A typical Azed. Good clues and the necessity for Chambers to verify all the unusual words.
The Observer only seems to have made one mistake this week, at 26dn.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CAFARD | Blues record absorbing one very much (6) |
| C(a far)D | ||
| 6 | APPALTO | Dismay before contract (7) |
| appal to — I’m never very comfortable with these short words. usually prepositions, which have some apparently quite other word that is said to be equivalent to it: here, to = before. No doubt in some sense they are equivalent, but I can’t think of one at the moment. | ||
| 11 | MORRION | Helmet damaged on rim, or lining (7) |
| or in (on rim)* | ||
| 13 | ROSOLIO | Sweet drink? Joey maybe imbibes singles (7) |
| ro(soli)o | ||
| 14 | JURA | Laws? There’s a range (4) |
| 2 defs, one of them the plural of jus [= law] | ||
| 15 | NOTT | Polled number having taken the pledge (4) |
| no. TT | ||
| 16 | ATONIC | Antico puzzles leaving one debilitated (6) |
| (Antico)* — the crossword setter who goes under the name Antico | ||
| 17 | BLING | Baubles left in a heap (5) |
| b(L)ing | ||
| 19 | VAGAL | Volume written by a young female that’s touching a nerve (5) |
| V a gal — touching a nerve in the sense of being to do with a nerve, in this case the vagus nerve | ||
| 20 | RELIGIOUSNESS | Zeal maybe shown by soul singers, i.e. when stirred (13) |
| (soul singers i.e.)* | ||
| 22 | HODJA | Madrassah teacher penning journal in hot part of harem (5) |
| (h od(j)a) | ||
| 24 | MORAT | Sweet drink that’s ace, imbibed by woman (5) |
| mor(a)t — the second sweet drink in a short while | ||
| 25 | NURDLE | Under ‘batting, holding line’ hard hitters won’t (6) |
| l in (Under)* — a cricket term | ||
| 27 | BEER | Draught perhaps requiring cushion cover (4) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 29 | DRIB | Take a little girl that’s backward (4) |
| (bird)rev. | ||
| 30 | ROSETTE | Plant disease that’s switched to trees (7) |
| (to trees)* | ||
| 31 | PETUNIA | Flower, unit out of place amid veg (7) |
| pe((unit)*)a | ||
| 32 | GANGREL | Endlessly furious having set about Scottish tramp (7) |
| g(angr{y})el | ||
| 33 | ATTENT | Time under temporary cover gets the old concentrating (6) |
| at tent — the old means an old version of — but I’m really not sure of this parsing: how is ‘time under shelter’ the same as ‘at tent’? No doubt I’m wrong here — it could be t [= time] in (a tent), but Azed doesn’t I think ever use ‘under’ as an inclusion indicator [but see AP @4 for the correct I think interpretation of this] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CORNBRANDY | Whisky marque, old-fashioned bottles (10) |
| corn(brand)y | ||
| 2 | ALOO | One John Murphy and the like (4) |
| a loo | ||
| 3 | FUSTILARIAN | Rail wildly in bombast producing old-style insult (11) |
| fust((rail)*)ian | ||
| 4 | ROLAG | Go slow after run out? There’s something here for the spinners (5) |
| RO lag | ||
| 5 | DRIP | Only a minimum of rain but enough for weed (4) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 6 | AROBA | Wind getting up, anonymous one trundles across the steppes (5) |
| (bora)rev. a | ||
| 7 | PIRAGUA | Does it transport Guaraní, number going for peso? (7) |
| (Guarani – n + p)* — some sort of &lit, although not a full one | ||
| 8 | PORTAS | Old service book left with bank of a kind (6) |
| port [= left] as [= bank of a kind ??? When I did the crossword there seemed to be no problem but now I can’t see this bit — surely it isn’t referring to this?] — Azed tells us that this word isn’t in the latest Chambers as an entry of its own; the entry only appears in earlier editions; I thought this was going to entail a whole lot of hunting back, but it’s much simpler than that since portas is there in the latest Chambers. | ||
| 9 | LAUNDERETTE | Coinop place offering coffee with less than minimum of extras included (11) |
| la(under e{xtras})tte | ||
| 10 | THRIMSA | Bit of old gold a smith fashioned to circle king (7) |
| (a smith)* round R | ||
| 12 | BACKSTREET | Support setter struggling in unfashionable address! (10) |
| back (setter)* — why the exclam? | ||
| 18 | LEMURIA | Rum I mixed with ale for ancient festival (7) |
| (rum I ale)* | ||
| 19 | VIDETTE | Sentry (mounted) was checking endlessly about identity (7) |
| v(ID)ette{d} | ||
| 21 | GOLFER | He regularly negotiates traps – foreleg damaged, energy lost (6) |
| (foreleg – e)* | ||
| 23 | JARUL | Indian tree local government raised, centre of cult (5) |
| (raj)rev. {c}ul{t} — local in the sense that it’s Indian | ||
| 24 | MUSIT | I’ll be gripped by frenzy through which animal passed (5) |
| mus(I)t | ||
| 26 | MONA | Monkey God, God finally deposed (5) |
| mona{d}, the d being {Go}d — the only slip I can see this week: it says (5) when it should say (4) | ||
| 28 | ETON | Do well though denied good first school (4) |
| {g}et on | ||
*anagram
I think the AS in PORTAS is the Scandinavian word meaning a kame or esker, which in turn means a sandbank. Chambers gives it with a little O above the A.
Like ås that.
I made heavy weather of this, though half my mind was on an Easter Egg at the time. Felt that I had to check an unusually large number of entries in the big red book.
“Under temporary cover” = “in a tent”, so it is T in A TENT
Yes I’m sure yours is the correct interpretation AP@4. Blog amended.
Whenever I think there’s some sort of dodginess in an Azed clue it always turns out that I’m wrong.