Azed 2438

10 comments on “Azed 2438”

1. 

   Richard Heald

   #1 - Sun 10th Mar 19, 01:29

   
   

   A rare error from Azed here at 8Dn: according to Chambers the plural of neat is neat, not “neats” as given in the clue.  I wonder if, in Azed’s original version, the clue read “… neat’s …” and it got mistranscribed?

    

2. 

   bridgesong

   #2 - Sun 10th Mar 19, 06:35

   
   

   Duncan, thanks for explaining BESOM. I had never heard of ROBES ROOM, so couldn’t work out what had to be omitted, although the answer was clear from the definition and the crossers.

3. 

   thezed

   #3 - Sun 10th Mar 19, 08:43

   
   

   Ditto thanks for “robes room” which confused me. Only my second ever AZED so I’d not picked up on the asterisked clue (almost invisible in the print version from the paper) and it threw me for ages as there appeared to be no wordplay! Now I read the instructions (oops) I see why. Sigh. Just as well I didn’t send it in 🙂

4. 

   Dormouse

   #4 - Sun 10th Mar 19, 10:17

   
   

   I think I parsed 11ac slightly differently.  I can’t see ROBES ROOM in Chambers, just “robing room”.  After a week, its difficult to remember, but I think I split it in two. ROBES = adorns and ROOM = salon, say.

5. 

   DRC

   #5 - Sun 10th Mar 19, 10:33

   
   

   I think the wordplay in 11ac simply involves ROBES (‘adorns’) ROOM (‘salon, say’ – a salon being a specific type of room) being ‘shunned by the same couple [of letters] twice’.

   Regarding 8dn, the apostrophe would fix the wordplay but surely not the &lit ‘definition’ which is, well, weak at best…it lacks any suggestion of possibility rather than fact (eg ‘perhaps’, ‘?’), and if one archaic/dialectal ox/cow/bull were indeed roaming, this would surely be expected behaviour on a large cattle-estate, scant justification for the intervention of the head estanciero.

   In 30ac, ‘Five points’ for TRY seems a stretch…I would rather have seen ‘Source of five points…?’, the question mark reflecting the fact that a try is worth five points only in Rugby Union.

6. 

   DRC

   #6 - Sun 10th Mar 19, 10:50

   
   

   I agree that OFF-RAMP is (very) rarely used in the UK, but it’s shown by Chambers as ‘chiefly N Am’, so I don’t feel that a geographical indicator is necessary. I think of it (without the hyphen) solely as the title of an album by the Pat Metheny Group (my copy is on CD rather than VINYL).

7. 

   Dansar

   #7 - Sun 10th Mar 19, 20:38

   
   

   Thanks to Duncan and Azed

   Perhaps Azed has is using the SOED for 8d, and, to avoid double duty, perhaps the definition is HERE. Though if so I would expect to see HERE?

8. 

   Marmite Smuggler

   #8 - Mon 11th Mar 19, 02:12

   
   

   Thanks all. I didn’t get the first part of DIETETIC. SMOKE-HO, where I live, is more commonly “smoko”. And we have OFF-RAMPs, so they aren’t solely N Am.

   Please forgive me: I’m getting by with the Chambers tenth edition. In it, there is no reference to an on-ramp, but they do exist here as elsewhere. Overseas hitchhikers like to take photographs of the sign at the bottom of the on-ramp: “WRONG WAY. GO BACK”.

   Stefan

9. 

   Keith Thomas

   #9 - Mon 11th Mar 19, 15:39

   
   

   Thanks as always to Azed- and to duncanshiell.

   Welcome to thezed @3- this was my 2,438th!

   Robes and Room are separately chopped surely.

   Had no trouble with OFF-RAMP as we have our own. Without it Sybil would be housebound.

   We remember changing currency in the Monte di Pieta (actually the title there is di Paschi, but the origin is similar) in Siena which claimed to be the world’s oldest bank. Since that time it has become Italy’s Northern Rock. Looking forward to seeing what the all-stars make up for it.

10. 

    Keith Thomas

    #10 - Mon 11th Mar 19, 18:04

    
    

    Make that 2,439th

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