An Azed of mixed difficulty, I found. I sailed through about three quarters of it with trouble at all, including most of the five long answers, but made much heavier weather of the last few clues.
Key:
dd = double definition
* = anagram
< = reverse
| Across | |
| 1. GALAM | GALA + M. Galam butter is named after a district of Senegal. |
| 8. INFER | INFER(tile). I think “one’s” has to be read as “one has”, with “one” as the neutral pronoun. |
| 12. LIMBER | dd |
| 13. CONGRUE | RUE replaces A in CONGA. The word is the root of “congruent”, the definition being “chime”, as in “agree with” rather than anything to do with bells. |
| 14. ARBORICULTURE | (COURBET I RURAL)*. Gustave Courbet was a French painter, though he seems to have gone in for erotic works rather than forest scenes (not that that invalidates the clue). |
| 16. SENECIOS | SEN + (SO ICE)<. "Sen" can be used in music as an abbreviation of the Italian "senza" = "about". |
| 17. REPLACE | REP (a corded cloth) + LACE (delicate fabric) |
| 19. ORRA | ARRO(w)<. A quarrel is a square-headed arrow, from the root "quart-" – no relation to the "argument" meaning. |
| 20. NISSE | Hidden – it’s “a friendly goblin”. |
| 22. HACK | HACKBUT (an arquebus) less BUT |
| 25. OBLIGEE | Composite anagram; (A BOILED EGG less GAD)* |
| 26. PITTANCE | (AT IT)* replaces E(arnings) in PENCE. |
| 29. INTERIOR GRATE | (p)RIOR(y) in INTEGRATE |
| 30. CALYPSO | PLAYS* in CO |
| 31. REEKIE | (g)REEK + I.E. – a reference to Arbroath smokies |
| 32. ELEGY | E.G. (as) in ELY |
| 33. STUCK | dd – Stück is German for piece (of music, for example) |
| . | |
| Down | |
| 1. GLAM | (canin)G + LAM |
| 2. AIR TERMINAL | ER in (MAIL TRAIN)* |
| 3. ABOLLAS | OLLA in ABS. The abolla is a Roman military cloak, so the “miles” are (Latin) soldiers. Careless solvers might have gone for the Latinate plural ABOLLAE. |
| 4. MERMAN | dd – a male mermaid, and the actress and singer, who was legendary in her own way. |
| 5. PRISCIANIST | (f)RISC(o) in PIANIST – a very similar style of clue to 29ac |
| 6. ECCE | EC + CE |
| 7. HOUNDS’-BERRY | BENDS* in HOUR + RY |
| 8. INLET | L in I NET |
| 9. FRUITAGE | (A FIG TRUE)* |
| 10. EUROSCEPTIC | COURSE* + (i)T in EPIC. UKIP (aka “the BNP in Blazers”) are rather than just Eurosceptic, but I suppose a Eurosceptic might be tempted to vote for them.. |
| 11. REEST | (f)REEST – “kipper” as a verb. |
| 15. SPRATTLE | S(car)P + RATTLE |
| 18. WHIRRET | ((pa)IR THREW)* |
| 21. ELOGES | (SEGOLE(ne))< Ségolène Royal unsuccessfully stood against Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 French presidential elections. |
| 23. SPICE | SPLICE less L, and two definition: the famous Girls, and a figurative touch |
| 24. HARPY | HAPPY with middle letter changed to R |
| 27. COOK | dd – Sea Captain James and batsman (not to be confused with another Cook). |
| 28. GEEK | GEE + K. “To suit” is one of six definitions of GEE in Chambers. |
Thanks, Andrew. My experience was similar to yours. I got three of the long ones quite quickly, which helped open up the puzzle. Annoyingly, I just missed completing it by the ‘o’ in ELOGES. I would never have seen the wordplay for that in a million years, so thanks for enlightening me!
Thanks Andrew. Nice blog. I always struggle with AZED’s shorter word clues. Last in was STUCK. Forgot my O level German!
With regard to 3 down, to be absolutely anally pedantic “miles” is the nominative singular of the Latin word for “soldier” so it should be followed by “is”. There, I enjoyed that.
I would never have worked out 21D.
It’s a pity that LAM, in the hitting sense, isn’t a noun.
I decided to go back to my old habit of solving AZED without using Chambers (this started when I found myself reading the paper in the pub on Sunday lunchtimes, and thinking: damn, can’t solve it- there’s no dictionary here…)
Amazingly enough, it all came out. (Solving time about 90 minutes).
I thought the “miles” clue was a terrific one.
Thanks for the blog.
A bit late with this question – the print version had a different clue for 25a:
“Love worker maybe given lie in one owes a favour (7)”.
Can anyone please explain the wordplay here?
jacinth, I presume it’s O (love) + BEE (worker maybe) containing (given .. in) LIG (=lie? I don’t have Chambers to hand to check this). The defintion is “one owes a favour”.
Thanks, Andrew, makes sense. Chambers confirms LIG=lie.
Thanks Andrew. That makes sense. Chambers confirms LIG=lie.