How Azed manages to cope with all these words I simply don’t know. Practically every time there is at least one that I’ve never heard of either in the answer or in the clue, so it is necessary to have Chambers close at hand. It will be interesting to see how I cope next time without it, since I shall be away for the weekend and will attack the crossword on Sunday.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 Book lost by club member – clot (5)
CLUMP
clu{b} MP
8 Cork it’s hell getting back, leaving aside opening (5)
SUBER
{E}rebus rev.
12 Dance music, the limit for harmonica? (4)
HORA
There are two possible limits for harmonica, either h or a — Azed likes these clues and they always defeat me until the last
13 A ruin, battered and corroded, rarely gilded (8)
INAURATE
(A ruin)* ate
14 Like tea or coffee made for an audience? (5)
URNED
“earned” = made
16 Magic herb adding puff to a thin liquor, one gracing menu? (13)
PANTAGRUELION
pant a gruel 1 on — ‘on’ as in ‘on the menu’ I assume
17 Pillage of Scots creating touching condition (4)
REIF
re if — re = touching, if = condition
19 Strong sweet wine sadly beak sent back (7)
MARSALA
(alas ram)rev.
20 Rather angry about following asteroid (9)
CROSSFISH
cross(f)ish
23 Whisked lattes, hot – secret process (7)
STEALTH
(lattes h)*
26 You’ll find Trojan never imbibing such weakish spirits (4)
JANN
Hidden in TroJAN Never
27 Fuss as cleaner is sacked? Confidence required (13)
SELF-ASSURANCE
(Fuss as cleaner)*
31 It’s certainly bordered by lines? Yes, or the other way round (5)
ALLEY
(ye(ll)a)rev. — the alleys on a tennis court
32 Dial up re being feverish, wanting relief from labour (8)
EPIDURAL
(Dial up re)*
33 Monkey from South Africa with reverse of appeal (4)
ZATI
ZA (it)rev. — online, and probably in the paper as well, this is given as 23; I feared that the software I am using for this blog might be flummoxed by this, but it seems to have coped all right
34 Thin fabrics – love coming into contact? (5)
LENOS
len(0)s — contact lens
35 Rails over very long time cycle (5)
SAROS
(soras)rev.
Down
1 Fellow accompanying prince is brought up as an orderly (9)
CHAPRASSI
chap ras (is)rev.
2 Sort of fringe an old pro cut from below (4)
LOMA
(a mol{l})rev. — prostitute
3 Once celestial queen is found in the heart of such (6)
URANIC
rani in {s}uc{h}
4 Church layman tending the sick of old (as S. Paul on being upset about urchin) (11)
PARABOLANUS
(as S. Paul on)* round arab
5 Beat with American doodad (6)
DINGUS
ding US
6 Bouncer from Johnson, erratic (4)
ONER
Hidden in JohnsON, ERratic — the entry for ‘oner’ is so big that to establish that an oner is a bouncer, whose entry is also not simple, is something of a task, but that’s what it probably is — unfortunately this winter Johnson’s bouncers weren’t in fact all that erratic
7 Where Anthony lived and died, going into shell (5)
PADUA
pa(d)ua — St Anthony of Padua
8 Is she unsettling to pure sisters if not TT? (11)
SUPERIORESS
(to pure sisters – TT)*, &lit.
9 River suggesting the country separated from its source? (4)
URAL
{r}ural
10 Climbing a hilltop, I planted a fig tree (5)
BANIA
I in (a nab)rev.
11 Plants denied light display it: see one riverain’s holding up (7)
ETIOLIN
1 in (Nilote)rev.
15 One muddled names and lives in recollection of Proust? (9)
ANAMNESIS
an (names)* is — ref Proust’s ‘In Remembrance of Things Past’
18 Energy required in scrambling up tree, palm genus (7)
EUTERPE
e in (up tree)*
21 Disgustingly posh, housed in e.g. mock ruin (6)
FOULLY
fo(U)lly
22 Surrogate mother keeping son, so abandoned, in large shed
HANGAR
{so}n in Hagar (the biblical character who was a surrogate mother)
24 Sort of Scottish punch – single drunk, not good (6)
ELSIN
(single – g)*
25 Official adjudicators giving ‘special’ in ratings? (5)
TSARS
t(s)ars
28 Following difficulty striking new driver, golfer displays dejected air (4)
FADO
Two pieces of wordplay here: f ado and Fa{L}do — a fado is a mournful Portuguese song — this was M. Barley’s winning clue in Azed 1997
29 Substantial piece of cake, second, shortened party (4)
SLAB
s Lab[our]
30 Heads for courier in treating order with despatch (4)
CITO
c{ourier} i{n} t{reating} o{rder}
*anagram
Thanks John. It’s funny how the mind works, it took me ages to see why ‘new driver’ could be ‘L’.
Not only does Azed cope with the words themselves, he manages to fit them all together and then produce clues, most of which would satisfy the fans of ‘smooth surfaces’.