an adjective in the surface reading. What about meanings of the verb ‘spot’? A familiar sense is ‘to notice’, and ‘notice’ can also serve as a noun. If we put the two together, we end up with ‘Little notice’. Before using the clue, we need to ask ourselves whether it could lead to more than one valid answer – a double definition clue for SPOT could easily lead also to MARK. This one looks ok, and while it’s not a great clue it shows how a respectable  double definition clue can be put together.

Across

1a Trip freely with disco music around – such as this? (7)
An anagram (‘freely’) of TRIP has a three-letter  informal word for a dance with pop music (‘disco music’ doesn’t quite hit the spot for me) put outside it (‘with … around’) to produce the name of a musical genre to which Damon Albarn and the Gallagher brothers made telling contributions. Which makes me think of Noel’s description of Liam, ‘a man with a fork in a world of soup’.

14a Dull shrub found around foreign state (8)
A four-letter shrub (which shares its name with the cupbearer of Olympus) contains (‘around’) the French word for a state, the result being one of those ‘formal’ words which largely remain captive in thesauri.

16a Lizard to pester losing tail, last character thereof? (6)
A five-letter word meaning ‘to pester’ is deprived of its last letter (‘losing tail’) and is followed by the name of the letter at the end of ‘tail’ (‘last character thereof’, ie of ‘tail’).

19a Convert a degree making switch – little new in that (8)
An anagram (‘making switch’) of A DEGREE includes the usual abbreviation for ‘new’ (‘little new in that’).

21a At a display, in being admitted (8)
The letter A (from the clue) and a five-letter word for ‘display’ (particularly of the ‘pomp and ceremonial dignity’ sort) contain the letters IN (again from the clue, ‘in being admitted’). The definition is not a word but a symbol.

27a Develop fondness, returning half of it (6)
A four-letter word for ‘fondness’ is reversed (‘returning’) ahead of the same word (in the normal direction) with half missing (‘half of it’, ‘it’ being the fondness word).

31a With duty performed, we hear, as directed (4)
I think Azed has been a bit naughty with this homophone clue. He is using ‘performed’ in the sense of ‘rendered’, but it’s a bit of a stretch. The answer sounds like a word meaning ‘with tax charged’.

32a Feature of wartime, castle holding on a bit, battered (10, 2 words)
The castle here is not in the air or Spain, but on the chessboard. It is seen containing (‘holding’) an anagram (‘battered’) of ON A BIT to produce a (6,4) solution.

Down

1d Little weak hush oddly retained by supporters, country-dwellers (12)
An anagram (‘oddly’) of the usual abbreviation for ‘weak’ (‘little weak’) and HUSH is contained (‘retained’) by a seven-letter word for supporters.

2d Rat tailed quivering mouse, spurred? (7)
The word RAT (from the clue) has its last letter removed (‘tailed’) and is followed by an anagram (‘quivering’) of MOUSE.

6d Those heartlessly after poet’s favour, keening for him (6)
I’m not too keen (no pun intended) on clues like this, where both the answer and an element of the wordplay are obscure words, albeit the latter here is a variant spelling of a more familiar word. The outside letters of THESE (‘these heartlessly’) come after a word for ‘favour’ given by Chambers as Spenserian. It had been around for a while before he used it, and it survived for a while longer, at least in the phrase ‘good ????’ or ‘goodly ????’.

8d Tree creature, passerine but not German (4)
A seven-letter word for ‘any passerine bird of the S American subfamily Thraupinae, closely related to the buntings’ has the three-letter letter abbreviation for ‘Germany’ omitted (‘not German’). The answer is confirmed by Chambers but perhaps erroneously, as it seems that the correct name of the critter in question is ‘Tupaia ????’.

9d Page with English lord, devious and pathetic, one laying claim to throne (12, 2 words)
An anagram (‘devious’) of the usual abbreviations for ‘page’ and ‘English’ together with LORD is followed by a word which has a meaning of ‘pathetic’ but is more familiar in its sense of ‘soft’ or ‘delicate’. I cannot see the (3,9) solution without thinking of Percy Warmneck.

12d Bucks, last in bank, stuff labelled ‘audit’ (4)
The last letter of ‘bank’ combines with the type of drink which was brewed for the day of audit at some Oxford and Cambridge colleges, producing a US slang word for money. The definition requires no geographical qualification, since ‘bucks’ in the sense of moolah is similarly North American.

15d Sedge plant yielding unpleasant smell, dry in Congo grown wild (9, 2 words)
A two-letter abbreviation for an unpleasant smell is followed by an abbreviation of similar length indicating abstinence from strong liquor contained by an anagram (‘grown wild’) of CONGO. The solution is (3,6).

20d Underrate fee, about to wash up (7)
A three-letter ‘fee’ or thing owed contains (‘about’) a reversal of an archaic word meaning ‘to wash’.

22d Men in the field dismissing bat for quid pro quo (6)
A nine-letter word meaning ‘a body of men drawn up in battle array’ has the consecutive letters BAT removed (‘dismissing bat’), the result being an old legal word meaning something along the lines of ‘tit for tat’.

28d Nick part of hiking kit, bed removed (4)
An eight-letter word for something that could well be carried on a hiking trip has a four-letter word for a bed (of the sort you might ‘hit’ when retiring) omitted (‘removed’).

(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 2,709 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

The index page on  the Guardian website seems to have got a bit confused about numbering, having jumped last week to ‘2,798’ and clicked over this week to ‘2,799’; the number on the puzzle itself is correct, though. Perhaps I hadn’t fully woken up (which might explain why it took me a long while to spot the ‘hidden’ at 1a), but my progress on this one was less than spectacular. In several clues (eg 12a, 18a, 28d) the definition or wordplay included an uncommon word masquerading as a familiar one The limited linkage between the left and right halves of the puzzle didn’t make things any easier, so I’m inclined to put the difficulty of the puzzle at no lower than the middle of the scale. Those who had performed suitable mental exercises prior to tackling it may well disagree, of course.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 17d, “Endless fresh air in French region, what some of us regret leaving (8)”. The wordplay here involves OZONE (‘fresh air’, a loose sense of the word, given by Chambers) without its last letter (‘Endless’) being contained by the name of a French department. Since the latter ends with an E, the truncated OZON becomes whole again in the solution. Clearly it’s not an error, as the wordplay is entirely sound, but, rather like two answers in one puzzle which start with the same four or five letters, for me it seems mildly unsatisfactory. In my own clues I try to avoid this situation, and there are usually alternatives which include the ‘offending’ word in its entirety. Here, something like “Feel regret over fresh air, something British have left behind” would be fine.

Across

11a Mostly unforeseen rain damaged Aussie tree? (9)
It took me a while to think of the synonym for ‘unforeseen’ which must be deprived of its last letter (‘Mostly’) and placed in front of an anagram (‘damaged’) of RAIN – among the Chambers definitions, ‘relaxed’ and ‘off-hand’ would certainly have got me there quicker.

12a Trot, end of it? It may have obscured hoof (6)
This one may well require a consultation with Chambers, specifically regarding trot², at which point the first five letters of the solution will suddenly become clear. Is the last letter the end of ‘it’ or of ‘trot’? A question of purely academic interest, to which only Azed knows the answer.

13a Grand euphoria on leaving for Roman holiday treats? (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘grand’ is followed by a seven-letter word for ‘euphoria’ from which the consecutive letters ON have been lost (‘on leaving’).

18a Less of frequently broadcast Lewis! (5)
Azed has been just a teensy bit naughty here in deceptively capitalizing the word ‘Lewis’ – I’m sure that he would have preferred to ‘hide’ the initial capital at the beginning of a sentence, but it’s hard to see how he could have done that and achieved a surface reading which continued to suggest that Morse’s former sidekick was hogging the airwaves. If you ignore the capital and take advice from Chambers, you will see how the answer fits with the wordplay, where a five-letter word for ‘frequently’ with the letters OF omitted (‘Less of’) combines with a two-letter word for ‘[currently being] broadcast’.

20a Vamp, cocotte, favourite dropped (5)
An eight-letter cocotte has a three-letter word for ‘favourite’ taken away (‘dropped’) to produce a word which equates roughly to vamp² in Chambers – actually, the Chambers definition, emphasizing the inartistic nature of the latter, makes the two verbs seem closer in meaning than the OED does.

27a River level reduced? Chap’ll net that sort of yabby (5)
The usual abbreviation of ‘River’ and a single letter designating a particular exam, formerly taken by school students in England and Wales, are contained by a three-letter word for a chap (“Chap’ll net that”). Azed is clearly something of an expert on antipodean crustaceans, so I’ll take his word for it regarding the definition.

31a I exude strong odour – nothing against lives containing that (6)
The single-letter representation of ‘nothing’, the single letter for ‘against, and a two-letter word meaning ‘lives’ are put around (‘containing’) a two-letter abbreviation for a strong – and typically unpleasant – odour (‘that’, ie ‘strong odour’).

33a Slip-on, dry, puckering in the middle (6)
The two-letter abbreviation for ‘dry’ in the abstinent sense has a word for puckering put inside; the solution is hyphenated, 1-5.

34a What’ll get such root veg in flourishing – dewiness? (6)
A composite anagram, though not perhaps one of Premier League standard, where the answer (‘such root veg’) and IN can be rearranged (‘flourishing’) to produce DEWINESS. The phrasing of the clue just about works cryptically.

Down

1d Exploit including Custer being trounced with soldiers in old uniform (singular) (12)
A three-letter exploit contains an anagram (‘being trounced’) of CUSTER followed by a familiar three-letter word for ‘soldiers’. The ‘(singular)’ is there because Chambers indicates that when having the required sense the answer is usually in the plural.

2d Rubinstein often includes it added to page in Bach’s score? (8)
The great Polish-American pianist liked to be known as ‘Arthur’ in English-speaking countries (as well as America 😉), but here it is the five-letter name given to him by his parents (ie ‘Rubinstein often’) which contains (‘includes’) IT (from the clue), the combination being preceded by (‘added to’) the usual abbreviation for ‘page’. Bach appears in the definition to show that the answer is the German form of a word for a musical score, being itself defined as “Zusammenstellung aller zu einem Musikstück gehörenden Stimmen”. So there.

8d Protection for warhorse farm fashioned in links (9)
An anagram (‘fashioned’) of FARM is contained by something which consists of multiple links.

10d A raincoat inside a vest is hiding dietary shortages (12)
The four-letter Japanese hempen raincoat last seen in 2,702 makes another appearance (a few days late for those living round here). Here it is preceded by A (from the clue) and contained by another A (also from the clue) and an anagram of VEST IS. There is only one possible anagram indicator, the intransitive participle ‘hiding’. I would suggest that Azed has chosen the ‘least worst’ option which allows the surface reading to work, but it is left to readers to decide where the sole Chambers definition of the verb, “to go into, or to stay in, concealment”, suggests any kind of rearrangement or disturbance.

14d Alchemist’s compound friar briefly included in hot meal, cooked (9)
The ‘friar briefly’ who is to be included in an anagram (‘cooked’) of HOT MEAL is not an abbreviation of ‘friar’ but of ‘brother’.

19d Barges, heavy weight, opening connecting part (7)
A three-letter ‘heavy weight’ is put inside (‘opening’) a word from anatomy for a connecting part, taken directly from the Latin for a bridge (which could in turn be ‘asinorum’ or ‘Fabricius’).

24d Something to recline on I chucked in quarry (6)
The letter I (from the clue) is ‘chucked into’ a word for the object of a pursuit (‘quarry’), more often used to describe the pursuit itself.

28d Harrow, as of old, finally ends off (4)
Another one which will repay a look at Chambers, the definition relating to harrow². The wordplay has both words in a (2,4) phrase meaning ‘finally’ losing their last letters (‘ends off’).

(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 2,708 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

This wasn’t the easiest Azed, but it was a long way from being the most difficult, with several ‘hiddens’ and some straightforward anagrams helping to smooth the solver’s passage. Having considered the clue for 17a at some length, I can only conclude that it is faulty.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 14a, “Cry from anonymous boat (4)”. I very recently had an electronic conversation with a correspondent about types of &lit clue and – lo and behold – Azed has provided an example of one subspecies here. In the ‘true’ &lit, such as Colin Dexter’s “Item gran arranged family slides in?” for MAGIC LANTERN, the entire clue serves both as a cryptic indication of the answer (in this example CLAN ‘slides into’ an anagram of ITEM GRAN) and as a definition of it – due to the nature of such clues, this will rarely, if ever, be a succinct ‘dictionary-style’ definition, rather an indication of the solution. A top-notch &lit clue is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the clue writer’s art, but the intrinsic difficulty of producing them often manifests itself either in strained wordplay – the &lit can contain superfluous words as long as they do not adversely affect the cryptic interpretation – or extremely ‘loose’ definitions.

The clue here is not a true &lit, and indeed it could be considered to be a simple definition + wordplay clue, the definition being ‘Cry’. However, there is no doubt that the words ‘from anonymous boat’ enhance the definition, and the question mark at the end serves to indicate that the cry might or might not come from an anonymous boat. This is therefore a clue of the type which Ximenes termed an ‘offshoot &lit’, where the entire clue serves as the definition of the answer but only part of the clue leads cryptically to it.

Across

12a Wild Irish robber getting cut in loot (8)
A four-letter word meaning ‘[to] cut [the outer surface of]’ is contained by a word meaning ‘[to] loot’ or ‘to violate’.

16a Acid that ruins coutil (6)
My first thought was that ‘Acid’ was an inaccurate definition, but since Chambers gives a meaning of the answer as ‘containing [a particular] acid’, then I suppose that it could be argued that  ‘having the properties of an acid’ could come to much the same thing. In any event, I tend to be relaxed about slightly questionable definitions when the wordplay is as simple as the one here.

17a Falconer’s charge, one held in three lines (7)
I do my breakfast solve without Chambers, checking as necessary after (replete with Toastie) I retire to the blogging room. For this clue, I wrote in an answer ending in L, assuming that the result of the Roman numeral representing ‘one’ being ‘held in’ a six-letter word for a male hawk would turn out to mean ‘a group of three lines’. I realised my error when 13d produced a clash at the intersection of the two entries, but whilst the ‘three lines’ could potentially supply either the answer or an alternative six-letter spelling which would be ‘holding’ the ‘one’, there is no bird of prey which fits the bill (no pun intended). Chambers does offer a nine-letter hawk which could produce the required answer by the omission of EL (or LE), but the wordplay as it stands can’t account for that. Something like “Three lines – turned out one such has been released from falconer’s charge” would work [TIERCELET – L(in)E].

19a Carmen, say, individual life-force around opera’s denouement (4)
The last letter (denouement) of ‘opera’ is contained by the three-letter word from Chinese medicine for an individual’s life-force (as well as being a letter of the Greek alphabet). Bizet’s opera was based on a novella by Prosper Mérimée, who got the idea from a story told to him by the Spanish Countess de Montijo. He wrote to her, “It was about that ruffian from Málaga who had killed his mistress, who consecrated herself exclusively to the public. As I have been studying the Gypsies for some time, I have made my heroine a Gypsy.” She remains so in the opera, but is arguably only a heroine in the non-judgmental sense of ‘the central female character in a story, play, film, etc.’

21a Brilliant performer topping bill, taking wing with luminance (7)
A four-letter word for a performer who tops the bill contains a two-letter (US) term for a wing which gives a building a particular shape and the standard abbreviation for ‘luminance’.

26a Reticent nursemaid, thoroughly contained (8)
Both the solution and the nursemaid come from France, with the latter containing a three-letter word meaning ‘thoroughly’, or ‘completely’, as seen in phrases such as  ‘decked ??? or ‘rigged ???’.

28a Case, note, leading to jail (6, 2 words)
A five-letter word for a zoological, botanical or anatomical sheath and the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘note’ produce a (3,3) slang term for jail. Incidentally, Azed will never use ‘note’ to indicate an arbitrary letter between A and G; I suspect that his view is similar to mine, that it would be akin to using ‘letter’ to indicate a single character between A and Z.

31a Necklace for Roman (4)
A neat clue, a familiar two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘for’ being followed by a two-letter abbreviation applied to people or things associated with a specific religion.

32a One applying pressure or trailing calamity? I’d back off (8)
The letters OR (from the clue) are here following (‘trailing’) an eight-letter word for ‘calamity’ or ‘extreme suffering’ from which a reversal (‘back’) of ID has been removed (‘off’).

33a Instalment as before controls a wee bittie mixed (old) (13)
The sort of controls that would be helpful when riding a horse combine with four-letter words for a small portion (Scots) and for ‘mixed’ (an old past participle of an archaic word). The ‘as before’ on this occasion does not indicate an obsolete term but is actually part of the definition.

Down

2d Chef after removing tail brought round hot salmon (4)
A rather prosaic term for a chef is deprived of its last letter (‘removing tail’) and put round the usual abbreviation for ‘hot’.

4d Estates of a kind, special, landed with time in a bundle (11, 2 words)
The two-letter abbreviation for ‘special’ and a three-letter word meaning ‘landed’ are followed by a five-letter word for a bundle ( sometimes surgical, sometimes consisting of fruit) into which the usual abbreviation for ‘time’ has been inserted. The solution is (5,6), and the estates in question are the sort that would be the subject of a will.

5d Tough apparently, and long (6)
Another neat little clue, the two-letter abbreviation for ‘apparently’ preceding a four-letter word meaning ‘[to] long’.

6d Molluscs? There’s adult out in lake swimming with purpose (11)
The first part of the entry is an anagram (‘swimming’) of the usual abbreviation for ‘adult’, OUT IN, and the usual abbreviation for lake. A four-letter word for an aim or purpose brings up the rear.

9d What’s left of joint cut short? (5)
A double definition clue, where a misspent youth (or, indeed, misspent adulthood) could be helpful in identifying the rolled-up piece of cardboard, often culled from the flap of a cigarette packet, which would form the butt of a special, handcrafted cigarette.

10d Cheerful maestro lifts his stick for this (6)
Another double definition clue; the second word is hyphenated and the first is not, but there is rather too much etymological similarity between the two for my liking.

13d Being shy, one constant in make-believe, hiding head (9)
The Roman numeral representing ‘one’ and the usual abbreviation for ‘constant’ are contained by an eight-letter word for ‘make-believe’ from which the first letter has been deleted (‘hiding head’).

22d Musician as once found in catalogue (6)
The Latin word for ‘as’ (only found these days in phrases such as the one for ‘as above’) is contained by a familiar four-letter word for a catalogue.

26d Lancaster’s pierced by his first (rare) outburst (5)
Those ‘of a certain age’ shouldn’t have any problems with this one – it involves the first name by which a major Hollywood star from the last century was universally known containing (‘pierced by’) the first letter of ‘Lancaster’ (ie ‘his first’). The solution is a rare noun form of a common verb.

(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 2,707 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Last week the biggest challenge was finding the abbreviation which (according to the instructions) was not given by Chambers. In hindsight, the abbreviation in question was either so obvious that everyone who read the blog felt that it was kinder not to point it out to me, or it wasn’t there at all. This week, there may not have been many really difficult clues in the puzzle, but there weren’t many easy ones either: no ‘hiddens’, and less straightforward anagrams than Azed often serves up, the result being a puzzle which I felt was past the middle of the difficulty range. There were several clues (1a and 21a, for instance) where familiarity with Azed’s little ways was a distinct advantage. 

Clue Writers’ Corner: With competition words of seven letters or more, anagrams are very much in play. With shorter words, such as this month’s, a ‘straight’ anagram is pretty much ruled out (even if it were a good one, it would be far too obvious). Subtractive anagrams and composite anagrams are still possibilities, but if you look back to the last time a familiar, five-letter adjective was chosen by Azed, you will see that anagrams are not prominent. I don’t think that multiple definitions will feature so strongly in this comp, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the published clues were to include several subtractions of the general sort which appear in many of the clues in today’s puzzle, and I suspect that &lit entries could occupy at least a couple of the podium positions. Hard also to imagine that The Wind in the Willows will not be represented in some shape or form.

Across

3a Female playwright’s in character, one producing rewrite? (10)
There’s just one female playwright who crops up from time to time in Azed’s crosswords, and that is Mrs Behn, Restoration playwright and poet, about whom remarkably little (even the identity of her parents and thus her maiden name) is known. Her forename (together with an S on the end) is contained by a familiar four-letter word for a character or a role. Be careful to put the correct (unchecked) letter at the end of the answer, as required by both the wordplay and the definition.

11a Change for Afghanis? Not quite a thrill (4)
Crossword setters have found many ways over the years of creatively indicating local currency (including ‘African rhino’), and here the ‘change’ is the sort that might be spent. The wordplay involves a word for a throbbing, which also has a figurative sense of a thrill deprived of its last letter (‘Not quite’).

12a Lurker of old, person with inner swagger once (7)
It’s easy to get this one wrong – not only is the definition an early form of a familiar word (as indicated by ‘of old’), but the four-letter word for ‘[to] swagger’ which is contained by a three-letter abbreviation for ‘person’ is itself obsolete (‘once’). If that ‘once’ were removed from the end of the clue, it would lead to a different answer…and yes, that’s the one I initially wrote into the grid before finding that 8d seemed to have a very odd pair of letters at its start.

16a Old pub sign, sheltered, bordering green, say? (7)
The ‘green’ bordered (‘contained’) by a four-letter word meaning ‘sheltered’ is an informal term for a politician or a political activist. The solution is hyphenated, 3-4.

21a Wallops old snobs, left out of place (8)
Azed aficionados will see the word ‘snobs’ and immediately say to themselves “********!”, since it is an old informal word for people engaged in a particular profession (see Chambers). The usual abbreviation for ‘left’ must be moved to a different position within this word (‘left out of place’).

24a Monster taking over central position in journalism, making headway (8)
A four-letter monster replaces the middle letter in a metonymic term for the journalistic profession as a whole.

25a Cancel note replacing central section in exercise (4)
The central letter of a word meaning ‘[to] exercise’ is replaced by a two-letter abbreviation meaning ‘note [well]’, producing a strange sort of transitive verb, unsurprisingly obsolete.

27a Discontinued award, English, received by painter, is forgotten (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘English’ is contained (‘received’) by a six-letter word for a painter without the consecutive letters IS (‘is forgotten’). The solution is obsolete, hence the ‘Discontinued’.

28a Young offspring casting on dry fly? (7)
A five-letter word for a young family member, lacking the consecutive letters ON (‘casting on’), is followed by a word meaning ‘dry’.

33a Puts a fresh flame to Jock’s chimney wreathed in endless smoke (his?) (7)
A three-letter Scots word for a chimney that has lang been reeking in crossword clues is contained by (‘wreathed in’) another Scots word, this time for ‘[to] smoke’, which has lost its last letter (‘endless’).

34a China trinkets prompting little chat (4)
My mother had a collection of little china ornaments bearing the crests of towns and cities, and the prized ones were made by a particular manufacturer, whose surname satisfies the first part of this double definition clue. The second word is an informal short (‘little’) word which perhaps relates more to scandalous rumours than to chat.

Down

1d Gentry leg it shortly after meal with no starter? (10, 2 words)
A four-letter word for a leg and a single-letter shortened form of ‘it’ (ie ‘it shortly’) follow a particular six-letter meal, taken late in the day, missing its first letter (‘with no starter’). The answer is (5,5).

6d Source of syrup in a pastry dish (Italian) when one pleases? (8, 2 words)
A four-letter genus of trees, some of which are a source of the syrup one might put on pancakes, is contained by A (from the clue) and a three-letter term for a pastry dish, the result being a (1,7) Italian phrase.

8d Mountaineer’s aid? Half causing one to itch when climbing (4)
Half of an eight-letter word meaning ‘having an unhealthy interest in sexual matters’ and (rarely, in a botanical sense) ‘causing itching’ is reversed (‘when climbing’)

10d Ageless jaunty? He’ll surely have them (7, 2 words)
The ‘jaunty’ in the definition is a naval master-at-arms, but in the wordplay it is an anagram indicator (and a slightly questionable one, truth be told). I’ve underlined the whole clue, because the (3,4) solution only makes sense in that context, although it’s the ‘them’ which equate to the solution.

14d Shilling and sovereign found circling street sewer (10)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘shilling’ and a seven-letter word for a sovereign (in the monarchical sense) are put around (‘circling’) the usual abbreviation for ‘street’. Be careful to enter the word that satisfies the definition and the wordplay, not the more familiar term which matches only the former.

18d Doctor treated rib, poorly inside? What MMR should deal with (8)
A two-letter abbreviation for a doctor (typically in the armed services) is followed by an anagram (‘treated’) of RIB with a word meaning ‘poorly’ inside.

19d Leafy old ferns arranged at fringes of party (8)
An anagram (‘arranged’) of the usual abbreviation for ‘old’ and FERNS contains (‘at the edges of’) a word for a party which should spring to the minds of all solvers.

22d Unploughed strip one leaves neatly arranged bordering church (7)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is removed from (‘leaves’) an anagram (‘arranged’) of NEATLY which contains (‘bordering’) a two-letter abbreviation for ‘church’.

27d Evil demon making adult alarmed locally (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘adult’ is followed by a dialect word meaning ‘alarmed’, the result being not only an evil demon but also the pseudonym of Alistair Ferguson Ritchie, arguably the father of the modern barred puzzle and a prolific setter of Listener puzzles in the days where they frequently received no correct entries (and a prize was awarded for every correct solution).

29d Pupils once extracting nickel in chemical compound (4)
A term for former pupils (‘Pupils once’) is deprived of the chemical symbol for nickel (‘extracting nickel’).

31d Tea not found when going round bun place bar that mentioned (4)
It so happens that on Friday, for the first time in years, I had the pleasure of eating a bun of the particular type involved here. Very nice it was too. The seven-letter name of the part of London from which it hails has the three letters of a word for ‘tea’ removed from its outside (‘tea not found when going round’) to produce the solution.

(definitions are underlined)