Azed 2579

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A gentle walk in the park (relatively speaking) after the previous week’s tricky Letters Latent. Thanks to Azed.

 
Across
1 SVARABHAKTI Kasbah TV air waves demonstrating vocalic development (11)
(KASBAH TV AIR)* – a word derived from Sanskrit, meaning the addition of (e.g.) a vowel between two consonants to make a word easier to pronounce. Another name for it is epenthesis, and it is also found in some Celtic languages such as Irish and Scottish Gaelic, possibly leading to some epenthesis in English words such as “fillum” for “film”.
10 PELA Coccid’s secretion left inside vegetable (4)
L in PEA
11 RAVIOLI Pasta recipe, one followed by one on the fiddle mostly? (7)
R[ecipe] + A + VIOLI[n]
12 ALNICO Alloy of metals mined in coal (6)
(IN COAL)* – an alloy whose name comes from its component metals ALuminiun, NIckel and CObalt (it also contains iron and copper)
13 UNPEN Let loose in field maybe writer goes after one (5)
UN (one) + PEN
16 EKLOGITE Crystalline rock: record it in supplement (8)
LOG IT in EKE
17 TELAE Meshed tissues one placed in the box (5)
A in TELE[vision] (“the box”)
19 CLART Dirty farm vehicle loaded with half a ton? (5)
L (50 = half of 100, or a ton) in CART
20 STOTINKA Bit of foreign cash making metallic sound where Athenians once gathered (8)
TINK in STOA (Athenian meeting place)
22 SLIMLINE Love rolling over in ooze? It’s supposed to encourage weight loss (8)
Reverse of NIL in SLIME
24 RISEN Like a good soufflé, right, middle for monsieur cooked (5)
R + anagram of [mo]NSIE[ur]
25 NEAGH Where to find dinghies at? It’s this lough I’d plied (5)
(DINGHIES AT)* = IT’S NEAGH I’D – Lough Neagh is a large lake near Belfast
27 ALTARAGE Collection for the vicar? Mostly change, with a tatty bit of material thrown in (8)
A RAG in ALTE[r]
30 PEERS Fellows always captivated by extremes of prettiness (5)
E’ER in P[rettines]S
31 ACTURE Performance in Shakespeare curate played (6)
CURATE*
32 EARLDOM Land of some 30? You’ll find them including a lord possibly (7)
A LORD* in ‘EM – a rare example of Azed referring to the answer to another clue
33 EYED Took a gander at something fishy by the sound of it (4)
Homophone of “ide” (fish)
34 ASSUREDNESS Judge accepts what could be misrepresented under ‘confidence’ (11)
UNDER* in ASSESS
Down
1 SPALT Partner captured in stone, brittle (5)
PAL in ST
2 VELVET-PILE Let Viv peel off soft nappy material (10)
(LET VIV PEEL)*
3 RAIYAT Tenant farmer always upset in deluge (6)
Reverse of AY in RAIT (variant of the more familiar “ret”, meaning to soak)
4 ANCE Forbear going stress-free as soon as old (4)
ANCE[stress] – old form of “once” = “as soon as”
5 BROKENLY As mangled verbiage comes out, garbled by LNER, OK? (8)
(BY LNER OK)*
6 HAUL Tug, one in port offloading line (4)
A in HUL[L]
7 KINGLE Smoking less, not completely – it’s very hard in Scotland (6)
Hidden in smoKING LEss
8 TOPIARIAN To fix hedging, melodious piece of horticultural decoration (9)
ARIA in (“hedged by”) TO PIN
9 MINETTE Intrusive rock: catch fish hiding in a little bit (7)
NET (to catch fish) in MITE
14 ÉTRANGÈRES Pen pals for Jeanne, maybe, senior Guide filling her summers (10)
RANGER in ÉTÉS (French for summers) – literally (feminine) “strangers”, but Chambers only gives the meaning “foreigner”, as penpals often are (do they still exist?)
15 CLOISTERS Drunken sot with relics in places of refuge? (9)
(SOT RELICS)*
18 SKIN-GAME Ruler taken in by unvaried scam (8, 2 words)
KING in SAME
20 SCRAPER Series getting cut by rubbish hairdresser (7)
CRAP in SER
21 PEARLS Granules left in fruit (6)
L in PEARS
23 LENTEN Meagre portion of succulent entrecote (6)
Hidden in succuLENT ENtrecote
26 HEEDS Notes from editor she roughly takes in (5)
ED in SHE*
28 AMOR All-conquering emotion uplifted travellers (4)
Reverse of ROMA. Latin for “love”, as in “amor vincit omnia” or “love conquers all”
29 ECOD Curse, equivalent of ‘damn’ to start with (minced) (4)
Anagram of first letters of Curse Equivalent Of Damn, &lit

24 comments on “Azed 2579”

  1. Thanks Andrew.
    There seems to be an extra ‘one’ in the clue for RAVIOLI – perhaps ‘violinist’ is the word we are to take most of?
    Nice to see an old friend in STOTINKA, and isn’t TOPIARIAN a mouthful?
    Thanks as ever to Azed.

  3. Thanks for the blog, very different to last week as you say. ALNICO not in my Chambers 93 but it was obvious, NEAGH is the only lough I know so that came out okay .
    Another take on RAVIOLI – R A (one ) VIOL ( most of violin ) I ( one on ….. They all seem to work but think I prefer Gonzo @ 1 now.
    I thought deluge was a bit strong for rait in 3D but okay I suppose.

  4. Thanks Andrew and Azed. I didn’t finish this, but got considerably further than the previous week, and probably would have cracked it all eventually if I’d given it more time.

    I had the same parsing as Gonzo for RAVIOLI, violinist being ‘one on the fiddle’ – otherwise ‘the’ is also redundant.

  5. Definitely on the simpler side, and not just by comparison to the letters latent. RAVIOLI gave me a pause too, it seemed too obvious at first read through, and I wondered if the one on the fiddle was a crook, crossers sorted that, and like Gonzo@1 I settled on violinist to account for the otherwise extraneous one , it also takes care of ‘on the’.

    Wasn’t the anagram for SVARABHAKTI absolutely gorgeous? I had great fun piecing that together slowly from the crossers before looking up to confirm.

    Three bites at this one, mostly because I doubted some answers as not obscure enough.

    Thanks Azed and Andrew

  6. VIOLIN can also mean someone who plays it as well as the instrument (it’s in Chambers) so I think Andrew’s original parsing is correct.

  7. So it is Cruciverbophile, it never occurred to me to look up violin, until your post prompted me. I suppose we should have more faith in Azed (and Andrew too). Now that I think about it, I have heard the terms first, second and so on violin for members of an orchestra.

  9. I think that I originally parsed 11a as cruciverbophile says, but if so I should perhaps have explained it better. Thanks anyway for your confidence in me!

  10. My first visit here, although I have in the past looked at some completed grids and decided they were way too difficult for me. Anyway, I’m pleased to report that I managed about 50% of this one. Great to come here where all is explained – thank you Andrew. So many words I just didn’t know, although I did solve some of them. Of course if you get one wrong (trying to shoehorn vacanc??es into etrangeres) you’re right up the creek without an oar. I shall come back and try again – and not be put off by learning that this one was a walk in the park 80

  11. Yes, what a difference to the previous week (when I only managed four clues in two days). I can’t remember for sure but I think I’d done most of this before the NFL game kicked off at six and completed it not long after dinner.

  12. Trishincharente@10, 50% is excellent for a first attempt, and while this was perhaps on the easier side for an Azed, it was by no means a walk in the park. I’ve been trying these for about three months now and am still learning how with probably as many DNF as successfully completed. Sometimes the blogs (not today’s)
    don’t always explain every slight nuance of a clue or definition, so do ask about anything that isn’t clear, every word in each clue is relevant (well usually anyway), and I personaly have found that both a help and occasionally a hindrance to parsing.

  13. trish@10 it took me two years to finish my first Azed, no blogs then , just had to wait two weeks for the answers in the paper. Definitely worth persevering , practice really does make a difference for Azed.

  14. Thanks Azed and Andrew
    11ac: Can I muddy the waters still further by suggesting that a VIOLIST is also a possibility for “one on the fiddle”?

  15. Indeed it is, PB, but unless I’m much mistaken, Azed uses nearly, mostly etc. to indicate a word with just the final letter removed. It’s therefore unlikely (but possible, I grant) that’s what he had in mind here.

  16. Thank you Blah and Roz for your kind encouragement. One other thing, unless I’m missing something, I can’t do it online and the print out is tiny. Or I need glasses.

  17. it’s only print out I’m afraid Trish, you’ll have to get glasses. I recommend a couple of glasses of wine with every azed anyway, helps the mental muscles 😉

  18. Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that it’s best to ensure the puzzle page is in landscape orientation in your PDF reader before printing. In portrait (upright) mode the puzzle only occupies half the page and is indeed tiny.

  19. Sorry Trish, my IT skills are too advanced for the current version of the internet. Try the idea from crucivebophile or put a post on Site Feedback, Gaufried or others may be able to help.

  21. Thanks Azed and Andrew as always.
    I like the wine idea too but I take a screenshot of the grid and clue, then paste that on to a landscape document – makes it much easier to read.
    Right, a nice morning so time to look at this weeks.

  22. Good to see so many here.
    A propos RAVIOLI I am with Twmbarlwm @2- The fiddle is a viol(a) and has an I on either side.
    SVARABHAKTI is about the strangest string of letters, except the Welsh word that cropped up last year, that I can remember.
    Thanks as always to Azed and to Andrew

  23. I see Chambers lists ‘forbear’, in a secondary meaning, to be the same as forebear (ref 4dn). Personally, I prefer the ‘proper’ spelling (same with forgo/forego), as I find it easier to understand! I think the surface would still make sense here with Forebear – but perhaps Azed was deliberately trying to mislead.

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