Azed 2250 – “27 Across”

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After the lunch in Wolfson College, Oxford, last Saturday to celebrate number 2250, we were lucky enough to be invited back to Azed’s house (and wonderful garden) for tea and cake. I asked him what we had in store in the puzzle, and (without giving away any details) he rather diffidently said he was worried we would think it wasn’t exciting enough, as there’s “not much you can do with 2,250”; in contrast, say, to number 250, which older solvers may remember was transformed into “ten to three”, to give a link to Rupert Brooke’s poem The Old Vicarage, Grantchester .   Well, there’s no such trick with the number here, and the puzzle wasn’t particularly difficult, but very enjoyable nonetheless. (Although I solved the puzzle fairly quickly, confirming the details of some of the obscure words in Chambers took rather longer, as is often the case.)

The need to add a letter to each clue wasn’t too much of an obstacle, even without the hidden phrase, and I soon spotted the word FIFTY in the added letters in the final clues, so clearly the full number was going to be involved, and with a Z in 5a it soon became apparent that the phrase was AZED’S NO. TWO THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY. The “similar phrase” in the grid was the same in Roman numerals: AZED’S NO. MMCCL, from top right to bottom left. I’ve added the extra letters to the clues below, and indicated them thus.

Many thanks to Azed for the continued entertainment, and particularly  to him and Ali for the hospitality. On to 2500!

Azed 2250

Across
1. AMISS Old coAt of a sort succeeded? Wrong (5)
AMIS (Spenserian variant of “amice” – a cloak) + S
5. SESTINA English saints made haZy in old verse form (7)
(E SAINTS)*
10. TIN HAT Who’ll accept trendy modern type of saladE? (6, 2 words)
IN in THAT – “salade”, aka “sallet”, is a helmet used in mediaeval armour
11. KUDZU Antelope around Zambia: might one seeD itself in oriental garden? (5)
Z in KUDU
13. FREENESS Most Spick clothing seen unravelling, being frank? (8)
SEEN* in FRES[h] (spick – i.e. most of it)
14. CREEPERED Father, among set of beliefs related to church, with climbers adorNing (9)
PERE in CREED
17. CORPS Army unit take in peOns, historically (5)
R in COPS (peon is an old word for a policeman)
18. ASSEGAI Spear fruit in SA? THis gets e.g. inside (7)
EG in ASSAI – also spelt a&ccedilla;ai, a South American fruit
20. NIRLIE Lean doWn after Scottish race is over, niggardly among locals (6)
RIN< + LIE
21. PARAMO Airborne soldier given pOint following windy plain (6)
PARA + MO
24. OVERMAN TAsk supervisor in mine down one with money invested (7)
M in OVER AN
25. KAIAK Inuit may travel with this cHow, one kilometre behind (5)
KAI (Maori word for food: chow) + A K. A variant spelling of “kayak”
27. MILESTONE See preamble (9) (O)
The competition word, the clue to require an extra O
30. ETCETERA DebUt written off, Met create recast addition (8)
(MET CREATE)* less M (the “debut” of MET)
31. ACARI RollS, say, coated in edible fish mites (5)
CAR (e.g. a Rolls Royce) in AI – an edible Japanese fish (as well as the three-toed sloth, as all Scrabble players should know)
32. VANISH HungAry? Camper maybe is heading for that, faint as before (6)
VAN (camper [van], maybe) + IS + H: as the H is there in the unmodified version of the clue, it’s not really true in this case that “the clue requires the addition of a single letter before if can be satisfactorily solved”
33. LINACRE College liNe about a Councillor (7)
A CR in LINE – Linacre College, Oxford
34. AGNES LaDy back in embrace of chosen gallant (5)
Hidden in reverse of choSEN GAllant – another lady appears in the modified clue in 29d, albeit from a different original word
Down
1. ATOC All but centre of potato cake eaten away, it sTinks (4)
[pot]ATO C[ake] – the atoc is a kind of skunk
2. MICROWAVE WArm voice becoming animated – it heats quickly (9)
(WARM VOICE)*
3. INJERA Bread from flour made sOurer during period Jack consumed (6)
J in IN ERA
4. SHEEP-FARMER One raising e.g. mugs, record very much superior to medium tHin cans (11)
EP + FAR + M[edium] in SHEER (A mug is “a woolly-faced sheep”)
5. STREAM From energy hoUsing river comes flow of water (6)
R in (housed by) STEAM (energy)
6. EWER Jug? There’s not so many in Number, without lid (4)
[F]EWER
7. SKEESICKS US rogue, like many in a warD, appearing in courts, had up (9)
SICK (like people in ward) in SEEKS*
8. IDEA I’ll be given tRuck with no end plan (4)
I + DEA[L] (truck(
9. AUSSIES Old copper sEizing wayward Susie, the old enemy! (7)
SUSIE* in AS (coin) – the enemy as in cricket
12. UNDERRATING Making misjudgement of Danger I turn disorderly (11)
(DANGER I TURN)*
15. PSAMMITIC ABout included, drunk Pimm’s – twitch follows, rocky (9)
A[bout] in PIMMS + TIC
16. TAIWANESE Fish decline? BeNt set includes that islander (9)
AI WAN in SET*
19. APOGEAL Describing position of heavenly boDy, one’s ringing about rising success (7)
GO< in A PEAL
22. ENERVE Little energy, right at heart of snowfield, cause to Flag as before (6)
E + R in NEVE (snowfield)
23. VIOLIN LuthIer might have fashioned this blend of oil in wine (6)
OIL* in VIN
26. SCAN Old judge in female underwear, ties Failing (4)
SCAN[ties]
28. LEAR TEach Scottish learner on organ (4)
L + EAR (organ) – it seems a flaw that the clue contains the closely-related “learn”
29. EDHS The ladY pulled up about 500 thorns (4)
D in SHE< – Eth (or edh) and Thorn are letters used in modern Icelandic for voiced and unvoiced “th”. According to Chambers, eth was “used without distinction from thorn” in Old English, hence the definition, which surprised me until I looked the word up

1 comment on “Azed 2250 – “27 Across””

  1. Thanks for the blog, Andrew. I sometimes found that I could solve the clue without first working out what the missing letter was, because the generous checking made the answer pretty clear. Writing a clue which made sense with and without an O proved surprisingly difficult, so Azed’s feat in writing a whole puzzle’s worth is all the more impressive.

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