AZED No. 2,034 Plain
Posted by The Trafites on May 29th, 2011
Great cluing from AZED this week.
There are three ‘gotchas’ (mentioned below), and several other clue wordplays that are truly great. A joy to be able to complete it, which I think, after 30 odd years of doing crosswords does prove you do improve 
Due to the fact the grid can be completed without having to work out each clue part (i.e. using computer/dictionary searches), I give this 6/10, but as some of the clues are (or seem) so unique, I will make it 7.5/10.
Bad news at 22dn; being a (50ish) elderly lager lout, I think this clue definition is wrong 
Good stuff!
| Across | |||
| 1. | Tailor fascinating woman who’s rounded thigh parts with time (10) | ||
| WHIPSTITCH | HIPS+T in WITCH a word for a tailor, apparently |
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| 11. | Part of rhythm section has almost kept within beat (5) | ||
| HI-HAT | HA(s) in HIT clapping cymbals drivel by a foot pedal – old memories of ‘top of the pops’ intro here for me |
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| 12. | Plane mostly flying out for Jewish festival (7) | ||
| SHAVUOT | SHAV(e)[plane]+(OUT*) see SHABUOTH in Chambers |
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| 13. | Type of veggie to exert influence moulding circles (8) | ||
| OVOLACTO | ACT in OVOLO(a type of moulding) ‘circles’ here indicates OVOLO goes around ‘ACT’ |
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| 14. | Fleet Street’s first to be nosy (4) | ||
| SPRY | S+PRY | ||
| 16. | Greenland native originally grinding pearl ash (8, 2 words) | ||
| HARP SEAL | (PEARL ASH*) | ||
| 17. | Booty (from NA) that is offloaded by buccaneer, tons (5)k | ||
| PRATT | P(i)RAT(e)+T ‘that is’ = i.e., which correctly have to be removed in order from ‘pirate’ to make the clue sound |
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| 19. | Composer giving final touches to sonata for violin and oboe (4) | ||
| ARNE | last letters from ‘sonata for violin and oboe‘ is the ‘and’ superfluous or a ‘link’ word? |
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| 20. | Monkeys use chimps, note, roughly (13) | ||
| SEMNOPITHECUS | (USE CHIMPS NOTE*) a genus of monkeys |
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| 22. | In Rome I love catching bishop in pulpit (4) | ||
| AMBO | B in AMO(Latin for love, not Italian, which I first checked for) | ||
| 24. | Empty moneybox? Put pound in (5) | ||
| BLANK | L in BANK a simple clue that I couldn’t see for ages |
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| 26. | Patron, a menace when drunk requiring seconds (8) | ||
| MAECENAS | (A MENACE*)+S | ||
| 29. | It shortly fills extra storage space (4) | ||
| BYTE | (i)T in BYE clever clue – it steers the mind away from the real solution |
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| 30. | Wild onion in a set that’s rotten, separate gaseously (8) | ||
| ATMOLYSE | MOLY(wild onion) in (A SET*) | ||
| 31. | Arty US type dislikes the telethon hosts (7) | ||
| ESTHETE | hidden: dislikES THE TElethon ‘hosts’ the verb here; great clue… took me a long while to see it |
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| 32. | Deity lacking colour in biblical text? The opposite (5) | ||
| WOTAN | OT in WAN(not WAN in OT) the first ‘gotcha clue’ – need to solve the wordplay, else the more common ‘WODAN’ looks good as the solution |
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| 33. | Suitor having to pay attention when tricky parent’s around (10) | ||
| PRETENDANT | TEND in (PARENT*) | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Hollers, ‘Silly me!’ (6) | ||
| WHOOPS | dd good stuff – when first read, how can a clue be so concise? |
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| 2. | Apiarist creating reaction to cold with removal of lid? (5) | ||
| HIVER | (s)HIVER | ||
| 3. | Source of oil? It may be greased (4) | ||
| PALM | cdd my first entry in the grid |
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| 4. | A little to soak up with careful handling held pipette (11) | ||
| STACTOMETER | TACT in (SOME+(RET<)) the second ‘gotcha clue’ – can also be spelt with a ‘k’, so you do need to work out the wordplay correctly |
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| 5. | Handlebar maybe shows this clasp nipped by rodent (4) | ||
| TACH | (mous)TACH(e) handlebar moustache } |
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| 6. | One gets hotter messing around with this radioactive mineral (7) | ||
| THORITE | (HOTTER*) with I | ||
| 7. | Pigment from pan chap smeared round forehead (11) | ||
| CAPPAH-BROWN | (PAN CHAP*) around BROW | ||
| 8. | Divine grotto, quiet mostly, housing freshwater fishes (8) | ||
| LUPERCAL | PERCA(genus of fishes, namely perch) in LUL(l) | ||
| 9. | Holy book posing question before answer, note (5) | ||
| QORAN | Q+OR(before)+A+N the third ‘gotcha clue’ – so easy to enter ‘KORAN’ here if not worked out correctly |
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| 10. | Design index for old literary work (5) | ||
| STYLE | three definitions | ||
| 12. | Population that’s frozen e.g. to stuff full of curried balti (9)k | ||
| STABILATE | (BALTI*) in SATE(to stuff) | ||
| 15. | Redshank (rare): marks lay buried in an identifier turning up (8) | ||
| GAMBETTA | M+BET(lay, as in a bet) in (A TAG<) | ||
| 18. | Urchin-like, in ragged panties (7) | ||
| SPINATE | (PANTIES*) | ||
| 21. | Slope at Aviemore? What’ll be seen there is going fast (6) | ||
| SKLENT | SK(is)+LENT very cryptic – take ‘is’ from what could be seen at Aviemore (skis) then add a word for ‘fast’ = lent |
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| 22. | Like Castlemaine fluid, a medium drink, one English put away? (5) | ||
| AMBER | A+M+BE(e)R surely the clue is wrong? Fosters is the ‘amber nectar’, Castlemaine is ‘XXXX’ |
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| 23. | Discarded form of auxiliary mass stay mobilized (5) | ||
| MAYST | M+(STAY*) very difficult clue to read and work out |
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| 25. | March/April for some? If so it’s mean for men (5) | ||
| NISAN | Phew: To make ‘MEN’='MEAN’, N is AN | ||
| 27. | Escort protects maiden, any of several birds (4) | ||
| SMEE | M in SEE | ||
| 28. | Latin in school, may be PC (4) | ||
| PLOD | L in POD(school of whales) PC Plod… great clue again, but this will perhaps defeat a few people |
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| …… | |||
May 29th, 2011 at 8:00 am
Thanks for that The Trafites. The definition in 5d is ‘clasp’, a very devious clue. I think 22d is fine as Fosters pinched the phrase, possibly from Barry Mckenzie. Somewhere I have a very old Punch cartoon, two ducks on a pond, one is saying ‘I’m a smee, I’m only found in crosswords’.
May 29th, 2011 at 8:00 am
Thanks for that The Trafites. The definition in 5d is ‘clasp’, a very devious clue. I think 22d is fine as Fosters pinched the phrase, possibly from Barry Mckenzie. Somewhere I have a very old Punch cartoon, two ducks on a pond, one is saying ‘I’m a smee, I’m only found in crosswords’.
May 29th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Can’t let Sidey have all the posts!
Thanks, Traffites. I completed this one but was stuck for a few explanations of the parsing.
13. I was convinced the Os were the circles so couldn’t explain the rest.
4. Couldn’t see this construction at all.
5. I thought ‘nipped by rodent’ was superfluous, – didn’t notice the ‘mouse’!
9. I assumed AN was answer and wondered why ‘note’ was there.
25. Phew, indeed – well done – how long did that penny take to drop?
On the plus side, I really loved the clue for SKLENT – beautiful surface and construction. PLOD was very neat, too.
I entered MAYST, then rubbed it out, then remembered bits about ‘may I’ and ‘can I’ and auxiliary verbs.
May 29th, 2011 at 5:44 pm
I also wondered how I was going to fit 4 Xs in a 5-letter word.