Azed 2357

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In contrast to my usual method of solving Azed over Sunday breakfast, I did this one intermittently while on a walking holiday on Scotland, so it’s hard to tell how its difficulty compares with the norm. After writing this up on Saturday evening, I’ve concluded it must have been a fairly hard one, as there are quite a lot of unfamiliar words in the answers, and some obscure definitions even of familiar words. All impeccably clued as usual, though: thanks to Azed.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
2. FIRST-ATTACK Pre-emptively raiding timber pile, one dry within (11)
A T[ee]T[otal] in FIR (timber) STACK – same concept as “first-strike”
10. MESETA Plateau thrilled mates going round Spain (6)
E in MATES – diminutive of the more familiar Mesa, meaning a steep flat-topped mountain, ultimately from Latin “mensa” = table
11. ZARNEC E.g. orpiment from NZ, mined with care (6)
(NZ CARE)*
13. PLAFOND River turns entering artificial lake – bridge now abandoned? (7)
Reverse of FAL in POND. Chambers says that a pond is “usually artificial”, which hadn’t occurred to me before. I knew plafond as French for ceiling (confusingly not floor, as it sounds rather like “platform”), but it’s also the name of an early (“abandoned”) version of the game of Bridge
14. ASBO Court order: one like this restricts onset of bullying (4)
B[ullying] in A SO – acronym for AntiSocial Behaviour Order, now obsolete as they were replaced in 2014
15. SATEEN Glossy fabric lending special allure to one at secondary school? (6)
S[ex] A[ppeal] + TEEN
16. SIFREI Law scrolls: one falling in fire’s ruined (6)
I in FIRES*
18. HILUS Anatomical opening, vaguely bluish, seeping a bit of blood (5)
Anagram of BLUISH, less B[lood]
20. CERAMIST Potter etc with arrangement round Chinese plants (8)
RAMIS in ETC* – the Rami is a plant of the nettle family, used in fabrics
21. INTERSEX In short, an unknown quantity, neither one nor the other (8)
IN + TERSE (short) + X
26. OUTRÉ Fantastic course shows leader slipping to fourth place (5)
ROUTE, with the R moved to fourth place
27. SHIVER Cold sore for a spell (6)
Two rather obscure definitions – a cold sore (Scots dialect); and a splinter, which is also a definition of “spell”
29. NGUNIS Bantu speakers back at home with gnus wandering round (6)
Reverse of IN in GNUS*
31. SOON Boy embraces love willingly (4)
O in SON
32. FISTULA Narrow opening is piercing rocky fault (7)
IS in FAULT*
33. DETAIN Get out onto platform, but missing right stop (6)
DETRAIN less R
34. STROUT Bulge indicating large corporation round one’s middle (6)
R (middle letter of corpoRation) in STOUT (having a large corporation)
35. STERNSHEETS What’ll separate rowers from back end? Hard frames with man in (11)
HE in STERN (hard) SETS. “Set” famously has a very large number of meanings: “frame” is one of them
Down
1. IMPASSIONED Ardent male advance between two singles, one on date (11)
M[ale] PASS (advance) in I I, +ONE D
2. FELSIC Describing fine mosaic rock, ‘turned off-colour’, we hear (6)
Homophone of “fell sick”
3. REFORM Whistler ‘Golden Maiden’ getting a make-over? (6)
REF (referee, who might blow a whistle) + OR + M
4. STOKE Some additions to kerosene as fuel (5)
Hidden in additionS TO KErosene
5. TANGIEST Creatures clad in seaweed, with time extremely pungent (8)
TANGIES (“Orcadian water spirit[s], appearing as a seahorse, or man covered in seaweed”) + T
6. TAIAHA Ceremonial staff, one from Siam (as was) – how nice! (6)
TAI (variant as “Thai”) + AHA
7. TROT Old granny providing crib for toddler? (4)
More obscure definitions: three this time: “old woman, crone”, “crib” and “a toddling child”
8. ANGELIC Perfect glance going wrong, one getting caught (7)
I in GLANCE*
9. CEREUS Coat in wax American cactus? Rescue works (6)
Two lots of wordplay: CERE (coat in wax)+ US; and RESCUE*, with the definition in the middle
12. CONSTERNATE Tricks in groups of three are daunting (11)
CONS + TERNATE – not a familiar word, but obviously related to “consternation”
17. FRESHISH Fairly new rule he’s infringed cutting angle (8)
R HES* in FISH (to angle)
19. ATTUITE Have a distinct feeling about lawyer in brief really losing head (7)
ATT[orney] + [Q]UITE
22. NUGGET Raised pistol to catch something small but valuable (6)
Reverse of GUN + GET
23. REIN IN Retaining base, king twice in check (6, 2 words)
E (Euler’s number, base of natural logarithms) in R + twice IN – hard=near in the sense of “stingy”
24. BISTRE Pigment that’s brown or black turning livid round stone (6)
B[lack] + ST in IRE (“turning livid” -not sure about this, but I can just about believe it). Chambers labels the “extremely angry” definition of “livid” as “informal”, which I find surprising as this is probably now its most common meaning
25. AEOLUS Thessalian ruler, jealous when roused, without justice (6)
JEALOUS* less J. There are several mythological characters called Aeolus – the ruler of Thessaly is (I think) this one – not the keeper of the winds who gave his name to the Aeolian mode and harp
28. HASTE Enjoys a cuppa when one’s knocked off? More of it slows you down! (5)
HAS TE[A] – “more haste less speed”
30. NEAR Hard left when driving in UK (4)
Double definition – the left is the near side in the UK

4 comments on “Azed 2357”

  2. I also found this one quite a bit more of a challenge than recent puzzles, especially getting a foothold.

  3. 34ac

    Is it a coincidence that ‘large’ and ‘corporation’ both have ‘R’s in the middle? You can put either one’s middle into ‘STOUT’

  4. Norman @3: I agree, “one’s” could refer to either, although at first blush I was looking for a word containing the letter “N”. Like you and Andrew I found this harder than usual, although mitigated as always by the generous checking.

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