Azed 2492

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[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

As usual Azed gives a challenge this week.

 

 

 

I started fairly strongly with a couple of foodie entries – SCRAMBLED EGGS at 1 across and NOODLES at 14 across.

In fact there were at least a couple more on the food theme, one more enticing than the other – TUNA and CARRION.

There are two clues where I haven’t quite got the parsing to my satisfaction – these are SLENDERNESS at 10 down and ERNIE at 22 down.  I’ve set out some ideas which make a bit of sense in the detail of the blog, but I’m quite prepared to find there are far more logical and elegant ways of parsing. I usually find with Azed’s clues, if my parsing doesn’t feel right then it isn’t right.

There was the usual mix of a few well known words and some more obscure ones among the entries and the clues were as smooth as ever.

Across
No. Clue Wordplay Entry
1

Simple meal, hence extorted from, say, grammar school (13, 2 words)

SCRAM (go away! [hence! in the sense of be gone!]) + BLED (extorted from) + EG (for example; say) + GS (grammar school)

SCRAM BLED EG GS

 SCRAMBLED EGGS (example of a simple meal)
11

Quick drink in clubhouse – that’s disgusting! (4)

CH (clubhouse) + UG (that’s disgusting)

CH UG

CHUG (quick or large swallow, especially of an alcoholic drink)
12

Composer who’s inter alia composed away from the main development? (7)

BAX (reference Arnold BAX [1883 – 1953], English composer, poet and author) contained in (who’s inter) an anagram of (composed) ALIA

A (BAX) IAL*

 ABAXIAL (away from the axis; away from the main development)
14

Nameless fools in abundance (6)

NOODLES (fools) excluding (less) N (name)

OODLES

 OODLES (lots of; in abundance)
15

I’ll have practice discontinued by law (4)

I + URE (obsolete [discontinued] word for practice)

I URE

 IURE (by right or by law)
17

Confinements singly dealt with, as is fashionable (8)

Anagram of (dealt with) SINGLY + IN ([as is] fashionable)

LYINGS*-IN

 LYINGS-IN (confinements during childbirth)
18

Voiture, black, in France going over road kill? (7)

CAR (vehicle; voiture is French for car.  Also CAR and voiture can mean carriage) + NOIR (French for black) reversed (going over)

CAR RION<

CARRION (dead and rotting body or flesh of any animal, often seen as road kill)
19

Flogged bric-à-brac spread out in the open (6)

TAT (bric-a-brac) + TED (spread out new mown grass for drying)

TAT TED

 TATTED (flogged)
21

Single prints soon empty when reduced (9)

Anagram of (when reduced [changed to another form]) SOON EMPTY

MONOTYPES*

 MONOTYPES (single prints)
24

Divine girdle cut from bodices (tussore) (6)

CESTUS (hidden word in [cut from] BODICES TUSSORE)

CESTUS

CESTUS (girdle, especially that of Aphrodite [Venus] in classical mythology; divine girdle)
26

Poet? Big one is no skinflint (7)

SPENDER (reference Big SPENDER [someone who buys expensive things with a lot of money; not a skinflint]

SPENDER

 SPENDER (reference Sir Stephen SPENDER [1919 – 1995], English poet)
28

Tightly binding that’s reformed the coral (8)

Anagram of (that’s reformed) THE CORAL

CHELATOR*

CHELATOR (relating to a co-ordination compound (eg haemoglobin) in which a central metallic ion is attached to an organic molecule at two or more positions; tightly binding)
31

Eel or other fish, ingredient of salade niçoise? (4)

TUNA (New Zealand eel)

TUNA

 TUNA (important fish ingredient of salade nicoise)  double definition
32

Shock, that was what did for Goliath (6)

A + STONE (weapon used by David to fell Goliath)

A STONE

 ASTONE (an early [that was] form of astonish [shock])
33

Curling plant tip – see standard bush? (7)

C (letter of the alphabet pronounced SEE) + ROSIER (rose bush classified as a standard [standing shrub or tree not trained on an espalier or a wall])

C ROSIER

CROSIER (coiled growing tip of a young plant, especially a fern)
34

Thrill son’s taken from fast dance movement (4)

FRISSON (thrill) excluding (taken from) SON

FRIS

FRIS (quick dance movement of a Hungarian csárdás.
35

Toadstools etc yeomen scythe roughly, about a thousand (13) 

Anagram of (roughly) YEOMEN SCYTHE containing (about) M</b (Roman numeral for 1000)

HYMENO (M) YCETES*

HYMENOMYCETES (order of fungi with exposed hymenium from an early stage eg toadstools, etc.)
Down
1

Musical ‘short-long’ put an end to playground game? (11, 2 words)

SCOTCH (put an end to) + CATCH (children’s playground game)

SCOTCH CATCH

SCOTCH CATCH (short accented note followed by a longer, not peculiar to Scottish music)
2

Little calcium’s radio-active inside (5)

HOT (radio-active) contained in (inside) CA (chemical symbol for Calcium)

C (HOT) A

 CHOTA (little)
3

River silted up? You’ll not see my circling that fish (4)

R (river) + MUDDY (silted up) excluding (you’ll not see) MY (the characters M and Y forming the outer letters [circling] of the word)

R UDD

RUDD (the red-eye, a fish closely related to the roach)
4

Any lime is wrapped up in a pithy substance like this (6)

ANY LIME is an anagram of (wrapped up) of MYELIN [the entry] and A

I think therefore this is a form of compound anagram clue.  I’m not sure whether pithy is an anagram indicator or part of the definition.

MYELIN*

MYELIN (substance forming the medullary sheath of nerve-fibres)
5

Objectively we’ll be kept in through having a lot to do (4)

US (the object formed from we) contained in (kept in) BY (through)

B (US) Y

 BUSY (having a lot to do)
6

What’s titillating in part, getting one excitable? (5)

LATIN (hidden word in [in part] TITILATING)

LATIN

 LATIN (a LATIN person is often described as passionate, volatile and excitable)
7

Love-drug making one strangely ga-ga chasing date (5)

D (date) + an anagram of (strangely) GA-GA

D AGGA*

DAGGA (an African labiate plant Leonotis leonurus or other species (Cape DAGGA or red DAGGA) smoked as a narcotic, called the love-drug)
8

Living is limited in scope (8)

IS contained in (limited in) EXTENT (scope)

EX (IS) TENT

 EXISTENT (living)
9

Tackle for hoisting bony pike, angler’s requisite (6)

GAR (GARfish [bony-pike]) + NET (fisherman’s requisite)

GAR NET

 GARNET (hoisting tackle)
10

Thin, I’m going to put a stop to nasty sneers – displaying this? (11)

There’s usually at least one clue where I can’t see the word play, and this is one of them today.

I’ve got END or ENDER for ”put a stop to’ or ‘I’m going to put a stop to’) and I’ve got a an anagram (nasty) of SNEERS which implies it’s END rather than ENDER that I need.  I’m then left with the SL that I can’t find a use for.  I’ve considered some variant on SILENCE and excluding [going] the I to get something like SLEND but that doesn’t work either

SL END ERNESS*

 SLENDERNESS (elegant or graceful display of a thin body
13

With cereal disease dry stalk leads to thin yield (5)

BUN (dry stalk) + TY (first letters of [leads to] each of THIN and YIELD)

BUN T Y

 BUNTY (with a disease of wheat)
16

Enzyme restricting decay in old legumes (8)

ROT (decay) contained in (in) PEASE (archaic term for a pea or pea-plant; old legumes)

P (ROT) EASE

PROTEASE (any enzyme that splits up proteins)
20

Company in Caesar’s army crudely drilled when head of legion’s away (6)

Anagram of (drilled) CRUDELY excluding (when away) L (first letter of [head of] LEGION)

DECURY*

DECURY (a company of ten or more in the Roman army)
22

Ordinary herb, a native of Oklahoma (5)

O (ordinary) + SAGE (a herb)

O SAGE

OSAGE (Native American of a tribe living in Oklahoma)
23

6 in this way will follow a form of Farsi? (6)

PER (for each or a) + SIC (LATIN [6 down] for ‘so’,  ‘in this way’)

PER SIC

 PERSIC (Persian language; form of Farsi)
25

Gooey stuff that oozes from wonderful mints (5)

Hidden word in (oozes from) WONDERFUL MINTS

ULMIN

ULMIN (gummy exudation from elms and other trees)
26

Rage most upsetting when it involves ending of affair (5)

Anagram of (upsetting) MOST containing (it involves) R (final letter of [ending of] AFFAIR)

STO (R) M*

 STORM (rage)
27

Winners need to thank me regularly? Wise, maybe (5)

ERNIE (reference ERNIE Wise [1925 – 1999], best known for his partnership with Eric Morecambe)

I am not sure whether we have a wordplay and definition here or whether we have two slightly cryptic definitions.  Wise is simply an example of an ERNIE

ERNIE

 ERNIE (colloquial name for the computer that generates Premium Bond winning numbers every month.  Winners will presumably want to thank ERNIE every month [regularly])
29

Grizzled, we ’ear – like a blade? (4)

OARY (sounds like [we ‘ear [hear] as a Cockney) HOARY (old and hackneyed; grizzled)

OARY

 OARY (like a blade [OAR] used for rowing)
30

Abrasive movie icon, not nearly gay inside (4)

BOGART (reference Humphrey BOGART [1899 – 1957], American actor and film icon) excluding [not inside] GA (two letters of three [nearly] in GAY)

BORT

BORT (coarse diamond or crystalline form of carbon, used industrially for cutting or as an abrasive)

 

16 comments on “Azed 2492”

  1. I can help with SLENDERNESS. It’s SLIM (“thin”, with I’M going) then END (“put a stop to”) and anag of SNEERS.

    I can’t help with ERNIE. They were the two that got me too.

    I wondered if ERNIE could be alternate (regular) letters in “winners need” but they would be I N R N E. Could it be one of Azed’s very rare oversights? And where then is the jumble indicator? No—I must have that wrong.

    Stefan

  2. It does look like ‘winners need’ and ‘wise’ are related, but I can’t see it either.
    Never heard of Bax, so had ANAXIAL holding me up for a while.
    Thanks S&B

  4. Do you have access to pressreader.com, Goujeers? I get it free through my local library. I use it regularly when the Guardian is tardy. Azed 2493 has been there for quite a while.

    Stefan

  6. I also thought of GEGS, a clue which Azed expressly disapproves of in his book.  And I was puzzled by ERNIE as well.

    But the other clue that is troubling me is CHELATOR, which is defined by Chambers simply as a noun (something that chelates).  “Tightly binding” to me indicates an adjective.  Am I missing something?m

  8. Marmite Smuggler@1 and Pageboy@7 and Bridgesong@6 and everyone else

    Thanks to everyone for their comments.

    SLIM excluding I’M is clearly correct – thanks Marmite Smuggler

    Bridgesiong, I too wondered about the grammatical correlation for CHELATOR, but decided the answer couldn’t be anything else.  I spent some time trying to write the definition to mirror the clue and the answer, and had difficulty doing so.  It still doesn’t seem quite right.

    Pageboy, I think you’ll find I referenced ERNIE as the Premium Bonds computer in the detailed part of the blog.

     

  12. Stefan@4 – I can access pressreader.com via the library website, but it seems impossible to view any publication without paying pressreader’s full price.

    Meic

  14. For future reference, East Sussex County Council Library is a subscriber to press reader.com (along with thousands of other libraries around the world). You need to be a member of your own library.

    1) Go to press reader.com home page

    2) Click Sign In (top right)

    3) Choose Library or Group option

    4) Quickest to use the magnifying glass: search for “East Sussex”

    5) You might need to “Allow” current location. You probably need to accept cookies at some stage—I can’t remember

    6) Enter (your personal) Library card number

    7) Enter (your personal) Library PIN

    8) You should now have remote access from your own computer

    9) Quickest now is probably a search for “Observer New Review”. You can make this a favourite.

    Sounds a rigmarole but it remembers me for thirty days and I have to go only as far as selecting my library and the rest is done. Good luck.

    Stefan

  16. Thanks to duncanshiell and Azed

    A couple of things I can’t see:

    1a “extorted from” = “bled”

    12a “composer who’s” = Bax

    I don’t understand  “as is” in 17a, unless it refers back to “dealt with” and indicates that “fashionable” gives the first “in” in the entry. This only works though if “dealt with” is read in two different ways.

    33a I have as a triple def

    25d I saw “that oozes” as part of the def

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