Apologies for the late publication of this blog. I’m a last minute substitute and pressure of work prevented me from filing it yesterday as I had intended. The puzzle itself was an elegant tribute to a man whose name has become famous for reasons which have little to do with his skill in setting crossword clues, although I believe that it was his Azed connections which inspired Colin Dexter to name his eponymous detective after him. The fact that the clues were all prizewinners made this an easier crossword than usual to solve, as I found that I remembered quite a few of them. Of course it’s a competition crossword, so the winners will be determined by those whose attempts at finding a cryptic clue to Morse are deemed to be most successful. Should be interesting.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ATTITUDINISE | a + *test + i + din +i. A cleverly misleading definition (“strike poses”) |
| 10 | GRUM | r in gum (apparently US slang for “to cheat”) |
| 11 | ON END | A simple anagram |
| 14 | POSTHASTE | *stop + ha(s)te, and *heatspots |
| 15 | ENARM | ran in me, all reversed. An old word with an old meaning |
| 16 | EPHAS | *shape. An even older word |
| 17 | SIPOREX | composite anagram: subtract the letters of “mind” from the opening quote and rearrange them to obtain a material used by artists |
| 21 | TRIPY | I(ndia) p(laying) in try; not sure that I understand the significance of the phrase “(not imposing)” in the clue, which seems to work just as well without it |
| 22 | STEP-IN | ste(p)in; a delightfully misleading surface reading |
| 23 | AIDEST | A + id est |
| 26 | NABOB | nab + ob; nab is old slang for the head, or for a hat |
| 28 | GALLATE | all in gate; it’s found in Chambers under the second meaning of gall |
| 29 | TIROL | tirl is a Scottish word meaning to turn or whirl |
| 30 | DINKS | *kid sn; older editions of Chambers give dinkies as the plural form |
| 32 | RAMILLIES | a + mill in (victo)ries; a very clever clue |
| 33 | PEARL | I’m afraid that the wordplay for this clue eluded me; no doubt someone will explain it |
| 34 | ESSE | A clever homophone |
| 35 | DISSENTERISM | A brilliant anagram |
| Down | ||
| 1 | AGRESTAL | A gal round rest |
| 2 | TRIN | r in tin |
| 3 | IMPROPER | I’m pro PE + r(uns) |
| 4 | TOOM | moot (rev.) |
| 5 | UNSPENT | *punnets |
| 6 | DETOX | ted(rev.) + ox |
| 7 | IN HEAT | Apart from the obvious partial anagram, I’m not sure that I understand this clue. The grammatical error (“suggest” for “suggests”) makes me wonder if there was a proof-reading issue |
| 8 | INSHIP | Another obvious anagram; the suggestion of a homophone(” small drink as drunk might say”) was not wholly convincing |
| 9 | EXES | Presumably a reference to the Australian beer brand XXXX |
| 12 | ITALIOT | talio(n) in it; talion apparently means an eye for an eye as a punishment, and an Italiot was a Greek of ancient Italy |
| 13 | CAPI | capi(tally); capi is the plural form of the more familiar term capo |
| 18 | IRIDIAN | IR + *India |
| 19 | REALISER | *lies in rear |
| 20 | UNBESEEM | *been + muse |
| 22 | SEA-GIRT | a gir(l) in set |
| 24 | DERMIS | red (rev.) on mis; I can’t now remember why “mis” means an artery section |
| 25 | SALLEE | s + allee |
| 27 | BANG | Two meanings: very clever clue, with a thoroughly misleading surface reading |
| 28 | GOLAN | go + lan(d); refers to the Golan Heights, seized by Israel from Syria in 1967 |
| 29 | TROD | Hidden in Hart/Rodgers; it’s an old word for a track |
| 30 | DELE | dele(gable) |
| 31 | KISS | Hidden in “the ilk is silent” |
33 Ac is to do with anniversaries. A coral anniversary is 35 years, which is 5 years (or a “lustre”, according to C) more than pearl. Very clever, but little more than a cryptic defn to my mind.
7 Dn had me stumped for a while too, but I think the reasoning behind it is that IN HE, AT becomes HATE. “Suggest” does indeed seem to be a misprint.
24dn – I think the MIS part is M1 (motorway=artery) + S(section)
Richard and Andrew, thank you both for those comments. One other point I forgot to include in the blog was the unusual grid structure, with the five letter words at 23 and 30 across being wholly checked, while four letter words elsewhere in the grid had one unchecked letter each (which is normal).
21a To impose = to lay (on) so ‘not imposing’ gives the removal of ‘laying’ from ‘playing’. ‘Opener’ is singular and therefore only indicates the initial letter of ‘India’
21ac: I couldn’t see why he didn’t just clue it as “Worthless openers for India playing in test”, which seems to me to be much neater and avoids the clunky bit in brackets. But Azed will know why he did it.