Azed 2363 – Letters Latent

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I was a little surprised when I saw that this puzzle was a special, but there turned out to be a good reason for it.

Letters Latent is one of the “classics”, apparently first used by Ximenes in 1962 (though it seems that only the acrosses were LL clues in that one). My first answer was 7a, and the latent Z made me suspect that the message would start with “Azed..”. So it turned out, and we learned that AZED WILL BE SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS OF AGE TODAY – some of the letters of which helped me finish off the puzzle. Most of the clueing here is pretty gentle by Azed’s standards, so despite the LL gimmick it didn’t take too long. Thanks to Azed, and many happy returns.

The full forms of answers are shown below, with the letters not entered in the grid shown like this.

 
Across
1. ANAPHORICAL Regarding foregoing phrase, Chopin, right and left, played with (11)
(CHOPIN R L)* – it’s often the case, as here, that the first answer has a lot of occurrences of the missing letter (and the same applies to 1d)
7. ZEISS Camera man is captivated by extremes of excess (5)
IS in E[xces]S
10. PANTALETTED With fancy drawers, kitchen container, wee one, gets left dry inside (11)
L TT (teetotal,dry) in PAN + TAD
11. DELIAN Essayist with name like Apollo (6)
ELIA (nickname of Charles Lamb) + N. Apollo was born on the island of Delos
12. UNAWARE Stubbs, say, English academician coming back unexpectedly (7)
UNA (Stubbs, actress) + reverse of (E RA)
13. IRONICAL Doctor on call dismissing several outsiders, often sarcastic (8)
[docto]R ON CAL[l]
14. LATRIA Church forecourts worshipping God alone (6)
ATRIA can be church forecourts as well as the more familiar entrance halls
17. ALTIMETER Aero instrument adjusted rate divided by duration? (9)
TIME in RATE*
18. POST-OBITS Borrower’s bonds to put in statements expected to be valid (9)
TO in POSITS
22. DRY-PLATES Sensitized photo equipment partly damaged in dual screen (9)
PARTLY* in DS
25. NOR’-EASTER No pond plant’s beginning to resist strong wind (9)
NO + REATE (water-crowfoot) + R[esist]
27. TERRACE Bishop in act that’s converted gallery (7)
RR in ACT*
28. REPROVE Tick off copy, last in catalogue (7)
REPRO + [catalogu]E
30. STASHIE Heroin bagged by secret police once – fuss in Glasgow (7)
H in STASI (secret police in East Germany)
31. TRIONA Irish pop star (name like Katy), one supporting threesome (6)
This singer, whose name is a shortened form of Catriona, itself a variant of Catherine or Katy, so a double definition of the answer, with wordplay TRIO + A, though it seems to me that this would only work in a down clue
32. STUNTEDNESS Star sensed vaguely not growing as big as one should (11)
SUN + SENSED*
33. FRORY Poet’s very cold by reason of clutching glacier’s edge (5)
[glacie]R in FOR (by reason of) – Spenserian form of “frozen”
34. BEFRIENDS Favours night furniture allowing room for love French-style (9)
RIEN (French “nothing” = “love”) in BEDS. By coincidence the RIEN device came up in a Philistine puzzle this week)
Down
1. INTERCIPIENT Breaking in misappropriated rent, pence in small coin (12)
RENT* + P in CENT
2. PAVLOV Man known for his dog, love shown following friend (6)
PAL + O
3. HEMINAS Holds round thousand in old grain measures (7)
M IN in HAS
4. OPACITY Dullness in the work cited one’s opened (7)
A in OP CIT
5. INFELT Sincere Italian going round many US football clubs (6)
NFL (National Football League) in IT
6. ACTUALITY News programme, first of those uncovering laxity in business centre (9)
First letters of Those Uncovering Laxity in CITY
7. ELATERS More than one beetle is exhilarating (7)
ELATES = “is exhilarating”. Elater is a genus of skipjack or click beetles
8. ITAR-TASS News agency one cheers, admitting skill (8)
ART in I TA. The Soviet news agency TASS was renamed ITAR-TASS in 1992, the name reverted to TASS in 2014
9. STORIETTE Conte: with it tester requires translation (9)
(IT TESTER)*
15. FARMSTEADS More than one holding weapons, various dates (10)
ARMS + DATES*
16. COLORATURA Recast cool robot play about time embellished (10)
COOL* + T in R.U.R. (Karel ?apek’s play about robots)
19. GIRTLINE Nautical rope for hoisting? Rage about frayed lint (8)
LINT* in IRE – also called a gantline, “a rope used in a single-block hoist”
20. SERRANO Señor managed none of Spanish ham? (7)
SR + RAN + O
21. FEASTER One celebrating rest from work, Friday coming round (7)
EASE in FR
23. LEPROSE Having scurfy growth end of scraper peels off (7)
Anagram of [scrape]R + PEELS
24. ACRIDIN Most of nice air stimulated compound in some drugs (7)
(NIC[e] AIR)*
26. EARNER Not once involved in sin, one makes a living (6)
NE (old form of “not”) in ERR
29. YO-YOED Went up and down – nothing found in dictionary (6)
O in OED

5 comments on “Azed 2363 – Letters Latent”

  1. Thanks Andrew and AZED (Many Happy Returns!:I enjoyed this when I got the hang of it and realised ‘of age’ rather than ‘old’ was involved. Heminas and post-obits had me beat though. The clueing for ‘Triona’ is indeed a little odd.

  2. This did take me longer than usual. I didn’t manage to complete it Sunday night, but I did solve the message before going to bed and completed it the next afternoon.

    Or so I thought. Looking at the grid now, the last letter is missing from 7dn. I don’t know if this is because I couldn’t solve it or I just hadn’t noticed I hadn’t finished.

    My experience with 7ac was the opposite of Andrew’s. I could see what letters to enter but I couldn’t remember the name of the camera manufacturer. It was only when I guessed the message that the zed came out.

    Andrew, on this computer I can’t see any difference above between the letters entered and not entered.

  4. I had (R)eiss written in straight off, not that it mattered. Much later I happened to look at my now unused bins and saw the correct name, thus enabling me to guess the message with other solutions. My thanks and best wishes, Azed

  5. Exactly like Andrew I luckily spotted (Z)eiss at once (my sister is a photographer) and guessed the message began with AZED. A nasty chill, remembering grim messages being conveyed by compilers, was dispelled when AGE appeared further on. As it happens my wife, Sybil, found out that she shares Azed’s birthday so, once I’d cracked it (not till Monday), we drank a toast to both. Thanks, as always, Azed and Andrew for commentary.
    Amongst old Ximenes/Azed puzzles I’ve kept for no particular reason is X’s 1189 (1200 was his last) a Letters Latent in which the same two letters IO were latent in every answer. These compilers do set themselves Herculean tasks!

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