A 13 x 11 grid for this month’s Prize Puzzle from Azed.
A fairly straightforward solve, with Azed utilising the width of the grid to include a couple of 13 letter words. Devising a clue for the competition answer may prove more challenging!
| Across | ||
| 1 | TUMBLER-SWITCH | Current controller in glasses, fascinating woman (13) |
| TUMBLERS, WITCH. | ||
| 10 | IMARI | Porcelain style? Two with internal damage (5) |
| MAR inside II. | ||
| 11 | GAEA | Half crazy (exactly!) about aged goddess (4) |
| I think that this is GA (ga) (half crazy) around AgEd, but I’m not entirely sure what “exactly” is doing, nor how the solver is meant to understand that you are to discard the even letters of “aged”. Suggestions please. | ||
| 12 | TEIL | Lime in compote I love (4) |
| Hidden. | ||
| 14 | TALIPOT | Palm, in which child receives a smack (7) |
| A LIP in TOT. | ||
| 15 | SCENA | Production of Tosca, new? —— 2 is fantastic! (5) |
| No definition as such: you have to insert the answer into the clue to make it make sense. It’s a compound anagram, with the number 2 written as two, and the letters removed from “Tosca new” and rearranged. | ||
| 17 | COASTER | One stocked by barrow boy? It’s often under glass (7) |
| A in COSTER. | ||
| 18 | PIERHEAD | Seaside theatre venue often hired ape to juggle (8) |
| *(HIRED APE). | ||
| 20 | BROAD | Not a major thoroughfare? That’s obvious (5) |
| Double definition, although one meaning requires a hyphen. | ||
| 24 | COPRA | Car malfunctioning? Work inside revealing source of oil (5) |
| OP in *CAR. | ||
| 25 | SURICATE | Catlike creature, one member of Felidae – certain about that? (8) |
| 1 CAT in SURE. | ||
| 27 | ANIMIST | Soul fan is anti music initially that rocks (7) |
| *(IS ANTI M(usic)). | ||
| 30 | MENUS | Attendants from over the water present diners with a choice (5) |
| MEN US. | ||
| 31 | PIETISM | Excessive devotion that is shown by press back in May? (7) |
| IE, SIT(rev) in PM. At the date of publication, Theresa May was still Prime Minister (although she has announced her intention to stand down shortly). | ||
| 32 | PETS | People exercise them sometimes – leads required (4) |
| Initial letters. I had my usual indecision about whether this clue does indeed qualify as an & lit clue, but I think it does. | ||
| 33 | CRAN | Curtains with regular trimming and fresh catch? (4) |
| Even (regular) letters in CuRtAiNs. | ||
| 34 | DESSE | Antique bureau twice dropping right out of sideboard (5) |
| D(r)ESSE(r). | ||
| 35 | BROTHER-GERMAN | Herbert and Morgan Duff? Sharing parents each may be the other’s (13) |
| *(HERBERT MORGAN). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TITUP | Prance about – what you do when hanging a picture? (5) |
| PUT IT (up). | ||
| 2 | MAL DEL PINTO | Tropical skin disease making the afflicted pallid – not me! (11, 3 words) |
| *(PALLID NOT ME). | ||
| 3 | BRIERY | Thorny heart of problem that is grasped by bishop, variable (6) |
| (pro)B(lem), IE in RR (bishop), Y (variable). | ||
| 4 | LIPA | Cheeky talk on afternoon one’s spent in Croatia (4) |
| LIP A. | ||
| 5 | EGOLESS | Being unselfish, say, loses when falling out (7) |
| EG *(LOSES). | ||
| 6 | SEGO | Showy plant: see red one ran wild in rose garden (4) |
| Compound anagram: take the letters of “red” and “ran” from “rose garden” and make an anagram. But what about “one”? | ||
| 7 | WASABI | Some stuffing for stew, as a bitter green paste (6) |
| Hidden. | ||
| 8 | TEETOTALISM | Support drink – Islam working for what supports the opposite (11) |
| TEE TOT *ISLAM. | ||
| 9 | CINEASTE | Fan of film clubs alight over endless festival (8) |
| C IN EASTE(r). | ||
| 13 | LARDY | Woman admitting recipe heavy on the cooking fat (5) |
| R in LADY. | ||
| 16 | TIMONEER | Cox, one that’s kept within the clock? (8) |
| ONE in TIMER. | ||
| *17 | CAPUT | A head (5) |
| The word for which competitors must devise a cryptic clue. | ||
| 19 | DARLING | ‘Beloved brave’ encompasses Longfellow’s leading character (7) |
| L(ongfellow) in DARING. | ||
| 21 | SCAMP | Such as Turpin of old, affected after Bess’s end (5) |
| (bes)S, CAMP. It’s an old word for a highwayman, such as Dick Turpin. | ||
| 22 | TAISCH | Prophetic Scot’s gift is enveloped in occult chat (6) |
| IS in *CHAT. | ||
| 23 | SCOTER | One of several marine ducks – wild orcs will swallow them regularly (6) |
| T(h)E(m) in *ORCS. | ||
| 26 | ELMEN | Of use to joiners – or railway workers? (5) |
| A simple charade of EL MEN: it seems to me that the definition is really very vague. | ||
| 28 | SURE | Trim, having lost weight (not a little) without a doubt (4) |
| (ton)SURE. | ||
| 29 | BEDE | Doss down with English historian (4) |
| BED E. | ||
*anagram
Thanks for the blog, bridgesong.
Often half of a word only means half of the letters of the word, so in 11a I think Azed means GA is exactly half of GAGA because the two halves are the same. Also ae. is an abbreviation for the Latin aetatis meaning aged.
In 6d, ‘one’ plays the role often played by ‘this’ in a compound anagram, so ‘see red one ran wild in rose garden’ means RED [the answer] RAN is an anagram of ROSE GARDEN.
Thanks, Matthew. I should have remembered ae. And I do now understand the construction of 6d.