My Azed blogging has been perfectly synchronised with the appearance of specials recently – this is the fourth in a row that I’ve had to contend with. I was going to say that I hadn’t seen this type before, but a little googling revealed that Azed used it a couple of years ago in puzzle 2089 (see also John’s blog). Maybe the clueing was a bit gentler than usual, but I found that the adding or removing of the extra letters didn’t make much difference to the difficulty of the puzzle once I’d got my head round the instructions. Nevertheless, up to the usual Azed standards of soundness and satisfaction.
In the interests of simplicity, I’ve used square brackets below to indicate both the missing (across) and added (down) doubled letters.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | SCROD[D]LED | Young cod was first, consisting of scraps in pot (9) SCROD + LED |
||||||
| 7. | SWIS[S] | South-west Iceland dialect (5) SW + IS (IVR code) |
||||||
| 10. | PIANIS[S]IMO | Very softly I wink, going after goody-goody exotic birds (10) PI (goody-goody) + ANIS (the Ani is a “tropical American bird”) + I MO (a short time, or a “wink”) |
||||||
| 11. | BO[O]NG | Aborigine, note, locked in the loo (5) N in BOG – Chambers says this is an “offensive” word for an Australian aborigine |
||||||
| 12. | SMAL[L]ER | Inferior realms in disarray (7) REALMS* |
||||||
| 14. | BRUNET[T]E | Dark-haired animal in Marseille going round enclosure (8) RUN (enclosure) in BÊTE (French for animal). I originally tried to parse this as NET (well, it’s a kind of enclosure) in BRUTE (an animal, though not French), which has the extra flaw of clueing the extra T, so I was glad to find the correct explanation |
||||||
| 15. | GAP[P]Y | Merry, having ingested last of hemp, spaced out (5) [hem]P in GAY |
||||||
| 16. | TOD[D]YCAT | Civet died, trapped in sport, misguided act (8, 2 words) D in TOY + ACT* |
||||||
| 17. | PATEL[L]IFORM | Saucer-shaped plate, cracked, one appropriate to Monsieur (11) PLATE* + I (one) FOR M[onsieur] |
||||||
| 20. | MISMAR[R]IAGE | Damage I received in game is wretched – not a good match (11) MAR I in (GAME IS)* |
||||||
| 23. | FIP[P]ENCE | Guard accepts one penny, a trifling sum (8) I P in FENCE |
||||||
| 24. | SER[R]A | Something like a cutter runs where mariners are found? (5) R in SEA |
||||||
| 26. | TRIEN[N]IA | At least six years abroad aunt admits love of France (8) A polylglot clue: RIEN (French “nothing”, hence “love”) in TIA (Spanish aunt) gives the Latin word for periods of three years, and if you have more than one of them you have at least six years |
||||||
| 27. | STE[E]PLE | Priest installed stone slab, feature of church? (7) P in STELE |
||||||
| 28. | GRE[E]T | Welcome production of Peter Grimes returning (5) Hidden in reverse of peTER Grimes |
||||||
| 29. | SET[T]LEMENT | Local community people in group permitted (10) MEN in SET LET |
||||||
| 30. | TOS[S]Y | Too sly, completely heartless, full of contempt (5) T[O]O S[L]Y |
||||||
| 31. | EVENTLES[S] | Opening line in retrograde experience with nothing happening? (9) VENT (opening) + L in SEE< |
||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | SUB[B]GUM | ’Umbugs getting excited about black Chinese dish (6) B in UMBUGS* |
||||||
| 2. | CHORALI[I]ST | Choirboy: hourly one is entering tomb (9) HORAL I in CIST (tomb) |
||||||
| 3. | RUN-UP[P] | Approach past president, one involved in sport previously (5) UN in RU + PP |
||||||
| 4. | DISENTANGLE[E] | End holding knotted nets with fish to set free (11) NETS* + ANGLE in DIE (end) |
||||||
| 5. | LAST[T]ER | Like some milk bathed in source of beam, it keeps well (6) TT (tuberculin tested) in LASER |
||||||
| 6. | DIMIDIATION[N] | Racket about aid I’m into involved halving (11) (AID I’M INTO)* in DIN |
||||||
| 7. | S[S]AL | Girl’s given up salt (3) LASS< |
||||||
| 8. | WIL[L]CO | Bat almost bagging century? I’ll go along with that (5) C in WILLO[W] |
||||||
| 9. | SORT[T] | Deal effectively with scrap in street (4) ORT (dialect word for a fragment) in ST |
||||||
| 13. | EN ARR[R]IERE | Being behind, ‘fiery’ Irish girl with basic education shocked Eire? (9, 2 words) ENA (one source of the name is an Irish word for fire) + RRR (“three Rs”) + EIRE. You can take your pick of which of the three Rs is the extra one. |
||||||
| 18. | LIERNE[E] | Sort of rib eagle found in creature’s lair (6) ERNE in LIE |
||||||
| 19. | MEA[A]TUS | Canal opening confused amateurs leaving river (6) AMATEURS* less R |
||||||
| 21. | SP[P]ETS | Ejects pages in groups (5) PP in SETS |
||||||
| 22. | E[E]NROL | Record fish seen around near mouth of Ouse (5) N[ea]R O[use] in EEL |
||||||
| 23. | FAS[S]T | Fool breaking foot, unlikely to run (4) ASS in FT |
||||||
| 25. | P[P]LY | Having bad skin? I’m not seen in that condition in Scotland (3) PIMPLY less I’M. PLY is a Scots word for condition in the sense of “state”: “in good ply” meaning “in good condition” |
||||||
Thanks Andrew.
This looked daunting to start with, and I half expected to struggle with it all week, but in the event I finished it on the day it was published. I’m not sure if the clueing was gentler than usual or not, but I think there were fewer very obscure words than are often included.
It’s always satisfying to complete an Azed, and overall I enjoyed this one.
I found this easier than normal and breezed through without needing Chambers. I think the knowledge of doubled-up letters helped significantly with the subsidiary indications.
Not too difficult, and very enjoyable. i usually struggle to finish Azed, but I managed this one with just a few hiccups.