Another moderately difficult Azed. I’ve been struck down with a horrible cold over the last coouple of days so haven’t ben able to write a very full blog: I’ve shown the basics of the wordplay, but not many details of some of the obscure words. If I’ve missed anything vital, or got anything wrong, let me know in the comments. Help needed for 23ac and 26ac.
Key:
dd = double definition
* = anagram
< = reverse
| Across |
| 1. SHTUM “Sh, tum!” might be an injunction to an embarrassingly rumbling stomach, which would not be “shtum” (=silent) |
| 5. SOPHIST SOP + THIS* |
| 10. PERNANCY PER NANCY “per” = “a” as in “£20 per/a person” |
| 12. BATELEUR BATE + LURE* |
| 13. ZIGANKA (A KING)* in ZA |
| 14. CIDER Sounds like “sider”, i.e. one who “sides” with someone, so is “partial” |
| 15. SPOTTED DOG D(ate) in (TOP STODGE)* – a variant of the more common “spotted dick” |
| 17. MONAS MONAS(tery) |
| 18. STEAN S TEAN – “Tean” or “Teian” relates to Teos in ancient Ionia |
| 19. URALI (m)URALI. The “ace spinner” whose first (letter) is missing is Muttiah Muralitharan, known “casually” as Murali, rated the greatest Test-Match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack in 2002. |
| 23. CHASE (?) Not sure about this one – “The chase” can mean hunting, hence “horse and hound”, but I can’t see the wordplay. |
| 25. FOURTEENER (NOT FREE RUE)* |
| 26. ELOGE or ELOGY Either of these can mean “panegyric”, but apart from that Im stumped. |
| 28. GARRAN ARR in NAGS* |
| 30. SINUSOID I in (IS SOUND) |
| 31. UNREPAIR URN* E PAIR (=put together) |
| 32. NEEDLES NEEDLES(s) |
| 33. LYSSA SLY* SA(il) |
| Down |
| 1. SPAZ ZAPS< – surely a rather offensive bit of schoolboy slang, from “spastic” |
| 2. HELIPORT (HER PILOT)* |
| 3. TROGON TROG ON |
| 4. UNCATALOGUED (ACTUAL ONE DUG)* One meaning of “catalogue” in Chambers is “a list of University courses …(esp US)”. |
| 5. SNAKED S NAKED – nice bit of wordplay: Eve was naked before she was “seduced”, and “start of seduction” is reused to mean S. |
| 6. OCTADS CO< TAD’S |
| 7. HELIOTHERAPY I OTHER A in HELP + Y |
| 8. SLUE L in SUE – American variant of “slew” |
| 9. TERRINE N in TERRIE(r) |
| 11. KEDGE K EDGE |
| 16. BASENJIS AS in BEN + IS (=lives) |
| 17. MUMESON E between MUM and SON |
| 20. A FOND cf FONDA – Henry, Jane et al. |
| 21. ORGONE (f)ORGONE |
| 22. STAIRS I in STARS – “flight” for stairs is common in crosswords, but used brilliantly here |
| 24. ANABAS Hidden in toucAN A BASe |
| 27. LINE 3 defs |
| 29. SURA Composite anagram – (HAS ROUT less HOT)* |
23a H (horse) in CASE (possesive, one of the cases in grammar) – definition ‘hound’
26a ELOGE EGO (I) LE[ave] reversed
Re 23 ac
I think it is C(H)ASE
Possessive is an example of the grammatical case
H is from Horse
Hound (v.) is the def.
23 ac To be more specific, I think, h = heroin = horse.
1 d Chambers currently has the source for spazz as “spastic”. This was changed from the 1998 suggestion of “Prob a fanciful alteration of space out”.
16down Benj is the drug.
Odd that there were two Helis in the downs.
I really liked this puzzle. One of Azed’s very best, and hardest.
It was good to see Orgone in a crossword. I have an orgone accumulator.
Re Comment 3.
While I do respect this observation, may I say that “XWD, A Dictionary of Crossword Abbreviations” (Chambers, 2005) has ‘Horse = GG, H, PAD’, besides ‘Heroin = H’.
Alan,
I’m jealous. All I have is “The Function of the Orgasm”, and even that isn’t what it used to be 🙂
This took me an age to get going – about 4 clues in the first hour, and then another 2 hours to finish the rest!