Azed 1941

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Apologies for the late posting: I’d got my dates confused and only realised I was supposed to be blogging this puzzle just before I had to go out for a few hours. I found this one quite hard going: there seem to be more obscure words and meanings than usual, though nothing unfair. I can’t explain a couple of answers: suggestions welcomed.
Key:
dd = double definition
* = anagram
< = reverse

Across
1. BABA GHANOUZH (BAZAAR BU H HOG)* less R. A puree used in Middle Eastern cookery. The anagram fodder was obvious, but this was very hard to get until crossing answers gave me the two Bs at the start.
9. ROUGHAGE Those 40-something ladies will only admit to their ROUGH AGE
12. PROA PRO + A
13. AUTHOR AU + THOR
14. TANIST (A STINT)*
15. CARAP CARAP(ace)
18. SEMEE hidden in thoSE MEEtings
19. LONG-LINE dd – a bra or a fishing-rod.
20. DORS The sex symbol is Diana Dors
21. ECOD The word is a variant of EGAD, so it’s an “old mild oath”, but I can’t see the wordplay
23. ATTENTAT TENT (old probe) in A TAT (=tap). “Foiled” needs to be read as an adjective to give the definition of the word, which is “an (esp. unsuccessful) at a (esp. political) crime of violence.”
26. BOWET BO + WET. Scots word for a lantern.
29. FAGOT GO in FAT
30. COTYLE Hidden in (largELY TO Chian)<
31. NOTOUR NO TOUR (of a stately home, say). The word is a Scots form of “notorious”,
32. WAME First letters of “Which Archaeologist Must Examine”
33. PERILOUS (PILE OURS)*
34. SOUTHERN BLOT OUTHER (variant of “either”) + NB in SLOT (=niche). The technique of Southern blotting is named after a Mr Southern, but there are also Northern, Eastern and Western blots. Those crazy biologists!
 
Down
1. BRITTLE BONES (BELT< + ONE) in BRITS
2. BURN IN URN in BIN. Chambers only gives this in unhyphenated form, so the enumeration should have said “(6, 2 words)”
3. GHAST S in GHAT. Ghat is a “place of cremation”, so where suttee might take place.
4. HAFT H + AFT
5. AGACANTE A CAN’T in AGE
6. OUTRED ROUTED with the R “sunk lower”. The word means to outdo someone in redness, i.e. “defeat, blushingly”.
7. ZOOPERAL (POOR ZEAL). Zooperal is “relating to experiments on animals”, so “Infuriating animal rightists”.
8. HARVEST-FEAST THRAVES* + E in FAST
10. GOING I in GONG (medal)
11. WHAM W on HAM – a poor boxer, or pugilist = “pug”
16. LOCOFOCO LOCO (=mad=bats) + FOC (free of charge) + O (overs). It’s a match in the sense of the fire-starter, nothing to do with sport.
17. PITH-TREE P + (I TETHER)*
22. DEGOUT D + E.G. (say) + OUT (=introduced to society: debs used to “come out”)
24. NATAL Hidden in seclusioN AT A Lay-by.
25. THYMOL HOMY* in TL (middle letters of “botTLing”)
27. WATS STAW<. “Wat” is a Scots form of “wit”=”know”. “Staw” is (also Scots) a form of “stole” =”nicked”
28. POWIN PO (chamber pot) + WIN (secure)
30. CURR It means “purr”, but again I can’t see the wordplay.

17 comments on “Azed 1941”

  1. Thanks, Andrew. After a good run of AZED’s, I came a cropper on this one, which dented my confidence. Got about half a dozen and gave up. I usually try to get the long ones, but only managed BRITTLE BONES on this occasion and struggled to find other ways in. My favourite, of the few I got, was DORS.

    Thankfully, today’s has gone much better!

  2. Hi Andrew – thanks for the blog.

    This is only the second Azed I’ve completed entirely unaided and so I’m quite pleased with myself.

    21ac: I got held up by putting in EGAD initially, without being able to explain it, until other answers made that impossible. I think it’s [d]ECOD[e]

  6. Darnation! I knew both of those! Good stuff as always.

    Eileen, entirely unaided? I’m seriously impressed. I’ve been doing Azeds for years and have always had to use some sort of aid!

  9. The latest edition of Chambers gives both BURN-IN and BURN IN, and the hypenated form is the one defined in 2dn.

  10. My experience mirrored Liz’s on this one, with me managing about three-quarters before admitting defeat. Couldn’t figure out Southern blot, despite noting the anagram and correctly guessing ‘slot’ as the contents part. 9ac was surely the best of those I got. Never mind, this week’s offering is looking more promising.

  11. Thanks to Eileen (good to see you over here!) and Gaufrid for the explanations.

    Matthew: thanks – I couldn’t find BURN-IN when I was looking (I have the latest Chambers) but I obviously missed it. I’ll try again later.

  12. Andrew: I can definitely see how you could have missed it. I had a little trouble finding it again before I made my post, but I could remember looking it up when I was solving the puzzle so I knew it had to be there.

  14. Rather fluid motion from me in this puzzle. I liked 1dn. The word play was rather well constructed, though my girlfriend had to explain why zone = belt ? which I still don’t get ???

    Great stuff.

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