Comments on: Azed 1993

By: NormanHall

NormanHall — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 08:32:57 +0000

21D HAULAGE: substitute ‘AULA’ (= hall) for ‘U’ (as opposed to non-U = Top-class) in ‘HUGE’ = (very large)

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:23:33 +0000

Withdraw previous comment: Nick @6 got there first.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:18:15 +0000

32 CHOBDAR: BD = bound, in (a _orch)* (i.e. torch, with the heading off).

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:13:46 +0000

29 RIMOSE: RISE = elevation, split by MO = more.

By: Myrvin

Myrvin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:34:07 +0000

For what it’s worth, I thought it might have something to to do with miSTAKE. But that doesn’t work.

By: The trafites

The trafites — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:23:55 +0000

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

By: Myrvin

Myrvin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:41:43 +0000

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.

By: sidey

sidey — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:22:01 +0000

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.

By: Bob Sharkey

Bob Sharkey — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:48:08 +0000

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.

By: Myrvin

Myrvin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:11:48 +0000

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.