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 2,676 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

There was nothing particularly difficult about this puzzle, but even by Azed’s arcane standards there was a lot of stuff dredged from the depths of Chambers, so I think that it must rate as being at least of intermediate difficulty. As befits the closing day of the Ryder Cup (although purely coincidentally), there were a couple of golf-related clues, as well as a rare one for the anglers out there.

Clue Writers’ Corner: As a setter, from time to time one is required to write a clue for a word which breaks down neatly into two parts, such as PALMATE – one may well choose to exploit a happy accident of this sort with a clue like ‘Webfooted friends’ and move swiftly on.  However, in a clue writing contest things are very different – what’s blindingly obvious to you will be equally obvious to other competitors, so the use of the two component parts ‘as is’ should be studiously avoided unless your clue is exceptionally clever (which my example certainly isn’t). Personally, I would always look for a different treatment of the answer that avoids at least one, and preferably both, of the words in plain sight.

There is another point relating to solutions which can be neatly divided up: it is generally considered poor form to indicate any element of the answer by using the same sense of that element which it has in the answer itself. Neither PAL nor MATE has any etymological connection with the word which they produce when joined together, but what about ‘Person sharing accommodation boring friend’ for FLATMATE? The ‘boring’ meaning of FLAT has nothing do with the accommodation, but the MATE is exactly the same sort found in FLATMATE, so I wouldn’t use a clue like this. While ot isn’t a hard and fast rule, and I regularly see perfectly serviceable clues that break it (including 10a in this puzzle), it still represents something to be avoided where possible.

Across

6a Antelope, last of species, a pity (5)
The final letter (‘last’) of SPECIES is followed by A (from the clue) and an old informal word for a pity or shortcoming, often indicated in crosswords by ‘wrong’. The answer is both an antelope and the hastily-spoken title of a Pet Shop Boys hit.

10a Jack-fruit? It’s at its best when shrivelled (9)
The bit before the hyphen in the ultra-brief wordplay leads to a name of which ‘Jack’ is a diminutive form, and the bit following results in the name of a particular fruit. The similarly-hyphenated solution describes a fruit which could be kept for up to two years, and

whose wither’d rind entrencht With many a furrow aptly represents Decrepid Age

11a Catching nothing smoothly (5)
A double definition clue, the first originally relating to fishing or whaling vessels which had no fish or oil on board, but now (apparently – my knowledge of angling is decidedly poor) colloquially used to describe an angler’s creel with no fish inside.

14a Sheepdog, a stunner? Absolutely right (8)
A two-letter word from the world of boxing for a ‘stunner’ is followed by a five-letter slang word for ‘extremely’ or ‘absolutely’ (being the Italian for ‘world’ and the Spanish for ‘unadulterated’, and related to one or both) and the usual abbreviation for ‘right’.

17a What’s this bardic craft for? Giving actor fuel possibly (6)
A composite anagram, where the letters of the solution (‘this bardic craft’) and FOR can be rearranged (‘possibly’) to give ACTOR FUEL.

25a Solo assigned to celebrity making comeback (6)
A two-letter preposition meaning (among many other things) ‘assigned to’ is followed by a reversal (‘making comeback’) of a word for a celebrity, often seen preceded by ‘big’. The solution is hyphenated, 3-3.

30a It blows cold, a handicap, no question (4)
If you got this without any checkers then you did better than me. A six-letter ‘term in some sports for the handicap whereby a player allows a weaker opponent (at the latter’s choice of time) to score a point in a set, deduct a stroke at a hole, take an extra turn in croquet, etc.’ (as well as being a rich shellfish soup) has the two-letter abbreviation for ‘question’ removed (‘no question’) to produce the name of a cold continental wind.

33a Sea-trout Welsh will have learnt about (5)
A nice clue, given that the answer is a Welsh name for a sea-trout grilse. The wordplay involves the single-letter abbreviation for ‘Welsh’ having a word meaning ‘learnt’ surrounding it (‘about’). It might seem that the clue would be neater with the word ‘will’ omitted, but the wordplay would then be unsound, since in the cryptic reading ‘Welsh’ requires a verb in the singular, ie ‘has’ rather than ‘have’; Azed has sidestepped this trap for the unwary by using the future tense, where the singular and plural forms are the same.

Down

2d Insecticide making husband peer inside bamboo? (9)
The usual abbreviation for ‘husband’ and a four-letter word for a peer of the realm are contained by a word which could be applied to a bamboo stem.

3d Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, timeless, associated with him recast (6))
This is a neat clue, although personally I would have left the ‘A’ out. The wordplay involves an anagram (‘recast’) of TALE without the usual abbreviation for ‘time’ (‘timeless’) and HIM. Chambers associates the word specifically with Shakespeare, but as with quite a few entries thus qualified it seems to have been used by a number of authors dating back to Elizabethan times.

5d They arrange Jewish marriages, held constant within form of Mishna (10)
A three-letter word meaning ‘held’ (in the ‘possessed’ sense) and the standard abbreviation for ‘constant’ are contained by an anagram (‘form’) of MISHNA. 

8d Inconsistent section dominating chamber (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘section’ is placed above (‘dominating’) a term for a ‘chamber’, aka a jerry, a jordan or a gazunder.

12d I tap in train company in place mentioned (10, 2 words)
The letter I (from the clue) and a three-letter word meaning ‘tap’ (or pretentious odds and ends) are contained by a four-letter word for a train and the standard abbreviation for ‘company’, leading to a (4,6) solution.

15d Grant includes state’s refurbishment of carriage (9)
Adjectives like this can be hard to define in a clue without making the break between definition and wordplay a yawning chasm; as he shows here, Azed is very good at craftily bridging that gap. A four-letter verb meaning ‘grant’ contains (‘includes’) an anagram (‘refurbishment’) of STATE.

18d Protozoa once more found in down! (7)
An exclamation mark in a clue often indicates that the setter has done something mildly outrageous (so it’s no surprise that they are seen on occasion with that implication in Azed’s clues), but in this instance it tells us that the (1,3) French term which contains an old form of the word ‘more’ (‘once more’) is an interjection meaning ‘down!’ or ‘down with!’.

22d Bend in e.g. pectoral, an affliction of old horses (6)
A three-letter geometric word for a bend is contained by a name for the type of organ exemplified (hence the ‘e.g.’) by a pectoral.

(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 2,675 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

I may have been guilty of overestimating the difficulty of last week’s puzzle (I’m still blaming that flu jab!), but this one was definitely towards the easy end of the spectrum. There were some nice clues, and not too much in there with which I would take serious issue.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 1a, “Shakespearean nonentity appearing in funny choir act, face to face (12, 2 words, apostrophe). Nothing particularly interesting about the clue itself, the wordplay involving a four-letter ‘insignificant person’ (according to the Bard) being contained by an anagram (‘funny’) of CHOIR ACT; the aspect that I want to look at is the enumeration. I was asked recently by a relatively inexperienced setter about enumerating an answer such as SOS or COBOL – should they be (1,1,1) and (1,1,1,1,1) or (3) and (5)? The answer to that is unequivocal – they are both shown by Chambers as words rather than abbreviations, so it must be the latter. The fact that they contain rather more capitals than most words is irrelevant – so do all grid entries!

However, I was tempted to mention at the same time the question of apostrophes, but (wisely) thought better of it. Here is what Azed has to say on the subject (from the slip for 1806):

I am [uncertain] about the best way of indicating words and phrases that include apostrophes, 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, but would welcome comments.

I don’t think there is any sort of consensus among setters or editors on this point, not least because it comes up relatively rarely – personally, I try to circumvent the issue by avoiding answers that contain apostrophes. It’s not a problem for setters other than Azed, because the editor will convert the enumeration to the house style. But it can’t be wrong in my opinion to include mention of apostrophes, such that MOTHER’S RUIN would be shown as (11, 2 words, apostrophe).

Across

10a Park maybe revealing waste from mill (5)
The first definition here relates to the Scottish explorer who wrote a best-seller catchily entitled Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa. 

11a Section of Indian music, up to date, ageless (4)
The wordplay has a three-word French phrase meaning ‘up to date’ losing the consecutive letters AGE (‘ageless’).

18a Former partner is in past (briefly), to appear in earlier life (8)
The usual two-letter word for a former partner and the letters IS (from the clue) are contained by a rarely-seen four-letter abbreviation for the eight-letter name of a grammatical tense usually associated with the Spanish language.

28a Lustre on choice marble when it’s turned round (5)
The choice marble is not the sort that you might see on the Antiques Roadshow, more the sort of thing that Oor Wullie might have coveted. It is put after that familiar two-letter bit of commercial jargon meaning ‘concerning’ or ‘on’, and the combination reversed (‘turned round’) to produce a term which relates to the degree of brilliance in a diamond.

30a Cleansing fluid, rarely pleasant when coming from the backside (5)
In 2552, Azed clued the same word as “Injection of fluid, rarely pleasant, from behind”, which I think is nicer (though that may not be the right word). I have underlined the entire clue, treating it as what Ximenes called an ‘offshoot &lit’, where the whole clue represents the definition but only part of it forms the wordplay, although you could take the view that it is a conventional clue with just the first two words being the definition.

32a Greek colonist returning works hard round reserve (8)
A five-letter word meaning ‘works hard’ is reversed (‘returning’) around a word for ‘reserve’ in the ‘restrained formality’ sense often seen in crosswords and almost invariably indicated in this way.

33a Dug opening of tunnel behind grass (4)
The first letter (‘opening’) of TUNNEL follows an old US slang term for grass of the sort that one might have smoked at Woodstock, the definition being based on the entry for dug² in Chambers.

34a Closure of bank, American, about to arrange credit (5)
The last letter (‘closure’) of BANK, plus  a two-letter abbreviation for the United States put around a verb meaning ‘arrange’ in the sense that one might arrange one’s hair.

Down

6d Misfortune to do with former fit (7)
I have been familiar with the archaic term for a division of a poem since I set a puzzle based on Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark, which is described as ‘An Agony in Eight Fits’ (my version was ‘A Problem in Four Fits’). The familiar five-letter equivalent follows that same piece of commercial jargon that was seen in 28a.

7d Mouldings, old, on first of printed series? (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘old’ is followed by a combination of three letters and a number which would describe the first book in a series.

8d Old windfall, rotter, charlatan peeled (6)
A three-letter rotter and a five-letter charlatan who has lost his first and last letters (‘peeled’).

19d With liquid added I’ll make bean go further? (7)
I’ve never seen ‘make…go further’ as an insertion indicator, and I’m not sure that I want to see it again – the letter I is to be put inside the common name of a climbing plant of the kidney bean genus.

20d Despot maybe in (to him) foreign country describing part of sight (7)
The ‘despot’ yields the first name of a former President of Uganda, to be found here in a country formerly ruled by the Shah.

24d Singular rubies disguised bra in sort of stack? (6)
An anagram (‘disguised’) of BRA in the kind of stack found on a Scot’s roof, and a definition that surely only Azed could get away with. Chambers will confirm the poetic plural to which he is referring.

27d He’s nothing in Caledonia, put briefly (5)
An &lit, with the usual single-letter representation of ‘nothing’ being contained by a four-letter abbreviation for the eight-letter country poetically called Caledonia.

(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 2,674 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

A 13×11 puzzle, and (as my granny might have said) a bit of a funnyosity. A lot of anagrams (15 in 36 clues), and a lack (in my opinion) of the élan that pervades Azed’s finest. Overall, I thought the difficulty was around the middle of the range, but I’m prepared to be challenged on that.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 8d, “Drunk riles TTs in benders (8)”. This clue provides an interesting counterpoint to last week’s “Casks pouring out stream”, where ARMETS, a historical (but not obsolete) term for certain helmets, was defined by ‘Casks’, an obsolete spelling of ‘casques’. Here we have a simple anagram (‘Drunk’) of RILES TT, leading to an obsolete term for sixpences, with ‘benders’ being an obsolete slang term for the same coins. Azed has included nothing in the clue to indicate that we are dealing with discarded words, and I’ve got no problem with that – they would have been in use at the same time, and both are readily verifiable in Chambers. Are the two clues fundamentally different? Perhaps not, but I’m a lot happier when one obsoletism indicates another – to borrow Richard Heald’s description from a recent comment, a true ‘like-for-like’ definition.

Incidentally, the term ‘bender’ seems to relate to the ease with which a silver sixpence could be bent; the name was also at one time applied to a shilling, with some idea that when bent twice in opposing directions and viewed from the side, it would resemble the letter S. But why would you want to be bending your loose change? And surely a silver threepenny-bit would be even easier to bend? My favourite word for a sixpence is ‘tizzy’, but in crossword clues its plural form is no good.

Across

1a Some swine, solid, filling pubs (8)
A four-letter word for the sort of (solid) figure often seen on motorways accompanied by many similarly-shaped associates but no workmen is put inside (‘filling’) a word for ‘pubs’.

12a Guy one can read carefully penning ultimate in counsel? (10, 2 words)
An &lit, where the whole clue stands as an indication of the (5,5) solution, the wordplay involving an anagram of GUY ONE CAN containing (‘penning’) the last letter (‘ultimate’) in COUNSEL. Does ‘read carefully’ imply a wholesale rearrangement of the preceding text? Anything but, I would have thought.

14a Holy scripture rendered in shorthand, mostly wrong (7)
I thought we were in for yet another anagram here, but in fact the wordplay has a two-letter abbreviation for ‘shorthand’ (with the oblique stroke in the middle ignored) being followed by a word meaning ‘wrong’ (in the ‘going wrong’ sense) from which the last letter has been omitted (‘mostly’).

16a One gets to fiddle around, increasingly crazy (7)
I think the ‘around’ here is dangerously close to doing double duty – the Roman numeral representing one gets a six-letter verb put outside (‘around’) it, but I’m not sure that ‘fiddle’ on its own is sufficient to indicate the latter; ‘fiddle around’ would be much better

21a Burst out in what was formerly cultivated, fundamental (11)
An anagram (‘out’) of BURST is contained by an obsolete (‘was formerly’) word meaning ‘cultivated’ (as opposed to wild).

22a What makes volume some superseded source of news? (4)
Regular readers will know that one of my favourite Azed clues is ‘My letters could make lad sad’ for LASS (LAD with ‘L AS S’  being SAD); the gimmick used in this clue is the same, but the aesthetic effect, sadly, is not. If you split the solution up as 1+2+1, then a four-letter word for a volume (or a big book) having 1 2 1 results in SOME. The ‘superseded’ is there because the name of the agency was changed in 1992.

29a No trumps not right for misguided competitor (6)
A six-letter word for ‘misguided’ has the abbreviation for ‘no trumps’ replacing the single-letter abbreviation for ‘right’ (ie ‘No trumps not right’).

33a Repair funds once chaps invested ladies squandered? Not I (8)
A three-letter word for ‘chaps’ is contained by an anagram (‘squandered’) of LADIES from which the letter I has been removed (‘Not I’). There really does need to be a comma between ‘invested’ (=’surrounded’) and ‘ladies’ in order for the wordplay to make any sense.

Down

1d Supplementary deeds in Scotland support landlords (11)
A 4+7 charade of a verb meaning ‘support’ and a term to describe landlords.

2d Trumpeter, one playing all but final duet (5)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is followed by a word for ‘playing’ (of the sort that might go on in a casino) missing its last two letters (‘all but final duet’).

6d Student getting bad mark when taking in endless vacation (7)
A four-letter word for a disfiguring mark is ‘taking in’ an informal four-letter word for ‘vacation’ without its last letter (‘endless’).

9d Vague impression that’s not on – does it suggest what’s selfless? (4)
One of the language’s greatest gifts to setters is the apostrophe-s combination, which, quite apart from reading very naturally, can be shorthand for both ‘is’ and ‘has’. Here it is the former in the surface reading and the latter in the wordplay, where a six-letter word for a vague impression ‘has not’ the consecutive letters ON. Azed has given us a preview of the (in this instance, hyphenated) solution in 33a.

10d Shortening silky dress fabric pair at first lifted (6)
A clue where if you’re not familiar with the solution or the dress fabric then you are, to use a cruciverbal term, stuffed until you can get some crossing letters and have a guess. The fabric (a French term deriving from the name of the village in the Pyrenees where it was first made) has its first two letters reversed (‘pair at first lifted’). The village may be small – population in 2015 a mere 176 souls – but it has also given its name to a type of mineral water.

18d Post-Xmas gift from Spain – orangey hue about right (7)
As in 10d, we have a relatively obscure word as the solution and another one in the wordplay. The IVR code for Spain is followed by a five-letter word from the world of heraldry describing an orange-brown or bright chestnut colour (tawny) containing (‘about’) the usual abbreviation for ‘right’.

19d Wherein to cook ragout? See local toil in total spread (7)
A three-letter dialect (‘local’) word meaning ‘toil’ is put inside a word for ‘total spread’, such as a bridge might have.

26d Proclaim last of banns? Not OK spanning that ancient festival climax (4)
In Azed puzzles I quite often come across new words which I rapidly forget (how many types of filamentous worm can one be expected to remember?), but the (3-3) dialect word meaning ‘to proclaim the banns of marriage of (a couple) in church for the last time’ is one that came up a few months ago and has remained firmly lodged in my memory ever since (probably at the expense of something much more important). That word has the containing (‘spanning’) letters O and K removed, producing a word for the eighth day after a festival. Azed has chosen not to tell us that the ‘banns’ word is dialectal, which I’m prepared to overlook, but what I can’t accept is a transitive verb (which this is) being indicated as though it were intransitive.

(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 2,673 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

I felt that this one was definitely a little past the middle of the difficulty spectrum. There may not have been any very tough clues, but there were quite a few tricky ones, including a couple which strayed close to the borders of fairness, at least by Azed’s high standards.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 5d, “Casks pouring out stream (6)”, where a simple anagram (‘pouring out’) of STREAM produces a word shown by Chambers as ‘hist’ (ie historical). Words thus qualified are not disused, but they are likely to be employed today only in a historical context, so ‘villein’, say, is most likely to appear in a discussion of the feudal system. The variant spelling of ‘cask’ for ‘casque’ (a head covering or helmet) is, however, obsolete – it is shown as such by Chambers. Is it allowable to omit the qualification of an obsolete word when it is defining a historical solution, on the basis that an old definition implies an old solution? I’m perfectly prepared to accept, say, an American spelling of a word to imply another Americanism, eg ‘color’ for ‘gray’, but this seems very different to me. Some editors don’t approve of the use of obsoletisms in definitions, arguing that ‘old cask’ should indicate that an old word for a barrel is required, not a word matching an old meaning of ‘cask’; I don’t subscribe to that view (it’s something often seen in Azed’s clues), but I do think that some form of qualification is needed here, eg “Casks formerly pouring out stream”.

Across

6a Hunting dog? Much older one in sport (7)
A four-letter archaic (‘much older’) term for a hunting dog is contained by a word meaning ‘sport’ in the sense of ‘[to] wager’.

14a Bluff that’s most ingenious separated from rest (5)
A nine-letter word meaning ‘most ingenious’ is deprived of (‘separated from’) the consecutive letters REST.

17a Treat to sexual advances? Husband replacing second can (7, 2 words)
A glaring example of the ‘missing comma’ issue, here between the last two words of the clue. A very English (3-4) equivalent of the North American slang term ‘can’ has the usual abbreviation for ‘husband’ replacing the one for ‘second’. The definition of the (3,4) phrasal verb may look slightly odd, but because it is transitive something like ‘Make advances’ fails technically and ‘Make advances to’ fails aesthetically.

18a Old suckers and weeds (5)
The old word for people who are easily duped may not be familiar, but the word for ‘weeds’ will be if you imagine it as ‘weeds out’.

23a Scotsman’s pants, little height in the legs (5)
A rather nice imitative Scots word for ‘pants’ or ‘gasps’ is produced by putting the single-letter abbreviation (‘little’ being superfluous but harmless) for ‘height’ inside a four-letter word which shares all but one letter with the ‘legs’ which it indicates.

27a Processed ham, tinned, not tough – one bought to do the job? (6)
An anagram (‘processed’) of HAM and TINNED from which a three-letter word for a tough has been removed (‘not tough’). The definition is perhaps a little loose, but we know what Azed is driving at.

29a Rock at sea, ever avoided one by one (5)
Very similar to 14, here we have a nine-letter word meaning ‘one by one’ from which the consecutive letters EVER have been removed (‘ever avoided’). The answer has a nautical sense of ‘to sway, rock or bound’.

32a Like crude style of pop, lively, catching current fashion (7)
A three-letter word meaning lively containing (‘catching’) a four-letter word for the current fashion (almost exclusively seen in the expression ‘all the ????’), the result being an adjective describing a type of music that has gone through various incarnations since the 1960s; while Tom Robinson was singing in the late 70s that he was glad to be lively, The Clash were proudly affirming “We’re a ?????? band / We come from ??????land’.

Down

3d Hummel overseas providing bit of elegance in ringtone (5)
The first letter (‘bit’) of ELEGANCE is put into an informal term for the sort of ringtone which has multiple melodies, making it so much easier on the ears of fellow train travellers. I ought to remember by now what hummel means, but I always have to look it up; this is an Australian version.

4d Sweet-smelling powder, once an advantage when sex is involved (6)
A four-letter word for an advantage (which I associate these days only with handicaps at horse racing – ‘horse x has a five pound ???? with horse y’) has the Roman numeral representing six inserted (‘involved’). I think this latter element is a step too far – I’ve no problem with ‘sex in Rome’ for VI, but straight ‘sex’ doesn’t seem appropriate.

6d Implant one inserted in reverse of strong horse above bone (7)
The Roman numeral for one is put into a reversal of a three-letter word for a short-legged, strong horse, and the combination is followed by a word for a particular part of the human body. Is it a bone? My limited anatomical knowledge tells me that that your thigh bone’s connected to it, and it’s connected to your backbone, but that’s a ??? bone, not just a ???.

13d What growing gymnosperms show, decay, hard, in mantles (10)
A common three-letter word for ‘decay’ and the usual abbreviation for ‘hard’ are contained by a word for the large, square mantles worn in ancient Rome, the plural of a seven-letter word.

16d Savage article, namely one forming leader (8)
A five-letter word for an article has the standard two-letter abbreviation meaning ‘specifically’ and a single-letter word for ‘one’ preceding it (ie it has the latter elements ‘forming [a] leader’).

19d Versatile opener? Grandmaster dispenses with his first around start of event (7)
The grandmaster here owes his lasting fame in large part to his 1972 World Championship match with Bobby Fischer which was set against the backdrop of the Cold War, albeit when a slight thaw had started to set in. After his surname has shed its first letter (‘dispenses with his first’), it is set around the initial letter (‘start’) of EVENT. 

22d Watch of traditional design, one scaling heights? (6)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is followed by a reversal (‘scaling’) of the name given to a region in the Levant which is often seen with ‘Heights’ following it.

26d Secret union (5)
This was a tricky answer to get without a letter or two, the ‘secret’ (adjectival) meaning from its first entry in Chambers perhaps being slightly more familiar than the ‘union’ sense under the second headword, but it’s, er, a near-run thing.

28d Parisian landmark? It was grand as part of artistic education (4)
The sort of landmark that Azed is referring to is exemplified by the one known locally as ‘La dame de fer’ (we had one of those back in the 70s and 80s, although she was a cheval of a very different couleur).

(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 2,672 ‘Carte Blanche’

Difficulty rating: (4 / 10)

How hard is it to set a Carte Blanche puzzle? Well, you compile a normal plain puzzle, remove the bars and numbers from the grid, and deprive the clues of numbers and enumerations. Job done. If you’re feeling particularly vindictive towards the world in general or solvers in particular, you also arrange the clues in alphabetical order of their solutions. Thankfully, Azed (decent chap that he is) doesn’t do that sort of thing, so his carte blanche puzzles are relatively straightforward.

Don’t be daunted by the lack of bars and numbers! The best place to start is at the top – getting the first couple of across answers and three or four of the first eight or so down ones (the Ximenean unching rules mean that at least eight down answers must start in the top row) is the ideal beginning. If the first two across solutions were (for the sake of argument) of four and eight letters respectively, then you would (a) be able to confidently enter them into the top row of the grid, (b) know that exactly three down solutions ‘hang’ off the first word, with the remaining letter of that word being barred off, (c) know that either six or seven down answers start from the second word, with either one or two letters being barred off, and (d) that the bottom row of the grid consists of an eight-letter word followed by a four-letter word, with a similar number of down clues terminating there. Every time you can establish the position of a bar in the top half of the grid, you can enter a matching bar in the bottom half (eg a bar five cells down in column 1 will be matched by a bar five cells up from the bottom of column 12). Once you get a good toehold, the puzzle starts to become more and more like a regular plain crossword.

Had this been a plain puzzle, I would have rated the clues as being perhaps slightly below average difficulty, but the carte blanche element makes it quite a bit trickier, particularly for those not used to this sort of puzzle (and not used to constructing grids).

After the notes on individual clues I have added a list of the answer lengths for anyone who needs a little extra help.

Clue Writers’ Corner: These days the prize-winning entries for the competitions quite often leave me cold, but there are some notable exceptions, and I wanted to highlight Richard Heald’s recent clue for SONDAGE, “Use of lead perhaps means dog ignoring master needs training”. Firstly, this demonstrates that a clue doesn’t have to be highly complex to win the cup – an anagram of MEANS DOG without the M is nicely straightforward. But there’s a lot else to admire: the surface reading is top-notch, and sounds very natural even when subjected to close scrutiny (I find that many clues fail that test). Something that often spoils potentially good clues is when the wordplay is a letter or two short of delivering the answer, and the writer has to add in a bit that bears little relation to the story being told in the rest of the clue (the mysterious appearance of ‘near Switzerland’ to supply the missing CH on the end of a solution, say); here each word actively contributes to the story. And not only is the definition interesting without being outrageous, the ‘perhaps’ which is required to qualify it (another thing that can spoil a promising clue) transfers its allegiance in the surface reading to the ‘means’, and once more actively enhances the clue. Do I like it? I surely do.

Across

Women chop wood etc and bustle around locally
The usual abbreviation for ‘women’ is followed by a three-letter word meaning ‘to shape, fell or sever with blows of a cutting instrument’. The solution is a dialect word, hence the ‘locally’.

Unseasoned sailor given instruction on being discharged
A four-letter word for a sailor, especially an experienced one, is followed by a six-letter word for ‘[a piece of] instruction’ from which the letters ON have been lost (‘discharged’).

Short book, one of E. European origin
The ‘short book’ is the abbreviated name of a book of the Old Testament.

Fungus holding on in narrow passage
A three-letter fungus is ‘holding in’ that handy two-letter bit of commercial jargon meaning ‘concerning’ or ‘on’.

Love goddess scored, with narcotic drink around
A four-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘scored’, in the sense that a batsman might have ‘scored’ a century, is contained by a four-letter narcotic drink prepared from the root and stem of a plant of the same name – not to be confused with the Spanish wine that sounds rather similar, the effects of which are generally less dramatic unless consumed in large quantities.

Erstwhile statesman? He’s where ashes are returned
Analagously to ‘after retiring’ having the cryptic meaning of ‘in[side] BED’, the place where HE must be put (before the whole lot is reversed, ie ‘returned’) is indicated by a similar 2,3 expression for ‘where [human] ashes are’. The statesman is Jawaharlal of that ilk, known by the honorific Pandit and the father of Indira Gandhi.

Rabbi’s to recite prayers having left desk
A five-letter Judaical word meaning ‘to recite prayers’ is followed by the nautical equivalent of ‘left’. Midlanders of a certain age (regular correspondent Orange is clearly too young to remember) will know that the answer (with an S on the end) is also what ‘Beer at home’ meant.

Response when changing ends? It should not be overstepped
A four-letter word for a response (or, more commonly, a reflected sound) has its first letter swapped with its last (‘changing ends’), the result being a word from the world of Phil Taylor and Arthur Daley’s  arrow-throwing protégé Dafydd, aka ‘Dartagnan’.

Impostor exercises gumshoes
A charade of a four-letter word for an impostor and four-letter present indicative meaning ’employs’ or ‘exercises’.

‘The car is back’? Such may be heard among the Cotswolds
My first though when reading this clue was ‘why among the Cotswolds rather than in the Cotswolds?’, a question which was answered when the Cotswolds turned out to be zoological rather than geographical.

Down

Beardies mostly adorned fuzzily in tufts
Sadly, if – like me -you don’t know that a ‘tuft’ can be a goatee or imperial beard, the clever surface reading may fall slightly flat. The wordplay has an anagram (‘fuzzily’) of ADORNED without its last letter (‘mostly’) being contained by a six-letter plural of a word which can be applied to a tuft of anything used as a brush.

Treats for bears
A double definition clue, although the first one is rather questionable – it means ‘treats’ only in the specific sense of ‘treats to a drink‘.

It may be beside rug devouring scrap of chicken
An &lit, which illustrates that the ‘definition’ in such a clue can legitimately be more of a suggestion. A two-letter word meaning ‘beside’ is followed by a three-letter word for a rug containing the first letter (‘scrap’) of ‘chicken’.

Swinging crowd left in short session lacking a pastor?
A three-letter word for ‘swinging’ that I’ve only ever seen applied to a ‘cat’ (a jazz fan, rather than a feline), a four-letter word for a crowd, and the usual abbreviation for ‘left’ are all contained by an abbreviation (‘short’) of ‘session’.

Ask what goes into late vehicles turning up
A simple ‘hidden reversed’ (sometimes known as a ‘rekrul’), with a definition based on ask² in Chambers. The wordplay sounds like something what Ernie Wise might have wrote – I’m not at all sure about ‘what goes into’ being used to mean ‘element in’, 

Localized blow shows sandbank in its shifting form
An indirect anagram of a very mild form, where a four-letter word is contained by an anagram of itself (‘ in its shifting form’), producing a rather charming dialect (‘local’) term for a blow. The problem is that the four-letter word is shown by Chambers as being a plural, not a singular, so the ‘sandbank’ here should be ‘sandbanks’.

White man in Zambia scattered gnu in frenzy throwing stone
The IVR code for Zambia and an anagram (‘scattered’) of GUN are contained by a four-letter word for the sort of frenzy that might grip a male elephant which is missing (‘throwing’) the usual two-letter abbreviation for ‘stone’.

Eager to be found in poetry of yesteryear? Sounds fishy
The answer, a word which goes back over a thousand years but hasn’t been seen out without a chaperone in the last four hundred or so, is a homophone for fish of various sorts.

(definitions are underlined)

Solution lengths

Across: 4, 8, 7, 4, 9, 4, 5, 8, 10 (2 words), 10, 8, 5, 4, 9, 4, 7, 8, 4.

Down: 12, 4, 8, 6, 5, 6, 5, 8, 12, 4, 3-5, 8, 4, 6, 6, 5, 5, 4

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 2,671 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

A mix of straightforward and somewhat trickier clues, my overall impression was that this puzzle was of just about average difficulty. An enjoyable solve.

Setters’ Corner: Two general points this week, both relating to 31d, “Tramp in contact with a rowing vessel (4)”. Nothing wrong with this clue, a three-letter word for a tramp (in the poule de luxe sense) preceding the letter A, the result being a Malay rowing boat. In the context of the puzzle as a whole, however, we have a couple of issues. Firstly, the very same vessel, albeit with a variant spelling, turns up at 14a; this is very bad form indeed. The issue could have been avoided simply by making the answer to 31d STOA and changing 31a to SEBAT. Secondly, the synonym for ‘tramp’ appears with exactly the same meaning in the clue to 36a; this is certainly less heinous, but is still not ideal. On its own, this problem could easily have been fixed by changing the clue to 31a to something like ‘Pug once giving one a smack’.

Across

3a The old discern church councillor behind voodoo? (10)
A 3+2+2+3 charade to get things under way, two abbreviations being sandwiched by an archaic (‘old’) word meaning ‘discern’ and an adjective or adverb meaning ‘behind’.

14a Malay vessel turning up, cheers welcomed (5)
A reversal (‘turning’) of UP within which is contained (‘welcomed’) a three-letter word meaning…well, I would have thought ‘cheer’ rather than ‘cheers’.

15a Lunch? Pet, reverse of healthy, given tons (4)
Here we get two definitions for the price of one, and a wordplay that involves a reversal of a word for ‘healthy’ being followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘tons’.

17a Plant put aboard vessel (not Noah’s) (5)
A neat clue, where an eight-letter word meaning ‘put aboard [a] vessel’ has the term for the particular type of vessel constructed and captained by Noah removed (“not Noah’s”).

18a Jock’s suffered, being drunk after imbibing for all to see (4)
A Scots (“Jock’s”) word meaning ‘allowed’ or ‘suffered’ is produced by one of the many words and phrases used to describe someone in a state of inebriation containing the certificate given by the British Board of Film Classification to a film which is suitable for anyone to see

19a Horror flick, bore when denouement’s missing (6)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘bore’ in the sense of ‘conveyed’ is deprived of its last letter (‘when denouement’s missing’), the result being the title of a 1976 film which the aforementioned BBFC (when they were still ‘Censors’) unsurprisingly did not consider appropriate for viewing by minors or those of a nervous disposition.

22a Old letter, first from Simona kept till last? (5)
The Simona here is a Romanian tennis player and former Wimbledon singles champion; the first letter of her surname must be moved to the end (‘first…kept till last’).

24a Wretch keeping note in account (5)
The ‘note in account’ accurately reflects the containment of a single-letter abbreviation by a word meaning ‘account’ or ‘benefit’. I’m not sure that the solution can legitimately be considered to be doing the ‘keeping’, so that word is perhaps a gerundive rather than a participle. Or perhaps not.

26a Church dignitary’s having treatment involving mug (7)
A nicely disguised possessive adjective results from a four-letter word for ‘treatment’ containing (‘involving’) the sort of mug that might hold coffee.

29a What tar yields, measure caught in system of nets? (6)
A unit of measurement used in the printing trade is contained by (‘caught in’) a four-letter anatomical term for a network of eg blood vessels or nerves.

Down

1d Early invader? That means a bit of sacking (4)
The invader is of the sort generally associated with the Angles and the Saxons, the combined force supposedly having been led by Hengist and Horsa.

2d China closing border, original (6)
The first word in the wordplay is a bit of rhyming slang, leading to a three-letter word which contains (‘closing’ = ‘enclosing’) a word for an edge or border.

6d In some parts light rope caught round seaman’s ‘attachment’ (6)
When I used to take my scorebook to cricket matches, I would record the dismissal of a batsman who had been caught as ‘ct’. I can only think that Azed is using the same abbreviation here, although it does not appear in Chambers, and that it is being put round an adjective applied to ‘a seaman able to perform all the duties of seamanship and having a higher rating than the ordinary sailor.’ Why ‘In some parts light’? Pass. As I understand it, the item in question is a thick, strong thing, albeit not quite as thick as its bigger brother. Surely it should be something like ‘Relatively light rope’?

8d Old magistrate about to admit rudimentary gut (11)
A six-letter word for one of nine magistrates in ancient Athens is put around (‘about’) a word meaning ‘to admit’ or ‘to join in’.

11d Last among mixed-race people given promotion – something that’s not to be missed (7)
The last letter of a term describing the offspring of a white person and a quadroon (like a doubloon, but twice as big) is moved up a couple of places to produce the (4-3) hyphenated solution.

13d Searing pain that brings about a GI being deformed (9)
A six-letter adjective meaning ‘that brings about’ is followed by an anagram (‘being deformed’) of A GI.

23d German dramatist, genuinely inferior to British (6)
I’m not sure whether the ‘German’ here can legitimately be seen in the cryptic reading as separately qualifying both of the words that follow it, but it is indeed a word shown by Chambers as ‘Ger‘ and meaning ‘genuine’ which must be preceded in the answer by a two-letter abbreviation for ‘British’.

27d Time out for festival – one relaxes (5)
I can’t help feeling that ‘from’ would be preferable to ‘for’ here in order to indicate that the abbreviation for ‘time’ must be taken out of a word for a particular festival.

(definitions are underlined)