Azed 1993
Posted by ilancaron on August 15th, 2010
The standard, routine, par for the course, vanilla wordplays waiting for reader enlightenment.
Across
| 1 | BARON,G – it’s broad-bladed knife |
| 6 | M,AVENS – indeed AVENS is a rosaceous plant |
| 12 | ETOURD*,ERIE – stupid blundering |
| 13 | TANKINI – (in a knit)*- not to be confused with a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burqini |
| 14 | TRAM – two meanings |
| 15 | REDTOP – hidden in “bladdered tops” but not sure I understand the definition… “Not one of the qualities to be found among bladdered topers” unless it’s an &lit somehow? |
| 16 | RAM*,JET |
| 18 | XO(AN)A – AN=one in rev(a,ox). “primitive statues… overlaid with… gold” |
| 20 | TO,PARCH,S – district ruler |
| 22 | STRAINER – TRAIN=sequence in SER[ies] – a riddle is a kind of STRAINER |
| 25 | SPU(R)N – archaic kick |
| 27 | NOSH-UP – (push on)* — I guess the definition is “blow-out” and the anagrind “new course”. |
| 29 | RIMOSE – fissured — and (is more)* but not sure where IS comes from? IS=elevation somehow? |
| 31 | MILO – ([pal]m oil)*. Yes it’s sorghum. |
| 32 | CHOBDAR – Indian usher. But wordplay? “Usher bound to be seen in ambit of a torch, heading off unsteadily?” |
| 33 | OUT(ER) HOUSE – as opposed to the Inner House (in Scotland I guess). ER=HM (for now). |
| 34 | TE(TT)ER – TT=abstainer in TEER=plaster and TETTER is a nasty rash. |
| 35 | P(RUDE)S – &lit |
Down
| 1 | BUTT,RESS-ROOT* | |
| 2 | A,MA(RAN)T – “fabled never-fading flower” | |
| 3 | RENAME – hidden. I red-herringed with AG,NAME for a long time. | |
| 4 | NOISE – is a “sound” but wordplay? “Blunder with this makes bet sound?” | |
| 5 | GU(N)STO,NE – NE is obsolete “not” thus “not old”. And it’s a stone shot thus ‘natural’ I guess. | |
| 7 | ADN*,EXA – rev(axe=cut). “the organs that are attached to a particular organ” | |
| 8 | V,ENDORS[e] - | |
| 9 | ERST – hidden in “undERSTanding” | |
| 10 | NI,TON – former name for radon. rev(not in=out) | |
| 11 | SE,A, PASSPORTS – couldn’t find this in my Chambers (2003) but the definition makes sense to me. Disport is a frolice but what’s our dance? “What neutral merchantman had in South-East, a dance and frolics” | |
| 17 | OPEN-S,HOP | |
| 19 | BAR,ONET* – BAR=saving | |
| 21 | HAULAGE – wordplay? “Very big hall replacing top-class transporters?” | |
| 23 | INSUR*,E | |
| 24 | C(HIDE)D – cd=abbrev(contagious disease) | |
| 26 | PIQUE – wound and also sounds like “peak” | |
| 28 | OD(OU)R – OU in [Oxf]ord* | |
| 30 | MOTT – two meanings “clump of trees” (American) and (Spenserian) measured. |
August 15th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Betty, Betty, Ear’ole! – cock-up! (6/5)
August 15th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Get in early then.
MOTT last to go in because I invented RIVOSE for 29. Who was Mr Mott?
Thought 15 was an anagram of ‘topers’ – there are so many of these; until I saw the hidden answer.
AMARANT was ‘adamant’ for a while – that didn’t help.
Looking forward to several explanations.
August 15th, 2010 at 8:45 am
Myrvin, 30D is two defs – a variant of MOTTE(1) and pp of METE(1) (Spenser, hence ‘years ago’.
My clue (@1) is a hint for explaining 4D. Its a treat to see it for yourself.
August 15th, 2010 at 9:18 am
21dn is AULA (a hall) replacing the U in ‘HuGE’. All I could get for 4dn was (anti)noise? 15ac ‘redtop’ is i.e. the sun or the mirror newspapers, i.e. not one of the qualty papers like the times.
Nick
August 15th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Forgot, for 11dn look under ‘sea letter’.
Nick
August 15th, 2010 at 9:25 am
Doh, 32ac is BD (bound) in A (t)ORCH*
Nick
August 15th, 2010 at 9:39 am
18A A in (An ox)(rev) – pernickety?; 27A (push on)(rev) – ie ‘change of course’; 29A MO in RISE
1D anag. in BUTT; 4D – see my hint @1 – an extra word is needed. 11D SE+A+PAS+SPORTS; 17D OPENS + HOP
August 15th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Chambers has QUALITY: (usually in plural) a quality newspaper.
August 15th, 2010 at 9:49 am
11 SE A PAS (dance) SPORTS [v.] frolics)
August 15th, 2010 at 9:49 am
11 SE A PAS (dance) SPORTS 9[v.] frolics)
August 15th, 2010 at 9:49 am
Also:”sea letter or sea brief formerly, a document listing a ship’s place of origin and her cargo; a document issued to a neutral merchant vessel in wartime, allowing it to pass freely (also sea pass or sea passport).” In my Chambers CD, must be earlier than 2003.
August 15th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Ilan, I query your 6.37 post time. Myrvin & I were having a private chat with no sign of a review until 8.45
August 15th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Ah! Mr Mot was the bald barber in Startrek TNG. It was bugging me.
August 15th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Well, even with comment #1 I am still none the wiser about 4dn. Can anybody explain?
Nick
August 15th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Nick, I assume you solved my simple clue? It gives a 6-letter word that in Azed’s clue leads to the 5-letter solution there. Both words are defined in his clue which is one where the parsing of the clue reveals the solution ‘noise’. This type pops up so frequently and causes so much confusion that I think it better for solvers new to Azed to practice solving them. I wonder if he might give us a special in which all the clues were of this type. That might help new solvers improve their parsing skills.
August 15th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
I have to admit to bad parsing in 27A. Ilan is correct, and right to question ‘with new course’ as indicating this adequately.
August 15th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Nick @14
4dn bêtise (blunder) with NO ISE (this) makes bet
August 15th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
AZEDs are bad enough with solution words that nobody’s ever heard of. If he’s doing reverse clues with words we’ve never heard of, that don’t even appear, I think that’s pretty spiteful.
August 15th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Azed puzzles are very generously cross-checked. The solution to 4D is obvious given noi?e and a simple synonym at one end. It is therefore reasonable to take the rest of the clue as its subsidiary, with ‘this’ apparently standing for ‘noise’. For parsing, this leads to (some word meaning ‘blunder’) + noise = ‘bet’. How could this be understood? Logically, only ‘noise’ could be taken to represent some operator that would lead to the missing word, since we are told that there is some relationship between that word and ‘bet’. The rest is straightforward, and not the impossible conundrum postulated.
August 15th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Gaufrid @ 17
Thanks for the lucid explanation.
I suspect an editor’s hand in producing an atypically unfair clue.
I have no idea what Bob Sharkey is on about.
August 15th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Bob. That’s how lots of us got it of course. There have recently been discussions suggesting that all clues should be capable of solution without the crossing letters. We need to know the word which will, if ISE is taken away, produce the answer If we don’t know it, the clue don’t work. Just having enough letters to guess the word is not good enough.
August 15th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Re 4dn, AZED seems to like these type clues, using puns upon ‘NO ISE’ (or xyz etc.). But as Myrvin states, how do you deduce the answer from a ‘blunder with no ise’ = ‘bet’ cold? Convoluted, maybe even an obtuse type clue, impossible to solve unless with nearly all the checking letters.
Mind you, having said that, yesterday’s Listener with printer’s devilry… ARRRRRRRGGGHHHHHH
Nick
August 15th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
For what it’s worth, I thought it might have something to to do with miSTAKE. But that doesn’t work.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
29 RIMOSE: RISE = elevation, split by MO = more.
August 15th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
32 CHOBDAR: BD = bound, in (a _orch)* (i.e. torch, with the heading off).
August 15th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Withdraw previous comment: Nick @6 got there first.
October 16th, 2010 at 9:32 am
21D HAULAGE: substitute ‘AULA’ (= hall) for ‘U’ (as opposed to non-U = Top-class) in ‘HUGE’ = (very large)