Azed 2226 – Playfair

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I’m glad to see I’m not the only blogger who gets worried when landing on a Playfair puzzle. “I admit to a slight feeling of trepidation when I … noticed that it was a Playfair puzzle” (bridgesong); “the clues in italics often give me the jitters, and even though they’re supposed to be relatively easy (Peter Biddlecombe): my thoughts exactly. As per my usual strategy, I tried to get all the uncoded answers first, which fortunately I was able to do without too much difficulty.

Then on to the italicised clues, where FRIPPERY and OPPUGN suggested that PP came into it somewhere (Azed has been kind to Playfair solvers in recent years by providing a hint of some kind to the keyword in the answers to be encoded). A bit more thought gave me CHIPPY, though I had a mental block on the (obvious, in retrospect) TRAPPIST and didn’t get it until later. On to finding the keyword: it’s often useful to find the plain/encoded combinations that have a letter in common, meaning that they occur on the same row or column of the square. In this case, PE->AP in 4a showed EPA, a likely candidate for part of a row. Then OP->PN in 17a puts O and N above and below the P. I don’t remember exactly where I went after that, but with the help of the PP hint it didn’t take too long to find DOUBLE-PARKING (which incidentally is only in Chambers implicitly as a form of DOUBLE-PARK), and hence the Playfair square as shown below. Phew!

By the way, notice that the PP never occurs as a pair of letters to be encoded – perhaps just as well, as the instructions don’t specify what should happen in that case: would it be AA or NN?

It hardly needs saying – but I’ll say it anyway – that the clueing was of the usual impeccable standard. Thanks as always to Azed.

D O U B L
E P A R K
I N G C F
H M Q S T
V W X Y Z
Across
1. ICKY Unpleasant king, hostile on the outside (4)
K in ICY
4. FRIPPERY (CKNEAPCB) Old cast-offs, one penny for each, grabbed by young ones (8)
I P PER in FRY (young fish – from a Norse word for “seed”, I find)
11. NOACHIC Patriarch’s number one à la mode (7)
NO +A + CHIC
12. POLYPOSIS Development of tumours, lo, I spy mutating in chambers (9)
(LO I SPY)* in POS (chamber pots)
13. EMEER Rulers’ title that’s always tacked on to them (5)
‘EM + E’ER
14. LUNARS Moon distances left astronauts shattered, as tot somehow lost (6)
L + ASTRONAUTS* less (AS TOT)* – the “somehow” presumably reflecting Azed’s view that if the removed letters are not in order then an anagram should be indicated, though in fact they do appear in order in the fodder
15. RUND List at St Andrews getting degree after course (4)
RUN + D – for “rund”, Chambers says “same as roon”, defined as “a list or selvage”, which frankly doesn’t leave me much the wiser.
16. RISING Prominence is seen in circular earthwork (6)
IS in RING
17. OPPUGN (PNAOCG) Attack just after circling b-boxer (6)
P-PUG in ON
19. FACTOR Element in composition beneficial to capturing exploit (6)
ACT in FOR
21. RED HAT Staff officer switching divisions in extreme aversion (6, 2 words)
HAT/RED with its two halves swapped
24. CHIPPY (ISNERW) US flirt, touchy woodworker (6)
Three definitions, the first of which was new to me – it’s US slang from the 1880s so I don’t feel too bad about that
26. DAEMON Spirit getting drunk after alcoholic drink returns (6)
MEAD< + ON
27. VAGI Rang off from devastating nerves (4)
RAVAGING less RANG
29. TOP DOG Winner, paid nothing, coming in to dress (6, 2 words)
PD O in TOG
31. RUDAS Randy Scots, reverse of sober after contact sport (5)
RU + SAD< – another Scotticism:”a foul-mouthed old woman; a randy; a hag”, where presumably “randy” has the sense “a violent beggar, esp, a woman; a coarse virago”, which Chambers gives under the same heading as the more familiar sexual sense
32. EUTERPEAN Peer off-key in a tune ruined musical (9)
PEER* in (A TUNE)* – Euterpe is the muse of music and lyric poetry
33. APPRIZE The old appreciate priest, in grip of a pox! (7)
PR in A PIZE (=pox)
34. TRAPPIST (SKRAENTH) Monk quietly returned drink in Italian eatery (8)
P + SPI< in TRAT. I spent far too long trying to make PIZZERIA work here (before I know to expect a PP in the word)
35. SNAR Poet’s growl echoed in transept? (4)
Hidden in reverse of tRANSept
Down
1. INTERPRETESS Practising linguist of old making wayward sister repent (12)
(SISTER REPENT)* – strangely Chambers marks this spelling as “obs”, but thinks (the more regularly formed – cf waiter/waitress) “interpretress” is fine: surely no one has use such an expression nowadays (the acceptability of female-marked -ess forms is an interesting topic: the waiter/waitress distinction is still going strong, but “actress” is losing ground, and words such as “authoress” and “poetess” seem distinctly old-fashioned, not to mention a bit patronising)
2. COMMUNE Corporation issue, letting in local fellow (7)
MUN (dialect “man”) in COME (issue)
3. KAREN Girl of a Thai people found in parts of Burma (5)
Double definition – this can be an adjective describing these people, so the “of” is not just a linking word
4. CHORIC Like much church music, reduced option includes bit of Rutter (6)
R in CHOIC[E]
5. KILERG Litre in vat good for large number of work units (6)
L in KIER (a bleaching vat) + G
6. EMPUSA Fungal parasite from narcotic drug (not hard) covering the States (6)
[H]EMP + USA
7. AGONIC I’ll take part in conga dancing – absolutely straight (6)
I in CONGA*
8. PESANTE Pea net’s adjusted with weight (7)
(PEA NET’S)* – Italian term used in music to indicate (literally) “heavily”
9. COIR Fibre: portion of brioche provides reverse of this (4)
Hidden in reverse of bRIOChe
10. BESSERWISSER Elizabeth two times more astute about society, a know-all (12)
BESS + ER (two Elizabeths) + S in WISER – a German word meaning “better-knower”
18. ADAPTOR Touring abroad (having left Britain), part needing to be plugged in? (7)
PT in ABROAD* less B
20. ORGANZA Fine fabric, quite German, opening mouths (7)
GANZ in ORA – GANZ is German for “quite” in the sense of “fully, entirely. I know it mainly from Beethoven’s ninth symphony: “Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!” – “this kiss [is] for the whole world!”
22. HEDERA Climbers I’m surprised to see accepting advice once climbing (6)
REDE< in HA – Hedera is the Latin name for the Ivy genus
23. AMORCE Cap, a bit lacking to the French (6)
A MORCEAU (piece, bit) less AU (French “to the”)
24. INCEPT The old begin as fools, entering college (6)
C in INEPT (as fools)
25. SERAPH Angelic creature, she’s upset about censure (6)
RAP in SHE*
28. ADMIN Management making millions in a racket (5)
M in A DIN
30. OULK A few days in Edinburgh? Pet’s first going for nothing (4)
SULK (pet) with the S changed to O

7 comments on “Azed 2226 – Playfair”

  1. Thanks Andrew. I forgot to finish this, dash it.

    “a list or selvage” is the original woven edged of material, often with a different weave to give stability and for manufacturers’ names in posh suiting, usually not actually used.

    I think I read that double letters occuring in Playfair would have a Q or similar inserted to give a square or line.

  3. Andrew, thanks for the usual immaculate blog. Flattering to be quoted in your introduction. I had a little trouble with INCEPT, where although the answer was obvious, the clue seemed to suggest INEPT in C, rather than the other way round. But that was nothing compared to the trouble I was caused by devising a clue for DOUBLEPARKING!

    So far as the Playfair element is concerned, if the PP hint hadn’t been there, Azed usually offers some other clue to the codeword, so I don’t think that there’s any cause for complaint. I may be mistaken, but in the past there have sometimes been six rather than only four encoded answers – I’m not sure if that makes the puzzle easier or harder!

  5. Thanks for the blog. I’m not sure I would have finished had there not been the hint in the preamble, getting two of the encoded answers, using the hint, finding the code word fairly easily and then working back to construct the remaining two. And, yes, as far as I recall Azed used to give 6 encoded answers, without the preambular hint.

  6. I seem to remember in a Playfair long ago that PP would encode to SS – ie. the s-symmetrical counterpart. I suppose here GG would self-encode.

  7. Agreed with Don M. It did take a bit of the fun away- had the code word almost the instant I saw all the double P’s. none of the pages of pairs and triples I’ve sometimes waded through. Nonetheless a real joy. Azed clues always spot-on.

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