Azed No. 2,628 Plain

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An accessible plain puzzle from Azed.

Either this was on the easier end of the Azed spectrum or I am starting to get on Azed’s wavelength. I only referred to Chambers for confirmation, as all of the answers were gettable from wordplay. Many of the clues would not look out of place in a normal Guardian cryptic (PRATTLE, TROUBLESOME and SHUNT maybe even in a quiptic).

There were a few repetitions – FRONT appears twice with only a column between two instances. A = one, and E = English each appear twice as well. Shun and shunt probably come from the same root.

The only quibble I have with the puzzle is in the first across clue. Are “sales” the same as “purchases”? As an accountant, I see them as opposites, but maybe I’m blinkered.

 

Thanks, Azed.

ACROSS
4 AUSTRALES
Gold purchases ? transactions included at least 200 centavos (9)
Au (chemical symbol for “gold”) + SALES (“purchases”) with tr. (transactions) included.

The austral was an old currency unit in Argentina, equal to 100 centavos.
10 PRATTLE
Chatter quietly with conductor (7)
P (piano in music, so “quietly”) with (Sir Simon) RATTLE (British-German “conductor”)
11 SLOTH
Plenty imprisoned, shut up, doing nothing (5)
LOT (“plenty”) imprisoned by SH (“shut up”)
13 FOREKING
Predecessor on the throne, English, branching out? (8)
E (English) with FORKING (“branching”) out(side)
14 RUMBO
Odd guy giving one a punch (5)
RUM (“odd”) + BO (“guy”)
15 SCION
Offshoot completely extracted from leek (5)
ALL (“completely”) extracted from SC(all)ION (“leek”)
17 SHORTCUT
Motoring crush OTT? Here’s a quicker route (8)
*(crush ott) [anag:motoring]
18 NERIUM
Evergreen shrub? Numbers welcoming return of heat (6)
Num. (Numbers, the book of the Bible) welcoming [return of] <=IRE (“heat”)
20 DOUBT
Act, but dithery, showing hesitation (5)
DO (“act”) + *(but) [anag:dithery]
22 TRONC
Whip-round pocketed by patron callously (5)
Hidden in [pocketed by] “paTRON Callously”
23 SKELLY
Mac’s cast for fish in Windermere? (6)
Double definition, the first referring to a Scots word for a squint (in one’s eye) and the second, a freshwater fish found in the Lake District.
25 DINKYDIE
Perth’s neat finish? In Perth, honestly (8)
DINKY (Scots word for “neat”, hence Perth (Scotland’s) neat) + DIE (“end”)

Dinky-die is an Australian (hence Perth again) term for “honestly”.
28 ENTIA
Not attributes to be found in penitentiary (5)
Hidden in [to be found in] “penitENTIAry”

In philosophy, new (pl. entia) is a separate entity, as opposed to an attribute, which is inherent to an entity.
29 PROSE
One pursuing plan? Court somehow rejected dull spiel (5)
PROSE(cutor) (“one pursuing plan”) with *(court) [anag:somehow] rejected
31 GAMBADOS
Saddle covers in school, worthless, extra-large (8)
GAM (“school” or pod) + BAD (“worthless”) + OS (outsize, so “extra-large”)
32 USAGE
Practice learned after university (5)
SAGE (“learned”) after U (university)
33 SIRNAME
Marines at sea? This denoted the family (7)
*(marines) [anag:at sea]

Sirname is an old version of surname.
34 GENERATED
Produced first book quickly, English well thought of (9)
Gen. (Genesis, so “first book” of the Bible, quickly i.e. abbreviated) + E (English) + RATED (“well thought of”)
DOWN
1 UPFRONT
Put out about franc on being paid in advance (7)
*(put) [anag:out] about Fr. (franc) + ON
2 TROUSERINGS
Tailor’s material to employ with circling bands, right inside (11)
R (right ) inside TO USE (“to employ”) with RINGS (“circling bands”)
3 WARM
Close interest (4)
Double definition, the first referring to being “warm” or “cold” in a treasure hunt.
4 ATEBRIN
Bite ran out of control? This might treat it (7)
*(bite ran) [anag:out of control]

The “it” in the clue refers to the bite, as atebrin is used to treat malaria.
5 SLISH
Hamlet’s sword wound? Laborious, a V cut (5)
SL(av)ISH (“laborious” with A V cut)

Slish was a variation of slash.
6 TENUOUS
Thin sun out, unusual around end of June (7)
*(sun out) [anag:unusual] around [end of] (jun)E
7 ALECTO
A reader missing denouement? She was furious (6)
A + LECTO(r) (“reader”, missing denouement)

Alecto was one of the Furies in Greek mythology.
8 LODICULA
Part of grass flower ? see, bright climbing one (8)
LO (“see”) + <=LUCID (“bright”, climbing) + A (“one”)
9 SHUNT
Bypass to avoid needing to be on time (5)
SHUN (“to avoid”) needing to be on T (time)
12 TROUBLESOME
Foreign money hidden in book, causing concern (11)
ROUBLES (“foreign money”) hidden in TOME (“book”)
16 FRONTMAN
Female worried matron on start of nativity ? he’s presenting (8)
F (female) + *(matron) [anag:worried] on [start of] N(ativity)
19 MADRASA
One appearing under headscarf in Muslim school (7)
A (one) appearing under MADRAS (“headscarf”)
21 TYPESET
Prepare for press? Step yet to be readied (7)
*(step yet) [anag:to be readied]
24 ERRAND
What’s run often fixed by darner (6)
*(darner) [anag:fixed by]
25 DEBUG
Disinfect mattress from below that’s disgusting (5)
<=BED (“mattress”, from below) + UG (“that’s disgusting”)
26 KIDGE
Lively as child with age (not adult) (5)
KID (“child”) with (a)GE (“not” A (adult))
27 IMMIT
Inject mass within maximum, first off (5)
M (mass) within (L)IMIT (“maximum”, first off)
30 ODAL
Orcadian estate of a kind, without superior character? (5)
(m)ODAL (“of a kind”, without a superior character)

16 comments on “Azed No. 2,628 Plain”

  1. Thanks for the blog, I agree it was rather friendly, my clues are hardly annotated.
    SKERRY prevented a non-Chambers finish, I was not sure of the missing letter and had to check before entering.
    I think of SC(all)ION as a spring onion, but leek is also in Chambers.
    IMMIT says obsolete in C93, Azed usually indicates.
    For ODAL I think the whole clue can refer to the definition.

  2. I think it must have been on the easy side as I printed this off (with the Genius) and nearly completed it. I couldn’t work out/find a justification of SKELLY, so it was sitting as S_ELLY and I got a couple of other letters wrong – lodicule for LODICULA and cambados for GAMBADOS.

    Thank you to loonapick and Azed.

  3. Agree with Roz@1 about ODAL, which means without a feudal superior. I also found it friendly, with a few Chambers checks, mainly for interest, after completion (eg I knew the Scottish word SKELLY, but not the Lake District fish). Liked the double use of Perth in 25ac.

  5. Thanks for the blog: I missed GENesis in GENERATED, so couldn’t understand the wordplay. I thought ALECTO was an excellent clue.

    But shouldn’t UP FRONT be two words? Chambers seems to suggest it is one word only when used to mean “candidly, openly”. And there is a trivial enumeration mistake at 30 down.

  6. Thanks Azed and Loonapick

    4ac: I was happy with purchases = sales at the time, on the basis that they represent two sides of the same transaction. Thinking it over after reading the blog, it occurs to me that the same logic would allow win = loss, which does not seem right. Going slightly off at a tangent,
    best = worst is a different matter, because they are synonyms as verbs.

    1dn: The way I read Chambers, either up-front or upfront – both of which Azed would simply enumerate as (7) – can be applied to any of the meanings when used as an adjective. Perhaps this means that “being” should be part of the definition. See also the entry for up to date, which follows a similar pattern with the use of up-to-date as an adjective.

  7. I didn’t find it easy at all. Fair of course, but I couldn’t work out VENERATED at 34 Ac. (I’m sure Azed does this deliberately, with a wink in his eye.) I couldn’t work out SL(aV)ISH, And I thought ATEBRIN was a weak clue with no reference to a more specific kind of “bite”. I had “see bright” as C IDOL and wonder what an “ULA” was. And had “Close interest” as FIRM (as in “close” and “business” = “interest”.) So I wondered if “Prittle” as in prittle-prattle had become a word in its own right.

    As an aside, I’m surprised that Chambers gives “trousering” as usually in the plural; “suiting” as sometimes in the plural, but “shirting” with no plural at all. Walk round Connaught Place in Delhi and you’ll find that all of them are always in the plural. And I note that sockings is not even in my Chambers at all.

    Stefan

  8. Thank you, Marmite Smuggler @7 – I love sockings. Encouraged by your comments, I found that skirting is given in the meaning of material for skirts, but dressing doesn’t have an equivalent meaning, nor does kilting. Does this reflect on Chambers or tailors, I wonder?

  9. I meant SKELLY of course @1 , I think it is quite unusual for Azed to have a double definition and I did not know either . Usually the word play helps us out. I just had to do a search in Chambers and fortunately my first guess was right.

  10. Hmmph, I’ve just realised why half the words I was looking for aren’t in the hardback 2004 Chambers but are in the paperback 1998. The 2004 is a Concise Edition, the 1998 is not. The paperback is looking worse for wear, so I had gone for the more robust version. Lesson learned.

  11. Shanne@10 you definitely need the full The Chambers Dictionary for Azed, he uses the 2016 , I have the first edition from 1993 but there does not seem to be too much difference overall. It was hardback but the covers have gone and only the spine holding it together now. The sprogs have found virtually perfect 1993 editions for less then £5 so a replacement will be my next present.

  13. Pelham Barton @6: perhaps my (electronic) version of Chambers is different to yours? It gives several definitions for UP FRONT (two words), one of which “paid in advance” is the sense used in the clue. It only gives UP-FRONT or UPFRONT as alternatives for the sense “candidly, openly”.

  14. Bridgesong@13: What my copies of Chambers (2011 and 2014) say is as follows:
    up front at the front; to the forefront; foremost; (of money) paid in advance; candidly, openly (up-front or upfront adj).
    A bit further down the page we have
    up to date to the present time or time in question; containing all recent facts, statistics, etc; knowing the latest developments of fashion, usage, etc (up-to-date adj).
    What is not obvious in each case is whether the adjectival forms in brackets at the end apply only back to the last semicolon, or to all of the meanings. My understanding of standard English grammar is that the hyphenated or single-word forms should always be used when the phrase becomes an adjective. On the other hand, I remember reading somewhere that trying to use hyphens with complete consistency is one of the best ways of driving yourself mad.

  15. Pelham Barton @14: the content in the electronic version is identical, but the layout is different (each sense of the word starts on a new line), giving the impression that the adjectival forms in brackets only apply to the last sense given.

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