Azed 1946: quelle surprise!

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As well as the usual quota of obscure words, we have what I believe is a first, for Azed anyway, which is a clue entirely written in French (6 down). Perfectly fair, in my view, as no knowledge of French is actually required. Rather more compound anagrams than usual, two of them clearly signalled as such by the dash in the clue.

Across
1 SPITCHER S + PITCHER. Chambers defines this as sailors’ slang from a Maltese word.
8 DUSH Hidden in “Hindu shamelessly”. It’s a Scottish word meaning a heavy impact.
12 CHOU Well, it’s a cream bun, but I can’t explain the wordplay at all.
14 RANKE RANKE(r). It appears in As You Like it.
15 HOPTREE TOPER* in HE. A substitute for hops.
16 GOIDEL LED 1(rev) after GO. Presumably “(lost)” is intended to indicate that “walk” is an obsolete meaning of “go”.
17 TURN TURTLE TURN + ELT RUT(rev). An elt is a sow.
18 COPIES IE in COPS.
20 DOOBRIE DO 0 BRIE. One of many words for something or someone whose name has been forgotten.
24 LEGITIM LEG + IT + IM. In this clue “on” refers to the legside in cricket and “it” can mean sex appeal or sexual intercourse. Legitim itself is a Scottish legal term relating to the entitlement of children from a deceased parent’s estate.
25 PHOLAS HAS LPO*. Rock-boring molluscs.
27 ANEMOMETER MOME in EAR-NET. A mome is a buffoon.
29 TIDIER I DIE in TR(anslator). A clever clue that had me baffled for far too long.
30 TARTANE TARTAN + E. Euxine is an old name for the Black Sea.
31 ODIST Compound anagram. Take A DUD FEE from EISTEDDFODAU, and rearrange the letters that are left.
32 AXIL A + X + the first letters of “indiscriminate logging”.
33 NACH Hidden and reversed in “French can-can”. It’s a variant of nautch, which is an Indian word for a type of dance performance.
34 DOMANIAL O MAN in DIAL. The definition in the clue is “of ownership”, domanial being clearly indicated as an adjective.
Down
1 SCHECKLATON CHECK in (“lining”) SLAT + ON. It’s a Spenserian word.
2 PHOTON P + HOT + ON. A different sense of the word “on”.
3 TUTRIX TU (you in Latin or French) + TRIX (sounds like tricks).
4 CORNER TEETH ETCH OR ENTER*. Apparently only horses have them.
5 HAET H + TEA (rev). Another Scottish word, meaning a whit.
6 REGROUP Another compound anagram, for which no knowledge of French is required. Take the letters of “La rue” from “pour la guerre” and rearrange them. The opening phrase is the definition and is to be found in Chambers, in the appendix of phrases and quotations from foreign languages.
7 PROTOTHERIA ROT in POTHER + A1 (rev). These are monotremes, which are defined as the lowest order of mammals.
9 UNDERN RED (rev) in NUN*. Red, or redd, can mean to make tidy.
10 SKEP Hidden in “Moses kept”. Took me an absurdly long time to see this, mainly because I disregarded “kept”, thinking it was the hidden word indicator.
11 HELMET-SHELL MESH LET* + HELL.
13 JEU DE MOTS ME DUE (rev) in JOTS. A French phrase,for a change!
19 SHIM ROD SH + (N)IMROD. Nimrod is the name of the most famous and most beautiful of Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
21 AGADIC GADI (an Indian throne) in AC. Again the definition here is adjectival: “of Passover ritual”.
22 ROTTAN OTT in RAN. It just means a rat; the “some” in the clue is presumably just there to mislead you into looking for a hidden word.
23 NARNIA N in N(ew) ARIA. The reference is to C S Lewis’s children’s stories.
26 SIDA Yet another compound anagram. Take “it nice” from “dieticians” to get the anagram.
28 MAIM M + AIM.

5 comments on “Azed 1946: quelle surprise!”

  1. When I saw the clue to 9dn, I thought ‘crikey’ as my French is terrible, but in fact being a composite anagram it turned out easy, and as you say, no knowledge of French is needed at all.

    I too do not really understand 12ac and was trying to make some sort of homophone from ‘CHOU’ – but what ( Sing out selling cream bun)?

    Nick

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