This puzzle continues my run of plain Azeds.
It was a competition puzzle this week with competitors required to write a clue for LUNCHEONETTE, the entry at 3 down.
There was the usual mix of clues, with the compound anagram mixing words in the clue with entry being given an outing.
The letter U was clued as universal twice- in 1 down and 16 down although I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t writing a blog.
I always like clues where there are more than just a wordplay and a definition to get to the entry. I noticed two examples of three definitions – HOCK at 13 across or two definitions and a wordplay – SPURS at 23 down
I took longer than I should to get PRECUT at 26 across. SLICED came to mind quickly, but it didn’t fit the one crossing letter I had at the time, nor, of course, did it make sense in relation to the wordplay.
There were the usual Scottish words, neither of which I have come across before despite growing up in Scotland and living in Scotland now.
Azed’s crosswords tend to increase my general knowledge and today’s offering was no exception.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Sailor, drunk, red in the face (5) |
AB (able seaman; sailor) + LUSH (a drunkard) AB LUSH |
ABLUSH (with red glowing skin, possibly in the face)
|
| 6 | Arrogant fellow, one followed by wife after party (6) |
BASH (party) + A (one) + W (wife) BASH A W |
BASHAW (haughty [arrogant] person)
|
| 11 | What’s blighted in Scotland our scythe disposed of (9) |
Anagram of (disposed of) OUR SCYTHE SCOUTHERY* |
SCOUTHERY (Scottish word for things blighted)
|
| 12 | Scan rent letter (circular) in outline (8) |
CON (scan) + TORN (rent) + O (circular letter) CON TORN O |
CONTORNO (contour or outline) |
| 13 | White wine or pop for ham? (4) |
HOCK (German white wine, now applied to any wine made on the Rhine, but technically applicable only to wine made at HOCKheim) HOCK (pawn; pop) |
HOCK (the ham) triple definition |
| 14 | It grows into new stem, reverse of old one in rotation (6) |
(O [old] + I [Roman numeral for one]) reversed (reverse of) contained in (in) TURN (rotation) TUR (I O)< N |
TURION (underground bud, growing upward into a new stem.) |
| 15 | Young man forming link between Joseph and Ebenezer, … (6) |
EPHEBE (hidden word in [forming link between] JOSEPH EBENEZER) EPHEBE |
EPHEBE (in ancient Greece, a young male citizen from 18 to 20 years of age) |
| 17 | … Who are and will be such, it’s said? (4) |
BOYS (continuing from the previous clue JOSEPH and EBENEZER are BOYS names) BOYS |
BOYS (reference the phrase ‘BOYS will be BOYS‘) |
| 19 | Public reader: initials for one accompanying imperial archbishop? (9) |
PR (first letters [initials] of each of PUBLIC and READER) + ELECTOR (the title formerly belonging to those princes and archbishops of the Holy Roman Empire who had the right to elect the Emperor; imperial [relating to an empire or emperor] archbishop) PR ELECTOR |
PRELECTOR (public reader or lecturer) |
| 21 | Multicellular group – density within promises dispersing (9) |
D (density) contained in (within) an anagram of (dispersing) PROMISES SPORI (D) ESM* |
SPORIDESM (multicellular body or group of spores, of which every cell is capable of germinating) |
| 23 | Bar sandwiches I’d chew roughly coming out (4) |
SANDWICHES excluding (coming out) DWICHE* (an anagram of (roughly) I’D CHEW) SANS |
SANS (without; except; bar) |
| 24 | Turps constituent: to RA this is one painter’s mixture (6) |
PINENE (ONE PAINTER* is an anagram of [mixture] PINENE [this] and TO RA) PINENE |
PINENE chief (ingredient of turpentine) |
| 26 | Like many a loaf recipe going to set (6) |
REC (recipe) contained in (in) PUT (set) P (REC) UT |
PRECUT (previously CUT or sliced, as are many loaves of bread) |
| 28 | Jar, not new – what you’re aiming to fill (4) |
GRIND (jar or grate) excluding (not) N (new) GRID |
GRID (as solver, you are trying to fill the crossword GRID) |
| 29 | Sort of hollow, quite attractive, Paul mucked about in (8) |
Anagram of (knocked about) PAUL contained in (in) CUTE (quite attractive) CU (PULA*) TE |
CUPULATE (cup-like; sort of hollow)
|
| 30 | What landlords do during beer shortage as a basic principle? (9) |
RATION (restrict supply of to so much for each) + ALE (beer) – what pub landlords do during a beer shortage RATION ALE |
RATIONALE (underlying principle)
|
| 31 | The old check books with cut edging (6) |
BB (books) contained in (with … edging) SNEE (cut) SNE (BB) E |
SNEBBE (old form of SNUB [check or stop])
|
| 32 | I may work on horse heading for stable, terribly weary (6) |
S (first letter of [heading for] STABLE) + an anagram of (terribly) WEARY S AWYER* |
SAWYER ( person who makes a living by sawing timber, sometimes on a SAWHORSE [trestle for supporting wood that is being cut]) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | One exercising complete control, universal, in spanners? (7) |
U (universal film classification) contained in (in) ARCHES (things that span; spanners) ARCHE (U) S |
ARCHEUS (the personification of a spirit supposed by Paracelsus to dwell in and control all living things and processes, residing primarily in the stomach)
|
| 2 | Distorted sound from bass, Hank (or Terry) (5) |
B (bass) + LOOP (hank of rope or yarn; terry can be defined as one of the LOOPs in a piled carpet) B LOOP |
BLOOP (howling sound on a soundtrack or made by a radio; distorted sound) |
| *3 | Restaurant serving snacks (12) |
This is the word for the competition clue, so there is no word play LUNCHEONETTE |
LUNCHEONETTE (American term for a restaurant serving snacks and light meals.
|
| 4 | Mackerel in special curry, free (8) |
S (special) + COMB (reference a CURRY COMB for rubbing down and grooming horses) + RID (free) S COMB RID |
SCOMBRID (a fish of the mackerel genus) |
| 5 | Goal encapsulating end for player, behaviour focussing on goals (5) |
HOME (destination point in baseball for example; goal) containing (encapsulating) R (last letter of [end for] PLAYER) HO (R) ME |
HORME (goal-directed or purposive behaviour)
|
| 6 | Asian thatch material? harvest fungus stripped palm (6) |
BUNT (disease of wheat; the fungus (genus Tilletia) that causes it) + AL (letters remaining in PALM when the outside letters P and M are removed [stripped]) BUNT AL |
BUNTAL (straw of the talipot palm; Asian thatch material) |
| 7 | Neglecting duty king’s left gathering (4) |
SHIRKING (neglecting duty) excluding (left) KING SHIR |
SHIR (puckering or gathering)
|
| 8 | Treatment involving ‘sun and air’ hotel hype exploited (12) |
Anagram of (exploited) AIR HYPE and HOTEL HELIOTHERAPY* |
HELIOTHERAPY (medical treatment by exposure to the sun’s rays)
|
| 9 | Arid gullies shrivelled rosary – nothing appears in it (7) |
O (zero; nothing) contained in (appears in) an anagram of (shrivelled) ROSARY ARR (O) YOS* Either O could be the one contained. |
ARROYOS (rocky ravines dry watercourses, which if put together form arid gullies).
|
| 10 | Ancient letters pronounced as execration in Scotland (5) |
WYNNS (sounds like [pronounced as] WINZE [Scottish word for curse or execration]) WYNNS |
WYNNS (runes [ancient letters] having the value of modern English w)
|
| 16 | Small blister that forms thus, universal in membranes (8) |
(SIC [ thus [often printed within brackets in quoted matter to show that the original is being faithfully reproduced even though incorrect or apparently so} + U [universal film classification]) contained in (in) VELA (membranes) VE (SIC U) LA |
VESICULA (small blister)
|
|
18
|
Basic Box ‘Browny’? (7)
|
SPAR (box) + TAN (brown in colour; browny) SPAR TAN |
SPARTAN (basic)
|
| 20 | One often seen in park, beginning to roam? Tut! Tut! (sounds like it) (7, 2 words) |
R (first letter of [beginning to] ROAM) + OE DEER (sounds like [sounds like it] OH DEAR! [Tut! Tut!]) R OE DEER |
ROE DEER (an animal that can be found in large parkland areas) |
| 22 | Reduce performance of barrel in river (6) |
TUN (barrel) contained in (in) DEE (one of many rivers of the same name in Britain) DE (TUN) E |
DETUNE (reduce the performance and efficiency of a motor-car engine)
|
| 23 | Team struts, and tastes being promoted round middle of April (5) |
SUPS (tastes) reversed (being promoted; down clue) containing (around) R (central letter of [middle of] APRIL) SPU (R) S< |
SPURS (struts) SPURS (Tottenham Hostpur; football club; team) double definition and wordplay |
| 24 | Youth when in intermediate stages (5) |
PUP (young man; youth) + AS (when) PUP AS |
PUPAS (intermediate stages of development in some vertebrates) |
| 25 | In explosion it requires part of gunpowder (5) |
NITRE (hidden word in [in] EXPLOSION IT REQUIRES) NITRE |
NITRE (constituent [part of] gunpowder) |
| 27 | Cathouse key (4) |
CRIB (brothel; cathouse) CRIB |
CRIB (a key or baldly literal translation, used as an aid by students etc) double definition |
Not overly difficult for a competition puzzle, and just for once my pencilled-in first guess at the clue word was correct. (Wish I’d stuck with my first effort of ‘Diner cracking clue on the net’, instead of over-egging something more complicated. Oh well.)
The composite anagram for Pinene was a highlight.
Interesting that Collins online defines Contorno as a side dish of salad or vegetables. – no mention of contour/outline. And Chambers doesn’t mention the salad!
Thanks to Azed and Duncan.
To homophones which are partial (such as 20dn) I am not. Shame the Kodak box camera (18dn) was a ‘Brownie’ not a ‘Browny’.
^ I still like that clue. The deliberate (obviously necessary) Browny misprint works for me if the surface is describing a rip-off imitation camera.
…made of even cheaper cardboard 😉
Agree with DRC regarding partial homophones, when the homophone doesn’t lead to a real word (as in OE DEER here). I don’t see a problem with something like BANNED as a homophone of the BAND of BANDMASTER, as both are real words. But what about, say, STEAK as a homophone of the STAKE of MISTAKE? There’s a slight difference between how STAKE sounds as a word in its own right, and how it sounds as part of MISTAKE.
Views welcome!
Another excellent Azed, BTW.
Like cruciverbophile, I don’t have a problem with BANNED for BAND in BANDMASTER. Personally, I’d draw the line at homophones for components of a solution where the element indicated is pronounced the same both on its own and within the solution (eg BAND in BANDMASTER). ‘Note cut announced in error’ for MISTAKE? Not for mi.
That’s what I was hoping you’d say, DRC 🙂