A surprisingly easy Azed — which I completed in a single session with only occasional recourse to TBRB — relatively speaking not too many Scots words or Spenserisms.
| Across | ||
| 3 | RUM BUTTER | Dance? Denied a voice – pudding extra (9, 2 words) |
| RUMB[a],UTTER – so definition is “pudding extra” in the sense that RUM BUTTER is something you add to your “vanilla” pudding. | ||
| 10 | BLOWIE | Aussie fly I caught in elbow, squashed (6) |
| I in elbow* – Australian version of the blowfly. | ||
| 11 | FR,ONDE | Anti-royalist movement, French, leading to local surge? (6) |
| FR=French,ONDE=wave… in French which I guess is what “local” is there to indicate. And ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fronde – French civil wars. | ||
| 12 | SEMI | Whale, millions caught – two of last four meet in it (4) |
| SE(M)I – sei is a type of whale. And the semi-finals is where 4 of the last contenders compete, so 2 of them meet in a singular semi. | ||
| 14 | AUDIT | Foreign car’s exhaust finally requiring examination (5) |
| AUDI,T | ||
| 15 | TRICKLE | Minor flow to divert skirting river (7) |
| T(R)ICKLE – yes, “minor flow” indeed though Reagan (and probably Thathcher) would have it that wealth trickled down to we poor masses. | ||
| 17 | RUSH | Stampede – a hundred initially lost in violent squeezing (4) |
| [c]RUSH | ||
| 18 | SERIAL | Israel involved in a row (6) |
| Israel* – apropos the last… oh… 100 years. | ||
| 19 | SALIAUNCE | According to art deployed in a clue, old-fashioned onslaught required (9) |
| SA=secundum artem, (in a clue)* – Spenserian onslaught. | ||
| 21 | CHAPRASSI | Orderly fellow accompanying prince is retiring (9) |
| CHAP,RAS,rev(is) – Indian orderly and RAS=(African) prince | ||
| 24 | TIFOSI | Do they cheer for I Azzurri whenever packed in to take seats mostly? (6) |
| T(IF)O,SI[t] – where “whenever”=IF. Italian football fans who are well… fanatical, so infected by typhus — which I’ve always thought is a rather dire metaphor. And “I Azzurri” are “The Blue”, the Italian national team (what happens when “I Azzurri” play “Les Bleus”?). | ||
| 26 | ECHO | Response – or final element thereof? (4) |
| Take the last latter of responsE which is according to the phonetic alphabet ECHO. A tough clue. | ||
| 28 | DAY-COAL | Upper mine stratum, always enveloped in a clod, crumbly (7) |
| AY=always in (a clod)* | ||
| 29 | DORAD | Fish the old man’s netted on river (5) |
| D(O’,R)AD | ||
| 30 | CURD | Dairy product, or something got from cold bean (4) |
| C,URD – where URD is an Indian bean. | ||
| 31 | LOATHE | Detest example of bad language in French article (6) |
| L(OATH)E | ||
| 32 | CABRIE | Horned ruminant, cow primarily associated with a cheese (6) |
| C,A,BRIE – pronghorn. I got his through mentally enumerating 4-letter cheeses beginning with a consonant. | ||
| 33 | EPHEMERIS | Historical journal he penned during collapse of empires (9) |
| HE in empires*. Archaic journal. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ABSTRACTEDLY | Batty with cradle’s rocking, not concentrating properly (12) |
| (batty, cradle’s)* – begged to be an anagram. | ||
| 2 | CLERUCHIA | Uppish copper interrupts silly Charlie offering land allotment abroad (9) |
| rev(cu=copper) in (Charlie)* – on the other hand, this clue wasn’t as accessible — since I was not familiar with the Greek notion of “an allotment of land in foreign territory”. At first I thought the wordplay was U=uppish,C=copper… | ||
| 3 | ROMISH | Choirs (not Catholic) crazy about mass, Papist (6) |
| M in [c]hoirs* – ROMISH is probably a slur in certain parts of N. Ireland. | ||
| 4 | MILK BAR | Alcoholic-free establishment that still gives one the shakes? (7, 2 words) |
| I think this is just a cryptic definition – but was “alcohol-free” intended? | ||
| 5 | BELLE-LAIDE | E.g. Daisy (English), not exactly ideal? She’s charming despite that (10, 2 words) |
| BELL=e.g. daisy,E,ideal* – ugly beautiful. | ||
| 6 | TRAVE | Avert moving vehicle’s beam (5) |
| avert* – misdirection from surface reading of headlight beam. It’s a cart’s beam or shaft. | ||
| 7 | TOUK | Highland drumbeat in the direction of this country (4) |
| TO,UK – Scots drumbeat | ||
| 8 | ENDRIN | Measure doctor favoured as pesticide (6) |
| EN=measure,DR,IN=favoured. An organic pesticide. | ||
| 9 | KETTLE-HOLDER | Something to prevent scalding leek, cooked, getting dry inside, champion? (12) |
| TT=dry (teetotaler) in leek*,HOLDER=champion. | ||
| 13 | RESISTANCE | Opposition set is getting drunk in Scottish bar (10) |
| (set is)* in rance=Scots bar. | ||
| 16 | SACCHARIN | Tea I swallowed in snack bar ending in riot for sweetener (9) |
| char=tea in (snac[k])* | ||
| 20 | ASTYLAR | With no columns vaguely salty one foreshadows end for Mirror (7) |
| salty*, [mirro]r – etymologically derived from Gk stylos=column. | ||
| 22 | AFFRAP | Strike once producing a very noisy chat (6) |
| A,FF,RAP – archaic strike. | ||
| 23 | SCOURS | Scrubs conversation sine die (6) |
| [di]SCOURS[e] — struggled with the wordplay until I realized that “sine die” just meant “without die”, i.e. remove die. | ||
| 25 | SADHE | Letter familiar to Mossad: ‘Heads must roll’ (5) |
| heads* – Hebrew letter. Related to the row in 18A. | ||
| 27 | MATH | Cutting preppy subject (4) |
| Two meanings – another struggle for me. Ultimately realized that “preppy” is the N. Am. indicator for maths=math. And math also is mowing=cutting. | ||
*anagram
Took me ages to see the word play for 16d. I like ‘in riot’ as an anagram indicator.
For one mad moment I thought that my solving skills had quadrupled overnight, before I realised quite how surprisingly easy this one was.
25d SADHE
The definition is I suppose ‘Letter familiar to Mossad’
If it were just ‘Letter’ one might think (correctly and incorrectly) that sadhe is hidden in [Mos]SAD HE[ads must roll]
& SI ?
As Ilancaron’s blog was so thorough that little could be added, perhaps I can be can excused for going back a week to the discussion of the previous week about this clue:
Nothing – this I saw if old (7)
[0 vidi an — an is an archaic version of if — Ovidian/Latinspeak for ‘I saw’ is ‘vidi’]
Here I thought AZED had invented a new kind of clue (not for the first time).
‘This’ in the clue referred to the required answer (not unusual), but once the required answer was substituted for ‘this’ the ENTIRE clue was converted into the subsidiary indications.
Not an &Lit, but rather an &SI.
I was greatly impressed.
Azed is undoubtedly getting easier. I have a book of his puzzles from the 90s, which I really struggle to finish; in many cases I solve only half the clues. In comparison, his current crosswords are very straightforward.