An Azed Carte Blanche this week. No clue numbers given, no bars in the grid. You have to work it all out
I enjoyed this where we had to do something more than just solve the clues. In this Carte Blanche we were told that the symmetry of the bars in the grid would look the same if turned upside down but not if given a quarter turn. Clues were given in their correct order.
I got my foothold in the North West corner. The good things about across clues in a 180 degree symmetric puzzle is that the clue lengths going down from the top of the block of clues mirrors the clue lengths coming up from the bottom of the block. The same, however, is not true of the Down clues.
The Scottish words got a good run out today. I write my blogs in the Scottish Borders about halfway between Edinburgh and Newcastle but I rarely hear use of any of Azed’s treasury of Scottish words.
There were a couple of one letter abbreviations today that I couldn’t track down in Chambers. Perhaps I’ve misinterpreted the clues. I can’t find L for Labour in what is 18 across or D for die in the wordplay in 19 down. L for Liberal or D for died I can find.
The final grid looked like this: I have put numbers in, but the preamble was very clear that they are not needed for anyone submitting a solution.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
Raw at Murrayfield between a couple of showers (5)
|
WERSH (hidden word [between] in SHOWER SHOWER [a couple of showers]) WERSH |
WERSH (Scottish [Murrayfield is a major sports stadium in Edinburgh] word for raw)
|
|
7
|
Gazelles, the majority tailless circling hunter, gutted (5)
|
MOST (the majority) excluding the final letter (tailless) T containing (circling) HR (the outside letters remaining in HUNTER when the central letters UNTE are removed [gutted]) MO (HR) S |
MOHRS (variant spelling of MHORRS [West African gazelles])
|
|
12
|
Tax exile, three short along the way, connecting with main branch (5)
|
TAX EXILE excluding (short) three letters in the order they occur (along the way) T, E and X AXILE |
AXILE (coinciding [connecting] with an AXIs [the main stem or root, or a branch in relation to its own branches and appendages
|
|
13
|
Some pondlife one man found wandering in open country (7)
|
(I [one] and an anagram of [wandering] MAN) contained in (found … in) LEA (open country) L (I MNA*) EA |
LIMNAEA (genus of pond-snails)
|
|
14
|
Dwarfs train horses in Benin, strangely (10)
|
LUNGE (train a horse with a long rope) contained in (in) an anagram of (strangely) BENIN NIBE (LUNGE) N* |
NIBELUNGEN (supernatural race of dwarfs in Germanic mythology)
|
| 15 |
Antipodean bird in gardens brought from east Australia (4)
|
KEW (reference KEW Botanical Gardens) reversed (brought in from east) + A (Australia) WEK< A |
WEKA (any of the flightless rails of the genus Ocydromus or Gallirallus of New Zealand; antipodean bird)
|
|
16
|
Poem in chapters – it converts electronic signals (5)
|
ODE (poem) contained in (in) CC ( chapters) C (ODE) C |
CODEC (an apparatus for encoding and decoding [electronic] signals)
|
|
18
|
In strike, Labour repeatedly in favour may look down on investors (8)
|
([L {Labour} + L {Labour} – Labour repeatedly] + FOR) contained in (in) HIT (strike) HI (L L FOR) T I can’t find L on its own as an abbreviation for Labour in Chambers. There some longer acronyms where the L component stands for Labor |
HILLFORT (prehistoric stronghold located in an elevated position such that its inhabitant can look down on attackers or besiegers[investors])
|
|
20
|
Rejected old pen when edging something like parchment? (8)
|
REED (a pen was originally made of REED or REEDs; old pen) containing (edging) PELL (obsolete word for skin, hide or a roll of parchment) RE (PELL) ED |
REPELLED (rejected)
|
|
23
|
Screened info system causing distress when about to die poorly (8)
|
VEX (distress) containing (about) an anagram of (poorly) TO DIE V (IDEOT*) EX |
VIDEOTEX ( system used to display pages of information on a television screen, eg teletext; screened info system)
|
|
25
|
It replaces hips a lot (8)
|
Anagram of (replaces) HIPS A LOT HOSPITAL* |
HOSPITAL (place where hip replacements are undertaken often)
|
|
27
|
Governor of former village groups? Zapu changed name (5)
|
Anagram of (changed) ZAPU + N (name) ZUPA* N |
ZUPAN (governor of a confederation of village communities in the early history of Serbia)
|
|
29
|
Superstition surrounds this small American tree (4)
|
TITI (hidden word in [surrounds] SUPERSTITION) TITI |
TITI (small tree of the family Cyrillaceae, native to the southern United States)
|
|
30
|
After bit of work learner diving in escapes marshland (10)
|
(ERG [CGS {centimetre-gram-second}unit of work] + L [learner]) contained in (diving in) EVADES (escapes) EV (ERG L) ADES |
EVERGLADES (marshland in southern Florida)
|
|
31
|
Lop of cooked oysters cut by wife of clerk (7)
|
SCALLOP (cooked oyster) excluding (off) LOP containing (cut by) RIB (wife [biblical reference])` SC (RIB) AL |
SCRIBAL (of a clerk)
|
|
32
|
Dido, huge after gig (5)
|
If you add ANTIC after GIG you get GIGANTIC (huge) ANTIC |
ANTIC (DIDO is defined as a caper or ANTIC)
|
|
33
|
Like horses once harnessed in tandem and missing bits of elegant design (5)
|
TANDEM excluding (missing) AND + ED (first letters of [bits of] ELEGANT and DESIGN) TEM E D |
TEMED (obsolete [once] spelling of TEAMED [descriptive of a group of horses [working] together [in tandem even] and the vehicles to which they are harnessed)
|
|
34
|
What you associate with Jack – no talk, little or none (5)
|
BEANSTALK (reference the pantomime Jack and the BEANSTALK) excluding (no) TALK BEANS |
BEANS (little or nothing at all)
|
| Down | |||
|
1
|
Women’s hat, worn but repaired, a good buy in Edinburgh (8)
|
Anagram of (but repaired) W [women] and HAT WORN WANWORTH* |
WANWORTH (Scottish [Edinburgh] word for low price or bargain)
|
|
2
|
Deportees, left out, fit north of the border (5)
|
EXILES (deportees) excluding (out) L (left) EXIES |
EXIES (Scottish [north of the border] word fit, eg of hysterics or ague)
|
|
3
|
Grubby stuff one avoided in auction – not quite me!
|
SALE (auction) excluding (avoided) A (one) + AZED (crossword setter, me) excluding the final letter (not quite) D SLE AZE |
SLEAZE (corruption, squalor; grubby stuff)
|
|
4
|
Cask? One in charge is at this (4)
|
HELM (CASK as a variant spelling of CASQUE can be defined as a helmet or HELM) HELM |
HELM (someone at the HELM is in charge)
|
|
5
|
Having the component of pull / rail / tire? Possibly (as a minimum) (12)
|
Anagram of (possibly) PULL, RAIL and TIRE PLURILITERAL* |
PLURILITERAL (containing more letters than three. as the three component words PULL, RAIL and TIRE just do, each with the minimum requirement of four letters)
|
|
6
|
Swinging both ways presents bit of dilemma – fancy Nigel, fancy Glenda (12)
|
D (first letter of [bit of]) DILEMMA + an anagram of (fancy) NIGEL + an anagram of (fancy) GLENDA D INGLE* DANGLE* |
DINGLE-DANGLE (swinging to and fro; swinging both ways)
|
|
8
|
Disengaged from comprehending artificial language, unrepeatable (6)
|
OFF (disengaged from) containing (comprehending) NEO (artificial language launched by an Italian, Arturo Alfandari, in 1961) O (NEO) FF |
ONE-OFF (something made, intended, done, etc for one occasion only; unrepeatable)
|
|
9
|
Free leaflets, thousand distributed (8)
|
Anagram of (distributed) THOUSAND HANDOUTS* |
HANDOUTS (free leaflets)
|
|
10
|
Gun – before loading one this may absorb you totally (7)
|
REV (gun, as in REV the engine [gun the engine]) + (ERE [before] containing [loading] I [Roman numeral for one]) REV ER (I) E |
REVERIE (undirected train of thoughts or fancies in meditation to the oblivion of all else; something that may absorb you totally)
|
|
11
|
Mediterranean vessel, conveyance round Italy (4)
|
SAC (the conveyance to a lord of manor of certain rights of jurisdiction, eg holding courts) containing (round) I (International Vehicle registration for Italy) SA (I) C |
SAIC (vessel like a ketch, used in the eastern Mediterranean)
|
|
17
|
Miser with pep disposed of outer coat (8)
|
Anagram of disposed of) MISER and [with] PEP EPISPERM* |
EPISPERM (outer seed coat)
|
|
19
|
On tee, six caddies sacked sine die – driver’s no longer need them (8, 2 words)
|
T (tee, the twentieth letter of the alphabet) + an anagram of (sacked) (SIX and CADDIES excluding [sine {without}]) DIE [d]) Chambers tells me that D stands for DIED rather than DIE T AX DISCS* |
TAX DISCS (paper DISCS displayed on a motor vehicle’s windscreen to show that the road TAX has been paid for a given period. No longer required in the United Kingdom since October 2014)
|
|
21
|
Make no secret of being single brought up with family member (left out) (7)
|
ONE (single) reversed (brought up; down clue) + UNCLE (family member) excluding (out) L (left) ENO< UNCE |
ENOUNCE (proclaim; make no secret of)
|
|
22
|
Affliction of Ayr mount having to compete after spring (6)
|
SPA (spring) + VIE (compete) SPA VIE |
SPAVIE (Scottish [Ayr is a town in Scotland with horse racecourse] word for SPAVIN [disease of the hock joint of {horses mounts}])
|
|
24
|
Hydrocarbon damaged coat, modern wife got rid of (6) |
Anagram of (damaged) COAT + NEW (modern) excluding (got rid of) W (wife) OCTA* NE |
OCTANE (any of a group of eighteen isomeric hydrocarbons)
|
|
26
|
You need to be in Hamburg when imbibing it, in short (5)
|
SEIN (German [Hamburg] for ‘to be’] containing (imbibing) ‘T (shortened form of it) S (T) EIN |
STEIN (large beer mug, often earthenware and frequently with a hinged lid; the amount held by such a mug. A STEIN is often associated with beer drinking in Germany)
|
|
27
|
Relish stone one’s taken off, on setter’s middle (4)
|
ZE (central letters of [middle] AZED [setter’s name]) + STONE excluding (taken off) ONE ZE ST |
ZEST (relish)
|
|
28
|
Large piece of meat stokes pet dog (4)
|
S (stokes) + LAB (Labrador; a breed of dog commonly kept as a pet) S LAB |
SLAB (large thick slice of anything, e.g. meat)
|
For me, the way in was spotting straight away (Azed nerd alert!) that the “Swinging both ways …” clue was a prizewinning entry (by R.J. Palmer) in the DINGLE-DANGLE comp Azed set in Nov 1994. It was also obvious that the clue preceding it was another 12-letter anagram, and that these two answers therefore had to sit alongside each other down the two central columns. With this pair in place it was then possible to fit any longish (7+ letters) Across answers into the grid with 100% certainty.
You’re right, Duncan, that ‘Labour’ should be ‘Liberal’ in 18Ac, but in 19Dn ‘die’ represents not D but, er, ‘die’ (as your explanation does actually show!).
Murrayfield, Edinburgh, Ayr (as well as ‘north of the border’)… how often over the weeks and years does Azed repeat himself in picking place-names to indicate the always-useful Scottish words and phrases? Does he – or does some Azed archivist – have (say) a big map where each name, once used, is highlighted? Just wondering. Of course Ayr this week does have a specific motivation, as Duncan notes. Anyway, Carte Blanche was as usual an enjoyable variation on the standard format. Many thanks to both.
Thanks Azed and Duncan.
Further to Richard@1, it helps to get as quickly as possible to noting that the first ten down answers all begin in the top row and the last eight all end in the bottom row. This means that the last eight clues are in non-increasing order of answer length.
Note that in this grid, all of the across and down answers either begin or end at an edge of the grid. Azed does not always follow this rule in a Carte Blanche, but he does this often enough for it to be worth regarding from the start as a serious possibility.
The Carte Blanche diagram is a good way of bypassing the Observer’s typesetters. Maybe we should have one every week?
Nice one Chris @ 4!
I was a surprised by L for Labour. It seems like an unlikely error for a seasoned setter like Azed to make, so perhaps it’s gaining some currency in political circles by analogy with C for Conservative? Agreed L is listed as Liberal in many dictionaries, but there hasn’t been a Liberal Party since 1989.
Great puzzle as ever.
I started filling in the grid by realising that the top left ‘cell’ in the grid must be the first letter of the answer to the first across clue or the first letter of the answer to the first down clue – or both. If both, 1ac and 1d will begin with the same letter.
So I concentrated on these to get WERSH and WANWORTH, both beginning with W. Other already-solved answers soon confirmed that WERSH and WANWORTH were 1ac and 1d.
Bravo Chris @4! Made me laugh out loud.
I misspelled MHORS which meant I struggled with the grid-filling for ages until I realised my mistake.
Duncan – please can you explain 12ac TAX EXILE some more. You say “excluding three letters in the order they occur”. How could they be removed any other order and produce a different result? I there some specific reason why T,E and X have to be removed?
I found this incredibly difficult. I rely heavily on word lengths and intersecting letters to get solutions. By the end of Sunday I’d got maybe half a dozen answers and no idea how they fitted together. I then didn’t look at it again till Wednesday when I used a brute force approach. I used an anagram search to get the obvious 12 letter answer at 5dn – I don’t think I’d have got it any other way. I already had 6dn and guessed they’d be the central columns of the grid and finally I was able to piece together what I already had and then got enough crossing letters to begin to finish the puzzle. Bit of a slog, really.
Doormouse @8 – I know what you mean about the lack of letter counts making this difficult. I normally have a rule where I tackle AZED using only a paper copy of the dictionary for aid. For this puzzle I abandoned that idea early on and ended up resorting to all sorts of electronic aids to get it finished.
If letter counts were included it would be trivial to place all the bars.
I find the easiest thing to do is to mark the horizontal centre of the grid and split the across clues similarly, then for every across answer you get you have the letter count for the clue in the other half. Further, each half has six lines and nine clues which hints at three lines with two clues and three with one. Spotting obvious anagrams, even if you can’t solve them to start with also give clue lengths.
sidey@10: Yes, I was able to work all that out, but I needed to get more answers before I could make any use of that, and I just couldn’t get a toehold.
My toehold was the helpful X in VIDEOTEX and TAXDISCS. After that it was plain sailing.
Maybe because I’m a non-driver, TAXDISCS was one of my last to get. I don’t think I knew you didn’t need them. 🙂
My entry was getting DINGLE-DANGLE and EVERGLADES early on and working out that they had to intersect on the shared G. After this the structure of the grid fell into place.