Azed No. 2,571 Plain

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A plain Azed with perhaps fewer obscurities than usual.

Nevertheless, there are a couple of down clues where I’m not certain as to the exact parsing, so suggestions are more than welcome. I found a knowledge of French useful this week (e.g. BOUCHEE, ROCHELLE, and BARONNE – but not BIEN!).

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 ABSTRACTOR
Muscles required with farm vehicle? He may produce shorter version (10)
ABS (muscle) TRACTOR (farm vehicle). A straightforward charade to get us started.
11 COIR
Growing medium, not old, put out by inventor (4)
COI(ne)R.
12 CHICANO
Mexican American, one coated in reddish dyestuff (7)
AN in CHICO (a South American dye).
13 SUBACT
Work up composition for tubas around start of concert (6)
C(oncert) in *TUBAS.
14 BIEN
Jock’s rolling wheelie, filled with energy (4)
E(nergy) in BIN (as in wheelie-bin). “Rolling” in Scotland can mean well-off, as can BIEN.
15 HEMLINES
They go up and down on catwalk? Shield men, excited, having day off! (8)
*(SHIEL(d) MEN).
16 CHUB
Lock cleared of last fish (4)
The lock is CHUBB.
17 EPITRITE
Metrical measure repetition spoiled – not on (8)
*REPETITI(on).
20 REGALES
Beer knocked back with extremes of excess in feasts (7)
LAGER (rev) E(xces)S. “Feasts” here must be read as a verb – “regales” could be a noun, but that usage is designated as archaic and there is nothing in the clue to indicate that.
24 LOW GEAR
Romping oral, with German and English included, first or second? (7, 2 words)
*(ORAL, W(ith) E(nglish) G(erman)).
25 DULL-EYED
Purblind Shakespearean failure holding scream back before end of scene (8)
YELL (rev) E inside DUD.
26 BORA
Neckwear wrapped round rib’s head in strong wind (4)
R(ib) in BOA.
27 FROWSTER
Dutchwoman, endlessly austere, stuffy one (8)
FROW (Dutchwoman) STER(n). Chambers defines “frowst” as to ” luxuriate in hot stuffiness”.
31 IOTA
Nothing held in palm, or tiny amount (4)
O in ITA (a kind of palm).
32 SILANE
Precursor for semiconductors aliens manufactured (6)
*ALIENS.
33 SCHTOOK
How-dye-do detected after school (7)
SCH TOOK. The clue seems to have two apostrophes missing: it should presumably be How’-d’ye-do. And although took to mean detected seems a bit of a stretch, it is part of the 15th of the 62 definitions for “take” given in Chambers.
34 TINK
Quarrelsome Scot creating furore, shunned by society (4)
(S)TINK.
35 OPEN SYSTEM
Poems NY set crafted, generally accessible network (10, 2 words)
*(POEMS NY SET).
DOWN
2 BOUCHEE
Sweet pastry, ornament in source of honey (7)
OUCH (which can mean a brooch or clasped ornament) in BEE.
3 SIBB
Walter’s relation a couple of times put up with bishop (4)
BIS (twice, or a couple of times, rev) B(ishop). This is Sir Walter Scott’s version of sib.
4 TRAPBALL
Lead everybody after mounting skill in old game (8)
ART (rev) PB (lead) ALL.
5 ROCHELLE
Claw, not one found in part of French seaside town (8)
CHEL(a) (claw) in ROLE (French for a part in a play). “Part of French” seems to be doing double duty, both in the wordplay and as part of the definition.
6 CHAMISO
Flowering shrub giving tea flavouring additive in Japan (7)
CHA (tea) MISO (flavouring in Japan).
7 TIRL
Sir H. Lauder’s turn? Not what he’d do round Scots city (4)
A Scottish word meaning “to turn”; it can also mean to strip, but I don’t think that Azed is referring to that sense of the word.  Sir Harry Lauder was a Scottish singer and as one of his best-known songs (End of the Road) featured the chorus “Keep right on to the end”, perhaps that is what Azed is referring to here (i.e. don’t turn back).  The song is the anthem of Birmingham City FC.
8 RAIN IN
Leak I had in pub after samples of real ale (6, 2 words)
I inside INN, after R(eal) A(le).
9 KNEE
King with state requiring relief mostly? It’s given as solemn token (4)
K(ing) NEE(d). I’m not sure about the definition here: Chambers defines to give a knee as meaning to act as a second in a fight, which is clearly not a solemn token.
10 CONSECRATE
Study re a sect, unusually devoted (10)
CON (study) *(RE A SECT). this is the adjectival form, not the verb.
13 SACRED FISH
It adorned ancient coin or a fresh disc newly minted (10, 2 words)
*(A FRESH DISC).
18 TAWDRILY
Wild and arty, dressed in cheap style (8)
*(WILD ARTY).
19 RAGBOLTS
Sprinter poorly dressed? We certainly won’t pull out (8)
BOLT (Usain Bolt, former Olympic champion sprinter) inside RAGS. Ragbolts have barbs to prevent withdrawal.
21 ELYTRON
Tyro, awfully new, seen getting under wing for cover thereof? (7)
EL (a wing of a building giving it the shape of the letter L), *TYRO, N(ew). It means a beetle’s forewing, modified to form a case or cover for the hindwing.
22 BARONNE
Grand lady, Arabian, needing housemaid around (7)
AR(abian) inside BONNE (French for maid).
23 CLOTHO
Fate? One’s limited in preference when there’s no ice (6)
LOT (or fate) inside CHO(ice). Clotho was one of the Fates in Greek mythology.
28 ROCH
Seabird with cormorants? Some soaring (4)
Hidden and reversed in “with cormorants”.
29 SLOE
Black or dim by the sound of it? (4)
Sounds like “slow”.
30 TAIT
A wee bittie Scotch cheers – something with gin too (4)
TA (cheers) IT (as in “gin and it”).

28 comments on “Azed No. 2,571 Plain”

  1. Thanks bridgesong.
    Chambers says ROCHELLE is an adjective, so ‘of French seaside town’ is the definition.
    TIRL is [s]TIRL[ing].
    KNEE can mean kneel to, apparently, so maybe that is the intention?
    I struggled to finish this, the interlocking TINK and BARONNE, SCHTOOK and SLOE holding out. ‘Dead shtuck’ is perhaps how I would have spelt it if asked.
    Thanks as ever to Azed.

  2. I think I finished this in one extended session which is unusual for me.
    I took KNEE to mean pledge allegiance to the king.
    The 33a clue is under howdy in my eChambers and means a troublesome state of affairs, so I found it matched fine. Yes, apostrophes do seem to be missing though.
    I agree with Gonzo about ROCHELLE.
    Another enjoyable ramble though and appreciated, as is the blog. Thanks Azed and bridgesong.

  3. Thanks for the blog , I took KNEE = KNEEL as in take the knee as in recent BLM.
    Thinking of a Scottish city held me up a bit but finally got to Stirling, otherwise this seemed to go in very quickly.
    I thought HEMLINES and RAGBOLTS were both very neat.

  4. Made a stupid error early and penned in CHAR for CHUB, when I should have pencilled, leading me well and truly up the garden path. The only word I could find to fit 4D was tramrail. So a DNF oh well.

    Also didn’t parse COIR, ROCHELLE, or KNEE

    Thanks Azed and Bridgesong

  5. Gonzo @1: it never occurred to me that Rochelle would be in Chambers (why, I wonder, when e.g. Havre is not?), but you are absolutely right.

    I’m kicking myself for not spotting Stirling.

    As for KNEE, I’m still not wholly convinced that “give as a solemn token” is an acceptable definition, even though I do accept that “knee” can mean “kneel” (although it’s given as an obsolete usage in Chambers).

  6. Rochelle seems to be in Chambers because it gives its name to certain chemicals, a bit like Epsom salts.

    Blah @4, I frequently did not finish Azed for several years, takes a long while to get used to.

  7. Thanks Roz, it was completely my own fault and a very daft error. I had wondered whether lock was an archaic form of locket hench charm leading to char, but as I’d put it in by pen forgot to check if I was right which I clearly wasn’t. I got distracted by trying to parse some others like KNEE which had to be right but I couldn’t justify it from the solemn token.

  8. I too thought that KNEE was reference to footballers “taking the knee”. Except that I noticed, in the Carabao Cup match between Millwall and Leicester City, the Millwall players couldn’t be bothered.

    Stefan

  9. And, I meant to add, my family is from Asfordby, which I know how to pronounce. And the people of Asfordby will fight to the death with their neighbours in Burton Lazars about exactly whence the Pork Pie originates. The people of Burton Lazars, or Lazaars, don’t even know how to spell where they live. So how come Rochelle gets in Chambers and these vitally important British place names don’t? Although Chambers is Scottish, of course, which probably explains a great deal.

    Stefan

  10. MS@8: Incidentally, taking the knee has long had connotations in American football. When it is near the end of the game and the will soon run out, the leading team don’t have to make a play. The ball can be passed to the quarterback who can then kneel down with it until the end of the game. This is known as taking the knee. I’ve never seen this mentioned in the UK press but would be common knowledge in the US.

  11. Thanks to Azed and bridgesong.
    In my father’s beautiful mahogany-furnished pharmacy drawers were labelled with gold plaques and I’m sure one had “Rochelle salts” on it. By that time most ingredients were beginning to be compressed into “tabloids” though the blister-pack was a long way off.
    I certainly found this a straightforward solve. The two TI– words (TINK & TIRL) were my last in. Short words usually take a bit of fathoming.

  12. Dormouse: I had heard of taking the knee, although I didn’t know the American football context. But the problem I have is that the clue refers to giving, rather than taking, the knee.

  13. Thanks Azed and bridgesong
    Tiny point regarding 33ac: I think there is only one apostrophe in how-d’ye-do, and hence only one missing from the clue. The symbol immediately after the w looks to me like the first of two stress marks. Note that quite a lot of the hyphenated terms beginning “double-” have two stress marks, so this is plausible, and my 1995 edition of Chambers Back-Words, which does not show stress marks, gives “how-d’ye-do” with only the one apostrophe. This has taken up a lot of space for such a small point, but I think it is worth getting it right.

  14. Yes, well, Dormouse, as someone who achieved a spectacular level of incompetence at No. 11 in D2 Grade cricket, and who had a new position invented for him in the school rugby side, only because they were rarely able to get fifteen players, I know little about “football” on either side of the Atlantic. I did win the pub darts comp once though.

    I have learned that, in fact, as recently as 2016, someone called Colin Kaepernick “took the knee”. This took me back many years because, in my youth, we would go to concerts. It was quite bizarre: you would watch someone like Captain Beefheart, there might be a couple of encores, then the lights would go up and they would always play the [British] National Anthem. I really never cared one way or the other: you were supposed to stand, out of respect. We were all longhairs in those days and some refused to stand. As it happened, I had no respect for the Royal Family in general but a great deal of respect for Prince Charles. He was obviously extraordinarily intelligent (probably did Ximenes and Azed), spoke the way we wanted Bosanquet and the like to be able to speak on TV news and, most importantly, he conversed with his trees and roses. My type of bloke. And reflection on Azed 2571 has led me to wonder if Azed’s reference was, in fact, something to do with Knighthood? Azed has become quite obscurely secretive at times in the last few years in his whimsical definitions. And then something clicks and you think—brilliant!—Azed still on top form. And other times you can only think: “what’s all this ‘knee’ business?”

    Stefan

  15. I treated TIRL as a double definition (with some doubts) – on the basis that Mr Lauder’s act in a Scottish city wouldn’t involve stripping! Gonzo’s parsing is far better, though I’m not convinced about “round” in the clue; isn’t SING “in” STIRLING rather than “round” it?

    In the KNEE clue, I wonder if Azed perhaps (mistakenly?) assumed that taking the knee and giving the knee are the same thing?

  18. Exactly. Lauder would sing. So, if you do NOT have that round “Stirling”, you are left with TIRL. Azed is spot on.

    Stefan

  19. Apart from the fact that it doesn’t fit the down clues, would CLAM(P) be acceptable for 16A. I put this in first and couldn’t finish the grid.

  20. Depends on your interpretation of “round” I guess. To me “not SING round SCOTS city” means that a Scots city doesn’t have SING round it (which in this case would mean starting with something like SISTIRLINGNG). But yes, it’s obvious what Azed is getting at and I’m not saying he’s wrong, just I don’t like the wording very much.

  21. Brian@19 it is a nice idea but a clam is not a fish, despite the term shellfish. I was lucky on this clue, our front door lock has Chubb written on it and I see it every day.

  22. bridgesong@12: Yes, I agree. My point was meant to be that neither taking the knee nor giving the knee appear to be anything to do with a solemn token,

  23. Re ‘took’ for ‘detected’, Chambers’ definitions usually have the backing of the OED so I did check at the time, and sure enough it is in there in the sense of “taken off guard”. You can also be “taken in a lie” i.e. found out fibbing.

  24. Roz@19. Thanks. I did look in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary but missed the ‘shellfish’ part of the ‘FIsh …. include:’ heading. I shall make an effort to read the headings properly in future.

  26. Gonzo – it’s site policy not to discuss current puzzles before their closing date, even though there are no longer any prizes. If you have identified a typo in today’s puzzle, you can always draw attention to it when the blog for it is published next Sunday (e.g. as I did for 33 across in this puzzle).

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