Usually when I blog an Azed puzzle everything is straightforward enough — do the puzzle, do the blog by Monday evening and schedule it for appearance the following Sunday. This one was different: the actual solving of the clues went as usual, and by the end of it I’d solved them all but still couldn’t see any connection between what appeared to be the unclued entries, and the answer at 7dn was not coming. I feared that either I’d have to say to everyone ‘sorry, you may have been bewildered by this puzzle and have come to this site in the hope of enlightenment, but I just can’t help: does anyone know what is happening?’, or perhaps I could ask someone at the Sloggers and Betters on Thursday to help me.
As it was, neither of these courses was necessary. After I had looked at it for what seemed to be ages, the penny dropped. 7dn is the reverse of ‘sweet potato’; as Azed says, 7 provides a (transatlantic) clue to the theme. And the transatlantic term for a sweet potato is a yam. (Yam)rev. is May, and all the unclued entries follow ‘May’, usually hyphenated with it but sometimes next to it either as one word or as two.
Thus the unclued entries are GAME, BLOOM, LORD, POLE, FLOWER, MEETINGS, DEW, LADY, TREE, BEETLE and MORN (as well as the reversed word at 7, which is presumably what he is referring to when he says that all but one of the unclued entries are thematically related). Several of these were new to me, but they’re all there in Chambers.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 14 | TOO — one of the meanings of ‘item’ is ‘likewise; also’ — to [= for] 0 |
| 16 | A NOW — anow is a Miltonian enough |
| 17 | HORSECAR — hors (race)rev. |
| 18 | RHYTA — “raita” |
| 19 | IS{la}M — la = indeed — and a second bit of wordplay: is m{illions} |
| 20 | T(ITA N{uts})ATE — an ita is a palm and tate is a Scottish word (hence ‘wee’) |
| 21 | STALLION — (nois{e})rev. around (tall 1) |
| 22 | DRAFF — d [= deserted] raff |
| 27 | THA(L)IS |
| 29 | R(ERA)N — the service is RN, the Royal Navy |
| 31 | OTT A VINO |
| 33 | LANDWEHR — (hew)rev. in (l and r) |
| 37 | thE AUtumn |
| 38 | VERT U — def ‘objets d’art’ |
| 40 | ODDS — (s(DD)o)rev. |
| 42 | ACOL — this seemed obvious enough as Acol (the bidding system in bridge) and a col (a mountain defile) but I couldn’t see what ‘closing the gap’ meant: I think it just means omitting the space between a and col |
| 44 | EDSEL — (diesel – i)* — the Ford Edsel was a bit of a failure for Ford |
| Down | |
| 2 | APOSTLE — referring to the apostle Paul, and a-post-le, i.e. the a is taken round to the end of le to give lea |
| 3 | MORMAOR — (rom)rev., repeated, around a — rom = romany = gipsy |
| 4 | plaguE’S LEtting — hidden rev. — ‘or else’ may be a threat |
| 6 | LOCI — lo CI — lo = see, CI is the Latin form of 101, George Orwell’s famous room in 1984 |
| 9 | Level Area Holding Alluvial Residue |
| 10 | {w}ROTE |
| 11 | DWARFS — referring to Snow White and the S D — (forwards – OR)* |
| 12 | PH{as}IS |
| 15 | ORANT — (on art)* |
| 23 | A LIE(NO)R |
| 24 | FI(NAG)LE |
| 25 | F(RIVO)L |
| 26 | ROWME — gran on a boating lake might say “row me” — a rowme is a Spenserian place and so a place for oldies (there seem to be rather more archaic/obsolete/etc words than usual in this puzzle, and Azed is trying not to be too repetitive: in the first three clues he says ‘as once’ and ‘as formerly’ — reminds me of his ‘as of old’, which was a coin) |
| 28 | H ARTAL |
| 30 | ANTSY — (st)rev. in any — st = sh, be quiet, or whist |
| 32 | rebelliOUS Teenagers |
| 33 | LEDA — referring to Leda and the Swan — d in lea, but what the significance of the italicisation is I can’t see [Date wrapped in yards of worsted, my lover was unrecognisable!] |
| 34 | DUDE — strip = denude, and from that you take en{d} |
| 35 | {t}HETE |
| 36 | PICT — Steele was the essayist, who called a painted woman a pict — “picked”, in Shakespeare exquisite |
I too stared at the grid for ages. I had the theme words (with blanks) written out and guessed that each word must be preceded by another to link them.
Eventually I saw maypole – the rest came quickly after that.
Nick
I’m glad I’m not the only one who stared at a nearly-completed grid for two days before the penny dropped.
Thanks, John.
This was very unusual for Azed: I don’t recall him ever doing anything similar. I couldn’t see what closing the gap meant, and I think your idea must be right. I imagine the italicisation of yards was just to emphasise that a lea is a very long measure, up to 300 yards, depending on the cloth, not just a couple or so.
Thank you to John for this elucidation, especially wrt 2dn. I can’t help feeling, however, that there must be more to 26dn than is suggested. Is there perhaps a popular song about a grandmother on a boating lake? Surely, Azed would not have introduced “gran” to the clue purely at random?
Robin, that is an interesting point – I too wondered why ‘gran’ and not someone/somebody else. A quick google ‘gran row me’ gives some lyrics to ‘grand canal’:
~
I love it, I love it,
I’m happy with you
On the grand canal.
On the grand canal.
Others
Row me, row me
Down the grand canal.
~
so I dunno if he was punning or what.
Nick
This is the first time in many years I’ve had to give up on Azed. In spite of frequently looking at 7 over the week after completing the non-thematic part, I never did see that it was a reversal. (It seemed to be a phrase ending ‘teens’, but couldn’t make anything possible out of it)
I finished this eventually (and rather quickly once the penny had dropped) but I really don’t think this was entirely fair. There was nothing at all in the instructions to suggest a reversal…you could only get there with lucky inspiration. Even if the puzzle had been called ‘Retrospective’ or something (I was trying to make sense of the actual title ‘Spot the Theme’ – could that mean Tops is the theme or something like that, but no…that’s a step too far).
Also – and I’m not normally a quibbler – if you don’t actually have a Chambers, all the May definitions could have been difficult. I know Chambers is recommended, but it shouldn’t be compulsory.
Claire@7
If you have never needed Chambers to do Azeds unil now I doff my virtual hat to your breadth of vocabulary.
Norman@8
As if! What I meant was, once you had the key, the answers were more or less listed for you under the entry for ‘May’ – which I think you would only have if you possess a real (ie not virtual) copy of Chambers. That’s what I don’t think was fair.