Azed 1948

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This was definitely from the easy end of the Azed spectrum: I managed to solve all of it except 31ac without recourse to Chambers or other aids (though with some lucky educated guesses).

 
 
 
 
Across
1. GEMUTLICH EMU in GLITCH
8. HUE The definition is “appearance”, and I think the wordplay is HUEY less Y, referring to Huey Long of the Ink Spots, or less plausibly his political namsake. Huey the singer died in June this year, aged 105.
11. LUIT Composite anagram – (HIS KILT OUT – THIS OK)* – the definition is “Jock’s let”
12. ANCIENT CI in ANENT – a reference to the Royal and Ancient golf club at St Andrew’s (and elsewhere?)
13. UPPITY U + P-PITY
14. TAGGER (i)T + AGGER. Agger is a “Roman mound” – I have a distant memory from my Latin-learning days of having to know the difference between AGGER and AGER (field).
16. SOCLE Another comp.anag. – (COSMESIS’LL less MISS L)*. Socle is a “plain face” in an architectural sense.
17. TORCHERE TORC (necklace) + HERE (present). A torchère is “a tall ornamental candlestick or lampstand”, and a Jesse is “a large branched church candlestick” – hence the “not exactly”.
19. TARTE TATIN TREAT* + TA + TIN
20. DISSERTATE (SETTER’S AID)*. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a blatant anagram indicator in Azed – it was almost a double bluff, as I thought “surely it can’t be…”
24. LENGS N in LEGS
25. MAILSACK AILS in SACK
28. ELDEST Hidden
29. KILLER K + ILLER
30. ALL’S ONE L S in ALONE
31. AESC Half of AESCULUS – the horse-chestnut genus. Aesc is ligature æ
32. TYE YET*
33. SPANGLISH SP + (LING(o) ASH)*
 
Down
1. GLUG G + LUG
2. EUPHORICALLY E + (YOU ALL CHIRP)*
3. MIPS I in MPS. MIPS is an acronym of Million Instructions Per Second, sometimes used as a measure of the speed of a processor.
4. TATTERED TAT (Easr Indian matting) + DETER*
5. LAYOUT AY in LOUT
6. INTRA Hidden &lit – a clever kind of self-reference.
7. HIGH WATER (A WEIGHT)* in HR, and reference to spring tides
8. HEGEL HE + GEL
9. UNERRINGNESS RR in (NUN IE)* + G + NESS. I’m not sure about G = “goes”.
10. ETRENNES ET RENNES – étrennes are gifts for New Year.
15. CLASSLESS LASS L in CESS (an old tax – from “assess”).
17. SIDE MEAT IDEM in SEAT
18. STALKING TALK in SING
21. TICKEN (NECKTI(e))* – a variant of TICKING, the cloth used to make matress covers, which I know from the Lord Chancellor’s nightmare song from Iolanthe: “you’re hot, and you’re cross, and you tumble and toss till there’s nothing ‘twixt you and the ticking.”
22. SIDLE S + IDLE
23. PATNA N in ATAP<. I knew the name from Patna rice.
26. VLEI Alternate letters of VaLlEy In
27. ARCH ARCHIMAGE less IMAGE

11 comments on “Azed 1948”

  3. 8ac – I got hue, only as Bradford’s lists HUEY under LONG – I didn’t know why, so thanks.

    I also agree this was the easiest AZED for a long time.

    Nick

  5. The only way I could parse 9d was by taking ‘before’ as meaning ‘in front’ so the G was generated by ‘goes in front’, ie the initial letter, but I didn’t like it very much.

  6. Um, wasn’t there a theme? Plai, presumably implying three ‘odd’ letters, d, n and t which were omitted or added to three clues. Lost my notes so I’m not sure which now.

  8. Socle was last in for me. As a relative newcomer to Azed’s puzzles, I enjoy the easier ones as I can manage them without having to trawl through Bradford’s. Very much enjoyed this one, which had a number pleasing penny-drops. Worrying times for fans of this puzzle, with the future of both the Observer and Chambers looking uncertain.

  9. Not sure who is blogging 1,949- last week’s (4/10/09) competition puzzle, but did you notice the two different clues for CRAIG in Internet and paper editions?

  10. Andrew K.
    The scheduled blogger has gone AWOL so it will probably be me. I saw your previous comment about 6d but can only find one clue. I used the pdf version which usually matches the paper itself and now all the on-line versions are the same.

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