Azed No. 2,601 Plain

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A straightforward plain puzzle this week, although there is one clue that troubled me.

The difficulty arose from 12 across, where I can’t see a definition. Apart from that it was notable only for the reference at 20 down.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 VACUA
Empty spaces V & A filled with insight, despatching men (5)
ACU(men) inside V & A.
6 CAUSING
Producing what’s central for charcuterie in sausage skin? (7)
(charc)U(terie) inside CASING.
11 ELUCIDATE
To explain dodgy clue I’ll require day (9)
*(CLUE I) DATE.
12 PIER
Dip on this prom becomes increasingly crazy (4)
dip(PIER) (which means increasingly crazy). But I’m struggling to see a definition here: while you might take a dip after a walk on the prom, or on the pier, none of these words are synonyms for each other.  However, I note that Bradford does give pier under the entry for prom, which perhaps may have led Azed into error.  I maintain that a pier juts out into the sea, whereas a promenade is “a paved terrace on a sea-front”: not the same thing at all.  As Gonzo @1 points out, the Chambers definition (which is in the 14th edition as well) entirely justifies Azed’s usage.  I should have known better!
13 HARARE
He has Moroccan tree planted within capital (6)
ARAR (sandarac tree) inside HE.
14 PLIABLE
Power up front, i.e. ball shifted ? typical of pushover? (7)
P *(IE BALL).
16 FARANDOLE
Dance in line that has loafer tripping around also (9)
AND in *LOAFER.
17 GONIATITOID
Busily engaged? O, I dig on frantically at edges of fossilized mollusc (11)
AT IT (busy) inside *(O I DIG ON).
19 EELS
Murray and suchlike, one following in G. Player’s footsteps (4)
E(rnie) ELS, South African golfer. Murray is an alternative form of the better-known moray.
22 LOEB
Latin book, including one that’s not new in classical library (4)
O(n)E inside L(atin) B(oo)k. This is the series referred to.
23 STENOHALINE
Swimming in the sea, only tailless, unable to stand very salty water (11)
*(IN THE SEA ONL(y)).
25 ILLIBERAL
Ungenerous, that is without charge returned, recovers without lies (9)
BILL(rev) inside IE, RAL(lies).
28 CATCH ON
Come in, clasp working? (7, 2 words)
A simple charade; both “catch on” and “come in” can mean to become fashionable.
29 ELAINE
Girl after a bit of excitement reverse saying no, losing head (6)
E(xcitement) (d)ENIAL (rev).
30 HIGH
Dignified drunk (4)
Double definition
31 INUREMENT
Men will be involved with routine in this with nothing changing? (9)
MEN inside *R(o)UTINE.
32 TRASHES
Wrecks cement with insertion of explosive (7)
HE inside TRASS.
33 RUDAS
Foul-mouthed Scots in Duras novel (5)
*DURAS.
DOWN
1 VEHMGERICHT
Going after notoriety (rumoured), German abused chit in local court once (11)
VEHM (sounds like “fame”) GER *CHIT.
2 ALAMO
Site of Bowie’s last stand in gala, momentous (5)
Hidden in “gala momentous”.
3 CURB
Equine disease, onset of rickets in young one (4)
R(ickets) in CUB.
4 AIRFARE
Cost of travel round Iran is a distant culmination for voyage (7)
IR(an) inside AFAR (voyag)E.
5 IDEA
Fancy assistant No. 1 being demoted to No. 4 (4)
AIDE with first letter moved to the fourth place.
6 CAPRICORNUS
Sign most of fruit is in credit with sun rising (11)
APRICO(t) in CR, SUN(rev).
7 ATLATL
Projectile launcher finally left, not having succeeded (6)
AT LA(s)T L(eft). It’s an ancient Mexican spear-thrower.
8 SPADILLO
Top scorer in pack once, and so made to ingest stuff, being poorly? (8)
PAD (stuff) ILL (poorly) inside SO. The ace of spades in some old card games.
9 NELLIE
Feeble fool in escapade I’ll encourage, given a lift (6)
Hidden and reversed in “escapade I’ll encourage”.
10 GREEN BERETS
Special forces shot Brent geese around edge of river (11, 2 words)
R(iver) inside *(BRENT GEESE).
15 DISTICHS
Couplets? Here’s very short one penned in Norfolk town (8)
TICH (a very short one) inside DISS. You might expect the plural of distich to be distiches, but not so, according to Chambers.
18 ODALLER
Orcadian landowner producing decorative slab in gold (7)
DALLE (a decorative slab) inside OR.
20 ECLAIR
Tea cake, famously-short-lived: icer carelessly has left one in the middle (6)
L(eft) A (one) inside * ICER. This is a reference to the famous humorous definition in Chambers.
21 ONE-ONE
Element in couplet central to poet, singly paired (6)
NEON inside (p)OE(t).
24 NANNA
Name girl’s given granny (5)
N(ame) ANNA.
26 AERY
Spiritual part of empyrean, heading heavenward (4)
Hidden and reversed inside “empyrean”.
27 LIED
Franz’s work was fabulous (4)
Double definition, referring to Franz Schubert.

10 comments on “Azed No. 2,601 Plain”

  1. Thanks bridgesong.
    Chambers 13 gives under pier
    “A mass of stone, ironwork or woodwork projecting into the sea or other water, as a breakwater, landing stage or promenade”.
    I think Azed has used this before. Enjoyed the eclair.

  2. Thanks for the blog, i had INUREMENT as a compound anagram , men + routine = “THIS” + nothing. It does make it slightly indirect with the nothing.
    STENOHALINE is not in my Chambers93 but the meaning is quite obvious.

  3. I enjoyed ECLAIR even more, bridgesong, after you reminded me of the humorous definitions in Chambers which I’d forgotten about. I remember crosswords in the past based around them. Of course Ambrose Bierce built a dictionary around similar witticisms.
    My other favourite was the composite anagram &lit INUREMENT.

  4. Thanks, Gonzo @1 for putting me right about PIER. I should have read the definition more carefully! I’ve amended the blog.

    Roz @2: your parsing is better than mine. INUREMENT is a compound anagram of “this” plus “nothing”.

  6. AP @5: yes, if you regard “this” as the definition (and there really is nothing else) then it is neither at the beginning nor the end. This happens with Azed quite often where he uses the “this” device.

  7. Hello! Thanks to Azed & bridgesong as always.
    I seem to remember this as being OK except for GONIATITOID which seemed an unlikely sequence of letters even for Azed. The ECLAIR definition is a famous jokey one, not all that common in lexicographic (great word, suitable for Playfair) works. Hope to meet some of you on May 28th.

  8. Keith @ 7: not sure that LEXICOGRAPHIC works as a Playfair code word, as it has repeated letters (2 Is and 2 Cs).

    I too look forward to meeting other solvers on 28 May – my request to the organisers was for a large font on the name badges!

  9. I suspect that Keith@7 meant LEXICOGRAPHY , which would work and would be brilliant for Playfair on many levels. Perhaps the correcting thing changed it.

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