Nick: Typical Azed competition crossword this week, being a tad more difficult than normal plain puzzles; 7½/10 on the Azedian hardness scale for me.
I am not impressed (my own personal view, being a FSF member) with Chambers having 17ac listed making it a genericized trademark – please see the link at that clue.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Chinese ruler, one requiring something to deal with the insects (8) | ||
| CHLORDAN | CH+LORD+AN | ||
| 7. | A tangle? Net’s there in one with it (4) | ||
| ALGA | (A TANGLE*) minus NET a sort of reverse composite anagram |
||
| 10. | No serious affair, a tiny thing involving what’s true but unsteady (9) | ||
| AMOURETTE | (TRUE*) in (A MOTE)(a tiny thing) | ||
| 12. | The old succumb to sea-sickness? Sailors on board hasten as before (6) | ||
| SPURNE | RN in SPUE[spew] | ||
| 13. | A traditional Afghan council requiring day of fasting locally? (6) | ||
| ASHURA | A+SHURA | ||
| 14. | Wells maybe the sea breaks into, yielding fine gravel (7) | ||
| HOGGING | OGGIN in HG[wells] | ||
| 16. | Big win at the pokies? Second with reserve fund backed (6) | ||
| MOTSER | MO+(REST<) | ||
| 17. | Recording system for capturing ‘fab’ number? (4) | ||
| TIVO | IV[fab ‘four’] in TO(for) see Tivoization |
||
| 18. | What can be mistaken for this American forest? Taiga can (8) | ||
| CAATINGA | (TAIGA CAN*) | ||
| 21. | Spiny creature nipping booby in swimming races (8) | ||
| RASCASSE | ASS in (RACES*) | ||
| 23. | Look concealed by those embarrassed (4) | ||
| SEEM | hidden: thoSE EMbarrassed | ||
| 24. | Wannabes do (a father taking lead in publicity) (6) | ||
| ASPIRE | P in (A SIRE) | ||
| 29. | Nigerian king has foreign company protecting church vessels (7) | ||
| CIBORIA | (IBO+R) in CIA | ||
| 30. | Pastor distributed ancient service book (6) | ||
| PORTAS | (PASTOR)* | ||
| *31. | Vigorous (6) | ||
| ROBUST | the competition word to clue | ||
| 32. | Spiny fish ‘urts badly – feelin’ pain inside (9) | ||
| TRACHINUS | ACHIN’ in (‘URTS*) | ||
| 33. | Indian drum, back to front in luggage compartment (4) | ||
| DHOL | HOLD with the ‘D’ moved to the front | ||
| 34. | Part of bee’s anatomy: one’s achy when it’s deployed (8) | ||
| HONEY-SAC | (ONE’S ACHY*) | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Following misguided path, crass walker becomes low on funds (12) | ||
| CASH-STRAPPED | (PATH CRASS*)+PED | ||
| 2. | Bodily deficiency, advanced, more diseased, we heah? (7) | ||
| HYPOXIA | homophone: HIGH+POXIER | ||
| 3. | Portly actor once losing weight? He’s good fun (5) | ||
| LAUGH | [charles] LAUGH[ton] | ||
| 4. | Knight errant abroad discarding extremes of household chore? (5) | ||
| RONIN | (i)RONIN(g) | ||
| 5. | Chaperones not available among cavorting nudes (7) | ||
| DUENNAS | N/A in (NUDES*) | ||
| 6. | E.g. Sumatran on site, working (6) | ||
| NESIOT | (ON SITE*) | ||
| 7. | Reject as spurious amateur article about position coming up (8) | ||
| ATHETISE | A+(THE around (SITE<)) | ||
| 8. | Old clothes lined with wool left by court maiden long ago (5) | ||
| GERLE | GERE(old clothes) around (woo)L[court left!] | ||
| 9. | A magic mantra when this is this (12) | ||
| ANAGRAMMATIC | (A MAGIC MANTRA*) | ||
| 11. | Is leaving some Bantus for piecework? (4) | ||
| TUTS | TUTS(is) | ||
| 15. | Sun brings in melting of ice and cheers of community (8) | ||
| SOCIETAL | ((ICE*)+TA!) in SOL | ||
| 19. | A drug I take internally dispersed pains (7) | ||
| ASPIRIN | I+R[take] in (PAINS*) | ||
| 20. | Seating arranged to display shrub (7) | ||
| GENISTA | (SEATING)* | ||
| 22. | The old take possession of space in front of church (6) | ||
| AREACH | AREA+CH | ||
| 25. | Tardigrade mammal, one of deadly group (5) | ||
| SLOTH | one of the seven deadly sins | ||
| 26. | What Scots have for breakfast, losing itch for fry, singularly? (4) | ||
| PARR | PARR(itch)=porridge | ||
| 27. | What’s in a steak? Bit of brisket has all-round quality (5) | ||
| T-BONE | TONE around B | ||
| 28. | After time Muscovite maybe is seen to pack up (5) | ||
| TRUSS | RUSS(ian) after T | ||
| … | |||
Thanks Azed for the usual excellent puzzle and Nick fot the blog. Favourite clue the wonderfully apt 9dn.
A couple of minor typos in the blog:
16ac: MO + REST<
24ac: P in (A SIRE), or it could be A + (P in SIRE)
Thanks, corrected.
Nick
Thanks all
Another very enjoyable exercise.
I never thought I would say this about an AZED but it was made slightly too straightforward by two long solutions (1d, 9d) which I solved very quickly.
Does anyone else think that the 1st prize winning clue to ROBUST, namely “Tough as old boots from crate in cobblers” (bus in rot), should have an apostrophe in cobblers for it to read correctly in the plain reading? That would then render the cryptic indication unsound, wouldn’t it?