A plain Azed with one unusual feature: there were twice as many words of Hindustani origin as Scottish ones.
The Hindi words were CHOKRA and MULMUL; we also had words from Sanskrit (PURUNA), Russian (MIRI) and Arabic (ALKAHEST and HIJRAH), showing the range of languages from which English words can be derived, although it must be said that none of those quoted could be said to be commonplace.

Across | ||
1 | IMBROCCATA | Combi in collision with a cart – it’s driven aggressively (10) |
*(COMBI A CART). It’s a term from fencing, meaning a thrust. | ||
11 | PURANA | Turned up frogs in Sanskrit texts (6) |
UP (rev) RANA. | ||
12 | HIJRAH | Exodus greeting Hebrew God? About right (6) |
HI, R in JAH. | ||
13 | CLUNK | Luck out, accepting name as ‘dumbo’ (5) |
N in *LUCK. Chambers gives this sense of “clunk” as N American, something not fully reflected in the clue. | ||
14 | MIRI | It’s extracted from palm in farming communes (4) |
MIR(IT)I. These Soviet collective farms turn up in Azed puzzles quite often. | ||
15 | ALKAHEST | Solvent, having a lakh, roughly estimated (8) |
*(A LAKH) EST. It’s the (mythical) universal solvent sought by the alchemists. | ||
16 | MUKHTAR | Indian lawyer relocated in Khartum (7) |
* KHARTUM. | ||
18 | PLIERS | Ploughman gripping end of agricultural tool (6) |
(agricultura)L in PIERS. The reference is to the mediaeval alliterative poem Piers Plowman, by William Langland. | ||
20 | ACATES | A conspirator punished by post-mortem beheading, not by stocks (6) |
A CATES(by). Robert Catesby was one of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators whose head was subsequently put on display outside Parliament. The clue as a whole is a lovely example of how to mislead the solver. | ||
21 | ESPRIT | Wit making sort of gaff after second of jests (6) |
(j)E(sts), SPRIT. Sprit and gaff are both kinds of spars found on sailing-ships. | ||
24 | RELISH | Musical ornament halving middle note in S. Reich’s composition? (6) |
L (50) for C (100) in *(S REICH). Although C is the first note of the diatonic scale of C major, it’s the middle note on a piano. Thanks to Mrs B for helping me parse this one. | ||
27 | HUSSITE | Supporter of church reform, hot on press getting into form of worship (7) |
H, SIT in USE. Both (slightly obscure) meanings of SIT and USE are to be found in Chambers. | ||
28 | THIOUREA | Poorly author, i.e. requiring thyroid inhibitor (8) |
*(AUTHOR I E). An easy clue for a difficult word, one which includes all the vowels, but not in the right order. | ||
30 | ROPY | Cut of belly pork turned glutinous (4) |
Hidden and reversed in “belly pork”. | ||
31 | PAINT | Colour, trendy, to slap on the outside (5) |
IN inside PAT. | ||
32 | ARISES | Sign about bend comes into view (6) |
S (-bend) in ARIES. | ||
33 | UPFLOW | What emerges from plughole, foul bits of putrid waste possibly? (6) |
*(FOUL + P (utrid) and W (aste)). I think that this qualifies as a semi & lit clue. | ||
34 | NETTLE-FISH | Blubber? Flense it thus, half discarded, at sea (10) |
*(FLENSE IT TH(us)). It’s a jellyfish. | ||
Down | ||
2 | MULMUL | Pair of soft slippers trimmed in soft fabric (6) |
MUL(e), MUL(e). | ||
3 | BRUM | Tramp grabbing a bit of rest in city (4) |
R in BUM. | ||
4 | RANCHERO | Cattle farmer chased and caught lion (8) |
RAN C HERO. | ||
5 | CALLAS | Lilies for a diva (6) |
The diva is of course Maria Callas. | ||
6 | CHOKRA | Young servant presenting clubhouse with bhindi (6) |
CH OKRA. I can’t find CH = Clubhouse in Chambers, but it seems obvious enough. | ||
7 | AIDANCE | Support one in a gig maybe (7) |
1 in A DANCE. | ||
8 | ARIEL | Marie Lloyd’s inner spirit (5) |
Hidden in “Marie Lloyd”. | ||
9 | WARSLE | Imported horses, second pair bringing up rear, compete at Braemar? (6) |
The imported horses are WALERS, with the second pair of letters moved to the end of the word. WRASLE is the only explicitly Scottish term in the puzzle, but I can’t be sure that wrestling is in fact something that features in the Highland Games, much less the Braemar Gathering. | ||
10 | WHITE SHEET | Might one see character ending contrite with these scruffy clothes? (10) |
(contrit)E in *(WITH THESE). I think that this is a full & lit, the Chambers definition reading: “The clothing symbolically worn by a penitent”. | ||
13 | CAMPESTRAL | A term associated with places ploughed, expending energy (10) |
*(A TERM PLAC(e)S). | ||
17 | PALSTAFF | Axe (old) crony on the workforce (8) |
PAL, STAFF. | ||
19 | RIVULET | Gill having to concentrate, east going for rubber (7) |
RIVET with ULE (rubber) for E (ast). Nothing whatever to do with bridge! I am not entirely happy with “concentrate” being used as a synonym for “rivet”, which is a transitive verb. The surface of the clue seems to suggest an intransitive use. | ||
22 | SCHORL | Bottled Grolsch – gallons disposed of – in fine (English-style) stein (6) |
*((G)ROLSCH). Schorl is tourmaline, described by Chambers as “a beautiful mineral”. Stein is a German word which translates into English as “stone”, hence “English-style” in the clue. I’m not too sure why Azed thought “fine” was necessary. | ||
23 | THRUST | Husband in credit, showing determination (6) |
H in TRUST. | ||
24 | RUEFUL | Endless enjoyment breaking rule naughtily making one sorry (6) |
FU(n) in *RULE. | ||
25 | STENOS | Distress call has number jumping in for occupants of pool? (6) |
TEN in SOS. It’s a slightly outdated abbreviation for stenographers, who might once have worked in a (typing) pool. | ||
26 | ZIP-IN | Nothing occupying a seat that is retained by a fastener (5) |
A simple charade of ZIP IN. | ||
29 | HILI | Anatomical openings? Hot stuff, not cold (4) |
(C)HILI. |
*anagram
A step up in difficulty last week, at least on the RHS which took twice as long as the rest. Printer’s Devilry this week, so I’ll be taking a week off from Azed. ?
13d
The entire clue is the subsidiary indictation (SI).
Either the entire clue is also the definition making it an &Lit…
… or the definition and SI overlap and it is either a brilliant &SI (sensu Norman)or a weak clue (sensu everyone else?).
26d
As a zip-in jacket is a jacket ‘that is retained by a fastener’ I took ‘that is’ to be part of the definition.
Norman @2: I think that you may be right on both counts. The problem with CAMPESTRAL is that fields don’t have to be ploughed, nor does energy have to be expended, for the purposes of the definition. So a semi & lit perhaps?
Please can someone explain the ‘printer’s devilry’ example given in the current Azed (2291). I understand how the subtraction works, but can’t derive PESTO from the clue “Vaulting above tunnel entrance appears in an escape story”. Is there no definition as such? Help!
drofle, there are no definitions in eithe the original Devilled “clue” nor the version containing the answer. There is simply a hidden solution, in the example PESTO is hidden in “escape story”. Tip: try to spot words that aren’t quite right and see if they could be split and other stuff inserted. You may find some old PD puzzles in the graun archive that you could look at. And the blogs on here.
sidey @ 5 – Many thanks for the info. That’s certainly something completely different! I’ll have a go but I don’t hold out much hope.