A relatively easy Azed to finish the year. Quite a few tough words, and many that were new to me, but I was able to fill them in without checking the dictionary as the wordplay was often reasonably straightforward.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | HAPPY,(GUY OK L C)* |
| 9 | ANT in A MARINE – “bootee” is a services slang word for Royal Marine. |
| 14 | (s)NARE |
| 17 | (OPTIC)*, AL(e) – I’m unsure what “regular drink” indicates here. I’ve assumed it’s ALE but I don’t know why. |
| 19 | ERG in S(adis)T – SERGT is an abbreviation for Sergeant. |
| 23 | E in (A GROWL) – the numbering in the published clue was wrong; it should have been (3,4) |
| 25 | NET TAR< – RATTEN means “to practice sabotage against”. |
| 31 | MEL,EAGER – reference to Mel Smith (of Alas Smith and Jones, the 80s comedy show, fame). A bit of info about Meleager here. |
| 32 | (CANNES CEDE)* and/or (DANCE SCENE)* – two anagrams for the price of one. I’ve never seen this done before and I don’t really understand why it’s done here. I don’t think it does much for the surface reading. |
| 33 | DIN in CROSS,BANG |
| Down | |
| 1 | T in HAULS – it wouldn’t be an Azed crossword without a word from Spenser the “old poet”. |
| 2 | PAR,MA – tasty. |
| 3 | (RETIRES)* in PROPS – one of those clues that instantly conjures up a mental image. |
| 7 | K,AURI(c) |
| 8 | BREN in YT – tough one this. YT is an obsolete abbreviation for “that”. YBRENT is the obsolete past participle of BURN. At least the gun bit was easy. |
| 18 | (LANG)* in A,E |
| 21 | R in (COMBI)* |
| 22 | SCARES< – ideal combination of an easy clue to a difficult word. |
| 26 | ANEAR – which is an archaic word for “near” (well-nigh). Not sure about the wordplay though – is it referring to “beard” as a verb to mean “to oppose someone openly or boldly” as in “ner-ner”. A bit tenuous I know but it’s all I can come up with. |
| 27 | hidden reversed in “leANER Figures” – another good easy clue/tough word combo. |
26D: well I can grasp at straws as well: i thought perhaps this was AN+[b]EAR[d] — with AN for “one” and “enveloped in a beard” for EAR??