This puzzle commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the Azed series.
The special instructions read: “Most of the entries contain one or two misprints, producing non-words. Every clue contains a definition of the un-misprinted entry and a subsidiary indication of the form entered. The misprints may be read to form a timely message.”
Fittingly, this puzzle was both a challenge – significantly harder than usual – but also a pleasure to solve, with a delightful PDM when the idea of highlighting the misprints occurred to me. Until then, I had been struggling to work out whether the misprints needed to be counted twice where they occupied a checked cell, since that seemed to produce more letters than was necessary for the message. However, I had also misled myself by assuming that the message would read “Fifty years of Azed crosswords” whereas in fact it reads “Fifty years of AZ crosswords”, the abbreviation being necessary to enable the X pattern to appear in the grid. The X is, I assume, a tribute to Azed’s predecessor, Ximenes.
Until I saw the light, I was uncertain about where to place some of the misprints, since it seemed not to matter where to put them in the long words such as 10 down. In fact I thought this was a weakness and would mean that more than one correct solution would be possible. I was soon put right once the pattern appeared in the grid; there was only one possible place for the F in 10 down to go if the hidden message was to appear correctly.
The Observer carried a tribute to Jonathan Crowther last week, which you can read here; I have no idea how he has managed to maintain his high standards for so long without fail. It takes me hours to compose one clue a month in the competition: he composes dozens every week! As it happens, this is my 300th blog for fifteen squared, an achievement which pales into insignificance in comparison with Jonathan’s.
For the purposes of the blog I have first given the original answer, followed by the wordplay for the grid entry.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FTRAFF |
Turkey slicing, a troublesome bother to attack from above (6)
|
| STRAFF (alternative to more usual STRAFE); TR(Turkey’s international vehicle registration code) in FAFF. Misprint: F. | ||
| 6 | MURAGA |
Tax for wall maintenance, strange when reverting on chief officer (6)
|
| MURAGE; RUM(rev) AGA. Misprint: A | ||
| 11 | CIEPOLINE |
Fine fabric: piece unravelled round centre of cloth falls (9)
|
| CREPOLINE; (cl)O(th) LIN (falls) inside *PIECE, Misprint: I. | ||
| 12 | HEFNIE |
NY bum, male knife wasted, head cut off (6)
|
| HEINIE; HE *(k)NIFE. Misprint: F. | ||
| 13 | PSCON |
Elementary particle, ingredient of drop scones (5)
|
| PSION; hidden in droP SCONes. Misprint: C. | ||
| 15 | WENRIGO |
Flesh-eating monster, width weltering in gore (7)
|
| WENDIGO; W *(INGORE). Misprint: R. | ||
| 16 | LONIYERO |
Garden shrub, single one, ordinary, found round fringes of Italy (8)
|
| LONICERA; I(tal)Y inside LONER, O(rdinary). Misprints: Y O. | ||
| 17 | ROAD |
Course, wide ? leader’s set off (4)
|
| (b)ROAD. A normal clue with no misprints. | ||
| 19 | SHARRI |
Vehicle for hire has damaged expensive car, one coming behind (6)
|
| GHARRI; *HAS RR (expensive car) I. Misprint: S. | ||
| 22 | ROTARS |
Roundabout abroad is booming ? about time (6)
|
| ROTARY; T inside ROARS. Misprint: S. | ||
| 24 | SWIG |
Pin disposed of in knocking of drink (4)
|
| This is a normal clue, but I am struggling to parse it. It reads as though perhaps it should be SWI(pin)G, but swiping does not mean knocking. (pin)KING does mean knocking, but doesn’t seem to lead to the answer. I am indebted to Dr Watson, on the & lit website, whose blog appears before the competition deadline, for the suggestion that there must be a misprint in the clue. If it read “knocking off”, then my initial parsing would be correct. | ||
| 25 | WCOANCUP |
One of bases for mast with cap on shaped with copper lining (8)
|
| ACORN-CUP; CU inside *(W(ith) CAP ON). Nothing to do with ships: “mast” here refers to acorns and the like, on which pigs feed. Misprints: W A. | ||
| 28 | MAROHOR |
Wild goat I’m surprised to see in bitter herb dish (7)
|
| MARKHOR; OH (I’m surprised) in MAROR (bitter herbs eaten at the Passover festival). Misprint: O. | ||
| 30 | AGRST |
JM’s appalled at having to hug girls regularly (5)
|
| AGAST (a Miltonian spelling); GiRlS in AT. Misprint: R. | ||
| 31 | SOUSAR |
Scottish snob mostly irritated about the States (6)
|
| SOUTAR (a Scottish term for a shoemaker or snob); USA in SOR(e). Misprint: S. | ||
| 32 | TRIANGLOS |
Awful slog, train to develop figures (9)
|
| TRIANGLES; *(SLOG TRAIN). Misprint: O. | ||
| 33 | SNSEEN |
Translation exercise, three quarters English, held in Senegal (6)
|
| UNSEEN; N S E (three quarters) E(nglish) all inside SN (IVR code for Senegal). Misprint: S. | ||
| 34 | CERATF |
Ointment made with egg on inside, all over (6)
|
| CERATE; TAR inside FEC(it) (all rev). Misprint: F. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FCHOLARSMATS |
March so fast, deployed round line: it results in quick and easy win (12, 2 words)
|
| SCHOLAR’S MATE; L inside *(MARCH SO FAST). Misprints: F S. | ||
| 2 | TIEMOLO |
Venetian painter replacing bit of paint with mark having quivery effect (7)
|
| TREMOLO; TIEPOLO with M for P. Misprint I. | ||
| 3 | REFIN |
Kidney secretion on hand (5)
|
| RENIN; RE FIN. Misprint: F. | ||
| 4 | FOISYER |
One affecting stealthy introduction is entering entrance hallway (7)
|
| FOISTER; IS in FOYER. Misprint: Y. | ||
| 5 | FLEWEY |
Typical of old hound to move swiftly catching sheep (6)
|
| FLEWED; EWE in FLY. Misprint: Y. | ||
| 6 | MIXER |
Troublemaker, one good at cocktails? (5)
|
| A normal clue: double definition. | ||
| 7 | RESRRAINR |
Control is near with three Rs being disseminated (9)
|
| RESTRAINT; *(IS NEAR RRR). Misprints: R R. | ||
| 8 | APCIORI |
A copper initially is often right in arguing from cause to effect (7, 2 words)
|
| A PRIORI; A PC Is Often Right In. Misprint: C. | ||
| 9 | GZOG |
Rum ration, gallon set before Albanian monarch (4)
|
| GROG; G ZOG. Misprint: Z. | ||
| 10 | AONODISPERSF |
Professor and I not right, in a mess regarding colloidal system (12)
|
| MONODISPERSE; *(PROFESSO(r) AND I). Misprints: A F. | ||
| 14 | TISAGOSTE |
Make-up expert, I droop in midst of set-to, disturbed (9)
|
| VISAGISTE; I SAG in *SET-TO. Misprints: T O. | ||
| 18 | STIRRES |
Make a mistake dividing bears, looking up pedigrees (7)
|
| STIRPES; ERR in SITS (all rev). Misprint: R. | ||
| 20 | HEAIONE |
Wild ass, male, one admitting sloth (7)
|
| HEMIONE; HE, AI, ONE. Misprint: A. | ||
| 21 | ROUSAOT |
Uncle Sam going into origin, rising like a bird (7)
|
| ROUSANT; USA in ROOT. Misprint: O. | ||
| 23 | EORSAC |
Asian fox, gold or yellow, in cabinet erected (6)
|
| CORSAC; OR in CASE (rev). Misprint: E | ||
| 26 | COLIN |
US bird favoured following pass (5)
|
| Another normal clue: COL IN. | ||
| 27 | CASLA |
Poisonous plant left in Italian mansion (5)
|
| CALLA; L in CASA. Misprint: S. | ||
| 29 | AGDN |
Struggle, confused and involving Greeks initially (4)
|
| AGON; G in *AND. Misprint: D. |
Thanks for the blog, very clever use of misprints. I just wrote them by the clues to start with and had F I F Y Y for the Down clues , and the first Y was a misprint for a T so very confusing.
9D gave me a Z near to the A and I then noticed the diagonals .
Azed has used this X idea a few times in special crosswords.
Well, Roz, looks like you’re the only one in the whole world who could this 😀 ! And I’m not surprised. I couldn’t even understand the instructions – and I’m not sure I’m any the wiser after coming here. Way too hard for me. Glad you enjoyed it though.
* do this
Sorry, bridgesong, obviously you could do it too. Just the two of you then!
Yes, me too ran into problems. By the end of Sunday, I had a handful of answers and then I got stuck, Nothing came to me on Monday, so that was it. Probably didn’t help that I now see I’d got 1dn wrong.
Well, Trish, I also finished it – but had to take a break a couple of clues from the end, as I was getting too frustrated! 10dn was giving me grief, trying to solve an anagram to give a misprint of a word I didn’t know in the first place. It didn’t help that I hadn’t worked out how to read the misprints for the message; I was still looking in clue order (despite some highly unlikely letter combinations!). Once I’d highlighted them in the grid, it all fell into place…. Re 24ac, I assumed the clue should have read “knocking off”, as that made sense for the surface, as well as the parsing, though I started by guessing at RAPG or TAPG and wondering what misprinted drink that could be!
I suspect that the printed Observer had “knocking off” for 24 across (based on a blog from another commentator – not the &lit website) rather than “knocking of” in the on line version which I work from.
Like you bridgesong, the misprints in clue order didn’t make sense and it was only when I had the idea of highlighting them that a pattern emerged. This helped in my case with 1 down where it seemed that only one letter was changed from the anagram. The revealed “X” pattern meant that 2 letters had to be changed, even if one of them was the same as in the definition except being in a different position.
We had “snob” again in 31 across meaning shoemaker which appeared only recently. I’ll remember it eventually.
I found the writing of a clue for Fifty Years to be more difficult than usual so I’m sure it won’t be considered. I thought I had a good one last time for Ghat but it didn’t get a mention despite being similar to one of the VHCs. It must be a fine line that differentiates the selected from the also rans.
Tim C@7: No, it’s still “knocking of” in the paper version.
Tim C @7: as Dormouse has said, it was “knocking of” in the paper copy as well as online. A rare but unfortunate error in a milestone puzzle.
I agree that “Fifty Years” was a brute of a phrase for which to devise a clue; I am hoping for a low entry so that perhaps the chances of achieving a mention in dispatches may be improved. But I remain convinced that many of my recent entries are still lying somewhere in the Oxford sorting office. I can’t think of any other reason for their non-appearance in the lists!
Dormouse@8 Maybe the other blog just misread it then like me and didn’t think twice. How ironic that there’s a misprint in one of the few clues that doesn’t have a misprint in the solution!!!
Also bridgesong@9 re misprint.
I can’t blame the Oxford sorting office as I have the luxury of emailing my entry, being overseas (Straya). My excuse has to be the spam/junk folder. 🙂
Like our esteemed blogger, I realised soon on that the misprints in clue order led to nothing helpful so looked at their grid positions instead. With FIFTY emerging in one diagonal and AZED in the other, along with knowledge of the anniversary, it was possible to make a decent guess at the X-shaped message. That helped to reverse-engineer some of the harder clue answers. A stiff challenge but by no means insurmountable.
I too queried SWIG, on the basis that Azed wouldn’t deliberately use a “wordplay of definition” construction. It didn’t occur to me it was a typo; SWIPING can (tenuously) work as a definition of KNOCKING (he swiped/knocked the glasses off the table). I put it down to rare setter error, though having read the comments here, “off” rather than “of” makes more sense both cryptically and on the surface.
My eureka moment came quite early finding 6ac MURAGA then working across the downs 9d GZOG and AZ misprints rang a bell. CROSSWORDS along the heraldic bend was a write-in and it was all downhill from then. Finished it all by dusk on day 1.
Thanks and congratulations to Azed for all these 50 years I’ve enjoyed. Thanks too for the blog to bridgesong.
I often wonder whther all solvers know what all the original words were. We pedants cannot leave that question unanswered!
Trish @2 I know the feeling . For Azed 1250 there was a special puzzle, 1250 is ten to one on the clock and the answers involved swapping ten for one in various languages , totally bewildering at the time. It took me weeks to see how it worked, even after getting the answers and notes in the paper.
Like Azed in general , the specials do get easier over time with practice and experience.
Keith@13 you are quite right , I had to find out every proper word even when I had finished. Visagiste took a very long time.
I got about halfway through before deciding that I had better things to do than slog through this conglomeration. Looking over the blog, more effort would not have helped me finish this one. It did not help that I was trying to read the message left-to-right, which of course led nowhere. I also did not like that the “unmisprinted” puzzle would not have fit in the grid, because some (but, confusingly, not all) entries clash without the misprint device. Still, regards to Mr. Crowther.
Still not used to this Monday evening lark.
A very enjoyable challenge, took about 5 hours with a bit of word-searching near the end. Aftef I had most of the solutions I wrote the misprinted letters in clue order and could see the phrase jumbled up, then spotted the X. Chapeau Azed, thanks bridgesong.