An “angular” Azed this week, for reasons explained below.
The two 12 letter answers at the top and bottom of the grid both included the word “angle”, purely by coincidence, I’m sure. Other than that, I found it a little harder than usual, with a few parsings giving me some difficulty and a few unresolved quibbles mentioned below.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | STRANGLEHOLD |
Most of the Lords excited about scheme – it’s breathtaking (12)
|
| ANGLE (scheme) inside *(TH(e) LORDS). | ||
| 10 | RUBE |
Hillbilly getting hitch on back of bogie (4)
|
| RUB (hitch) (bogi)E. | ||
| 11 | SCOGAN |
Old fool making reverse of progress, see, in health resort (6)
|
| GO (progress, rev) C inside SAN (health resort). | ||
| 13 | FIMBRIA |
Sort of fringe, sort of fair, I’m black inside (7)
|
| I’M B(lack) inside *FAIR. | ||
| 14 | SILKINESS |
What shampoo ads promise is almost like shimmering head (9)
|
| *(IS LIK(e)) NESS (head). | ||
| 15 | COXY |
Pert and evasive, receiving kiss (4)
|
| X inside COY (evasive). Luckily for me I had recently come across this word in a Magpie puzzle. | ||
| 16 | DOUBLET |
One of a pair the French held in suspicion (7)
|
| LE (“the” in French) inside DOUBT. I was only familiar with this word’s meaning as an item of clothing, but the etymology seems pretty clear. | ||
| 17 | ENFREE |
Some when freezing find release in Shakespeare (6)
|
| Hidden in “when freezing”. | ||
| 20 | MUCOR |
Fungal mould with turning yellow (5)
|
| CUM (Latin for “with”, rev) OR (heraldic gold, or yellow). | ||
| 22 | NEWEL |
Part of staircase in modern wing (5)
|
| NEW EL(a US term for a wing giving a building the shape of the letter L). | ||
| 24 | ANGINA |
Being suspended, first and last just so, a stabbing pain (6)
|
| (h)ANGIN(g)A. I can’t see how “just so” acts as an instruction to remove the first and last letters of “HANGING”. | ||
| 26 | TRICORN |
Old hat, most of splendid lining ripped (7)
|
| RIC(h) inside (“lining”) TORN. | ||
| 28 | SCAD |
A lot of money, such Muscadet bottles (4)
|
| Hidden in Muscadet. I’m not sure what function “such” plays in the clue; it seems to me that the clue would work just as well without it. | ||
| 30 | RICE GRASS |
Raw material for cordage, say, held by sircars, woven (9, 2 words)
|
| EG (say) inside * SIRCARS. | ||
| 32 | ISEGRIM |
Fabled wolf is fierce, seizing goose’s tail (7)
|
| (goos)E inside IS GRIM. | ||
| 33 | DISSED |
Sneered at some sides repeatedly suffering reverse (6)
|
| Another one where I’m struggling to explain the wordplay. You have both SID and DES reversed, but that only works if the D in “sides” is used twice. | ||
| 34 | ADAM |
I’m a gent: lady has —— with me around (4)
|
| (m)A DAM(e). I’m not sure that this clue really works as intended. There are two dashes, which is why I have put A DAM. The result is this phrase: “lady has a dam with me around”, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. And there’s nothing to indicate that the outcome is the French word “madame” rather than the English “madam”. | ||
| 35 | INTERTANGLES |
Neat ringlets neglected, forming knots (12)
|
| *(NEAT RINGLETS). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SOFTCENTRED |
Like some chocs? Pleasing couple of bits (11)
|
| SOFT (pleasing) CENT RED. “Red” can refer to a red cent and a cent coin is a bit. | ||
| 2 | TRITONE |
Interval in concert hall? Fashionable crowd have to attempt old-style circulating (7)
|
| TON (fashionable crowd – a term much used in the Netflix drama Bridgerton) inside TRIE, a Spenserian spelling of “try” (but only in the sense “to turn out, prove”). | ||
| 3 | RUMEX |
Weed genus? There’s sign of hesitation feeding it to tame rabbit (5)
|
| UM in REX (a type of domestic rabbit). | ||
| 4 | NERINE |
SA flower not once found around Ireland of yore (6)
|
| ERIN inside NE (old form of “not”). | ||
| 5 | GUILDER |
Old coin I found in rusty fruit box upended (7)
|
| I inside RED (rusty) LUG (fruit box) (all rev). | ||
| 6 | ECHIUM |
Bugloss showing treatment of mulch, i.e. left out (6)
|
| *(MU(l)CH I E). | ||
| 7 | HORNBUG |
Beetle yearling’s found round wild burn (7)
|
| *BURN inside HOG (yearling). | ||
| 8 | OGRE |
Mother Goose may be turned up to reveal this man-eater (4)
|
| Hidden and reversed in Mother Goose. | ||
| 9 | LAPSE |
Minor error made by lecturer before recess (5)
|
| L(ecturer) APSE. | ||
| 12 | NOSTRADAMUS |
Prophet displaying talent that includes reverse of crazy skills (11)
|
| MAD ARTS (all rev) inside NOUS (talent). | ||
| 18 | RECENSE |
Produce critical edition in new collection, cutting both parts (7)
|
| RECEN(t) (new) SE(t) (collection). | ||
| 19 | CANASTA |
Card game, players including one with ace (7)
|
| AN (one) in CAST A(ce). | ||
| 21 | ON A TIME |
Issue a number on the way up once (7, 3 words)
|
| EMIT A NO (all rev). Only familiar as part of the children’s story opening: “Once upon a time…”. | ||
| 23 | LOGGER |
Lumberjack heads away from what those squabbling are at (6)
|
| LOGGER(heads). There is a village in Staffordshire with this name: I don’t know if its inhabitants are (or were) particularly argumentative. | ||
| 25 | NOSEAN |
Mineral water replacing midday’s second of couple (6)
|
| SEA (water) inside NO(o)N. | ||
| 27 | RICIN |
Part of Santorini circle that’s thrust up toxic stuff (5)
|
| Hidden and reversed in Santorini circle. | ||
| 29 | CORAL |
Pink or black with a dash of red in (5)
|
| R(ed) in COAL (black). | ||
| 31 | CAST |
Manner when appearing in court (4)
|
| AS in CT. |
Thanks bridgesong.
In ANGINA, I took it to be that the first and last letters of ‘hanging’ were ‘supended’ i.e cancelled, annuled.
In DISSED you have to take part of SIDESSIDES reversed.
Thanks as ever to Azed.
thank you for the blog. i was as confused as you regarding the parse of 34a. the two dashes instead of one i had put down to a typesetting issue, but still i struggle to get my head around the mechanism of the clue!
for 24a, i took “suspended, first and last just so” as meaning “suspended, with the first and last letters suspended” and 33a i read as DISSED being hidden backwards in ‘SIDES SIDES’!
aha— i see i have been beaten to the punch twice.
A callback to Azed 2,539: I made several attempts at this, but managed only the one convential clue, and correctly deduced a few of the breaks. And that was it. Even if someone had marked all the breaks and spotted me a few answers, I do not believe I could have completed this grid, no matter how much more time I spent on it. My hat is off to anyone who found this fun or interesting. Having now studied the solution, I note that about half of the words are (to me) uncommon at best and utterly obscure at worst, so I am at a loss to see how they might spring to mind as possible break-fillers, even with some crossers as a hint. That said, I think the construction of the clues was fair and sensible–just not my thing, evidently. Oddly enough, I have written poetry using this “hidden word” technique, so I am not sure why this seemed so impenetrable. Thoroughly disheartening.
Great blog thanks, like Gonzo and davey I had sorted out ANGINA and DISSED but still unsure with ADAM, I think mADAMe may be involved but not sure how.
I sympathise with Cineraria, when I started doing Azed blogs had not even been thought of , it was on a two week cycle then and we had to wait for Azed’s own explanations. It was nearly two years before I finished my first puzzle.
This was the second Azed I’d attempted since my heart operation and stroke, and the first I completed. Even managed to finish it Sunday night. There were several I couldn’t parse, though, so thanks for the explanations, although I see some of them gave our blogger a problem, too.
Couldn’t parse SOFTCENTRED or ADAM, but otherwise went in reasonably easily. I liked the clues for NOSTRADAMUS and STRANGLEHOLD in particular. Many thanks to Azed and bridgesong.
Just about agree entirely. OED accepts TRIE as “to attempt” (though strangely my SOED doesn’t) so perhaps just another Chambers’ oddity. I don’t really think ADAM is wrong—I think it’s possibly not a logical, or full, subsidiary indication and it’s weak and unworthy of Azed. “Madame” is an English word and has been for ages. The same applies to “ton” in 2Dn. The fact that these come to us through French and are spelt the same way means nothing all. Neither do the two dashes. I have access only online: both & lit. and Pressreader show two dashes but I don’t know how the print version appears. Perhaps latter-day typesetters can’t be bothered drawing a line to indicate an omitted word.
I’ve just found, and reread, my copy of Chambers Crossword Manual, Don Manley, 1986. The Don tells us that “such” in 28 Ac. would be considered a “linkword”. Change it to “this”: no problem. Both are pronouns and play no part in the definition or indication.
Perhaps Printer’s Devilry ought to be confined to 2539 but I must wonder if some minds are built differently. Find the split (even approximately) and you’re on your way. The word itself is not now evident but surely that “for all it’s worRY” must be “for all it’s worTH”. OK, so you’ve got only TH but you’ve started! Azed gave us lots of these: just gawp at the clues and find the lunacy. Great fun.
Stefan
I can confirm that there were two dashes in the printed version of the clue for ADAM.
I accept that “such” in 28 ac is a link word; my point was that it could be omitted without any damage to the clue or its surface. One of Azed’s precepts is that there should be no superfluous verbiage, especially in hidden clues (see the paragraph about this on p17 of his A-Z of Crosswords).
Stefan @ 8: I should have added that I do agree with you about Printer’s Devilry puzzles. The example you gave was indeed my entry point into the puzzle.
Thanks Azed and bridgesong. In 34ac, I am sure Azed intended a single long dash (technically a two-em dash). In his Azed slips, he has (I am sure repeatedly over time) stated that such a dash always stands for the answer to the clue. I would have agreed with the suggestion by Stefan@8 that the current production system will not allow the long dash, but there was one in the previous crossword (2540, 24dn).
In 24a, JUST SO refers back to BEING SUSPENDED, in this case meaning ‘let go’ or ‘sent off’. Quite a nifty bit of wordplay.
Les @ 12: thanks, I see it now. Your explanation makes sense; I couldn’t follow the logic of the previous comments.
Are we really supposed to do these puzzles with a Chambers Crossword Dictionary at the ready? I had never heard of about 1/3 of the answer words. Looking up MINERAL in the aforesaid Chambers gives NOSEAN but without it I would be lost. The wordplay SEA in NOoN gives the answer but if you have never encountered the word …
Les, yes access to Chambers is essential, although Azed is usually so scrupulous in his wordplay, that you only need it to confirm your answer.
Incidentally, you find MINERAL when you look up NOSEAN, not the other way round.
Les@14: From my point of view, the beauty of having a specific dictionary recommended and expected to be used is that there should be no doubt as to whether a particular word is acceptable or not, and one can learn new words while solving the puzzle. There are clearly enough people who agree with me to have kept this series going for over 2500 puzzles in succession to the 1200 puzzle series of Ximenes.
To be clear: I think that Printer’s Devilry is an ingenious variant, but one that I evidently have no aptitude for. I very much appreciate the tips on technique, but I honestly do not think that my attentive study of those will help. Or maybe this most recent instance and I were simply a mismatch.
I am still managing to fumble through without a Chambers, but confirming the more exotic entries is sometimes impossible with the resources at my disposal.
As I mentioned in the previous comments, this is an excellent entry-level Printer’s Devilry: https://bestforpuzzles.com/puzzles/araucaria-crosswords/jg0001.html
bridgesong @15: In the regular Chambers dictionary what you say is true but I was referring to the Chambers Crossword Dictionary.