Azed 1891 – Plain
Posted by John on August 30th, 2008
In Azed’s crosswords there is always an enormous amount of Chambers-checking meanings of words. If this blog were to contain all the unusual definitions it would be three times as long. I’ll assume that if you’re bothered enough to do the crossword and read this blog, then you’ll have Chambers to hand, so will confine myself to Azed’s wordplay.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PEMBROKE TABLE — broke in (Temple Ba(r))* |
| 10 | A LOO |
| 11 | DuBLI NInn |
| 12 | MEET — “meat” I think: the sweet spot of a cricket bat (say) is its meat |
| 14 | JET-SKI — J (kites)* |
| 16 | D RO NG 0 |
| 18 | SONDAGE — G in (no (i)deas)* |
| 19 | CAN TIN A |
| 21 | KEGELS — g in (sleek)rev. — wasn’t sure about this until I found in Chambers that a meaning of to sleek is to calm |
| 23 | U(N(iobe))RENT — can anyone explain why Azed sometimes puts certain words in italics? It seems to me that the clue would read perfectly well without them |
| 27 | D(IONA)EA — Dea is a goddess, although hard to find (not in Bradford’s or Chambers Crossword Dictionary) — what would we do without Google? |
| 29 | B(LOW)OUT |
| 31 | B(IN)END |
| 32 | CYTISI — (is city)* |
| 33 | E TEN — ten is the card below a jack |
| 34 | 1 GLOO(m(ullion)) |
| 35 | EBON — bone with the e at the front |
| 36 | PEDICELLARIAE — P.E. (I cellar) in (idea)* |
| Down | |
| 1 | PA(JO(in))CK |
| 2 | MOTEN — (not me)* I think, although I can’t quite explain ‘must’ |
| 3 | BOSHTER — bosh (ret)rev. — not quite sure why Rafter has been invoked, when Hewitt would be a bit more up-to-date; it’s not as if ‘Rafter’ misleads, since he isn’t at the start of the sentence |
| 4 | OL(I)D |
| 5 | KISS-AND-TELL — (Dante’s skill)* |
| 6 | (h)END-ON |
| 7 | TIR-NA-NOG — (ignorant)*; some might take offence at this apparent racial slur, but it’s only a crossword clue |
| 8 | BENAME — (man)rev. in bee |
| 9 | L(EG GIN)ESS |
| 13 | TO(E)Y |
| 15 | ELAEOLITE — (Olea)* in elite |
| 17 | MIL(d) TONIC |
| 20 | ORNATER — (re art no)* |
| 22 | G(R)ONE D |
| 24 | TAMINE — estaminet with est removed from the outside — made easier by the fact that Azed used the word ‘estaminet’ in a clue-setting competition in October 2006 |
| 25 | AB(B)E — I think the poet is Kobo Abe, but I read Chambers as saying that an abbe is not necessarily ecclesiastical, so … |
| 26 | BUDGE(t) |
| 28 | AL(I)BI |
| 30 | A COL(on) — ref. Acol, the bridge bidding convention |
August 31st, 2008 at 7:59 am
2d “I think, although I can’t quite explain ‘must’”
‘moten’ is the plural of ‘mote’ and ‘mote’ = ‘must’ so the full definition is ‘archaic plural must’
August 31st, 2008 at 2:31 pm
25d I thought A. E. Housman.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:47 pm
25d: AE was the pen name of the Irish poet George William Russell