AZED 2,236

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A straightforward plain puzzle this week, but with one unusual feature.

The usual combination of commonplace (apple sauce and turnip greens) and obscure (speisade and barrace) words this week, but unless I’m missing something there is a rare example of an Azed error.  21 down seems to me to have the definition for a similar (but different) word rather than the actual solution.  There are a couple of other queries and quibbles which will no doubt be resolved by one or other of the usual suspects.  Thanks, Azed, anyway, for another enjoyable journey of discovery.

completed grid
Across
1 OBSCURANTIST
One resisting reforms in biblical texts: curbs upset opponents (12)

*CURBS, ANTIS in OT.
10 APPLE SAUCE
Lip applied to drink pages brought in as accompaniment for roast (10, 2 words)

PP in ALE, SAUCE.
11 TREY
Terrier really expecting you? Heads for leash (4)

First letters of “Terrier Really Expecting You” – a leash can mean a set of three.
13 PAPER
Document? Copy deposited with letters for… (5)

APE in PR(ince) – referring to the next solution.  The first of two uses of APE in this puzzle in the sense of “copy”.
14 PRINCE
…This member of royal family, new in charge (6)

N in PRICE.
15 SEREIN
Fine rain? Get dry at home (6)

SERE IN.  Last used by Azed in puzzle No 2,022, with a similar (but not identical) clue.
16 LASSOCK
Little girl, foolish one cutting ringlet (7)

ASS in LOCK.  Chambers just gives this as a diminutive; I’d never come across it before.
18 UNSAY
Take back one woollen fabric no longer in use (5)

UN SAY.  SAY is an archaic term for a woollen serge-like fabric.  I wasted a lot of time looking for a reversal, not realising that “back” was part of the definition.
20 DRIP
Weakling died, suitable inscription appended (4)

D R.I.P.
22 CEDE
Yield, or what yield comes from, we hear? (4)

Sounds like SEED.
23 PARRY
High churchman brought in to discharge church composer (5)

RR in PAY.  The composer is Hubert Parry.
27 BLEEPER
Potential energy in rebel set off what may alert police (7)

PE in *REBEL.
29 MORTAR
Bomb scrap left in ruin (6)

ORT in MAR.
30 ONEYRE
Close to eponymous heroine, equivalent of one in Shakespeare? (6)

ON (Jane) EYRE.  One of those Shakespearean words whose meaning can only really be guessed at from the context.
31 EUSOL
Antiseptic? Get that to apply for back! (5)

LO SUE (all rev).
32 SLAE
What’s maybe in Scots gin English too endlessly knocked back? (4)

E ALS(o).  A Scottish version of sloe.
33 CAPE PIGEON
Winter visitor to SA cruising in peace with P & O (good on board) (10, 2 words)

*(IN PEACE P O G).
34 THES DANSANTS
Afternoon events: these mostly will get one in stands crushed (12, 2 words)

THES(e), AN in *STANDS.
Down
1 OUTPLACEMENT
Redeployment of Paul to fix, arrangement following redundancy? (12)

*(PAUL, TO ) CEMENT.
2 BARRACE
Old lists – artist turned up in a couple (7)

RA (rev) in BRACE.  It means the lists in a tournament.
3 SPEISADE
Part of old NCO’s rank, a short time abandoning lines, ideas changing (8)

SPE(ll) *IDEAS.  Lance prisado, prisade, pesade or speisade – all variations of lance corporal.
4 ULICON
What’ll frame unusual image? This could shed light, bizarrely (6)

U(nusua)L ICON.  A North Pacific candlefish, so called because it’s so oily it’s dried and used as a candle.
5 REBEC
One of the viols – who’d mutiny with base doubled? (5)

I think that this is a reference to the Rebecca riots, but I’m having trouble explaining the wordplay.  Any ideas?
6 NAPERY
Name copying old table linen (6)

N APERY.  The second use of APE to mean copy.
7 TUART
Gum, often sweet round its centre (5)

(g)U(m) in TART.
8 SEE IN
Witness the arrival of bishop’s former throne at home (5, 2 words)

SEE IN.
9 TURNIP GREENS
Unusual veg changes colour – one’s peering nervously inside (12, 2 words)

*PEERING in TURNS.
12 ESKAR
Geological feature that arises from retreating glacier and leaves sand in rising incline (5)

S(and) in RAKE (rev).  I didn’t understand how S=sand, until I realised that AND has to leave it!
17 PROPYLON
Temple gateway, enormous, abandoned by king, faulty inside (8)

ROPY in PLON(king).
19 SABRA
Israeli, one born in a stretch of his homeland (5)

AB in (I)SRA(el).  A sabra is an Israeli born in Israel, not an immigrant.
21 ITERANT
I’ll join regiment under canvas, on the move (7)

I, RA in TENT.  The wordplay seems clear enough, but I think that Azed has used the definition for ITINERANT by mistake.
23 PEALED
Went through changes with beer in picnic basket? (6)

ALE in PED.
24 RENIGS
Disowns Irish singer that’s off-key (6)

*SINGER.  It’s an Irish version of renege.
25 MOUCH
Cry after whacking? Master going to head – bunk off (5)

M OUCH.  Perhaps more familiarly spelled as MOOCH.
26 STOPS
Sex counsellor? ‘English must quit stays’ (5)

(Marie) STOP(e)S.
28 LOGIN
Access code: proceed northwards in queue (not east) (5)

GO (rev) in LIN(e).  Could equally well be LOG-IN: Chambers has both versions, and Azed never indicates hyphenated words.
*anagram

8 comments on “AZED 2,236”

  1. Thanks bridgesong. Funny that you say that turnip greens are commonplace, they are very expensive round here.

    REBEC, hmm, the ‘who’d mutiny’ is REB, not sure how the other bit works exactly but e is the base of natural logarithms, C presumably is another base but it escapes me for now.

    re ITERANT, I think this (obvious) mistake is due to how Azed does things, can’t remember where I read it but he said he fills the grids and then writes the clues in numerical order, simple misreading of his own work I suspect. (And I won’t comment on editing)

    Not terribly fond of the clue for SABRA and it’s a bit unusual to see the likes of PAPER from Azed although the clues work well together.

  2. Thanks for the blog, bridgesong.

    I was thinking about the Rebecca riots for 5d, but I think it’s just REBEL with the last letter doubled, L=50 and C=100.

    34a should be THES DANSANTS, and you’ve made a bit of a mess of entering it in the grid.

  4. Matthew @2, I agree about REBEC, so thanks for that explanation. I have now amended 34A: the error in the grid reflects my carelessness in entering the solution. As Sidey hints, it serves me right for being so excited about finding an error in Azed’s work! I don’t know how to amend it without redoing the whole blog, so it will have to stay as it is.

  7. I know that I am late as always but I also know that you will receive notification that I’ve read the page and appreciate your expertise.

    Thank you bridgesong for the blog. I really wanted your take on 21d. I could not believe that Azed had made an error and wondered what I was missing.

    I think that a wee hint at 34a’s foreign origins would have helped – even “Nice afternoon events … “. I was convinced it had to be ‘The S……..’!

  8. Thanks all
    Isn’t thes dansants, although given in Chambers, a rather odd plural.I wonder how they can hold and balance lots of teas and dance!!

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