Azed 2471

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It gets harder and harder to say anything new about Azed – just another top-quality puzzle, as ever. I thought I’d caught him out in an error in 22d, but not surprisingly the error was mine. Thanks to Azed

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. CRWTH Scary witch characters regularly avoided – one may be bowed (5)
Alternate letters of sCaRy WiTch – an easy clue for what would be an implausible spelling except for it being a Welsh word
8. MATED Married CEO consuming high tea? (5)
TEA* in MD (managing director – perhaps not exactly the same as a CEO, but close enough?)
13. GUAIACUM Nurse with copper put in sticky stuff, medicinal resin (8)
AIA (Indian nursemaid – more usually seen as “ayah”) + CU in GUM
14. TATARIC A cart – with it trundled around like steppe-dwellers (7)
Anagram of A CART + IT – the steppe-dwellers are Tatars
15. PRESES Chairman from Spain accepted by Fleet Street? (6)
E in PRESS – preses for chairman is related to “preside”
16. CRANKNESS College head admits out-and-out tendency to flip (9)
RANK (out-and-out) in C[ollege] + NESS (head, geographically) – this is from crank (adj.) = “liable to capsize”, so not, as I thought at first, a variant of “crankiness”
17. HINGE It’s central to one’s policy, and nothing else (5)
Central letters of notHIN GElse
18. CROSS-EYE Cast that’s peevish given attention (8)
CROSS + EYE
20. TELL ME ANOTHER Snitch on mum about to give birth as before? I don’t believe it! (13, 3 words)
TELL (to snitch) + EAN (Shakespearean “give birth”) in MOTHER
24. HOLESOME Moles deviously trapped in garden? That was sound (8)
MOLES* in HOE – Spenserian spelling of “wholesome”
27. JEANS Jimmy given regular space to measure casual wear (5)
EN (space, in typography) inserted regularly into JAS (James = Jimmy)
30. TRAMPETTE Small bouncer showing huff in awkward matter (9)
PET (temper, huff) in MATTER. It’s a small trampoline
32. TINAJA Wine container can, almost open but not closed (6)
TIN (can) + AJA[R]
33. WEARIED Wider eddies circling running water lost energy (7)
EA (a river( in WIDER*
34. MONOCRAT Roman Cato lambasted dismissing a Caesar maybe (8)
Anagram of ROMAN CATO less one A
35. NESKI Foreign script shown by a single vellum, but not on edging? (5)
[O]NE SKI[N]
36. ARTSY Any round stone one’s turned over, aspiring to be creative (5)
Reverse of ST in ARY (any)
Down
1. CATCH-THE-TEN Caught lilting chant about old serf? It’s played with hands (11)
C + THETE (serf) in CHANT*
2. ROARIE Like enthusiastic Ibrox fans, sounding like a Stewart? (6)
Homophone of Rory [Stewart], formerly a Conservative MP, now independent since Boris Johnson’s purge of 21 MPs who voted against the Government
3. WOTAN Ancient curse dominating early part of Tannhäuser (for Wagner’s character) (5)
WO (old form of woe = curse) + TAN – rather vague by Azed’s standards for “early part of Tannhäuser”. Wotan (a German version of the name Odin) is the king of the gods in Wagner’s Ring cycle
4. TRANGLE Small heraldic band having complexity round radius (7)
R in TANGLE
5. QUINCE Shakespearean director wanting RU team in Madrid? (6)
QUINCE is Spanish for 15, the number of players in a Rugby union team; and Peter Quince directs the Mechanicals’ play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
6. MACE Club wastes away, cutting rates (4)
MACE[RATES]
7. DIPSO One over-keen on the drink has a swim with nothing on (5)
DIPS (swims) + O
9. ACER Plant family, one with odd features of cherry (4)
A + alternate letters of ChErRy. Acer is the Maple genus
10. TUSSEH Society in the US paraded unrestrainedly in Indian silk (6)
S in (THE US)*
11. EMERY Polish, weird, introducing former German currency shortly (5)
M[ark] in EERY
12. DISPERSEDLY Thus you may see dry seed slip all over the place (11)
(DRY SEED SLIP)* &lit
19. STEERER Director modified set before run (7)
SET* + ERE R
21. LLANOS Plains? Special follows just after the lot coming up (6)
Reverse of S[pecial] ON (just after) + ALL (the lot)
22. NEMEAN Like victim of Heracles, one topped with shaggy mane (6)
ONE “topped”, i.e. less its first letter + MANE*. I originally thought Azed had slipped up here, intending MANE* + AN. Killing the Nemean Lion was the first of the Labours of Heracles (aka Hercules)
23. ENTERS Logs, number among chopped trees (6)
N in TREES*
25. OJIME Corded bead: Jamie cuts one hollowed out (5)
Another “ONE”, this time “hollowed out” and containing another variant of James, namely JIM
26. ORACH Spinach run out (short)? Cooks snip this maybe (5)
Composite anagram &lit: (SNIP ORACH)* = SPINACH + RO (cricketing abbreviation for “run out”); orach is “sometimes used as Spinach is
28. ATILT Drunk rolled over in a bit of a kip, leaning somewhat (5)
Reverse of LIT (drunk) in AT (Laotian money, one-hundredth of a kip)
29. FANK Fill tank till spilling out for Scottish sheep-pen (4)
FILL TANK less TILL*. I learned this word many years ago through my Scottish sheep-farming stepfather

4 comments on “Azed 2471”

  2. Quite a few I couldn’t parse this week – 5dn, 27ac, 28dn – so thanks for the explanations.

    If I ever knew QUINCE was Spanish for 15, I’d forgotten it.  And as for Laotian money…

    I think I eventually worked out 22dn, but after a week I can’t remember for sure.  I didn’t put a question mark by it in my copy.

  3. Thanks Azed and thanks Andrew for the parsing of JEANS. I don’t think I’ve seen that construction before.
    I too stared at NEMEAN for a while before twigging.

  4. Thanks to Andrew and Azed

    I had a slightly different reading of 27a.

    I’ll paraphrase:

    JAS gives regular space for measure ( EN )

    I’m fairly sure that EN is represented by MEASURE rather than SPACE, and, for me, GIVING would work better than GIVEN in the clue.

    There may be a very good grammatical reason for it though.

    In 3d I wondered if WOAN might be an ancient curse my dictionaries were unaware of, but I suppose somebody would have mentioned it by now.

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