AZED 2,302

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A harder than usual plain puzzle this week, with some knowledge of both French and German of assistance.

With one clue entirely in French and one answer a French word (fainéant) as well as the German Bände and (A)bend, there was a distinct European theme to this puzzle (and I haven’t mentioned Dutch!).  I particularly liked DROPSHOT, which was the first clue I solved.  Does anyone think that it does in fact qualify as an & lit?  I often find it difficult to decide whether a clue does meet the criteria.

completed grid
Across
1 DWAAL Start of wavering in pulse, showing state of confusion (5)
W(avering) in DAAL.  It’s a South African term.
7 BUAZE African shrub: new growth I cut twice likewise (5)
BU(d) and AZE(d).  Also spelled BWAZI.
11 RANCHERIA Herdsmen’s village spread, dear, reverse of ideal (9)
RAN, CHER, AI(rev).
12 FAINEANT Like puppet kings, not bright, including eastern one (8)
E AN in FAINT.  The Chambers definition is worth quoting in full: “Do-nothing, applied esp to the later Merovingian kings of France, mere puppets, whose mayors of the palace governed the country”.
13 PARDI Le coeur de Gérard, veritablement! (5)
The centre or heart of the name of the French actor Gérard Depardieu.  It means assuredly in Spenser or Shakespearean usage, and derives from the Old French par dé, meaning by God.
14 DUTCH The missus requiring endless deference, with small children (5)
DUT(y) CH(ildren).  Cockney slang for a wife, perhaps from Duchess of Fife.  Best known, perhaps, from this music hall song.
15 SPYHOLE Alone, nursing form of hyp – it gives one a squint (7)
*HYP in SOLE.
18 HAZE Rag involving jigs by the sound of it? (4)
Sounds like HAYS or HEYS.  This is the second meaning of “haze”, corresponding to the second meaning of “rag”.
20 OFF-PISTE Avoiding regular runs, softie worked out with slices of frozen pizza (8)
*(SOFTIE F P).
21 OCTAVIUS Emperor in situ, endlessly vocal, deranged (8)
*(SITU VOCA).
23 REEL Merrymaking short of volume – drum required (4)
RE(v)EL.
25 SLADANG Wild ox blood youth swallowed (7)
LAD in SANG.
28 BANDE Number included among ordered journal volumes (5)
N in BADE.  Bände is a German word.
29 ULNAR Bony part of beautiful narwhal (5)
Hidden in “beautiful narwhal”.
30 ESPALIER Pear lies off the wall – leaving this? (8)
*(PEAR LIES).  I’m not sure if this should qualify as an & lit clue; pear trees are often trained along an espalier against a wall.
31 CONSOCIES Setback for lettuce devoured by rabbits – wherein one species dominates (9)
COS (rev) in CONIES.
32 DATIN Goin’ out with top ladies in KL? (5)
A Datin is a female member of a senior chivalric order in Malaysia.  I am not sure why the clue uses the plural.
33 WELDS Firm joins league in mid-week? (5)
L in WEDS.  A beautifully misleading definition.
Down
1 DROPSHOT Murray speciality? Pro’s foxed, taken in by depth, skilful (8)
*PROS in D HOT.  This must be at least a semi-& lit, as the wordplay makes clear reference to the definition.  Having said that, it’s notable that Andy Murray played almost no dropshots in his winning Wimbledon final this year, unlike the final of the French open; different surfaces and different opponents, I suppose.
2 WATAP It’s used by Cree for weaving with thatching material (5)
W ATAP.  The leaves of the atap or attap palm are used for thatching.
3 ANGRY Tall and thin, head lowered, looking threatening? (7)
RANGY with the first letter dropped a few places.
4 ACIDHEAD One in charge of investigations, maybe, a regular addict? (8)
A CID HEAD.  I’m not sure that “regular” adds much to the definition.
5 PEARLFISHING Opera theme (not his) Elgar reworked with piano finish (12)
*(ELGAR FINISH P).
6 PRIDEFULNESS Extreme self-esteem strangely unfiled in newspapers (12)
*UNFILED in PRESS.
7 BINDI Dab of face paint, black, where it’s common, one removed (5)
B INDI(a).
8 ABATIS Barbed wire defence down? It’s put up inside (7)
IT (rev) in À BAS.
9 ZINCITE Deep red oxide (zero tar) (7)
Z INCITE.  This is an old usage of “tar”, defined in Chambers as “incite to fight”.
10 EATH Poet’s simple (the end, not the beginning) (4)
(d)EATH.  Another Spenserian term.
16 BIRDLICE Parasitic insects left trickle climbing over glaze (8)
L DRIB (rev), ICE.
17 EELGRASS Seawater plant, largesse when wrecked (8)
* LARGESSE.
19 ACRASIA Lack of will power making one increasingly gaga? So it’s said (7)
Sounds like “a crazier”.
22 TINPOT Paltry fool given a rise – a large sum (6)
NIT (rev), POT.
24 FELON Mugger attacked – only one pound taken (5)
FEL(l) ON.  Isn’t this a definition by example?
26 ANVIL Bone a duck with very little stuffing (5)
V in A NIL.
27 NAKED Defenceless and trembling king end of knife’s penetrated (5)
K (knif)E in *AND.
28 BEND The Scots booze in Munich evening one’s taken off (4)
(A)BEND.

*anagram

6 comments on “AZED 2,302”

  1. 28 across is a little naughty. The plural of German ‘Band’ is indeed ‘Bande’ with an umlaut on the letter a (which for some reason I can’t evoke in this window) and the German spelling rule requires the umlaut to be used in both upper and lower case. There is an alternative spelling ‘Baende’. And there can be no umlaut in the crossing solution ‘acrasia’!

  2. It seems to me that there is a convention in crosswords that where a foreign word has an accent, then that accent is ignored in the entry in the grid and doesn’t appear in crossing entries. I’m sure I have seen things like this many times.

  3. 25 ac SLADANG Wild ox blood youth swallowed (7)

    I have been thinking about this since I saw it on Sunday. Does this clue say what it means, or means what it says?

    To me, this means putting SANG in LAD, not the other way around. I think the clue is not right.

    Nick

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