The usual blend of interesting words and clues which I found this easier than usual today, apart from one clue that has me stumped.
Do any Welsh speakers out there fancy having a quick look at 3 down for me? Thank you Azed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SUMPH | Scottish simpleton is annoying, having switched sides (5) |
| HUMPS (is annoying) with side letters switched | ||
| 6 | MILICE | Uniformed collaborateurs, not quite benign reserve (6) |
| MILd (benign, not quite) and ICE (reserve) | ||
| 11 | PRELATIAL | Untidy altar with pile belonging to senior churchman (9) |
| anagram (untidy) of ALTAR with PILE | ||
| 12 | LOLITA | Precocious minx indeed, accepting love bed in Paris (6) |
| LA (indeed) containing LIT (bed, French, as written in Paris) | ||
| 13 | SKER | Search in Glasgow: a —— is one posing questions (4) |
| aSKER is one posing questions | ||
| 15 | CREATIVE | Advertising ideas man turning life around among Native Americans (8) |
| VITA (life) reversed inside (among) CREE (Native Americans) | ||
| 16 | FASH | Trouble in the Gorbals has dispersed following fine (4) |
| anagram (dispersed) following F (fine) | ||
| 17 | CANED | Lively dance, very merry? (5) |
| anagram (lively) of DANCE – very drunk | ||
| 19 | FLATTERINGLY | Downright excited to receive HM, with much sweet talk? (12) |
| FLAT (downright) TINGLY (excited) contains ER (HM, Her Majesty, Elizabeth Regina) | ||
| 20 | MERETRICIOUS | Flashy costumier crazed with ire (12) |
| anagram (crazed) of COSTUMIER with IRE | ||
| 23 | ABORT | Muscle fragment left, come to nought (5) |
| AB (abdominal muscle) with ORT (a leftover fragment) | ||
| 25 | SURA | Toddy mat exported from Indonesian island (4) |
| SUmatRA (Indonesian island) missing MAT – fermented palm juice | ||
| 26 | LOCOMOTE | Move from place to place? It’s crazy to me, moving (8) |
| LOCO (it’s crazy) then anagram (moving) of TO ME | ||
| 29 | ALKY | Dipso, voluble once first polished off (4) |
| tALKY (voluable) missing first letter (once first is polished off) | ||
| 30 | OCTROI | Car permit run out I’ll get after month (shortly) (6) |
| RO (run out) I following (will get after) OCT (month, shortly) | ||
| 31 | PRENOTION | English Pinot Noir bottled? Not I – early idea without basis (9) |
| anagram (bottled) of E (English) PINOT NOiR missing I | ||
| 32 | METALS | Various elements in what we eat, time included (6) |
| MEALS (what we eat) including T (time) | ||
| 33 | RENIG | Kilkenny’s refuse dumped in Nore nightly? (5) |
| found inside noRE NIGhtly – the Nore is a river in Ireland flowing through Kilkenny | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SPLIFF | Lecturer housed in smart joint (6) |
| L (lecturer) in SPIFF (smart) | ||
| 2 | MELA | Homeland forms setting for this Hindu festival (4) |
| found inside hoMELAnds | ||
| 3 | PLIGHTER | How does Welsh so-and-so sound? He might have been promising (8) |
| I’m stumped on this one. Surely this isn’t supposed to be “blighter” in a Welsh accent?. UPDATE: this is a reference to characters such as Fluellen in Shakespeare’s Henry V who mispronounce pronounce some B as P, for comic effect. | ||
| 4 | HATCH | It’s very hard taking in wild cat breed (5) |
| HH (very hard, of a pencil) including anagram (wild) of CAT | ||
| 5 | STARTER HOMES | What young couples are after? Newly built in Herts, most are (12, 2 words) |
| anagram (newly built in) HERTS MOST ARE | ||
| 6 | MIFEPRISTONE | If prime suffers and concretion follows, this can cause termination (12) |
| anagram (suffers) of IF PRIME follwed by STONE (concretion) | ||
| 7 | IATA | Part of what airline’s taken up, organization of major carriers (4) |
| found reversed (taken up) inside whAT AIrline – the International Air Transport Association | ||
| 8 | INKING | Blackening appearance (say) of popular ruler (6) |
| IN (popular) KING (ruler) | ||
| 9 | CHEVELURE | Hairpiece in Shakespeare I put over velvety stuff (9) |
| CHE (I, dialectical use by Shakespeare) on (put over) VELURE (velvety stuff) | ||
| 10 | ERRED | King in grip of old injury returning went off the rails (5) |
| R (king) in DERE (injury, obsolete) | ||
| 14 | MALEBOLGE | Man circling the earth turned up hellish place (9) |
| MALE (man) containing (circling) GLOBE (the Earth) reversed (turned up) – the Eighth Circle of Hell, Dante | ||
| 18 | ANISETTE | Cordial group one leads in climbing volcano (8) |
| I (one) SET (group) inside ETNA (volcano) reversed (climbing) | ||
| 21 | ROCKET | Cork replaced with bits of early Turkish carpeting (6) |
| anagram (repalced) of CORK) with first letters (bits) of Early Turkish – a severe repremand | ||
| 22 | SAYING | Expression always appearing in chorus (6) |
| AY (ever) inside SING (chorus) | ||
| 23 | ALARM | Siren maybe, cheeky first to last (5) |
| MALAR (cheeky, of the cheek) with first letter moved to end | ||
| 24 | DECOR | Half of showbiz duo in front of yellow scenery (5) |
| DEC (half of Ant and Dec, showbiz duo) then OR (yellow) | ||
| 27 | MURL | Crumble in places, like a wall lacking minimum of attention (4) |
| MURaL (like a wall) missing first letter (a minumum) of Attention – in places indicates Scots, not spoken everywhere in the UK | ||
| 28 | GRIN | Feeling vexed when cha’s off? Don’t look so miserable (4) |
| chaGRIN (feeling vexed) missing CHA | ||
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.
I think 3d is a reference to the pronunciation used by Fluellen in Henry V, Will had evidently never met a Welsh accent.
I immediately thought of Fluellen, too. Henry V was one of my set texts for O-level.
The answer to 11a is actuallly PRELATIAL.
Thay’ve done it again. There’s no link to a prontable version of today’s puzzle..
printable
3 down relies on a supposed tendency of some Welsh people to pronounce B as P. I think X mentions it in his book.
… So, no link today to click on to, AND an instruction left over from earlier – or will the old note about Chambers and the abbreviation turn out to apply this week? This means problems for a third successive day, which is pushing it a bit even by Guardian/Observer standards.
Yes, I have to admit that the errors are beginning to annoy. Normally I get cracking before the shop’s open, but cannot today.
Re missing Azed today: this is getting beyond a joke. I have written to user help, and I suggest all who want the puzzle do the same if you haven’t already done so. Not sure how much difference it will make though.
@7 uncleskinny, in relation to Paul’s prize puzzle yesterday – I see that the word-lengths have now been corrected online, under ‘Special Instructions’, dated today- let’s see if this gets notified in print. But Azed is evidently still not accessible online. Nor does the print version refer to any abbreviation.
Thanks for spotting that Chalmie, fixed now. I will update the grid when I get a minute.
Re 3dn BLIGHTER – thanks to all for guiding me to Shakespeare for this one. I’m not convinced this sort of thing still has a place in a paper from the Guardian stable. Describing a buffoon’s mispronunciation as “sounding Welsh” without any further context has had its day IMO. A bit like someone being gay or black no longer makes them a figure of fun. Fine in X’s time and in his book maybe but life has moved on. I realise it is presumptuous of me to criticise someone of AZED’s stature but perhaps he is showing his age here.
Good news – today’s Azed is now available online.
X on the Art of the Crossword, Chapter vii, numbered paragraph 2. “Blighter” is exactly the word he chose. As one who was born and brought up in Wales until I left for university, I have occasionally heard that vocal habit, but only among the minority North Welsh for who Cymraeg is the first language, never from a South Welsh person
Goujeers – thanks for that. Perhaps Azed is referencing the mention of BLIGHTER in Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword rather than Welsh pronunciation per se, that would make more sense. Ximenes’s book is a work that a crossword solver might have read and there is an implicit context in that this is a crossword, as opposed to a reference to Shakespeare which has no indication of context at all.
Suitably bemused by 3d despite being born, bred and still living in Wales. 🙂 The rest was a fairly straightforward, enjoyable Azed.
I’m sure that Azed’s intended reference was to a generic ‘peculiarity of speech’ (as X terms it) rather than to Fluellen, but I think the expectation is not that the solver will have read X’s book but that s/he will be familiar with “the Welshman’s habit of softening B into P” mentioned by Ximenes and exemplified by him using BLIGHTER/PLIGHTER. I’m afraid that I lack that familiarity. When setting puzzles I avoid clues that depend on regional variations in pronunciation, and this clue hasn’t made me reconsider that strategy!
I felt that in 23dn the word ‘maybe’ was doing double duty; I agree with PeeDee that the definition requires it, as a siren is an example of an alarm (not all alarms are sirens), but ‘cheeky’ does not mean ‘like a cheek’, so some indication of fancifulness is required – the word ‘maybe’ would fit the bill, but then it is being dragged in two different directions…
I was okay with Plighter. Ximenes doesn’t say it explicitly, but in Welsh p sometimes mutates to b. Eg bridge = pont: Pontypool, but Talybont.
My Welsh friend Barry Parry said he was never totally clear about how much his teachers liked him.