A straightforward Azed offering with nothing contentious or overly difficult in my view.
The only minor quibble I have is that APPAL appears as an answer an APPALLING as an anagrind, when another option may heve been serviceable.
Thanks, Azed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | UPCHEARD | Cup drunk, alcoholic, round end of marriage, traditionally encouraged (8) |
| *(cup) + HARD (“alcoholic”, as in hard liquor) round [end of] (marriag)E | ||
| 8 | EDDA | Traditional volumes found among faded daybooks (4) |
| Hidden in [found among] “fadED DAybooks”
The Edda were two collections of ballads in old Icelandic. |
||
| 13 | LANGUE D’OIL | Romance of a kind getting Dougie all excited, name secreted (10, 2 words, apostrophe) |
| *(dougie all) with N (name) secreted
Langues d’oil are romantic languages from northern France and Belgium. |
||
| 14 | PEAVY | It helps to shift log rolling certainly round Virginia (5) |
| <=(YEP (“certainly”) round Va. (“Virginia”))
A peavy is a hooked tool used by loggers. |
||
| 15 | APPAL | Dismay shown by the old man turning on mate (5) |
| <=AP (“old man”, turning) on PAL (“mate”) | ||
| 16 | AWMOUS | Woman mostly in a bad way comes to us for charitable relief (6) |
| *(woma)n [mostly] comes to US Awmous is a Scots word for alms. |
||
| 17 | BLAISE | Hardened clay, see, in grip of cold wind (6) |
| LA (see!) in grip of BISE (“cold wind” in Switzerland) | ||
| 18 | SNO-CAT | Polar vehicle? Steer from the rear, perched outside (6) |
| <=CON (“steer” from the rear) with SAT (“perched”) outside | ||
| 21 | KITEFLYER | One manipulates accounts to mislead key filter somehow (9) |
| *(keyfilter)
Kiteflying is the fraudulent practice of of raising money, or sustaining one’s credit, by the use of paper which is merely nominal. |
||
| 23 | OSMETERIA | They emit foul smell – very large gauge reverse of ideal (9) |
| OS (outsize, so “very large”) + METER (“guage”) + <=A1 [reverse of] “ideal”
Osmoteria are organs in caterpillars that emit foul smells (and/or create a display) to deter predators. |
||
| 27 | SUNHAT | One’s produced in boiling haunts? (6) |
| *(haunts) and &lit. | ||
| 28 | IDOLUM | Logical fallacy I mould deviously (6) |
| *(i mould) | ||
| 29 | ORGEAT | Syrup, golden stuff, grand to have for breakfast? (6) |
| OR (“golden”) + G (grand) + EAT (“to have for breakfast?”)
Orgeat syrup is a sweet syrup made from almonds, sugar and rose water, used in cocktails. |
||
| 31 | CINCT | Supreme commander has little time, once surrounded (5) |
| C IN C (commander in chief, so “supreme commander”) has [little] T(ime) | ||
| 32 | KENDO | Ritual sword play to culminate in final strike (5) |
| END (“to culminate”) in K.O. (knockout, so “final strike”) | ||
| 33 | AVICULTURE | A large bird I see nesting – successful result of this? (10) |
| A VULTURE (“large bird”) with I C (“see”) nesting | ||
| 34 | LEET | Language of the Net, fast if not fine (4) |
| (f)LEET (“fast”, [if not] F (fine))
Leet or leestspeak is a form of written English used for example in chatrooms in which letters are replaced by numbers or other symbols. |
||
| 35 | SEAMSTER | Rate mess appalling in sewer (8) |
| *(rate mess) |
||
| Down | ||
| 2 | PHEW | Husband occupying seat in church – that’s a relief (4) |
| H (husband) occupying PEW (“seat in church”) | ||
| 3 | CLAMOR | Outcry in the US, Democrats all upset – slated with this? (6) |
| *(mocral) which is “democrats all” without the letters of “slated” | ||
| 4 | HAVOCKED | Bible brought in, pawned, vandalized (8) |
| A.V. (Authorised Version of the “Bible”) brought in to HOCKED (“pawned”) | ||
| 5 | AGAST | Horrified as before at having to limit fuel (5) |
| AT having to limit GAS (“fuel”) | ||
| 6 | RUMBLER | Monarch retaining doctor as potato-peeler (7) |
| RULER (“monarch”) retaining M.B. (Bachelor of Medicine, so “doctor”)
A rumbler is a vibrating cylindrical machine for peeling potatoes, often seen in fish and chip shops. |
||
| 7 | DEALT | Sold drugs, vile trade involving change of hands? (5) |
| *(tlade) which is TRADE with the R changed to L [change of hands – right to left] | ||
| 9 | DOPILY | In the manner of noodles, soft, wrapped in paper napkin (6) |
| P (piano, or “soft”, in music) wrapped in DOILY (“paper napkin”)
“Noodles” in this case refers to simpletons, not pasta. |
||
| 10 | DIASTEMA | Tea maid’s prepared for natural gap (8) |
| *(tea maids)
A diastema is a natural gap between consecutive teeth. |
||
| 11 | ALLEGRETOS | Latin bird in part of choir producing jaunty movements (11) |
| L (Latin) + EGRET (“bird”) in ALTOS (“part of choir”) | ||
| *12 | SPASMODICAL | Intermittent (11) |
| This is the word Azed wants the solver to clue. | ||
| 19 | NOSEDIVE | Headlong fall? Nothing to ease the pain at cut (8) |
| NO SED(at)IVE (“nothing to ease the pain” with AT cut) | ||
| 20 | CLANGERS | Horlicks (more than one) – or Bells? (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 22 | TEN-MILE | Like a long run? Men should be dressed in a hat (7) |
| *(men) in TILE (“hat”) | ||
| 24 | MOONIE | Sectarian, fatuous by the sound of it (6) |
| Homophone [by the sound of it] of MOONY
Moonies are members of the Unification Church, a sect founded in 1954. |
||
| 25 | CHENET | Dog or kitten mostly excluded round small cooking area (6) |
| (kit)CHENET(te)(n) (“small cooking area” with KITTE(n) excluded)
A chenet is an andiron or firedog, a metal grid for holding firewood. |
||
| 26 | TUTUS | Maori settlement dividing street up for NZ shrubs (5) |
| UTU (in Maori, “settlement” of a debt) dividing <=ST. (street, up) | ||
| 27 | SOFTA | Theological student, one of two for tutor occupying comfy seat (5) |
| T (“one of two for tutor”) occupying SOFA (“comfy seat”)
A softa was a student of Islamic theology in the Ottoman Empire. |
||
| 30 | ADZE | Chopper making my heart shift? (4) |
| A(D)ZE(d) ie Azed with his heart (ZE) shifted right. | ||
*anagram
I’m away from home at the moment so I don’t have last week’s puzzle to hand but I remember I had trouble with 16ac, but it was of my own making. 2dn was my first one in, but I must have entered it in a slapdash manner and I couldn’t read my own writing, so for 16ac I was looking for a word starting ANM. Took me ages to spot my mistake.
Kaspersky Password Manager
Create a strong password for your account
CREATE
Do not show again
APPAL: same word and almost the same clue used in last Monday’s Guardian cryptic (5d). Probably just a coincidence.
Particular thanks to Loonapick for the blog, as it was my turn, but I am away with only occasional internet access. I did manage to print out and solve the puzzle, but submitting it on time from Canada, where postal strikes seem particularly prevalent, has proved to be challenging.
I have no idea how that message from the password manager got into my post last night.
Kaspersky Password Manager
Create a strong password for your account
CREATE
Do not show again
But it’s done it again.! I’ve tried turning it off.
Kaspersky Password Manager
Create a strong password for your account
CREATE
Do not show again
Nope, that didn’t work.
But that did. Sorry for all that. I have a bug report with Kaspersky already. I’ll add that information to them.
I’d never have dared to clue 20dn as Azed did if it had been a clue-word in one of his setting competitions: Horlicks as a drink (registered) is the only definition in Chambers of Horlicks as a single word. Otherwise it’s ‘make a Horlicks of’, and Azed has extracted the single word with its meaning from that phrase: the word isn’t defined as a clanger.
Wil, you are correct. To make a horlicks of… isn’t a clanger(s) – the two things are totally different!
Interesting point, Wil. My (oldish) versions of Chambers give neither the drink nor the phrase, but an online search reveals that in the latter case Horlicks is thought by many to euphemism for b*llocks, which does get its own entry in Chambers as a muddle or mess. There’s a case for saying that making a mess of something involves making several clangers, e.g. all too frequently my attempts to solve the Azed crossword!
Even if that explanation works, and I’m not sure it does, “more than one” in the clue strikes me as essentially redundant. Perhaps I’m missing something here.
OK, Pompey English slang here.
Making a horlicks is indeed a euphemism for bollocksing it all up. A clanger is basically a cock up mistake (why both are generic to the male, I have no idea).
If you bollocks something up, you ruin it. If you make a mistake, you dropped a clanger.
Both totally different.
Ummm. Maybe we are all wrong. See BOLLOCKS in C.
Horlicks the euphemism.
Duh! Ignore my last comment. I got confused.
Clanger isn’t to make a mess of.
Sorry for the noise.
Well, yes, but my point is that if you drop several clangers (Chambers: a stupid mistake) when, for example, doing some calculations you’ll make a total mess of it and may well have to start again. One clanger doesn’t equal a Horlicks but several can lead to one. Or something like that.
In a June 2004 draft entry, the OED gives Horlicks (or horlicks) as a plural noun functioning as a singular and meaning “A mess; a disordered or spoiled state of affairs”, to which is added “Freq. in to make a Horlicks of and variants”, indicating that it can legitimately be used in other contexts. Thus I’ve got no problem with ‘Horlicks (more than one’) as the definition of a conventional plural noun such as ‘clangers’ (‘Horlicks’ on its own would indicate a singular), but as observed above a mess and a gaffe are surely far from being the same thing, which is the fatal flaw of this clue. I accept that several clangers could produce a mess, but by that token ‘Swallow (more than one)’ could indicate ‘summer’.
I have only just caught up with this thread, so it’s unlikely, I suppose, that anyone will read this, but there is, surely, another flaw in the clue. The surface depends upon the contrast between Horlicks as a milky drink and whisky, but the whisky is not Bells, but Bell’s – which, to my mind, seriously weakens the clue, especially coming from such a stickler for grammar and English usage as Azed.
test
Kaspersky Password Manager
Create a strong password for your account
CREATE
Do not show again