Thank you Azed for another interesting puzzle.
I never get tired of Azed puzzles even though the style (of the plain ones) is probably the least varied of any setter. Every week the same, every week I learn something new.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ACCESSORY SHOE | Approach Roy’s wild garden, getting flash facility (13, 2 words) |
| ACCESS (approach) then anagram (wild) of RORY’S then HOE (garden) | ||
| 11 | SARK | Leading character in Sinbad with sizable chest? Dame here is famous! (4) |
| Sinbad (leading character, first letter) with ARK ( a sizable chest) – Sibyl Hathaway, the Dame of Sark | ||
| 12 | PORTENT | Catch thrown back in harbour, a bad sign (7) |
| NET (catch) reversed (thrown back) in PORT (harbour) | ||
| 14 | EUONYMOUS | Round Utah’s capital money wasted on American spindle-tree (8) |
| Utah (capital, first letter) inside (round…is…) anagram (wasted) of MONEY then US (American) | ||
| 15 | TOMB | Bowling, not full out? Being stiff one may come to this (4) |
| I don’t get this. I saw someone suggest TOM Bowling maybe? | ||
| 16 | VELETA | Box, old-style, half retreating, leading one a lively dance (6) |
| TELEVision (box, half of) reversed (retreating) then (leading) A (one) – why old-style? | ||
| 17 | APORIA | Difficulty involving chamber in repeated strain (6) |
| PO (chamber, pot) in ARIA (repeated strain) | ||
| 19 | MOHEGAN | Wearer of distinctive hairstyle making Welsh girl stifle cry of alarm? (7) |
| MEGAN (Welsh girl) contains (stifles) OH (cry of alarm) | ||
| 20 | REQUEST | Queen, English, occupying break in prayer (7) |
| QU (queen) E (English) inside REST (break) | ||
| 23 | ATROPOS | I decide when life should end, fittingly having time for priest (7) |
| ApROPOS (Fittingly) with T (time) replacing P (priest) | ||
| 25 | DEGREE | With which course ends, for instance in Jock’s stomach? (6) |
| EG (for instance) in DREE (to endure, to stomach, Scots) | ||
| 26 | TOMBAC | Jeweller’s alloy for Scotsman containing minimum of base (6) |
| TO (for) MAC (Scotsman) containing Base (first letter, minimum of) | ||
| 28 | IN IT | I’ll be ahead of fool, enjoying success (4, 2 words) |
| I then NIT (fool) | ||
| 30 | AVOISION | Compromise in tax affairs, a beauty – nothing in it (8) |
| A VISION (beauty) contains O (nothing) | ||
| 31 | MOINEAU | Protective bastion one aim with gun centrally blasted (7) |
| anagram (blasted) of ONE AIM with gUn (central letter) | ||
| 32 | PSST | I say! With rind of orange distributed in it, it makes a nice potion (4) |
| OrangE (rind of) distributed inside PSST gives POSSET (a nice potion) | ||
| 33 | CONGLOMERATES | Industrial groups in Germany mostly close to collapsing (13) |
| anagram (collapsing) of GERMANy (mostly) CLOSE TO | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | CAUF | Basket for fish caught by amateur with frequency round centre of lough (4) |
| C (caught) then A (amateur) with F (frequency) containing (round) loUgh (centre of) | ||
| 3 | CROTON | Tropical plant in decayed matter fed to steer (6) |
| ROT (decayed matter) inside CON (steer) | ||
| 4 | STYMIE | My tie’s twisted – it renders further progress difficult (6) |
| anagram (twisted) of MY TIE’S | ||
| 5 | SAMBA | Syncopated dance tune – maiden involved lifted outer garments (5) |
| M (maiden) inside (involved) ABAS (outer garments) reversed (lifted) | ||
| 6 | OPUS MUSIVUM | Little old volume I twice sum up oddly as ‘mosaic work’ (11, 2 words) |
| anagram (oddly) of O (old, little) V (volume) I and SUM SUM (twice) UP | ||
| 7 | YRNEH | Physics unit, year on new explosive taken up (5) |
| YR (year) on N (new) HE (explosive)reversed (taken up) – unit equal to the reciprocal of one HENRY | ||
| 8 | STYLET | Writer contributing to testy letters (6) |
| found inside teSTY LETters | ||
| 9 | HEME | Poet’s in, losing time on recurrent idea (4) |
| tHEME (recurrent idea) missing T (time) – the poet is Spenser, in is at home | ||
| 10 | ON STAGE | Production of Agonistes – is cast visible to the audience? (7) |
| anagram (production) of AGONisTES missing (cast) IS | ||
| 11 | SEPARATUM | Individual offprint one artist placed in partition (9) |
| A (one) RA (artist) inside SEPTUM (partition) | ||
| 13 | TRANSEUNT | Drill I missed on complicated tunes causing non-mental effect (9) |
| TRAiN (drill) missing I then anagram (complicated) of TUNES | ||
| 18 | POTOROO | Marsupial dung one’s about to run over (7) |
| POTOROOPOO (dung) contains (one, you the solver has about) TO R (run) O (over) | ||
| 20 | ROBING | One of the Bee Gees briefly dressing up? (6) |
| ROBIN G (Robin Gibb briefly, one of the Bee Gees) | ||
| 21 | SENIOR | Sir excited with one getting first (6) |
| anagram (excited) of SIR with ONE | ||
| 22 | ARTIST | Primitive e.g. creating a wild stir with ultimate in abstract (6) |
| A then anagram (wild) of STIR followed by abstracT (ultimate letter) | ||
| 24 | PANEL | Crude saddle, smooth but second to bottom (5) |
| PLANE (smooth) with second letter moved to the bottom | ||
| 25 | DIONE | Mother of goddess, accomplished, I accepted (5) |
| DONE (accomplished) containing I | ||
| 27 | MAIN | Principal writer on La Rive Gauche? (4) |
| MAIN is hand (writer) in French (on La Rive Gauche) | ||
| 29 | DOSE | Cooks reversing half measure (4) |
| DOES (cooks) with half the letters reversed | ||
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.
Just couldn’t see 9dn, even after a word search. I knew HEME as a constituent of blood, American spelling I now see, and couldn’t see how it fitted with the clue.
Thanks to both. Another marvellous dictionary excursion but I cannot parse TOMB. Absolutely no idea but it fits. I also saw the Tom Bowling reference but have no idea what to do with it.
I did find this easier than the previous one. This week? Printed but not looked at.
I also had no idea to parse TOMB, though it was obviously the answer. In desperation I went a-hunting for help and came across the Tom Bowling suggestion, the idea being that “not full out” means that the name is shortened to his Christian name and the initial of his surname. I suppose it works that way, but it seems rather weak by Azed’s standards. Doesn’t he usually use an example to point you towards name + initial clues, as in
Friend of Caesar J? The opposite (7)
I did wonder if OWLING meant “not full” but can’t find support for this.
Excellent puzzle otherwise, as usual.
DRC – if you visit this Azed post please would you give me your opinion on the wordplay in 18dn. Does it contravene the countable/uncountable noun rule that you often mention? Dung is uncountable, so you can’t have one dung is around something. On the other hand POO (some dung) is countable, so we could have one poo is around something, but does the clue actually say that?
Hi PeeDee. If the ‘one’ here referred to the dung, then it would very definitely fail my countable/uncountable test – as you say, ‘one dung’ is not valid. However, for that cryptic reading I think there would need to be some form of punctuation between the ‘dung’ and the ‘one’ (a dash, say), as in “Angry spectator – one’s spotted running on to pitch”, where “one’s” = “one is”, and the spectator is spotted by unnamed person or persons. But without the dash (“Spectator one’s spotted running on to pitch”), “one’s” must equal “one has”, so ‘one’ has spotted the spectator. The latter construction reflects I believe how the clue is meant to be parsed – “Marsupial dung one [eg the solver] has about to run over”.
Thank you DRC. I hadn’t occurred to me that one in this case might refer to the solver. That makes sense, I will update my annotation.