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 2,663 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

A plain puzzle that I originally rated as being of around average difficulty, albeit not without its tricky bits, but on reflection I think that, while there may not have been too many really tough clues, there were a lot that were far from trivial. I know that one regular found it relatively hard going, and I note that there are several other clues which I could on another day have picked out for comment, so I’ve upped the rating a notch. I see from the latest slip that Azed doesn’t like the idea of getting emailed entries from UK competitors (it didn’t sound as though he thought much of the new ‘Rules and requests’ in their entirety, truth be told), but the instructions attached to this crossword suggest that the message hasn’t yet got through to the relevant person at the Guardian.

Clue Writers’ Corner: There are a couple of things to consider when writing a clue for a word like this week’s. Firstly, although the word comes directly from the French language, the headword is not shown in Chambers as ‘(Fr)’, so there is no need to qualify its definition; however, when defining it I would advise steering clear of the eight-letter English word which is much too close in terms of etymology and form. Secondly, while last month’s twelve-letter word offered a wide variety of possible anagrams (albeit pretty uninspiring ones), a seven-letter word offers far fewer permutations and if going down the anagram route I would be inclined to avoid anything that simply uses the letters to form another word or words – eg for TRAINED something like TRADE IN is just too obvious. Some sort of subtractive or composite construction, such as an anagram of AND TRIBUTE without BUT, is far less likely to be used by other entrants (remember, though, that if the bit being subtracted doesn’t appear as a single chunk in the fodder then a second anagram indicator is required).

Across

10a Parts of long robe exchanged? Their weight varies (5)
The last pair of letters in a five-letter word for a robe reaching the ankles are swapped with the first three, producing a rather odd plural form (which I can’t find anywhere except in Chambers) of a Levantine weight more often encountered singly.

15a Religious sign husband held in hand when attached (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘husband’ is contained by (‘held in’) a five-letter combining form denoting ‘hand’, most often associated these days with practors. The solution is hyphenated, 3-3.

18a River crew laughing helplessly, without ire (4)
The ‘laughing helplessly’ leads to a (3,4) French expression for helpless giggling from which the consecutive letters IRE must be removed (‘without ire’).

20a Clothes were first getting mangled (7)
A charade of a four-letter word for ‘clothes’ or ‘clothing’ and a three-letter past tense meaning ‘were at the front’ (ie ‘were first’).

27a Something in tonic to bring round without delay for Scot (8)
The wordplay here involves a five-letter word meaning ‘to bring’ containing (’round’) a Scots form of an English word which can mean ‘without delay’.

28a Sacred text without date twice translator penned (6)
You may be familiar with SD, sine die, meaning ‘without a date (set)’, but here we have its bigger brother, where die is replaced by anno, making two consecutive appearances with the usual abbreviation for ‘translator’ penned inside (though not between the two).

31a Feature of crocus? It’s seen fringing capsicum (4)
I’m not sure about the phrasing of the wordplay here, which is intended to instruct the solver to identify what could be considered as ‘fringing’ the word CAPSICUM, the answer being expressed in the form (1,2,1). I would have preferred something like “What’s on fringe of capsicum?”

35a Conservatories: large number and not seen among trees (11)
An eight-letter word for a (specific) large number has the consecutive letters AND omitted (‘and not seen’) before being placed inside (‘among’) a word for trees of the genus Platanus.

Down

1d Infestation: chunks of text I consider informally including first sign of that (11)
A five-letter shortened form of a  ten-letter word for ‘chunks of text’ is followed by the letter I (from the clue) and a four-letter word meaning ‘to consider informally’ (or throw carelessly) containing (‘including’) the first letter (‘first sign’) of INFORMALLY (ie ‘that’).

8d Poet’s dubious term in opening passage, line 500 (7)
The opening passage is the sort that the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band memorably combined with the Outro (“Princess Anne on sousaphone / Roy Rogers on Trigger”), and it’s followed by the standard abbreviation for ‘line’ and the Roman numeral for 500. The answer is a one-off from The Faerie Queene, presumed to be a corruption of…well, some other word.

In which her royall presence is ???????;
Ne euer shall I rest in house nor hold,
Till I that false Acrasia haue wonne;

12d Harms body, one slashed terribly in neck – sign of triad? (11, 2 words)
An anagram (‘terribly’) of HARMS BODY from which a single-letter word for ‘one’ has been removed (‘one slashed’) is contained by a three-letter word for a ‘neck’ frequently seen in crosswords and almost invariably indicated by ‘pass’. The solution is (5,6) and the ‘triad’ is a group of musical notes rather than oriental gangsters.

21d Fence not bowled over? His charges are loaded (7)
A seven-letter word for a fence is deprived of the usual abbreviation for ‘bowled’ (‘not bowled’) and followed by another abbreviation from the world of cricket, this time the one for ‘over’.

23d Fleshy plant: hew off nut and cut askew inside (6)
A six-letter word for a type of nut has the consecutive letters HEW taken away (‘hew off’) and an anagram (‘askew’) of CUT inserted.

24d Asian trees, ugly, even bits cut and stuck in pithoi (6)
The odd letters of UGLY (‘even bits cut’) are contained by a four-letter word which describes (at a very general level) pithoi. Our set book for O level Latin was the Aeneid, which was quite exciting at times, but its Greek counterpart was Xenophon’s Anabasis, a dreadfully boring (or so it seemed to me) account of the expedition of the Ten Thousand, which appeared to focus primarily (in the book we read, anyway) on detailed inventories of their stores and provisions, large containers of oil being high on the list. Since ‘pithoi’ is a definition by example, it really should have a question mark or a ‘say’.

29d Anacreontic, maybe? This (not epic) is creation of ancient poet (4)
A composite anagram, where the letters of the solution (‘This’) plus NOT EPIC can be rearranged to form (‘is creation of’) the solution, which relates to Anacreon through the place of his birth.

30d Gandhi, cut off early? It was monstrous (4)
We are not talking about the Mahatma being ‘cut off early’ (having his last letter deleted), rather it is the son of the (unrelated) Rajiv and former member of the Indian parliament who must suffer that fate.

(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 2,662 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Another puzzle that I felt was above average difficulty. I might have rated it half a notch higher had it not been for the neat but straightforward clue at 1a which immediately gave me the first letters of ten down entries. I thought this puzzle showed Azed on his very best form – it seemed as though he had really enjoyed writing the clues, which almost invariably makes for enjoyment in the solve.

Note that the enumeration for 23d should be (6) rather than (5).

Setters’ Corner: Since Azed rarely writes a duff clue, I plan in the coming weeks to look at some clues from other puzzles which illustrate things to avoid when writing clues. I don’t solve many crosswords other than Azed, but I look in on the help forums from time to time, and I see plenty of material there.

I’m going to start with this one from a back-pager: “English teacher’s back in a panic, providing cover for head (7)”. The surface reading is nice, and the wordplay sound, E (English) followed by R (“teacher’s back”) in A FLAP (‘a panic’), leading to EARFLAP (‘cover for head’). The problem here is the use of FLAP in the wordplay and the solution – the ‘panic’ and ‘hanging bit of material’ meanings appear under the same headword in Chambers, so they are the same word rather than homographs. It’s not something that is in any way unsound or unfair, but it’s generally considered weak, and should be avoided wherever possible. A related point applies to answers consisting of multiple words – in barred puzzles, at least, it is considered undesirable to indicate any of the words that make up the answer ‘as is’ – so ‘Secure excellent brown seaweed’ (SEAL ACE) would be much better than ‘Large number netting brown seaweed’ (SEA LACE) for SEA LACE.

Across

13a Woodland umbellifer naturalist transplanted, having cut a border (5)
The word NATURALIST must have the letter A (from the clue) and a word for a border removed (‘cut’) before the remaining letters are rearranged (‘transplanted’).

14a Like a French author favouring bombast? Not the first (9)
A three-letter word meaning ‘favouring’ or ‘in favour of’ is followed by a word meaning ‘bombastic’ from which the first letter has been omitted (‘Not the first’). The ‘bombastic’ word was first used for a kind of coarse cloth made from cotton and flax, while ‘bombast’ itself formerly described the soft down of the cotton plant, with the ‘pompous’ meaning of each developing from the idea of garments padded or puffed out with the material (the original ‘stuffed shirts’, I guess).

15a Regarding building eye something bracing (8)
The ‘eye’ is of the private kind, while the ‘something bracing’ is a medicine designed to invigorate and strengthen, perhaps a solution of quinine in carbonated water, or perhaps what Kanga provided to her somewhat undersized offspring (see 5d).

17a Band section, briefly famous, LSO exploited (6)
Azed has been just a little naughty here, ‘briefly famous’ indicating a three-letter abbreviation of a ten-letter word meaning ‘famous’. The second part of the wordplay involves an anagram (‘exploited’) of LSO.

19a Dogs covering tail I clipped – they’re docked (7)
The dogs, worthless scoundrels that they are, are containing (‘covering’) the letters TAIL without the I (‘I clipped’).

24a With no children around, give up school? Quite revealing! (7)
If this clue were a stick of rock it would have ‘Azed’ written right through it. A (4,7) phrase which might mean ‘give up school’ or ‘no longer offer classes’ has a four-letter word for children of a male persuasion removed from its periphery (ie ‘with no children around’).

25a Measure of acidity that restricts opening of this tiny cutting? (6)
The two-letter description of the number which indicates degree of acidity is followed by a ‘poetic’ word meaning ‘that’ which contains (‘restricts’) the first letter (‘opening’) of THIS.

29a Dance revealing Saudi in his element? (8)
Another neat one, this has a four-letter word describing a Saudi inside a word for the stuff that occurs in profusion in large parts of his country.

33a Tawdry lass (misspelt?) to woo once, accepting half a smacker (5)
An old word meaning ‘to court’ (now associated not with courting but taking to court) contains the first half of a four-letter word for a ‘smacker’. The ‘lass’ is Ms Tawdry, who appears in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, conspiring with Jenny Diver and Mr Peachum to engineer the arrest of Macheath. Her first name appears in various forms, but I’m not sure that the version here is often (if ever) seen, so the ‘misspelt?’ is probably appropriate.

Down

1d Repairer holding torn coat? He helped to keep tavern floor clean (11)
The repairer who contains (‘holds’) an anagram (‘torn’) of COAT is the sort whom you might expect to do a somewhat ‘quick and dirty’ job. The tavern employee would have assisted patrons who were unable or unwilling to, in the words of the Graeme Edge Band, ‘Kick Off Your Muddy Boots’.

2d Indian bean, end of vegetable doubly spiked (5)
A three-letter Indian bean is followed by a double helping (‘doubly’) of the last letter (‘end’) of VEGETABLE.

4d Near unit put up, take in plant firmly (6)
A two-letter word meaning ‘near’ or ‘close against’ and a three-letter word for a single unit are reversed (‘put up’) and the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘take’ is inserted (‘take in’).

5d Strip of plaid maybe making jumper, new? (4)
An informal term for the  sort of jumper that is exemplified, if not typified, by Tigger’s friend who receives watercress sandwiches and ‘strengthening medicine’ from his mother is followed by the standard abbreviation for ‘new’. The Scottishness of the solution is not explicitly stated but is implied by the use of ‘plaid, maybe’.

9d Sign of aging like what’s left of Ozymandias statue in part? (6)
I won a school poetry recitation contest back in…well, the second half of the last century, with my rendition of Shelley’s Ozymandias of Egypt, and, like many things learned at that age, the poem is firmly fixed in my memory. I had to start by meeting the traveller from an ancient land when solving this clue, but I didn’t need to get any further than the ‘vast and trunkless legs of stone’ to find the answer. I used a clue of this type (a ‘hidden’ where the concealing text didn’t appear directly in the clue) in a puzzle not that long ago, but the editor didn’t like it.

12d Substance enveloping dodgy snack? It’s best to keep off this (9)
The ‘substance’ here leads to a word taken directly from Latin and meaning ‘that which a thing is’ (as well as being an informal word for a pound). It is seen containing (‘enveloping’) an anagram (‘dodgy’) of SNACK.

18d Judge accepts Hants parish being put up for sitting (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] judge’ or ‘[to] regard as’ contains (‘accepts’) the reversal (‘being put up’) of the name of a village near Petersfiled.

20d Petroleum fuel residue, rubbish taken on board in a race downhill (7)
A three-letter word for rubbish or useless junk is contained by (‘taken on board in’) the letter A (from the clue) and a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] race downhill’ (with the aid of suitable equipment).

23d Fool taken in by deception at being denied dram (5)
A three-letter fool often seen in crosswords is contained (‘take in’) by a five-letter word for a deception from which the consecutive letters AT have been removed (‘at being denied’).

30d Reservation, one for former royal family (4)
There are two ‘US informal’ terms for a (Native American) reservation, but we want the one that doesn’t simply use the first three letters of the longer word. When combined with a single-letter word for ‘one’, the result is the first name of both the last Shah of Iran and his father. They were the only members of the Pahlavi dynasty, and I can’t help feeling that the answer here is not strictly speaking the name of a ‘royal family’, but I’m prepared to be corrected on that.

(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 2,661 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

Another reasonably tricky puzzle, with some obscure words in wordplays contributing to the difficulty. That said, it was an entertaining solve, and a crossword which I felt Azed had enjoyed setting.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 8d, “SA drain, alright in side of road, clearing closure (5)”. When Chambers shows the usage of a word as being restricted to a specific geographical area, whether that be northern England or Australia, custom and practice demands that this should be indicated by the setter. While this convention is often a bit of a nuisance, and can on occasion be ignored (‘wee’ for ‘little’ may be given by Chambers as Scottish, but it is rarely flagged as such in clues), it does provide an added opportunity for deception. Apart from old chestnuts like ‘Nice friend’ for AMI, ‘in Perth’ could indicate a Scottish word…or an Australian one. A term from ‘East London’ may in reality be South African, and so on. When a word is shown as being from more than one place, eg ‘Aust and NZ’, only one need be indicated. Here the ‘SA’ is an abbreviation not of ‘South Africa’ but of ‘South America’, the positioning of a two-letter word for ‘alright’ inside a four-letter word for a pavement edge missing its last letter producing a Guyanese word for a sluice-gate.

Across

1a Lolly flash couple of loves put into glossy mags (12)
Quite a testing clue to start with, a four-letter word shown by Chambers under flash² followed by a double helping of the letter representing love (for Andy Murray) being enclosed by a mid-century US term for expensive or glossy magazines, as opposed to ‘pulps’.

12a Fool from Ohio welcomed by Republicans (4)
The acronym GOP for the US Republican Party dates back to 1875, at which point it stood for Gallant Old Party. It has been given several alternative interpretations over the years (most notably Get Out and Push) but the accepted expanded form is now Grand Old Party. In 2009 the Wall Street Journal instructed staff to discontinue use of the term GOP on the basis (ostensibly) that readers might not know what it meant. Incidentally, the party’s elephant symbol dates back to an 1874 cartoon by Thomas Nast, showing the Democratic Party as a donkey trying to scare an elephant depicting the Republican Party. Here the single-letter abbreviation for ‘Ohio’ is contained (‘welcomed’) by the TLA in question.

15a One expelled with the others I have returned before middle of trimester (7)
A three-letter abbreviation for ‘and the rest’ (‘with the others’) and a contracted form of ‘I have’ are reversed (‘returned’) ahead of the middle letter of ‘trimester’.

16a NZ tree beside local bracken (6)
A charade of a two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘beside’ and the name of a variety of bracken found in New Zealand (ie ‘local bracken’), and also of the Georgia plantation in Gone with the Wind established by Gerald O’Hara on land that he won in all-night poker game.

19a River twice entering Scots one causing delay (5)
The standard abbreviation for ‘River’ appears twice (in succession) inside (‘entering’) the name of a Scottish river (ie ‘Scots one’).

21a Early arrivals set to work impress, shedding coat (5)
An anagram (‘set to work’) of IMPRESS without its first and last letters (‘shedding coat’).

24a Points around hard parts of buckle (6)
I puzzled for a while over the synonym for ‘points’ which was to go around the usual abbreviation for ‘hard’, before I realised that Azed was talking about points of land.

29a Style in basic nature (almost) followed by the French (7)
A six-letter word for ‘basic nature’ or ‘something that exists independently’ deprived of its last letter (‘almost’) is followed by the  masculine form of the French word for ‘the’.

31a Opposition in deep clashing quibble (9)
The ‘opposition’ which is to be put inside an anagram (‘clashing’) of DEEP takes the form of the plural of a word for ‘a person who is opposed to anything’.

Down

2d A bit of a poser for bachelor (4)
A simple charade of a three-letter word meaning ‘for’ (cf the opposition in 31a) and the standard abbreviation for ‘bachelor’, but the clue put me in mind of this early exchange between Morse and Lewis in Colin Dexter’s Last Bus to Woodstock:

By a quarter to midnight Lewis had finished his task and he reported to Morse, who was sitting with The Times in the manager’s office, drinking what looked very much like whisky. ‘Ah Lewis.’ He thrust the paper across. ‘Have a look at 14 down. Appropriate eh?’ Lewis looked at 14 down: Take in bachelor? It could do (3). He saw what Morse had written into the completed diagram: BRA. What was he supposed to say? He had never worked with Morse before. ‘Good clue, don’t you think?’ Lewis, who had occasionally managed the Daily Mirror coffee-time crossword was out of his depth, and felt much puzzled. ‘I’m afraid I’m not very hot on crosswords, sir.’ ‘”Bachelor” – that’s BA and “take” is the letter “r”; recipe in Latin. Did you never do any Latin?’ ‘No sir.’ ‘Do you think I’m wasting your time, Lewis?’ Lewis was nobody’s fool and was a man of some honesty and integrity. ‘Yes, sir.’ An engaging smile crept across Morse’s mouth. He thought they would get on well together.

Incidentally, the surnames of all the characters in the novel are those of competitors in Ximenes/Azed competitions, something which is explored further in an article  on this site.

3d Where to log on over a latte, even holding case up? (7)
A poetic contraction of ‘even’ containing a four-letter word for a case (perhaps more accurately for a statement of facts presented in a court of law) is reversed (‘up’).

4d Former mishap originated with conclusion taken to head (6)
A six-letter word meaning ‘originated’ or ‘brought up’  has its last letter moved to the beginning (‘conclusion taken to head’).

7d Device for fixing wedge, mostly ingenious, cut up in copper, say? (9)
A six-letter word meaning ‘ingenious’ (or ‘decorative’) missing its last letter (‘mostly’) is reversed (‘up’) inside a term for the something that is exemplified (‘say’) by a copper – or by a 50p piece. The solution is hyphenated, 6-3, while the ‘cut’ strikes me as being somewhat de trop.

11d What was behind Moroccan tree being found around Spain? (5)
The Moroccan name for the sandarac tree, when placed around the IVR code for Spain, produces a Spenserian spelling of a word meaning ‘that which is in the rear or behind’, so ‘what was behind’.

20d Sound of one seeking to enter vale in desert (7)
The magazine issued every term by my college had a ‘joiners and leavers’ section headed ‘Ave atque Vale’ (‘Hail and Farewell’, a spot of Catullus), and it is that sort of ‘vale’ (‘goodbye’) that leads to a four-letter word to be inserted into a verb often indicated in cryptic slues by ‘desert’. The answer contains a couple of hyphens.

22d Speaking less than the rest, group in the middle? Reverse of that (6)
A three-letter word for a group is to be placed in an informal word that could be applied to one’s ‘middle’, and the combination is then reversed (‘Reverse of that’).

24d Second half of ring on a square wedge? (5)
The second half of a six-letter word for a ring is followed by the letter A (from the clue) and a single letter which describes the shape of a square used in technical drawing and carpentry.

25d Typical of classy folk in county resorts (6)
A single letter which designates something or someone as being of first class is contained by the five-letter abbreviation for the name of an English county.

(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 2,660 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

After last week’s issues, it was no surprise to find that the online version of the puzzle was available on schedule this morning – we should be alright for the next couple of weeks, I think. In terms of difficulty, this was a real contrast to last week’s offering, with very few ‘write ins’ and a number of quite tricky parsings. There were also a couple of clues which struck me as rather odd. Note that the enumeration of 22d should be (6).

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 1d, “Personal problem mum’s got after tripe (4)”. I think that misdirection is one of the finest tools in the setter’s box, and something that adds a great deal to a clue; personally, I am rarely satisfied with a clue where what I am saying on the surface and what I am saying cryptically are essentially the same, and I suspect that Azed’s feelings are similar. Here we have three deceptive elements, the first being the overall surface reading, which suggests that mum is suffering a personal problem (as well one might) after eating tripe – but the tripe which provides the definition is not of the edible variety. Secondly, ‘mum’ is not a person, but an interjection meaning ‘quiet!’. And thirdly, ‘got after’ in the surface suggests something along the lines of ‘suffering as a result of’, but in the cryptic reading it simply means ‘put after’.  Just six words in the clue, but three false scents.

Across

10a It’s chill in Scotland – over there I’ll be kept inside (5)
You really need Chambers in order to be sure of the spelling required here – the big red book shows three possible options for the solution (a Scots word meaning ‘chill’ or ‘dingy’), but only one viable Scottish (ie ‘over there’) form of the word ‘over’ which, with the Roman numeral for ‘one’ inside, can produce one of them. Other references, however, give Scots versions of ‘over’ which could lead to an alternative solution.

12a Returning kisses this is abandoned excess (6)
A reversal (‘returning’) of a four-letter verb form meaning ‘kisses’ is followed by THIS (from the clue) missing the letters IS (‘is abandoned’).

15a Philippine buffalo, a miniature? It returned to plunder endlessly (7)
The word IT from the clue is reversed (‘returned’) in front of a word meaning ‘to plunder’ without its last letter (‘endlessly’). The interesting element here is the ‘a miniature’ – given that the answer is an anagram of A MINIATURE minus INE, I think this may be a lingering vestige of a composite anagram which never came to fruition.

16a Home preferred to nursing home, not available? Praise be! (7)
Another slightly strange one – a 2+3+2 charade, the ‘preferred to’ simply meaning ‘put ahead of’ and the nursing home being a three-letter ‘old informal’ contraction of a ten-letter word. But in order for the cryptic reading to work, ‘Home’ needs to be ‘House’, which also avoids the repetition of the former.

18a Handsaw tot held steady I’d cut (6)
The ‘tot’ describes the sort of thing that someone suffering from arithmomania (as we discovered last week) would do compulsively; that three-letter word is contained (‘held’) by a five-letter word meaning ‘steady’ or ‘sedate’, from which the letters ID have been removed (“I’d cut”).

23a What’s a hyena’s growl, wild? We go ‘Ah!’ with this (6)
This is a composite anagram and a type of &lit, where the whole clue constitutes the wordplay but only part forms the definition. Here the letters of A HYENAS GROWL when rearranged (‘wild’) can produce WE GO AH plus the solution (‘this’).

30a Tradesman adding to the scales, according to hearsay? (6)
A homophone (‘according to hearsay’) of a word meaning ‘more obese’ (ie ‘adding to the scales’). The answer is the name which Private Eye memorably gave to Ted Heath, as a result of his role in negotiations over EEC food policies, as well as being the occupation of Margaret Thatcher’s father.

32a Japanese nerds wandering about Tokyo’s centre, lacking breadth? (5)
An anagram (‘wandering’) of ABOUT and the middle letter (‘centre’) of ‘Tokyo’, from which the usual abbreviation for breadth has been omitted (‘lacking’).

33a Crater formed in crest abroad? A result of erosion (10)
Here an anagram (‘formed’) of CRATER is contained by a word which means ‘crest’ or ‘head’ in the European language most frequently referenced in puzzles.

Down

2d Birds’ rear ends demonstrated by one fat lady? Look out! (6)
The ‘fat lady’ indicates the first name of the late Ms Dickson Wright (other forenames Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda), former barrister and celebrity cook, who joined forces with Jennifer Paterson as the Two Fat Ladies. A two-letter interjection meaning ‘lo!’ or ‘see!’ (ie ‘Look out!’) must be removed from within it.

3d Garrison commander still replacing head of tracking system (8)
A verb meaning ‘still’ in the sense of ‘to muffle’ or ‘to silence’ replaces the first letter of a system used for locating and tracking objects.  Clues of this type always put me in mind of JPH Hirst’s brilliant clue for VINEGAR in AZ comp 27, “Given unconventionally for Jack’s head” [TAR with the first letter replaced by an anagram of GIVEN].

4d Have a flutter with the hard stuff? (5)
The wordplay produces a (3,2) phrase that certainly means ‘back’ as you might ‘back a horse’, and I suppose would mean ‘have a flutter with’ when followed by, say, ‘the Tote’.

5d One brings up water, absent after strong drink (5)
The standard single-letter abbreviation for ‘absent’ follows the sort of strong drink that one might be served in Japan.

6d King introduces check limiting extremes of martial government (7)
The chess players’ abbreviation for ‘king’ precedes a four-letter word meaning ‘[to] check’ containing the first and last letters (‘extremes’) of ‘martial’.

9d Devouring even bits of pud in rolypoly – foolishness (7)
Ideally there would be a comma between ‘in’ and ‘rolypoly’ for the benefit of the cryptic reading, since it is a word for a round, podgy person which is ‘taking in (devouring’ ) the second and fourth letters (‘even bits’) of ‘pud in’. Chambers suggests that there should be a hyphen in ‘roly-poly’.

17d A peasant’s piercing pain once in cell, lacking vital part (8)
The letter A (from the clue) and a four-letter word from the Indian subcontinent for a peasant or tenant farmer are contained by (‘piercing’) an old spelling (‘once’) of a familiar word for a pain. The answer is an unlikely sort of word which I don’t remember encountering before and will have forgotten by tomorrow.

26d One of several in pack runs in to cover up (5)
Care is required here – the solution is not the obvious spelling of the word which the checked first, third and fourth letters might suggest – the wordplay, involving the usual abbreviation for ‘runs’ being inserted into a reversal (‘up’) of a word meaning ‘[to] cover’, makes clear that an alternative spelling is required.

(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 2,659 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

Firstly, my thanks to crossguesser for providing a scanned copy of this puzzle which was not (and still isn’t at the time of writing) available on the Guardian web site – the PDF produced from the scan can be found here.

Secondly, I was delighted to see the names of some regular correspondents in the slip for 2,655 (the Printer’s Devilry comp). Well done to them! Knowing where the break is in a PD clue doesn’t always make the undevilled version obvious; a question was asked on another post regarding the ‘podium’ clues, and I will repeat below the full versions which I believe the authors intended:

1. The meal served was so unfit – and a trifle cold.

The meal was soup, a confit, and a trifle (cold).

2. I feel busts a lot, but I know I need treatment so I’m willing to pay for it.

I feel BUPA costs a lot, but I know I need treatment so I’m willing to pay for it.

3. Hillary expertly wound up several guys – that one she riled badly.

Hillary expertly wound up several guys that one sherpa coiled badly.

Thankfully, when I was eventually able to get started on today’s puzzle it proved to be one of Azed’s less demanding offerings. The competition word is an interesting one, and I see that Azed has included in the instructions for entrants a list of the criteria by which he judges a clue; I don’t think these will come as any surprise to regulars or to those who have read the hints for writing Azed competition clues on this site. It would also appear that emailed entries will now be accepted from all solvers (previously this option was only available to competitors outside the UK), which is welcome news, far be it from me to add “if, like today’s puzzle a little overdue”.

Clue Writers’ Corner: Competition clue words of ten or more letters usually produce a very high number of anagram clues. Although BOTTLE-WASHER (AZ comp 2524) lent itself quite well to other treatments, all but three of the published clues involved anagrams; the problem with the alternative approaches is that they tend to be either too obvious or too long-winded, while a long word offers all manner of anagram-based options which a shorter word does not. Some of the successful clues will undoubtedly be ‘&lit’s, but there is no problem with a conventional definition + wordplay clue – as long as the definition part is original and interesting; the definition given by Chambers is unlikely to cut it (reading through the BOTTLE-WASHER clues will show you what I mean).

Across

6a United lead, a work of art to seethe from below? (6)
A (1-2-3) charade of the usual abbreviation for ‘united’, the chemical symbol for lead, and a word for a work of art created using a specific medium.

12a One old Scottish bird wraps wimple perfectly (10, 2 words)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is followed by a five-letter word for a blackbird which contains (‘wraps’) an alternative word for a wimple. The ‘old Scottish’ bird word is indeed given by Chambers as ‘archaic and literary Scot’, but it perhaps should be ‘archaic Scot and literary’, since the OED says that “in the 19th c. [it] often appears in English and American poetry from imitation of Scott or Burns.” ‘Wimple’ is close to being a definition by example, but we’ll let that pass. The answer is (1,9), and there is an accent on that first word.

13a Dress machine’s cut in length of thick cotton (7)
A three-letter word for ‘dress’ or ‘equipment’ is combined with a six-letter word for a machine from which the consecutive letters IN have been removed (“‘s [ie ‘has’] cut in”).

14a Unwillingness to speak, ignoring extreme limits…of this once? (4)
A six-letter term describing an inability or an unwillingness to speak has its first and last letters removed (‘ignoring extreme limits’), to produce a Shakespearean (‘once’) word for the sort of thing that a person affected by the condition would certainly not contribute to verbally.

15a Duck flesh parcelled by mum (6)
A four-letter word for ‘flesh’ is contained (‘parcelled’) by an interjection which equates to ‘mum!’ when used as an instruction.

25a Modest about ride with ‘ounds, being gentrified (6)
A three-letter word for ‘modest’ is put around (‘about’) a four-letter word for ‘[to] ride with hounds’ which has been  cocknified analogously to “‘ounds”.

29a Leg with last bit of gangrene requiring operation (4)
A word for a leg, which may or may not be the same as the heraldic term ‘gamb’, describing a beast’s whole foreleg, is followed by the final letter (‘last bit of’) ‘gangrene’. The ‘requiring’ is there simply to link the wordplay to the definition, although it comes close to what Azed describes in his judging criteria as ‘superfluous wording’.

31a Bowled in first stages, going back having received painful blow (7)
The standard (cricketing) abbreviation for ‘bowled’ is contained by a reversal (‘going back’) of a six-letter word for ‘first stages’ or ‘initial appearances’.

33a Oily paste absent in watery iftar’s starter (6)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘absent’ is to be put inside a four-letter word for ‘watery’ followed by the first letter (‘starter’) of ‘iftar’.

Down

1d NZ bird sounding (almost) like a dove (4)
The pronunciation which Chambers gives for the NZ bird is slightly different to that which it shows for the sound made by doves, which when repeated therefore almost constitutes a homophone.

7d One writing about bit of rock, object turning up in prehistoric time (7)
A three-letter word for an author (‘One writing’, the meaning being transferred from the implement with which one writes) contains (‘about’) both the first letter (‘bit’) of ‘rock’ and a word for an object or goal which has been reversed (‘turning up’).

8d Pale blue pants concealing worker’s muscle (6)
A four-letter word for a pale blue or green paint (try asking for it in B&Q and see where it gets you) is followed by the letters PANTS from which a word for a ‘worker’ seen almost as frequently in crosswords as in my lawn has been removed (‘concealing worker’).

10d Abuse male patients having to stand inside with temperature (12)
A (3,3) phrase that might describe male patients contains (‘having…inside’) a word meaning ‘stand’ (in the sense of ‘offer and pay for’), the whole lot being followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘temperature’. The solution is hyphenated, 3-9.

16d Chap getting drunk in group devouring like carnivores (8)
The combination of a three-letter dialect word for a chap (and also the name of a fish) and a two-letter word meaning ‘on the way to being drunk’ (ie ‘getting drunk’) is put into a word for a group.

20d Part of e.g. lobster I peer nervously over, gracing menu? (7)
The word ‘over’ sits a little uneasily in this clue, where the wordplay needs to be read as ‘[with] I peer nervously over, gracing menu?’ in order to accurately indicated that a two-letter word for ‘gracing [the] menu’ (last seen in 16d) has an anagram (‘nervously’) of I PEER above (‘over’).

21d Melodious snatch taken in a rush (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] snatch’ is contained (‘taken in by’) the sort of rush which has nothing to do with haste and everything to do with water plants.

23d Source of Asian timber, 75% dehydrated outside (6)
An eight-letter (hyphenated) word that means ‘dehydrated outside’ (given suitable weather conditions) is reduced by 25%, its last two letters being deleted.

(definitions are underlined)

In the continuing absence of the puzzle on the Guardian web site, a PDF from a scan kindly provided by correspondent crossguesser can be found here.

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 2,658 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

It seemed to me that a couple of tricky parsings in this 13×11 puzzle raised it above the mid-point of the difficulty range; although there were several anagram clues where the fodder was clear, they weren’t always easy to work out, and (unusually for an Azed) there were no ‘hiddens’. I thought that overall it was an enjoyable solve.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 28d, “Corner of Scotland to recognize up there having entered university (4)”. The wordplay here has a three-letter chiefly Scots (ie ‘there’) word meaning ‘to recognize’ or ‘to know’ being reversed (‘up’) around the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘university’. The point of interest here is the use of ‘enter’ to indicate containment, rather than its more common function as an insertion indicator. Setters on occasion will take a definition from Chambers and use it to their advantage, an example being ‘over’, which I see quite often used to indicate containment. The basis for this is the meaning ‘from side to side of’, but in practice this never describes something being divided by another thing – a ‘bridge over a river’ is not much use if the bridge is in two separate parts with the river in between. When I am assessing potential new entries for the lists in the Clinical Data section of this site, if the Chambers definition seems promising I then go to the OED to get clarification from the examples of usage given there. With ‘enter’, the word is given by Chambers as having a sense of ‘admit’; it has to be said that in most instances it is not the subject of the verb into which the object is being admitted, eg in “Some‥officers‥entered me into the army” it is the army which is doing the receiving, but I think that an example such as “I immediately entered another able seaman, which‥made the number six” suggests that it is synonymous with ‘admit’ in the sense of ‘allow in’. I added it to the list of containment indicators several years ago, albeit I assigned it a classification of ‘Advanced’ rather than ‘Standard’, ie suitable for use only in barred puzzles, but I subsequently removed it. I’ll probably reinstate it, because its credentials are at least as good as those of several others that are in commonly seen in crosswords.

Incidentally, if you are thinking of submitting a competition entry, or a complete puzzle, and you have a word in a clue which can be spelt either -ize or -ise in British English (as here with ‘recognize’), which should you choose? It doesn’t matter – for clue writing competitions, either spelling will be accepted; for puzzles, there will be a ‘house style’, and the editor will amend as necessary – Azed’s puzzles, as you would expect from a  lexicographer – are characterized by the ‘-ize’ forms, but the Telegraph, for instance, standardises on the ‘-ise’ spellings.

Across

1a Keenly sentimental and increasingly amorous, I, before and after school (13)
A combination of a six-letter word meaning ‘increasingly amorous’ or ‘increasingly kind-hearted’ and the letter I (from the clue) is contained by two instances of the usual abbreviation for ‘school’. For the purposes of the wordplay, the words after the second comma need to be read as ‘[with] school before and after’.

13a One decrying member of travelling troupe? (8)
The wordplay here is a second definition of a sort, being a (3,5) phrase which could describe a wanderer with a travelling theatre company.

16a People dividing view, any, regarding apartment block (11)
A three-letter word for ‘people’ contained by (‘dividing’) a five-letter word for a view or a doctrine which one holds to be true is followed by a dialect form of ‘any’, producing a word whose existence is perfectly logical but which I don’t remember encountering before.

18a Student boozer, one joint incorporating another (not the first) (6)
A four-letter joint containing (‘incorporating’) a three-letter one from which the first letter has been omitted (‘not the first’) provides a word which Chambers indicates as a venue but OED gives only as “A convivial meeting of German university students (and the like) at a tavern or restaurant”. What exactly ‘the like’ are I cannot say; in my experience, when it comes to analogues, students are like dames.

23a Having what looks like hand one pair of bridge partners fed on (6)
A charade of a one-letter word for ‘one’, the letters representing a pair of partners at the bridge table, and a three-letter word meaning ‘fed on’.

25a Like some breakfast? Against money being put into measure of grain once (11)
If you immediately thought of ‘against’ being CON, got the answer, and then struggled to make sense of the last part of the wordplay, then you are in good company! It is actually a two-letter word for (among many other things) ‘against’ and a three-letter slang word for ‘money’ which must be put inside the name of a unit of weight equal to 100lb, formerly used for measuring grain.

30a Scrap metal, inferior, including such as in Scotland, all returned (7)
A four-letter word meaning ‘inferior’ is placed around (‘including’) a Scots form of ‘such’ and the whole lot reversed (‘all returned’).

31a French art turning back on itself? It represents reality (4)
Wordplays such as ‘art master’ for TEACHEST crop up every so often (usually in Azed’s puzzles or mine), and here it is the French version of ‘art’ in the ‘thou art’ sense which appears twice, once forwards and once backwards (‘turning back on itself’).

Down

2d Basset? Crowning feature in position (7)
A five-letter ‘crowning feature’ is combined with that same two-letter word that appeared in 25a (‘in position’); if you are not of a geological bent, then like me you may need to look up both the answer and ‘basset’ to check that all is as it should be. 

3d Appropriate in female, it may prompt immune response (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘appropriate’ (in the adjectival sense) is contained by a term for many female birds, not to mention a few fishes and crustaceans (apparently).

5d One side of wagon? With that it’s shiny black (4)
When one ‘side’ (either the first or the last letter, but, as it turns out, the last letter) of the word ‘wagon’ is added to the solution, a five-letter word meaning ‘shiny black’ is produced (ie “With that it’s shiny black”). I’d come across this word in another puzzle only a couple of weeks ago, which was handy.

7d What’ll suggest clan literally conforming with others? (6, 2 words)
If you read the answer as (2,2,2) with a comma between the last two words, it suggests a four-letter word for a clan or a division of a tribe. This one is quite hard to explain, so I have added an explicit version of the explanation below.

8d Hemp genus from Q I had planted in region not far from there, yielding … (4)
The contracted form of ‘I had’ is contained by (‘planted in’) the two-letter abbreviation for the state which borders Queensland to the south-west (‘region not far from there’). Unusually for Azed,  the two clues joined by ellipses stand alone, so if you ignore the ‘yielding’ here then both 8d and 9d are perfectly normal. Why has he written ‘Q’ rather than ‘Queensland’? I think the idea is that because Q is an abbreviation, the implication is that we are similarly seeking an abbreviation for the nearby region. Could we be meant to think of Qatar and Saudi Arabia in the wordplay? No, I don’t think that works any better.

12d Butter’s given a wee bittie salt? It provides more than we really want (10, 2 words)
The ‘butter’ here is the sort that makes occasional appearances in Christmas cracker jokes (I seem to remember a very contrived one about ‘temper spent butter’), and its possessive form is followed by a four-letter Scots word for a pinch, producing a (5,5) solution.

19d Lady’s mantle from the orient in puckered fabric (7)
The usual abbreviation for ”Eastern’ (ie ‘from the orient’) is contained by a six-letter puckered fabric, and the solution really is an article of clothing rather than a plant.

26d Solid leader being somewhat demoted as formerly (4)
A four-letter word for a particular solid figure, familiar to all motorway users, has its first letter (‘leader’) being moved downwards by a couple of positions (‘somewhat’) in order to produce the answer.

(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 2,657 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

This was the sort of Azed puzzle which I suspect will not have given regulars too many problems but might have proved tricky for those less familiar with his little idiosyncrasies. Overall it seemed to lack the élan of Azed’s very finest, and there was a degree of repetition, most notably of ‘disheartened young’ to indicate YG.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 8d, “Hide from downpour (4)”. Not so long ago I clued the plural of this word as ‘Hides buckets’, and it is one which lends itself nicely to a double definition clue, a type which adds variety to a crossword but should, I believe, be used sparingly – a couple in any puzzle is quite enough. The most important thing to my mind is that the two words being defined should either be homographs, ie (as with this clue) they appear as separate headwords in Chambers, or the two senses referenced in the clue should be plainly distinct. I don’t therefore consider ‘Tense finish’ to be a satisfactory clue for PERFECT, since both meanings clearly share the sense of completion associated with the Latin verb perficere from which they derive, although you could argue that the clue still provides two different routes to the answer; I certainly have no issue with ‘Boots have these drugs’ for UPPERS. Otherwise it’s just a matter of finding two definitions which can be combined in an interesting way; if there are multiple headwords in Chambers, the definitions in the clue certainly don’t have to match exactly, so for SLATE, a clue like ‘Dull dark blue carpet’ would be entirely acceptable. Triple definitions, eg ‘Twist greatly impressed US Army’ for SLEW, should be used with extreme frugality – about one a year is probably enough.

Across

1a Common weed of various colours, deep round inside (8)
A four-letter adjective meaning ‘of various colours’ (Browning’s piper being thus described) contains a reversal (’round’) of a word meaning ‘deep’, as a voice might be. The answer contains a couple of hyphens, while the word ‘weed’ seems particularly appropriate.

7a Fabulous tree, one inhabiting downs? Certainly not (4)
When you see ‘certainly not’ or the like in a clue, it usually means that you must infer the opposite of what has been previously stated. Here it could have meant that rather than ‘one inhabiting downs’ you should read ‘downs inhabiting one’, but in this instance it is just a single word which must be ‘turned round’, so a one letter word meaning ‘one’ is to be put inside (‘inhabiting’) a word which is the polar opposite of ‘downs’.

11a Horse painter setting aside barrel inside for farrier’s scraps (5)
There are not too many horse painters to choose from in crossword land – if it’s not Munnings then it has to be George ??????, famed for his depictions of horses but classified in his lifetime as a sporting artist and thus excluded from full membership of the Royal Academy. The solution is produced from his surname by omitting (‘setting aside’) the usual abbreviation for ‘barrel’; since this letter occurs twice in the name, and both instances are ‘inside’, Azed might have written the clue as ‘Horse painter setting aside one barrel for farrier’s scraps’.

14a Form of help cutting monstrosity as abandoned, cable system (7)
An anagram of (‘form of’) HELP is contained by (‘cutting’) a five-letter word for a monstrosity from which the consecutive letters AS (at the end) have been lost (‘as abandoned’).

17a Search in litter for portion of dead tissue (6)
Chambers gives ‘litter’ as “a state of confusion and untidiness with things strewn about”, so ‘in litter’ very accurately indicates an anagram.

28a The old rise in line dressed grandly (7, 2 words)
An obsolete three-letter word meaning ‘[to] rise’ or ‘to mount’ must be inserted into an anagram (‘dressed’) of LINE. The solution is (2,5).

29a Deep sound ordinary in piccolo? The opposite (5)
This clue works almost identically to 7a, with the usual abbreviation for ‘ordinary’ being contained by the Italian word which means the opposite of ‘piccolo’.

30a Classical poet, one that disappeared mysteriously (5)
Marcus Annaeus is known for his only surviving work, De Bello Civili, a historical epic describing the war between Julius Caesar and Pompey. It stops abruptly during book 10, with Caesar fighting for his life, which suggests that the author was waiting for a further call from the commissioning department of the BBC (or their Roman equivalent) which never came. The name by which Richard John Bingham was commonly known has become synonymous with mysterious disappearances and periodic sightings, most recently (46 years on) in a Buddhist commune in Brisbane.

Down

1d Collage showing chemist finally serving prince in place of king (7)
The surname of a French chemist and microbiologist must have its last letter (‘finally’) changed from the usual abbreviation for ‘king’ (in a monarchical context) to the one for ‘prince’. A hyphen is also inserted.

2d Travel as young often do? I love going round the old world (9)
The letter I (from the clue) and a three-letter word for ‘love’ in the sense of ‘zero’ are put round the Latin word for the Earth.

6d Mugs spoke up about what’s central to knowledge (5)
A four-letter word meaning ‘spoke’ is reversed (‘up’) around (‘about’) the middle letter of (“what’s central to”) ‘knowledge’. Both the definition and the answer are slang terms for the same things.

16d Night-time attack happened, catching one stiff (8)
A four-letter word for ‘happened’ contains (‘catching’) the Roman numeral for ‘one’ and a word that means ‘stiff’ in a Paul Hollywood kind of way, describing something that has ‘fallen’ during baking. The product is a term for a night attack derived from the Spanish word for a shirt, a result of the attacking party’s practice of wearing shirts (though not with numbers, names or advertising material for betting firms) over their armour as a means of mutual recognition.

20d The first always comes last after spirit has left (7)
A slightly convoluted wordplay has a four-letter word meaning ‘comes last’ following a two-letter spirit and the standard single-letter abbreviation for ‘left’. The nones and the ides were less predictable, but this chappie was always ‘the first’.

23d Mount rode up, showing overlapping piece of armour (6)
The combination of “a hill or ancient mound formed from the accumulated debris from earlier mud or wattle habitations [in Arab lands]” (‘mount’) and a three-letter word meaning ‘rode’ or ‘had a seat on’ is reversed (‘up’)  to produce the answer.

24d Cooked pastry base shouldn’t be like this, very like an omelette (first off)! (5)
A word describing the sort of bottom abhorred by Mary Berry is formed by putting a two-letter word for ‘very’ in front of a four-letter word, appropriate to describe an omelette, from which the first letter has been removed (‘first off’).

25d Like votes when cast under being distributed (5)
The definition here makes reference to the name of a vessel used for holding tablets, lots, or balls in the process of voting or casting lots, originally in ancient Rome.

(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 2,656 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

After the devilry of last week, a plain puzzle that seemed solid rather than spectacular, and was, I felt, around the middle of the difficulty spectrum.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 29a, “I must fill crack in minor joist (6)”. The wordplay has the letter I being inserted into a five-letter word meaning ‘[to] crack’ in the sense that one might crack a crossword clue, producing a term for a joist of secondary importance. The point of interest here is one of the classic grammatical traps for setters concerning verbs which require a different person in the surface and cryptic readings. In this instance, ‘I fill crack in minor joint’ seems obvious, but the cryptic reading requires a verb in the third, not the first, person, so ‘I fills crack in minor joint’, which is accurate but doesn’t read too well. The same issue applies to other words (eg ‘we’), because a wordplay element is a ‘thing’ and invariably needs to govern a verb in the third person. It is usually possible to work round the problem by selecting a form of the verb which is the same in both situations, typically with the aid of an auxiliary verb – as in the clue here, or the alternative ‘I will fill crack in minor joist’.

Across

14a Trendy clothing outlet recalled period in Haifa? (4)
The fashion company whose name must here be reversed (‘recalled’) was founded Barbara Hulanicki, and its first shop opened its doors in Abingdon Road, Kensington, in September 1964. Its lasting fame was sealed, though, by the move in 1973 to the old Derry and Toms building on Kensington High Street. It rapidly became known as the ‘theatre of fashion’, but its popularity was not accompanied by financial success and it closed down in 1975.

How do you know which component in the clue is to be reversed to form the word indicated by the other? You don’t – at least one checker is required before you can enter the solution.

16a Bill left during tea dealt with while eating (7, 2 words)
A three-letter word for a bill of the sort that you might get in a restaurant and the usual abbreviation for ‘left’ are contained by (‘during’ – not an insertion indicator I like, but there we are) an anagram (‘dealt with’) of TEA.

19a King being absent to judge very stupid, needing to concentrate again (10)
A six-letter word meaning ‘to judge’ deprived of the chess players’ abbreviation for ‘king’ (‘King being absent’) is followed by a five-letter word meaning ‘very stupid’.

23a Wolf giving growl, endlessly noisy (5)
A five-letter word meaning ‘growl’ missing its last letter (‘endlessly’) and a single-letter abbreviation usually indicated by ‘loud’ (ie ‘noisy’) combine to produce the answer, which is not a noun, as the clue might seem to suggest, but a verb.

25a Rare herbs? Transposing last pair, better (5)
The plural of a word for a herb or vegetable shown by Chambers as ‘now rare except as combining form’ has its last two letters transposed, thus making a word which somewhat counterintuitively means ‘[to] better’. Checked letters aside, could it be the ‘better’ word which has its last letters interchanged? Yes, as with 14a, either interpretation is possible.

30a Cox maybe in difficulty with one in the bow getting slewed? (9)
The ‘Cox’ here is the man who made particle physics cool, and was at one time a rock musician. His first name is contained by a three-letter word for a difficulty or hindrance, the combination having the Roman numeral representing ‘one’ at the start (‘in the bow’). ‘Slewed’ here is the slang term meaning ‘drunk’.

31a Rigorous about brief response to one of PMQs – it’ll end here? (7)
A four-letter word meaning ‘rigorous’ or ‘strict’ containing (‘about’) an abbreviated form of a word for ‘answer’ (‘brief response’) produces the name given to the printed reports of debates in parliament. It was the surname of Luke, an English printer who printed the Journals of the House of Commons from 1774 until his death, and his son Thomas Curson, who added the name to the title of the official reports of parliamentary debates and proceedings in 1829.

32a What’s no good in Turkmenistan’s capital? Wrong, actually (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘no good’ is contained by the name of the letter which appears as a capital in the word ‘Turkmenistan’. The sort of money indicated by the answer would be good there, although you’d need to have a lot for it to be much good.

Down

1d Young star embracing love, right? It precedes carnival in WI (7, apostrophe)
A four-letter theatrical term for a juvenile lead contains the usual single-letter representation of ‘love’ and a two-letter abbreviation for ‘right’.

3d It may prompt a blessing, hence following raised palm (7)
A three-letter word for a palm frequently seen in South America and barred crosswords is reversed (‘raised’) and followed by a four-letter interjection meaning ‘begone!’ (ie ‘[get thee] hence[!]’).

6d Merriment immediately leading to energy in the midst of happiness (10)
A four-letter word meaning ‘immediately’ or ‘subsequently’ and (‘leading to’) the standard abbreviation for ‘energy’ are contained by (‘in the midst of’) a word for (extreme) happiness.

9d She may fit out Rose in formal attire (9)
An anagram (‘out’) of ROSE is contained by a five-letter word for a gentleman’s formal evening wear.

20d Nark near taken in by very good fabrication (7)
A two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘near’ is ‘taken in’ by another two-letter word, this one meaning ‘very good’, while a word for a fabrication brings up the rear.

21d Arty Yank is cut short, protected by English thrall classically (7)
A shortened form of ‘is’ (‘is cut short’) is contained (‘protected’) by the usual abbreviation for ‘English’ and a five-letter word for a thrall (or serf) in ancient Greece. The answer is a US spelling, hence the ‘Yank’.

24d Ligaments revealed in turning over a garden plot (5)
A (2,3) phrase for a garden plot or small piece of ground in South Africa is reversed (‘turning over’) , resulting in ligaments which restrain the motion of a part of the body.

27d Christian love rises to envelop one (4)
It’s not ‘nil’ that needs to rise and envelop a single-letter word for ‘one’, but a similar slang word also meaning ‘nothing’.

(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.

Note: It’s been pointed out by a forum user that the online version of the puzzle doesn’t include instructions for submitting your entry. They should read:

Send correct solution (one only) and clue to replace definition asterisked (on separate sheet also bearing name and address, securely attached) to Azed No. 2,655, PO Box 518, Oxford, OX2 6WX. Entries should be received by Monday week at the latest. Emailed entries from overseas will be accepted, addressed to jcrowther2000@hotmail.com. £35, £30, £25 prizes and Azed bookplates for the three clues judged best.

You should include both your clue (ie the ‘devilled’ form, similar to the clues in the puzzle) and the undevilled form, with the spacing and punctuation that show each version in its best light, eg

Solution: HEARTSORE

Clue: As craftsmen they are trained in tally, well qualified

Original form: As craftsmen they are trained in the art, so really well qualified

Azed 2,655 Printer’s Devilry

Difficulty rating: (4.5 / 10)

I thought we were probably due a PD, and so it proved. With PD clues, you must forget about the usual rules, because there are no definitions, and no wordplay as such. Each clue tells a little story, but a sequence of letters has been removed and the gap closed up; punctuation may also have been altered, and on occasion spaces added or removed elsewhere. The removed letters will always form a word or phrase which can be found in Chambers. The key to solving a PD clue is to identify the word in the ‘devilled’ (shortened) version which is likely to contain the break. If we look at 32a, “Offered a better deal we pass (4)”, it look as though in order to complete the story we must do something with the word ‘pass’. By telling us the deal was a better one, Azed surely wants us to know that this improved offer was accepted. So if the deal was better than the one previously available, the price would have been lower than it was before, and therefore we will have PA?? ??SS than we would otherwise have done. Do those missing four letters spell out a word that is in Chambers? They surely do.

Remember that Azed will have chosen his words carefully, and each one will be there for a reason. Note also that the word in the devilled version which contains the break may also appear in the undevilled form, eg ma/in could be ‘main drain’ [Indra being the answer]. You may find that with some of the longer entries you have to work out the answer from the checked letters and then reverse engineer the undevilled version of the clue – this is quite normal.

I find Azed’s PD puzzles enjoyable to solve, presenting as they do a very different challenge from the standard crosswords. Below the notes I have included a checklist of the break points, indicating also those clues where a change of punctuation or spacing is involved. Apart from that, I’ve only included notes for a few clues, but I’ll happily provide hints (or confirmation of answers) for any others on request.

Clue Writers’ Corner: It took me a while to work out what makes a good PD clue, but in essence there are two key elements, and I would suggest that those who have not written PD clues before look at the successful entries from the last couple of competitions, for ERATHEM and TORSE.

Unlike conventional clues, where words cannot simply be added simply for the benefit of the surface reading and ‘telegraphese’ is entirely acceptable, the undevilled (full) form of the clue must read as a proper piece of English prose; the devilled version must make some sort of sense, but a cracking undevilled version and an ‘ok’ devilled clue will always beat a clue which reads reasonably well in both forms.

The clue must tell a single story, and there must be enough information to give the solver a reasonable chance of working out the answer – “Should wealthy patron list rooms to work in? (6)” is Azed’s clue for ENDART from the last PD puzzle […patron lend artist rooms…] and gives the solver plenty to work with, but “I list a room” would be both woefully inadequate and very dull.

Don’t forget the bit about the break not occurring at the beginning or end of words, so GO/ON being a contraction of GO AFTER SON or GOT ONE ON would be highly undesirable, while GOT ONE SON would be fine. Although the answer can simply be removed from the middle of another word (as in 11a here, or L[ACER]ATE), it won’t produce a prize-winning clue. And while clues which require wholesale modification, such as Norah Jarman’s remarkable winning entry for MINARET, ‘Bunter-whine starts with ja/w open: “Cease – condone – Wharton, please!’ [Bunter whines “Tarts with jam in are twopence – a second one, Wharton , please!”] were popular at one time, the great majority of successful entries in recent years have thankfully been much simpler in their construction.

Incidentally, for MINARET I preferred the clue that was placed second, Colin Dexter’s rather neat “I ran into a tree first time; examiner expressed hope I’d run into for/est”. I think it’s probably more to current taste.

Across

15a To feed your veg patch, be sure, that’s what you must apply (8)
Like me, your initial thought may be of ‘manure’, but it’s a different word for the same thing that’s involved in the last element of the insertion. A minor spacing change is also involved.

17a Expressing displeasure his voice carried very nasal whine (5)
Two commas feature in the undevilled version, one after ‘displeasure’ and the other following the first element of the insertion, wherein one word becomes three.

19a Such foul plans it’s possible dated over time (8)
One word becomes two here, the foulness of the plans suggesting who might originate such things and the ‘over time’ indicating that they were developed over a significant period.

28a Following cue is a told of how the tribe began (8)
The word that must be split isn’t hard to spot in this ‘one-becomes-three’ clue which suggests a bit of traditional story-telling around the campfire.

31a Forming part of their crest, sagged with heraldic devices (8)
A tricky one – the ‘gged’ turns into three words, the first being a term for ‘two lines drawn from the edge of the escutcheon and meeting at right angles in the fesse-point’, while the ‘sa’ is integrated with the text that precedes it.

Down

2d With new evidence coming to light, the police plan to release mail (5)
I originally thought of ‘bail’ here, and on reflection I wonder if something like ‘judge approves plan to release mail’ would have been more accurate.

7d Asked to recommend a holiday, resaid: ‘Such I’d go for every time’ (12)
Kudos if you worked the whole thing out from the clue, but the exact position of break does suggest itself, as does the the first word of the insertion, based on the three letters before the split and the ‘holiday’.

19d The cake’s nearly finished – who’s going to have thing on top? (7)
It isn’t the production of the cake (the wedding sort, perhaps) that’s nearly finished but the consumption thereof, so only a few final bits remain.

20d In versions affecting lakeside areas of New England (7)
An apostrophe must be inserted in the undevilled form of this one, and of course Azed wouldn’t mention New England unless it gave a very strong pointer towards the location that you’re looking for.

21d I like anything provide by the Taj Mahal but thy favourite (7)
Not hard to spot the break point, or the first and last letters of the answer (which combine with the split word to make two new words), so it’s just a matter of deciding what the Taj Mahal might serve up that could fit in the middle.

26d Are napkins the only way to stop baking everywhere? (5)
The key here is sussing out that ‘napkins’ are the sort usually referred to as ‘nappies’.

(definitions are underlined)

Break Points

Across

1: pa/t [p]; 6: s/old; 11: tar/t; 12: pa/’s [p]; 13: pa/ts [p]; 15: s/ure [s]; 16: no/t; 17: ve/ry [p]; 19: d/ated; 22: se/aring [p]; 23: str/iving; 25: Be/th [p]; 28: cu/e; 30: ver/mination; 31: sag/ged [p,s]; 32: pa/ss; 33: lo/tion; 34: la/med [p].

Down

1: b/aking [p]; 2: ma/il; 3: b/rain; 4: rear/ed [p]; 5: th/en; 7: res/aid [p]; 9: dodg/y [p]; 10: mu/tters; 14: germ/anic; 18: Ger/ry; 19: th/ing; 20: ver/sions [p]; 21: th/y; 24: c/asing; 26: b/aking; 27: Fa/un [p,s]; 28: h/ome.