Azed 2106

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A puzzle in the middle of the Azed scale of difficulty, with no particularly involved clue construction, but a few rather obscure references needing lookups in Chambers and elsewhere. As always, quality clueing throughout and a good Sunday workout.

 
 
 
Across
1. Time for cobbling old meals together? Fraud howls about fish, dead (13)
SCAMBLING-DAYS SCAM + LING D in BAYS. “Days of makeshift meals in lent”, marked as obsolete, hence the “old”
11. Sectarian keen on love, quick to limit fighting? Not half (8)
FAMILIST MILI[tant] in FAST. The Familists were are 16C sect also called Family of Love
13. Aloft e.g. in E. Asian tree (4)
UPAS UP AS
14. Showing gut with a big jumper, is one less susceptible to tickling? (8)
GILLAROO GILL (to gut a fish) + A + [kanga]ROO
15. Separate extracts from Basil Fawlty waiting to be dredged up? (5)
SILTY baSIL fawlTY
16. One coming out of supermarket (say) surrenders bob for a sticker (6)
HOPPER [s]HOPPER. A hopper can be “a jack or sticker of a piano”
19. Regal CD, ER shown playing with pets (8)
SCEPTRED (CD ER PETS)*
21. Metal grating (4)
IRON Double definition. Chambers gives “grating” as an adjectival meaning of IRON – nothing to do with gridirons, as I assumed when I solved the clue.
22. Last meal for quite a time? Hires cooks (5)
SEHRI HIRES*. Sehri is a meal eaten before sunrise during Ramadan.
24. Most of those in Madagascar had other (various) addresses initially (4)
HOVA Initial letters
25. No see will regularly follow this translation of e.g. Milton, enduring (8)
LONGTIME Reference to the phrase “Long time no see”, (MILTON EG)* and “enduring”
28. Well-informed about what’s hinged along the top? (6)
UP-OVER UP (well-informed) + OVER (about). A variant of “up-and-over”, e.g. as used to describe garage doors.
31. Deadly snake: put overturned box on it (5)
KRAIT ARK< + IT
32. One has several jets aloft, not in airlines, e.g., flying (8)
GASELIER Anagram of (AIRLINES less IN + EG). A kind of chandelier for gas lights
33. Spy creating annoyance station dismissed (4)
MOLE MOLE[station]
34. ‘Rear cover for cavalrymen’ confused a solver, putting in ‘line’ (8)
OVERALLS L in (A SOLVER)*. Overalls can mean “cavalryman’s trousers”, which would cover his rear, among other parts.
35. Advocate of threesomes treats Rita and Lil, going out (13)
TRILATERALIST (TREATS RITA LIL)*, with a nicely cheeky surface reading
 
Down
2. Nacre-like mollusc from Spanish port, peso given for its centre (5)
CAPIZ CADIZ with P replacing the middle letter. A mollusc with a translucent shell (apparently sometimes used to make chandeliers, and perhaps also gasoliers)
3. Hazy Moulin Rouge regular without ‘supporting’ quartet? (7)
MISTING MISTINGUETT less the last four letters. I was rather surprised to find that this is the correct spelling, not Mistinguette.
4. Little fish taken aboard humble yawl (4)
BLEY Hidden
5. Enzyme that seals relative position round jaw? (6)
LIGASE GAS (talk at length, “jaw”) in LIE
6. ‘Pertaining to goddess’ is first clue often (5)
ISIAC IS 1AC
7. Former kitchen servant taking cut in profit (7)
GALOPIN LOP in GAIN
8. Jock’s lowering bud that’s seen to climb (4)
DRAP PARD< Pard is short for “pardner”, as is Westerns etc, and DRAP is a Scots form of “drop” = “lowering”
9. Publicize substitute clipped in near collision when flying (7)
AIRPROX AIR + PROX[y]. A near-miss in aviation
10. Old poet’s passed by a grove regularly (4)
YGOE Alternate letters of bY a GrOvE. Spensereian past participle of “go”
11. If guy endlessly lusts, excited, she’d certainly let herself go! (9)
FUSTILUGS (IF GU[y] LUSTS)*. “A gross overgrown person, esp. a woman”, from “fust”=a mouldy smell
12. Fossil plants, nameless order embraced by eccentric sect (9)
CORDAITES ORDAI[n] in SECT*
17. Parts of dressing-gowns switched? It renders parallel turns unfeasible! (7)
MONOSKI KIMONOS with “parts switched”
18. Her Bentley was no good, grant having been raised in dodgy sale (7)
ESTELLA LET< in SALE*. Reference to Estella Havisham in Great Expectations, who marries the no-good (and possibly abusive) Bentley Drummle for his money.
20. Warm rather male clothes (7)
THERMAL Hidden
23. One’s breeding, shown by monarch giving head at Eton precedence? (6)
REARER REAR + ER. “Rear“ is a “a ..school lavatory”, and “head” (more often “heads”) is nautical slang for a toilet. The definition has to be read as “One is breeding”.
26. Shift no longer current? That’s five you’ll find me having to stomach (5)
MIEVE I.E V in ME, Mieve = Spenserian “move”
27. Prince informally revealing preferences (5)
WILLS Double definition (Prince William is informally known as Wills)
29. Good score includes one? Yes and no (4)
PAIR I in PAR. Par is a good score at golf, but “a pair” (a duck in each innings) is a bad one at cricket.
30. Disguise that’s bad when half is upside down (4)
VEIL EVIL with the first two letters reversed
31. Strong drink raised as a symbol of unity (4)
KARA Reverse of ARAK

6 comments on “Azed 2106”

  1. Norman
    @1
    October 21, 2012 at 12:16 am

    Thanks for the excellent blog.

    23d
    I didn’t get rear = head.

    The only explanation I could come up with was:
    REARER = REAR + E (head at E[TON] + R (REX monarch)
    considering E and R, E is nearer to REAR. (giving R preference)

  2. Norman
    @2
    October 21, 2012 at 12:21 am

    .. or after correcting my brackets and spelling:

    REARER = REAR + E (head at E[TON]) + R (REX monarch)
    considering E and R, E is nearer to REAR. (giving R precedence)

  3. RCWhiting
    @3
    October 21, 2012 at 12:59 am

    Thanks all
    I followed Andrew for 23d although I had to look up rear = lavatory (not being an old Etonian!). Very esoteric.
    Last two were 1ac and 2d. I had been playing with ‘shambling’ because of shambles (butcher’s stall) but finally gave it up when I got ‘capiz’; it was amazing that this one escaped for so long; as I sit at my table, solving, there is hanging from the ceiling two metres away an enormous capiz shell light fitting which I bought in Manila many years ago.
    Favourites were 14ac, 15ac and 17d.

  4. RCWhiting
    @4
    October 21, 2012 at 12:59 am

    Thanks all
    I followed Andrew for 23d although I had to look up rear = lavatory (not being an old Etonian!). Very esoteric.
    Last two were 1ac and 2d. I had been playing with ‘shambling’ because of shambles (butcher’s stall) but finally gave it up when I got ‘capiz’; it was amazing that this one escaped for so long; as I sit at my table, solving, there is hanging from the ceiling two metres away an enormous capiz shell light fitting which I bought in Manila many years ago.
    Favourites were 14ac, 15ac and 17d.

  5. Paul B
    @5
    October 21, 2012 at 3:39 am

    And you did the whole thing twice.

  6. Pelham Barton
    @6
    October 22, 2012 at 5:08 pm

    Just to show how subjective solving times are, I found this right at the bottom end of the range of time taken. Thanks Azed and Andrew for your usual high standards of puzzle and blog respectively.

    6dn: The clue as it stands would fit in any crossword. As there is a 1ac in this crossword, the word “often” is not strictly necessary here, but I suspect Azed included it for the surface reading.

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