A plain puzzle from Azed this week.
This was a standard Azed offering with precise wordplay and interesting surfaces hiding plenty of misdirection.
As ever, my vocabulary increased as a result of solving an Azed, but whether I will retain more than one or two of the new words is probably unlikely. It is, though, a joy to build up some potential entries from the wordplay and check in the dictionary to see if the construction produces real words. Sometimes, I can get the entry from the definition and then learn the meaning of slightly obscure component parts as I write the blog.
Some of the unusual words this week I have come across in barred crosswords before, e.g. PRIE-DIEU and BLASTULA, but a few others were completely new to me including JERID, YATAGAN, XERIC and TRIMURTI.
The completed grid looked like this:
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Hostile environment won’t bother me – getting out of hole I’m expert (12) EXTREMOPHILE (a micro-organism that is capable of living in hostile conditions or an extreme environment; hostile environment won’t bother me) Anagram of (getting out of) HOLE I’M EXPERT) EXTREMOPHILE* |
| 10 |
Contest for javelins – leader therein reverse of dreadful (5) JERID (a wooden Oriental javelin and a tournament in which it is used) J (first letter of [leader therein] JAVELIN) + DIRE (dreadful) reversed (reverse of) J ERID< |
| 11 |
Care for old poet creating effect for listeners (4) REKE (Spenserian [old poet] word for RECK [care]) REKE (sounds like [creating … for listener]) WREAK (to effect) REKE |
| 13 |
Nut shell? Get nasty pain cutting coarser part (8) BRAINPAN (cranium [skull or bones forming a shell protecting the brain {nut}]) Anagram of (nasty) PAIN contained in (cutting) BRAN (the coarsest part of ground husks) BR (AINP*) AN |
| 14 |
Rather feeble women with naughty child yard behind (5) WIMPY (rather feeble) W (women) + IMP (naughty child) + Y (yard) W IMP Y |
| 15 |
Minimal boundary marker one removed (6) MEREST (slightest; minimal) MERESTONE (boundary marker) excluding (removed) ONE MEREST |
| 16 |
Heroin crazy bum inhaled, term of abuse (7) SCUMBAG (general term of abuse) Anagram of (crazy) BUM contained in (inhaled) SCAG (heroin) SC (UMB*) AG |
| 19 |
Colly in former language (4) MERL (archaic or literary term [in former language] for a blackbird; a colly is also a dialect term for a blackbird) – &Lit clue where the whole clue serves as the definition MERL (hidden word in [in] FORMER LANGUAGE) MERL |
| 21 |
Bat is on 50 when trapped by spin going back (7) LEISLER (small black bat) (IS + L [Roman numeral for 50]) contained in (trapped by) REEL (spin) reversed (going back) LE (IS L) ER< |
| 23 |
Sword causing any wound with a touch piercing (7) YATAGAN (Turkish sword or long dagger) (A + TAG [touch, as in the children’s game of the same name]) contained in (piercing) an anagram of (wound) ANY Y (A TAG) AN* |
| 24 |
Parisian I love, or having left untrustworthy woman (4) JADE (a woman who should not be trusted) J’ADORE (French for ‘I love’) excluding (having left) OR JADE |
| 26 |
Almost all mistrust vaguely commonplace remarks (7) TRUISMS (commonplace or trite statement) Anagram of (vaguely) MISTRUST excluding the final letter (almost all) T TRUISMS* |
| 28 |
Centrepiece of mythology, singular tomb (6) THOLOS (a round-shaped tomb) THOLO (central letters of [centrepiece of] MYTHOLOGY) + S (singular) THOLO S |
| 30 |
What may be applied to point that is insignificant in law? (5) PETIT (form of petty, in the sense of insignificant, now obsolete except in legal and other French terms) Reference PETIT POINT (a method of APPLIQUE [work applied to, or laid on, another material] ,such as tapestry work using small stitches diagonal to the canvas threads) PETIT |
| 32 |
Dreary passage from lecturer, guru one abandoned (8) LONGUEUR (tedious or dreary passage in a book) L (lecturer) + anagram of (abandoned) GURU ONE L ONGUEUR* |
| 33 |
Part of pre-history, not the first by-name (4) LIAS (Lower Jurassic period, 201.3 million years ago- part of pre-history) ALIAS (by-name [nickname]) excluding the initial letter [not the first] A LIAS |
| 34 |
Stern of frigate below the water-line, one assumes – if it is (5) HOLED (if a frigate is HOLED it is likely that its stern will fall below the waterline) I think the parsing here is E (last letter of [stern of] FRIGATE) stored in the HOLD (an interior cavity of a ship that is below the waterline) HOL (E) D |
| 35 |
Ambassador from east despatched with partner messing around (12) REPRESENTANT (an ambassador is a senior diplomat or REPRESENTANT of one country in another) Anagram of (messing) PARTNER containing (around) (E [East]+ SENT [despatched]) REPR (E SENT) ANT* |
| Down | |
| 2 |
Dry times, fine (5) XERIC (dry, lacking in moisture) X (multiplication sign; times) + ERIC (blood-fine paid by a murderer to his victim’s family in old Irish law) X ERIC |
| 3 |
Trinity to arrange university in term’s odd characters going up (8) TRIMURTI (the Hindu trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva) TRIM (arrange) + U (university) + ITR (letters 1, 3 and 5 [odd characters] of IN TERM) reversed (going up; down entry) TRIM U RTI< |
| 4 |
Decisive – leading clubs lost – it grates in Edinburgh (4) RISP (Scottish [Edinburgh] word meaning ‘grate’) CRISP (decisive) excluding (lost) C, the first letter (leading) of CLUBS or just excluding C (clubs) which is the leading letter of CRISP RISP |
| 5 |
Wine offered by popular bar before expansion (7) MARSALA (type of wine) MARS (popular chocolate bar) + ALA (leafy expansion running down the stem from a leaf ) MARSALA |
| 6 |
Collection of 20 characters master is dominated by since turning up (4) OGAM (an ancient alphabet of 20 characters used in Celtic and Pictish inscriptions) As this is a down entry, M (master) is below (is dominated by) AGO (since) reversed (turning up; down entry) OGA< M |
| 7 |
Chair for worshippers dispelled pride that is universal (8) PRIE-DIEU (a praying-desk or chair for praying on) Anagram of (dispelled) PRIDE + IE (id est; that is) + U (universal) PRIE-D* IE U |
| 8 |
SI unit? Those lacking faith have no initial ardour for this (5) HENRY (The derived SI unit of inductance) HEATHENRY (people lacking faith) excluding the first four letters (no initial) HEAT (ardour) HENRY |
| 9 |
The lady’s restricted by precedence – I’ll be bound (7) LEASHED (bound) SHE (lady) contained in (restricted by) LEAD (precedence) LEA (SHE) D |
| 10 |
Wrestle with my (small) joint, butchered? This may have cleaned block (10, apostrophe) JEW’S MYRTLE (butcher’s broom [an evergreen shrub of the lily family], formerly used by butchers for sweeping their blocks.) Anagram of (butchered) WRESTLE and MY and J (abbreviation for [small] JOINT) JEW’S MYRTLE* |
| 12 |
Absorbed in cooking tenderise slice of tenderloin (10) INTERESTED (engaged in; absorbed in) Anagram of (cooking) TENDERISE and T (first letter of [slice of] TENDERLOIN) INTERESTED* |
| 17 |
Microphone (old) to stop function in fleapit (8) BUGHOUSE (slang for cinema – FLEAPIT is a word that can describe a shabby cinema) BUG (hidden microphone) + HO (command to stop) + USE (function) BUG HO USE |
| 18 |
Cell sphere finally united in lab strangely (8) BLASTULA (hollow sphere of cells) (LAST [finally] + U (united) contained in (in) an anagram of (strangely) LAB B (LAST U) LA |
| 20 |
Histrionics’ lead in each part, a key element for audience (7) EARHOLE (opening in the EAR; an important element for listeners [audience]) H (first letter of [lead in] HISTRIONICS) contained in (in) (EA [each] + ROLE [part in a play, for example]) EA R (H) OLE |
| 22 |
Most of tourney played with energy – let’s go (7, 2 words) EN ROUTE (let’s go, as an interjection) Anagram of (played) TOURNEY excluding the last letter (most of) Y + E (energy) EN ROUT* E |
| 25 |
Composer Lambert, in fashion, on the rise (5) ELGAR (reference Edward ELGAR [1857 – 1934], English composer) L (lambert [unit of brightness]) contained in (in) RAGE (mania or craze; the latest fashion) reversed (on the rise; down entry) E (L) GAR< |
| 27 |
Driver taking look round zone (5) MIZEN (spinaker or driver sail [the hindmost of the fore and aft sails]) MIEN (air or look) containing (round) Z (zone) MI (Z) EN |
| 29 |
Lizard we lost in searches (4) SEPS (serpent lizard) SWEEPS (searches) excluding (lost) WE SEPS |
| 31 |
Inch maybe was trifling largely, viewed from below (4) EYOT (small island; an INCH is also an island) TOYED (was trifling [with]) excluding the final letter (largely) D then reversed (viewed from below; down entry) EYOT< |
Thanks Azed and Duncan
4dn: I think your second parsing is the intended one. My understanding is that Azed is still holding out against “leading” on its own to indicate the first letter of the following word.
I agree about 4dn – I took it to mean the leading C (clubs) of CRISP was dropped. JERID was a new word for me, as was THOLOS, although I’d come across TRIMURTI and YATAGAN before. It took me a few moments to come up with Heathenry in the parsing of 8dn and also HO as being ‘old to stop’ in 17dn; I thought it was going to be O (for old) contained in (to stop) something – as no doubt I was meant to! Thanks for the blog.
This might be the first Azed I have completed with zero questions at the end. Thanks for the blog to confirm my understanding of the clues.
Thanks for the blog, quite a bit to check here but it all seemed to work out. I thought HOLED was clever, for 7D pride is only just about an anagram .
Managed all bar four before coming here. ( I started doing Azed plains just last year. ) Like Duncan I’m thinking one or two of the dictionary bashers will stick …