Azed’s 50 years as a setter was marked with an article in last week’s Observer. The article can also be found online by clicking HERE
It’s a very impressive achievement to compile 2,594 high quality crosswords with hopefully many more to come.
This week’s puzzle is a typical plain Azed offering, where ‘plain’ simply means that the puzzle is of a standard type rather than being one of Azed’s specials involving more complexity in the clues or in the grid.
Being a standard Azed puzzle there are plenty of words that are not used everyday but can all be found in Chambers dictionary. Azed also likes his Scottish words and there were a few in this week’s grid.
The bit I enjoy most about Azed’s crosswords, apart from the quality of the clues and the challenge of solving them, is the opportunity to dig deeper into the derivation, meaning and use of some of the entries.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
One with monkey traditionally ranging bananas in sequence (12) ORGAN-GRINDER (street ORGAN-GRINDERS historically used monkeys to perform tricks and attract interest and money) Anagram of (bananas) RANGING contained in (in) ORDER (sequence) OR (GAN GRIN*) DER |
| 10 |
Muslim accepting a rule in Muslim legal code (6) SHARIA (the body of Islamic religious law; Muslim legal code) SHIA (follower of a branch of Islam; Muslim) containing (accepting) (A + R [rule]) SH (A R) IA |
| 11 |
Learnt as of old to forgive one being released (4) COND (Spenserian [old word] for learn[t]) CONDONE (forgive) excluding (being released) ONE COND |
| 13 |
Frozen bits afloat ’e fed to wild rats and other vermin (9) STREAM-ICE (pieces of drift ice swept down in a current; frozen bits afloat) (E contained in [fed to] an anagram of [wild] RATS) + MICE ([other] vermin) STR (E) A* M ICE |
| 14 |
Bouffant style it could be made up of … (4) POUF (puffed or bouffant type of hairstyle fashionable in the 18th century) Anagram of (could be made) UP OF POUF* |
| 15 |
… To surpass another hairdo (4) BANG (surpass) BANG (fringe, hair cut square across the brow; hairdo) double definition BANG |
| 16 |
One coin or two with ruler’s head imprinted (4) DURO (Spanish peso; coin) DUO (two) containing (with … imprinted) R (first letter of [head] RULER) DU (R) O |
| 18 |
Sort of cartoon distributed by cinema clubs lost (5) ANIME (style of animated film or television programme, originating in Japan) Anagram of (distributed by) CINEMA excluding (lost) C (clubs) ANIME* |
| 19 |
Sniffer dog making hit, including drug (4) LEAM (lyam-hound [bloodhound]; sniffer dog) LAM (hit) containing (including) E (ecstasy; drug) L (E) AM |
| 20 |
Character, one hiring out property? (6) LETTER (character) LETTER (one hiring out property) double definition LETTER |
| 22 |
Tries Eiger possibly: e.g. this is unfolded? (6) ETRIER (a small rope ladder of 1 to 4 rungs used as a climbing aid by mountaineers, possibly used when trying to climb the Eiger mountain). I am not entirely sure what the definition is – the best I can come up with is ‘this’ as I don’t think the whole clue defines ETRIER TRIES EIGER is an anagram (possibly) ETRIER EG IS so if EG IS is excluded [unfolded] we are left with an anagram of ETRIER ETRIER |
| 24 |
Goal’s first one just before time? Sign of boredom at Ibrox (4) GANT (Scottish [Ibrox is the an area of Glasgow. Rangers Football Club play at Ibrox Stadium) G (first letter of [first] GOAL) + AN (one) + T (time) G AN T |
| 26 |
Quiz: what do some locos run on? (5) TRAIL (to quiz) T-RAIL (a rail with a T-shaped cross section on which some locomotives (locos) can run) double definition TRAIL |
| 28 |
What makes Scots team … sing about this strip? (4) TIRL (Scottish word for strip) STIRLING (The football club in STIRLING is STIRLING Albion, but there may be another sport where the team is just named STIRLING) is formed by SING containing (about) TIRL [the entry] TIRL |
| 29 |
Pet: that’s fed nothing for tea? (4) PEKE (Pekinese dog; pet) If you add an O to (fed) PEKE you can form PEK (O) E (a scented black tea) PEKE |
| 31 |
Delight where penitents were found, Ali being knocked out (4) GLEE (delight) GALILEE (a porch or chapel at the west end of some churches, in which penitents were placed) excluding (being knocked out) ALI GLEE |
| 32 |
Capsized canoe lay where dolphins are kept? (9) OCEANARIA (enclosed parts of the sea or large salt-water ponds, in which dolphins, porpoises, etc, are kept and trained) Anagram of (capsized) CANOE + ARIA (song; lay) OCEAN* ARIA |
| 33 |
Celebrity fellow given a turn before end of performance (4) NAME (celebrity) MAN (fellow) reversed (given a turn) + E (last letter of [end of] PERFORMANCE) NAM< E |
| 34 |
At home with backward kind, we’ll show numbers are coming (6) INTROS (introductions; indications that a musical number is starting) IN (at home) + SORT (kind) reversed (backward) IN TROS< |
| 35 |
Agreeable quality, sign seen with pals mixing (12) PLEASINGNESS (agreeable quality) Anagram of (mixing) SIGN SEEN and PALS PLEASINGNESS* |
| Down | |
| 2 |
Hero swimming over river in shifting climate, gauging current (12) RHEOMETRICAL (relating to an instrument measuring a current of fluid; gauging current) Anagram of (swimming) HERO + (R [river] contained in [in] an anagram of [shifting] CLIMATE) This being a down entry the first anagram component is placed over the remainder of the wordplay. RHEO* MET (R) ICAL* |
| 3 |
Demi-god policeman (not English) detains for all to see (6) GARUDA (a Hindu demigod, part man, part bird) GARDA (Irish policeman, hence not English) containing (detains) U (universal; film designation indicating that the film can be seen by anyone) GAR (U) DA |
| 4 |
Fool on lake, making dive (7) NITERIE (nightclub; dive) NIT (fool) + ERIE (reference Lake ERIE, one of the Great Lakes in North America) NIT ERIE |
| 5 |
Tree cut short in trail raised to form part of ship’s structure (8) GARBOARD (the first range of planks or plates laid on a ship’s bottom next to the keel; part of ship’s structure) ARBOR (tree) excluding the final letter (cut short) R contained in (in) DRAG (trail) reversed (raised; down entry) G (ARBO) ARD< |
| 6 |
Fibrous stuff for paper forming part of letterhead (4) RHEA (fibre from a plant of the nettle family, used for weaving and paper-making) RHEA (hidden word [forming part of] LETTERHEAD) RHEA |
| 7 |
POTUS’s ex, I, American seen welcoming leaders? (5) IVANA (reference IVANA Trump [born 1949], former wife of Donald Trump [45th President of the United States [POTUS]; POTUS’s ex) (I + A [American]) containing (seen welcoming) VAN [vanguard, leaders]) I (VAN) A |
| 8 |
Jock’s gaga, climbing tree after party (6) DOITIT (Scottish [Jock] word for senile; gaga) DO (party) + TITI (shrub or small tree native to southern United States) reversed (raised; down entry) DO ITIT< |
| 9 |
Colonial administrators endorse changes and arrive with number introduced (12) ENCOMENDEROS (Spanish district commanders in colonial times) Anagram of (changes) ENDORSE containing (introduced) (COME [arrive] + N [number]) EN (COME N) DEROS* |
| 10 |
Grammatical addition yielding first of idioms in fashion (10) SUPPLETION (the adding of a word to supply a missing form of a conjugation, etc, such as went for the past tense of to go; grammatical addition) SUPPLE (yielding) + (I [first letter of {first of} IDIOMS] contained in [in] TON [fashion]) SUPPLE T (I) ON |
| 12 |
Remain loyal? More so, rarely without merit (10) DESERTLESS (rarely used word meaning without merit) DESERT LESS (a slightly cryptic way of telling someone to remain loyal) DESERTLESS |
| 17 |
Purgative subsequently ingested by one in Germany (8) ELATERIN (a purgative) LATER (subsequently) contained in (ingested by) EIN (German for one) E (LATER) IN |
| 21 |
Cutting off fuel limits one (7) ELIDING (cutting off, especially a syllable in verse) ELDING (fuel) containing (limits) I (Roman numeral for one) EL (I) DING |
| 23 |
Type of inflorescence to move rapidly round centre of argemone (6) RACEME (an inflorescence in which stalked flowers are borne in acropetal succession on a main stalk or lateral branches) RACE (move rapidly) containing (around) EM (central letters of [centre of] ARGEMONE) RAC (EM) E |
| 25 |
SA line dividing passage once (6) ALLURE (quality of being attractive; sex appeal) L (line) contained in (dividing) ALURE (old word for a passage) A (L) LURE |
| 27 |
I kept in contact, say, requiring little effort vocally (5) LENIS (of a consonant, articulated with relatively little muscular effort and pressure of breath) I contained in (kept in) LENS (reference a contact LENS) LEN (I) S |
| 30 |
Oriental fruit? Kilo goes into foreign food (4) KAKI (Japanese persimmon, or Chinese date plum; oriental fruit) K (kilogram) contained in (goes into) KAI (New Zealand term for food) KA (K) I |
Thanks for the blog, I think for ETRIER you are right about “this” , it is a standard compound anagram and Azed often uses “this” for the definition. ANIME was not in my Chambers 93 but seems quite common these days.
TIRL was in very recently , a similar ides using Stirling. PEKE and KAKI was a tricky combination, I finally remembered pekoe as the tea.
I agree about “this” being the definition for Etrier. As Roz says, it’s a device used by Azed for compound anagrams fairly regularly.
Apart from TIRL which I liked, there wasn’t really anything that stood out for me, not that I ever find an Azed easy, always with lots of dictionary checking. Chambers 2014 has caught up and lists ANIME.
Another dnf for me but enjoyable nonetheless. Interesting how (for me anyway) the AZED clues seem to range from write-ins – LETTER, ORGANGRINDER – through the satisfyingly get table – SUPPLETION, POUF – to the completely impenetrable – COND, GANT, DESERTLESS. A great learning experience. Something new every week.
I thought ORGAN GRINDER should be two words.
Thanks to AZED and Duncan shield.
*gettable *duncanshiell. Sorry, should have checked the autocorrect
28ac – good to see my home city referenced in a clue! As duncanshiell says, the team is Stirling Albion and locally it would generally be referred to as “the Albion”, but elsewhere it might simply be called Stirling, in the same way that people (in a football context) might refer to Leeds or Blackburn, without adding United or Rovers. GANT in 24ac is a Scottish word for yawn (noun and verb), hence “sign of boredom”.
Thanks Azed and Duncan
22ac: It may help to look at it this way. Clearly the word “this” does not define ETRIER out of context. The rest of the clue provides that context and tells us what sort of thing the answer is. On that basis, I think it is fair to say that the whole clue forms the definition. I expect that Azed’s note will read “comp. anag. & lit.”
Apart from the obvious obscurities I learned that ‘bang’ could be the whole hairstyle, rather than just the floppy bit at the front on its own.
Has anyone here seen evidence anywhere of prizewinners’ names in the weekly Azeds, now that prizes have supposedly been reinstated?
The website is still showing contradictory information and I hate to think we’re wasting our 85p first-class stamps every week (95p next month!).
As is usual nowadays I haven’t a lot of recollection but think I did complete this on the day. Crisp clueing as always. Thanks to duncanshiell for exhaustive multi-coloured blog. Interesting to have a Scottish perspective from MunroMaiden. who must have a head start.
Re prize-winners I did get my name pulled out of the hat on the first day of rei-instatement and am now deciding what to spend my £25 tokens on.
Michael R@7: Certainly the paper lists three winners this week of puzzle 2592. The first listed was Ann Radcliffe, presumably not the author of The Mysteries of Udolpho. (I think it was Phi who said something about when he was asked to set Beelzebub, he first tried solving one, entered it under a pseudonym, and actually won.)
Thanks, both. I rarely get the paper now and I wish the Guardian/Observer website was kept up to date when it comes to Azed. Still, crosswords for free so I shouldn’t moan.
Congratulations to Keith on being quick off the blocks, and thanks to Azed and Duncan.
Trish@3 it took me about two years before I could regularly finish Azed, I used to be happy with more than half when I was learning. No blogs then , had to wait two weeks for the answers in the paper and very brief notes. Eventually it all starts to click , although this Sunday took me nearly three hours.