A 13 by 11 grid this week,which is in fact one of Azed’s standard sizes. We were spoiled recently with a 13 x 13 grid (2012). Still, I shouldn’t grumble as I got HCs in both December competitions so am feeling more than usually well-disposed towards Azed as a result. Nevertheless, I feel that one or two clues this week may be below his usual high standards, although there are one or two gems (e.g. 22 and 31 across). Three hidden answers also seems like one or two too many, although others may disagree. Help required, please, with 29 down. As usual, here’s a link to the pdf of the puzzle.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SCHMUCK | SCH(ool) + MUCK. |
| 7 | CISSY | Hidden in “pathic is synonymous”. |
| 12 | CHAIRDAYS | CHA + *DAIRY’S. A lovely term, used by Shakespeare only once, in Henry VI, Part 2. |
| 13 | BATON | BAT ON. Wouldn’t this clue have worked just as well if it read “Billy, don’t declare”? That would have avoided the need for the misleading capital letter. Both a baton and a billy can mean a truncheon. |
| 14 | TRIABLE | RI in TABLE. |
| 15 | GRANULAR | RANULA in GR. |
| 17 | RARING | RA + RING. |
| 19 | STEAN | TEA in SN (chemical symbol for tin). |
| 20 | ANACHRONISTIC | *HISTRIO CANCAN. |
| 22 | DANDY | There are three elements to this clue. Dandy (as an adjective) can mean “fine”; as a noun it refers to a sloop-like vessel; and the international vehicle registration code for Benin is DY (D and Y)(from its former name of Dahomey). |
| 25 | GLIOMA | G + (A MOIL) (rev). |
| 28 | CHLOROUS | H in *COLOURS; Chambers defines a chlorous acid as a hypothetical acid. |
| 30 | WISPIER | I in WISPER. It took me a while to find it, but there is a tributary of the Rhine called the Wisper. |
| 31 | DITCH | (Shore)DITCH. I wasted time trying to work out which postcodes applied to Hackney. |
| 32 | AZEOTROPE | AZE(d) + *(OR POET). |
| 33 | RESTY | Hidden in “mature stylist”. |
| 34 | NEWNESS | N + *SEWENS. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SUBGRADE | *(DUG BASER). |
| 2 | CHARA | CHARA(cters). |
| 3 | MUONIC | Initial letters of “monarchs upon” + *COIN. A lepton is a subatomic particle. |
| 4 | CHAL | Hidden in “French alienated”. |
| 5 | KATABOTHRON | *(A BROOK THAT) + N(orth). |
| 6 | FIRRING | FIR + RING. Nothing to do with fir trees, this is a variant of furring, and quite how it came to mean strips of wood is anyone’s guess. |
| 7 | CRIM | CRIM(son). |
| 8 | IDANT | *AND in IT. Id here refers to an element in the chromosome. |
| 9 | SABRETOOTH | *BEAR + T in SOOTH. |
| 10 | SYLVA | Sounds like silver. |
| 11 | STAR ANISES | RANIS in SEATS(rev). |
| 16 | ENCASHES | ASH in *SCENE. Tender here refers to legal currency. |
| 18 | GROCERY | RECOR(d)(rev) in G Y. |
| 21 | SIRIAN | NA IRIS (all rev). |
| 23 | AVIZE | VIZ in AE (which is short for aetatis, meaning aged). |
| 24 | DEPOT | TOPE + D (rev). A tope is a kind of shark. |
| 26 | MUCUS | CU in SUM (all rev). |
| 27 | PITY | IT for ART in PARTY. |
| 29 | LOPE | I’m at a loss adequately to explain this clue. It’s always the four-letter words which cause the problems! I suppose that “get a load of” could (at a stretch) mean “look”, which gives us LO; and PE is of course exercise. But “no run for” suggests that the letter R needs to be omitted from something, but from what? Or is it just a fairly lame definition? Chambers defines the word as “to run with a long stride” which is not in fact inconsistent with the action of a sprinter. |
I think:
‘get a load of’ = ‘look at’ = ‘lo’
Exercise is PE
‘no run for a sprinter’ is the definition.
Agree with MadLogician re 29 ac. A lope is an easy, long stride that can be kept up for some distance. Wolves lope, Cheetahs sprint.