The luck of the draw is giving me all the Azed specials to blog these days. Right and Left is another one that comes up fairly regularly: I think the format was devised by Azed’s predecessor Ximenes (there’s an example by X on Derek Harrison’s site. As always there’s one answer that links the two halves of the grid. It’s notable how seamlessly the two-clues-in-one are joined together, with no superfluous words and often apparently in the middle of a phrase: to illustrate this I’ve indicated below where the splits lie. There seems to be a high proportion of unusual words in the puzzle – maybe this is an unavoidable consquence of the restricted space in the two halves of the grid. I’ve shown the answers in the order they appear in the grid: I hope it’s clear from the explanations which half of the clue each relates to.
| Across | |||
| 1. FLOATING VOTE | (I’VE AN OTT GOLF)* – a clearly-indicated and not-too-difficult anagram, but Azed still manages an amusing and vaguely relevant surface reading. It’s always nice to get the answer to a long 1 across early on, and of course it’s particularly helpful in this kind of puzzle. | ||
| 5. ASCIAN/ABITUR | cold/air | C in ASIAN; (AIR BUT)* | |
| 7. POOHS/HAOMA | at/barrow | O in SHOP< ; Homophone of “howe” (an archaeological feature) + MA | |
| 8. TOTTIE/MATZOS | Crackers/until | TO T TIE ; MAT ZOS – the ZO (or zho,dso, dsho or dzo is a hybrid breed of cattle in the Himalayas, and a regular visitor to Azed puzzles. | |
| 10. DOLMAS/WHIRRY | shift/to | DO + ALMS*; HIR(e) in WRY | |
| 12. SCLERA/SATORI | malfunctioning/in | (I ROTAS)< ; CLEARS*. “In” is the abbreviation i’, as for example in Shakespeare’s “the poor cat i’ the adage”, much referred to by Bertie Wooster | |
| 16. CREASE/ADVERB | profit/e.g. | (in)CREASE = profit ; BRAVED*, defined by two examples | |
| 17. ARGUS/VIVDA | pheasant:/five | SUGAR*; V D in VIA. Vivda is a type of dried meat in the Shetlands, hence a “sort of jerk” (c.f. beef jerky). | |
| 18. BENDEE/ALL ONE | bowed,/left | END in BEE; L in ALONE. Chambers gives bendee = bendy (heraldic); I’m not sure it’s justified to define this as “bowed”: while “bow” is given as a definition of “bend”, the heraldic meaning is a diagonal band. | |
| 19. SLYEST/NEBRIS | bristols/with | STYLES*; hidden in fiNE BRIStols | |
| Down | |||
| 1. FANTADS/NAE MOWS | supporters/trembling | TAD in FANS;(AS WOMEN)* – listed in C under MOW | |
| 2. OCOTILLO/VIA TRITA | poor/art | COT ILL in (p)OO(r); (ART I) in VITA. As indicated in the preamble, the second answer is part of the Latin proverb via tria, via tuta – “a beaten path is a safe path” – which was new to me. | |
| 3. TAHINA/TUMOUR | gut/one’s | TUM + (g)U(t) in OR; A in THIN A | |
| 4. INSET/ERASE | congealed/bits | IN SET; first letters | |
| 6. SPOT/BHAI | religion/to | dd; BAHAI less A | |
| 9. EMERAUDE/PROVEDOR | green/Venetian | EME + A in RUDE; ROVED in POR(t) | |
| 11. SAKERET/YIBBLES | falcon/trained | A in TEREKS<; (BY E BASIL less A)*. A marvellously misleading definition for YIBBLES: “Scotsman’s perhaps”. | |
| 13. CARREL/AEDILE | left/private | R (centre of libRary) in CLEAR*; hidden in togAED I Left | |
| 14. SCABS/PAVAN | strike/measure | SC + ABS;A in P VAN – a stately dance (more often spelled “pavane” – remember Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante Défunte) | |
| 15. ESSE/BRAN | variable/rule | ESSE(x); R in BAN |
16ac CREASE – I also though this was a sort of DD, as LINE=CREASE also.
Andrew
A belated thank you for a very comprehensive and enlightening blog. I’m particularly grateful for the explanation of HAOMA, which had me puzzled. I agree that there were more unfamiliar words than usual; Chambers was essential.