Azed 1920 – tough one
Posted by Andrew on March 22nd, 2009
An Azed of above-average difficulty this time, with I think what must be a higher-than-usual proportion of rare and obscure words, though in many cases the woprdplay was helpful in leading to the answer. I hope anyone who was encouraged to try Azed by Peter’s excellent “how-to” blog last week isn’t too discouraged by this one.
Key:
dd = double definition
* = anagram
< = reverse
| Across | |
| 1. SUBGLOBOSE | (BULB GOES SO)*. Not a word I’ve come across, but fairly easy to work out from the anagram, and it’s always nice to get 1 across in place. |
| 11. KOEL | K + LEO< – Leo=Lion=Ling of beasts. The Koel is a cuckoo found in Asia and Australasia. |
| 12. BRUILZIE | (RULE I BIZ)*. Scots form of “broil”, meaning a disturbance. From French, and not related to “brawl”, as I suspected it might have been. |
| 14. YEZIDEE | Y (unknown) + EZ(ekiel) + IDEE (French “idea”). A member of an Armenian sect that believes the devil has been reinstated as chief angel. |
| 15. VENN | Hidden in uneVENNess. John Venn, famous for the diagrams of intersecting circles that bear his name. |
| 17. SEWER RAT | ERR in WASTE* |
| 18. SOLTI | T in SOLI. An aria is usually a solo. Sir Georg Solti, Hungarian-born conductor. |
| 19. ICTIC | T in I CIC (Commander-In-Chief). I thought this word was familiar when I saw it, and indeed it appeared in Azed 1917, where it was hidden in “neuralgic ticker”. See 5dn for a similar coincidence. |
| 21. PLECTOGNATHIC | (ELPING TO CATCH)*. Like 1ac, this was an unfamiliar word, but quite easy to work out from the anagram when I had a few crossing letters. The unusual combinations of consonants are a help. |
| 24. LABEL | L ABEL. Abel, second son of Adam and Eve, is killed by his older brother Cain in Genesis 4:8. |
| 27. PLUTO | P L OUT*. The “manes” here are “the spirits of the dead”, and Pluto is the ruler of the underworld. |
| 28. RISALDAR | R + RADIALS* Leader of a troop of Indian Cavalry. |
| 31. IWIS | (k)IWIS |
| 32. SEPIOST | I + OS in PET’S*. A cuttle-bone (cf “sepia”), as often hung in budgies’ cages. |
| 33. NODULOSE | LOUD* in NOSE |
| 34. SUPE | Not sure about this one – a SUPE is a “supernumerary actor”, so an “extra, promoted”; and “above”= SUP + E (“central part in scEne”). Or maybe SUP is “promoted”. In either case, it seems a bit weak as the SUP part comes from the same root in both parts of the clue, so maybe I’ve missed something. |
| 35. COMPRESSOR | COM (Commander) + PRESS (iron) + OR, and it’s a type of muscle. |
| Down | |
| 1. SKY-ASPIRING | SKY + ASPIRIN + G. The word occurs in Richard II, I:iii – “And for we think the eagle-winged pride/Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts,/With rival-hating envy, set on you/To wake our peace, which in our country’s cradle/Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep;” |
| 2. BEZZLE | Homophone of BEZEL, which, I learn, is an indicator light on a dashboard. To BEZZLE is “to drink hard”, which is to “hit the bumpers, often”, a bumper being a drinking vessel. |
| 3. GLIB | dd – the obscurer definition being a Shakespearean word for “castrate”. |
| 4. LUDDITE | DID* in LUTE (a waterproof seal). The Luddites sometimes destroyed mechanical looms etc. |
| 5. OBESE | t(O BE SE)en. “Shedding X” = “with TEN removed from the outside” |
| 6. OUTWIN | OU (Oxford University=dark blue) + TWIN (suit, vb). Spenserian for “get out of”. |
| 7. SIKE | Hidden in (trEK I Staggered)< This word came up as part of the wordplay in the Azed 1919 – see the blog for some discussion of it. |
| 8. AZERI | REZA< I. The former Shah or Iran was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi |
| 9. MINACITY | “M(illions) IN A CITY” |
| 10. PENTECONTER | PEN (write) + TEC (detective = “busy”) + (NET OR)*. A ancient Greek ship with 50 oars. |
| 13. REEDGRASS | (SEDGES RAR(e))* |
| 16. POLLIWOG | WILL in GOOP, all reversed |
| 20. CAP-A-PIE | PAPA< in CIE (French abbreviation of “Compagnie”) |
| 22. OLD TOM | DOLT* + MO<. Chambers says Old Tom is a sweetened gin, and describes it as “archaic”, but apparently you can still get it. |
| 23. HUMOUS | OU(t) (“almost in bloom”) in MUSH*. The definition is “composted”, giving an excellent, almost &lit, surface reading. |
| 25. ASIDE | A + DIES* |
| 26. FREER | I got this from the definition (“less constrained”) and crossing letters, but it took me ages to see the wordplay. It’s REFER (=”direct”) with “centre as header”, i.e. move the middle letter to the front. |
| 29. LILO | As well as the well-known inflatable bed, it’s an abbreviation of “Last In, Last Out”, which might be used as a method of choosing people for redundancy (though it’s probably more likely to be LIFO..) |
| 30. DISS | Three definitions: Abbreviation of DISSERTATION, a ready grass (as in 13dn) and slang for “disrespect”. |
March 22nd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
34 Ac: the defn is just ‘Extra’, and the wordplay is UP (= promoted) replacing the CEN of SCENE. Perhaps ‘central parts’ would have made the construction clearer.
March 22nd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Thanks Richard, that makes it a very nice clue after all. “Central part” is fine with me, and gives a better surface reading.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:49 am
Thanks for the explanation of 26d
A minor point, but I believe that EZ in 14ac is Ezra.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Paul, thanks, you’re right – Chambers gives Ez=Ezra, Ezek=Ezekiel.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I should have been careful enough to record the time for this one as a comparison to 1919, but didn’t. Maybe 90 minutes, with Chambers used from pretty early on.
1921 is easier than it might look.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Thanks Peter, I’m glad it wasn’t just me that found it hard. I haven’t started 1921 yet (it was late appearing on the website) – in the past I’ve found the Eightsome Reels type to be relatively easy once you’ve managed to get a few answers in, though sometimes it’s hard to get started.