Azed 1994

by

A fairly straightforward Azed, with not too much tricky wordplay; quite a few words that needed confirmation from Chambers, though. I may have misunderstood the wordplay at 11a.

Thanks to people who pointed out discrepancies between online and printed versions at 11a and 12d.

Across
1 EGGS-AND-BACON EGGS = bombs; C= constant; *(abandon). Another name for the perennial Birdsfoot trefoil
10 PARTNER PAR = equality; RENT, reversed
11 RURP I thought this was an anagram of ‘upper regions’ minus ‘ones peg’, but I am left with a superfluous I; clarification welcome. Anyway a rurp (lovely word) is a very small hook-like piton used in mountaineering. Clarification — apparently the printed version included the word ‘is’, which was not in the version on the website.
13 SWEET-OIL WEE T = very little time; in SOIL = earth. Olive oil; rape-oil; any oil of mild pleasant taste
14 IDENT I = one; DENT = negative effect, esp a reduction in an amount of money. A short film or sound sequence used in broadcasting to identify the channel or station.
15 VENAL VENA = blood vessel; L = onset of leukaemia
16 CASTRATI CAST = actors; *(arti). Castrati would not sing the lower notes.
18 KROO K = first in ‘knitted’; ROO = jumper (kangaroo). A member of a W African people of the coast of Liberia, noted as seamen. Also Krumen
20 DETUNES *(études n). To alter the oscillations of (violin strings, an electronic circuit, etc); to reduce the performance and efficiency of (a motor-car engine).
22 LOCULES ‘Hercules’ with LO (= look) for ‘her’. In ancient catacombs, small recesses for holding urns
24 TOST TOT = small drink; S = second. Rare (Spenserian) past participle of ‘toss’
27 STEATITE *(tie taste)
30 UREDO RED = rust; in UO = centrepiece of quod. &lit, because ‘rust’ is also the definition: rust (fungal disease) in plants; a rust-fungus in its summer stage.
31 SANER Hidden in ‘class an error’
32 SEMIOTIC *(it comes I), I being the symbol for electric current
33 BOUN O = egg; in BUN
34 ENTERIC ENTICER, with the last two letters moved to the inside (‘swallowed’)
35 MISDEMEANANT *(meant maidens)
Down
2 GAYDAR AY = always; *(drag). Chambers rather solemnly says: ‘the supposed ability of a person, esp a homosexual, to sense whether or not someone else is homosexual’.
3 GREES ‘Agrees’ without its first letter. A flight of steps (given under gree in Chambers)
4 STENTOUR SOUR = peevish; TENT = heed; to take heed or notice of, attend to. A stentmaster, a person who determines the amount of tax to be paid
5 NEW-MADE EDAM = cheese; WEN = swelling; all reversed
6 DREST D = dead; REST = etcetera. Obsolete past participle of ‘dress’
7 BREVITY BY = in respect of; REV = man in pulpit; IT. Brevity would be a desirable quality of a sermon.
8 CRONK R = queen; in CONK = head. ‘Victorian’ here is used to indicate ‘Australian’ — both ‘conk’ and ‘cronk’ are Australian words.
9 OPIATE *(to a pie)
10 PRICK-LOUSE SULK = resentment, reversed; O = nought; in PRICE = cost. Scottish word for tailor
12 ALLOSTERIC LOST = not found; ALE = beer; ERIC = the blood-fine paid by a murderer to his victim’s family in old Irish law. Relating to proteins, particularly enzymes, which change their three-dimensional shape on binding with a smaller molecule which is not a substrate, often leading to altered activity. Gaufrid is correct — the wordplay in the online version does give an extra E, which I didn’t spot. But now we learn that the printed version had ‘full-flavoured mostly’ rather than ‘fine’.
17 OUT-TAKEN U = opening of umbrella; TT = dry; in OAKEN. Obsolete word meaning ‘except’
19 ALSOONE ALSO = further; ONE = single. Another Spenserian word
21 ESERINE I can’t quite work out the wordplay — SER[a] = mostly watery liquids (plural of ‘serum’); old words for ‘eyes’ are ‘eyne’ or ‘een’; I can’t find the ‘I’. Another name for physostigmine

Thanks for the correction — I didn’t spot EINE in Chambers.
23 OUREBI URE = the urus, an extinct wild ox; in OBI = Obeah. Same as Oribi
25 STEP-IN P = power; in STEIN
26 DEMOS Double definition — the people; demo disks
28 TOTEM TOTE = totalizator, something on which you can bet; M= money. Any species of living or inanimate thing regarded, and often venerated, as an outward symbol of an existing intimate unseen relation, often adopted as an emblem or symbol of a family, clan or tribe (esp in Native American society).
29 INFRA INFA[my] = disgrace, without ‘my’; R = start of rehab; ‘later on’ is the definition.

11 comments on “Azed 1994”

  1. Thanks for the blog Jetdoc. I was puzzled by 11ac too – it looks suspiciously like an “Azed slip” to me.

    2dn – I don’t want to get too PC about it, but gay=in drag jarred with me a bit.

  4. 11: RURP is an anagram of ‘upper regions’ minus ‘is peg one’. The apostrophe ‘s together with hammered is the anagram indicator.

  6. The confusion about 11ac has arisen because the on-line version of the clue has ‘This is peg one’s ….’ whereas the pdf version only has ‘This peg one’s ….’. In the latter case it would be necessary to expand the ‘s to is to form the anagram.

    There also seems to be an error in 12dn where the wordplay gives an extra E.

  8. There was apparently a discrepancy between the paper and online versions at 12d. In my paper, the clue read ‘Relating to enzymes not found in beer, full-flavoured mostly’, which I solved as LOST in ALE + RIC(H), while the online print version replaced ‘full-flavoured mostly’ with ‘fine’. As Gaufrid points out ‘ERIC’ for fine gives a superfluous ‘E’.

  10. I have just checked and the on-line interactive version has the correct clue for 12dn, as well as 11ac. The pdf version still has both errors.

    Previously my impression had been that, on-line, the pdf version was the more accurate, matching that appearing in the paper, and that any errors were more likely to occur in the interactive version. It seems that this is no longer the case.

  11. PS Of course the Guardian has had the last week in which to correct the interactive version if the discrepancies with the paper have been noticed and/or reported. I don’t suppose anyone will remember what was actually in the interactive version when it first appeared last Sunday.

Comments are closed.