Azed No. 2,488 – ‘Letters Latent’

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A tricky puzzle that took me a long while to finish, but very satisfying once it was all done. Thank you Azed.

I don’t think the clues were any harder than usual but I found the crossing letters to be of less help. Normally I can look at the crossers and my subconscious runs some sort of pattern-matching routine and comes up with a list of likely-looking words that fit. The missing letters in the grid seems to have severely hampered this process. I had to grind out each solution the hard way from wordplay.

The puzzle was published after St Valentine’s day, so the apt quotation from A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Good morrow friends, Saint Valentine is past.  Safe now to go back into the supermarket and pick up some discounted chocolate.

image of grid
ACROSS letter answer entry annotation
1 G GINGERADE INERADE Bar with a red wine mixed a fizzy soft drink (9)
anagram (mixed) of A RED wINE missing (bar) W (with)
7 O COHORTS CHRTS Short time in court with special groups (7)
HR (hour abbreviated, short time) inside CT (court) with S (special)
11 O AGENT ORANGE AGENTRANGE A fellow having to extend defoliant (11, 2 words)
A GENT (fellow) with RANGE (extend)
12 D THUDDED THUE Ramshackle hut, last of five, collapsed heavily (7)
anagram (ramshackle) of HUT then fivE (last letter of)
13 M DEMENTIA DEENTIA Loss of some faculties – it features in a state requiring relief, retrograde (8)
IT inside A NEED (state requiring relief) all reversed
15 O AEROMOTORS AERMTRS Armrest activated plane’s engines (10)
anagram (activated) of ARMREST
16 R REMERGES EMEGES Diocese holding jewel back forms another combination (8)
SEE (dioscese) contains (holding) GEM (jewel) reversed (back)
17 R PRAESEPE PAESEPE With adjustment, a peep’s catching eastern star cluster (8)
anagram (with adjustment) of A PEEP’S containing E (eastern)
18 O WORDFINDER WRDFINDER Aid in solving ‘world of signed heart’ (odd bits) (10)
WoRlD oF sIgNeD hEaRt (odd letters only)
22 W WHITEWARE HITEARE Meal being held, lease undecorated porcelain? (9)
HIRE (lease) contains (with…being held) TEA (meal)
24 F FESTERS ESTERS More than one compound is rotting (7)
ESTER (chemical compound, plural)
27 R PURLICUE PULICUE Sturgeon’s summary, in open view, lacking breadth, backing EU (8)
PUbLIC (in open view) missing B (breadth) then EU reversed (backing) – Scots, as might be said by Nicola Sturgeon
29 I SERENITY SERENTY Peace before start of night in pigpen (8)
ERE (before) Night (first letter, start of) inside STY (pigpen)
30 E SERENES SRNS Soothes forgotten nurses (7)
SRN (State Registered Nurse, plural)
31 N TRANSITIONAL TRASITIOAL Artist with oil, a work denoting passing phase (12)
anagram (work) of ARTIST with OIL A
32 D SECEDE SECEE Withdraw dry husked seed (6)
SEC (dry) then sEEd (husked, no outer letters)
33 S SPALPEEN PALPEEN Mischief-maker, awfully pale, in prison (8)
anagram (awfully) of PALE inside PEN (prison)
DOWN letter answer entry annotation
1 S SIESTA IETA One’s had a bite when getting up after one? (6)
I (one) then (‘s, has) ATE (had a bite) reversed (when getting up)
2 A ANATHEMATISE NTHEMTISE Curse those being admitted I sent off (12)
THEM (those) inside (being admitted) anagram (off) of I SENT
3 I ECURIE ECURE Racing team smoke after end of race (6)
CURE (smoke) following racE (end letter of)
4 N AGENTED AGETED Served as delegate, old, penning note (7)
AGED (old) contains (penning) TE (note, music)
5 T DETERS DEERS Prevents ungulates getting onto square (6)
DEER (ungulates) on S (square)
6 V VETERAN ETERAN Oldster athlete randomly eclipsing some outsiders (7)
found inside (eclipsing some outer letters) athlETE RANdomly
7 A ACREAGE CREGE Government briefly brought in Algonquin land measure (7)
G (government, briefly) inside CREE (Algonquin)
8 L HANDSEL HANDSE In this year, send off inaugural gift (7)
HA (in this year) then anagram (off) of SEND
9 E RENTER RNTR Letter enclosure from northern tribes (6)
found inside (enclosure from) northeRN TRibes
10 N SEA BEANS SEABEAS Cacoons, cultivation of two bases, only one British (8, 2 words)
anagram (cultivation) of BASE bASE missing one B (British)
14 T IMPORTUNATE IMPORUNAE I recast poem about work, amateur, annoying (11)
I then anagram (recast) of POEM) contains RUN (work) A (amateur)
16 I ECHOISTS ECHOSTS Executive committee entertains those with no opinions of their own? (8)
EC (executive committee) HOSTS (entertains)
19 N RECENSE RECESE Critically correct dagger, head dropping somewhat (7)
CREESE (dagger) with first letter (head) appearing further along the word (dropping somewhat)
20 E FRITTER FRITTR Scots score in France to squander bit by bit (7)
RITT (score, Scots) inside FR (France)
21 I DISLEAL DSLEAL Formerly treacherous solicitor breaks agreement (7)
SL (solicitor) inside (breaks) DEAL (agreement)
23 S SARNIE ARNIE Double-decker maybe a long time turning up round Ulster (6)
ERA (a long time) reversed (turning up) containing (around) NI (Ulster)
24 P EUROPA EUROA Classical abductee: a regret about love is mounting (6)
A RUE (regret) contains (about) O (love) all reversed (mounting)
25 A ECARTE ECRTE Mediterranean island moving third to first position in dance (6)
CRETE (Mediterranean island) with E (third letter of Crete) moved to the front
26 S SERAC ERAC Bit of glacier breaking off raised concern (5)
CARE (concern) reversed (raised)
28 T TESTON ESON Grass turned up old tanner (6)
NOSE (grass, informer) reversed (turned up)

24 comments on “Azed No. 2,488 – ‘Letters Latent’”

  1. Thanks PeeDee – in 25 I took the definition to be ‘position in dance’ as it’s a ballet position according to Chambers.
    I sort-of get the &lit SIESTA.
    Could this puzzle ever have been created in the pre-computer age? A great work from Azed.

  2. Gonzo@1 – yes, a great construction, and yes it could. Going as far back as the 1970s, when I first set about his puzzles, Azed set LL puzzles, sometimes leaving a word out of the quotation that was to be used for the cluing competition, with entries to be LL clues.

  3. Didn’t finish. That always annoys me but I’d spent too much time. I had “tester” at 28 Dn and hadn’t read the clue fully. So I couldn’t get “spalpeen”.

    Another brilliant puzzle from Azed. Don’t you just marvel? I’ve found a few of the recent ones difficult, even the Plains, but I’m not complaining.

    Stefan

  5. Finally finished this sometime Monday.  At some point, I guess the start of the quotation and googled it to get the whole thing.  Having the missing letters helped complete the solve.  (I thought I posted this earlier, but I can’t see it here.)

  6. Goujeers @2: That’s fascinating – are there any accounts of how it was done back then? I can just about think of a method involving punched cards for a normal puzzle, but for this you need a dictionary for every distinct letter in the quotation, or custom compiling software I would have thought.
    Of course, if you worked at a university, you might have had access to computers even in the early 70s. By 1977 home computers were a reality.

  7. Hi Gonzo – I don’t think Azed ever uses a computer to create the grids, he uses a pencil and paper to draw them and has the entire dictionary in his head.

  8. I loved this- really took me back. Sunday was busy so I didn’t start till Monday and finished early Tuesday. Steady progress except that getting “Good morrow” was no help with the quotation as far as my 1950’s Oxford Quotations was concerned. Then I saw, belatedly Valentine and pennies cascaded

    As to pre-computer age:-  Ximenes doesn’t mention “Letters Latent” in his “Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword (1966) listing “P.D.”, “Playfair”, “Left & Right” & “Misprints”. However, folded into my copy, I found his No 1189 headed “Letters Latent” though no hidden quotation- the letters I & O, in that order but not necessarily contiguous, are removed from each across entry but downs are normal.

    Another kept clip is of Azed’s 426 which is in his usual form with the quotation “How often misused words generate thoughts”

    I must have especially enjoyed both of these to have filed them (they were’t clue-setting weeks)

    In “Azed’s Book of Crosswords” (1975), a compendium of crosswords by himself and others, a few of whom are still around, he has an “L.L” leading to the quotation “Azed welcomes all contributors to to his book”

    Back to last week’s treasure my first in was, as you’d expect W(O)RDFINDER and my last S(E)R(E)N(E)S (couldn’t see serene as a verb)

    Thanks to Azed and to PeeDee for the blog.

  9. Hello again, Keith.

    I’m ex-X. For years I tore the back page out of the Observer magazine. All those scribbles and anagrams. I had just about every week of them saved. I migrated to Australia in 1982. I threw out all those pages. What a waste! There were definitely Letters Latent in the 1970s.

    My first was AGENT (O)RANGE, which I thought leapt off the page. Then it got harder, though some clues gave rise to the “bderrr” moment when you can’t believe you didn’t see it staring you in the face.

    Stefan

  10. For some reason, I can’t imagine Azed using a computer even now.

    I remember an article back in the days when I still read Computer Weekly where someone suggested using a computer to fill in a grid leaving the setter to write the clues.  An actual setter responded filling in a grid was trivial, writing the clues was the hard part.

    When did a digital Chambers first become available?

  11. Dormouse, I’ve had my Chambers app at least 10 years. Initially on an iPad, then on my phone when Apple obscelesced the iPad3. Couldn’t do Azed without it.

  13. Still a lot more recently than the seventies, though. 🙂  I’m trying to remember when I first used a word processor with a spell checker.  Early eighties, I suspect.  But those dictionaries were limited.  I remember once mistyping (somehow) “charnel” for “channel” and it was flagged as a spelling mistake. (And I notice the spell checker in Firefox still doesn’t think it’s a word.)  And my first home word processor had “liason” as a word but not “liaison”.

  14. Fascinated by these “apps” etc. At 91 I’ve just bought an iPhone after 15 years of dithering! Wish me luck in trying to get it to do anything I couldn’t do in a library.

    My first computer program was punched in digital form on to 5-channel paper tape and fed into an Elliot 803 computer, room size.

  15. The sound you hear is my mind boggling. Knowing the dictionary is a prodigious feat (Derren Brown could probably have an interesting chat with Azed), but for instance ‘ a word with at least one A which, when all the As are removed, has pattern N?HE??I?E’ !
    I haven’t tried filling a grid unassisted – it doesn’t strike me as trivial :/

  16. The app I use to write these blogs has a spellchecker and it goes into meltdown whenever I have an Azed puzzle to write up.  It thinks half the grid entries are spelling mistakes.

    Gonzo – in his day job Azed worked for the Oxford University Press, latterly as a lexicographer writing dictionaries.

  17. Keith@14:  You beat me there.  My first program was on an Eliot 903 and we had 8-channel paper tape.

    I, too, have just bought my first smart phone (although I had a bog-standard mobile before that).  However, last year I finally had to get the Chambers app for my PC as my old paper edition was in no condition to be used heavily as per solving Azed.  (Is there ever going to be another paper edition?)  Having bought the Chambers app for one PC, I found it’s possible to then download it on to another.  The phone, however, is Android and I’m not sure if I can download Chambers on to that without having to pay again.

  18. I remember Azed in one of his slip reports mentioning in passing that he had been stymied for a word to fill a certain permutation of letters and had to resort to (I think) Chambers Wordfinder. I might have that detail wrong, but if not it looks like it was/is a reverse dictionary, and not necessarily a computer program. It wasn’t Word Wizard anyway.

    Some of us may remember a few glimpses of Azed and his book of grids he’d written by hand (in pencil?) in a 2008 BBC documentary about cryptic crosswords. It’s never been repeated but someone recently uploaded it to https://vimeo.com/297517318 . Definitely worth seeing if you missed it.

  19. Thank you for retrieving this BBC programme — I have a DVD somewhere but now I have a copy I can send to other people!

  20. You’re welcome. I’m surprised it hasn’t been shown since, or at least made available on the iPlayer as some other editions of Timeshift have. It’s a very good and amusing introduction to cryptics for daunted beginners.

    Just out of interest, was the central puzzle yours or a collaboration with other setters?

  21. The Ximenes Archive seems to indicate that no. 728 of 1962 might have been the first Letters Latent.

    Stefan

  22. Re 20: The programme was repeated a couple of times late at night because our local egg-man told me a few years after its first showing ‘Saw you on the telly!’. The puzzle in the programme was entirely mine. I helped plan the programme a bit as well so knew what words to put in. Azed and others of course used pencil and paper long before the PC era. Azed still only uses the computer to format his puzzle to send off to The Observer after setting it in the traditional way. A few years ago I came across a second-hand copy of Chambers Words, which he gratefully accepted since his was wearing out!

  23. ^ Thank you for those insights. I hope there are still more crossword novices who’ll see it and get the bug!

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