Solving time 16:05, without Chambers
This is probably about as easy as Azed gets. Easy for me anyway, as 1A was a word I knew, and 9 first letters of relatively easy down words gives you a great start. I slowed down a bit in the bottom half, and I suspect a few people might have done this very quickly indeed. But I’m talking about people with long experience – I’ve been solving Azed on and off since an Easter vacation back in 1981 when I should have been revising for finals but spent a big chunk of a weekend with Azed, Chambers, and Chambers words. I’m pretty sure that (a) this was my first Azed, and (b) I finished it – two or three years before I finished my first Times daily puzzle (rather more lit-based than it is now). Although Azed uses tough vocabulary, the precise clue-writing and extra help from more checking letters give you few excuses, unless you come up against a difficult word with the first letter unchecked, which lurks in an unexpected place in the big red book. Cross-referencing is much better than it used to be in C (Chambers), so this doesn’t happen too often.
With waves in the first answer, four fish or similar, two watery spirits and seaweed , I start to wonder whether there’s a deliberate theme. Probably not. Enough chat, and on to the clues…
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | ONDES MARTENOT – an early synthesiser-like musical instrument. Best known from its soloistic part in Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie – follow the link for some sound clips if you’re curious. Great piece if you like big classical music in the Mahler 8 and Gurre-lieder tradition. Ondes = waves, by the way. |
| 11 | COR(‘VE)E – corvee = extra duty, and core = a company/gang/shift (from “corps”). |
| 15 | DANIO – hidden. It’s a tropical fish – our first one |
| 16 | GLOBETROT – (TRO(u)BLE)* in GOT |
| 17 | CALPA = (a plac(e))<= – a “day of Brahma”, or 4320 million years to you |
| 18 | OOTHECAE – (eac(e)h too) |
| 24 | PHREATIC – (a pitcher)* |
| 26 | RULES – 2 defs. One is London’s oldest restaurant |
| 28 | ATHETISES – Thetis, one of the fifty Nereids (fortunately they don’t all have names – Arethusa and Galatea are the main others to remember) in rev. of sea. |
| 30 | URIEL – letter move in Alison Lurie. The “angelic creature” bit is maybe an early Valentine’s day message – Mrs Azed is an Alison. |
| 31 | UNTIL – jauntily with the external jay removed |
| 33 | UNDINE – U,(dinne(r))* – another mythical water-spirit |
| Down | |
| 2 | NOUGAT – letter swap in nought |
| 4 | SE(A)BAT – s(h)ebat is a month of the Hebrew Calendar. The Hebrew and French revolutionary calendars are well worth a browse for advanced cryptic purposes. You can get the whole of the latter under “revolutionary calendar in C”. Our next wave-dweller. |
| 7 | ROAR – compound anagram. Take “safari tourist”, remove “if it’s at us”, and anagram the remaining four letters. |
| 10 | ORIYA – (i(f) yo(u) ar(e))* – it’s one of the many languages in C – I’ve already forgotten where from. |
| 11 | CONCEPTUS – C=”see”,ONCE,(puts)* |
| 13 | D(OVERS)OLE – another fish |
| 20 | COL(LET,I)T = coal tit |
| 21 | SEA-EAR (SE area)* – the last wave-dweller. Relieved not to have to scour the epic “sea” entry in C for this or 4D. It’s the same as the ormer (presumably from oreille de mer, he said without looking up), which can be found around the Channel Islands – I think you can eat them in local restaurants. |
| 22 | TRI(U)NE – trine = to go – a new one for me. |
| 23 | DES(t)INE – design as spelled by … yes, Ed. Spenser |
| 25 | HYRAX = “high racks” – rack(1) = pain,anxiety,doubt says C. It’s a rock-dwelling creature – a bit like a marmot but not really. |
| 27 | KILP – reverse hidden, variant spelling of kelp. |
| 29 | H,A,L,S – ref. the Laughing Cavalier |
Personally I found Azed 1809 easier (22:44 for me), but this one wasn’t much harder apart from two blank squares I was left with – one of which you haven’t mentioned…
9d NAN_ – can’t see anything in Chambers to fit the wordplay.
26a R_LES – never heard of the restaurant, should’ve Googled I suppose…
I too struggled with 9D but at some point the penny dropped: it’s NANA Mouskori — the “Greek songbird” and rev(ANAN) which in C is archaic interj for “failure to understand”.
Again, hats off to Peter for doing this without Chambers.