Azed 2381

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As often happens with my Azed solving these days, I filled in most of the grid quite quickly, with the last half-dozen clues taking considerably longer. There are a couple that I can’t explain to my satisfaction and, unusually, a couple more when I have minor nitpicks (or quite possibly I’ve misinterpreted). Thanks as ever to Azed.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. SCHWENKFELDER German sectarian in school, reverse of learned, following senior (13)
SCH[ool] + KNEW< + F[ollowing] ELDER
10. MONADIFORM Type of flagellate from domain that’s obscure (10)
(FROM DOMAIN)*
12. ALERT What’s central to change is moving to end emergency? (5)
ALTER with the middle letter moved to the end
13. NO-BALL Extra noggin set before the assembled company (6)
NOB + ALL, and a no-ball is an extra in the cricket sense
14. MOCKINGLY See ruler taken in by magic herb? How jester reacts! (9)
C (see) + KING in MOLY, a magic herb, mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey. I”ve seen it suggested that the name of Molly Bloom in James Joyce’s Ulysses is at least partially related to this
15. BLUE Nile low? (4)
Double definition
16. ASPIRE Tower up, like dish with recipe for stuffing (6)
AS + R[ecipe] in PIE, with a less usual meaning of ‘aspire’, which the OED says is influenced by the unrelated ‘spire’
17. EASY-OSY The old in retreat about say-so, uneasily indifferent (7)
SAYSO* in YE< – apparently a Scots expession according to some sources, though C. doesn't mark it as such
23. RINGLET Fairy dance, right round the family fire? (7)
INGLE in RT
24. DRY ALE What’s dray delivered unusually, line not fashionable? (6, 2 words)
DRAY* + LINE less IN (fashionable), &lit. This is not in Chambers, as the notes say, nor in the online OED, and googling mostly gives links to dry ginger ale, which presumably isn’t the same thing
25. INTO Keen on a selection of skin tones (4)
Hidden in skIN TOnes
26. SLIDE SHOW In which you might find we’d sit endlessly diverted with hols? (9, 2 words)
Anagram of WE’D SI[t] HOLS, &lit – another non-Chambers phrase, rather more surprisingly this time. The definition refers to old-style photographic transparencies, which you mitght inflict on friends to show them what you did on your holdays
28. SKIVIE Old Scotsman’s deranged to compete at Klosters, one might suppose? (6)
SKI VIE (compete) – Klosters is a ski resort
29. ETYMA Eat cored and mashed yam roots (5)
E[a]T + YAM* – plural of etymon, meaning the root meaning of a word
30. EMERGENCES Some work round Mid-East, odd scene for what debs go through? (10)
ME in ERG (unit of work) + SCENE*. Do debs still “come out”, or would “..went through..” have been more accurate?
31. REARRANGEMENT Shuffle back row organized to catch circling chaps (13)
REAR (back [row]?) + RAN (organized) + MEN (chaps) in GET (catch). Rear can be “the back… of an army”, which perhaps justifies “back row”, or maybe I’ve misinterpreted this..
Down
1. SHAMAL Meat coated in salt – it’s hot and dry (6)
HAM in SAL – variant of “shimall”, a hot, dry wind in the Middle East
2. COLOSSI Company deficit is not special – these are huge (7)
CO + LOSS + IS less S[pecial]
3. WORKING-OVER ——, it’s time to relax – does it involve getting hammered? (11)
Double definition
4. ENTIRE Guinness from the brewery needed for impatient Irelanders? (6)
Hidden in impatiENT IRElanders – “port or stout as delivered from brewery”: surely this needs as indication that it’s a definition-by-example?
5. NAIN Jock’s personal Parisian manikin (4)
Double definition – ‘nain’ is French for ‘dwarf’, which is one of the definitions of ‘manikin’, which explains why the clue doesn’t use the French spelling ‘mannequin’
6. FINLAY Arm (fin) to cover ‘fair warrior’ (6)
FIN + LAY. I was worried about lay (as opposed to lay on) for cover, by Chambers gives it. The “Some first names” section of C. says that this name probably means “fair warrior”
7. LOBBY SYSTEM Clumsy fellow near, my set’s cracked – it can lead to leaks (11, 2 words)
LOB (clumsy person) + BY (near) + (MY SET’S)* – the system by which government and parliamentary information is given “off the record” to the press
8. DRALON Doctor uniquely curtailed on type of fibre (6)
DR + ALON[E]
9. RILEY His life’s carefree. Alpine, perhaps (5)
Double definition – to “live the life of Riley” is to be carefree, and the Riley Motor company made a car called the Alpine Tourer
11. DIGESTIVE Veg diet is varied for processing food (9)
(VEG DIET IS)*
18. SOLOMON Man noted for his song, unaccompanied, this writer’s French (7)
SOLO + MON (French “my”, i.e. “this writer’s”) – reference to the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament
19. INTIMA Core coat in aquatint images (6)
Another hidden: aquatINT IMAges
20. TELEGA Carriage pin found in old pot (6)
LEG in TEA (marijuana, pot – Chambers says it’s “old US slang”)
21. GREECE Early flight for holiday destination, often (6)
Double definition (an old word for a flight of stairs for the first)
22. TEWART Toil over painting e.g. eucalypt (6)
TEW (to toil – not “hew” as I guessed) + ART (of which a painting is an example)
23. RISER River, rapid roller near battlefield, one in spate? (5)
R + ISER – variant spelling of the site of a WW1 battle, but I don’t know what “rapid roller” is doing, unless it’s an alternative indication, or two, of R, which seems unlikely
27. DONG Ring of the bell? My hooter was lit, too (4)
Double definition – reference to Edward Lear’s “The Dong with a [not ‘the’, as I was convinced the title went] Luminous Nose”, though I’m not sure what the “too” is doing

9 comments on “Azed 2381”

  1. Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

    I think “rapid roller” in 23d is referring to Thomas Campbell’s poem Hohenlinden about the Battle of Hohenlinden which contains the lines:

    And dark as winter was the flow
    Of Iser, rolling rapidly.

  2. Regarding 4d (ENTIRE), Azed wrote not so long ago:

    “A further usage [of question marks] (one of the commonest, I’d say) indicates that the clue writer is defining a general term by a specific example of it, as in ‘Pay out from urn excited Murray’ (UNREEL), where ‘Murray’ (more strictly ‘murray’) is an example of, not a synonym for, ‘eel’. Generally, I feel the need to add a question mark wherever I consider that I have used wording that doesn’t pinpoint meaning exactly but is still a rough indication that will be perfectly clear to the solver once the clue is understood and solved.”

    I think that in this instance the wording ‘Guinness from the brewery’, where there is no misdirection of the solver (Azed really is talking about stout that comes direct from the place where it is brewed), does pinpoint the meaning without the need for further qualification.

     

    Regarding the ‘debs’ in 30a (EMERGENCES), whilst the last formal presentation of debutantes at Court in the UK took place in 1958, the term is of American origin and I understand that Deb Balls are still common in the US, the most prestigious being the biennial International Debutante Ball held at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. So I’ve no problem with the emergences taking place in the present as well as the past.

     

    I would agree about DRY ALE, which sounds like a plausible compound but is at best obscure and in truth probably just a noun together with an adjective which can reasonably be applied to it.

  4. Chambers doesn’t give ‘old ale’, but I’d be happy to accept that (like ‘pale ale’) it is a compound form in general use. I’m unconvinced that ‘dry ale’ is any more a compound noun (at least in the UK) than, say, ‘smooth ale’. Incidentally, a google search of UK sites for [“dry ale” -ginger] gives 1,230 hits; a similar search for ‘smooth ale’ gives 4,820 hits (against 36,400 hits for ‘old ale’).

  5. Thanks for the blog. I found this to be a little on the tricky side, with a few not fully understood at the close, chief among them the rapid roller.

  6. Thanks to Azed and Andrew. Not too tricky (made up for by yesterday’s offering though).

    I was surprised to see “Schwenkenfelder” in Bradford’s. Actually that is unfair: Bradford’s quite often has some of the more obscure Azed references.

    26ac is still in common usage: if you have a photo gallery on your computer you can click for a slide show.

    I don’t understand what role the “__” plays in 3dn.

  7. The long dash at the start of the clue for 3dn should be pronounced ‘blank’ (or ‘blankety blank’) and indicates that when the solution replaces the dash it will complete the clue itself, ie ‘Working over, it’s time to relax…’.

  8. Thank you DRC. I thought it worked as a double definition without the blanks, but it is obvious now you have pointed it out!

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