Azed 2644

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Sorry for the late appearance of this blog – I’d started it earlier in the week, but was distracted by other matters and forgot to finish it. As a result some of the explanation may be terser than I would have liked. I think found this one a little harder than average, but as usual it all makes sense in the end. Thanks to Azed.

 
Across
3 CLEAR-STORY Frees parliamentarian for upper level in church (10)
CLEARS + TORY – more usually spelled “clerestory”, though this version makes the meaning clearer
11 MADOQUA Mum holds a party quarterly for tiny Ethiopian creature (7)
A DO QU in MA
12 PUREX Head of US college accepts university process for recycling fuel? (5)
U in PREX (US college president)
13 BIG GUNS Holding wild gig, reverse of put-down for VIPs (7, 2 words)
GIG* in reverse of SNUB
15 LANG Sandy’s extended shortened speech? (4)
LANG is an abbreviation of “language” or speech, and a Scots form of “long”
16 DOGHOLE Wild canine about to die, put back in wretched quarters (7)
Reverse of GO (die) in DHOLE(Indian wild dog)
17 YDRAD Recalled piece in Standard (yesterday’s) no longer feared (5)
Hidden in reverse of stanDARD Yesterday’s
20 HELOT One born to serve couple finding new position in Aussie tavern (5)
HOTEL (Australian word for a pub) with OT (a couple of letters) moved to the end (or EL moved nearer the start). In the absence of crossing letters I wasn’t sure this wasn’t a clue for HOTEL, but that requires a less natural reading
22 FRITTATA Sort of omelette, Italian, served in fat cooked with art (8)
IT in (FAT ART)*
23 TROUPIAL Songbird, something heard circling over high place (8)
O[ver] UP (high place) in TRIAL (something heard
26 ORIBI SA antelope, one in circular path, tailless (5)
I in ORBI[t]
27 MANEH Some shekels made by employee, what? (5)
MAN + EH (“what?”)
28 MINT-NEW Freshly made crafted tin men won (7)
(TIN MEN)* + W
30 TAHR Wild goat seized by cheetah racing (4)
Hidden in cheeTAH Racing
32 MONILIA Fungus displayed by pimples, on inside (7)
ON in MILIA (pimples)
33 GREAT Favourite jar, by the sound of it (5)
Homophone of “grate” (to jar). I can’t think of an example where great and favourite are synonyms, but “it’s in Chambers”
34 ASSOILS Fool in front of painting no longer puts blobs on? (7)
ASS + OILS
35 GERMAN-BAND Street musicians moving about in damn banger (10, 2 words)
(DAMN BANGER)*
Down
1 AMBLYSTOMA Amphibians born mostly abroad in half of great river (10)
B + MOSTLY* in AMA[zon]
2 GAIA Earth doctor extracted from African country (4)
GAMBIA less MB
4 LOGGAT Stake on gee-gee coming in behindhand (but not last), … (6)
GG in LAT[e]
5 EQUID … One such, last in race, having pound on (5)
[rac]E + QUID, with “one such” referring to the gee-gee in the previous clue
6 RASORIAL What’s the point of upending earth, scraping it for food? (8)
RAS (cape, point) + O (abbreviated “of”) + reverse of LAIR]
7 SPIGHT Penning page, view poet’s grudge (6)
P in SIGHT – Spenserian/Shakesperean spelling of “spite”
8 TUSH Bum having to be persistent when denied work (4)
TO PUSH (to be persistent) less OP
9 ORTOLAN Delicacy, bit left uneaten with section removed from goose’s head (7)
ORT (a leftover) + [s]OLAN
10 RECLOTHE Entering here wronged fool gets redress (8)
CLOT in HERE*
14 METAPHRAST Literal translator came across early female playwright’s fragment of tragedy (10)
MET + APHRA’S (Behn, playwright 1640–1689) + T[ragedy]
18 DERRIÈRE One preceding old monarch entering erred badly ? should be behind (8)
I + ER in ERRED*
19 TRIPEMAN Dealer in offal distributed per tin mum’s got in (8)
MA in (PER TIN)*
21 POINDER Scot taking legal possession I’ll have to think about (7)
I in PONDER
24 PIÑATA What may be full of chocolates, some milk that one’s opened (6)
A in PINTA
25 CATION Charged particle ? what’s done when opening current is switched? (6)
ACTION (“what’s done”) with the initial AC (alternating current) inverted
27 MENSA Blokes with what helps to ‘pull the birds’, an intellectual elite (5)
MEN + SA (sex appeal)
29 TRAM Some silk yarn in ultramarine (4)
Hidden in ulTRAMarine
31 HILT Coquille? Lucky chance catching 50 (4)
L in HIT – coquille is “a basket-hilt of a sword in the shape of a shell” in fencing

11 comments on “Azed 2644”

  2. PREX was new to me but it had to be PUREX , I also paused for HELOT until after I had done the Downs.
    I liked the “something heard ” in TROUPIAL and the clever use of redress for RECLOTHE .

  3. I found this harder than the previous week. Liked TROUPIAL, AMBLYSTOMA and YDRAD.
    In 4d I think ‘on’ in the clue gives the O which isn’t in the blog.
    Thanks for the parsing of ORTOLAN which I completely failed on.

  4. Alas, I never spotted PUREX and entered PURES, which can be a verb. Wasted my stamp! Thanks for explaining HELOT, which I could not parse. I also liked the misleading definition for REDRESS. Thanks as always to Azed and also to Andrew.

  5. LOGGAT
    It looks like GG in LOAT(h).
    Loath and behindhand may not be exact synonyms though.
    The ‘on’ seems to be a link word.

  6. Andrew, 4d should be O(on)GG in LAT(e)
    Has Azed been talking to Paul, what with TUSH (bum), DERRIERE (behind) and ‘pull the birds’ all in the same crossword?
    Like you, I raised an eyebrow at great = favourite as it’s not an obvious synonym. The only example I can think of is “What is your all-time great/favourite Azed clue?”

  7. I agree with Jay and Tim for O=on , Azed often uses this and he is not overly keen on link words.
    Jay@3 the Plain can vary quite a lot in difficulty , sometimes the grid, sometimes the number of obscure answers.
    Tim@6, good point about Paul , more evidence next week.

  8. Apologies Jay @3, I didn’t see your “O” for ‘on’ before I posted. I agree.
    Yes Roz @7, we also had O=of in RASORIAL at 6 down. I think I know what you mean about next week. 🙂

  9. I take it that you early birds are somewhere in the Antipodes.
    Was anxious yesterday when nothing turned up- thanks to Azed and Andrew.
    Did this on the day, though Chambers was busy. GERMAN-BAND was a write-in from my early memories of Music Hall on Saturday nights on the wartime wireless- “Down at the old Bull and Bush” is, I believe a Munich Beer Festival piece of oompah.

  10. I agree with the interpretation of “on” in 4D and “of” in 6D as “O”. As Roz@7 says, avoiding link words is part of Azed’s approach to clueing that is worth watching out for when solving. I wasn’t convinced by “Tory” as a synonym for “parliamentarian” in 3A – they seem like two sets with a rather small intersection.
    [TimC, following your request to bridgesong in the blog for Azed 2642, I have added my rare HC entry for that puzzle to the comments, to show that that level at least is not necessarily so exotic.]
    Thanks to Azed for the puzzle and Andrew for the blog.

  11. Keith@9 I am just an early bird, I often look at the blog whilst waiting for the light to improve so that I can swim .

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