A unusual grid from AZED this week.
I can’t remeber ever having solved a cryptic from a national newspaper that did not have a square grid. I can’t see any special reason why AZED has chosen a rectangular grid this time, perhaps there is something in here that I have missed. From a solvers perspective it made little or no difference to the puzzle, just as enjoyable as a square grid and not completed any quicker for having fewer entries.
ULCER (9 down) is an example of an indirect anagram, an anagram of a word not in the text of the clue. Can any tell me if AZED often uses these in his puzzles?
Thank you AZED.
I will be away when this is published so will not be able to respond to comments or make corrections immediately.
| Across | ||
| 1 | UCKERS |
Gullible types losing first game on board (6)
sUCKERS (gullible types) missing first letter – a form of Ludo played in RN ships
|
| 8 | JUDAS |
Father in law, one giving name to tree (5)
DA (father) in JUS (law) – the Judas tree
|
| 13 | PLAY |
Amuse oneself in country fair? (4)
double definition
|
| 14 | EATABLES |
Picture set in sea represented tack (8)
TABLE (picture) inside (set in) SEA* anagram=represented
|
| 15 | STREPTOCOCCAL |
Cot scarce? Plot shifting as regards bacteria (13)
(COT SCARCE PLOT)* anagram=shifting
|
| 16 | APOCRINE |
Describing certain glands, one of pigs with pair switched internally (8)
A (one) PORCINE (of pigs) with C ans S (a pair of the internal letters) switched
|
| 19 | EXERGUE |
Part of coin’s ‘other’ side – well done including king in reverse (7)
EUGE (well done, Greek) including REX (king) all reversed
|
| 20 | DISPEL |
Drive off? Reverse of pleasant when bit of shank’s involved (6)
LEPID (pleasant) reversed containing (with … involved) S (a bit, first letter of, shank)
|
| 21 | ORWELL |
Blair possibly mellower if disengaged from Middle East (6)
meLLOWER* anagram=possibly with ME (Middle East) removed (disengaged) – George Orwell, pen name of Eric Blair
|
| 24 | DEEPFET |
Cereal died back, water limited, once raised from the depths (7)
PEE (water) inside (limited by) TEF (cereal) D (died) containing all reversed (back) – an old Scottish word.
|
| 28 | PHONETIC |
Pinochet lambasted in connection with speech (8)
PINOCHET* anagram=lambasted
|
| 29 | WEATHER REPORT |
Fish speciality (once) cheers returning German gent, in very little wine (13, 2 words)
TA (cheers) reversed (returning) HERR (German gent) in WEE (very little) PORT (wine) – as formerly presented by Michael Fish on UK television
|
| 30 | SCABROUS |
Rough marinade almost envelops minced crab (8)
SOUSe (marinade, almost) contains (envelops) CRAB* anagram=minced
|
| 31 | ILSE |
German girl maybe tucked into Pilsener (4)
pILSEner – I am not sure of the definition. I’m presuming that Isle is a common name for a girl in Germany. I have clearly confused ISLE and ILSE here!
|
| 32 | STYRE |
Star’s first Michelin ‘product’ causing sensation once? (5)
S (first letter of star) TYRE (Michelin product) – Spencerian spelling of stir
|
| 33 | SEEDED |
Telegraph Bill, ‘Borders exchanged – fully-grown’ (6)
William DEEDES, journalist from the Daily Telegraph with S and D (the borders) exchanged
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | UPS AND DOWNS |
Puss struggling round golf course with its d—— repeated undulations (11, 3 words)
PUSS* anagram=struggling containing (round) SANDOWN (golf course) with D repeated. This explanation contains an additional S.
|
| 2 | KAROSS |
Knitted sark enveloping XXL garment of skins? (6)
SARK* anagram=knitted containing OS (out-size, XXL)
|
| 3 | EYECUP |
’Itch, we ’ear, in optical instrument lens (6)
sound like (we hear) ‘ike up (hike up=hitch)
|
| 4 | REPRIEFE |
Theatre bungled Faerie (amateur cast), shame for Spenser (8)
REP (theatre) then FaERIE* anagram=bungled with A=amateur missing (cast)
|
| 5 | SATIN |
Let young parents have an evening out? Nice stuff (5)
double/cryptic definition – babysitting. I’m not sure how ‘young’ fits in, it would be the same for parents of any age I presume.
|
| 6 | STONE’S THROW |
Aging rockers worth being scrapped? Not far off (11, apostrophe)
The Rolling STONES (aging rockers) with WORTH* anagram=scrapped
|
| 7 | MACE |
Club, male one (4)
M (male) ACE. Probably the easiest clue in the puzzle but for some reason I just couldn’t see it. I spent ages looking up all sorts of obscure words (MANI MANA, HEAN, HIMI, etc…) hoping that they would turn out to be clubs.
|
| 9 | ULCER |
Persistent source of evil, he escapes Poirot deviously? (5)
heRCULE* (first name of M. Poirot) anagram=deviously
|
| 10 | DECK |
What’s cut in preparation for deal floor (4)
double definition
|
| 11 | AS A RULE |
River rising round Urals meandering normally (7, 3 words)
EA (river, running water) reversed (rising) contains (around) URALS* anagram=meandering
|
| 12 | SELFELECTED |
Like an autocrat, defects neglected, the Spanish twice (separately) accepted? (11)
DEFECTS* anagram=neglected with EL (the Spanish) inserted twice in separate locations. I was surprised that this is not hyphenated.
|
| 17 | VERONESE |
Artist, somebody featuring in the work of poets (8)
ONE (somebody) inside (featuring in) VERSE (the work of poets) – Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese
|
| 18 | LIEFEST |
Gathering to celebrate fiction? Top of the pops, once (7)
double cryptic definition – ‘a festival for lies’ and ‘the most popular, the most beloved’ – once indicates an archaic word
|
| 22 | WEEPIE |
Flan for one, at most? It may require tissues (6)
a WEE PIE would only feed one at most
|
| 23 | EXTOLD |
Once given a lift, former partner blabbed (6)
EX (former partner) TOLD (blabbed) – Spencerian pp of extol, to lift up
|
| 25 | PETAR |
Taper lit firework in the old days (5)
TAPER* lit=anagram (does anyone know why lit is an anagram indicator? lit up=drunk) – old word for a moving firework
|
| 26 | MORUS |
Berries causing Claudius’s end, injected with a bit of upas (5)
MORS (death, Latin, for Claudius) containing (injected with) Upas (first letter, a bit of) – the mulberry genus
|
| 27 | PACY |
Ton received in benefit – smart (4)
C (100, ton) inside (received in) PAY (benefit)
|
| 28 | PERL |
Programming language, only partly paperless (4)
found inside (only partly) paPERLess
|
*anagram
definitions underlined
Azed has regularly used 13×11 grids for many years.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
The best reference I can find for Azed’s anagram policy is from Azed Slip 289: ‘I regard it as a prerequisite of an anagram clue that it should contain the letters of the word or words involved in the anagram, or an unequivocal indication of them.’ (italics mine). In Azed 1868 the clue ‘Turk’s cap, name Jerome doubly retains in a way!’ indicated KALPAK as an anagram of Jerome Klapka Jerome‘s middle name, which I liked less than the Poirot clue, but this is mostly because I knew Poirot’s first name but not Jerome’s middle one.
self-elected is hyphenated in Chambers, but most barred crosswords don’t give any indication that the answer is hyphenated. Note that stone’s-throw is also hyphenated which is why the clue doesn’t say (2 words). I don’t think indicating that the answer contains an apostrophe is standard, but Azed generally does it.
Chambers gives lit (up) meaning drunk, which is why it can be anagram indicator.
I had the same explanation as the blog for 1d, but it seems to give the answer with an extra S. I’m not entirely happy that ‘back’ in 24a can indicate the reversal of both what precedes it and what follows it.
Is there a mistake in the wordplay for 1 down? If the golf course with D repeated is SANDDOWN, that leaves the letters UPS, which are obviously not an anagram for PUSS.
Did anyone else first try LUCRE instead of ULCER?
It seems to me that 33 across is really also an indirect anagram, in that the solver has to deduce the letters DEEDES and then rearrange them.
The advantage of the 13×11 grid is that it allows the use of 13-letter words. As far as I remember, Azed always includes at least one such word (and usually two or three of them) when using a 13×11 grid.
AR, that missing S in 1D had me worried all week, yet I couldn’t find anyone else commenting on it, not even Frogman.
NormanLinFrance, I had LUCRE at first as well.
I also noticed that the wordplay in 1d seems to give one S too many. I haven’t been able to resolve it in any way.
@bridgesong It’s not an indirect anagram because there are explicit instructions to swap the first and last letters. It’s only an anagram if there is no indication about *how* to rearrange the letters.
Thanks for all the the knowledgeable replies. This is only my third blog of an AZED puzzle so I am still learning the ropes.
I certainly approve of AZED’s stance on anagram clues as quoted by Mathew @2, and the 9dn clue certainly felt to me like it contained an unequivocal indication, the solution was obviously right. At the time of solving I did not even notice that the anagram was indirect.
Can anyone confirm that ISLE is a common German girl’s name?
Alchemist @10: I do understand the distinction that you make, but it seems to me that the same objection applies. In both cases the solver has to deduce a set of letters which then have to be rearranged in some way. It is that act of deduction that is controversial, although in this case Azed clearly feels that his solvers are likely to be able to deduce both Hercule and Deedes from the indications given in the clues.
PeeDee @11: no, but ILSE is!
Oh dear – I obviously can’t read my own typing. Thanks bridgesong, all is now clear!
Thanks all
I enjoyed this as any Azed is fun. The 13×11 was hardly noticed since asAlchemi says, it is hardly a rarity. 1 down? No idea.
In another of his slips, I can’t remember which one (perhaps someone can and so quote the precise words), Azed said that he’d been asked to provide some anagram indicators (for the Chambers Crossword Dictionary?) and had refused to do so because the task was impossible: so far as he was concerned anything which indicates some sort of jiggling or disruption is OK. Which I think explains why there are so many remarkable a.i.s in the clues he quotes.
It seems to me one must first deduce DEEDES then swap the first and last letters.