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 2,654 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

An enjoyable puzzle that was, I felt, definitely trickier than average, featuring as it did a generous helping of obscurities and archaisms.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 12a, “Local droning noise spread during transmission of data (5)”. The wordplay here has a three-letter word (past active tense) meaning ‘spread’ or ‘diffused’ (usually applied to colour) inside a two-letter abbreviation which Chambers gives as representing  ‘data transmission’. The question this raises is how much latitude setters have when indicating abbreviations which are purely that, ie they would never be seen as having lives of their own as, say, PC or CD might (“My PC doesn’t have a CD drive”), or those ‘volunteers’ in 17d do (“He’s in the ??”). Could ‘tick’ be used for CR (credit) or ‘big’ for LG (large)? We’ve all seen ‘good man’ for ST (saint), but personally I’m not keen. ‘Navy’ for RN is better – at least one of the abbreviated words is there. I’m very happy, though, to accept Morecambisms (all the right words but not necessarily in the right order), so I’ve no problem with ‘transmission of data’ for DT or “constable that’s special” for SC.

Across

6a School science subject in short, child trailing in clumsy patch (5)
I don’t recall this being a subject in its own right at my school, but it’s a three-letter contraction of a six-letter science which must be followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘child’.

14a Disused dagger, ineffective with edge half gone, getting oiled? (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘ineffective’ or ‘useless’ is followed by one half of the word EDGE and a two-letter slang term meaning ‘on the way to being drunk’ (ie ‘getting oiled’). The answer in the sense of a small dagger is shown by Chambers as ‘archaic’, hence the ‘disused’.

15a Record? Two couples left kept awake when it’s spinning (5)
A nine-letter word meaning ‘kept awake’ or ‘unable to drop off’ must be reversed (‘spinning’) and deprived of the pairs of letters at the start and end (‘two couples left’).

20a Sickly drink? At first swallowing very little (10)
A well-disguised break between definition and wordplay, the latter involving a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] drink’ being followed by a four-letter word for ‘at first’ containing (‘swallowing’) a three-letter adjective (given by Chambers as Scottish, which of course it is, but an rarity it is not) meaning ‘very little’.

26a Sounds ‘ostile in the front, having 18? (8)
A five-letter word which could conceivably mean ‘sounds hostile’ (certainly in the sense of making one’s disapproval of a performance known) is deaspirated in the same way as ‘hostile’ has been and then placed inside a four-letter word for the front (often in a nautical sense). The highly apposite reference is to the solution at 18 across.

27a Alternative to the Vulgate a Catholic mostly recalled (5)
A (from the clue) and a term for a Roman Catholic (or a classical language) from which the last letter has been omitted (‘mostly’) are reversed to produce the solution.

28a Curls tight round either half of hair dressed in a bunch (7)
An anagram (‘tight’) of CURLS is placed round either half of a four-letter word for ‘an elaborately dressed head of hair’ (ie ‘hair dressed’).

30a One should know how to negotiate traffic island, having ingested books (5)
A three-letter island or reef has ‘ingested’ the usual abbreviation for ‘books’ (not ‘NT’ or ‘OT’, which are sometimes indicated in this way, but not by me – see Setters’ Corner above).

Down

3d Centre of faith wavering, broken by severe Islamic services (6)
The three letters at the heart of FAITH (‘centre of faith’) are rearranged (‘wavering’) around a word meaning ‘severe’, as a nasty cold might be.

4d The old agree about splitting leave (7)
That oft-seen two-letter bit of commercial jargon for ‘about’ is put inside (‘splitting’) a word of French origin meaning ‘permission to depart’. I did wonder why Azed had chosen a definition which bore such a close resemblance to the archaic (‘old’) answer, but the two obvious options share either their first three letters or their last four with it.

5d Type of vaccine, cube maybe swallowed three times daily (6)
The ‘cube maybe’ which has been ‘swallowed’ by the instruction seen on medical prescriptions for ‘three times a day’ is the sort first produced by Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company in 1910 and sold for a penny each. During World War I, 100 million of the little fellows were apparently sent out to members of the British armed forces as part of a standard set of emergency rations, each in its own individual box.

6d Pass, last dropped, making veteran smoulder? (6)
The name of the pass which forms the border between Italy and Austria has its last letter dropped, producing an obsolete word meaning ‘to burn’.

8d The sound of cavalry approaching line in force? (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘line’ is contained by a slang term for those comprising a force of law and order, the result describing sounds which would almost certainly accompany the arrival of the cavalry unless the horses were travelling through mud or shod in slippers.

9d Sea mist shrouding rees fluttering in umbellifer (8, apostrophe)
The wordplay here has the four-letter word for a raw sea mist on the east coast of England or Scotland containing (‘shrouding’) an anagram (‘fluttering’) of REES (the plural of ‘ree’, the female of the ruff, if you were wondering). The solution is hyphenated, 5-3.

10d King occupying hidden house rented privately (12, 3 words)
The monarchical abbreviation for ‘king’ is contained by (‘occupying’) an anagram (‘hidden’, an interesting choice of indicator) of HOUSE RENTED. The (5,3,4) solution is a literal translation from a (3,4) Latin expression. According to Brewer’s, “The origin of the phrase is obscure but the story is that Cupid gave Harpocrates (the god of silence) a ????, to bribe him not to betray the amours of Venus. Hence the flower became the emblem of silence and was sculptured on the ceilings of banquet-rooms, to remind the guests that what was spoken sub vino was not to be repeated sub divo.”

17d Riding east, stop taking in volunteers (8)
You might think that following the usual abbreviation for ‘east’ it was a four-letter verb meaning ‘[to] stop’ which is containing the two-letter abbreviation for a group of volunteer reservists, but that would leave us a letter short of the solution. The ‘stop’ is in fact an organ stop, a fifth above the basic pitch (I don’t profess to know what that last bit means).

19d Grass ignoring cue to spill the beans, owning up (7)
A six-letter grass has the consecutive letters CUE removed (‘ignoring cue’) and is followed by a word meaning ‘to spill the beans’ (in a way that might be likened to a canary).

28d Even though old-fashioned he wrote memorable plays (5)
The second definition here is the surname of the American playwright probably best known for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, first staged in 1962, and deserving of fame for its name alone. I am put in mind of a music critic who observed that the band Blue Öyster Cult “write better titles than most bands write songs”.

29d Climbing lowest end of range, e.g. Atlas? (4)
A three-letter word for ‘lowest’ and the last letter (‘end’) of ‘range’ are reversed (‘climbing’) to produce an archaic term for the type of being that Atlas personified.

(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 2,653 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

I found the difficulty of this one hard to assess – a large number of obscure solutions, but most of them clearly signposted by the wordplay. I marked fewer clues that normal for comment as I solved the puzzle, so I’ve given it a rating just below average. It was a bit of a surprise to see what is essentially the same word appearing as the answer to two clues (2d and 26d) – something to be avoided by setters wherever possible.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 14a, “With a belly to stuff, that’s me tucking in (5)”. A dialect word meaning ‘with a belly’ results from ME being put inside a word meaning ‘to stuff [out]’ or ‘to pad’, the point of interest here being the wordplay. I’m not comfortable with active forms of ‘tuck in’ being used to indicate insertion (you don’t tuck in to bed unless you’re very hungry indeed), but even putting that to one side the wording seems a little cumbersome. As a setter, it’s always worth looking at a few alternative phrasings of clues like this in order to get the one that sounds most natural (as long as it’s sound, of course) and, where possible, that eliminates any superfluous words such as the “that’s” in this clue. Here, I think something like “With a belly to stuff, Azed tucked in” would be just a little more succinct.

Across

11a Pants of a kind, number available in XX? (6)
I thought at first that perhaps ‘XX’ here was intended to be ‘XXL’, with the XL indicating OS, but in fact what we have is a two-letter abbreviation for ‘number’ being contained by a word which describes XX on the basis that they are capital Greek letters rather than Roman ones.

13a Quail, once done, one we brought on (7)
A four-letter word meaning ‘done’ is followed by a single-letter word for ‘one’ and the letters WE (from the clue); the ‘daunt’ meaning of ‘quail’ (rather than the solution) is shown by Chambers as ‘archaic’, hence the ‘once’.

15a Column moulding including dark ornament (on top often) (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘dark’ or ‘sorrowful’ is ‘included’ inside a four-letter word for a large moulding, which can also be spelt with five letters and describes a doughnut, though not the sort you should try to fill with jam. The answer is an ornament typically worn on a hat.

20a House with filthy hovel, about right as lodging for poet (6)
The usual two-letter abbreviation for ‘house’ is followed by a three-letter ‘filthy hovel’ containing (‘about’) the standard abbreviation for ‘right’. The word appears in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene:

 Yeeld me an ?????? mongst the croking frogs,
And harbour here in safety from those rauenous dogs.

29a Indian tree, one put with a different genus from the east (5)
A single-letter word for ‘one’ is followed by a reversal (‘from the east’) of the name given to the maple genus, producing a tree from the betel nut family.

32a M for mooch (4)
The first definition in this double definition clue comprises just a single letter. I’ve no problem with ‘C’, say, being used to indicate ‘see’, and while I would have my doubts about ‘I’ for ‘India’, I’m glad to see Azed embracing the NATO Phonetic Alphabet. The second definition relates to a slang word of uncertain origin, dating back to the nineteenth century. As Edgar Wallace wrote in The Lady of Ascot:

I believe in a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay and no ???ing

Down

2d Unfriendly Scots needing to relax after fine (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘fine’ is followed by a word meaning ‘to relax’ or ‘to abate’, almost invariably used in the context of pain or disease. The answer is one spelling – Chambers offers only three, but the OED has more than thirty to choose from – of a Scots word meaning ‘estranged, cold or unfriendly’.

4d What footpad was into, clumsy, bagging little weight (7, 2 words)
A five-letter word meaning ‘clumsy’ contains the two-letter abbreviation for an avoirdupois weight rarely encountered these days (though frequently consumed north of the border). The solution describes the sort of crime that a highwayman lacking an equine partner was reduced to; his mounted counterpart could aspire to something at a more elevated level (8, 2 words).

5d Word stuck on chest after piece of work? It denotes high-achieving organization (11, 2 words)
A four-letter word for, well, a word is placed before (‘stuck on’) a three-letter word for a chest, and the combination is put after a four-letter word for an occasional piece of work or an odd job.

10d Boy certainly hugs flirt jiggling her knick-knacks once (11)
A three-letter word for a boy is followed by a word meaning ‘certainly’ which contains (‘hugs’) an anagram (‘jiggling’) of FLIRT. The solution is given by Chambers as hyphenated, 4-7, but it looks more like two words that the Bard simply juxtaposed, resulting in their sole appearance together in Antony and Cleopatra:

Say, good Caesar,
That I some ???? ??????? have reserved,
Immoment toys, things of such dignity
As we greet modern friends withal, and say
Some nobler token I have kept apart
For Livia and Octavia, to induce
Their mediation, must I be unfolded
With one that I have bred?

16d Loo drain needs fixing: it’s said to be bung as before in Perth (8)
A straightforward anagram and a rather more complicated definition. Chambers refers to the proverbial use of the solution (the “it’s said to be” bit), and ‘bung’ is an Australian (‘in Perth’) slang term for ‘dead’; initially I thought the ‘as before’ was unnecessary, but I see that the latest edition of Chambers shows the term as ‘obsolete’.

19d Riddle about soak coming up ‒ devoid of ideas? (7)
A three-letter setters’ favourite meaning ‘[to] soak’ is reversed (‘coming up’) inside a dialect word for a strainer used for milk – I’m not sure I would be inclined to purchase my daily pinta from anyone who routinely used a riddle for the job, particularly if they were also keen gardeners.

23d Old 3-D film, damn mixed type (6)
One of the many euphemistic substitutes for ‘damn’, this one relating to the first letter of the word, is followed by a printer’s word for a confused mixture of type. The term for a 3-D film was coined by the wonderful Dilys Powell in 1953, a play on the use of ‘weepie’ to describe a tear-jerker. The boom in 3-D films, which included The House of Wax starring Vincent Price, lasted just a couple of years , but it led to conventional films being described for a while as ‘flats’ or ‘flatties’.

26d Stranger in Edinburgh given meal regularly with room (5)
A three-letter word meaning ‘given [a] meal’ is regularly interspersed with the usual abbreviation for ‘room’ and the solution is…another of those variations on the word already seen as the answer to 2 down, this time in the role of a noun.

(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 2,652 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

A 13×11 puzzle that struck me as being close to the middle of the difficulty spectrum.  I didn’t think it was one of Azed’s very best, and a couple of clues seemed a tad unsatisfactory. There were, however, no |androids in evidence this time.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 13d, “Lady’s maid getting money that’s very little worked better (9)”. Quite a neat clue, where a three-letter word given by Chambers as meaning ‘a French five-centime piece; a tiny amount of money’ is followed by an anagram (‘worked’) of BETTER. It occurred to me (as I’m sure it did to Azed) that “Lady’s maid getting very little money worked better” would be neater still. However, ‘a tiny amount of money’ is not quite the same as ‘very little money’, the latter not equating to a very little sum of money, and Azed has chosen a wording which more closely matches the true sense of the word. I applaud the precision which Azed has deemed appropriate. That said, I think the point is a subtle one and some editors would have accepted the alternative form, which it would be hard to describe as unfair to solvers.

Across

12a Bird you probably won’t see appearing regularly in the urinal (4)
I admit that my first though here was TERN, although I was a bit surprised about the extra L that the odd characters of the ‘the urinal’ delivered. Of course, Azed has ruled that option out by way of the definition, which certainly wouldn’t apply to a tern (I still vividly recall being attacked by an arctic one on the Farne Islands) but certainly is relevant to the correct bird, described by Chambers as ‘now probably extinct’.

14a One akin to goosefoot? It’s found amid the alien corn (5)
The letters IT (from the clue) are to be found contained by (‘amid’) the French word for ‘corn’ (ie ‘alien corn’). I make no apology for repeating Norah Jarman’s successful clue from Ximenes comp 1140:

[su_spoiler title=”Alien to Ruth, like the corn”]CALLOUS

Two definitions, ruth = pity

Keats – Ode to a Nightingale:

“Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home
She stood in tears amid the alien corn”[/su_spoiler]

20a … Live, including muggins, hackneyed stuff, old hat (7)
I don’t remember seeing ‘muggins’ used before to reference the setter, but here the letter I must be joined with a four-letter word for ‘hackneyed stuff’ before being placed inside a two-letter word meaning ‘live’. Often in Azed’s puzzles when two clues are joined by ellipses they are linked from a solving perspective, but here the ellipses are there purely to suggest a surface reading which spans the divide.

21a Reactionary so-and-so from Norway earned terribly old German money? (13)
The IVR code for Norway is followed by an anagram (‘terribly’) of EARNED and a six-letter word for an obsolete German coin, although the best known variety surely comes from Austria. The Maria Theresa ?????? is a silver bullion coin that has been minted continuously since 1741. All Maria Theresa thalers minted after 1780 bear the date ‘1780’. At least 400 million of the coins have been minted, and they are still being produced.

23a Salamis probably featured this meatier recipe, one cut (7)
In 480 BC, the Greeks defeated the Persian fleet off the island of Salamis in the largest naval battle ever fought in the ancient world. Numbers of the boats in question are a little sketchy, but it seems that the Greeks had about 370 of these vessels. while the Persians had…well, quite a lot. The Greeks would have you believe that it was 1,200, but they would say that – 600-800 seems a more likely figure, given that the Persian fleet had suffered a few strokes of bad luck, most significantly when losing 400 or so in a storm of the coast of Magnesia (where the milk comes from). Anyway, the Persians should have won, but they didn’t. The wordplay involves an anagram (not obviously signalled) of MEATIER R (‘recipe’) without the A (‘one cut’).

27a Poultries straying (apart from pair inside) lay away from brood? (7)
A couple of slight oddities here – the fact that the ‘pair inside’ POULTRIES which must omitted prior to being anagrammed (‘straying’) is not specified (I’m fine with that – there are only six possibilities), and the ‘from brood’ in the definition seems to fulfil no purpose other than improving the surface reading (I’m not so keen on that).

32a Native of New Mexico maybe, last character to attend advanced instruction (4)
Another slightly strange one. The last character (of the alphabet) is clear enough, but the ‘accompany’ sense of ‘attend’ is archaic, and ‘advanced instruction’ doesn’t seem to adequately indicate the remaining three letters (why not just ‘college’?). All suggestions gratefully received.

34a Energy to preserve? Torn about reverse of that, rarely holding back (8)
A four-letter word meaning ‘torn’ is put around (‘about’) a reversal of the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘energy’ plus a three-letter word meaning ‘to preserve’. The solution is shown by Chambers as ‘rare’.

Down

4d ‘Little’ girl in Rome played quietly above hall (5)
Azed rarely if ever uses a forename as a solution without giving some supporting indication, and here he tells us that in Latin the name means ‘little’. The wordplay has the usual single-character abbreviation for ‘piano’ (‘played quietly’) over the Latin word for a hall.

8d Fashionable, but lacking some French ‒ it mustn’t be forgotten! (5)
A three-word French expression meaning ‘fashionable’ is missing (‘lacking’) a two-letter French word for ‘some’, producing the name of a fort in Texas associated with an 1836 battle. Originally built as a Catholic mission for the purpose of converting Mesoamerican Indians living near the growing town of San Antonio, it was given its name by Spanish cavalrymen in honour of their home village, ????? de Parras. According to legend, when confronted by the might of the Mexican army, the rebel commander of the fort, William B. Travis, drew his sword and traced a line in the sand with its tip. He asked every man who was willing to defend the fort to the death to cross it. Only one man didn’t cross The battle became legendary almost immediately after it ended. The insurgents’ fatal refusal to surrender to the Mexican forces served to stimulate other rebels to continue fighting General Santa Ana and his army. In the month that followed the battle, the now-famous cry of “Remember the ?????!” was used to rally the rebels. Johnny Cash even wrote a song about it. Among those who lost their lives were Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, giving me an excuse for repeating this favourite schoolboy joke: How may ears did Davy Crockett have? Three – a left ear, a right ear, and a wild front ear. I’ll get me coat…

10d Sailors in service as once watched which way they rowed? (7)
The ‘sailors’ here leads to the two-letter abbreviation for ‘Royal Navy’, which is contained by a five-letter Elizabethan (‘as once’) spelling of a word for service, more familiar with an A in fourth position rather than an E, and almost invariably seen these days only in a couple of expressions, in one of which it has the meaning of ‘role’ or ‘place’. The definition caused me to raise an eyebrow or two – I see what Azed is getting at (they could see where they were going when they did this), but it’s a bit of a stretch.

22d Proud as before, old copper is on top of the facts (mostly) (6)
The old copper is two letters long and the sort that the Detectorists might turn up (along with the ring pulls and scaffolding clamps); it’s followed by (‘on top of’) a word for ‘the facts’ from which the last letter has been removed (‘mostly’).

25d Zemindar’s fitted out men with this tailor (5)
A composite anagram, where the letters of ZEMINDAR are a potential rearrangement (‘fitted out’) of MEN plus the solution (‘this tailor’).

26d Herd maybe accepts old dialect that’s spread (5)
A biblical word for ‘cows’ (‘Herd maybe’) contains the usual abbreviation for ‘old’, the result being a term which was originally applied to the common literary dialect of the Greeks from the close of classical Attic to the Byzantine era, but has been extended to include any language or dialect in regular use over a wide area in which different languages or dialects are, or were, in use locally. 

28d Attempt taking in old information from the US (4)
An informal word for an attempt (as in ‘a pound a ???’) contains…that abbreviation for ‘old’ we’ve just had in the previous clue! The answer is a slang term, originating in the US, for “up-to-date or ‘inside’ information, ‘low-down’”.

29d Sound unit, as it’s said, worked with machine? (4)
Azed falls into the trap here of the ambiguous homophone. We have know way of noing which is the soundalike (“as it’s said”) and which is the solution. It turns out that the answer sounds like the sound unit.

(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 2,651 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

I thought this was pretty tricky in places, with some well-constructed clues showing plenty of esprit. Note that the vertical bar preceding ‘android’ in the clue for 26a should be ignored, and that the correct enumeration for 22a is ‘(4)’. May I take this opportunity to wish all readers a very happy Easter – I trust that the bountiful bunny brought you all the goodies that you could wish for.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 10d, “No gentleman on board fishes a lot (5)”. A term for someone who is clearly ‘no gentleman’ is bordered by the letters SS, producing a word which satisfies the two definitions, ‘fishes’ and ‘a lot’. The questions is, can ‘on board’ legitimately indicate ‘contained by SS’? We have to interpret it as shorthand for ‘on board ship’ – I think this is a bit of a stretch, but we know what Azed means, we’ve seen it before (at least in his puzzles!), and I’d be hard pressed to describe it as unfair (except, perhaps, for a computer trying to solve the puzzle, which makes me like it all the more). I think that similar considerations apply to something like ‘having retired’ meaning’ contained by the letters BED’. All very much in the cryptic spirit, I would suggest, although some crossword editors might see it differently.

Across

1a German company trades in name of electric firm, leading handle (12)
A five-letter verb meaning ‘trades’ is contained by the three-letter abbreviation for the name of the British electronics, communications and engineering company, founded in 1886, which at one time during the 1980s was Britain’s largest private employer. A four-letter word for a handle brings up the rear.

11a Betty’s identified as this Henry, perhaps (5)
You could argue that this is a double definition, the first element relating to the tool used by burglars which was originally known as a ‘Betty’, then a ‘Jenny’, which became a ‘Jemmy’ and (on occasion, following gender reassignment) a ‘Jimmy’; the second definition relates to the famous novelist.

14a Stubble after end of March? Crazy then! (6)
The last letter (‘end’) of ‘March’ is followed by a dialect word for a stubble field, the result being a term which might suggest craziness specifically at this time of the year.

15a Dancing around is … Dippy possibly (8)
Dippy has something of a split personality; discovered in Wyoming in 1898, he now has residences (as many of the rich and famous do) in England and the US, but Dippy manages to be in both at the same time. He lives in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, but when not on tour around the UK he also calls the Natural History Museum in London home.

18a Plant, short, one of many that’s died out in railway centre (5)
The wordplay here indicates that the solution (‘that’) has [one instance of] the usual abbreviation for ‘died’ being taken out of the name of an Oxfordshire town known for its railway heritage and its power stations (one demolished, one going strong).

20a Greek lecture place: converting this turns venue into nearby temple’s dedicatee (4)
Converting this (ie the solution, read as 1,2,1) in the name of the city where the Pœcile is to be found will produce the name of the goddess to whom the nearby Parthenon is dedicated.

25a Pilot, ambitious one, hit going off course (5)
A triple definition clue, with the first one almost certainly being the easiest.

31a Time differences with one biblical book following another briefly? (6)
A four-letter shortened form of the name of one book of the New Testament follows an abbreviation, not for a specific book, rather for a type of book which represents 21 of the 27 that make up that volume.

32a Love getting stuck into a Pimm’s, stirred, having no head for Buck’s fizz (6)
The idea here is that the usual single-letter representation of ‘love’ is put inside (‘stuck into’) an anagram (‘stirred’) of A PIMM’S from which the letter P has been removed (‘having no head’). But this would only work (just about) if the A came at the start of the solution – the order of the indicators here cannot mean that the ‘head’ of “Pimm’s” must be removed – if anything, it is the ‘A’ which would have to go. I first recall hearing the word used in this (‘chiefly US’) sense in one of my favourite Simpson’s episodes, series 1 episode 9, known both as ‘Life on the Fast Lane’ and ‘Jacques to be Wild’, which won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 1990. It’s the one where Homer gives Marge a bowling ball as ‘her’ birthday present.

33a Some wool for spinning, half of it wrapped in scrap of cloth (5)
Half of the word ‘wool’ (ie ‘it’) is contained by (‘wrapped in’) a familiar three-letter word for a scrap of cloth.

34a Endearment for old woman takin’ time off work (5)
The six-letter present participle of a northern English word meaning ‘to take a holiday from work’ has its closing ‘g’ removed (analagously to “takin'”, with which it shares all but one letter).

Down

2d Spider, not special, i.e. spinning? (7)
An &lit, where an anagram (‘spinning’) of SPIDER deprived of its S (‘not special’) and IE gives a word for which the whole clue stands as a definition.

5d Canal boat friend shortened to fit locks (6)
A very neat clue, where a three-letter word meaning ‘to fit’ or ‘to hang’ contains (‘locks’, ie ‘holds closely’) a four-letter friend missing their last letter (‘shortened’).

7d Raincoat required in blustery air growing steadily? (7, 2 words)
The four-letter name for a Japanese raincoat of ‘hemp etc’ (whatever ‘etc’ is) which crops up every so often in barred puzzles is contained by an anagram (‘blustery’) of AIR, the result being a (1,6) phrase taken directly from the Latin.

12d Mongols maybe covering arid shifting sand in rattletraps (11)
A four-letter term for Mongoloid people of China, Thailand, Myanmar is followed by (‘covering’) a three-letter word meaning ‘arid’ and an anagram (‘shifting’) of SAND.

19d Coarse fibre from part of Spain, end shifted quite a lot (7)
The adjective describing something that comes from the autonomous community of Spain which includes Barcelona has its final letter (‘end’) shifted ‘quite a lot’ – four places upwards, to be exact.

21d Old relations trapped by mounting offence ‒ it’s insurmountable (7)
A term for uncles which is obsolete except in the world of the barred puzzle is contained (‘trapped’) inside a reversal of a word often indicated in crosswords by ‘offence’ or ‘error’, the result being an old word of which a relatively modern meaning (North American in origin) is ‘an unconquerable rival or enemy’.

23d Loyal knight, only a third chaste, in the soup (6)
There were two knights who share the name which is here followed by one-third of the word ‘chaste’, but the particularly good egg was ???? the Younger. Portrayed as one of the Round Table’s finest, his real glory comes on the Grail Quest, where he proves himself worthy enough to witness the Grail’s mysteries alongside Galahad and Percival. He features in a number of episodes, all of which, I’m pleased to say, bear witness to his good character.

28d Naval commander making spurt catching vessel’s tail (5)
A four-letter word meaning ‘to gush’ or ‘to belch’ contains the last letter (‘tail’) of ‘vessel’. The naval slang referenced in the definition seems to date (at least in written form) from the early part of the twentieth century, as in this quote from William Lang’s A Sea-lawyer’s Log (1919):

If you gets noisy and boisterous-like you sees the ????? in the morning.

(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 2,650 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

A puzzle that was late arriving on the Guardian web site (no surprise there) and struck me as being around the middle of the difficulty spectrum.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 27a, “Error made by backward learners (6)”. Nothing too difficult about this clue, but it serves to illustrate how Azed has avoided a potential trap for setters. Had the clue been written as ‘Learners recalled error’, it would have been impossible for the solver to know whether it is the learners or the error that must be reversed to produce the solution; this is an issue when (i) the element to be reversed is a single word, and (ii) the reversal indicator is placed directly between that element and the definition. It is not usually difficult to get round the problem: the reversal indicator can be moved to one end of the clue, eg ‘Error learners recalled’, or a link between wordplay and definition can be introduced, such that the reversal indicator abuts only one element, eg ‘ Learners recalled making error’.

Across

1a American rotter appearing in pulpit, delivering surprise attack (9)
Be careful when entering the solution here – two answers  satisfy the definition and fit with the crossers, but only one can be justified by the wordplay, which has a two-letter abbreviation for ‘American’ and a three-letter cad contained by a word for ‘an early Christian raised reading-desk or pulpit’ (and the name of a character repeatedly played by Sylvester Stallone shorn of its first letter – not OCKY).

11a Gangster swindled, twice out of depth, creating a fuss(5)
A four-letter slang word for a gangster and a three-letter word for ‘swindled’ or ‘deceived’ (as in “you’ve been ???”) each lose the usual abbreviation for ‘depth’, the result being another slang term, hyphenated 3-2. This expression, albeit with an extra ‘h’, is a regular in the Jennings books of Anthony Buckeridge, and a pound to a penny that it applies to a situation created by Jennings, usually with a little help from Darbishire:

“And we really ought to be wearing space helmets too, sir, only there was a bit of a ???-??? the last time we did that,” Jennings added.

“If you ask me, Jen, you’ve gone and landed yourself feet first in the most lobsterous ???-??? since the Wars of the Roses.”

13a Pet I ask nervously about a game, skipping do (6)
An anagram (‘nervously’) of I ASK contains (‘about’) a four-letter board game from which the letters DO have been removed (‘skipping do’).

14a The majority of seabirds in air, flying ‒ they can decimate shoals (6)
The first 60% (‘the majority’) of a word for a group of ubiquitous seabirds (we get plenty of them here and we’re a long way from the coast. How do they know when the farmer’s about to plough the field at the back of our house – are they on Twitter?) is contained by an anagram (‘flying’) of AIR.

15a Orcadian bird: it’s seen returning in local common (6)
The letters ITS are reversed (“it’s seen returning”) inside one spelling of a dialect (‘local’) term for an area of common land; the alternative spelling is also a word for something worn around the neck.

18a Coaches supplying narcotic (6)
A double definition clue which like me you will probably get from the ‘coaches’, a shortened form of the name for the motor vehicles in which factory workers of the early twentieth century would be transported to the seaside for the annual ‘works outing’.

21a Source of news items to expedite, no longer postponed, one assumes? (11, 2 words)
A five-letter word meaning ‘to expedite’ or ‘to hurry on’ is followed by a (3,3) phrase which whimsically might be assumed to represent the opposite of a (2,3) expression meaning ‘postponed’, and would therefore suggest that something described thus was ‘no longer postponed’.

29a Newton’s captivated by thaumaturge, German scientist (6)
The standard abbreviation for the newton (note how Azed has put the word at the start of the clue to avoid any issues with capitalization) is contained (‘captivated’) by a word for a thaumaturge which was used (together with the definite article) by John Fowles as the title of his second novel.

30a Feature of desk, this? Not his, with clumsy DIY (4)
The word THIS has the letters HIS removed (‘not his’) and is followed by an anagram (‘clumsy’) of DIY.

36a Appetizer from a tin slovenly clergyman left unfinished (9)
A neat clue, where an anagram (‘slovenly’) of A TIN precedes a six-letter term for a clergyman (or a shepherd) from which the last letter has been omitted (‘left unfinished’).

Down

3d Trunks that have lasted a success? Gush about that (6)
A two-letter informal term for a success (as in ‘he made a ?? of it’) is contained by a four-letter verb meaning ‘belch’ or ‘gush’, the result being a solution which you might expect to be hyphenated, 3-3, but is given by Chambers as a single word.

4d Indication of disagreement, secret, Home Secretary regularly suppressed (4)
A (4-4) term meaning ‘secret’ has the two letters of the abbreviation for ‘Home Secretary’ deleted from positions 1 and 3 and then from positions 5 and 7 (‘regularly suppressed’).

7d Like the newly born with being ignored bawl when pa’s around (6)
A four-letter word meaning ‘[to] bawl’ has the usual abbreviation for ‘with’ removed and is contained by a three-letter informal word for ‘father’ (“when pa’s around”).

16d A cold curse involving bling gets familiar? (9)
The wordplay here has the letter A (from the clue), the usual abbreviation for ‘cold’, and a four-letter slang variant of ‘curse’ containing (‘involving’) a bit of Cockney rhyming slang for jewellery, usually of the purloined type (‘bling’).

22d I had got in revenue, looking delighted (6)
The contracted form of ‘I had’ is put inside a word for revenue which is more often associated with periodic payment for the use of someone else’s property. Just occasionally my Latin O Level comes in handy, and this was one of those times.

23d Browning? That dallying with EB may have stirred nun’s bate! (6)
A composite anagram, where the letters of the solution (‘that’) and EB can be rearranged to form (‘may have stirred’) NUNS BATE. In the surface reading, EB is of course Elizabeth Barrett, born Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett. You might think that she would have been known as Betty Barrett Barrett for short, but her family nickname was apparently the rather more succinct ‘Ba’.

24d Between sound opposites of two cross off sound engineer’s contribution? (6)
A rather ungainly clue which involves the standard musical abbreviations for ‘loud’ and ‘soft’ (‘sound opposites’) framing a (1,4) French expression meaning ‘of two’ from which the letter representing a cross (of the saltire form) has been lost (‘cross off’). The solution is hyphenated 4-2.

26d Part of old armour that is originally Roman in short (6)
The standard English abbreviation for the Latin words meaning ‘that is’ (‘that is originally Roman’) is contained by a four-letter word meaning ‘short’.

(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 2,649 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

There were very few ‘gimmes’ in this puzzle, and several wordplays which took a bit of teasing out, resulting in the needle on the Difficultometer® getting comfortably past the halfway mark. I might even have rated the difficulty half a notch higher, but on reviewing the clues there didn’t seem to be anything in there that was really tough.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 27a, “One just beginning to tuck into tart, one often pressed (8)”. The wordplay here is straightforward, a four-letter word for a beginner or novice being ‘tucked into’ a word for a flat, open tart. What I want to look at here is the definition, ‘one often pressed’. When writing clues, especially for nouns, one should always be on the lookout for definitions which are a little out of the ordinary. In times gone by, the ‘cryptic definition’ clue which did not feature a wordplay was a relatively common feature of crosswords, but such clues do not meet the Ximenean requirement of there being (at least) two ways to arrive at the answer and are now only found in the blocked back-pagers. What I generally refer to as an ‘oblique’ definition is a different matter – this is simply an interesting definition within a normal ‘definition plus wordplay’ clue. Here Azed has taken the dictionary definition, ‘an old-fashioned iron for pressing clothes’,  and made the ‘pressed’ look like an adjective when in fact it is a past tense, reflecting the ‘old-fashioned’ aspect, while the definition actually needs to be read as ‘one often pressed [things]’. Not only can definitions like this legitimately misdirect the solver, they can add a great deal to the entertainment value of a crossword.

Across

1a Funny but arch pop star outselling other discs? (12)
An anagram (‘Funny’) of BUT ARCH is followed by the pseudonym of Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, bus conductor, tax officer and teacher turned pop star. The solution is hyphenated 5-7.

15a Earl left half of spread? Not half! (6, 2 words)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘Earl’ is followed by a five-letter term for the left-hand page of an open book.

17a Maori’s prohibition beginning to unravel after peg (4
The first letter (‘beginning’) of ‘unravel’ follows a word for the sort of peg that might be used to vent a cask of 20d. There is another word which would fit with the crossers but it doesn’t satisfy the wordplay and isn’t consistent with the Maori bit.

23a Task doubled in a long time is building up (8)
A reversal (‘doubled’) of a four-letter northern dialect word for a day’s work or a task is contained by an informal word which Chambers defines as ‘a long time, however short’.

29a Exquisite sound of horn we observed in Scotland (6)
A short blast on a horn is followed by a two-letter Scots form of ‘we’; the ‘observed’ can be ignored.

31a Name sister in love? The opposite (4)
The opposite of a sister in love is love in a sister, so the usual single-letter representation of ‘love’ as Andy Murray knows it is put inside the sort of sister who might live with a childless mother and lots of other sisters.

32a Old musket one of the Gordons fired? (7)
Here we have an anagram (‘fired’) of A GORDON, ie ‘one of the Gordons’.

34a Mosses I see exchanging position in harmony (5)
The single letters represented by ‘I’ and ‘see’ swap positions in a word which Chambers confirms can mean ‘melody or harmony’.

Down

1d Fine fellow nursing limp? He should probably stretch (11)
A charade of a five-letter word meaning ‘fine’, which might be used to describe a marksman, and a mildly whimsical term for a fellow nursing a limp (or for a rope used to hold and lead an animal). Here we have one of those ‘oblique’ definitions, which can also on occasion be used to good effect when tackling a word which is otherwise tricky to define succinctly and/or deceptively – Chambers gives ‘stretch’ as ‘to hang by the neck’ only in a transitive sense, but OED confirms the intransitive form.

2d Sport club, not amateur (7)
The name of a club which opened in 1869, is known for its croquet and tennis lawns, botanical gardens and stately Georgian Clubhouse, and is regarded as the birthplace of polo (the game, not the mint), has a three-letter word meaning ‘amateur’ (as in Tony Hancock’s brief flirtation with amateur radio) removed to produce the name of a sport with Irish roots (completely unconnected with wellie wanging, even if they might appear superficially similar).

4d Bituminous stuff limb in tractor hoisted (6)
A three-letter term for a specific limb is contained by a reversal (‘hoisted’) of the shortened name of a particular type of tractor (or other vehicle) that moves on a continuous track. Although tracked vehicles have evolved considerably during the intervening years, it seems possible that the first vehicle using a continuous track to be publicly demonstrated was the steam plough patented in 1832 by John Heathcoat, a farmer’s son who became MP for Tiverton. Heathcoat was an inventor who had earlier come up with (among other things) a machine which could produce a precise imitation of pillow lace, a fabric which he called ‘bobbin net’, later known as ‘bobbinet’. The equipment in the textile factory which he co-owned in Loughborough was wrecked in 1816 by former Luddites, supposedly in the pay of the Nottingham lace-makers – it seems that he had foreseen trouble, because he already had plans in place to move his business lock, stock and barrel to Tiverton, nearly 200 miles away. Many of his employees relocated with him, at least 100 families being known to have made the journey, and there is apparently still a row of cottages in Tiverton called ‘Loughborough’.

In 1837, representatives of the Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland assembled at Red Moss Bog in Bolton-le-Moors to watch the demonstration of Heathcoat’s steam plough. It was a huge machine, with 7ft sections of wood bolted to continuous iron bands driven by two 10ft diameter drums, 26ft apart. Although it weighed 30 tons, its ground pressure was less than a man’s weight. The society awarded Heathcoat £100 out of a possible £500 of its prize for creating a steam ploughing engine, and the party who witnessed the demonstration ‘expressed to Mr. Heathcoat the extreme pleasure they had received, and their earnest hope that he would extend the sphere of his exertions by applying the invention to the culture of stiff clay.’ There are suggestions that shortly afterwards the machine sank and almost disappeared in a swamp, but such reports are not contemporaneous – the rather more prosaic truth seems to be that issues with the technology and lack of funds simply resulted in the concept being abandoned by its inventor.

5d Dead duck upended among reeds, say, out of sight? (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘dead’ and a three-letter word for the score of a batsman dismissed for a ‘duck’ are reversed (‘upended’) within a a word which could describe a place where reeds grow – or garden flowers.

7d One of two months wherein to find amphibian with temperature mounting (5)
The wordplay here can get you to the answer in a couple of ways, the intended route probably being to put the four-letter amphibian (an alternative spelling of a three-letter word not infrequently seen in barred puzzles) after the usual abbreviation for ‘time’, the whole lot then being reversed (‘mounting’).

9d You may find estaminet’s upset at this bill item (4)
A composite anagram, where the letters of ESTAMINETS can be rearranged (‘upset’) to form AT plus the answer (‘this bill’) plus ITEM. Note that because this isn’t an &lit, the sort of ‘bill’ that is being referred to in the definition doesn’t need to relate in any way to that implied by the surface reading.

18d Nurse limits returning fuss, result of brain damage? (7)
The three-letter word (probably more commonly seen as a four-letter variant) for a nursemaid in colonial times contains (‘limits’) a reversal (‘returning’) of the sort of fuss that often also involves dance.

24d Magistrate, not standard, neglected character blemish? (6)
The word MAGISTRATE must have a four-letter word meaning ‘standard’ removed (‘not standard’) before the remaining letters are rearranged (‘neglected’).

28d Ne’er-do-well traditionally lost with Latin (5)
The past tense of an obsolete verb meaning ‘to lose’ (ie ‘traditionally lost’) is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘Latin’; the solution is itself derived from the same verb, and is more familiar to me with an S in the middle rather than an R.

30d Greek coin, old, to toss up (4)
The standard abbreviation for ‘old’ is followed by a reversal (‘up’) of a word meaning ‘to toss’. Many years ago I used to do the Autolycus puzzle in the Birmingham Post, which proved a splendid introduction to the darker reaches of Chambers, and this word appeared on a regular basis, usually being indicated by “Charon’s fee” – it is a very long time since I have seen it defined in that way.

(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 2,648 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

A 13×11 puzzle that was, I felt, a touch above average difficulty. There were several clues which featured relatively obscure answers along with an uncommon word in the wordplay, and a couple of parsings were not straightforward.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 11a, “Approach nurse about place of higher education (5)”. The two-letter abbreviation RN is put around an informal term for a place of higher education to produce a 3-2 hyphenated term for an approach (or an argument). What I want to focus on here is the use of ‘nurse’ to indicate RN, an abbreviation given by Chambers as ‘Registered Nurse (N American)’. It’s universally accepted that an abbreviation can be indicated by the expanded form given in Chambers, eg ‘River’ for R or ‘chapter’ for CH. In addition, abbreviations from other languages can be indicated by their meanings, eg ‘that is’ for IE, and I have no problem with this being extended to any abbreviation which can legitimately stand alone, so ‘computer’ for PC (“He’s got a new PC”) or ‘newspaper’ for FT (“I saw it in today’s FT”). But I struggle to accept indications for abbreviations which cannot appear by themselves in English sentences, such as ‘good man’ for ST (“She’s an absolute St”) or ‘way’ for RD (“It’s a lovely tree-lined Rd”). Even ignoring the fact that RN is given as specifically North American, I certainly wouldn’t myself use ‘nurse’ alone in a clue to indicate it.

Across

12a Toxic substance from timber, mostly sandarac, brought westwards (7)
A four-letter word for ‘timber’ with its last letter omitted (‘mostly’) is followed by a reversal (‘brought westwards’) of a four-letter word of Moroccan origin for the sandarac tree. The answer is one of many alternative spellings for the South American climbing plant strychnos toxifera; Chambers suggests that it might be the name only of the plant, but the OED confirms that it can also be applied to the poison derived from it, usually known in English by a slightly different name.

13a Genetic sequence, inflexible, not shortened inside (6)
A four-letter word meaning ‘inflexible’ (as a will or a fist might be) has the two-letter shortened form of ‘not’ inside.

15a Smallest part of gene that can change back insect’s dorsal surface (5)
If you are not familiar with either the part of the gene which must be reversed (‘back’) or the answer, the bit about ‘change’ should get you to the first three letters of the gene and an educated guess will give you the last two. Those who are not entomologically savvy should turn the word round and check the result in Chambers.

16a Like a type of butterfly that is clear within wood (9)
The usual two-letter representation of ‘that is’ and a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] clear’ (often indicated in puzzles by ‘free’) are contained by a four-letter word for a particular sort of wood.

21a It’s describing e.g. reasoning aright about what’ll make harp go wrong (13)
The hardest part about this clue is probably understanding the definition. The wordplay involves a seven-letter adjective meaning ‘reasoning aright’ being placed around (‘about’) an anagram (‘wrong’) of HARP GO. The Chambers entry for the solution isn’t very helpful, but the answer actually means “consisting of characters or signs, each of which singly represents a complete word”, so it does indeed describe ‘e.g.’. Deciding whether the definition really ought to be “It’s describing e.g. e.g.” is left to the reader as an exercise. I’m not convinced by “what’ll make harp go wrong” – it seems to me a questionable hybrid of “what could make harp go” and “harp go wrong”. 

24a Church shelf to let, not new (7)
The answer is an interesting word (which looks more like a verb) formed by removing (‘not’) the usual abbreviation for ‘new’ from an eight-letter word meaning ‘to ‘let’ or ‘available for hire’.

29a Source of many good tunes playwright takes to heart? (5)
My immediate thought was that we would be seeking a specific playwright, but it is a generic nine-letter term which must offer up its ‘heart’ in order to provide us with the answer, the name of a famous family of stringed instrument makers.

32a Old avenue I omitted in excursion that’s over (5)
A five-letter excursion from which one instance of the letter I has been omitted is followed by the usual (cricketing) abbreviation for ‘over’, delivering an obsolete (hence the ‘old’) term for an avenue. I have a distinct aversion to forms of the verb ‘to have’ being used as juxtaposition indicators (here the apostrophe-s), and I’m not convinced that among the many meanings of the word given by Chambers is one that truly supplies justification.

Down

1d What’ll give computer buyer a sneak preview? A crew’s deployed to limit fret (11)
An anagram (‘deployed’) of A CREW is to be put around (‘to limit’) a word meaning ‘fret’ in the sense of ‘[to] disturb’. I worked in the IT industry for many years without ever coming across this term, although I was on occasion involved with releases of software which were described by paying customers in broadly similar terms.

2d Beefcake identifying aim in Hollywood? (4)
A double definition clue, where the ‘beefcake’ (although its definition in Chambers doesn’t quite tally with the singular solution) will probably be more familiar to most solvers that the US term for goal or base in boys’ games.

3d One touch that helps to counter gravity’s effects (5)
A charade of a two-letter word for ‘one’ and a word for a touch which many will know only because of the children’s game of that name. The solution is hyphenated, 4-1.

8d Allowance rarely in dotage a don’s forgone? (5)
A nine-letter word for ‘dotage’ (or ‘doting’) sheds the letters A DON from the outside (“a don’s forgone”) to produce a common word which is defined using an uncommon sense (shown in Chambers as ‘rare’).

9d Principal left to do up around course (7)
The standard single-letter abbreviation for ‘left’ and a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] do’ are reversed (‘up’) around a three-letter word meaning ‘run’ (verb or noun, take your pick).

10d Vatican treasurers working longer put in some lead for stained-glass windows (11)
An anagram (‘working’) of LONGER is put inside the five-letter plural of a word for ‘a lead rod for framing a pane in a leaded or stained-glass window’ which could be indicated cryptically by ‘humped ruminants avoiding lake’.

19d Some monocotyledons, a group bordering river (7)
Here we have the letter A (from the clue) and a four-letter word for a group or family containing (‘bordering’) a two-letter dialect term for a river much admired by crossword setters.

20d Intestinal parasites? Helper, fit, turning up with one inside (7)
A three-letter term for a helper and a three-letter verb meaning ‘fit’ or ‘equip’ are reversed (‘turning up’) around a single-letter word for ‘one’.

(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 2,647 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3 / 5)

I felt that this puzzle, which didn’t strike me as being one of Azed’s very best, was of slightly above average difficulty. There were several clues where an unfamiliar solution was accompanied by an uncommon term in the wordplay, and a couple of others which were a little tricky to parse.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 14a, “Unit of money, ‘penny’ in Arabia (5)”. Nothing too difficult about this 1+2+2 charade leading to the name of a monetary unit in several countries, including some Arabian ones. Firstly, though, you may ask yourself why Azed has put inverted commas around the word ‘penny’. It’s because the word derives directly from the Latin denarius, which is translated in the New Testament as ‘penny’ – so it really is one. The clue could indeed have been written as just “‘Penny’ in Arabia”, which would have made it an &lit. The problem with this is that since ‘d’ is itself short for ‘denarius’, it would all be a bit incestuous, and the clue is much better as written, being an ‘offshoot &lit’ where the whole of the clue acts as the definition but only part of it constitutes the wordplay.

There is a second point – is ‘penny’ acceptable for D, given that it is over 50 years since decimalization? In a word, yes. There is a wealth of literature which contains the abbreviation and while it remains in Chambers it’s just as valid as ‘mark’ for M or ‘franc’ for FR.

Across

11a What Indian women may wear about festival in spring (5)
The single-character abbreviation for ‘about’ in the sense of ‘in the region of’ is followed by the name of great festival or carnival of the Hindus, held at the approach of the vernal equinox, in honour of Krishna and the Gopīs or milkmaids; coincidentally, it is also the first part of a very familiar seven-letter word for any religious festival (now more generally applied to any time off for R&R).

18a Throw with the intention of wounding, showing vigour? Not on once (6)
The wordplay involves a four-letter word for ‘vigour’ and the letters ONCE (from the clue) with ON omitted (‘not on once’, which frankly is stretching the English language close to breaking point).

19a Like many in the senate house, before not being allowed out (7)
The senate house here is that of ancient Rome, and the wordplay is a charade of a two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘before’ and  term applied to students at Oxford or Cambridge who have been confined to college, either entirely or after a certain hour of the day. Better, at least, than being degraded, rusticated, or (perish the thought) expelled.

23a Gossip, as female getting round lows (7)
A three-letter word for a female is containing  (‘getting round’) a word for ‘lows’ which has nothing to do with depression and everything to do with cattle.

25a Hooligan giving the old man back pain (6)
A reversal (‘back’) of a two-letter word for ‘the old man’ (such as Lonnie Donegan’s dustman) is followed by a word for a pain (such as in Bonnie Tyler’s heart).

26a Caught immediately before tea? Take that! (6)
A straightforward 3+3 charade leads to an informal interjection which will forever be linked with the headline in The Sun of 4 May 1982, about which editor Kelvin Mackenzie later wrote in his own inimitable style:

At one stage, the Argentine military regime was offering what looked like faux peace talks. The Sun’s response came via the headline: STICK IT UP YOUR JUNTA. A classic, it became our catchphrase for the war.  We decided to put the whole paper on a war footing. News editor Tom Petrie became Commander Petrie for the duration. Reporters were given ranks from private to colonel. I stomped around the newsroom in sergeant major parody referring to colleagues as “horrible little people”. We invited readers to sponsor Sidewinder missiles. Joyfully it was reported that a missile fired from HMS Invincible with the words “Up Yours Galtieri” (the name of the Junta leader) had brought down an Argentinian plane.

The Sun journalists were a militant lot, and the day the Belgrano was sunk inevitably they were on strike. But the printers, a bolshie collection of overpaid and underworked half-wits, would allow me to produce the paper and turned a blind eye to a couple of execs giving assistance. It must have been around 10 o’clock on that May evening, while sitting on the news desk with assistant editor Wendy Henry, when it was reported that the Belgrano had been sunk. Hit with two torpedoes fired by our submarine, the Conqueror. On hearing the news Wendy, an excitable talent, shouted: Gotcha! With headlines I have always found that instinct trumps intelligence. So GOTCHA it was. 

30a American shrub from Haiti, its smell having a touch of arum (7)
The two-letter IVR code for Haiti is followed by a word for a smell, spelt in the American way (‘its smell’, ie the smell of an American shrub), and the first letter (‘a touch’) of ‘arum’.

32a Free literary style is associated with him in dialect (5)
A rather convoluted effort, a word for ‘literary style’ being placed after (‘associated with’) a dialect form of ‘him’. 

Down

1d Overseas bowler demonstrating turn on the way down (7)
If you aren’t familiar with either of the two definitions here then a dictionary trawl (physical or electronic) may be required. The answer is also the surname of the founder (in 1843) of a group of Minstrels whose facial decoration would today be wholly unacceptable.

2d Partial weatherproofing in north America (6)
Another double definition clue, and quite a neat one, with the ‘partial’ being used in its sense of ‘partisan’. I’ve no idea why ‘north’ isn’t capitalized.

4d The French forced out of Spanish city creating a rumpus (4)
The masculine form of the French word for ‘the’ is ‘forced out of’ the middle of a Spanish city famous for bladed weapons, the result being a hyphenated (2-2) answer.

5d One doing housework switching ends became inefficient (6)
The word that must have its first and last letters swapped (‘switching ends’) can either describe the person doing the housework or something they would use to do it. Or the mildly mysterious name of a car which seems to have no connection with the activity.

7d Shut up about number turning up in the old west (6)
There might initially appear to be several options for the ‘number’ here, but it is the two-letter abbreviation for it which must be reversed inside a past participle meaning ‘shut up’ in order to produce a word from the 16^th and 17^th centuries for the place or direction of the sunset, very much along the lines of ‘occident’.

12d Having money invested in real crackers for cheese (10)
An anagram (‘crackers’) of IN REAL has a four-letter word for (ready) money put inside (‘invested’), the outcome being a particular sort of cheese.

17d Activity in bakery, except with children involved (8)
The usual two-letter abbreviation for ‘children’ is ‘involved’ in a synonym for ‘except’ that is rarely, if ever, seen these days. Byron was familiar with it, though:

For, ?????? Covent Garden, I can hit on No place that’s call’d ‘Piazza’ in Great Britain

It can also be spelt with an extra ‘i’, thus describing something the noble lord would surely not have allowed to happen to the pet which he kept while a student at Cambridge.

20d Malay Muslim in Australia briefly in love (7)
One where I had to work back from the solution and the three-letter abbreviation (‘briefly’) for ‘Australia’ to identify (and check) the Malay Muslim from the Philippines contained therein.

28d Mountain goat or deer, tail aloft (4)
A word for a male deer, most often seen these days in pub names, has the last letter brought to the start (‘tail aloft’). Several years ago I remember looking into the goats in question when there was a clue which could have led either to this one or to TAHR.

Capricornis ???? (it seems) is the Himalayan serow, a goat-like mammal of the Himalayas and Bangladesh, whilst the Himalayan TAHR (also known as the common ????, you’re still following me?) is Hemitragus jemlahicus, the sole survivor of the Hemitragus genus and a large ungulate related to the wild goat found in, among other places, the Himalayas. So neither is truly a goat, but both are, shall we say, of a goatish disposition, and both make their homes in mountainous regions. Thar you are then.

(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 2,646 ‘Cherchez la Femme’

Difficulty rating: (4 / 10)

The last ‘Cherchez la Femme’ was 2,515 (PETRONELLA), although it was not a competition puzzle. On this occasion, I have to say that as soon as I saw that we were looking for an eleven-letter surname (which, it being the competition clue word, is almost certain to appear in Chambers) I correctly guessed the word. I find that solving a puzzle like this is simply a matter of proceeding as normal, entering answers as you get them (in pencil, with an eraser to hand), and then adding a second letter into the cells where clashes occur – so if the second letter of HALF clashed at its intersection with the third letter of STICK, I would put ‘A/I’ in the cell and write the ‘midway’ letter at the side of the grid (in this instance, E – AbcdEfghI). Once I’ve completed the puzzle and identified the name, I then  replace the double letters with the ‘midway’ ones, so in the example I would write in an E, thus making the non-words HELF and STECK. I could have written in an E from the outset, but that can get very confusing, particularly if you’ve gone wrong! When solving the puzzle, always bear in mind that no entry is involved in more than one clash.

I felt that the puzzle was a bit tougher than an average ‘plain’, but certainly one of the easier specials. Right until the end I thought there was only going to be one clash in any given row, but that proved to be incorrect. For anyone who wants to do a quick check, I have listed the row/column coordinates of the cells where clashes occur below the notes.

Clue Writers’ Corner: A correspondent who started writing clues for the competition a couple of years ago recently sent me his entries for comment. Several of these illustrate common traps for Azed competitors and will be the subject of a separate post, but one point that arose related to the presence (or absence) of a full stop at the end of a clue. Convention indicates that a full stop is not required, but if you include one Azed will simply ignore it, likewise if you include the clue number or an enumeration (letter count). Azed’s tolerance extends considerably further, as witnessed by this comment from the slip for AZ285:

…it’s worth sounding again my regular note of warning to those who submit clues entirely in capital letters. It certainly makes for greater legibility (messy scribblers, please note!) but occasionally disguises a proper name which has to be read with a lower-case initial to give sense to the clue.

On the subject of punctuation at the end of a clue, don’t forget about the value of a closing question mark in three related circumstances – when the definition or wordplay element at the end of the clue constitutes a definition by example (as ‘a dish?’ in 9d here, a dish being just one example of the solution), when the definition at the end of a clue is not one you would find in a dictionary (eg ‘describing handbook?’ in 2d here), and in &lit clues where the ‘definition’  is more of a suggestion (eg D P Shenkin’s ‘One to shake up trite profs?’ for ESPRIT FORT).

Note that a clue for this month’s competition doesn’t have to refer to the person; other meanings of the word can also be used (for illustration, see the list of successful clues for CLEMENTINE in 2,279). If you’re going to use the person’s first name as the definition, don’t forget that it will be a definition by example and needs either a question mark or something like a ‘maybe’ to accompany it. Since the word does not appear as an entry in the grid, Azed would allow it to be treated as either an across or a down solution (though personally I would avoid clueing it as if it were a down entry).

Across

1a Californian shrub maiden made room for in travelling carriage (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘maiden’ (the cricketing term) is contained (‘made room for’) inside a six-letter word for a ‘light open carriage for one or more persons’ or a ‘travelling carriage’.

12a RC brother making point about passion (8)
The answer is constructed by putting a four-letter word for a point (such as a fork might have) around (‘about’) a four-letter word for ‘passion’.

16a Maize patty rail spits right out (8)
The rail here is of the avian kind, and it is ‘spitting out’ the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘right’ (there are in fact two instances of it, and it is the second one which is lost).

27a What’ll clean the decks? Apply for round nozzle, saving time (5)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] apply for’ or ‘prosecute’ is placed round a word for a nozzle from which the standard abbreviation for ‘time’ has been removed (‘saving time’).

29a What’s assumed to be valid? It’s introduced by chambers (5)
Nothing too tricky about this one, the letters IT (from the clue) following (‘introduced by’) a three-letter plural meaning ‘chambers’ or gazunders, but I’m a little puzzled as to why Azed didn’t write ‘Chambers introduces it’; the apparently plural noun governing a singular verb in the wordplay might look odd, but for the purposes of cryptic manipulation the noun is treated simply as a singular character string, regardless of number.

31a Antitoxin possibly or antivenom, name lost (8)
An anagram (‘possibly’) of OR ANTIVENOM from which a word meaning ‘name’ has been omitted (‘name lost’); because the letters of this word occur consecutively in ANTIVENOM, there is no need for a second anagram indicator.

32a ‘Blind’ pouches, each taken into account in turn (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘each’ is ‘taken into’ a three-letter abbreviation for ‘account’ and the whole lot reversed (‘in turn’).

Down

2d Pair up in moderation, describing handbook? (5)
A three-letter word for a pair is reversed (‘up’) inside a two-letter word for ‘moderation’ that is also an interjection indicating surprise. The solution is hyphenated, 3-2.

3d This is a kind of Indo-European ‒ do please read carefully (5)
The wordplay here leads to a (1,4) phrase which might seem to be exhorting someone to read carefully (or to use a photocopier). There is a clash involved which makes finding the answer trickier than it might otherwise have been.

4d Sport lifted spirits, hearts included (6)
The ‘spirits’ here are manifested in the five-letter plural of a name for ‘an aniseed-flavoured spirit of Turkey and the E Mediterranean’; this must be reversed (‘lifted’) before having the usual abbreviation for ‘hearts’ included (in position 2). The ‘game’ is an Anglo-Indian hunting term.

5d It traps river fish, lines aloft in flowing Tees (6)
The ‘lines aloft’ indicate an informal US term for an elevated railroad, which must be placed inside an anagram (‘flowing’) of TEES to produce the 3-3 answer.

7d Before those paying to attend turned up, stand required (7)
A three-letter ‘usually literary’ word meaning ‘before’ and a four-letter word used to describe the number of people attending a game (often seen followed by ‘receipts’) are reversed (‘turned up’).

9d Number taken in by tragic heroine, a dish? (7)
The tragic heroine who ‘takes in’ the three-letter written form of a specific cardinal number was created by Leo Tolstoy and has been portrayed by, among many others, Greta Garbo and Vivien Leigh.

17d A stake placed inside tin may be plucked (7)
One of those clues with a relatively obscure answer and a relatively obscure element in the wordplay. The letter A (from the clue) and a four-letter word for a stake in gambling are contained by (‘placed inside’) the chemical symbol for tin. You may be surprised to see Azed indicating a noun using a verb, but as he observed in the slip for comp 354:

I’ve said before that an adjective is an inaccurate (because unfairly misleading) way of indicating a noun (and vice versa of course). I do accept however that a verb (in the appropriate person) can indicate a noun. ‘Barks and is man’s best friend’ defines DOG far more clearly than, say, ‘Furry and domesticated’.

18d Granular deposit ‒ it encases a sweetbread (7)
In something close to a re-run of the preceding clue, here the letter A (from the clue) and a four-letter word for the sweetbread or pancreas (and the surname of the actor who played Perry Mason on TV) are contained by the two-letter abbreviation for a certain sort of appeal much appreciated by crossword setters.

25d Fatty school gets reduced by 50% (5)
I thought at first that we would be looking at the ten-letter name of a school from which the last five letters would be lost, but in fact the wordplay leads to a three-letter term for the sort of school attended by whales or seals, followed by  the word GETS missing one half.

(definitions are underlined)

Clashes occur in the following cells

(row 1, column 4); (1,10); (3,3); (5,7); (6,12); (7,6); (8,9); (9,3); (10,7); (11,1); (12,11).