With apologies for the delay in posting, and for a couple of answers whose wordplay has eluded me, here is last Sunday’s puzzle. I had forgotten that it was my turn to blog, so had to re-solve and then do the blog. Apologies also for the slightly clunky formatting.
| Across | |||
| 3. | Fool inhaling choice bits of old shag intemperately–it ruins the lungs (10) | ||
| ASBESTOSIS | BEST O(ld) S(hag) in ASS. | ||
| 11. | Pound on the lot? Gosh! Equivalent of DV called for (9) | ||
| MASHALLAH | MASH ALL AH. DV is Deo Volente, or God willing. | ||
| 12. | It has power supplied by deployment of oar (4) | ||
| PROA | P(ower), *OAR. An & lit clue for a word seen often in Azed crosswords. | ||
| 13. | Sly nip drunk with cocaine–regular feature of Top of the Pops? (7) | ||
| LIP-SYNC | *(SLY NIP, C(ocaine)). | ||
| 14. | Multitude endlessly lashing wretched man, frenzied like an old cuckold (7) | ||
| HORN-MAD | *MAN in HORD(e). | ||
| 15. | Face this dormouse hides–for Alice? (4) | ||
| LOIR | Compound anagram – remove letters of FACE from FOR ALICE and rearrange what’s left. A nice reference to the Lewis Carroll story. | ||
| 17. | Badly nagged by Church? It’s almost sure to be a cracking measure! (8, 2 words) | ||
| EGG DANCE | *NAGGED, CE. I must admit to never having come across this particular amusement, even in fiction. | ||
| 18. | Local timber cart–is it loaded from this glen? (4) | ||
| GILL | Double definition, I think, but there may be something about “loaded” which has eluded me. | ||
| 19. | Slow soak, ’abit-forming (6) | ||
| RETARD | RET (h)ARD. One of the very many meanings of hard is (of a drug), habit-forming. | ||
| 21. | A lady with diamonds on (identically cut), and starkers (6) | ||
| ADAMIC | A DAM(e) IC(e). | ||
| 22. | Something like clover without toil, not strictly kosher (4) | ||
| TREF | TREF(oil). | ||
| 23. | Rations distributed will be found to contain a bit of this oxide (8) | ||
| STRONTIA | *(RATIONS, T(his)). | ||
| 26. | Fashion shoot… | ||
| TWIG | Double definition | ||
| 27. | …And how one’s filmed for groups of freshers? (7) | ||
| INTAKES | A reference back to “shoot” in the previous clue. | ||
| 29. | Scots engineer followed herd? ( 7) | ||
| RANKINE | RAN KINE. | ||
| 30. | Heave, as of old–strain by the sound of it (4) | ||
| SIGH | Sounds like something – but I don’t know what! | ||
| 31. | Quantitative easing maybe serves IOU in trouble? (9) | ||
| OVERISSUE | *(SERVES IOU). | ||
| 32. | Fungus affecting plants: also insect hurts ’em terribly (10) | ||
| ANTHERSMUT | ANT, *(HURTS EM). | ||
| … Down |
|||
| 1. | Ham’s pig cooked in halls serving liverwort leaves (12) | ||
| AMPHIGASTRIA | *(HAM’S PIG) in ATRIA. | ||
| 2. | No gentleman stores bread in this large vessel (7) | ||
| CAROTID | ROTI in CAD. | ||
| 4. | Dynasty executes last one rising to top (5) | ||
| SHANG | HANGS with the last letter at the front. | ||
| 5. | Frothy stuff from beer? Not always but with power (4) | ||
| BARM | B(ee’r) ARM. | ||
| 6. | Lice wriggling round yardbird recalling abnormal growth? (7) | ||
| ELLAGIC | LAG in *LICE. | ||
| 7. | Stirrup guard made of stuff secured by twisted reata (8) | ||
| TAPADERA | PAD in *REATA. | ||
| *8. | Goodbye (8) | ||
| SAYONARA | The competition word. A reference to Araucaria perhaps? | ||
| 9. | Greek philosopher in translation I conned (5) | ||
| IONIC | Hidden in translation I conned. | ||
| 10. | Crafted afresh discs first seen in Egypt–these may be depicted thereon (12, 2 words) | ||
| SACRED FISHES | *(AFRESH DISCS S(een)). | ||
| 16. | Instrument whereby wine retains what’s central to it (8) | ||
| CLARINET | (w)IN(e) in CLARET. | ||
| 17. | Painter’s home in late time of day showing clearly (8) | ||
| EVINCIVE | VINCI in EVE. | ||
| 19. | Seducers maybe, united in sin, err dreadfully (7) | ||
| RUINERS | U in *(SIN ERR). | ||
| 20. | Deny centre of Paris raised Ionesco? (7) | ||
| RENEGUE | (pa)R(is), EUGENE (Ionesco)(rev). | ||
| 24. | Time on the wagon for old couple (5) | ||
| TWAIN | T(ime) WAIN. | ||
| 25. | Slow movement? More than one may be found in Flemish composer (5) | ||
| LASSU | I’m afraid I can’t explain this one, but it means a slow movement of a czardas. | ||
| 28. | Tense, on edge? Balance required (4) | ||
| TRIM | T(ense), RIM. | ||
| … | |||
Thanks Azed for the puzzle and bridgesong for the blog.
30ac: The homophone is SYE.
25dn: The Flemish composer is Orlande de Lassus (c.1532-1594)
Thanks for the blog, bridgesong. I can help with 25d: Orlande de Lassus was a Flemish composer, 1530-94.
Cah! Beaten to it while I was formatting the wikipedia link!
Oops, just noticed a slight slip in your parsing of 10d: it’s *(AFRESH DISCS E(gypt)) in fact. (I’m feeling cocky because I’ve just finished this week’s AZ and it’s only 11 o’clock!)
Ref 18ac, see GILL3 in Chambers – it is a wooden glen, so the clue is a pun on where the cart gets it’s timber loaded from.
Nick
Thanks for parsing 18ac Nick, I didn’t get round to checking it. A very accessible Azed with enough everyday words to provide plenty of crossing letters to help with the more recondite ones. Thanksa lso of course to Azed and Bridgesong.
All correct, but I couldn’t come up with a clue.