Azed 1976

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Quite a hard puzzle this week, with a lot more unfamiliar words than usual, I think. My favourites clue are 10ac and 22dn for their unusual and confusing – but totally sound – constructions.

 
 
 
         
Across
1. Chemical from Albania in meals mixed with soup
SAL ALEMBROTH AL in MEALS* + BROTH
10. Stupid fellow once creating fiasco, losing head! 
ASINICO I nearly had to give up on explaining this, but got it just in time. It’s a kind of reverse cryptic: AS IN ICO give IASCO, which is FIASCO with its head removed.
Shakespearian word (hence “once”) for a stupid fellow.
11. Old-time dance tune: volume not allowed in foreign museum 
LOURE LOU[V]RE
12. Runic character in effect
WYNN Homophone of “win” (as “to achieve, effect”)
13. Sound choice satisfied 
PLUMMET PLUM (choice) + MET (satisfied)
15. What rubbernecks do in university, entering passage? 
GAUP U in GAP
A variant of “gawp”
17. One scarcely believable in any circumstances
AT ALL A + TALL (as in “tall story”)
18. Stony concretion rendering one often sore-headed, cross inside? 
BEZOAR ZO (cross) in BEAR (“like a bear with a sore head”)
The hybrid cattle Zo (also zho, dso, dzho or dzo) is an Azed regular.
19. Parrot about Latin stuff, the stuff of religious reformers 
LOLLARDRY L LARD in LORY
22. Something to keep the sun off a tennis court
EN TOUT CAS Double definition – a parasol and (as En-Tout-Cas) a trade name for a type of tennis court.
Both from the French expression meaning “in any case”. I don’t remember seeing anything like the “3 words or 1” in the enumeration before.
24. Product of separation revealing couples in hell
ELUATE [h]EL[l] + [d]UA[l] + [i]TE[m]
“Couples in” tells us to take the middle letters of the three words.
26. Once ready to lend quickly, with nothing to lose 
PREST PREST[O], and two (obsolete) definitions – “ready” and “to lend”
29. Compatriot of Goosen, R switching parts – opportune time 
SEEL E ELS with the first and last two letters swapped.
Retief Goosed is a South African golfer, as is Ernie ELS
30. Cereal grass spread round a meadow for a nicker?
TEA LEAF A LEA in TEF
Rhyming slang for a thief (“nicker”)
31. Scottish flower historically forming unusual logo 
GOOL LOGO*
Scots form of “gold”, meaning the marigold.
32. Hardy e.g. snowboarder may execute this 
OLLIE Double definition – a type of jump in snowboarding, and Oliver Hardy, film actor.
33. Divine sculpture of gold given to Isaac 
GODLIKE GOLD* + IKE
“Sculpture of” is an excellent anagram indicator here, giving a very smooth surface reading.
34. Nice kids dressed up in drag, smoothly polished 
SLICKENSIDED (NICE KIDS)* in SLED
down
1. They yield aphrodisiac fruit? Pass me a lot – two anyhow – once missing love
SAW PALMETTOS (PASS ME A LOT TWO)* less O
2. Still time needed after a strain 
AS YET A SYE + T
3. In spelling, a Latinate language, one spoken in central Africa 
LINGALA Hidden in “spelLING A Latin”
4. Tonguelike organ in the heads of little insects above the upper throat 
LIGULA L[ittle] I[nsects] + GULA
Interesting to have two similar-looking words in adjacent clues.
5. Describing element of lower valency – likewise ‘upper’ is shown in modified symbol 
MOLYBDOUS DO (ditto) + U in SYMBOL*
6. Like Dunfermline’s royal red, initially deep in colour 
BLUDE D in Blue
Scots form of “blood”
7. Cape Town gran getting higher degree at Oxford? 
OUMA O[xford] U[niversity] M[aster of] A[rts]
8. Sweet stuff from beetle worked up in a lather 
TREHALA (A LATHER)*
9. Rosette oddly planted in wood, dead, showing varying plant parts 
HETEROSTYLED ROSETTE* in HYLE + D
14. Little Margaret sounds like this – dizzy 
MAZY Homophone of “Maisy”, which I never knew was one of the many short forms of “Margaret”
16. Beer time in the caretaker’s office 
PORTERAGE PORTER (caretaker) + AGE
20. Gusher (boring) to supply with copious alcohol?
OIL WELL Double definition – cf “well-oiled”
21. Like a cat (rare), curiously oleic in hypnotic force? 
OCELOID OLEIC* in OD (a force imagined by Carl Reichenbach)
“Rare” refers to the word, not the ocelot.
22. Possibly brilliant decapitated noble soon separated from base 
EARL [p]EARL (brilliant) , or EARL[y] (soon), and an earl is a noble.
Very clever – it had to be EARL from the crossing letters, but the definition is confusingly sited in the middle of the clue.
23. Flips small coin before last point in the States 
UPENDS P[enny] + END in US
25. Cover (rustic-style, Scottish) we cut from periodical 
THEEK THE WEEK less WE
27. Whiff e.g. ass got following another’s tail? 
SMOKE [as]S + MOKE
28. Clay after makeover (bit of mulch on top) will do for this gardener 
M + ALI Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali after a “makeover”

9 comments on “Azed 1976”

  3. Very interesting the (3 words or 1) enumeration. In general, it won’t arise because you choose one meaning for your definition, and that’s the one you enumerate. But if you write a 2 meaning clue and use both the three-word and the one-word definition, I suppose you have to resort to this approach.

  5. Had to resort to some online assistance to finish this one, which we found very tough but also very rewarding. Lots of pleasing PDMs. 1ac and down being unfamiliar (and difficult to get even with many checking letters) definitely accounted for some of the difficulty, as usually one or other of these on a grid like this would have given us a racing start on much of the puzzle.

  6. Rare to find one clue with 2 defs and a subsidiary (Prest), and another with one def and 2 subsidiaries (Earl) in the same puzzle. Typical of Azed to add yet another oddity in En tout cas. A rewarding puzzle for the persistent solver.

  7. I think 29 ac is Els E (like Goosen R) with the parts interchanged. Same outcome, different method.

  8. Thanks, Andrew. I’m glad others found this hard too. Of the four long clues around the perimeter, only 9dn was relatively easy for me to unpick. As a consequence, had to rely far too much on aids to finish.

    Mistake at 29ac: I had SEIL. I thought the wordplay would be as suggested by David Mansell, but didn’t google further than R Goosen to find SA golfers.

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