The monthly competition puzzle from Azed with perhaps the hint of a French theme, MISERE, IL and LE all making an appearance, as well as BLÉ.
Unusually for Azed, there’s only one word signalled as Scottish (HOASTS) although the OED does suggest that this is northern dialect rather than purely Scottish. The competition word looks particularly friendly and will doubtless attract a lot of political references.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BUMBLE |
Mess up wrong raw material for French bread? (6)
|
| A charade of BUM BLÉ, which only works if you happen to know that blé is the French for wheat. | ||
| 6 | SPILTH |
Splash pint? Pan’s needed with this all over the place (6)
|
| Compound anagram: the letters of SPLASH PINT can be rearranged to form PAN’S SPILTH. | ||
| 11 | UNEASY |
Feeble (lacking power) about rough sea, windy? (6)
|
| (p)UNY around *SEA. | ||
| 12 | PANCHO |
Villa, maybe one with central heating in the middle of Napoli (6)
|
| AN CH in (na)PO(li). Pancho Villa was a Mexican revolutionary leader. | ||
| 13 | HEARTPEA |
Try untangling a pet in tropical climber (8)
|
| HEAR (try) *(A PET). | ||
| 14 | TO ALL INTENTS |
In contact with the whole camp, virtually (12, 3 words)
|
| A lovely charade of TO ALL IN TENTS. | ||
| 15 | UPLEAN |
Winning, not fat? Rest one’s weight as before (6)
|
| UP (winning) LEAN (not fat). | ||
| 17 | PELTA |
Who is fitted out with one? Hoplite was (5)
|
| Another compound anagram: HOPLITE and WAS can make WHO IS PELTA. | ||
| 18 | ANTICS |
High jinks? Not for civil servants as a whole (6)
|
| ANTI CS (Civil Service). | ||
| 19 | MAIMED |
Defective train going into sea (6)
|
| AIM (think of “train” as a verb) inside MED. | ||
| 23 | OILED |
French pronoun found in dictionary rather the worse for wear (5)
|
| IL inside OED. | ||
| 27 | PESADE |
First character to perform admits stiff dressage manoeuvre (6)
|
| SAD (stiff) inside PEE (the letter P(erform). | ||
| 28 | SENSUALISTIC |
A lustiness unbridled, I see – could be this (12)
|
| A lovely & lit anagram of A LUSTINESS I C. | ||
| 29 | EMETICAL |
Resident alien once tucked into ale, terribly sick-making (8)
|
| METIC (a resident alien in Ancient Greece) in *ALE. | ||
| 30 | RETENE |
Which secret enemy’s grasped? It’s extracted from tar (6)
|
| Hidden in “secret enemy”. | ||
| 31 | STEROL |
Solid alcohol that gets ostler reeling (6)
|
| *OSTLER | ||
| 32 | ENURED |
Hardened revolutionary pursuing name in European group (6)
|
| N(ame) in EU, RED. | ||
| 33 | HYDYNE |
What’ll launch rocket aloft, we hear, and deny malfunctioning (6)
|
| Homophone of “high”, *DENY. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BUST-UP |
Assert loan must be raised, causing quarrel (6)
|
| PUT (assert) SUB (loan), all rev. | ||
| 2 | UNROPE |
Loose, run free, almost free (6)
|
| *RUN, OPE(n). | ||
| 3 | METALLIC |
Quivering with ‘it’ – call me ‘brassy’ perhaps (8)
|
| *(CALL ME IT). | ||
| 4 | BALLETMASTER |
Bullet blasted me, at rest – head of corps? (12)
|
| BALL (bullet) *(ME AT REST). | ||
| 5 | EYEING |
Watching hygiene after treatment, leaving hospital (6)
|
| *HYGIENE, omitting the H(ospital). | ||
| 6 | SPANK |
Slap penetrated round performer’s face (5)
|
| P(erformer) in SANK (penetrated). | ||
| 7 | PARTON |
Dolly, say, one in cast performing (6)
|
| PART (one in cast) ON (performing). | ||
| 8 | INTERTISSUED |
Iris, tent shaking, was courting, with parts woven together (12)
|
| *(IRIS TENT) SUED (was courting). | ||
| 9 | THETIC |
The endless beat (relating to the downbeat) (6)
|
| THE TIC(k). | ||
| 10 | HOASTS |
Scottish hacks active with entertainers around (6)
|
| A(ctive) in HOSTS. This is a pretty obscure term, with only a handful of citations in the OED, none later than 1885. It means to cough. | ||
| 16 | FILATORY |
Mechanical spinning machine (8)
|
| The competition word. | ||
| 19 | MISERE |
Plan to win nothing is admitted by club (6)
|
| IS inside MERE (a Maori war-club). A declaration in some card games by which the caller undertakes not to take a trick. | ||
| 20 | APEMEN |
Our distant ancestors, or a writer about them (6)
|
| ‘EM in A PEN. | ||
| 21 | EQUINE |
Charger maybe in sparkling get-up, all but extremes (6)
|
| (s)EQUINE(d). | ||
| 22 | SPLASH |
Eye-catching feature in paper providing a little tonic (6)
|
| Cryptic definition, referring perhaps to a gin and tonic. | ||
| 24 | EDISON |
What means game’s up? Reverse of that for inventor (6)
|
| NO SIDE (rev) – the end of the game in rugby. | ||
| 25 | DECKLE |
Paper’s edge to adorn with article from Paris (6)
|
| DECK (adorn) LE (French for “the”). | ||
| 26 | LACED |
Transfer given upward move made stronger? (5)
|
| DECAL (transfer) (rev). |
Thanks, bridgesong. “Hoast” is in my Scots dictionary–a reliable companion for these Azeds. It took me a long time to get APEMEN, even though clue is entirely straightforward.
I meant to ask whether there is a correct UK pronunciation for the competition word? I would assume the US pronunciation would be FILL-a-tory, which suggests some sort of tediously “naughty” Paulesque clue, (alluding to a Conservative MP sex or binge-eating scandal, I guess), but I wondered whether the UK pronunciation wasn’t something like fie-LATE-ery (eminently weird, to my ear, but plausible). Either way, I did not find much inspiration there, so I will be curious to read the Slip to see what Azed found exciting.
Cineraria @2
Filatory isn’t there as a headword in Chambers so it doesn’t include a pronunciation guide.
The headword, filature, shows three syllables as:
in, busy; ago; rich; lower
So I guess filatory uses the same a sound.
Thank you for the blog, not a perfect finish this week, I had to check three or four in Chambers during the solve. HOASTS is in my Chambers 93.
A Hoplite would not wear a PELTA, they were heavily armed. A peltast is the lightly armed Greek soldier.
Cineraria, the OED suggests that your first suggestion about pronunciation is correct, although the vowel sound for the “a” and the “o” is the same, a schwa. The stress is on the first syllable.
I was tied up for a bit in the top right quadrant having entered PLATE for 17 across, as C does give a definition for that word as as “A broad piece of armour”.
The word to clue obviously can lead something to do with Boris and his spin machine, so I tried to steer clear of that idea.
…top left quadrant I meant.
Didn’t want to be left out. Usual thanks to Azed and bridgesong. Thought this was not too demanding. My last in was the competition word. . Yes there were some French bits, especially ble which might be overlooked (Italian came up recently in due) Keeps us on our toes!