I don’t find as high a proportion of obscure words in Azed puzzles as I used to. I wonder if Azed is getting more accessible over the years or if I have done so many puzzles that I have seen them before. Can anyone comment on their own experience?
I will be away when this post is published and may not be able to respond to queries in a timely manner. Please feel free to chip in and help out in the comments section.
Thank you Azed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SPANISH WHITE | Paints I shew mixed with bit of hue in fine ground chalk (12, 2 words) |
| anagram (mixed) of PAINT I SHEW containing (with…in) Hue (first letter, bit of) | ||
| 9 | CAVA | Short aria Tina omitted, sparkling stuff (4) |
| CAVAtina (short aria) missing TINA | ||
| 12 | OORT | Astronomer turning regulars from star lot on (4) |
| regular selection form sTaR lOt On reversed (turning) – Jan Oort, proposer of the Oort Cloud | ||
| 13 | NOVUM | Dice game? Numbers will include zero and 5 (5) |
| NUM (Numbers, book of Bible) including O (zero) and V (5) – a dice game, sadly the significant throws in the game are 9 and 5 | ||
| 14 | BURNET | Knot curtain material, fine dark woollen stuff (6) |
| BUR (knot) and NET (curtain material) | ||
| 15 | RED ALERT | Deluge engulfing valley and river – action stations (8, 2 words) |
| RET (deluge) contains (engulfing) DALE (valley) and R (river) | ||
| 17 | REMIT | Put clock back and relax (5) |
| TIMER (clock) reversed (put back) | ||
| 18 | METAZOA | Many-celled creatures yielding meat when butchered, including a hybrid (7) |
| anagram (when butchered) of MEAT containing A ZO (hybrid yak) | ||
| 20 | WEBERS | Network heads for employing regular standard SI units (6) |
| WEB (network) then first letters (heads) of Employing Regular Standard | ||
| 21 | NYAFFS | Yaps like a Scottie, any let loose, very loud, given seconds (6) |
| anagram (let loose) of ANY then FF (very loud) with S (seconds) | ||
| 27 | DAYTALE | Means of reckoning wages once upset tea-lady (7) |
| anagram (upset) of TEA-LADY | ||
| 28 | TOTEM | Family emblem, end of motto changed to English in translation (5) |
| anagram (in translation) of MOTTO with end letter changed to E (English) | ||
| 30 | CURRICLE | Open chaise, mostly spiced up, going round Sri Lanka (8) |
| CURRIEd (spiced up, mostly) containing CL (Sri Lanka, IVR code) | ||
| 31 | SPARED | Let off hot bath, and what it could make you! (6) |
| SPA (hot bath) and RED (what it could make you) | ||
| 32 | DELTA | Deposit distributed third to last (5) |
| DEALT (distributed) with A (third letter of) moved to last place | ||
| 33 | SHIA | Branch of religion has diversified round Italy (4) |
| anagram (diversified) of HAS containing I (Italy) | ||
| 34 | EDGE | Advantage retained by landed gentry (4) |
| found inside (retained by) landED GEntry | ||
| 35 | MARBLECUTTER | Issue involving club re crooked provider of raw material for sculpture? (12) |
| MATTER (issue) containing (involving) anagram (crooked) of CLUB RE | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SCORRENDO | Gliding runs in musical piece – nod off (9) |
| R (runs) in SCORE (musical piece) then anagram (off) of NOD | ||
| 2 | PANEER | Crumbly cheese, one for break in match? (6) |
| AN (one) inside (for break in) PEER (match). I’m not totally sure about this explanation. | ||
| 3 | NAVAID | Gadget to assist pilot? It gets one in bed up (6) |
| A (one) in DIVAN (bed) reversed (up) | ||
| 4 | SEMEME | Rule repeated in semi semi (meaning unit that’s irreducible) (6) |
| EM (rule, in printing) twice (repeated) in SEmi (semi, half of) | ||
| 5 | HEBREW | Language – explosive concoction (6) |
| HE (high explosive) BREW (concoction) | ||
| 6 | HORA | Dance music for singing, without limits (4) |
| cHORAl (music for singing) with no end letters (without limits) | ||
| 7 | IONIZED | Given charges, one on one, that’s me losing my first! (7) |
| I (one) ON I (one) with aZED (me, the setter) missing first letter | ||
| 8 | TREMOR | Thrill provided by old rock band in rubbish served up (6) |
| R.E.M. (old rock band) in ROT (rubbish) reversed (served up) | ||
| 10 | MULTIFACED | Fault medic sorted out, often disguised? (10) |
| anagram (sorted out) of FAULT MEDIC | ||
| 11 | BUTTERTREE | Caryocar possibly, only strangely terete round radius (10) |
| BUT (only) then anagram (strangely) of TERETE containing R (radius) | ||
| 16 | GASOMETER | Fuel storage tank? Great cracks round a few (9) |
| anagram (cracks) of GREAT containing SOME (a few) | ||
| 19 | MAYFAIR | Old maid, prosperous, in smart address (7) |
| MAY (maid, old=obsolete) then FAIR (prosperous) | ||
| 22 | YARPHA | Some sun coming up will limit measure of acidity in peaty soil (6) |
| A RAY (some sun) reversed (coming up) containing (will limit) PH (measure of acidity) | ||
| 23 | SLUDGE | What’ll get luges struggling round start of downhill? (6) |
| anagram (struggling) of LUGES containing Downhill (starting letter of) – implicitly extended definition, “What will get…” | ||
| 24 | HERDIC | Rabble in cold carriage, low-slung (6) |
| HERD (rabble) I’ (in) C (cold) | ||
| 25 | TOILET | Office available to tenants I installed (6) |
| TO LET (available to tenants) containing (with…installed) I | ||
| 26 | PELAGE | Get left behind in water? Woolly coat’s what you’ll need (6) |
| LAG (get left behind) in PEE (water) | ||
| 29 | GRAB | Get hands on eastern coaster to chatter about river (4) |
| GAB (to chatter) containing (about) R (river) – two definitions | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Probably a bit of both. Only 7 of these used words/meanings I was not familiar with.
Meanwhile, yet again the PDF of today’s Azed has not been loaded onto the web site.
I agree with Goujeers. I remember some of the obscurities from solving previous puzzles – ETHE for example crops up so regularly is almost like an old friend, as does ENEW. On the other hand, I think some of the unfamiliar words in recent puzzles have been more easily guessable than in the past. I didn’t know SPANISH WHITE or BUTTERTREE but was able to work them out with only a few crossing letters. Older puzzles, if memory serves, had more words like YARPHA whose meaning is impossible to guess.
Still enjoyed the puzzle, though.
The PDF of this week’s Azed is here.
All went in very quickly before dinner on Sunday evening, although in the end I couldn’t see 24dn and did a word search. Obvious once I knew the answer.
cruciverbophile – good point about SPANISH WHITE and BUTTERTREE. I counted these as words I was familiar with but it is equally likely I just invented a memory of having seen them before.