AZED No. 2,052 Plain
Posted by The Trafites on October 2nd, 2011
Nick: I found this quite a toughy this week, giving my rating of 8/10 on the Azedian hardness scale.
I got tied up in the bottom half of the grid trying to correctly parse several clues, namely 28ac, 32ac, 33ac and 29dn.
26dn is an interesting clue.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Like a failing old tavern, stuck with rum nosh, rotten (12) | ||
| CUSTOM-SHRUNK | (STUCK RUM NOSH)* | ||
| 9. | Organized ladies diving into Scottish river, rarely drunk on malt (6) | ||
| SWIPEY | WI in SPEY | ||
| 12. | Draught of sole abandoned by tar? (4) | ||
| PLAN | PLAN(TAR) | ||
| 13. | Astringent I earmark for treatment (8) | ||
| KRAMERIA | (I EARMARK)* | ||
| 14. | Seconds ahead, being once past (4) | ||
| SENS | S+ENS | ||
| 15. | New column, curtailed with time, for laureate (8) | ||
| NOBELIST | N+OBELIS[k]+T | ||
| 16. | Oath from Jock: ‘It’s a wee bittie hard’ (5) | ||
| HAITH | HA’IT+H | ||
| 18. | Maine’s crack troops? They’re flat-topped (5) | ||
| MESAS | ME+SAS | ||
| 19. | Ebbing river abroad cracks stern badly, soaking back (9) | ||
| RESORBENT | (EBRO<) in (STERN*) | ||
| 21. | Reader having to admit old wife is computer whizz (9, 2 words) | ||
| POWER USER | OW in PERUSER I wouldn’t necessarily call a ‘power user’ a ‘computer whizz’ |
||
| 26. | Squelch round the highlands? It’s stag’s head, look, one’s after (5) | ||
| SLOAN | S+LO+AN | ||
| 27. | Cock, maybe, cross in appearance (5) | ||
| MIXEN | X in MIEN | ||
| 28. | Not accepted in Sicilian town, left describing stomach pains (8) | ||
| TORMINAL | T[a]ORMINA+L | ||
| 30. | Kindle, obsolete, leads to this in next decade (4) | ||
| TIND | leading letters: This In Next Decade | ||
| 31. | With a passage for food to join, took dinner? (8) | ||
| ENTERATE | ENTER+ATE | ||
| 32. | Intrinsically anxious, lacking cure (4, 2 words) | ||
| IN SE | INSE(cure) | ||
| 33. | At sea head, ay, do so to windward as before (6) | ||
| LAVEER | LAV+E’ER | ||
| 34. | ‘E’s caught by S. Liston’s cut, on going inside count – as invincibility progresses? (12) | ||
| RESISTLESSLY | (E’S+S. LIST[on]‘S*) in RELY I don’t think I could have defined this word |
||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Holding power, truncheon accompanies work – here? (7) | ||
| COPSHOP | (P in COSH)+OP | ||
| 2. | Arrive gracefully, as young suitor about noon (6, 2 words) | ||
| SWAN IN | N in SWAIN | ||
| 3. | Restart mine worked out? One washes ore from deposits (11) | ||
| TIN-STREAMER | (RESTART MINE)* | ||
| 4. | Male on track having turned up for colourful birds (6) | ||
| MEROPS | M+(SPORE<) mistake here? SPOOR=TRACK, not SPORE, and I couldn’t find if ‘spore’ is an alternative spelling |
||
| 5. | Part of tack which a merchantman has on board (4) | ||
| HAME | hidden: whicH A MErchantman | ||
| 6. | Lift: Mary missing first in use (6) | ||
| UPRISE | PRI[mary] in USE | ||
| 7. | Pest lives in shade (8) | ||
| NUISANCE | IS in NUANCE | ||
| 8. | Odist a Sekt befuddled (5) | ||
| KEATS | (A SEKT)* | ||
| 10. | What’s said to guy inverting half of ring-bark? (5) | ||
| YABOO | (O[f]+O+BAY)< | ||
| 11. | Bert and Elsie I see irregularly used as names (11) | ||
| CELEBRITIES | (BERT ELSIE I C)* | ||
| 17. | A short book on Eton taken out when one pleases (8, 2 words) | ||
| À VOLONTÉ | A VOL+(ETON*) | ||
| 20. | Am avoiding dynamiter at large with a short fuse! (7) |
||
| TINDERY | (DYN[am]ITER)* | ||
| 22. | Right in centre of parade, on the rise – value doubled (at least) (6) | ||
| WORTHS | RT in (SHOW<) | ||
| 23. | Like water vessel number dipped in river (5) | ||
| URNAL | N in URAL | ||
| 24. | Confederate solicitor receiving cheers (6) | ||
| STATAL | TATA in SL | ||
| 25. | Membranous coverings displaying limitless allure? (6) | ||
| EXINES | [s]EXINES[s] | ||
| 26. | Herd youngster? This horn’d guy possibly (5) | ||
| STEER | composite anagram: HERD YOUNGSTER minus HORN’D GUY=(ESTER*) this clue also has 3 plain definitions (or maybe 4 if you include ‘horn’d guy’)! |
||
| 29. | Part of the eye mostly recalling smiling ones? (4) | ||
| IRIS | IRIS(h) See this song -> HERE |
||
| … | |||
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:10 am
Thanks Azed for the puzzle and Nick for the blog. Favourite clue 10dn for the use of “guy”.
This took me twice as long as any recent Azed had taken. I was doing all right and had only four left within a reasonable time, but got stuck at 9ac. I had -WI— and the construction was obvious, but my eye kept failing to spot swipey on repeated scans of page 1574 of Chambers.
21ac: The definition of power user in Chambers is near enough to “computer whizz” for me.
4dn: I too cannot find spore = track.
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:34 am
Some difficult stuff here. TAORMINA is even more obscure than Pluckley!
Spore is in the OED, which is no real excuse…
Still good fun though.
October 2nd, 2011 at 10:14 am
He’s used Spore for Track recently I think. Agree, very tough.
October 2nd, 2011 at 11:57 am
Re SPORE in Chambers, see entry for SPOOR, which doesn’t have the SPORE variant. So Azed’s mistake, if any, is not to mention OED as an authority.