I only remembered that I was due to blog this puzzle on Saturday evening, having solved one clue on Sunday and then having put the puzzle aside. Panic stations!
I have not had much time in the circumstances to do detailed analysis of the clues, so apologies for that.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ANGST | Chronic unease stings, first to last (5) |
| (T)ANGS with the first letter moved to last | ||
| 5 | GABFEST | Silly ass entering stage messed up prolonged discussion (7) |
| BF in *STAGE | ||
| 11 | FLAP-EARED | Like Noddy’s friend of yesteryear? Got fired up about copy (9) |
| APE in FLARED. Noddy’s friend in the Enid Blyton stories was of course Big Ears | ||
| 12 | FARAND | Having a particular appearance in Scotland, it often goes with ‘wide’ (6) |
| A simple charade of “far and (wide)”. | ||
| 14 | VELLON | Not what interested Spanish pirates in hold of caravel, London bound (6) |
| Hidden in “caravel Lon”; it’s defined as Spanish copper money | ||
| 16 | RIPPING | Top–hole roue to contact electronically (7) |
| A charade of RIP (a roue) PING (electronic contact) | ||
| 17 | CHACO | Old military cap in e.g. Assam company (5) |
| CHA (tea, like Assam) CO(mpany). | ||
| 18 | STEY | Craggy Caledonian is short, even backward (4) |
| ‘S YET (rev) | ||
| 19 | HONEYMONTH | Early weeks of marriage once: new money splurged with passionate husband around (10) |
| I think that this is an anagram of N(ew) MONEY HOT (passionate) followed by H(usband) | ||
| 22 | ALABLASTER | Gypsum such as poets used in the manner of wedge (10) |
| A LA BLASTER (apparently a sand-wedge in golf is known as a blaster) | ||
| 24 | SERF | Churl turning cheeky, rear whipped (4) |
| FRES(h) (rev) | ||
| 26 | BIRSY | Jock’s unshaven? Wife turning stroppy gutted (5) |
| RIB (wife) S(tropp)Y | ||
| 27 | PLAYPEN | Feature of nursery suggested by dramatist? (7) |
| A cryptic definition of a kind, I think | ||
| 29 | RIBBED | Climb’s ending in jumble of debris, mostly with ridges (6) |
| (Clim)B in *DEBRI(s). | ||
| 30 | ELAEIS | Golfer grips one that is reversed in palm (6) |
| A I.E. (rev) in ELS (Ernie Els, South African golfer) | ||
| 31 | PROCONSUL | Magistrate in Rome having to move stealthily once nabbing jailbirds (9) |
| CONS (jailbirds) in PROUL (old spelling of prowl) | ||
| 32 | DECLARE | Come out with first from car dealer, reconditioned (7) |
| *(C(ar) DEALER). | ||
| 33 | BETTY | House–husband, British painter known for his nudes (5) |
| B(ritish) ETTY. William Etty | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | AFFICHE | Bill in French cafe if translated includes tip for wench (7) |
| (We can)H in *(CAFE IF). French cafes and public spaces famously display notices: Defense d’ afficher (post no bills) | ||
| 2 | GARJAN | Timber tree raja, ill, planted in fringes of garden? (6) |
| *RAJA in G(arde)N | ||
| 3 | SPANCEL | Width where prisoner’s confined cut short – one has to hobble (7) |
| SPAN CEL(L) | ||
| 4 | TEND | Part of Everest, endless incline (4) |
| Hidden | ||
| 6 | ARVICOLINE | Ratty, say? Vole I see in a small river messing about (10) |
| I think that this is an anagram of VOLE I C IN A R | ||
| 7 | BEEPS | Pages in book to look up, including start of preface (5) |
| P in B(ook) SEE (rev) | ||
| 8 | EOLITH | Early implement – it’s found in hole, damaged (6) |
| *(IT HOLE) | ||
| 9 | STONELESS | Like fruit eaten whole, what dieters want to get? (9) |
| A humorous definition | ||
| 10 | TANGY | Pungent, i.e. no good in Paddy’s cuppa (5) |
| NG in TAY (Irish for tea) | ||
| 13 | DRUMBLEDOR | Cockchafer grasped in grip of dung-beetle (10) |
| RUMBLED (grasped) inside DOR (a dung-beetle, or another word for a cockchafer) | ||
| 15 | SHORELINE | Heron lies tangled in rope between net and land (9) |
| *(HERON LIES). A less familiar definition | ||
| 20 | TSIGANE | Restless one climbing point once again, losing weight (7) |
| GIST (rev) ANE(w) | ||
| 21 | GRYESLY | Macabre, old, grey, shifty and crafty (7) |
| *GREY, SLY | ||
| 22 | ARABIC | Account written about grain harvest in a foreign language (6) |
| RABI in AC | ||
| 23 | TRUEST | Estate’s capital held in hope of maximum reliability (6) |
| E(state) in TRUST | ||
| 24 | SPROD | Young swimmer, super-loud? Needs suppressing regularly (5) |
| Alternate (regular) letters of SuPeRlOuD | ||
| 25 | OPERA | Musical event amateur orchestra mounted, bit of effort put in (5) |
| E in A(mateur) RPO (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) (rev) | ||
| 28 | SLOB | Offensive term, including L for lout (4) |
| L in S.O.B. | ||
*anagram
Thanks Azed and bridgesong.
19ac: This works as anagram of N MONEY contained within HOT H.
I was interested by the clue for 14ac (VELLON). There is a space between ‘London’ and ‘bound’ (as you would expect), so ‘bound’ is not part of the hiding place and must therefore have a different role in the wordplay. The definition could conceivably be ‘Not what interested Spanish pirates in hold’, but that would require the ‘of’ in the clue to be replaced with ‘by’ (or a second ‘in’). So the definition must end after ‘pirates’, meaning that the containment indicator is ‘in hold of…bound’. Can something be ‘bound in the hold of’ something else? Just about, I suppose. Or did others interpret the clue differently?
I think VELLON is just as much contained by ‘caravel London bound’ as in ‘caravel London’, so the bound is just there for the surface.
I liked PLAYPEN, akin to ‘wordsmith’ I feel.
Thanks Bridgesong and Azed.
I think your interpretation is correct, DRC. One could be bound in the hold of a spell, for example, even if it’s rather tautological, and perhaps the pseudo-archaic reversal of the word order in the clue was intended to evoke a bygone era?
Thanks, cvop, I rather like the idea that the clue is harking back to the age of derring-do (ie when Azed had not long started setting).
The word ‘bound’ cannot be there purely for the benefit of the surface reading as Azed (and even slightly more liberal barred puzzle editors) will not allow a hiding place to include any words other than a/an/the which do not provide part of the solution.
Fair enough, but are these rules online?
In ‘Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword”, Derrick Macnutt writes: “no word other than an article should appear in the hiding-place that does not contain at least one letter of the required word.” In the slip for competition 618, Azed says: “I feel strongly that [a hidden-type clue] should contain no superfluous words in the cryptic part besides those which contain the clue-word itself.” The first common clueing error mentioned in the current notes for Listener setters (available online) is the use of redundant words in clues, which undoubtedly encompasses the inclusion of superfluous words in a hiding place.
It’s been a fair old while since I’ve seen a hidden word clue where an article has been part of the hiding place and not part of the answer. Not from conscientious setters, anyway. I get the impression that Ximenes was rather freer with cryptically redundant articles than his later followers!
I’ve never seen any debate on whether it’s considered acceptable to hide a word in only part of a recognised grouping of words, such as HAMS or TAN in LYTHAM ST ANNE’S. Has there been any?
The last successful Azed competition entry to include an article introducing a hiding place was Colin Dexter’s final cup-winning clue, for PERIQUE in AZ 1,988: “Partly a pauper, I queued for possible refill of bowl. (Twist, maybe)”. However, ‘hiddens’ rarely feature among the published entries for plain competitions – as Azed says, “There’s nothing intrinsically objectionable about this type of clue – I use it regularly myself after all – but it is very difficult to achieve anything outstanding with it and the answer tends to be pretty obvious.” In the slip for AZ 1,823, Azed notes: “In case anyone wonders, I accept that the definite article can be included to introduce the ‘container’ in a hidden clue without being regarded as part of it.”
That’s an interesting question regarding recognised groupings, in particular proper names, but I think that the presence (or absence) of a separating space would generally be considered key, so a nun could quite properly be concealed in Ashton-under-Lyne, but not in Ashton under Hill. “Decline Freddie Starr’s sandwiches (3)” probably doesn’t work either, although “Declines Freddie Starr’s sandwiches (4)” is fine.
Thanks to bridgesong and Azed
I am fairly new to Azed so perhaps I’m missing something but I took hold to be ship’s hold, and VELLUM to be of (link word) caravel london bound.
Not what they were looking for because they were after something more valuable.
Thanks DRC – that’s pretty much what I thought, and it’s good to have it confirmed. I did try to find a three word phrase where none of the words makes sense on its own, and only two of the words are the hiding place, but failed. There must be one somewhere?
Something like “Exhausted, overwhelmed by tempus edax rerum (4)”, perhaps?
Nice one! It’s a long time since I did Latin (the Romans had only just left Britain) so I’m not sure if rerum as the genitive plural of res can exist by itself? If not I guess the clue’s sound!
Well, I don’t think that ‘rerum’ can exist on its own, but I feel that in a puzzle like Azed the clue would be a little unfair, not because of the difficulty in finding the hidden word, rather because the assiduous solver is then going to ask themselves “But what is ‘rerum’ doing there?” and will be unable to find a satisfactory answer. I shan’t be using that clue any time soon!
Fair enough!