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.

While I – of course – believe that the views presented are valid, I realize that (i) I am not infallible, and (ii) in the world of the crossword there are many areas where opinions will differ. I say what I think, but I don’t intend thereby to stifle discussion – I would encourage readers who disagree with the views that I express, whether in the blog posts or in response to comments, to make their feelings known…I shall not be offended!

Azed 2,588 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

I’d put this puzzle right in the middle of the difficulty spectrum – no particularly difficult clues, but not too many easy ones either. More than one clue for an obscure solution also involved an obscurity in the wordplay, and several wordplays required careful untangling. A couple of definitions struck me as questionable, and I have turned the spotlight on them below.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 2d, “Like a crystal Archibald’s sculpted – not bad (6)”. A subtractive anagram, where the solution is obtained by rearranging the letters of ARCHIBALD without BAD (I remember enough from my Chemistry degree to know that not all crystals are chiral, but we’ll let that pass). The point of interest here is that the letters BAD are not consecutive in ARCHIBALD – is that a problem? Not in my view – both the raw anagram material (ARCHIBALD) and the element to be removed (BAD) are in plain view in the clue, and any solver who really didn’t want to remove non-consecutive letters could rearrange ARCHIBALD to produce CHIRALBAD (“Archibald’s sculpted”) and then remove the BAD (‘not bad). If the last part of the clue had read “not unskilful”, requiring a synonym of ‘unskilful’, ie BAD, to be removed, I think that would be a bridge too far. In this latter situation, the letters removed must be consecutive in the raw material, as in say “Piece of furniture Archibald assembled – not simple” for CHAIR ((ARCHIBALD – BALD)*).

13a When imbibing I desist from vintage Scotch perhaps (7)
The wordplay involves a two-letter word meaning ‘when’ containing (‘imbibing’) I (from the clue) and an obsolete (‘vintage’) word meaning ‘to desist from’ (Chambers shows it as Spenserian, but it pre-dated him by several hundred years). The spelling here of the solution (a Scots word for ‘perhaps’) is that favoured by Burns, but there are several alternatives, including the rather charming ‘yibbles’.

15a Old woman in truth abandoning husband (4)
A ‘formal or archaic’ (according to Chambers) interjection meaning ‘in truth’ (although I suspect that the ‘formal’ aspect applies only to the noun and not the interjection) missing (‘abandoning’) the usual abbreviation for ‘husband’. I would have preferred to see ‘Old crone’ rather than ‘Old woman’ as the definition – the word, which means ‘old woman’ or ‘crone’,  is itself obsolete, and therefore ‘Old’ on its own is somewhat overworked.

16a Garrison commander a month after defeat (8)
The name of the twelfth month in the ecclesiastical year of the Jewish calendar follows a four-letter verb meaning ‘to defeat’ in a pretty final sort of way.

19a Part of chair back was in place at fringes of town library? (5)
A three-letter word meaning ‘was in place’ is put around (‘at fringes of’) the two-letter abbreviation for ‘public library’. In line with the views I expressed last week regarding indirect indications of abbreviations, I’m not entirely happy with ‘town library?’ here.

23a Treasury chap I found in heart of in-tray, looking back (5)
A three-letter word for ‘I’ is contained by the central letters (‘heart’) of IN-TRAY, the whole lot being reversed (‘looking back’). The solution is the last name of the British physician, natural scientist and lexicographer known to all crossword solvers for his magnum opus, first published in 1852, which has been regularly expanded and reprinted and which appeared in an abridged form as his Treasury of Words.

25a Eggs arranged and put in grades as before (8)
An anagram (‘arranged’) of AND is put inside an obsolete (‘as before’) word for ‘degrees’ or ‘ranks’; the ‘Eggs’ in the definition refers to bombs, although I’m not sure they are quite the same sort as the ones that constitute the solution.

29a Passionate person once displaying energy in pursuit of fabulous bird (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘energy’ appears here following (‘in pursuit of’) a “fabulous bird (by Europeans commonly called the phœnix), one of the symbols of the imperial dignity in China.” Someone who was in the grip of irritation or anger would be described as being ‘in a ****’, and the word was consequently used as a noun, describing someone apt to get into such a state.

32a Drive former president out of party? (4)
The middle name of the 32nd President of the United States has the usual crossword term for a party (in the usual Boris Johnson sense) removed from its fringes (‘out of party’).

3d Island fast revealing hostility to poet (9)
A five-letter island (a recipient of the George Cross) and a four-letter word often deceptively indicated in clues by ‘fast’ combine to produce a word for ill-will or malevolence used by (among others) Edmund Spenser (‘hostility to poet’).

6d Scots miserly – about right? Love it (6)
Going ‘about right’ (ie around the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘right’) are a three-letter word for ‘love’ (in the Novak Djokovic sense) and the letters IT (from the clue). I can find no evidence to suggest that the definition here is correct – Chambers shows this word (rather than the similar word ending in E) as meaning ‘stunted’ or ‘pinched with cold’, it’s not in OED, and I can’t find any support in the Scots dictionaries available online.

Additional note: the comment from Ray Jennings (below) prompted me to look at the entries for NIRL in both the electronic and paper versions of Chambers. I use the electronic version when solving, and in there the subheads for ‘nirled/nirlit’ and ‘nirly/nirlie’ are clearly separate; in the paper editions a tiny full stop is the only thing that divides them I can quite see why Azed thought that the meanings given for ‘nirly/nirlie’ were also applicable to ‘nirled/nirlit’.

7d Highlander set about opening of area (4)
A three-letter verb meaning ‘[to] set’ containing (‘about’) the first letter (‘opening’) of ‘area’, but the definition here is very much by example – such a person could (according to Chambers) come from Ireland or the Isle of Man, so there needs to be a ‘maybe’ or similar in there.

8d How drought affects region, always restricting clear lake (6)
A horrible word to define, formed by a two-letter word for ‘always’ containing (‘restricting’) a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] clear’ and the usual abbreviation for ‘lake’; I think it is only ever used to describe a manner of speaking, as in this example from Hardy’s The Dynasts:

Were I as coarse a wife
As I am limned in English caricature—
[Those cruel effigies they draw of me!]—
You could not speak more aridly.

9d What raja may accompany, always full of energy? Reverse of that (4)
That word for ‘always’ that appeared in the previous clue pops up again, this time containing (‘full of’) a two-letter word for ‘energy’ or ‘pep’, the whole lot being reversed (‘Reverse of that’) to produce the name applied to various systems of physical and/or mental discipline, of which ‘raja’ is one form.

18d Last bit of lunch left for pet (3)
The final letter (‘Last bit of’) ‘lunch’ is followed by…well, somehow we have to get ON from ‘left’ or ‘left for’, but I can’t see it myself. Chambers gives ‘with respect to’ as a meaning of both ‘for’ and ‘on’, but even if we accept this rather tenuous synonymity the issue of that ‘left’ remains. Could H be ‘[the] last bit of lunch left’? I don’t think so – the solver would have to infer “…when the first four letters have been deleted”, which is asking too much. All suggestions will be welcomed.

21d Fall on bottom, end of cord coming away (6)
A three-letter word for ‘bottom’ (such as a river has), followed by a four-letter word for ‘cord’ with the last letter removed (‘end…coming away’). The grammar of the second part of the wordplay is questionable – I would prefer the cord to be the subject, as in say “cord lacking end’ – but the definition of the solution is impeccable, ‘fall’ on its own being inadequate.

27d Old but scent-free, growing white (4)
A nine-letter word meaning ‘growing white’ has the letters SCENT removed (‘scent-free’), to produce an archaic (hence the ‘Old’) conjunction. The solution is a contracted form of the phrase ‘All though it be that’, invariably seen nowadays spelt with six letters but in the past sometimes further abridged by the removal of the pronoun. However, I don’t think that ‘but’ is accurate – I realize that ‘although’ is uncomfortably closely related to the solution, but it would surely be better.

(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 2,587 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

There were some entertaining clues in this puzzle which struck me as being a little below the mid-point of the difficulty spectrum.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 19a, “Ambassador maybe providing enclosure for sandarach in African capital (6)”. The clue is parsed below, but the point of interest here is the way in which Azed has indicated the letters HE, ie with “Ambassador maybe”. It is not uncommon to see ‘ambassador’ on its own in puzzles indicating HE, but I have a problem with this – HE is, according to Chambers, an abbreviation for ‘His Excellency’. I don’t doubt that the person so addressed could be an ambassador, but ‘ambassador’ and ‘HE’ are neither synonymous nor interchangeable. The same issue applies to ‘way’ being used for ST (or RD), and ‘novice’ for L. St is an abbreviation specifically of ‘Street’, and L of ‘learner (driver)’. One would not say “I was walking along the St” or “I was held up behind an L”. Abbreviations like VC or LP are very different – these have a life of their own in today’s language (“He won the VC”, “She has a large LP collection”), so I’m entirely comfortable with ‘decoration’ being used to indicate VC and ‘record’ to indicate ‘LP’. Here Azed has done the decent thing and added a ‘maybe’, thus making it a little clearer that the link between the indication and the abbreviation indicated thereby is somewhat loose in nature.

1a Soup recipe ingested by artist (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘recipe’ is ‘ingested’ by the surname of the artist famous for the triptych commonly known as The Garden of Earthy Delights, and for designing the majority of the power tools in my collection. My first encounter with the soup in question came many years ago at a place called George’s Armenian Restaurant, somewhere near Manchester; it was also the scene of my first dalliance with Turkish coffee.

6a Everything within that kiss stirred divine femininity (6)
An anagram (‘stirred’) of THAT KISS apart from the initial T and the closing S, ie ‘everything within’.

16a Announced month left once given judgement (8)
A charade of a three-letter abbreviation for one month of the year, the usual abbreviation for ‘left’, and the past tense of the obsolete verb ‘aread’, meaning ‘to adjudge’.

19a Ambassador maybe providing enclosure for sandarach in African capital (6)
The two-letter abbreviation of the title of honour given to an ambassador containing (‘providing enclosure for’) a four-letter word for the sandarach tree.

20a Cocktail of Pepsi and Lilt? This is primarily ‘lite’ possibly (6)
I applaud Azed’s commitment to come up with new treatments of words that he has clued many times before, although this one didn’t do a lot for me. It’s a composite anagram &lit, where a rearrangement (‘cocktail’) of PEPSI and LILT could produce (‘possibly’) the solution (‘this’) IS L (the first letter of ‘lite’, ie “primarily ‘lite'”). The whole clue stands as the definition of the solution. For the benefit of solvers outside the UK (and Ireland, Gibraltar and the Seychelles), Lilt is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with grapefruit (not orange as I originally wrote) and pineapple, sold by the Coca-Cola company – to those like myself who find that advertising jingles once absorbed can never be exuded, it will forever be associated with a ‘totally tropical taste’.

23a Child dropped subject more ready to learn (5)
Another example of the ‘missing comma’ that was discussed a couple of weeks ago. The wordplay here equates to “Child dropped, subject”, so a seven-letter word for a subject (or a main division of a book) has the standard two-letter abbreviation for ‘child’ removed from it. ‘Ready to learn’ is not the most obvious meaning of the adjective from which the solution is derived, but it is given by Chambers, and Robinson Crusoe, when relating his experience of teaching Friday to speak English, describes him as being “the aptest scholar there ever was”.

26a Literary bits and pieces smart chap penned in column (8)
The name which is preceded by ‘smart’ and given to someone who thinks they’re pretty clever (‘smart chap’) is contained by (‘penned in’) a four-letter word for “a square pilaster at either side of a doorway or the corner of a flank wall”. It seems almost certain that the inspiration for the nineteenth century term for a smart*rse was Alec Hoag, a celebrated New York City thief of the 1840s who, along with wife Melinda and accomplice French Jack, specialized in the ‘panel game’; this involved the use of a secret panel in order to rob ‘clients’ that Melinda had brought back to her room. At first Hoag bribed the police to turn a blind eye, but then, realizing that their victims would not report the thefts, he decided to stop paying; this was not a good move, as he quickly found himself arrested and put in prison. Supposedly one of the arresting officers called him ‘Smart Alec(k)’ on account of him being too smart for his own good, after which other officers started to apply the term to other prisoners who thought they were cleverer than the police. Within twenty years the expression appears to have been in common use in the US, and by the 1930s it had reached the UK and Australia.

30a Coffee dish, edges split (5)
A seven-letter word for a dish with the first and last letters removed (‘edges split’)  produces a popular type of coffee. I think that I would have favoured ‘edges splitting’, but the clue is probably ok as it stands.

34a Hero’s father – matter involves dodgy ‘eel! (6)
A neat one this – an anagram (‘dodgy’) of EEL inside a three-letter word for the sort of matter that’s formed by suppuration results in the name of the father of Achilles. Although early stories make no mention of Achilles’ near-invulnerability (in fact in the Iliad, Homer describes him being wounded in the elbow), later stories have him being dipped in the Styx by his mother, Thetis. in an attempt to make him immortal. Unfortunately she was holding him by his left heel – a careless error, one can’t help feeling. The title of the Led Zeppelin track Achilles Last Stand is a reference to Robert Plant’s severe ankle injury sustained in a 1975 car accident, as a result of which he was unable to walk for a year. Much of the Presence album was recorded with Plant in a wheelchair, and the working title of the track was The Wheelchair Song.

1d Chancy investment wild eclat tucked up – owlish maybe? (12)
A four-letter contraction of a word for a chancy investment together with an anagram (‘wild’) of ECLAT are put into BED (‘tucked up’) to produce an adjective which would typically apply to individuals described as ‘owlish’.

2d A pistol cocked? Rule of order (6)
A reversal (‘cocked’) of A (from the clue) and the five-letter name for a type of semi-automatic pistol. Originally produced in 1898 as the Parabellum Automatic Pistol, it was adopted by the Swiss Military in 1901 and the German army in 1908, being produced in several forms up until 1948. The name ‘Parabellum’ derives from the Latin adage “Si vis pacem para bellum”, roughly translated as “If you want peace, prepare for war.”

3d Runner? Plenty turned up in advance (6)
This parses as a four-letter word for ‘plenty’ reversed (‘turned up’) plus a two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘in advance’.

4d Cheesy stuff given a whirl within? It’s revolting (4)
The four-letter ‘cheesy stuff’ has its second and third letters swapped around (‘given a whirl within’) to produce something altogether less appetizing.

5d Old time tart, head dropping somewhat (5)
Another name for a poule de luxe with the first letter moving down two places (‘head dropping somewhat’). The solution is an obsolete spelling of a familiar word for a time or occasion, hence the ‘old’.

7d Toxic latex, not for a tip of rubber (6)
A four-letter word meaning ‘not for’ (ie against), the letter A (from the clue), and the first letter (or possibly the last) of ‘rubber’. Conventionally, ‘tip’ is used to indicate the first letter of a word while ‘end’ indicates the last, but it seems to me that they are interchangeable – ‘the tip of my snooker clue’ is the bit furthest away from me, while ‘my end of the office’ is the bit closest.

9d Shipworm mostly found under matting in shreds (8)
A six-letter word for a shipworm has its last letter removed (‘mostly’) and follows a three-letter term for a type of Indian hempen matting (another word with the same spelling describes tawdry or shabby articles).

15d Coach circumventing what may be Indian gazelle (8)
A five-letter shortened form of a nine-letter word for the sort of coach that used to take people on outings, containing (‘circumventing’) the name of a type of fluid that could be prefixed by ‘Indian’ (or by ‘invisible’). ‘Indian’ describes the gazelle, but this word cannot be part of the definition as it would then be performing double duty in the clue, which is not allowed.

25d University shows this ivy’s disfigured…Trinity? (6)
A second composite anagram, this time not an &lit. UNIVERSITY is (‘shows’) an anagram of (‘disfigured’) the solution (‘this’) and IVYS; ‘Trinity’ is the definition.

(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 2,586 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

A largely straightforward puzzle that sat somewhere below the mid-point of the difficulty scale, I felt.

May I take this opportunity to wish all readers a very happy New Year, and good solving in 2022.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clues 23d, “Put fresh front on shift, turned-up iron plugged in (6)”, and 25d, “Change address for number in former province (6)”. These clues are parsed below, but the discussion here centres on the solutions and their definitions, ‘Put fresh front on’ and ‘Change address for’. Chambers shows both the verbs as ‘vt’ (verb transitive) only, therefore in a sentence they must always take an object. A mistake that inexperienced setters (and sometimes not-so-inexperienced ones) make is to define a transitive verb using a verb or verb expression which is intransitive. So, for example, to define DESALINATE as ‘remove salt’ would be an error – ‘desalinate’ is a transitive-only verb and therefore the definition would have to be ‘remove salt from’; if in doubt, try the old setter’s substitution trick, replacing the solution with the intended definition in a sentence, eg ‘It is possible to desalinate seawater’. In the two clues from this puzzle, the prepositions are essential – something like ‘Replace front’ or ‘Change address’ would not be valid.

10a Man admits love with mum – one’s predictions are distinctly ‘earthy’ (7)
A four-letter ‘man’ (of good birth or refined manners) takes in (‘admits’) the usual single-character representation of love and a two-letter word for ‘mum’ (or ‘mother’) frequently seen in crosswords. According to the British Museum’s web site, the technique employed by such a person was “a popular form of divination (seeking knowledge through supernatural means) practised across the Islamic world. In Arabic, it is known as ‘ilm al-raml’, literally ‘the science of the sand.’ In this ancient practice, the position of randomly thrown grains of sand answered specific questions put to the geomancer by the client. Enquiries often concerned matters of daily life, such as the health of a child, infidelity of a spouse or success of a business dealing.”

12a Dog (origin unspecified) needing shampoo, rear half first (4)
A four-letter word for ‘shampoo’ (in truth ‘shampoo’ here is dangerously close to an definition by example) has its second pair of letters moved in front of its first pair (‘rear half first’) to produce the name of a dog belonging to a breed developed in Tibet and normally referred to as a (5,4), but here Azed has taken a bit of a liberty by dropping the name of the breed’s city of origin and indicating same with ‘(origin unspecified)’.

13a You may find gardener is transplanting red one? (7)
This clue and 9d are companion pieces. Both are composite anagrams, but this one is a ‘comp anag &lit’, where the whole clue stands both as the wordplay and as the definition of the solution. The letters of GARDENER IS can be obtained by rearrangement of (indicated by ‘is transplanting’) RED plus the solution (indicated in the wordplay by ‘one’). In ‘&lit’ clues, it is accepted that the definition can be on the loose side – I think it’s pretty clear here that we are looking for the name of a plant. Regarding its hue, whilst there is a variety called ‘Red Pixie’, as correspondent Azedophile points out below, this is a named cultivar of the species when spelt with a ‘y’ not, as here, with an ‘e’. However, further web research has revealed the following:

“The savanna surrounding the Waterberg Mountains is characterized by African beachwood (Faurea saligna), common hookthorn (Acacia caffra), red seringa (Burkea africana), Terminalia sericea, and Peltophorum africanum.”

Based on this, it would seem that the plant receiving the attention of Azed’s gardener could indeed be a ‘red one’. Whether ‘transplanting’ is a valid anagram indicator, however, is a moot point.

24a Sign of cold weather in part of mid-April? One’ll need a second coat (6)
A four-letter ‘sign of cold weather’ is contained by two of the three letters in the middle of ‘April’ – ‘part of mid-April’ seems a strange way of indicating these letters, but I can’t see anything unfair about it. I was slightly dubious about the definition, but since Chambers gives the solution as ‘a preparatory first coat of paint, etc’ it is absolutely fine.,

28a SA creature, not heading for the Cape? (5)
A rather cumbersome wordplay tells us to remove the letters FOR (‘not…for’) from the start of (‘heading’) a word for a cape.

32a Hand washer applied to edge of face for shave (7)
Here the second name of the man who according to St Matthew “washed his hands before the multitude, saying ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours.'” is put after (‘applied to’) the last letter (‘edge’) of ‘face’.

35a Prince maybe with bird, English, on deck relaxing, not plunging (12)
A three-letter name given by Shakespeare to the young Henry of Monmouth (later Henry V) is followed by a four-letter word for a type of slender sea-bird, the usual abbreviation for English, and an anagram (‘relaxing’) of DECK. The solution is hyphenated, (6-6), and describes a garment with a neckline which is far from plunging.

4d Old coat mostly turned up with nothing below collar (6)
A six-letter word for a peasant’s overcoat (shown by Chambers as ‘hist‘, hence the ‘old’) has its last letter removed (‘mostly’) before being reversed (‘turned up’) and put above the single letter used to represent ‘nothing’ (‘with nothing below’). The second letter of the solution could also have been an E, both the coat and the collar having alternative spellings which would be consistent with this, but since the letter in question is checked by the unambiguous 10a there is no problem.

7d Old poet, good on love, cause of global upheaval but not the first (4)
The name of a disease which has indeed caused, and continues to cause, global upheaval, has its first letter removed (‘but not the first’) to produce the English designation of the Roman poet who wrote the elegiac poems Ars Amatoria (‘The Art of Love’) and Remedia Amoris (‘The Cure for Love’). 

9d Gardenin’ has disinterred this local onion, red (5)
As in 13a a compound anagram is involved, but this time it is not an ‘&lit’. Here the letters of GARDENIN can be rearranged (‘disinterred’, in the sense of ‘brought out of obscurity’) to produce the solution (‘this local onion’) and RED. Why, you might ask, is this not an &lit, since the whole clue could stand as a definition of the solution. Yes, but the words ‘local onion’ play no part in the cryptic reading of the clue, so although the definition does not appear (as is usual but not mandatory) at the beginning or end of the clue this is still a definition + wordplay clue.

The composite anagram, where extra material is added to the solution in order to ‘balance the equation’ with the anagram fodder in the clue, is not a new thing (it has been around since the 1940s), but it is only seen in barred cryptics and makes relatively few appearances outside Azed puzzles and Azed competitions. There are many examples of ‘comp anag &lit’ clues to be found in the Azed Slip Archive, the classic example being Colin Dexter’s (albeit now somewhat dated) clue for WELL-TO-DO in comp 727, “It’s this Littlewoods could make you” (ITS WELLTODO = LITTLEWOODS). The non-&lit form of the composite anagram is generally viewed as the poor relation of its &lit sibling and as such is seen less much often in prize-winning competition clues; here is D Arthur’s VHC entry for comp 1611 (LEISLER, a type of bat): “This bat and pad if together confuse a slip fielder” (LEISLER + PAD IF = A SLIP FIELDER).

16d The heavens, timeless void about one (8)
A charade of a five-letter word for ‘void’ without the usual abbreviation for ‘time’ (‘timeless’), a two-letter bit of commercial jargon for ‘about’ much beloved of crossword setters, and a two-letter word for ‘one’. The solution looks like an adjective but is also a noun.

23d Put fresh front on shift, turned-up iron plugged in (6)
A four-letter word for ‘[to] shift’, in the moving quickly sense, with a reversal (‘turned-up’) of the chemical symbol for iron inserted (‘plugged in’).

25d Change address for number in former province (6)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘number’ is placed inside an obsolete spelling of a familiar word which means ‘province’ (as in a field of study). Incidentally, I note that the term ‘wheelhouse’, used with a similar meaning, appears to have crossed the pond and be gaining a foothold in the UK. Personally, I’m not keen.

31d Settled in a form of worship – any absent? (4)
The letter A (from the clue) plus a six-letter word for a form of responsive prayer in public worship (or a long and boring list) from which the letters ANY have been removed (‘any absent’).

(definitions are underlined)

Azed 2,586 

Due to staff holidays there was a delay in the publication of the notes for this puzzle, but they are now available through the home page.

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 2,585 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

I hope that you all had an enjoyable Christmas Day and that Santa brought you everything that you had asked for.

Our gift from Azed today is a plain puzzle which contains a lot of anagrams (twelve) but climbed a little closer to the middle of the difficulty range courtesy of a couple of tricky wordplays.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 14a, “Succinct drama is replaced by page (5)”. Here we are expected to replace the letters IS in a word meaning ‘drama’, but is Azed adhering to Afrit’s precept “I need not mean what I say, but I must say what I mean”? Personally, I don’t think so. If I wrote about “A collection of paintings one replaced with another”, you would be confident that the entire collection of paintings had been replaced. Only if a comma were present, so the statement read “A collection of paintings, one replaced with another”, would you understand that a single painting had been replaced. If the words were spoken, there would be a pause between ‘paintings’ and ‘one’ should the second meaning be intended. Can we infer that pause? Azed thinks so – “around start of communion say” in 24d is another example – but there is a growing school of thought (to which I subscribe) that says that clues like these don’t say what they mean.

1a Person imbibed decorated cup he had, seated on high table? (9)
A three-letter abbreviation for ‘person’ is contained (‘imbibed’) by an anagram (‘decorated’) of CUP plus a three-letter contraction of ‘he had’. The solution is shown by Chambers as hyphenated (2-7), and as far as I can discern it is what Mr Worthington, my Greek master many years ago, would have described as a hapax legomenon, appearing only in Keats’ description of a nightingale in Book 1 of Endymion. The definition here is therefore a bit of a stretch, but hey, it’s Christmas…

12a Favourite about finished, reverse of ideal change of fortune (9)
A three-letter word for a favourite containing (‘about’) a four-letter word for ‘finished’ (or ‘fully developed’), followed by a reversal (‘reverse’) of a two-character abbreviation meaning ‘first-rate’ (‘ideal’), originally written in the Lloyd’s Register of Shipping against the names of vessels which were in tip-top condition.

14a Succinct drama is replaced by page (5)
A six-letter word for a drama (the Commercial Union used to insist that they wouldn’t make the latter out of the former), with the letters IS replaced by the usual abbreviation for ‘page’.

17a When you see wife avoiding cooked bean, don’t eat it! (7)
The letters WHEN without the standard single-letter abbreviation for ‘wife’ (‘you see wife avoiding’) plus an anagram (‘cooked’) of BEAN, the solution being a plant of the nightshade family which fulfils no culinary role in well-regulated households.

19a Former trust: a relationship is lacking in it (4)
Another deletion clue, this time the letters IN IT are ‘lacking’ from an eight-letter word for a relationship.

32a Having crust that’s dry, one assumes? (5)
The solution, when read as (1,2,2), leads cryptically to the word DRY.

2d Power race, e.g. Fastnet? (5)
The usual abbreviation for ‘power’ is followed by a verb meaning ‘[to] race’. I once included in a LIstener submission a clue  which used ‘Vera?’ to indicate ALOE; this was (quite rightly) rejected on the basis that ‘vera’ is not a type of aloe, any more than ‘tartare’ is a sort of steak, so this was not a definition by example in the way that ‘setter?’ would be for DOG. Likewise, I’m unconvinced that ‘Fastnet’ on its own, even with the help of ‘e.g’ and ‘?’ can indicate Fastnet Lighthouse. I would say that I’d have preferred something like “Power race one’s seen at Fastnet”, but Fastnet isn’t a place either, it’s the name of a rock.

9d Girl pocketing key that’s this and this! (7)
I’m not sure that anyone other than Azed would have dared to produce this clue. A four-letter word for girl (of the sort that might be a-milking when delivered en masse at this time of year) contains a six-letter word for a key (of the Florida sort) with the letters AND  *******, where ******* is the solution (ie “key that’s this and”). The second ‘this’ describes a possible state of the key (of the door unlocking sort) prior to being pocketed, and is the definition (albeit a somewhat loose one).

18d Notice I’ll be brought in to direct with more consistency (8)
A two-letter informal term for a notice and the letter I are contained by (‘brought in to’) a five-letter verb meaning ‘[to] direct’. 

20d What’ll aid streamlining following publication? (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘following’ plus a six-letter word for ‘publication’ produce a term for external fittings attached to a vehicle to reduce aerodynamic drag.

24d It smoulders in thurible, around start of communion say (6)
A five-letter word meaning ‘[to] say’ is placed around the first letter (‘start’) of ‘communion’.

26d Party thrown, dukedom’s ruined immediately (5, 2 words)
An anagram (‘ruined’) of DUKEDOM from which the usual two-letter word for a party has been removed (‘thrown’). The solution is a (2,3) Anglo-Indian expression.

27d What harvester grips and studies lifted round acreage (5)
The standard abbreviation for ‘acreage’ has a four-letter word for ‘studies’ reversed outside (‘lifted round’) it, producing one of many alternative spellings for a term applied to the handle or shaft of a scythe.

28d Like an anvil, more than half banged up (5)
The answer comprises five-ninths (‘more than half’) of a (2,7) phrase that the police would probably use, at least when communicating with the public, in preference to ‘banged up’.

29d Some Finns are found in South America having run away (5)
A Christmas feast of abbreviations to finish off the puzzle. The usual abbreviation for ‘are’ is contained by (‘found in’) abbreviations for ‘South’ and ‘America’, the latter having had the abbreviation for ‘run’ removed (‘away’).

(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 2,584 ‘Christmas Cut & Paste’

Difficulty rating: (4.5 / 10)

A new type of special to deal with this Christmas. At first glance I thought it was going to be quite tough, but Azed has given us a couple of early Christmas gifts across the top and bottom of the puzzle. The wordplay for 1a determines exactly how it must be entered in the grid; although the same does not apply to 36a, working out 1d (or at least the four-letter groups that start and end its entry) will narrow the possibilities down to two and the ‘hidden’ at 27d will confirm how 36 must be entered. The clues are largely straightforward and the proportion of unfamiliar words is relatively low, so just having the entry at 1a in place gets you off to a great start.

A cleverly-constructed puzzle for the final competition of the year. I wish all readers a splendid Christmas and a happy, healthy 2022 with plenty of good solving to entertain them.

Setters’ Corner: When setting a themed puzzle, and in particular when asking solvers to enter a word which must be deduced simply from a number of checked letters, it is vital that there should be no ambiguity. I think the correct entry for 20a here would have been pretty clear anyway, but Azed has sensibly taken the extra step of indicating that it is a verb form, thus ruling out the only conceivable alternative (a noun ending in R). There are few things worse as a solver than getting to the end of a puzzle and not being sure whether you’ve actually completed it correctly, and it is the setter’s job to ensure that this does not happen.

Notes on some of the clues follow, and below them is a checklist of where the breaks in the entries appear.

1a Seasonal postal item: cosmetic colouring mostly damaged shirt (about 600) (13, 2 words)
The wordplay (and hence the entry) can be reverse engineered from the ‘seasonal postal item’: a seven-letter ‘cosmetic colouring’ without its last letter (‘mostly’) and an anagram (‘damaged’) of SHIRT, containing between them (‘about’) the Roman numerals representing 600. Getting this one into the grid fixes the first letters of the first ten down entries, a huge leap forward.

13a Splosh, reverse of fitting, cut short within (7)
A three-letter adjective meaning ‘fitting’ is reversed around a five-letter word for ‘short’ (or ‘succinct’) from which the last letter has been removed (‘cut’).

17a Assault rifle – I rage following pain (8)
The letter I and a four-letter word meaning ‘to rage’ or ‘to move or act with violence’ are preceded by a three-letter word for ‘pain’ or ‘sickness’ taken directly from French. 

31a Pike to disentangle? Special net required (6)
A three-letter dialect word for a pike (of the swimming around eating other fish sort) is followed by a three-letter word, common in barred puzzles, meaning ‘to disentangle’ or ‘to tidy up’.

34a Member of staff, one opposed to inaction having retired (7)
A two-letter word meaning ‘one’ is followed by a reversal (‘having retired’) of the usual single-letter representation of ‘opposed to’ plus a four-letter word for ‘inaction’.

35a I’ll be replaced by soprano in psalm voice in certain parts (6)
A six-letter name given to Psalm 95, on account of its first word when rendered in Latin, has the I replaced by the standard abbreviation for ‘soprano’. The ‘in certain parts’ reflects the fact that the solution is given by Chambers as ‘now dialect’.

36a This time accepting church mass it tried being converted (13)
Azed’s second little gift to solvers, an anagram (‘being converted’) of MASS IT TRIED containing (‘accepting’) a two-letter abbreviation for ‘church’.

1d Wrongly calculate partner’s gambling stake – it’s raised (11)
A four-letter word for a partner is followed by an uncommon word for a gambling stake and a reversal (‘raised’) of ITS.

3d Thinks force must be limited to opportune time locally (5)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘force’ together with a four-letter dialect word meaning ‘opportune time’ or ‘good fortune’ which has several alternative spellings and pops up regularly in Azed crosswords.

5d Sacred plant representation depicted in artistic diploma (5)
A three-letter word for a representation, such as the magical document which showed every detail of Hogwarts school down to the last ghost, inside a two-letter abbreviation for ‘Diploma of Art’ 

7d There’s a dash of alcohol in this tea (4)
The first letter (‘a dash’) of ‘alcohol’ is placed inside a three-letter Latin pronoun meaning ‘this’.

8d Ingredient in veggie cookery, concentrated, without a name (6)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘concentrated’ or ‘extreme in degree’ has one of its Ns removed (‘without a name’). The solution is a food made from gluten, although the normal spelling these days appears to have an A as the fifth letter rather than (as here, and as in Chambers) an E. 

9d As I changed inside that will do as an alternative (5)
An anagram (‘changed’) of AS I inside a two-letter word for ‘that will do’ (as an expression of approval).

22d Our set was working with special retort (6)
A charade of a two-letter term for ‘our set’ (ie you, I and perhaps some others), a three-letter word for ‘was working’, and the standard single-letter abbreviation for ‘special’.

23d Tasty slice of delicatessen consumed in Italian city (4)
The first letter (‘slice’) of ‘delicatessen’ is contained by (‘consumed in’) an Italian city that one might be inclined to visit. Why Azed has chosen ‘slice of’ rather than ‘slice from’ I’m not at all sure.

30d Scots bury beloved, end given priority (4)
A four-letter word for ‘beloved’ has the last letter moved to the beginning (‘end given priority’). The solution is a variant spelling of a Scottish word, but this form is given by Chambers as an alternative only for the noun, with the verb ‘yird’ given neither alternative spellings nor any indication of localization. However, based on the OED entries for the noun and verb forms of ‘earth’, supported by confirmation from a correspondent that his Scots dictionary has the solution here as meaning ‘to bury’, I am inclined to suspect that both the alternative spellings and the Scots attribution should in fact be applied to the headword in Chambers rather than specifically to the noun.

(definitions are underlined)

Breaks in Entries

Across:

In 1a the last 7 letters of the defined solution are followed by the first 6; 12: [4,2]; 13: [4,3]; 14: [4,2]; 15: [2,4]; 16: [3,1]; 17: [6,2]; 19: [1,3]; 24: [1,3]; 26: [7,1]; 29: [2,2]; 31: [2,4]; 33: [4,2]; 34: [3,4]; 35: [3,3]; 36: [10,3]

Down:

1: [4,7]; 2: [3,1]; 3:[1,4]; 4: [5,2]; 5: [3,2]; 6: [2,4]; 7: [3,1]; 8: [4,2]; 9: [4,1]; 10: [4,7]; 11: [2,3]; 18: [6,1]; 21: [5,1]; 22: [3,3]; 23: [3,2]; 25: [2,3]; 27: [3,2]; 28: [1,4]; 30: [2,2]; 32: [3,1]

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 2,583 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

As we prepare ourselves for next Sunday’s Christmas Special, we are faced with a plain puzzle that includes eleven anagrams or partial anagrams. These, together with the absence of any particularly tough clues, seemed to place it somewhere below average difficulty.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 3d, “Bird shedding top (i.e. with no hint of chagrin) in Edinburgh joint” (5). This involves CHOUGH (the bird) losing its first letter (‘shedding top’) to produce a word for a joint that, whilst not exclusively seen north of the border, was a favourite of Sir Walter and is therefore undoubtedly Scott-ish. The point of interest in this clue is the bit in parentheses, ‘i.e. with no hint of chagrin’. The ‘hint’ of chagrin is the first letter of the word, so Azed is telling us that it is the letter C which must be removed from CHOUGH. This is true, but we already know which letter has got to go, so this clarification is unnecessary and would be rejected by most crossword editors, the emphasis these days being placed on conciseness, with extra stuff like this being seen as unnecessarily confusing to the solver.  Either ‘Bird shedding top in Edinburgh joint’ or ‘Bird needing minimum of clothing in Edinburgh joint’ would be fine. The bracketed enhancements to 7a and 31a also fall into the same category and could equally have been omitted without any adverse impact on the clues.

2a X and what follows Y – a swindle (4)
The antepenultimate letter of the Greek alphabet, the capital form of which is X, plus the letter of the Roman alphabet which follows Y. The solution will be familiar to readers of the Jennings books written by Anthony Buckeridge, or at least to readers of the versions which have not been ‘brought up to date’ by replacing Buckeridge’s largely invented (and therefore timeless) slang with modern (and therefore rapidly obsolete) equivalents.

It was now four days since Mrs. Cherry had left, and for the fourth day in succession the menu for tea had consisted of corned beef and half-baked potatoes.

“Oh, no! Not again!” groaned Atkinson as the boys went into the dining hall for the evening meal.

“Mouldy chizz, mouldy potatoes,” moaned Bromwich. “If this goes on much longer I shall soon start looking like a baked potato.”

“Nothing new about that. You’ve reminded me of one for years,” said Temple. He picked up the jacketed potato from his plate, squeezed it and shook his head sadly. “Bullet-proof!” was his verdict.

Incidentally, I do permit myself a smile when I see discussion of the correct pronunciation of the Greek letters used to distinguish the variant forms of COVID-19. Since very few recordings survive of ancient Greeks reciting their alphabet, frankly your guess is as good as mine. I went through several years at school in the comfortable certainty that the Romans pronounced the O in ‘amo’ like the O in ‘go’ and the GN in ‘magnus’ like the GN in ‘signal’, only for a new Latin master to arrive fresh from Cambridge pronouncing the O in ‘amo’ like the ‘ore’ in ‘sore’ and the GN in ‘magnus’ like the ‘ny’ in ‘canyon’. A very good reason to go to Oxford, IMHO.

7a Old copper collection (of pans say) – it’s well worth having (5)
A two-letter word for an ‘old copper [coin]’ and a three-letter word for a collection (which could be of pans, but could also consist of many other things such as spoons or spanners) combine to produce something that by definition is worth having.

12a Keeper dismissing No. 3 for a duck – Aussie’s hard projectile (6)
The ‘keeper’ here would be found not behind the stumps but on, say, a football pitch; their third letter is discarded (‘dismissing No. 3’) in favour of (‘for’) the character representing a duck in the cricketing sense.

13a Cicero? He comes to prominence after Caesar’s end (6)
Following the last letter of ‘Caesar’ (“after Caesar’s end”) we have HE (from the clue) and a three-letter word for a prominence. The term that results could certainly be applied to Cicero.

15a French artist recalled (no date), one of seven historically (4)
The five-letter surname of a French artist famed for his paintings of ballerinas is reversed (‘recalled’) and has the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘date’ removed (‘no date’) to produce an epithet that could be applied to any one of Solon of Athens, Thales of Miletus, Pittacus of Mitylene, Bias of Priene in Caria, Chilon of Sparta, Cleobulus tyrant of Lindus in Rhodes, and Periander tyrant of Corinth – take your pick!

27a Show passion getting in variety of seed potato (7)
A three-letter word for passion (in the sense of anger) contained by (‘getting in’) an anagram (‘variety’) of SEED produces the name of a potato originally developed in the Netherland in 1962. With red skin and waxy, pale yellow flesh, they are good for mashing, roasting and baking. Though not all at once.

30a Health food with alcoholic additive died away (4)
An eight-letter word meaning ‘with [an] alcoholic additive’ (a specific one) has the letters DIED removed (‘died away’).

31a Record once achieved by two girls (nothing between them) (8)
Two four-letter female forenames (try saying that after a few alcoholic additives), the second a diminutive form of ‘Elizabeth’, combine to produce the solution, the obsoleteness of which is indicated by ‘once’. The ‘nothing between them’ simply indicates that one name directly follows the other, but although it perhaps enhances the surface reading I think it should have been left out.

4d Italy’s pre-eminent spot for pasta (4)
The ‘pre-eminent’ here is used to indicate that the IVR code for Italy has a three-letter word for [a] spot above it – above, superior, pre-eminent…well, yes, I see where Azed is coming from but it seems a bit of a stretch.

5d Shield protecting centre of pectorals in S. European sport (6)
A five-letter word for a light shield carried by Greek peltasts is placed around (‘protecting’) the middle letter (‘centre’) of ‘pectorals’, the result being a sport of Basque origin.

8d What’s specially threaded puts sailors on course? (8)
The wordplay here leads to a (4,4) phrase, the first word of which can mean (among many other things) ‘puts on a course’ and the second describes a ship’s company. As correspondent Tim points out below, there is nothing special about the thread of the item in question, rather it is marked out from its brethren by its head. I’m afraid that Azed’s definition gets no support from Chambers or OED either, so it’s a nailed-on error that could have done with fixing…

10d Base of heraldic border moved to top for old peer (4)
A four-letter heraldic term for a border close to the edge of a shield has its last letter (‘base’) moved to the top, producing an obsolete form of a familiar word for a British nobleman.

19d Eastern mine without alteration leads to catastrophe (8)
A charade of the usual abbreviation for ‘Eastern’, a three-letter word for a mine (in particular a coalmine), and a (2,2) expression meaning ‘without alteration’.

24d Very small score with No. 2 changing direction completely? (6)
The compass direction represented by the second letter (‘No. 2’ ) of a word for [a] score is replaced by the corresponding abbreviation for the opposite direction (‘changing direction completely’).

26d Abrupt snob cutting in (5)
Understanding the wordplay here requires the solver to know that ‘snob’ is an old informal term for a cobbler, a seven-letter word for which (being also the name of their patron saint) is deprived of the letters IN (‘cutting in’). The ‘shoemaker’ meaning of ‘snob’ seemingly predates its other senses; it appears that its usage was extended to include tradespeople generally and developed thence to describe someone from the ordinary classes before it came to describe a person who “meanly or vulgarly admires and seeks to imitate, or associate with, those of superior rank or wealth.”

28d Waterway fully feeding West Bank city? (4)
‘Fully feeding West Bank city’ is Azed’s way of saying that the solution forms the name of a West Bank city apart from the first and last letters. I would have preferred something along the lines of ‘West Bank city cutting skirts waterway’.

(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 2,582 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

The generous dollops of deviousness to be found in this puzzle raised it, I thought, to the middle of the difficulty spectrum despite there being no individual clues that stood out as being particularly tough. There were a couple of neat &lits (29a and 5d), together with one somewhat less appealing example of the genre at 29d.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 25d, “Holes excavated for where the dead will rest (5)”. A simple anagram of HOLES, but the point of interest here is the anagram indicator, ‘excavated’. What constitutes a valid anagram indicator – and what does not – is a subjective matter, but this one seems to me to be a real stretch; the only definition given by Chambers or OED which suggests disturbance to the thing excavated is ‘to get out by digging’, as of something being mined. I don’t think this is sufficient justification – I wouldn’t use ‘dug out’ or ‘mined’ to indicate an anagram, and I don’t see that ‘excavated’ has any greater claims to validity. Incidentally, I don’t have a problem with ‘cleverly’ at 14a – custom and practice dictates that an adverb on its own can act as an anagram indicator (with something like ‘arranged’ to be assumed by the solver), so the ‘dexterously’ meaning is enough.

13a Unified creatures close to being included among hybrids (5)
A two-letter word meaning (inter alia) ‘close to’ is contained by (‘included in’) one of the several alternative spellings for those crossword regulars, “a kind of hybrid domestic cattle found in parts of the Himalayas, said to be a cross between the male yak and the common horned cow.”

15a Bit of burley in tobacco box, sort of hickory (8)
The first letter (‘bit’) of ‘burley’ inside a four-letter word for a type of tobacco (in fine tangled shreds, hence the name) and a three-letter word for the sort of box that Indiana Jones was looking for.

16a Tractor cutting pillar diagonally (5)
An eleven-letter tradename for a type of tractor or earthmover designed to operate in soft ground has the letters PILLAR removed (‘cutting pillar’) to produce a (dialect, though not indicated as being so in the clue) word meaning ‘diagonally’.

19a Catch walrus? It makes one very sad (9)
As soon as I saw ‘walrus’, I thought MORSE, and with the definition seeming to suggest something along the lines of ‘remorse’, I had the last five letters mentally pencilled in. I was wrong, of course – the walrus here is not the ostreophagous sort, rather an ostentatious display of facial hair such as that affected by Friedrich Nietzsche, Theodore Roosevelt…and walruses.

27a Each with mutton getting to leave nothing on plate (5, 2 words)
The two-letter abbreviation of ‘each’ is followed by a three-letter word for a ram – since Chambers gives ‘mutton’ as a ‘jocular’ term for a sheep, this seems acceptable.

34a Blue dye that’s appropriate, as it’s said, for such bags (4)
Azed uses homophones sparingly, although not quite as sparingly as I. Here the soundalike (“as it’s said”) is for ‘saxe’ (‘blue dye’), with the clue referring to the sort of bag in which a squid might secrete its ink. The mention of cephalopod ink always takes me back to Mr ‘Billy’ Buttle’s Latin classes: if a pupil’s fountain pen stopped working, an initial plaintive exclamation of “Sir, my pen’s run out” would inevitably be met with “Well, run after it then”, while “Can I fill my pen, sir?” would receive the counter “I don’t know, but you may try.” A student who managed to navigate around these traps would be invited to fill up from Mr Buttle’s bottle of ‘soot and cuttlefish blood’ in return for a small contribution to charity.

1d I’ll leave ladies, maybe leading a Neapolitan folk dance (8)
A clue with Azed written all over it: a four-letter slang word for a lavatory (‘ladies, maybe’) from which the I has been removed (“I’ll leave”), followed by the letter A and a four-letter word that could be applied to the sort of Neapolitan that I used to ask Santa for (in the plural) at Christmas. I was devastated when Terry’s Neapolitans were discontinued at the time of the closure of their York factory in 2005, although the recent discovery of Storck Merci mini chocolate bars has gone some way towards repairing the damage.

3d Chestnut’s second in race by missing hedge (6)
A charade of the second letter of ‘chestnut’ (“chestnut’s second”), the letters IN (from the clue), and the five-letter name commonly applied to England’s foremost flat race, from which the letters BY have been removed (‘by missing’).

5d What’s guy whacked hard with end of baton? (7)
This &lit (all-in-one) clue involves a two-letter word for a ‘guy’, an anagram (‘whacked’) of HARD, and the last letter (‘end’) of ‘baton’, the result being a percussion instrument played either with the bare hand or with a turned piece of wood.

6d Prop over-stretching in twice getting dropped (5)
A nine-letter word describing the sort of  overstretching that muscles or ligaments might be subjected to (the p-word not the t-word) has two instances of the letters IN removed (‘in twice getting dropped’); the prop is the sort that might be found in a mine. It appears that “spraining one’s ankle” was at one time a euphemism for being seduced and becoming pregnant, which must have been a boon for 18th century sitcom writers.

12d One just before stroke given a bone (4)
The ‘one just before stroke’ is a cunning way of describing a particular occupant of a rowing boat, one who is here ‘given’ (followed by) the letter A to produce the name of a bone found in the human body.

17d Canons, Catholic, preceding liturgy with soaring tune (8)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘Catholic’, a four-letter word describing a liturgy, and a three-letter word for a tune which has been reversed (‘soaring’) combine to produce a word for ‘canons’ in the sense of ‘standards’.

20d Almost everything filling floor or window display (7)
A three-letter word for ‘everything’ with the last letter missing (‘almost’) is placed inside (‘filling’) a five-letter word for a storey of a building taken directly from the French.

21d Endless outrage coming up about ‘dry’ functions (7)
A five-letter word for ‘outrage’ (sometimes associated with ‘awe’ in order to describe a military strategy) has its last letter removed (‘endless’) and is reversed (‘coming up’) around a word for ‘dry’ usually applied to wines. The ‘functions’ (or an abbreviation thereof) that result are the sort that were to be found in my copy of Frank Castle’s Logarithmic and Other Tables for Schools, not in the well-thumbed early pages of the book, rather in the rarely-visited sections towards the end (I don’t remember ever looking up a hyperbolic cosecant, but perhaps I’ve just put the occasion from my mind).

22d Dam in Germany gives this menacing rumble (6)
Yep, Azed had me going here – I hope I wasn’t the only one! Since my European geography isn’t up to much, I was confidently expecting that the solution was the name of an embankment somewhere in the Ruhr Valley. But it’s not that kind of dam at all…

23d Commander writing about moving up artillery cannons (6)
A two-letter abbreviation for Commanding Officer (‘Commander’) and a two-letter abbreviation frequently found in Azed puzzles for ‘writing’ (specifically done by hand) are placed around (‘about’) another two-letter abbreviation, this time for the (Royal) Artillery, which has been reversed (‘moving up’). The ‘cannons’ are of the type played in cue sports – I was introduced to the term a number of years ago by the excellent Jim Wych in his commentaries on 9-ball pool.

26d Coke imbibed in alcoholic tipple yielding kick? (5)
The single-letter abbreviation for cocaine (‘coke’) is contained by (‘imbibed in’) a four-letter word for an alcoholic tipple that comes in two principal colourways, producing an obsolete term (indicated only by the question mark) for a kick.

29d Choice hunks of pork? One bit of each thereof (4)
The first letters (‘one bit of each’) of the first four words of the clue, with the ‘one bit of each thereof’ in the surface reading intended to show that the solution is a single ‘choice hunk of pork’, but it didn’t work for me.

(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 2,581 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

This was a puzzle which I felt would have been an ideal introduction for a solver new to Azed. Nothing too difficult, but a number of clever and entertaining clues.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 20d, “US decorative headgear, odd ones seen among the intimates (6)”. The wordplay is straightforward, the alternate letters of ‘the intimates’ giving us TENIAE. Referring to Chambers, we see that TENIA is given as a US spelling of TAENIA, the plural of which is TAENIAE or TAENIAS; several meanings are given for the word. This raises two questions of the sort which quite often arise individually though not so often together: (i) can the variant spelling apply to all senses of the word?, and (ii) can either plural form apply to any sense of the word. Assuming that the primary reference for the puzzle is Chambers (or is unstated), then the answer to both is an unequivocal ‘yes’. If the variant spellings and alternative plural forms are shown against the headword (as here), then from a crossword setting and solving perspective all combinations are valid. The situation is quite different if Chambers ascribes the variant to a specific meaning (eg POTT as an alternative to POT for a size of paper).

11a Scottish education, extensive but not good (4)
A five-letter word meaning ‘extensive’ without the usual abbreviation for ‘good’ (‘but not good’) produces a Scots form of a word for ‘learning’ (and, at a stretch, ‘education’).

12a Old dandy displaying refinement left one out (4)
A six-letter word for ‘refinement’ has the standard abbreviation for ‘left’ and the Roman numeral for ‘one’ omitted (‘left one out’), the result being an obsolete term for a dandy or swell. Both Chambers and OED list it under the same headword as a slang term for a halfpenny’, but OED adds ‘perhaps a different word’. It certainly predates the familiar adjective which has the same spelling.

13a King with charioteer almost starts to upgrade machine in resin (8, 2 words)
The abbreviation for ‘king’ familiar to Magnus Carlsen is followed by the six-letter Latin name of a constellation (known also by its English form ‘the Charioteer’) missing its last letter (‘almost’), with the initial letters of (‘starts to’) ‘upgrade machine’ bringing up the rear. The solution is divided (5,3).

28a Guru, one from W. India, accepting some outdated currency (6)
A four-letter word for a person from a former Portuguese territory on the west coast of India containing (‘accepting’) the abbreviation for a former unit of currency replaced by the euro produces a (3-3) word for someone who could potentially err and forgive at the same time. As indicated in the puzzle, the term is not in Chambers, and whilst I think ‘guru’ is slightly loose it’s not an easy word to define succinctly.

30a Forces in Turin trounced by some French (8)
The compound verb which forms the definition is nicely disguised here. The wordplay involves an anagram (‘trounced’) of TURIN being followed by a French word meaning ‘some’.

32a Partly alcoholic drink with dash of enzian in vat (4)
A three-letter word for a particular partly-alcoholic drink includes the first letter of ‘enzian’ (‘with dash of enzian in’), but you’d be wise to solve 19d before entering the solution to this one, because the central letters could be in either order. As it happens, ‘I before E except after C’ isn’t going to help.

34a Learner with gee-gee (steed) trained round course maybe in the saddle for bairn? (4)
An anagram of L (‘learner’) GG (‘gee-gee’) STEED is placed around a four-letter word which could be indicated by ‘course’ (or a road for travelling on horseback); the ‘bairn’ is there to indicate the Scottishness of the solution.

2d Crikey, having to shake off limey coming up – it’s boring for Scot (4)
A nine-letter (Cockney) interjection of surprise (‘Crikey’) has the letters LIMEY removed (‘having to shake off limey’) before being reversed (‘coming up’) to produce a noun representing something that a Scot might use to do a bit of boring. I did wonder whether the wordplay as written in fact indicates the correct steps, but I think it’s valid.

4d Oriental liquor – what’s that? Water’s coming up with it (6)
A charade of a four-letter word for an oriental liquor and a two-letter interjection which could be interpreted as “what’s that?”, the result being an eastern water wheel.

5d Evening primrose in a cemetery maybe? Last two clipped (6)
A three-word (2,1,5) phrase describing where something (perhaps those evening primroses) might be in a cemetery has the last two letters removed (‘last two clipped’).

8d Dividing wall right in the middle over river (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘right’ goes inside an informal term for ‘the middle’ (ie the extent of Doctor Foster’s immersion on his final visit to Gloucester) followed by a three-letter word for a river or watercourse, often seen in barred puzzles in its standard spelling without the last letter, this variant usually being reserved for a drainage canal in fen country.

18d How to prepare fish reared about peak, prancing about (8)
A two-word (3,2) phrase which might form a (rather curt) instruction to the kitchen maid apropos a fish being readied for the kettle is reversed (‘reared’) around (‘about’) a three-letter word for a peak (or a sharp-pointed piece of wire).

19d Bottom fisher was mostly on the up in shifting trend (7)
WAS without its last letter (‘mostly’) is reversed (‘on the up’) inside an anagram (‘shifting’) of TREND to produce a hyphenated (4-3) term for something used to fish the bottom of a body of water. A more familiar word for the same item, differing only in its central letter, was the title of a 1950s American cop show memorably parodied by Stan Freberg in St George and the Dragonet, a great favourite of mine from my parents’ record collection.

23d Dinner for academicians out on a limb? (6)
The question mark at the end of this clue should be seen as applying both to the wordplay, a (2,4) representation of ‘dinner for [Royal] academicians?’, and to the definition.

27d What thibles do for porridge? (4)
A double definition clue with &lit overtones, ‘porridge’ in the second definition being used in the Norman Stanley Fletcher sense. I am more familiar with spurtles (very useful when making marmalade) than thibles, but it seems that the two implements are much of a muchness.

29d In Cannes this goes up and down – voilà! (4)
A two-letter French word for ‘this’ appears both reversed (‘goes up’) and in normal form (‘[goes] down’), producing a Latin interjection equivalent to the French word at the end of the clue.

(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 2,580 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1 / 5)

A 13×11 grid, and a puzzle that contained plenty of entertaining clues but certainly didn’t have the needle on the difficulty meter ‘bouncing in the red’. In truth, only a couple of the clues saw it flutter from its starting position.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 35a, “Minimum from relative in what you inherit, making you sneer? (5)”. The clue is parsed below, but the element of the wordplay which I want to look at is the ‘minimum from relative’, indicating the letter R. It is not uncommon in puzzles to see indicators such as ‘[a] piece of’, ‘a little’ or ‘[a] bit of’ being used to instruct solvers to take the first letter of the word that follows. Although in the past I have included such indicators in my own puzzles, I have never felt entirely comfortable with them, and I have found in recent times that they are quite likely to be rejected by crossword editors. The point is this: why should ‘a bit of trouble’ indicated T any more than R, O, U, B, L or E? I have to agree when it comes to ‘piece’ or ‘bit’; I feel that ‘hint’ or ‘suggestion’ are better, as they perhaps imply a first taste. ‘Minimum of’ strikes me as preferable to ‘piece’ or ‘bit’, but not by much.

13a Lake? Dip a rod in its fringes (6)
The letter A and a three-letter word for ‘rod’ (in the sense used by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band in Big Shot: ‘I shuddered. Normally I pack a rod; in pyjamas, I carry nothing but scars from Normandy beach.’) are contained by the first and last letters of ‘lake’ (‘its fringes’).

15a TV recorder in truth requiring outlay of capital? (4)
An eight-letter word for ‘truth’ has a four-letter word for the sort of place that might be the capital of a country removed to produce an acronym which was applied to Britain’s first video recorder.  It was invented by the BBC and unveiled by Richard Dimbleby during a live edition of Panorama on 14 April 1958. After he had described the purpose of the technology, its effectiveness was demonstrated with a playback of the first few minutes of the programme, seemingly rewinding time (gasp!). It had taken six years to develop, and the recordings were made on half-inch tape running as fast as 200 inches per second. Sadly, its moment of triumph was just that, as the delivery later that year of a machine from American manufacturer Ampex – which was demonstrably superior – consigned it to history.

17a Olympian? First-class, followed by another such? (6)
A single-letter representing ‘first-class’ and a four-letter word for ‘followed by’, after which the first-class letter arrives again (‘another such’). The Olympian is not so much an athlete, more a member of the resident pantheon.

21a Sort of insect, female going for husband like a rotter! (9)
I can’t remember seeing this word in a puzzle before, and how neatly Azed has clued it here: a (6,3) insect has its F replaced by an H (‘female going for husband’), summoning up images best reserved for post-watershed nature programmes.

26a One from among notables worsted – such as Brutus? (7)
A single letter representing ‘one’ is removed from (‘one from among’) NOTABLES prior to its letters being rearranged (‘worsted’). The reference is to Mark Antony’s description of Brutus, whom he considered to have acted for the greater good when plotting to assassinate Caesar, whilst the other conspirators were in his opinion motivated by self-interest. Candidates should compare and contrast:

              Caesar adsum iam forte
              ‘Passus sum’ sed Antony

               and

              Caesar adsum iam forte
              Brutus aderat
              Caesar sic on omnibus
              Brutus sic inat

34a I cut cooked meat in e.g. service (8)
A type of meat with the letter I removed (‘I cut’) is placed inside the letters EG. The meat was originally that of any animal killed in the chase or by hunting and used as food, but now invariably relates to the flesh of one specific type of animal; whether the ‘cooked’ is necessary I’m not sure, but I see why Azed has included it, and it can’t be wrong.

35a Minimum from relative in what you inherit, making you sneer? (5)
The first letter of ‘relative’ (‘minimum of relative’) is contained by a four-letter word for a sequence of nucleotides constituting hereditary material (‘what you inherit’), producing a Spenserian term which can be defined by ‘grin’, itself an obsolete meaning of the verb ‘sneer’.

36a Pistol could have done for this yesterday, a dog running wild (13, 3 words)
An anagram (‘running wild’) of YESTERDAY A DOG. The pistol really could only have replaced the last element of the (5,6,2) solution without confusing (or scaring) the hell out of the competitors. Christmas must be getting close, because my thoughts have started to turn to cracker mottos, and those old chestnuts ‘How do you start a pudding race?’ and ‘How do you start a teddy bear race?’…

6d Versatile cooking ingredient, what lumberjack suggests to audience (4)
The homophone (‘what…suggests to audience’) here is of ‘sawyer’ (‘lumberjack’). The OED suggests that the two words are pronounced somewhat differently, but I’m not going to quibble about it.

7d First in perspicacity? Nonsense! (5)
The first letter of ‘perspicacity’ is followed by a word for ‘nonsense!’ (which I’m rather fond of as an alternative to ‘curses!’), the whole clue standing as a (slightly weak, it has to be said) definition of the solution.

14d ARA dismissed by old king? That’s disgusting (4)
A seven-letter word for a king in ancient Egypt has the letters ARA removed to produce an “exclamation expressing contemptuous rejection or making light of anything.”

16d Obnoxious fellow protecting a scheme for red-light district (8)
A three-letter ‘obnoxious fellow’ is placed around (‘protecting’) A plus a four-letter word for a scheme’ I don’t remember previously coming across the solution used in this sense, the OED and I being familiar with it only in relation to the world of EastEnders, Corrie and the like. I was confident that the Chambers Slang Dictionary would enlighten me, and I was not disappointed; apparently from the late 1800s into the 1900s ‘soap’ or ‘bit or soap’ was used to refer to women of loose morals or poules de luxe.

27d British composer failing to finish piece no longer current (5)
The wordplay here involves the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘British’ being followed by the five-letter surname of a classical composer (who also happens to be British) missing its last letter (‘failing to finish’). The solution is a currency unit introduced by Belgium in 1926, equivalent to 5 Belgian francs and tied to sterling at a rate of 35 belgas to one pound. I don’t believe that there were any belga ‘pieces’ as such issued, but some coins and notes did carry both denominations, including five franc coins which bore the legend ‘een belga’. Since they had continued to count their cash in Belgian francs, the masses scarcely noticed when the belga was officially retired on 8th January 1946.

31d Deploying weather eye could make one this (tee-hee!) (4)
A composite anagram &lit to finish with, and a perfect example for anyone new to the genre. The wordplay tells us that rearranging the letters of (‘deploying’) WEATHER EYE could produce (‘make one’) the solution (‘this‘) together with TEEHEE; the whole clue stands as the indication of the answer, suggesting that a person keeping a weather eye open could be considered this. The ‘tee-hee’ is superfluous in the latter interpretation, but doesn’t affect the validity of the clue.

(definitions are underlined)