Azed 2196 – “Overlaps”

by

I knew something special was coming up for this month’s competition, because Azed had mentioned in a previous Slip that constructing this one had caused him some trouble. Not surprising, with what are effectively a large number of long across answers, most of which take the full 13-character width. Perhaps as a result of this, there are more down answers than usual (23 instead of 18), with correspondingly shorter words.

I think I remember there having been similar specials in the past with overlapping answers, but I don’t know if this exact style is new. The double-clue feature is the same as in the regular “Right and Left”, and in that it’s remarkable how smoothly Azed manages to join the two individual clues (both of which are perfectly constructed in their own right).

Solving-wise it actually wasn’t too hard: after all, when you get one of the acrosses you automatically have three letters at the beginning or end of another. I’ve shown the across answers below in the order they appear in the grid, so with the overlapping letters in the middle, but the explanations are in the order they come in the clue: I hope that’s not too confusing. I’ve used a slash to separate the two explanations, and also to indicate the split in the clue.

 
 
 
Across
1. OVERSHOT/HOTCHPOT Again, host subtly exceeded / mutton broth, cold, with warm round bit of polenta (8, 8)
OVER (again) + HOST* / C + P[olenta] in HOT
11. PERICOPE/OPERABLE Fit to function after visit to theatre, a rebel reread / church extract, fine following page (8, 8)
OP (visit to theatre) + (A REBEL)*/ P + ERIC (a fine)
14. TRASHCAN/CANICULA Destination for junk star guided by height / the moon turned in about star (8,8)
STAR* + H / reverse of LUCINA (the moon) in CA
16. MODULATE/ATELIERS Earliest stirring in workshops / to adjust subject of painting for all to see shifting base? (8, 8)
EARLIEST* / MODEL with e (base of natrual logarithms) replaced by U (film classification: “for all to see”)
18. YESTER/TEREFA Forbidden meal interrupted by whistle-blower – last, for sure (6, 6)
REF in TEA / YES (“for sure”)
23. TEA PLANT/ANTHEMIA Commercial bush, petal trained by worker, / reverse of ideal along­side border plant-forms in art (8, 8)
HEM + A1<. / PETAL*+ ANT. This is the two-word answer mentioned in the preamble (I had to check whether it was this or TRASHCAN: Chambers gives the latter as one word)
29. IVORIEST/ESTONIAN Like e.g. Cameron once welcoming southern European national, / perhaps warn one going after bit of ice creamier than the rest? (8, 8)
I[ce] + VOR (a word from King Lear that perhaps means “warn”) I (one). This is the “somewhat fanciful” superlative mentioned in the preamble / S in ETONIAN (David Cameron is famously an old Etonian)
30. SEMANTRA/TRABEATE Bell equivalents; / built of horizontal beams (8, 8)
The competition words, in alphabetical order, as the preamble says, but also as defined
31. TRUDGING/INGULFED Overwhelmed, nursing damaged lung, I took food, / making slow progress with date in fruit basket (8, 8)
LUNG* in I FED / D in TRUG
Down
1. OPTOMETRIST Work on volume once causing grief for eye expert (11)
OP + TOME + TRIST (archaic “sorrowful”)
2. VERBOSE Wordy book’s half in poetry (7)
BO[ok] in VERSE
3. RISQUE Queen captured in revolt? Danger past (6)
QU in RISE (to revolt). Obsolete form of “risk”
4. SCHI First of snow covering hills, I ski in Oberstdorf (4)
First letters of S Covering Hills + I. A German spelling of “ski” that we were warned of in the preamble
5. HOCK Wine jar, not the first (4)
[s]HOCK
6. TENDER Painful? It’s often de rigueur in part (6)
Hidden
7. CRIBLÉ Dotty translation (too literal?) given with the French, ignoring accent (6)
CRIB (“a key or baldly literal translation, used as an aid by students, etc”, such as some of us were warned against using when trying to make sense of Julius Caesar’s account of the Gallic wars) + LE (French “the”, ignoring the accent that is needed in the answer)
8. HACK Pick mercenary, but lacking old gun (4)
Two definitions, and HACK[but]
9. OLLA 50% of TV comedy served up in miscellany? (4)
Reverse of half of the sitcom ‘Allo, ‘Allo!
10. TEARSTAINED Wretchedly triste, Danaë may appear so? (11)
(TRISTE DANAE)* &lit. Danaë is a character from Greek mythology, the mother of Perseus, who fulfilled a prophecy that he would kill Danaë’s father, which presumably she wasn’t happy about
12. RANDY Tomboy exhibiting extremes of roguery (5)
R AND Y. A new meaning of this word for me: “a romping girl” as Chambers puts it
13. BUTE Evidence of horse-doping? Objection leading to ending of licence (4)
BUT + [licenc]E. Bute is short for Butazolidin, aka phenylbutazone, used in illegal horse-doping
15. ATTENDS Marks & Spencer initially stocking alcohol-free wine, without success (7)
TT + [win]E in AND (&) S[pencer]
17. RUINATE By implication, a true Shakespearean smash? (7)
“a true” is RU IN ATE
19. SLUING At home, in grip of strong drink, spinning uncontrollably (6)
IN in SLUG
20. TAPETI Rabbit from part of SE Asia that’s indulged in (6)
PET (indulged) in TAI (same as Thai, meaning “part of SE Asia”). In fact this rabbit is from South and Central America
21. FENNEL Herb names one has instinct about (6)
NN (names) in FEEL
22. AMNIA Fluid containers? It’s madness switching first couple (5)
MANIA with the first two letters swapped
24. ATOM Anything tiny, of matter principally (4)
First letters of Anything Tiny Of Matter, &lit (though not precisely, as an atom isn’t anything that’s tiny)
25. AVER Old Scots nag, mean, ageless (4)
AVERAGE less AGE. AVER is familiar crossword fodder as meaning to state or assert (from Latin verus = true), but it also has some obsolete meanings (from French “avoir”, to have), including “an old or worthless cart-horse”
26. GRAD Successful finalist, task over (4)
Reverse of DARG (a task); a GRAD would have successfully passed finals
27. STAG Grass? It’s cut short among spinach (4)
T (short form of “It”) in SAG (spinach, as in the Indian dish sag (or saag) aloo). Grass and stag can both mean an informant
28. ZOBU Cross male, Unionist sketch writer sent up (4)
Reverse of UI + BOZ (Charles Dickens’ pen name in Sketches by Boz). ZOBU is one of the many variants of “zho”, a type of hybrid cattle, sometimes specifically the male

3 comments on “Azed 2196 – “Overlaps””

  1. Very clever construction, I don’t think I’ve seen the like even in the Listener. As you say, not that difficult to solve as are many of Azed’s specials after you’ve boggled a bit at the rubric. None the worse for that though.

    Thanks for sorting a couple of parsings Andrew, I won’t say how I managed to have ‘versote’ at 2d.

  2. Thanks, Andrew. I agree that it turned out to be relatively easy to solve, given the generous checking. Constructing a passable clue was much harder! Puzzling that the instructions referred to the 2008 edition of Chambers.

    You seem to have had an editing error at 15 down: I had TT (win)E in AND before the S.

  3. Thanks bridgesong, it seems I forgot to finish writing that explanation. I agree with your parsing and have corrected the blog.

Comments are closed.