Azed No. 2,626 Plain

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An eclectic selection of words in this week’s puzzle.

I wasn’t expecting to have to blog this puzzle, so apologies for any errors.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 BESOT
Get the better of, where love is involved? (5)
O (love) in BEST (get the better of). The word can mean both to infatuate and to make dull or stupid.
7 STURT
Trouble for the Scots mainly, undoing trust (5)
*TRUST. Chambers has this as “chiefly Scottish”, meaning “contention, strife, annoyance”.
12 AMOUR FOU
Grande passion, a trap for Jock with four involved (8, 2 words)
A MOU (Scottish form of mouth, or trap), containing *FOUR.
13 NIPS
What’ll make you go dizzy, knocked back? (4)
SPIN (rev). Another & lit clue, using two senses of the word: to go quickly and an alcoholic drink.
14 FUTTOCK
Ship’s timber, fine bottom but not bow (7)
F (b)UTTOCK. I can’t find b as an abbreviation for bow, so perhaps Azed is using it here (appropriately in the context) to denote the forepart of a ship or boat, hence the first letter.
15 JARTA
Drink cheers islander’s beloved (5)
JAR TA. It’s a Shetland expression.
16 TANKA
Boat people identifiable by a few short lines? (5)
Double definition.
18 CHANTRY
Chapel: see one go here after church (7)
CH(urch) AN (one) TRY (go).
19 CANDLE-WASTER
College swat learned laboriously – such a one? (12)
*(C(ollege) SWAT LEARNED). A lovely & lit clue for a delightful term.
22 WHITE HERRING
A little bit astray, he’s inside – one won’t be cured (12, 2 words)
HE inside WHIT (a little bit) ERRING (astray).
23 BACCHUS
Common time in composer, American, one associated with merrymaking (7)
C(ommon time) in BACH, US.
27 ERGON
Business, one that’s died, parts reallocated (5)
GON ER, with the parts switched.
29 GOLPE
Grand jug, feature of crest, purple (5)
G OLPE (jug). It’s an heraldic term.
30 GALLATE
Salt mostly delayed, caught in storm (7)
LAT(e) inside GALE.
31 VANG
Guy, last of gang trailing those in front (4)
(gan)G after VAN. It’s a guy-rope.
32 VERLIGTE
I got ‘gutted’ in drunken revel, being a liberal-minded person (8)
I G(o)T inside *REVEL. It’s a South African term.
33 MINAR
Tower, a feature of museum in Arabia (5)
Hidden in “museum in Arabia”.
34 ADEEM
Cancel from bequest a reward reversed (5)
A MEED (reward, rev).
DOWN
1 BANJO
I’ve strings, offering various introductions to Brad and Angelina Jolie (5)
B(rad) AN(gelina) JO(lie). Not quite initial letters, hence “various”.
2 SOPRANI
Trebles I placed under of training of parson (7)
*PARSON, I.
3 OUSTS
Dislodges judge removed from top of lists (5)
(j)OUSTS. “Lists” here refers to jousting-grounds.
4 TREACLE
Cartel administered with energy and cajolery (7)
*CARTEL, E. One of the subsidiary meanings of treacle is “blandishments, esp when suggestive of the cloying and nauseating taste and thickness of treacle”.
5 OFFICE-HUNTER
Ambitious climber, not on watch, about to freeze (12)
ICE (freeze) inside OFF (not on) HUNTER (a kind of pocket watch). Another delightful term, which might perhaps be relevant in the current political climate.
6 SOUTHWESTERN
Like a strong gale, we’ll be caught in turns with those at sea (12)
*(WE TURNS THOSE).
8 TITAN
Painter Italy once rejected, a colossus (5)
TIT(i)AN.
9 UDON
Noodle, one that cook’s captivated by (4)
DO (cook) inside UN (one).
10 RACK-RENT
Rachmanite, wretch trapping tiresome fool, see, had up (8)
NERK (tiresome fool) C (all rev), in RAT (wretch). A rack-rent is defined as “a rent stretched to the utmost annual value of the property … an exorbitant rent”. By extension, it can also mean a person charging (or paying) such a rent (hence Rachmanite) although I have never come across that particular usage. The term “rack-rent” is (or used to be) quite common in commercial leases, without any negative connotations.
11 TOKAY
Sweet wine: see message on gift to Katharine? (5)
TO KAY.
17 MAHARANI
Wife of prince he shuts in most of zenana with one (8)
HARA(m) (alternative spelling of harem) inside MAN, I (one).
20 ARUGULA
See carpet in hall for what’s spilt from salad bowl? (7)
RUG in AULA (a hall). It means the salad leaf rocket.
21 TILLAGE
Girl turned up in hat for husbandry (7)
GAL (rev) in TILE.
23 BEGUM
What’ll distinguish a woman abroad? For example being wrapped in sponge (5)
EG in BUM (sponge).
24 COLZA
Source of vegetable oil, unknown in soft drink (5)
Z (unknown) in COLA.
25 COVID
See one who wrote poetically of love, what few will have avoided (5)
C OVID. Azed himself went down with Covid during the summer; this is the word referred to in the special instructions as not being in Chambers but “which most will get”!
26 BEGEM
Decorate with stones giving distinguished Turk a dash (5)
BEG (alternative form of BEY, distinguished Turk), EM (in printing, a dash).
28 GLEN
Depression that’s unavoidable in singleness (4)
Hidden in “singleness”.

17 comments on “Azed No. 2,626 Plain”

  3. Cineraria @ 2: yes, the first “of” does seem redundant, but it was indeed in the clue as printed in the paper.

  4. Thanks for the blog, very strange for 2D?? the first “of ” was not in my paper, I annotate the clues and keep them when I send the grid off.
    I agree that CANDLEWASTER is a great word and clue.
    I had GOLLA for a long time for 27AC , OLLA frequently appears as a jug.
    GALLATE not in my Chambers93 but it was pretty obvious.
    “See” turned up in a lot of clues, I counted at least five.

  6. GALLATE not in Chambers 2016 either Roz, an odd omission.
    6 is actually an envelope of WE in anagram, but same difference.
    Thanks bridgesong and Azed.

  8. A few words I enjoyed meeting this week: CANDLEWASTER, GOLPE and VANG. CANDLEWASTER was indeed a great clue. Interesting to have BEGUM on one side of the grid and BEGEM on the other.
    Thanks for the blog.

  9. Bridgesong @7&8: links not working for me, but I can confirm there was no extra ‘of’ in my hard copy of the paper.

  10. For reasons I can’t explain, my attempts to upload the pdf have failed, but I can confirm that the redundant “of” is indeed there; presumably the error was corrected at a late stage. You can access the pdf via the link on the andlit website.

  11. Bridgesong I have the paper copy in my hand right now, definitely no first “of”, this does seem to happen for the Guardian as well . Sometimes the paper version and the one on the computer have totally different clues, Obviously a change has been made but not for every format.

  14. Gosh, I’d assumed GALLATE was to do with gallium, but I see it relates to gallic acid, a substance present in gallnuts (and various plants,including tea). No wonder I couldn’t see it in Chambers! Thanks, bridgesong.

  16. bridgesong, you need to include the ‘.pdf’ in the link @7 for it to work. The 2 ‘of’s in the online (but not the printed) edition was I’m pretty sure an error.
    I laughed when I got COVID and read the instruction again. My other tick was for GOLPE, a word I knew (but not in the heraldic sense) from the world of Flamenco guitar where it means hit the soundboard with the finger at the same time as plucking the string.

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