No printing errors! At least none that I can see, thank you to whoever has taken up the challenge. I found this pretty hard, especially the top half of the grid. I would be interested to hear how others found it. Thank you Azed for a great puzzle with some very interesting words.
Finally, I would like to say thank you to Frogman who has recently retired from writing his own AZED blog. You will be missed!
| Across | ||
| 1 | MUMMIA | Drug mother knocked back direct (6) |
| MUM (mother) and AIM (direct) reversed | ||
| 5 | SIST | HM has left fellow for stay in Scotland (4) |
| SISTer (fellow, female) missing ER (Her Majesty, Elizabeth Regina) | ||
| 11 | OCEANIC | What can describe voyage that’s over – can ice drifting? (7) |
| O (over) with anagram of CAN ICE | ||
| 12 | TORR | What measures lowness of pressure – or height? (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 13 | SANS CEREMONIE | ER comes dancing in a Scottish plimsoll, i.e. informally (13, 2 words) |
| anagram (dancing) of ER COMES in SANNIE (Scottish plimsoll) | ||
| 15 | FORAMINA | Small openings for an Asiatic bird (8) |
| FOR A MINA (Asiatic bird) | ||
| 16 | AHOLD | Well, well! Ancient getting to grips (5) |
| AH (well, well) and OLD (ancient) | ||
| 18 | INSECT | Bug head of church secreted in mitre? (6) |
| Church (head, first letter of) in INSET (mitre) | ||
| 19 | IMPERIALISE | To make sovereign smile I played round EP air, funny (11) |
| anagram (played) of I SMILE contains anagram (funny) of EP AIR | ||
| 22 | OMERTA | An involuntary agitation almost reverses code of silence (6) |
| A TREMOr (involuntary agitation, almost) reversed | ||
| 25 | AILSA | One named for a rock star’s No. 1 getting into trouble with one (5) |
| Star (no 1, first letter of) in AIL (trouble) with A (one) – someone named for the rocky island Ailsa Craig | ||
| 27 | VAGARIES | Deviates when taking in Georgia ramblings (8) |
| VARIES (deviates) containing GA (Georgia) | ||
| 29 | DERMATOPLASTY | Year after a palm’s rotted badly – grafting required? (13) |
| Y (year) following anagram of A PALM’S ROTTED | ||
| 30 | IRID | Member of plant family from Ireland I had clipped (4) |
| IR (Ireland) and I’D (I had, clipped) | ||
| 31 | FRAISES | Head of fortifications erects palisades (7) |
| Fortifications (head, first letter of) and RAISES (erects) | ||
| 32 | BARF | Throw up noisily at rear of saloon (4) |
| F (forte, noisily) following BAR (saloon) | ||
| 33 | OBTUSE | Misshapen bust secured by bits of old elastic, not pointed (6) |
| anagram of BUST inside first lettters (bits) of Old Elastic | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MOSHAV OVDIM | Farming association from Missouri pretended to comprehend verse translation of Ovid (11, 2 words) |
| MO (Missouri) SHAM (pretended) contains (to comprehend, take in) V (verse) and anagram of OVID | ||
| 2 | MENTO | Tutor cut short Jamaican song and dance (5) |
| MENTOr (tutor) cut short | ||
| 3 | MASH | Infatuation, a muddle (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 4 | INCEDE | Section from province deployed to follow royal procession? Rarely (6) |
| found inside provINCE Deployed | ||
| 5 | SCROD | Small fish boiled the old way, with odd bits of corn in (5) |
| SOD (boiled obs, cfs seethed) containing CoRn (odd bits of) | ||
| 6 | IBERIAN | Georgian once favoured, seen round former Russian strong man (7) |
| N (favoured) containing (seen round) BERIA (Lavrenity Beria, one of Stalin’s henchmen) – Iberia was an area of Transcaucasia, now Georgia | ||
| 7 | SOMAN | Muscle relaxant, nuclear war’s chemical agent (5) |
| SOMA (drug, muscle relaxant) and N (nuclear) | ||
| 8 | MONIES | In mixing with some lawyers use this term for cash (6) |
| anagram (mixing) of IN with SOME | ||
| 9 | PRINCESS | Deluxe model: with new interior cost’s special (8) |
| N (new) inside PRICES (cost’s) and S (special) | ||
| 10 | BREATHALYSE | Halts a beery drunk – to test thus? (11) |
| anagram of HALTS A BEERY | ||
| 14 | CHIMAERA | Wild fancy about embracing unnamed male goes on a long time? (8) |
| CA (circa, about) contains HIM (unnamed male) on ERA (a long time) | ||
| 17 | TRAITOR | Form of rat, I, corrupt, switching sides? (7) |
| anagram (form) of RAT I and ROT (corrupt) switching sides – definition is &lit | ||
| 20 | MEGRIM | Stone lifted on edge, revealing sort of sole (6) |
| GEM (stone) reversed on RIM (edge) | ||
| 21 | LABLAB | Tropical bean, little length, one to give away (6) |
| L (length, little=abbr) A (one) and BLAB (to give away) | ||
| 23 | TRALA | Forgotten the words? Use this bit of neutral articulation (5) |
| found in neuTRAL Articulation | ||
| 24 | BE OFF | Make tracks as energy-filled entertainment (5, 2 words) |
| E (energy) in BOFF (entertainment) | ||
| 26 | LASSU | Slow movement, last (second) omitted from Renaissance composer (5) |
| LASSUs (Renaissance composer) missing the last letter S (second) | ||
| 28 | GAIT | Deportment I intrinsically follow being brought up (4) |
| I inside (intrisic to) TAG (follow) reversed | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand feel to ask questions; chances are there are others wondering the same things.
Indeed, no errors. It took time, but no real stumbling blocks, just a slow, steady, straightforward solve.
Not quite no errors – at least in the PDF version, the instructions are a mixture of normal and competition rules.
The biggest difficulty was the two crossing two-word answers both of which turned out to be foreign expressions – but I got there in the end.
I didn’t find it exceptionally difficult but it wasn’t easy either (Azed never is).
Nice to see Frogman getting a mention. I don’t know how reliable my information is, but I’ve heard tell that his decision to retire his blog was influenced by complaint(s) from certain quarters. I hope the rumour isn’t true – it’s not as if there aren’t other sites where answers to live puzzles are swopped freely, after all. Thanks for the blog Frogman, and also for providing links to a copy of Azed when the Guardian messed up!
The bottom half went in quickly enough, but the top half took quite a bit longer.
Sad to see Frogman retire – his blog was always erudite and interesting, and will be sorely missed.