I bought a Chambers Dictionary app for my phone last week so I could solve puzzles in the coffee shop without having to cart the Big Red Book around. So I tried using it for Azed this week. It was clearly more efficient than using the paper copy but made me realize how much of the pleasure of solving Azed is not just in the words I look up but in all those other words I come across on the way. I spend as much time off on tangents as I do solving the puzzle. An efficient app that takes me directly to the entry in question free of distractions sounds good in principle but I don’t think I will be using it as first choice in future. Thanks to Azed for a super puzzle, as always.
| Across | ||
| 3 | MASSORETIC | Critical commentary’s making one irritated when bound in sticky stuff (10) |
| SORE (irritated) inside (when bound by) MASTIC (sticky stuff) | ||
| 11 | SCHLOCKER | Shoddy item from school cupboard (9) |
| SCH (school) LOCKER (cupboard) | ||
| 13 | TRYP | Test with probe initially revealing parasite (4) |
| TRY (test) with Probe (initial letter of) | ||
| 14 | AGNOMEN | International banker invested in anonymous label? (7) |
| GNOME (international banker) inside AN (anonymous) | ||
| 15 | REGIE | A real challenge for climbers, reversing government monopoly (5) |
| EIGER (a real challenge for climbers) reversed | ||
| 17 | ASS | Titania’s swain? Only a bit (3) |
| found inside (only a bit of) titaniA’S Swain – in A Midsummer Night’s Dream a magic potion caused Titania to fall in love with an ass | ||
| 19 | REAPERS | Combines school latrine with built-in gym? (7) |
| REARS (school latrine) contains (with built-in) PE (gym) – combine harvesters | ||
| 20 | CUPMAN | Fellow drinker putting money into copper dish (6) |
| M (money) inside CU (copper) PAN (dish) | ||
| 21 | USING | University sportswear let out for exercising (5) |
| U (university) SINGlet (sportswear) missing LET | ||
| 23 | OPEPE | Hardwood tree does when peeled – go inside (5) |
| dOEs (peeled, no outer letters) contains PEP (go) | ||
| 25 | EOZOON | Shifting ooze covering ancient fossil possibly (6) |
| anagram (shifting) of OOZE then ON (covering) | ||
| 27 | GILLETS | Skittish lassies, reprehensible with Scots kids around (7) |
| ILL (reprehensible) inside GETS (kids, Scots) | ||
| 29 | PAS | Action course avoided by sage (3) |
| PASsage (course) missing SAGE | ||
| 31 | MATTE | Mask concealing final character in affair (5) |
| MATTEr (affair) with final letter missing (concealed) | ||
| 32 | AMANITA | Mushroom? Sounds a bit like one chaps should avoid! (7) |
| sounds like “a man eater” | ||
| 33 | THEN | Article given number immediately (4) |
| THE (definite article) with N (number) | ||
| 34 | GLASSWORT | Plant yielding soda salt grows wild (9) |
| anagram (wild) of SALT GROWS | ||
| 35 | SHEEP’S-HEAD | Yank’s fish he cooked with peas in outhouse (10, apostrophe) |
| anagram (cooked) of HE with PEAS inside SHED (outhouse) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ASTROCOMPASS | Direction finder in the sky as part shifts with cosmos (12) |
| anagram (shifts) of AS PART with COSMOS | ||
| 2 | SCREW-UP | Get tight, creating a mess (7) |
| to SCREW UP is to get something tight | ||
| 4 | AL PIU | Potato coating two thirds of crusty dish at most (5, 2 words) |
| ALU (potato) contains PIe (crusty dish, two thirds of) | ||
| 5 | SOLERA | Blended sherry casks are inverted under sun (6) |
| ARE reversed (inverted) following SOL (sun) | ||
| 6 | SCAVENGER | See vegan mistreated in series totter? (9) |
| C (see, name of letter) with anagram (mistreated) of VEGAN inside SER (series) | ||
| 7 | RENY | Followers of the rest in your arcane religion many renounce, as of old (4) |
| last letters (followers of the rest in) of youR arcanE religioN maY | ||
| 8 | ERODES | Is etching of Parisian in love? (6) |
| DE (of, French, in Paris) inside EROS (love) | ||
| 9 | TIMARIOT | Old militiaman, game character embraced by girl (8) |
| MARIO (Super Mario, computer game character) inside TIT (girl) | ||
| 10 | CONSIGNMENTS | Deliveries, costings worked out, number fellows packed (12) |
| anagram (worked out) of COSTINGS containing (packed with) N (number) MEN (fellows) | ||
| 12 | JESS | Restraining strap from timeless jokes (4) |
| JEStS (jokes) missing T (time) | ||
| 16 | CANE-TRASH | Plantation refuse, a difficulty in economic collapse (9) |
| A NET (difficulty) in CRASH (economic collapse) | ||
| 18 | SPEISADE | Old soldier with no lance in section poorly paid, see (8) |
| S (section) then anagram (poorly) of PAID SEE | ||
| 22 | NON-TERM | Former vacation, not something you’d find in Oxford’s vocabulary? (7) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 24 | PLONGE | Old-fashioned dive, for some time closed by police, empty (6) |
| LONG (for some time) inside (closed by) PolicE (empty) | ||
| 26 | OSMOSE | Become absorbed in bit of marrow in two bones, carcase’s last (6) |
| Marrow (a bit of, first letter) in OS OS (two bones) then carcasE (last letter of) | ||
| 27 | GAMY | High whatsit, but not thin (4) |
| thinGAMY (whatsit) missing THIN | ||
| 28 | FATWA | Judicial decision, mostly deadly when woman’s involved (5) |
| FATAl (deadly, mostly) containing (when…’s involved) W (woman) | ||
| 30 | KILP | Seaweed one’s left dug into bed (4) |
| L (left) inside (dug into) KIP (bed) | ||
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.
Great. Thanks..
Thank you Azed and PeeDee. I confidently put in “Eiger” for 15ac which held me up quite a bit until the penny dropped.
How does the app cope with the various “alt spelling of …” which seems to happen with half of the Chambers words you look up?
The app displays the main entry for that word whichever variant spelling I search with.
Had some difficulty with this one – the deletions in 27-Down and 29-Across stumped me for a while (I never think of removing more than one letter 😛 ). I’ve also never heard of the Eiger so that also caused problems. Overall with the help of the Chambers (I use the one with Crossword compiler on my laptop) I got most of it done and had some fun (today on the other hand is proving much more difficult).
Thank you. I have only just started doing AZED – I thought I had quite a good vocabulary till now. I do agree about half the fun being the words you find on the way to the actual quarry! I only have the 1983 Chambers, guess I need an upgrade…