Azed No. 2,583 Plain

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Lots of classical references in this week’s plain Azed puzzle

Nothing much else to add, except that 30 across caused me difficulties in parsing, for no good reason at all.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
2 CHIZ
X and what follows Y – a swindle (4)
CHI (the Greek name for the letter X) Z. Chambers specifies this as school slang: I think it features in the Molesworth books.
7 ASSET
Old copper collection (of pans, say) – it’s well worth having (5)
AS (Roman copper coin) SET.
12 GOOLIE
Keeper dismissing No. 3 for a duck – Aussie’s hard projectile (6)
GOALIE (keeper) with O replacing the third letter.
13 RHETOR
Cicero? He comes to prominence after Caesar’s end (6)
(Caesa)R HE TOR.
14 GRUNTLED
US labourer given guidance, jokingly happy (8)
GRUNT (US term for a labourer) LED. Chambers specifies this as a facetious term – a back-formation from disgruntled.
15 SAGE
French artist recalled (no date), one of seven historically? (4)
(d)EGAS (rev). The Seven Sages of Greece are the historical group in question.
16 OPUSCLE
Small work reproduced close up (7)
*(CLOSE UP).
18 STANCHEL
Posture after imbibing hard liquor initially in Scotch bar, upright (8)
H(ard) in STANCE, L(iquor).
20 ERGATANER
I resemble worker ant eager to work alongside queen (9)
*(ANT EAGER R) where the R stands for Regina. Chambers defines this term as “a worker-like wingless male ant” which is why, presumably, the word “resemble” has been included in the definition.
22 PROTHESIS
Trophies arranged on special Orthodox Church table (9)
*(TROPHIES S(pecial)).
25 EGG TIMER
I’ve a tiny waist – see it merge fantastically with intake of very small weight! (8, 2 words)
G(ram) (very small weight) in *(IT MERGE).
27 DESIREE
Show passion getting in variety of seed potato (7)
IRE in *SEED.
30 BRAN
Health food with alcoholic additive died away (4)
BRAN(died).
31 ANNALISE
Record once achieved by two girls (nothing between them) (8)
ANNA LISE.
32 CREESE
Dagger: native American beginning to sharpen end of blade (6)
CREE S(harpen) (blad)E.
33 TUSSIS
What may make hacking suits unusually small? (6)
*SUITS S(mall).
34 TORSK
Something akin to cod, ingredient for ragout or skink (5)
Hidden in “ragout or skink”.
35 ALPS
Range? First of superior lot probably Aga, versatile (4)
Anagram (“versatile”) of initial letters.
DOWN
1 EGGS BENEDICT
Clutch twisted, badly iced inside? Hot plate required (12, 2 words)
EGGS (clutch), *ICED inside BENT.
2 CORAL RAG
Test in cliff revealing limestone rock (8, 2 words)
ORAL (test) in CRAG.
3 HOUGH
Bird shedding top (i.e. with no hint of chagrin) in Edinburgh joint (5)
(c)HOUGH; Scottish term for a hock.
4 ZITI
Italy’s pre-eminent spot for pasta (4)
ZIT (a spot) I(taly). Apparently it’s a macaroni-like pasta shape.
5 PELOTA
Shield protecting centre of pectorals in S. European sport (6)
(pect)O(rals) in PELTA.
6 TREPAN
Pen rat struggling in snare once (6)
*(PEN RAT). A secondary and archaic sense of the word.
8 SETSCREW
What’s specially threaded puts sailors on course? (8)
SETS CREW.
9 STICHOS
Verse in church? Appeal for help when penning little one (7)
TICH in SOS.
10 EORL
Base of heraldic border moved to top for old peer (4)
ORLE (heraldic border) with the last letter moved to the front (or top, as it’s a down clue).
11 TREELESSNESS
Deforestation? Sense steres being chopped with little latitude (12)
L in *(SENSE STERES).
17 CAPTIVES
Pit prepared in hollows for victims of war? (8)
*PIT in CAVES.
19 EPITASIS
Eastern mine without alteration leads to catastrophe (8)
E PIT AS IS. Catastrophe here refers to the final event or climax of a classical Greek drama.
21 GAGSTER
Comedian introducing bit of grossness grates badly (7)
G(rossness) in *GRATES.
23 OMENED
Portentous people having entry in big book of words (6)
MEN in OED.
24 TEENTY
Very small score with No. 2 changing direction completely? (6)
TWENTY (a score) with the second letter being changed from W to E.
26 CRISP
Abrupt snob cutting in (5)
CRISP(in) – St Crispin being the patron saint of shoemakers (snobs).
28 EBRO
Waterway fully feeding West Bank city? (4)
HEBRON is the West Bank city. The River Ebro is to be found in Spain.
29 PAUA
Attractive shell the old man found with gold inside (4)
AU (gold) in PA.

17 comments on “Azed No. 2,583 Plain”

  1. Thanks for the blog. I, too, spent a long time trying to figure out how BRAND parsed for 30A. (Clue: it didn’t.)

  2. BRAN also caused me trouble. So obvious when you see it and one of the easiest clues. Interesting to learn from CRISP that the original meaning for snob is very different to what is meant by it these days.
    I’ve commented elsewhere that there is nothing special about the thread of a SETSCREW but what distinguishes it is the head (or lack thereof).

  3. Thanks for the blog, a non Chambers finish, first for a while, and I did manage to find everything in my C93 afterwards, except Desiree of course which Azed mentioned. We grow Desiree and they seem to be the most trouble-free of all potatoes.
    Tim C @2 there may be different usage of terminology, what you describe I would call a grub screw. A SETSCREW often does not have a head but it does have a complete thread with no gap at the top so in some sense it is specially threaded.

  4. Thanks Azed and bridgesong. Unlike Roz, I needed a fair bit of dictionary assistance, but it yielded without too much trouble. All good fun.

    Was glad of the ‘once’ in 6d to alert me that it wasn’t the obvious ENTRAP.

    I may be wrong but I think CHIZ might be originally from the Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge, though I know it from Molesworth. Either way, it’s a great word that I still use a lot.

  5. Yes, Roz@3, I would call it a grub screw as well. I’d still maintain that the thread is not particularly special. Chambers also doesn’t support that definition.

  6. I agree Tim @5 , it is a bit too specialised for Chambers, a setscrew also has a constant diameter , most screws get wider and exert forces by expansion, for a setscrew it is just the tip .

    widdersbel @4 I just put in all my “educated” guesses based on word play, I do check everything at the end so I can use my dictionary once very carefully, it is very fragile.
    Last week I was caught out by BROG , I put BROC ( from Cor blimey ) .

  7. Thanks Bridgesong and Azed,

    A nice plain without any ambiguities or quibbles once solved.

    I started with the downs for a change and almost wrote in entrap but like Widdersbel the ‘once’ gave me pause and I decided to wait for a crosser or two in case. Wise decision as it turned out.

    Also definitely not a non Chambers finish, but I’ve never yet had one and don’t expect one anytime soon either.

  9. I meant to add a comment about the definition for 1d being somewhat on the vague side, but it seems to have disappeared. The wordplay, of course, was clear.

  10. I did question 1D a bit, but the word play is clear and once it was in I did not worry about it.

    Blah@7 you just have to be brave, bung it in and use pencil. STANCHEL is a good example here, never heard of it but has to be correct.

    Not an engineer Tim@8 but setscrews used a lot in telescopes to avoid damaging components.

  11. Roz @10 – point taken about being brave but I don’t have that level of confidence as a solver! Yes, STANCHEL was a fairly obvious one, so was TORSK, while CREESE was clearly a variant of the more familiar KRIS, and ERGATANER and PROTHESIS were simply cases of using the dictionary for confirmation. But then EORL took quite a lot of guesswork and looking up various plausible combinations before hitting on the right one…

  12. I made a total hash of the bottom right corner, ending up with GAUD, BRISK and DAKS, although I couldn’t be sure of any of them.

  13. Bridgesong and Widdersbel@4, CHIZ made me immediately think of Molesworth! I did read Jennings, too, and you may be right about that, but I don’t remember it. I agree about putting things in in pencil; I even put in odd letters sometimes eg where you can guess the beginning/end of a word, as it can help with crossing clues. Widdersbel@11, after decades of crosswords, ORLE comes directly to my mind at the mention of a heraldic border – it’s all just experience!

  15. MunroMaiden @13 – on further research (ie talking to my dad), I think my memory has been playing tricks again… and OED cites G.Willans as the origin of CHIZ.

  16. AS usual I’n the lst – Christmas singing and other duties cost time. I seem to remember I was able to complete Azed on the day at a single extended sitting with only dictionary-checking at the end. ERGATANER was the most unlikely entry. Today looks like fun. Good luck all.
    Thanks Azed and bridgesong and Happy Christmas all.

  17. Merry Christmas Keith, I knew ERG as work from the cgs unit but I still waited for every checked letter before putting in ERGATANER, Yesterday was fun but very tricky in two parts, certainly needed Chambers just to finish.

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