Azed 1944 – lots left for the reader

Another wordplay debacle in the SE corner. I had the rest done in an hour or so (The Big Red Book consoling me as needed) — however, I struggled through the bottom-right for yet another hour and still not all the constructions are clear to me. But… perhaps the very act of writing this blog will serve to inspire.

Newsflash: see reader comments below for the correct explanations of ACTA, ELUANT, REFRINGE, BORDEL, MANORIAL.
Across

1	MO,JO – JO is Scots beloved and I have Paul Butterfield’s “Got My MOJO Working” on my iPod.
4	H(OT BL)AS,T – Nothing to do with Usain – it’s bolt* in HAS=holds,T=tons.
11	AZULEJO – (jaz[a], Lou[i]e)* — easy construction, hard word: it’s a kind of tile.
12	ACTA – definition is “records”: wordplay? “Cuckold (aged withheld) kept records”
13	PRI,[w]ORSHIP*
14	SKIO – rev(oiks) – a shed in the Orkneys (from the Norwegian of course).
15	DEEVE – hidden in “Spaeside event”. Scots “break” (variant of deave).
16	LIE-ABED – (abele I’d)*
18	[k]INKY – drunk (last def in Chambers).
20	E(LUAN[dry])T – means “washing liquid”. I believe that ET is the pronounciation of the pp. of eat, i.e. “‘eated” as the eastender might say it.
21	[d]UNNEST – evict. And “most dingy” is dunnest presumably.
23	SO,NG
25	REP,ROVE – our traveller is a sales REP.
26	HOSEN – (in holes – I,L)* — this is when I have to admit that my grandparents dressed me in leiderhosen when I was boy. Yes, it was embarrassing.
29	ARIA – hidden in “Wolf-Ferrari: Amanti” — like Paul Butterfield, Wolf-Ferrari wrote music (in this case, operas).
30	TRANS(P)IRE – it transpires that transire is a customs warrant.
31	EC,CO – Latin look. EC is our (European) community and CO is abbrev(combined operations).
32	ONSTAGE – Nabucco is by Verdi and gives us our N: (as e.g., N, to)* – “cast” is the anagrind.
33	REFRINGE – refract, i.e. deflect. But I don’t see the wordplay: “Deflect old zebra almost surrounded”
34	FLOR – it’s a yeasty growth, also abbrev(floruit)=Latin flourished.

Down

1	MANS,LAUGHTER
2	OZ,EKI – ref. sumo wrestling. And EKI=rev(IKE=Isaac).
3	JU(LIEN)NE – clear broth.
4	HER(E)BY – I suppose a bouquet garni is herby.
5	OJIME – rev hidden in “demijohn”. It’s a carved Japanese bead.
6	TO ORDER – (do retro)* – I suppose an &lit as well.
7	BORDEL – a bordello, i.e. hothouse according to Shak. Wordplay?? “Bengal quince has beginning years ago inside old hothouse”.
8	LASER – Lares* – a herb – medicinal presumably.
9	STI(VIN)G – suffocating: VIN in rev(gits).
10	T(A,PE ST)REAMER – do they still use these in IT? Anyway, A PEST in (re a term)*.
17	MANORIAL – def is “belonging to the ‘big house'” but wordplay? “An irrigation device, miles around, belong to the ‘big house'”.
18	IN,FORCE
19	S(TRAP)ON – I believe TRAP=”lock” and SON=”product” as in issue — is def “leather-bound”, i.e. describing e.g a suitcase that can be strapped? Not the other kind of STRAP-ON I’m guessing.
22	SENSE,I
23	SP,ARSE – ARSE is a (US) fanny and SP is sine prole, without issue.
24	SENO,R – rev(ones=aces)
26	E(YIN)G
27	V,I,R,GO – V is vide=see (Latin)

6 comments on “Azed 1944 – lots left for the reader”

Andrew

#1 - Sat 5th Sep 09, 23:27

Thanks Ilan. This was definitely a toughie!

In 12ac the cuckold is ACTAEON, from whom EON (=age) is withheld, and I think the definition is actually “kept records” (i.e. records that are kept).

20ac – “het” is a dialect form of “heated” (as in “het up”).

33ac – A zebra is a REFeree in American football; plus RINGE(d).

7dn – ORD (beginning) in BEL (Bengal Quince) – see Chambers for both.

bridgesong

#2 - Sun 6th Sep 09, 07:34

I agree that this was tough, and I’m grateful to you and Andrew for your clarifications. I can add one more: 17 down – a noria is “an endless chain of buckets on a wheel for raising water from a stream into irrigation channels” so it’s a noria in ml(miles).

liz

#3 - Sun 6th Sep 09, 17:08

Thanks for the blog, ilan, and to Andrew for the explanations. All the ones in the ‘newsflash’ I couldn’t parse either, along with a couple of others.

The two I missed were ACTA and STRAPON, by a letter in each case, which was frustrating!

28dn was funny and a good surface.