Nick: A fairly tough AZED this week, I felt, but with some entertaining word play construction going on. There are several solution words I have never heard of this time around. A good solve.
The ‘gotcha’ clue is 13ac, and I have a query in 28dn.
Incidentally, if you are interested, I use my own perl script I coded to produce the ‘trafites’ blogs, and finally got around to converting it to a CGI script on-line so it can be used easily by anyone with just a text editor – it can be found here.
Legend to solution comments:
* = anagram
< = word reversed
| Across | |||
| 1. | Aid to mounting pin-ups got fixed on frame of cork (11) | ||
| UPPING-STOCK | (PIN-UPS GOT*)+C(or)K a block stood on to mount tall horses, or a block stood on by small people mounting normal sized horses |
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| 11. | Player 50% depleted has king to beat (4) | ||
| YERK | (pla)YER+K a dialect word – ‘to beat’ – that I have never heard of |
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| 12. | Instrument shortened on keel at Actium? (7) | ||
| OCARINA | O(n)+CARINA(a keel-like ridge). ‘OCARINA’ is a musical instrument. the ref. to Actium is to the adapted keels used on the boats during battle for ramming – ‘CARINA’s’ I guess. |
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| 13. | Parish priest having retired given time to spout (5) | ||
| ERUCT | (CURÉ<)+T The ‘gotcha’ clue – if guessed, a lot of people will enter ‘ERUPT’ here, which effectively means the same as ‘ERUCT’ – the ‘C’ is an unch, so as a usual ‘gotcha’ clue, solvers do need to work it out correctly. |
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| 14. | With damaged limb has to bind wings of ree or small curlew (7) | ||
| WIMBREL | W(ith)+(R(e)E in (LIMB*)) W(H)IMBREL is a small curlew |
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| 15. | Bowler needs good one, great when it penetrates Cyril W’s partner? (6) | ||
| LENGTH | gt(great) in LEN H(utton) – see Cyril Washbrook I feel without the Internet, these type of clues could be unsolvable |
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| 17. | Scots joint I preferred to English in what precedes this (4) | ||
| LITH | I replacing ENG in the solution to 15ac! | ||
| 18. | Wearing university hat, useless (7) | ||
| INUTILE | IN(wearing)+U+TILE(hat) | ||
| 19. | Steam bananas in sloppy food we eat together (9) | ||
| MESSMATES | MESS around (STEAM*) strange clue, as ‘MESS’ appears ‘as is’ in the solution |
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| 23. | Ed Stewart in new guise as lender to Scottish house buyer? (9) | ||
| WADSETTER | (ED STEWART*) a mortgagee in Scotland If you know who Ed Stewart is, award yourself a crackerjack (“CRACKERJACK”) pencil |
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| 25. | Oil lamp from Panama, with a hollow in the centre (7) | ||
| PADELLA | A DELL(hollow) in PA | ||
| 27. | Artless cordiality twice making one giggle? (4) | ||
| HE-HE | HE(art)+HE(art) I do not like forms such as ‘artless’ = with ‘art’ removed |
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| 30. | Mid point of suture sewn up as in half cut? (6) | ||
| NASION | (AS IN*)+ON(drunk, i.e. half cut) I found this very difficult to parse, until I saw the lager light – usually ‘on’ in cryptic clues implies ‘drunk’, i.e. an anagram indicator, but I cannot recall seeing it clued this way around before |
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| 31. | Caustic making you tender if spread round middle of toe (7) | ||
| ERODENT | (TENDER*) around (t)O(e) | ||
| 32. | Gendarme ingests nothing like an acid (5) | ||
| FOLIC | O in FLIC ‘FLIC’ is French for a policeman |
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| 33. | Let’s suppose the girl took food, by the sound of it glutted (7) | ||
| SATIATE | homophone: ‘SAY SHE ATE’ | ||
| 34. | Couples in season changing places, except that mentioned (4) | ||
| ELSE | SEEL(season) with the double letter pairs exchanging positions | ||
| 35. | Wenger changing round Milan team – it produces a tasty stimulant (11) | ||
| WINTERGREEN | (WENGER*) around INTER( milan) | ||
| Down | |||
| 2. | Medicinal bark for each one restricted by age (7) | ||
| PEREIRA | PER(for each)+(I in ERA) the bark from a S.American tree |
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| 3. | Hamper contains diminutive one with moulded glass ornament (7) | ||
| PRUNTED | RUNT in PED(hamper) a strange word to do with moulded glass ornaments, again never heard of it (or the ornaments) |
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| 4. | Reason for infanta’s visit (t’ retinue having lost heart drifting off)? (7) | ||
| NUT-TREE | (T’ RET(i)NUE*) for an explanation of the definition, see this HERE |
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| 5. | ‘To the devil, sirrah!’ It’s howl e.g. when infuriated (9, 2 words) | ||
| GO WHISTLE | (IT’S HOWL E.G.*) Shakespearean phrase meaning ‘go to the devil’! |
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| 6. | Pack round end of hunt are beginning to mutter quietly (4) | ||
| TAMP | (hun)T+A(re, the measure)+M(utter)+P very convoluted word play I have never heard of ‘TAMP’ meaning ‘to pack around’ |
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| 7. | Round on R & A punctuated by a little socket? (6) | ||
| ORBITA | O+(BIT in R & A) | ||
| 8. | Clouds? You may see risible actors cast in this lost base (5) | ||
| CIRRI | composite anagram: RISIBLE ACTORS minus LOST BASE = (RIICR*) the pural of the cirrus cloud |
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| 9. | Recognized season’s end in gardens (4) | ||
| KNEW | (seaso)N in KEW(gardens) | ||
| 10. | Old violet round cell’s beginning to etiolate badly – showing this? (11) | ||
| PALLESCENCE | PANCE(old word for pansy) around (CELLS+E(tiolate)*) | ||
| 11. | Red-tops scream, ‘Section in power’s bonkers’ (11, 2 words) | ||
| YELLOW PRESS | YELL+(S(ection) in (POWERS*)) these are sensationalist newspapers, typical of the ‘red-tops’ in the UK |
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| 16. | In earth, as of old, ants will get busy without delay (9) | ||
| INSTANTER | (ANTS*) in INTER this ‘er word is in Chambers, meaning ‘without delay’ in legal speak |
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| 20. | It warns of poor visibility all round, as amid thrashing of gam (7) | ||
| MEGAFOG | E.G.(as) in (OF GAM) a fog signal device, another word I have never heard of |
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| 21. | Espalier and something to train up it, badly installed? (7) | ||
| TREILLE | ILL in TREE(something to train up it) | ||
| 22. | Parrot (maybe) ‘e selected and I caged (7) | ||
| ECHOISE | ‘E+(I in CHOSE) | ||
| 24. | Submit square, not quite finishing (6, 2 words) | ||
| SEND IN | S+ENDIN(g) | ||
| 26. | Loincloth I had taken up, very warm inside (5) | ||
| DHOTI | HOT in (I’D<) | ||
| 28. | Fine for Jock having created a disturbance, led off (4) | ||
| BRAW | BRAW(led) a Scottish word meaning ‘fine, slendid’ I can’t see how ‘led off’ means the removal of ‘L’? |
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| 29. | Molten metal passes through this opening (last second) (4) | ||
| GEAT | GATE(opening) with the last letter ‘E’ moved to the second position (semi &lit?) | ||
| ————————- | |||
28d – try BRAW(LED) for ‘created a disturbance’, not just the disturbance itself.
Re: 28dn – So blooming obvious – I think what happened here was I read the definition of ‘brawl’ in Chambers, and subconsciously made the clue read ‘create a disturbance without re-reading it.
The blog is updated.
Nick
Thanks for explaining 13. I fell for ERUPT, and couldn’t see the wordplay. Now I know why! Good job I didn’t send in a solution.
Today’s puzzle seems a bit easier than this one.
Regards to all.
Thanks for the blog, and nice layout too.
6dn : when I was younger I used to work on building sites for some extra money. I had to ‘tamp’ down the concrete with a big stick to get air out and make sure it got into all corners of the shuttering, never occured to me at the time this would turn out to be useful for crossword solving.
Thanks for the blog. We found this very tough indeed, and have only just finished it the Sunday after it was published! Thought 4dn was a bit obscure, but I suppose that’s one of the joys of Azed.
Thanks Nick for a very informative blog.
As usual with Azed many totally new words,including the usual Scottish obscurities.The WADSETTER anagram was great,I remember listening to ‘Stewpot’ on the old pirate station Radio London!
I think 15 across would present few problems to (English) cricket fans,the two batsmen mentioned still hold the record for the highest opening partnership in a test match for England.
Had to Google 4 down,I seem to have forgotten all the nursery rhymes I learnt – it was a long time ago!