A straightforward puzzle this week, with a fair proportion of unfamiliar words. Nevertheless, it’s worth making the point that Azed puzzles can in fact be easier to solve than a daily cryptic, as long as you are prepared to use Chambers to verify your guesses. The wordplay, although often ingenious, is scrupulously fair, and the generous checking is a great help.
Time taken: an afternoon.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FATTRELLS | “ferret tails” minus i,e, and r | A well-disguised compound anagram |
| 7 | TOSS | two meanings | |
| 10 | LORN | r in Lon(don) | |
| 11 | EXECRATE | (River) Exe + crate | |
| 12 | ADUNC | A + dun + c | A weak surface reading, using an adjective as a noun |
| 13 | MICRA | Hidden in atomic
radiation |
|
| 15 | VANQUISHER | Qu in vanisher | |
| 17 | IN ONE | O in inn + e(veryone) | |
| 21 | ENGRENAGE | *gear shift less i | |
| 22 | RICINULEI | ricin + ule + i | |
| 23 | GREGE | eg in gre(y) | |
| 28 | ANASTIGMAT | *against + mat | The anagrind is “buffed” |
| 29 | RAT ON | r + a + ton | “Shop” is the definition, in a very subtle clue |
| 30 | SNORE | Hidden | snore is the third meaning of rout in Chambers |
| 31 | INCIDENT | in CID + *net | |
| 32 | GRIN | gr(a)in | |
| 33 | ASAR | as(rev) in Ar(abia) | |
| 34 | CRYOSTAT | *a story in ct | |
| Down | |||
| 1 | FLAVA | Hidden | |
| 2 | AO DAI | *Aida +O(pera) | This term came up in last month’s Guardian Genius crossword, which helped me a little |
| 3 | TRUNK | Three definitions | |
| 4 | RECUR | ecu in RR | |
| 5 | EXTINGUISHER | *thin sex urge + i | |
| 6 | LESSER LITANY | *yells Stainer | |
| 7 | TRIENNIA | rien in ain’t(rev) | To understand this clue, you have to know that a subsidiary meaning of “lustre” is a five year period |
| 8 | STRINGY | ring in sty | The reference is to the poem “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear, but that has the piggy-wig with a ring in his nose standing in a wood, not a sty |
| 9 | SEA REED | (Dun)e in seared | |
| 14 | CROAT | r in coat, and *actor | Unusual to have two pieces of wordplay for one simple word |
| 16 | PEIGNOIR | i in peg + noir | |
| 18 | ARGYRIA | *gray +
air(rev) |
|
| 19 | KIRPANS | pan in *risk | One of the five Ks worn by devout Sikhs |
| 20 | SCEAT | c in seat | |
| 24 | VISTO | vis +to | |
| 25 | AMORT | A + mort | Mort can mean a loose woman |
| 26 | MARIA | M + aria | The plural of mare, meaning a “sea”
on the moon |
| 27 | STENT | ten in st(one) | |