An enjoyable crossword romp taking in a nice mix of the obscure, the ordinary and the Latin. There are a couple of answers I’m not certain about and one clue, 35, that seems to have an error in it, though it might be my parsing. Oh, and there were a lot of Us in the grid!
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ADDER’S-TONGUE | ADDER + (ONE GUST)* | summer = ADDER is a bit of a crossword cliche but here it’s used to very good effect in the surface. |
| 10 | SURCULUS | CRU< in SULUS | I’d not come across the suckers or the sarongs before. Not sure about the surface of ths one. |
| 12 | CRUX | CR+UX | UX is an abbreviation of uxor, Latin for wife. |
| 13 | DINGLE | wooD IN GLEbeland | very nice surface, but glebe land, the land attached to a parish church, is definitely two words in Chambers. I assume the one word form can be justified elsewhere as it is needed for the clue to be sound. |
| 15 | PROTEGEE | P+ROTE+GEE | GEE is to ‘move on’, as in a horse. |
| 16 | LIE-IN | LIE IN | ref LIE IN STATE, ie ths does duty for the answer. |
| 17 | WHEAR | HE in WAR | WHEAR is an old form of ‘where’, is that a “‘Dead’ relative”? Is this a grammatical reference? I note that ‘relative’ has a grammatical meaning but my knowledge of grammar is too limited to pick out the thread from Chambers. |
| 18 | DEUS DET | D + ETUDES* | D = Deutsch, the catalogue numbers of Franz Schubert’s works. Lovely clue. |
| 20 | CORD | “cored” | |
| 21 | TAPU | lenT A PUkeko | TAPU is maori for taboo. The surface here is excellent, a pukeko is a New Zealand wading bird. |
| 23 | DISLIKE | (KIDS LE)* | |
| 25 | DOLLY | dd | One definition is a tray of complimentary sweets. I think the other definition is to the tool for holding a rivet for hammering. |
| 27 | BEANS | dd | There green and black BEANS. Also, both PEANUTS and BEANS are slang for very little money. At least I tink that’s it. |
| 29 | DREAMERY | ME in DREARY | |
| 31 | RANTER | ANTE in RR | a RANTER is a “blood and thunder” primitive methodist preacher. |
| 32 | ROUL | O in RUL(e) | |
| 33 | PLENARTY | LE+N in PARTY | new word for me but related to ‘plenary’, It’s definied as, ‘a state of benefice when occupied’ |
| 35 | PAINTED GRASS | I in (GARDEN STRAPS)* | Unless I’m reading this clue incorrectly I think there is an extra R in the anagram fodder. The clue is, “Gardeners’ garters, form of garden straps I’ll be in (12, 2 words)” |
| Down | |||
| 2 | DURRIE | (c)RI(b) in DURE | DURE = to last, cf ‘duration’. |
| 3 | DRUSE | DR(ill) + USE | ill = badly. |
| 4 | RUMP | RUMP(us) | |
| 5 | SLURRED | (RULER’S)* + D | |
| 6 | TUDOR | UDO in TR(ansept) | UDO is an ivy, while TUDOR as an architectural syle is Late Perpendicular. |
| 7 | NINEHOLES | L in (HE’S IN ONE)* | |
| 8 | GAGGER | G+AGGER | |
| 9 | UPLEAD | (A DUPLE)r | an UPLEAD is a cable going upwards. The rotation h |
| 10 | SCULDUDDRY | SCUL+DUD+DRY | SCUL is an old word for school, the answer is Scottish, hence Burnsian. |
| 11 | PEERLESSLY | SLEEPER* + SLY | |
| 14 | CISPLATIN | (IN PLASTIC)* | a drug used to treat cancers. |
| 19 | TIERCED | C in TIE + RED | |
| 21 | TORANA | TO RANA | RANA is an Indian prince so ‘local’ here refers us back to the first use of Indian in the clue. |
| 22 | A L’ENVI | VENIAL* | straightforward anagram but excellent three-letter word. The type of enumeration offered by Azed made it seem impossible on first reading. |
| 24 | KNOUTS | O in K+NUTS | |
| 26 | MERLE | L in MERE | I haven’t yet equated MERE to ‘antiquated outfit?’ |
| 28 | AGORA | comp. anag. &lit | the long dash represents the word in the answer. So, (GRECIAN LOCALE)* = AGORA L-LICENCE. The whole clue serves as a definition. |
| 30 | YANG | NAY< + G | |
26D is GERLE, I think.
Your interpretation of 17A is right, I’d say, with the definition for WHEAR referring to its status as a relative pronoun – an unusual ploy, certainly, but in my view not an unfair one, owing to the relative scarcity of such words.
And the anagram at 35A does indeed feature a bonus R, which seems to be becoming something of an Azed trademark.
Richard, many thanks for putting my mind at rest over WHEAR and for GERLE. I got too hung up over MERLE and didn’t think that there might be another ?ERLE word! Good job it wasn’t a competition puzzle.
I think the second definition of DOLLY (“It’s hard to miss”) refers to an easy shot in golf (or any sport) – in Chambers one of the definitions is “a slow-moving target that is easy to hit”.
This week’s Azed (1868)is the hardest I have yet done….. please don’t record it on the site with the customary “this took me 75 minutes”- some of us may be heartbroken to hear such things.
Agree with you entirely about this Sunday’s puzzle, Roland – I found it very heavy going. Matters weren’t helped by one answer having a faulty definition, another being a proper name I’d never heard of, and an indirect anagram that must be among the most contentious ever seen in an Azed puzzle.