Azed 2035

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I started doing this on Sunday morning while looking after my nearly-3-year-old grandson, unsurprisingly making not much progress, and didn’t get around to finishing it off until Saturday, when in my less distracted state it yielded with only a moderate amount of trouble. Good-quality clueing as always from Azed. As an experiment I’ve underlined the definition part of each clue below.

 
 
 
Across
1 . Chief priest ran distractedly round church fire (10) 
ARCH-FLAMEN CH FLAME in RAN*. A flamen was a type of Roman priest.
11 . Virgil’s family recipe for a bitter dish (5) 
MAROR MARO (family name of the Roman poet Virgil) + R[ecipe]
12 . Slick scheme the Scots issue (7) 
PLANISH PLAN (scheme) + ISH (Scots for “issue”) After guessing this I assumed it meant “slick” as in “like a plane”, or smooth, but actually it’s a verb meaning to polish.
13 . Non-mover with spinner in touch cuts like this and runs (6) 
STATOR TAT (touch) in SO (like this) + r[uns]
14 . Old scallywag making name in early fiddle (5) 
RONTE N in ROTE. RONTE is an old form of “runt”
15 . Bad gardener’s bungled and this composite died (7) 
GERBERA Composite (!) anagram – (BAD GARDENER)* = AND GERBERA D
16 . Youthful mistake involving love, unknown (6) 
BOYISH O Y in BISH
17 . Top clubs, needing forward, fish around (6) 
BASTOS TO in BASS. Basto is the Ace of Clubs
18 . Changing sterling loses grand – it’s an Aussie dodge (7) 
SLINTER Anagram of STERLING less G
24 . Frothy glucoside hospital accepts in operation? The reverse (7) 
SAPONIN (IN OP) reversed in SAN
26 . What’ll set everyone back: not one special, just endless plains! (6) 
LLANOS ALL reversed + NO S. The surface refers to the Azed puzzles themselves, which are either “plain” (like this one) or “special” (with a gimmick of some kind, like the recent “Give and Take”)
28 . Compound used as pigment – some never deteriorates (6) 
VERDET Hiddein in neVER DETeriorates
30 . Strain, the ultimate for downcast Orsino, distraught (7) 
TORSION Anagram of [distraugh]T ORSINO
31 . Component of visual purple you’ll need because of following other people’s (5) 
OPSIN OP’S + IN. “Because of” is one of many definitions of IN in Chambers, but I can’t see any justification for OP = Other People Thanks to sidey for pointing out that C. lists “OP’s” = “Other people’s”
32 . Religious community – it’s lost out in preference (6) 
PRIORY PRIOR[it]Y
33 . Debates about getting on in the law, famously? (7) 
REASONS RE + ON in ASS, from Mr Bumble’s “If the law supposes that, …the law is a ass—a idiot” from Oliver Twist
34 . Following breakdown lorry in Luton Town? (5, 2 words) 
ON TOW Hidden in lutON TOWn
35 . Scotsman’s drunk an aperitif (not the last) in e.g. Paris (10) 
CAPERNOITY A PERNO[d] in CITY
 
Down
2 . Where vermin lurk, later running round house (7) 
RATHOLE HO in LATER*
3 . I briefly put in call for nuts (5) 
CRAZY AZ (AZ is short for Azed=”I”, i.e. the setter) in CRY
4 . Reconstructed neolith establishing special link (7) 
HOTLINE NEOLITH*
5 . Atmosphere in crowded tavern, chilliness restricting women? (6) 
FROWST W in FROST. Frowst is “hot stuffy fustiness”, which you might get in a crowded tavern.
6 . What can come into the equation when goddess replaces ham in The Palace? (7) 
ALGEBRA GE replaces HAM in ALHAMBRA
7 . Damage on parapet, part removed? This may check erosion (6) 
MARRAM MAR + RAM[part]. Marram grass grows on sand dunes, and prevents them from blowing away.
8 . Seine below island in city? Increasing numbers reach it nowadays (6) 
NINETY I NET in N.Y. Referring to the age of 90.
9 . A feature of Dante’s tropes? (5) 
ESTRO Hidden in dantE’S TROpes &lit. It’s an Italian word (hence Dante) for “enthusiasm or height of poetic inspiration”
10 . Trap Shane set spinning yard – wherein game’ll get started (10) 
PHEASANTRY (TRAP SHANE)* + Y. It’s where pheasants are reared, so “where game starts”
13 . Junior, passionate about nothing, rarely twitching (10) 
SUBSULTORY SUB (junior) + O in SULTRY
19 . Old servant pinching the sauce? There’s a legal excuse (7) 
ESSOYNE SOY 9sauce) in ESNE (an Anglo-saxon domestic slave)
20 . Damper indoors? That’s silly (7) 
SORDINO INDOORS*. Sordino is Italian for the mute used on violins and other stringed instruments.
21 . Worrying development in Blackpool for entertainer there? (7) 
PIERROT “PIER ROT” would be a problem for Blackpool, which has three of them. I’d be surprised if there are many pierrots performing in Blackpool these days.
22 . President mostly imbibing southern wine (6) 
BARSAC S in BARAC[k Obama]
23 . Like many gas meters you’ll find through entering confined space (6) 
COIN OP IN in COOP. I’m doubtful about there being “many” coin-operated gas meters left, though I believe they are still available (at exorbitant mark-up) for people who have trouble paying the bills.
25 . What visitors climb to reach front door (and not salesperson turning up) (6) 
PERRON NOR REP reversed. Explanation and picture of a perron here
27 . Learner works without a desk-top support (5) 
LOPER L + OPER[a]
29 . Indian cotton, creased – hot iron circumvents that (5) 
DHOTI Hidden in creaseD HOT Iron. Very well hidden too, as this one one of the last answers I got. I knew the word dhoti as a loincloth, but it can also mean the type of cloth used,

5 comments on “Azed 2035”

  1. A nice puzzle, but like you I couldn’t parse OPSIN- I got that one from the definition. Presumably, ‘o’ is ‘other’ and ‘p’ is ‘people’, but can’t find them in ‘C’.

    Now for a clue for today’s comp!

  2. Thank you, Andrew – particularly for the picture of a perron – not at all what I’d imagined from the dictionary definition. I visualised a grand porticoed entrance with steps and terrace.

    Clue 15 fascinates me. I couldn’t explain GERBERA although I could ‘see’ all the letters. What an intriguing contrivance. I’ve seen the idea used before but not quite this deviously.

  3. Nice blog Andrew. I like the underlined definitions, but what will you do with &lits?

    OP’s is in Chambers just above opsin. This from the OED is more informative O.P.’s n. (also O.P.) slang (chiefly U.S.) other people’s (cigarettes or alcoholic drink); freq. humorously as a supposed brand name

  4. Thanks Sidey – I was looking under O, P and OP so missed the fact that it was listed as OP’s.

    For &lits – see 9 down, where the whole clue is underlined!

  5. Thanks all
    I never cease to be amazed at Azed’s ingenuity and the extreme pleasure of ‘beating’ him.
    This Easter the whole family rented a very large Victorian house in Whitby.
    Anyone who knows Whitby will understand that it had two ‘perrons’, one leading to the basement(!) and the second to the ground floor.
    The steps were very useful for family photos and the little terraces were great for relaxing on.

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