Nick: My first blog on AZED and luckily it was a (fairly!) straight forward plod after the herculean ‘Christmas Parcels’ competition (and what a word to clue to boot!). Some nice words this week (as usual) and also nice to learn some real meanings of words that get lost in modern day parlance.
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Superscript numbers¹²³ refer to headwords listed in Chambers (2008).
Legend to solution comments:
* = anagram.
< = word(s) reversed.
d.d. = double definition.
c.d.d. = cryptic double definition.
| Across | |||
| 1. | CHRESTOMATHIC | (THAT’S MORE)* in CHIC | |
| 11. | OOMPH | (HP + MOO)< ; ‘that’s it’ = sex appeal = oomph. I spent ages trying to parse the word play of this clue as 00 MPH. |
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| 13. | COMMO | COMMO(n) ; Trot(skyist/skyite) = communist – Aust. slang. | |
| 14. | PLOT² | P(i)LOT | |
| 15. | OTTOMAN | OTT + (the Sultanate of) OMAN | |
| 16. | REMEDIAL | (c)REME + DIAL | |
| 18. | TEMPORISER | (SPIROMETER)* Nice anagram. |
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| 19. | LATEST | LA + TEST | |
| 22. | WRASSE | WASSER with the tail ‘R’ moved to the second position. I am still not sure ‘German river’ could mean wasser, as I could only find wasser = water. (See comments below about this clue). |
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| 24. | ANTIMATTER | A NATTER around TIM ; ayurveda = Traditional Indian Medicine. | |
| 29. | LORDLIKE | (KILLED)* around OR ; Ref. Lord Lucan. A sort of &LIT. – maybe AZED knows more than the police? |
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| 30. | TIBETAN | (BITTEN)* around A A Tibetan terrier is not a terrier, hence the strange definition of ‘misnamed terrier’. |
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| 31. | PLIM | LIMP with the ‘P’ moved to the front. | |
| 32. | ANILE | ANI + LE | |
| 33. | MANET | d.d. Apart from the artist, manet is a direction for an actor/actress to remain on stage. | |
| 34. | MAGISTRATURES | MATURES around (A GIST + R) | |
| Down | |||
| 1. | CAPROLACTAM | (CAROL)* inbetween CAP and TAM | |
| 2. | HOLEY | HO + LEY | |
| 3. | ROOMETTE | (TOME)* in ROTE³ | |
| 4. | SPADES | c.d.d. suit = ♠; spade³ = spado – a castrated person; the word ‘alter¹(ed)’ once meant to castrate(d). The ‘we’ in this clue indicates the plural is required, hence spados = spades. This was the last clue I solved, even though with the checking letters and the obvious definition it had to be SPADES; it took me over 4 hours and lots of beer to parse the clue correctly. The full clue: ‘Suit we got altered years ago‘ A tour de force from AZED. |
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| 5. | THAIM | hidden: perTH AIMless Sneaky – with Perth in there the solver could expect a Scottish or Australian ref. |
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| 6. | MATLOW | MAT + LOW Being from Pompey, and as my Father was a matlow, this came quickly. The ‘seaman’ part was a nice detraction though, leading solvers to expect an AB ~TAR et al in there somewhere. |
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| 7. | ACTOR | AC + TOR | |
| 8. | TOOT² | T + (TOO)< | |
| 9. | IMAGES | IS around MAGE A single wise king is a magus -> mage, hence the three (as plural) are magi. |
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| 10. | CONTRETEMPS | (T + ENTER)* in COMPS ‘comps’ = ‘monthly AZ(ed) affairs’ – very nice. |
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| 12. | SOAPSTONE | SOAPS + TONE | |
| 17. | ASSAILER | (A LASS IRE)* Very loose definition I thought. |
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| 20. | ANGINA | (p)ANG + IN + A There you go – I learnt something new with what this word really meant. |
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| 21. | TALANT | T + A + (p)LANT ALAN T(itchmarsh) A pun sort of clue Ref. Monty Don, TV gardener. Monty D(on) implies what he does is (p)LANT. See comment #2 – I parsed this clue totally wrong, but arrived at the correct solution 🙂 ‘single’ = a hawk’s talon, of which TALANT is Spensers form. |
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| 23. | RED HAT | (HATRED)* So simple for an AZED clue I did not go for this at first. |
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| 25. | MITES | hidden: herMIT ESurient | |
| 26. | TREMA | T + REMA(in) | |
| 27. | SKITE | S + KIT + E Another Aust. word, hence ‘Ponting’, Australian cricketer, as the indicator. Superior is almost superfluous (KIT higher up than E), but was needed/added to make the clue surface reading parse nicely I feel. |
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| 28. | DELI | DELI(berate) Another ‘so obvious’ type clue that makes it quite difficult. I spent ages messing about with ‘delicate’, trying to remove the ‘cate’ part. |
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Thanks for the blog, Nick.
In 22a, isn’t the wordplay that “wasser” is “what’s in a German river”, not that it means a river in German?
Thanks for this.
I thought the counterpart to Monty D(on) in 21d was ALAN T(itchmarsh), though I completely failed to understand the definition.
Same thoughts as Tom_I on “wasser”.
If someone could explain the definition of TOOT, I’d be happy!
Chambers: toot vi to pry, peer, peep about (Spenser).
Jerb, 8dn ‘TOOT’ see Chambers under toot[2] – it is a Spenser word meaning ‘to peer’.
Peer, old-fashioned…’.
As to ‘wasser’ – I see now – ‘water'[wasser] is in a German river with the tail moved… to make the fish which could also be in a German river. Ummm… a bit indirect I feel, but fair I suppose 🙂
Nick
Sorry, last comment re TOOT was meant for Tom_I.
Nick
I took the definition in 22 to just be “bony fish”, the rest of the clue being subsidiary indication. Isn’t wrasse a sea fish, rather than fresh water?
Jerb, comment #2 – Sorry I missed this, and have updated the blog to reflect the correct parsing of 21dn ‘TALANT’.
Nick 🙂
Thanks, Tom and Nick – I was predictably misdirected by the sense of “peer”. And being in an airport at the time and not having Chambers, I couldn’t find that definition of “single” in 21d anywhere, so it was a wild guess (and not the only wild guess!)
Thanks, Nick. I enjoyed this and got it all out, except for the ‘I’ in ANILE. Bit of a confidence booster after making no headway at all with the Parcels puzzle!