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 2,670 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

This puzzle with a slightly unusual grid was certainly harder than last week’s, and the number of clues that I marked for comment led me to conclude that the needle on the difficulty meter was, if not bouncing in the red, at least somewhere past the halfway mark. I didn’t think it was one of Azed’s finest, but it was still a reasonably entertaining solve.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 12d, “Flax-cutter’s tool, form of wand English waved”. The answer is an anagram of WAND ENGLISH, indicated by ‘form of’ – and also by ‘waved’. It is perfectly acceptable to have two anagram indicators in a clue where one anagram is followed by another – if the solution here were DAWN-SHINGLE, the first element could be a ‘form of WAND’ and the second element ‘ENGLISH waved’; however, two indicators for a single helping of ‘fodder’ is one too many. Space is increasingly at a premium for many crosswords published in newspapers, so irrespective of style considerations an editor would almost certainly cut the wordplay here to ‘wand English waved’.

Across

5a Strong drink? After school dozes, having imbibed pastis (not wines) (8)
The usual abbreviation for ‘school’ is followed by a word for ‘dozes’ containing (‘having imbibed’) PASTIS from which a word for certain wines has been removed (‘not wines’).

14a Writer’s hollow task, article for the French (6)
The task is a Scot and N Eng dialect term for a day’s work or other defined quantity of work, while the writer is Sir Walter Scott, who visited the Wicklow Mountains in 1825 and mistakenly assumed that the name of a particular local river was a general term for a glen thereabouts. It appears in this erroneous sense as a hapax legomenon in Scott’s novel Redgauntlet.

15a Almost bare in earth? Treatment with this is useless (8)
A five-letter word meaning ‘bare’ with its last letter missing (‘almost’) is contained by a word for earth. The answer was the word chosen for competition 574, and a look at the successful clues illustrates the point that an obvious clue, even if beautifully succinct, is almost certain to be spotted by several competitors and is therefore unlikely to gain top honours.

19a Seek help with engraving (5)
A clue with two definitions, the second of which struck me as a bit sneaky; however, it does just about pass the substitution test, where replacing the answer with the definition in a real English sentence does not significantly alter the meaning (‘I help with engraving the trophy’). It could, conceivably, be a definition of the third headword in Chambers, but if that had been Azed’s intention surely he would have chosen ‘help with printing’.

25a Drum, one of a pair, is damaged? Could be ear skin (5)
A composite anagram, where a rearrangement (‘damaged’) of the solution (‘Drum, one of a pair’) and IS could produce EAR SKIN.

27a Earl unhappily admitted stress getting faster (10)
If you look at the wordplay in 8d, the two parts of the wordplay are in an unnatural order, but the comma between them provides the necessary pause (‘in the river, a fish’). Here there should be a comma between ‘admitted’ and ‘stress’, since it is a synonym for ‘stress’ into which an anagram (‘unhappily’) of EARL must be ‘admitted’. I meant to mention the definition, but had forgotten about it until reminded by Mark Z – the adjective here can only have the transitive sense of the associated verb, so ‘getting faster’ is no good. Something like ‘quickening’ would work.

31a Surgically remove bit of lump to nullify circles (6)
Here we have an example of the construction which Monk last week christened the CPIW (‘Crosswordese Present Indicative Wheeze’), aka the ‘disappearing relative pronoun’ – the wordplay equates to ‘bit of lump that to nullify circles’, but the word ‘that’ has been omitted, as it often is in spoken English (eg ‘the things he says’ rather than ‘the things that he says’). Here it is the first letter (‘bit’) of LUMP that a word meaning ‘to nullify’ or ‘to moderate’ goes round (‘circles’).

32a State about to welcome European artist (6)
That familiar two-letter bit of commercial jargon meaning ‘about’ or ‘concerning’ is here required to contain (‘welcome’) the surname of a Portuguese-British visual artist, forenames Maria Paula Figueiroa, who was made a Dame of the British Empire in the Queen’s 2010 Birthday Honours.

33a Depots currently fashionable offering protection for banks (8)
A charade of a five-letter word for ‘permanent military stations, depots or training schools’ and an adjective meaning ‘currently fashionable’

35a Title of distinguished Japanese book, short one (4)
The book is the abbreviated (‘short’) name of two books of the Old Testament, and is followed by a single-letter word for ‘one’.

Down

2d Graze by the sound of it in northern pastures(4)
A homophone for a word meaning ‘[to] graze’ or ‘scrape’ produces a Scot and N Eng term which I would have expected to be defined by ‘pasture’ rather than ‘pastures’.

3d What commuter catches in the morning, leaning back (first off) having caught elevated railroad (6)
A single-letter informal US term for an elevated railroad is ‘caught’ by a six-letter word meaning ‘leaning back’ with its first letter omitted, producing a 2-4 hyphenated solution. My immediate thought was that the definition was a good one, but on reflection I feel that while a commuter might ‘take’ the solution it’s unlikely that they would ‘catch’ it.

4d Nasty Aussie insect turned up entirely in belly (7, 2 words)
A three-letter word for ‘entirely’ (already seen in 29a) is reversed (‘turned up’) inside a word which means ‘[to] belly’ or ‘swell’, specifically as a sail might do.

10d Mantle, eastern, in puckered fabric (7)
One of those clues where you need to know either the answer or the six-letter fabric (the French word for ‘pleated’) into which the usual abbreviation for ‘eastern’ is inserted.

20d Trace rigidity without inner depth (7)
An eight-letter word for ‘rigidity’ has the standard abbreviation for ‘depth’ removed from inside it (‘without inner depth’).

22d Old helmet to recognize when lifted (6)
A four-letter word meaning ‘to recognize’ (as in ‘I can recognize a composite anagram at twenty paces’) and a word for ‘when’ are both reversed (‘lifted’).

24d ‘Carry-on’ woman with chaps endlessly is responsible for such a caper (6)
The four-letter (familiar) subject of a 1964 film is followed by a word for ‘chaps’ without its last letter (‘endlessly’), producing the name of a large genus of plants of the caper family. The abiding memory of the film for some may be Amanda Barrie bathing in asses’ milk.

26d A ‘K’ a Singh’s deployed … is this? (6)
Another composite anagram, this time of the &lit variety. The letters of A K A SINGH when rearranged (‘deployed’) can produce IS plus the solution (‘this’), and the whole clue represents a definition (of sorts). You may, like me, applaud Azed’s inventiveness here while feeling that the clue is not of the highest order.

30d What may accompany bill topping millions? It’s grimy (4)
The expression formed when the first part of the answer accompanies ‘bill’ means ‘(of lovers) to kiss and talk intimately together’, while the ‘millions’ supplies a single-letter abbreviation.

(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 2,669 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

There were several answers that I wasn’t familiar with, but such was the accuracy of the wordplays (and the absence of obscurities therein) that I was able to complete the puzzle without recourse to Chambers. Combined with the friendliness of the long entries at the top and bottom of the puzzle, this suggests a difficulty rating significantly below average.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at  a clue from a non-Azed puzzle, “Could be Nissan parking is Cherry, perhaps that can see to it itself? (8)”. The answer is AUTOCARP [AUTOCAR + P], being a term for a fruit produced by self-fertilization, and there are a few points of interest here. The first is the use of ‘Could be Nissan’ to indicate AUTOCAR – Azed reckons that “barks like a dog and is man’s best friend” is OK for DOG, and I wouldn’t disagree, so that’s alright in isolation, but since ‘could be Nissan’ isn’t a noun phrase, adding the ‘parking’ to it is highly questionable. The biggest issue, however, relates to the definition. it’s a pretty horrible word to define accurately, and the setter has tried to do something interesting, so I’m prepared to accept that an autocarp, the result of self-fertilization, could be said to ‘see to itself’. What I can’t accept is the lone comma between ‘Cherry’ and ‘perhaps’ – this clearly tells us that the answer is a Cherry (or cherry) which can perhaps see to itself. The clue needs a second comma, such that the definition reads ‘Cherry, perhaps, that can see to itself’ – then we are looking at something which can see to itself, perhaps a cherry. When writing clues, it is important to check that in the cryptic reading the punctuation does not unfairly mislead the solver.

Across

9a Accepted bishop’s mild exclamation:‘Bedad!’ (5)
A single-letter abbreviation, a two-letter abbreviation for a title given to an Anglican bishop, and an expression of ‘surprise, joy, pity, complaint, objection, etc.’ (something of an interjection for all seasons) combine to produce an expression, the Irishness of which is not explicitly stated but is implied by the use of ‘bedad’ as the definition.

14a Speedster to drive round, holding on (5)
A three-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘to drive’ reversed (’round’) outside (‘holding’) ON (from the clue) produces a (3-2) hyphenated solution.

18a Names from the past I’m among shortly making comeback (6)
The letters IM (from the clue) are placed inside (‘among’) a word meaning ‘shortly’ and the whole lot reversed (‘making a comeback’). The names are the sort that Romans had between their praes and their cogs.

19a Maybe ironic address to friend year after sack? (4)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘year’ follows a word for a sack of a particular, woven material ‘used to cover a chest of tea, coffee etc’. The definition doesn’t seem quite right – the word (a favourite of Jim Strange in Endeavour) could be used when addressing a friend, but in that instance there would be no irony; that would come when Jim was addressing not Morse but a miscreant.

21a Application for military uniform left in money kept in accounts (6)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘left’ is put inside the term for the bank money of account (as opposed to currency), producing the nickname of the character played by David Jason in Porridge, and the name of a product first used by the British Army to whiten Slade (as in the fictional prison) Wallace buckskin leather equipment in the nineteenth century.

26a Dim northerner needing to grasp difference ultimately between right and left (7)
A four-letter word meaning ‘to grasp’ or ‘to hold’ is followed by the last letter of DIFFERENCE (‘difference ultimately’) in between the abbreviations for ‘right’ and ‘left’.

29a Love making flip in second fruit tonic? (8)
A three-letter word for ‘love’ (in the sporting sense) is reversed (‘making flip’) inside the abbreviation for ‘second’ plus the name of a fruit. The definition is by example, hence the question mark.

30a Pear yielding dry unit (not vin) (6)
More fruit, this one comprising a three-letter word for ‘dry’ and a six-letter unit (of temperature) from which the consecutive letters VIN have been removed (‘not vin’).

Down

3d One bit of carpeting taken up in flat for hermit (7)
The Roman numeral for one and a three-letter word for a ‘bit of carpeting’ are reversed (‘taken up’) within a word for a place of one’s own, whether large or small.

12d Crushing formerly hurt struggling clubs in grip of problem (10)
An anagram (‘struggling’) of HURT precedes the usual abbreviation for ‘clubs’ inside (‘in grip of’) a word for a problem (as in ‘the ????? is…’). The qualification of the definition is incorrect – Chambers gives the answer as ‘dialect’ rather than ‘obsolete’ or ‘archaic’, so ‘formerly’ should be something like ‘locally’.

16d Prop not yet solid admits bloody lifting inside (8)
A five-letter word meaning ‘not yet solid’, as runny blancmange might be, has a three-letter word meaning ‘bloody’ reversed (‘lifting’) inside.

17d Flowers showing trouble rising in leaf divisions (8)
A three-letter verb meaning ‘[to] trouble’ is reversed (‘rising’) within a word for leaf divisions.

22d Bug, obscure, appearing on opening of speedwell (literally) (6)
A three-letter abbreviation is followed by the name (hence the ‘literally’) of the first letter (‘opening’) of SPEEDWELL.

27d A rag banned from local benefice as depravity (4)
An eight-letter word for the residence or benefice of a parson has the consecutive letters A RAG omitted (‘banned’).

(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 2,668 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

A significantly easier puzzle this week, with just a few longer entries that could pose a few problems. I note that Azed has got his way regarding the ‘Rules and requests’ section, which has been restored to its earlier form, minus the bits that had been included without his agreement. I think it’s a shame that email entries are not allowed from UK competitors, but there we are.

Nowhere in the online version of the puzzle does it say that the requirement is to write a clue for the word indicated by the asterisked clue at 5d, but that is what (as usual) is required. Unusually, the definition which Azed has provided for the competition word is not explicitly given by Chambers, but he didn’t have much choice without almost giving the answer.

Clue Writers’ Corner: The top-notch setter Monk was the subject of a ‘meet the compiler’ article published on the FT website in May this year. In the interview he is kind enough to mention this site in favourable terms, but there are other reasons to recommend the article – not only is it an entertaining read, but Monk makes a number of points about setting with which I almost entirely concur. A relevant observation that he makes about clue writing is: “Be objective: if a clue idea looks like it is leading you into an increasingly convoluted execution, back out and pursue another, simpler path.” This is a lesson that I learnt the hard way, on several occasions spending a long time working on what originally seemed like a brilliant idea before ending up with a clue that was horribly stretched, and then when I used the clue feeling as though I’d totally wasted the idea. No matter how good the concept, if you can’t make it work, give up and try something different – you may even be able to use a variation on the original idea on another day for another word. This is particularly relevant to clues for competitions, because if you, the writer, know that you haven’t done justice to the concept, then the judge or judges certainly aren’t going to be wowed by it. As soon as you find yourself thinking “I just can’t make this work”, it’s time to cut your losses and try a completely different tack.

Across

11a Student gaining qualification, part of reading list unfinished, only partly educated (5)
A bit of a ‘sound and fury’ clue, where a familiar-two letter abbreviation designating a person who has achieved a particular degree is followed by the word for the sort of thing that would be on a reading list, without its last letter (‘unfinished’).

13a Fashionable idols I embarrass leaving train (5)
The letter I (from the clue) is followed by a nine-letter word meaning ’embarrass’ (in its sense of ‘impede’ or ‘encumber’) from which the consecutive letters TRAIN have been removed (‘leaving train’).

14a Mime urbanites? Mixing in a —— set possibly (7)
A composite anagram &lit, albeit perhaps one drawn from somewhere closer to the trousseau than the top of the chest. The letters of MIME URBANITES when rearranged (‘mixing’) can potentially (‘possibly’) produce IN A, plus the solution (represented by the blank), plus SET.

16a Lose head in sin – hateful (4)
The name of a deadly sin (the one that hangs upside down) loses its head (first letter). The ‘hateful’ sense of the solution is given by Chambers as ‘obsolete’, so the definition here really should have been qualified by something like ‘once’ or ‘abandoned’. 

18a Israelite maybe chopping tree, half tubular in shape (10)
The term for a person descended from a specific son of Noah, possibly the eldest and possibly not depending on how you read Genesis 10:21, is followed by an anagram (‘chopping’) of TREE.

20a Neckband securing fidgety mule, touching on small ear bone (10)
The wordplay here has a familiar six-letter word for a neckband containing (‘securing’) an anagram (‘fidgety’) of MULE. The answer exemplifies the sort of words that I try to avoid in my own puzzles, horribly difficult to define accurately let alone interestingly.

22a Flowering bulbs, for instance fringing seascape (8)
A two-letter word meaning ‘for instance’ is put around (‘fringing’) a term for a seascape which is often seen indicated (somewhat inaccurately) in cryptics by ‘jolly’. The plants in question are recent hybrids of nerine bowdenii and amaryllis ‘Belladonna’. As advertised, the solution is not to be found in Chambers.

26a Vandal turned bloodshot going round snack bar (7)
A three-letter word for ‘bloodshot’ is put outside (‘going round’) a term for a snack bar and the whole lot reversed (‘turned’).

Down

4d Chest without central square beam (4)
The word ‘central’ is not necessary here, but it specifies the position in the word for a chest (in a human context) whence the usual abbreviation for ‘square’ must be removed.

7d ME island dwelling (small) protected by rail (7)
An ‘archaic and poetic’ three-letter word for a small dwelling is contained (‘protected’) by a name for the sort of rail that might be observed walking or swimming through the marshes of North America. The island is part of the Republic of Yemen and is to be found in the Indian Ocean.

12d Scuttled round mine entrance, unable to see (10)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘scuttled’ (in the way that Alexander presumably went about) contains (’round’) a three-letter word for a mine entrance (or a wire ring for a hook), the result being a 6-4 hyphenated solution.

15d Kay’s neighbour sitting on strange secrets – she has voting rights (9)
“Kay’s neighbour” is to be found in the alphabet, and is followed by (‘sitting on’) an anagram (‘strange’) of SECRETS.

21d Change characters in company appearing in old tale (6)
The usual two-letter abbreviation for ‘company’ is contained by (‘appearing in’) an archaic term for advice or a tale. The answer is a transitive-only verb, presenting a trap which Azed has neatly sidestepped by the addition of ‘in’ to the definition.

23d A member of the herd has dropped in as mentioned before (5)
A (from the clue) is followed by a six-letter word for a beast that might be a member of the herd, missing the consecutive letters IN (‘has dropped in’).

25d Saucy ex not appearing in buff (4)
Similarly to 23d, here a six-letter word for a ‘buff’ has the consecutive letters EX omitted (‘ex not appearing’).

(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 2,667 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

I thought last week’s puzzle was pretty tricky, and if anything this one was trickier still. Plenty of nice clues, my favourite being 21a.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at a clue that I noticed on one of the help forums, “Footwear found by Mr Jennings in a ship (5)”. The answer is SPATS, PAT (Mr Jennings) in SS (a ship). This raises a point about references to ‘famous’ people (real of fictional) in clues, where (as here) in order to solve the clue you need to know whom the setter is talking about. Like Azed, I’m far from being opposed to a bit of general knowledge being involved in cryptic crossword solving, and the potential for looking things up on the web  will compensate for a lack of knowledge in a particular area. However, I think that before introducing a particular person to a clue, setters have to ask themselves whether most solvers are likely to be familiar with them. Beyond those people whose fame is global and enduring, such as Mozart, Mickey Mouse and Muhammad Ali, the questions that setters need to answer are, I believe, (i) Is this person currently in the public eye?, and (ii) Is this person likely to be known to anyone who lives outside the UK but takes an interest in what goes on there? A clue featuring a celeb who fails these tests is likely to frustrate rather than entertain many solvers, and I think that Pat Jennings, although very well known to me, falls into the ‘avoid’ category. A little better would be ‘goalie Jennings’ or the like, but the only Pat I can think of who would definitely pass the test is the one with a black and white cat.

Across

1a Light blue marks on bird fluttering in its home? (9)
The usual abbreviation for ‘marks’ and an anagram (‘fluttering’) of BIRD are contained by the home of, say, a captive budgerigar. The definition here is technically not quite accurate, in that the answer isn’t itself a colour, it’s a word that when affixed to ‘blue’ describes a colour; strictly speaking, the term on its own is no more a colour than Vera is an aloe or Ogen is a melon.

11a Hairs of a kind in the ears, not so sensible (7)
The hairs here are of the kind that “are borne on the surface of a cell, that move liquid over its surface or act as locomotor organs in eg protozoans and flatworms.” Their name starts with a C, but the homophone (‘in the ears’) which we are looking for begins with an S.

12a In tumult old militiaman gets detached from Tim (5)
An eight-letter word for a Turkish feudal militiaman has the consecutive letters TIM remove from the start (‘gets detached from Tim’).

14a Glasgow bum after a drink begged endlessly (penniless) (6)
A three-letter word for a particular spirit is followed by a four-letter word for ‘begged’ from which the last letter has been lost (‘endlessly’). For good measure, Azed tells us that the missing letter is an abbreviation for pence, of the sort that went with L and S before decimalization.

18a Murrayfield ground? That’s armful I scattered (4)
A composite anagram &lit (although I couldn’t bring myself to underline the whole clue as the definition) which doesn’t really work for me. The idea is that the letters of MURRAYFIELD when rearranged (‘ground’)  form an anagram (‘scattered’) of the solution (‘That’) plus ARMFUL I, the answer being a Scots form of the word ‘earth’.

22a Tripped lightly, free of stones, round savoury snack (10)
A six-letter word meaning ‘free of stones’, as a jarful of olives might be, contains a word for a snack associated with Spain and usually found in its plural form.

25a Hat sailor wears back to front – he’s a fool (4)
This clue looks at first glance more complex than it actually is – the wordplay simply involves the reversal (‘back to front’) of the shortened form of a nine-letter word for the sort of hat a sailor might wear (or a strong, waterproofed sheet).

33a Boozer opening to give away? Hurried along (7)
A three-letter word for a hostelry (‘Boozer’) is contained by (‘opening’) a word meaning to ‘give away’ or ‘cast off’.

35a European in Kolkata? He accompanies clique in service as of old (9)
The letters HE (from the clue) following (accompanying) a four-letter word for a clique are contained by a word with several obsolete (‘as of old’) meanings, including ‘service’, but which now is generally understood as a price paid for services.

Down

5d Seine (say), wrong, free, rising up once wholly decayed (10)
A three-letter word for the type of thing exemplified by a seine (a fisherman’s friend), a four-letter ‘wrong’ (in the legal sense), and a three-letter verb meaning ‘[to] rid’ are all reversed (‘rising up’) to produce the (4-6) hyphenated solution.

6d Some with allergies avoid this surfeit, half of mutton (6)
You shouldn’t have any trouble with the answer or the four-letter surfeit, but you might be puzzled by the ‘half of mutton’. In English printing circles, a mutton was another name for an em quadrat – and half of an em is an en…

7d Shred songs Spooner-style? He may well be deaf (9)
Azed tends to reserve spoonerisms for the ‘specials’ that contain them in abundance, but here we have a rare escapee. A (3,6) phrase, with the songs having a distinctly Germanic feel, is spoonerized into a (3-6) answer.

8d Dance? No thanks, it’s obscure for poet (4)
A six-letter dance (in quick waltz time, apparently, though such things are strictly a mystery to me) loses a two-letter word meaning ‘thanks (‘No thanks’), the result being a Spenserian word meaning ‘conceal’ or ‘obscure’.

9d Sort of foot-lever let out to disentangle inside (7)
Easy to get the wrong answer to this one – putting a four-letter word that can mean (among other things) ‘to solve’ inside an anagram (‘out’) of LET will produce the more common spelling of the solution. However, it is a different word, often seen in puzzles defined by ‘tidy’, but which Chambers also explicitly gives as ‘to disentangle’, that must be inserted into the anagram.

13d Prince in position of steersman round a riverside French commune (10)
The usual abbreviation for ‘Prince’ is followed by a (2,6) phrase representing ‘in position of steersman’ containing (’round’) the letter A (from the clue). The answer relates to ??????????-sur-Saône, a commune in the Côte-D’or département of Eastern France.

15d Water bird I caught on lake, served in pastry (9)
The letter I (from the clue), the usual abbreviation for ‘caught’, and a four-letter word for a lake are ‘served in pastry’, ie contained in the sort of thing that Desperate Dan liked tucking into (horns and all).

20d Quiet sort of green lining recess (7)
A three-letter word for a shade of green (a better indication than for the blue in 1a) is contained by (‘lining’) the sort of recess often found at the east end of a church choir.

27d Unit of landed herrings one wrapped in special string (5)
Not a cran today, but that other measure of herrings loved by crossword setters, formed when a single-letter word meaning ‘one’ is ‘wrapped in’ a name for the middle string of the lyre.

29d Leading officer flourished lost banner with joyful cry (4)
The wordplay here would probably benefit from a bit of punctuation, but it involves a four-letter word for a banner from which the two letter abbreviation for ‘flourished’ has been removed (‘lost’) being followed by the sort of joyful cry which for some reason I tend to associate with cads and bounders, usually of the moustachioed kind.

(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 2,666 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

I had the luxury of solving this puzzle early, since it appeared on the Guardian site at the same time as 2,665. I thought this was a pretty tough one, particularly for anyone relatively new to Azed.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at a clue that I noticed recently on one of the help forums ‘Company retains large broken deck saw (7)’. The answer is CLOCKED, L (large) in CO (company) being followed by an anagram of DECK. On the face of it, assuming that you accept ‘large’ for L (which I do, although for some unknown reason it is not given by Chambers), the clue is sound. But look again – the wordplay consists of two discrete elements, the CO/L part and the DECK anagram, but a main verb such as ‘retains’ here only works if the wordplay can be interpreted as consisting of just a single element. So ‘College boy entertains female’ is fine for CLASHED, since this can be read as ‘(C LAD) contains SHE’, but  ‘Money enthrals liberal journalist’ would not, as this has to be read as (CASH around L) plus ED – this wordplay would only be valid for CASH around LED. The fix is almost always to use the present participle – ‘Company retaining large broken deck’ and ‘Money enthralling liberal journalist’ both work nicely.

Across

1a Jazzer rap, strong, was confused? Make do with inferior stuff (13, 3 words)
Quite a tricky wordplay to start with, a three-letter ‘Jazzer’ being followed by a four-letter word for ‘rap’ (or ‘informal discussion’), a three–letter abbreviation for ‘strong’, and an anagram (‘confused’) of WAS. The answer is divided (5,2,6).

11a Funeral ceremonies over, had a snack afterwards (4)
The abbreviation for ‘over’ (in a cricketing context) is uncontentious, but the word indicated by ‘had a snack’ which follows seems a bit of a stretch – I would have been much happier with ‘having snack afterwards’.

17a Islander finding odd bits to eat in freshly landed herring (6)
The odd letters from EAT are contained by the name of a measure of capacity for herrings freshly landed in port, set by the Fisheries Board at 37.5 gallons (the equivalent of around 750 fish, it seems), and the first ‘only in crosswords’ word that I remember learning.

24a Clay became this – a red blob fashioned with it is Della-Robbia (3)
A compound anagram involving a lot more chaff than wheat, a rearrangement  (‘fashioned’) of the answer plus A RED BLOB producing DELLA-ROBBIA. The ‘Clay’ is of course Cassius of that ilk.

25a The general population in Ireland wander round centre of Newtown willingly as before (11)
This is another long answer with a chewy wordplay, which has an Irish word meaning ‘[to] wander’ containing (’round’) the middle letter (‘centre’) of NEWTOWN and a rare spelling of an archaic (‘as before’) word for ‘willingly’. The solution is hyphenated, 6-5.

29a Fool, one interested in birds losing beloved in Paris (4)
An eight-letter term describing someone whose interest in birds is primarily spotting as many rare species as possible is deprived of (‘losing’) the French word for ‘beloved’.

32a Satellite, one inside – isn’t it wrong way round? (7)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is put inside a (4,2) phrase which represents an informal was of saying “isn’t it”. Fans of Pink Floyd’s early recordings will recognise the solution as being astronomically linked to Oberon and Miranda, although Syd was seemingly unable to work in Ariel and Umbriel (the latter a malevolent spirit in Pope’s The Rape of the Lock).

33a Fondle a pretty shell (4)
The three-letter word for ‘fondle’ which precedes the letter A (from the clue) is perhaps closer to ‘grope’. It puts me in mind of Posy Simmonds’ description of a lecherous king – ‘He never reigns but he ???s’.

Down

1d Number entering crypt go dancing – that’s plenty (11, 3 words)
A specific cardinal number is contained by (‘entering’) an anagram (‘dancing’) of CRYPT GO, producing a (4,2,5) expression which refers to the aged Jacob’s instructions to his sons in Genesis 42:2

Behold, I have heard that there is ???? ?? ?????: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence.

5d Old pub sign cut up and put in a shelter (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] cut’ is reversed (‘up’) and put inside A (from the clue) and a word for ‘shelter’ which should be familiar to all solvers.

6d In this is matching kitchen feature by the sound of it (4)
A homophone for a feature of every kitchen, which when preceded by the word IN (ie ‘in this’) means ‘matching’ or ‘sharing a common rhythm’.

7d/8d Lecherous old expression he left out of the cable, … (5) / … Typical of this, right – right in a tone of voice? (6)
The wordplay in the first of the pair has THE with HE left out being followed by another word for a cable, whether flex or telegram. The definition in the second clue refers to its precursor, indicating that ‘typical of this’ (ie of the answer) would be a lecherous expression. In the wordplay, one instance of the usual abbreviation for ‘right’ is followed by another instance inside A (from the clue) plus a three-letter word for a tone of voice.

9d Trick I cast for a fish, not requiring a swim (7)
A four-letter word for a trick or ‘pleasing artifice’ has the letter I discarded (‘cast’) in favour of A (from the clue) and the three-letter name given to various flatfish.

10d What’s Scots rock containing within there? Sparkle (11)
I had to work back from the answer to decrypt the wordplay, where a six-letter Scots word for a sort of rock which the English spell without the C contains another Scots word, this one meaning ‘within’ or ‘into’ (‘within there’, ie in Scotland).

19d Mogul governor, one clothed in absurd frippery (7)
I can’t recall ever seeing ‘frippery’ used as anagram indicator (it’s a rare visitor to crosswords in any guise), but here we have a single-letter word for ‘one’ being contained by (‘clothed in’) an anagram of ABSURD.

28d Fleece? Mine’s got a bit of tar on (4)
It’s an old slang term for the sort of mine which presented a grave danger to shipping that must be placed underneath the first letter (‘bit of’) TAR.

30d What sounds briefly like a major dish on the menu? (4)
My musical education began and ended with the recorder at junior school, so I will leave it to those with greater knowledge than I (which means just about everyone) to accurately explain the homophonic bit.

(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 2,665 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Those of us dependent on the availability of the puzzles online have had an interesting few weeks.  After the recent no-shows of 2,659 and 2,662, last week we had 2,664 masquerading as 2,663, and this week we get not only 2,665 but also next week’s puzzle, 2,666. The correspondent who asked last week “What will they think of to confuse us next?” now has their answer.

Regarding 2,665, this struck me as quite tricky, with not too many easy starters. I almost rated it as 3.5/5, but on reviewing the clues prior to writing these notes I decided that it wasn’t that far above the average difficulty of recent times. It perhaps lacked the élan of Azed’s finest, but it was still an entertaining solve.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m not going to look at a clue but a book! Eric Chalkley was a one-off when it comes to crossword setters, a carpenter who started setting in his 50s and was the first compiler to receive an honour specifically for it (the MBE). He was inspired by Ximenes, in particular his book Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword, and chose the pseudonym Apex as he hoped to imitate Ximenes (ie ‘ape X’). He became a prolific setter of themed puzzles, the subjects of which were often people whom he admired. For 30 years he sent out his Christmas crossword (A Puzzle Every Xmas) to a group of friends, including Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein.

He corresponded regularly with Derek Harrison, creator of the Crossword Centre web site, who drew the illustrations for a number of the Christmas puzzles. Derek kept all the letters from Eric, and has used many of them as the basis for ‘The Apex Letters’. I received my copy last week and enjoyed reading it very much; for anyone interested in crossword history, it is a worthy addition to their library. More details, including how to order a copy, can be found at The Crossword Centre: The Apex Letters.

Across

12a Soak English tux, shabby, then comb, given dry-cleaning treatment? (10)
The three-letter word meaning ‘[to] soak’ that is a boon to setters – and appears again later in this puzzle – is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘English’, an anagram (‘shabby’) of TUX, and another favourite, a ‘chiefly Scot’ word meaning ‘to comb’ or ‘to tidy’.

14a What’s assumed in address? In this is example (6)
When the answer is preceded by IN (‘in this’), a word meaning ‘example’ is produced. The definition is mildly oblique, and refers to the position assumed by a golfer when addressing the ball (“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face…”).

15a The old aim for vehicle operated remotely to partake of? (6, 2 words)
A three-letter abbreviation for a remotely operated vehicle is followed by a word meaning ‘partake of’ (such as one might when faced with a blackberry and apple crumble or a chocolate roulade, say), producing an archaic (4,2) phrasal verb. I was initially slightly puzzled by the apparent conflict between aiming and shooting at random, but I think it’s probably just a question of the size of the target, and that King Harold was a victim of the latter. This quotation clarifies the ‘random’ usage:

A certain man drew a bow without any aim or intention of any speciall marke but only ???ing in common at the army.

17a Piece of outstanding Italian art? Cheers (loudly) about position (7)
A four-letter exclamation heard at Elizabethan revels and drinking-bouts (of which, I suspect, there were many) is set about a word for position such as might be used in connection with a golf ball that has strayed into the rough.

20a Small fish, one nibbling on end of simple line (8)
A six-letter word for someone who eats a little at a time is followed by the last letter (‘end’) of SIMPLE and the usual abbreviation for ‘line’.

24a Scrubbing return of TV in nightclub (8)
A reversal (‘return’) of a four-letter (informal) word for TV  is contained by a word which could not fairly be applied to all nightclubs, although a disreputable one could be thus described. The definition is an adjectival noun (as in ‘scrubbing brush’).

29a One endlessly waited for party having learnt about it (5)
Note how Azed has crafted an accurate definition which integrates seamlessly with the remainder of the clue – he makes it look easy, but then he is a master of the art. It’s worth trying a few definitions for yourself to see how you have to play around with words and word sequence in order to get something that does the job.

32a Has (briefly) death-notice around life’s end provided as once (6)
A shortened form (‘briefly’) of ‘has’ is followed by a short form of a word for a death notice containing (‘around’) the last letter (‘end’) of LIFE.

33a Lewdness free? Aged, released from that, cheer about it (6)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘free’ has the consecutive letters AGED removed (‘Aged, released from that’) before being put inside a three-letter word meaning  ‘cheer’, a shortened form of a six-letter interjection which I associate particularly with Prince George in Blackadder III.

35a One rarely holds whip to improve defence in being surrounded (7)
Azed has stretched things a little with the phrasing of this wordplay, which has the letters IN (from the clue) being surrounded by a verb meaning to improve (or reinstate) one’s weaponry.

Down

3d Its flowers never fade, I see, in the country (7)
I (from the clue) and the letter with the name ‘see’ are contained by a word for a country or nation.

4d Army or navy in its natural element (4)
The standard abbreviation for ‘navy’ is contained by a word for the thing without which they would have a few mobility issues.

5d Unstable left embracing Conservative (7)
A six-letter word for ‘left’ in the ‘went out’ sense is set around (’embracing’) the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘Conservative’.

7d Rodent involved with making hole in wall as of old (6)
A two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘involved with’ is put inside (‘making hole in’) an obsolete word for a wall. The solution brings to mind Colin Dexter’s clue for MICKEY-TAKING in Azed 827, “(M)urine-extraction?”, which I must confess that I’ve never been entirely convinced by.

10d Grating, adorned, see, I love relaxing inside (12)
An anagram (‘relaxing’) of C I LOVE is contained by a word meaning ‘adorned’ or ‘carved’, albeit an archaic one.

21d Monitor? Pin gold up on one (7)
A three-letter word for a pin, stump or peg is followed by a reversal (‘up’) of the chemical symbol for gold and a two-letter word meaning ‘one’.

25d See west-country river infuse from below (6)
A slightly sub-par clue, I felt, the three-letter river being followed by an inversion of the infuse/soak word also seen in 12a to produce…the name of a cathedral city that takes its name from the aforementioned river.

31d Part of an erg, directly divisible by unit of measurement (4)
We’re looking here at erg² in Chambers, and a wordplay which has a three-letter word meaning ‘directly’ being divided by a unit of measurement from the printing trade.

(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 2,664 ‘Eightsome Reels’

Difficulty rating: (4 / 10)

The Eightsome Reels variation was originally devised by Azed, the first one appearing in November 1972, and this was its twenty-fifth outing. I rather like having normal clues but a different way of entering them in the grid; sometimes with this sort of puzzle the clues are made a little too easy in order to compensate for the extra difficulty of the format, but although there were quite a few straightforward anagrams (plus a ‘hidden’), Azed threw in a few tricky ones to go with them, so there was no sprint to the finishing line as soon as one had got a few interlocking solutions. A novelty here was the groups of unchecked letters in the corners forming words when read anticlockwise; the corner letters are usually confirmed by means of an ‘unch message’ (an anagram of the 12 letters), which is perhaps rather more helpful to the solver.

When solving an Eightsome Reels puzzle, clearly a single answer cannot be entered in the grid unless the solver possesses the relevant paranormal ability*. To get going, one needs first of all to solve the clues to two adjoining squares – let’s assume that they are side by side, and the solutions are MEPHISTO and CURTSIED. The three consecutive shared letters are IST/TSI, so there are only two ways these can be entered:

The fact that the shared letters are reversed in one solution means that the entries will both run clockwise or both anticlockwise (if they were in the same sequence, eg MEPHISTO/BRISTLED, then one will run clockwise and the other anticlockwise). If you can then solve a clue to a ’reel’ above or below either of these two, you can then confidently enter all three solutions into the grid. I got started with 5, 6 and 11, none of which are too difficult – respectively an anagram with two closing letters omitted, an anagram including a two-letter abbreviation, and an anagram followed by two initial letters. 13/19/20/25 also represent a good way in.

*The requirement to have three-letter words running anticlockwise in the corners could in theory allow you to enter a single answer, but I am struggling to think of an eight-letter word that when considered cyclically and in either direction offers exactly one sequence of three letters which constitutes a non-palindromic word. Any suggestions?

Setters’ Corner: The unusual way in which answers are entered in the grid raises a question about indicators that suggest a particular orientation of components, eg ‘back’, ‘held’. The standard approach for setters is to treat each answer as being fully assembled in a horizontal direction and then entered into the grid. Hence Azed uses ‘flanked’ in 6, even though the abbreviation for His Excellency is not  ‘flanked’ by anything to the north, and ‘put in’ in 28 despite the monster being very much on the loose. The form which the answer takes in the grid is thus entirely independent of the clue  – so ‘one from the south’ would not be considered valid for ENO even if the letters appeared in the grid one above the other. 

Notes on individual clues

1 Matched? I did so, admitted sexual attraction
I (from the clue) and a five-letter word meaning ‘matched’ (‘did so’) contain the two-letter word for the sort of sexual attraction oozed by Clara Bow in the film of the same name.

3 Hardy types showing interest in bar?
A four-letter word for ‘interest’ (often preceded in this sense by the words ‘for my’) is contained by a word for ‘bar’ or ‘without’ assimilated into English from the French language.

7 Downplay gambling stake – no longer finger one held
A four-letter word for a gambling stake, more common in the barred puzzle than at the card table, has a three-letter bit of archaic (‘no longer’) slang meaning ‘[to] finger’ or ‘pilfer’ plus the Roman numeral representing one inside (‘held’).

9 Old portraits: place pictures beside former queen, retiring
As discussed in Setters’ Corner above, the three components (3+3+2) indicated in the wordplay need to be placed alongside each other and then reversed in linear fashion. The fact that they subsequently gyrate in the grid is irrelevant to the solving of the clue.

10 Notches miss the mark cutting stuffs
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] miss the mark’ is contained by (‘cutting’) a word meaning ‘stuffs’ in the sense of ‘feeds gluttonously’.

12 Inflorescence of e.g. hops to plunder in wall crossing
A three-letter word meaning ‘to plunder’ is put inside the sort of wall crossing that one might encounter on a country walk.

14 Shield carriers are protecting fighter, last in former wars
The word ARE (from the clue) contains a three-letter abbreviation for a class of Russian fighter aircraft, the combination being followed by the final letters (‘last’) of FORMER and WARS. The answer relates to a gentleman who attended a knight to bear his shield.

15 Fine silk tears badly clothing nurse
Here we have an anagram (‘badly’) of TEARS containing (‘clothing’) an abbreviation for a nurse qualified to a certain level, the term having succeeded ‘assistant nurse’ but not used in the UK since the 1990s.

16 Wretched quality, without a hint of excellence, in singer
A three-letter musical abbreviation meaning ‘without’ (bearing a striking resemblance to the abbreviation in the previous clue) and the first letter (‘a hint’) of EXCELLENCE are contained by a word for the type of singer exemplified by Barry White, Boris Christoff, or (my personal favourite) Mr. Jetsam.

18 Don’t hurry, I mean to say in store department?
A charade of a six-letter word meaning “don’t hurry” or ‘tarry awhile’ and a familiar abbreviation often indicated by ‘that is’ but here by ‘I mean to say’.

23 Rows of housing, short, unfinished, for accommodating people
A five-letter word meaning ‘short’ is deprived of its last letter (‘unfinished’) and placed around (‘for accommodating’) a term for a people.

24 Set cutting plant in pond freeze again
A three-letter word for ‘set’ in the blancmange sense is contained by a word for water-crowfoot, which could have been indicated by something like ‘concerning, consumed’.

26 About to perish, love hillside, yielding
Containing (‘about’) a three-letter word for ‘to perish’ are the usual single-letter representation of ‘love’ and a word that I didn’t associate with a hillside, rather with any type of wiry grass.

29 A boon for asthmatics, indeed when taken in disturbed rest
A four-letter word meaning ‘indeed’ or ‘yet’ is taken into an anagram (‘disturbed’) of REST.

31 Half of us not drinking in wooden bar, old-fashioned
Half of the word US and a two-letter abbreviation meaning ‘not drinking’ are contained by an old or poetic adjective used to describe something made of a particular wood.

32 Wherein fossils may be found I missed shattered bovine, one back inside
A three-letter word for ‘one’ is reversed (‘back’) inside an anagram (‘shattered’) of BOVINE from which the I has been removed (‘I missed’).

(definitions are underlined)

The unchecked letters in the corners could be defined by: [1] ‘Junk’, [6] ‘One in south-west’, [31] ‘Lay hold of Scots’, and [36] ‘Mimic’.