I struggled with this plain Azed.
My recent good run of completing Azeds without any significant issues came crashing to a halt here. It took me a while to complete the bottom half of the puzzle and I was pretty sure all the answers were correct (actually, I had one wrong, I had BUILD instead of GUILD for 27dn), but the parsings of STOA and CANTALA were incomplete and unconvincing, respectively. I was sure the blog’s esteemed followers will fill in the gaps for me, and they duly have, so thanks to all commenters.
Thanks Azed.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GESELLSCHAFT |
German company trades in name of electric firm, leading handle (12)
|
| SELLS (“trades”) in GEC (General Electric Company – “name of electric firm”) leading HAFT (“handle”)
A Gesellschaft is a German association or company united by a common cause. |
||
| 9 | APPLE |
Fruit, what’s associated with cakes, very soft inside (5)
|
| PP (pianissimo, so “very soft”) inside ALE (“what’s associated with cakes”)
“Cakes and ale” is a term meaning roughly “everything that is good in life”. It was used as the title of a W Somerset Maugham novel. Maugham took the title from Shakespeare, but “cakes and ale” (in translation) also appear in an Aesop fable. |
||
| 11 | JAMES |
Betty’s identified as this Henry, perhaps (5)
|
| Double definition, a betty being a jimmy (James) used by a burglar, and Henry James being an American author of works such as “The Turn of the Screw” and “Washington Square”. | ||
| 13 | NEANIC |
Development of canine, relating to adolescence (6)
|
| *(canine) [anag:development of]
|
||
| 14 | HARISH |
Stubble after end of March? Crazy then! (6)
|
| ARISH (a “stubble” field) after [end of] (marc)H
The “then” in the clue refers to March, as in “as mad as a March hare”. |
||
| 15 | DINOSAUR |
Dancing around is … Dippy possibly (8)
|
| *(around is) [anag:dancing]
Dippy is either a diplodocus skeleton in Pittsburgh or a plaster cast replica of the original in London. |
||
| 17 | DISGOWN |
To strip from top to bottom is grand inside (7)
|
| DOWN (“from top to bottom”) with IS + G (grand) inside | ||
| 18 | DICOT |
Plant, short, one of many that’s died out in railway centre (5)
|
| D (died) out in DI(d)COT (“railway centre”)
Didcot in Oxfordshire is known for its railway heritage, and dicot is short for “dicotyledon”, which is a plant. |
||
| 20 | STOA |
Greek lecture place: converting this turns venue into nearby temple’s dedicatee (4)
|
| See comments 2 and 5 below for an explanation of how this clue works. | ||
| 22 | TABS |
We get puffed up north, wasting away with loss of energy (5)
|
| TAB(e)S (“wasting away” in pathology) with loss of E (Energy)
“Tab” is a Northen English word for a cigarette. |
||
| 25 | FLIER |
Pilot, ambitious one, hit going off course (5)
|
| Triple definition, the third referring to a loose shot on a golf “course”. | ||
| 26 | NANOBOT |
A toff put in logic circuit for tiny android (7)
|
| A + NOB (“toff”) put in NOT (“logic circuit”)
In computing a NOT is a logic circuit that has one input and one output, which can be signalled by a 1 or a 0. |
||
| 30 | TROUBLED |
Left in redoubt, terribly agitated (8)
|
| L in *(redoubt) [anag:terribly] | ||
| 31 | EPACTS |
Time differences with one biblical book following another briefly? (6)
|
| ACTS (“one biblical book”) following Ep. (Epistles (thanks, Tim C), so “another” (biblical book), briefly)
An epact is an excess of the calendar month or solar year over the lunar year. |
||
| 32 | MIMOSA |
Love getting stuck into a Pimm’s, stirred, having no head for Buck’s fizz (6)
|
| O (love, in tennis) getting stuck into *(a imms) [anag:stirred] where IMMS is (p)IMMS [having no head]
Champagne and orange juice is known as Buck’s Fizz in the UK and as a mimosa in the US. |
||
| 33 | ROLAG |
Some wool for spinning, half of it wrapped in scrap of cloth (5)
|
| [half of] (wo)OL (“it” in the clue) wrapped in RAG (“scrap of cloth”) | ||
| 34 | LAKIN |
Endearment for old woman takin’ time off work (5)
|
| LAKIN’ (“taking time off work”)
Lakin is an old word for a woman, a diminutive form of “lady kin”, and “to lake” is “to take a holiday”. |
||
| 35 | STARCHEDNESS |
Stone vault, last bit turning in double bend, being rigid (12)
|
| St. (stone) + ARCH (“vault”) + <=END (“last bit”, turning) in ESS (“double bend”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GANDY DANCER |
US labourer chewed candy having look around (11, 2 words)
|
| *(candy) [anag:chewed] having GANDER (“look”) around
In the US, a “candy dancer” is a seasonal labourer. |
||
| 2 | EPEIRID |
Spider, not special, i.e. spinning? (7)
|
| *(pider ie) [anag:spinning] where PIDER is (s)PIDER (not S (special))
An epeirid is a common garden spider. |
||
| 3 | SPANK |
Move quickly in bridge, leading king (5)
|
| SPAN (“bridge”) leading K (king) | ||
| 4 | LEISH |
Athletic Scot, first in hurdles, crowned with garlands (5)
|
| [first in] H(urdles), crowned with LEIS (Hawaiian “garlands”)
Leish is a Scots word for nimble or athletic. |
||
| 5 | SCHUIT |
Canal boat friend shortened to fit locks (6)
|
| SIT (“to fit”) locks CHU(m) (“friend”, shortened)
A schuit is a Dutch flat-bottomed boat. |
||
| 6 | HARIGALS |
Part of haggis recipe a girl has cooked (8)
|
| *(a girls has) [anag:cooked]
Harigals is a Scottish word for viscera, so an essential ingredient of haggis. |
||
| 7 | A MINORI |
Raincoat required in blustery air growing steadily? (7, 2 words)
|
| MINO (a hemp “raincoat”) required in *(air) [anag:blustery] | ||
| 8 | FEST |
Party that’s most splendid you’ll find dropping in (4)
|
| F(in)EST (“most splendid”) dropping IN | ||
| 10 | SCADS |
No gentleman on board fishes a lot (5)
|
| CAD (‘no gentleman”) in SS (steamship), so “on board”, and a double definition | ||
| 12 | SHANDRYDANS |
Mongols maybe covering arid shifting sand in rattletraps (11)
|
| SHAN (“Mongols, maybe”) covering DRY (“arid”) + *(sand) [anag:shifting]
Shan is a Mongolid people, and a shandrydan is a light cart. |
||
| 16 | MOTOR CAR |
Vehicle damage includes old twisted metal chain? (8, 2 words)
|
| MAR (“damage”) includes O (old) + TORC (“twisted metal chain”) | ||
| 19 | CANTALA |
Coarse fibre from part of Spain, end shifted quite a lot (7)
|
| CATALAN (“from part of Spain”) with its end shifted quite a lot becomes CA(N)TALA.
Thanks to Marmite Smuggler at comment 1 for this, as I had the wrong parsing initially. |
||
| 21 | NEMESIS |
Old relations trapped by mounting offence ? it’s insurmountable (7)
|
| EMES (old world for uncles, so “old relations”) trapped by [mounting] SIN (“offence”) | ||
| 23 | BORSCH |
Loyal knight, only a third chaste, in the soup (6)
|
| BORS (a “loyal knight”, one of King Arthur’s round table) + [only a third] CH(aste) | ||
| 24 | STOMP |
It’ll get jazz fans going, mobile during pause (5)
|
| M (mobile) during STOP (“pause”) | ||
| 27 | GUILD |
Corporation I left, implicated in boob turning up (5)
|
| I + L (left) implicated in <=DUG (“boob”, turning up)
Thanks to Cineraria at comment 3 for the correct parsing, I originally had BUILD. |
||
| 28 | BLOKE |
Naval commander making spurt catching vessel’s tail (5)
|
| BOKE (“spurt”) catching (vesse)L [‘s tail] | ||
| 29 | SPOT |
Detect sign of moral weakness (4)
|
| Double definition |
I can help you with cantala: it’s “Catalan” and the full part of the indicator is “from part of Spain”, i.e. the adjective.
I can’t help you with stoa. It is, presumably, “…converting ‘s’ to ‘a’…” but what is the “venue”? My searches online indicate that the nearby dedicatees of the temple could be either Hephaestus or Aphrodite. Could Aphrodite = Venus? But, converting ‘s’ to ‘a’ = venua. At this point my brain gave up.
Stefan
converting S to A in Athens gives Athena?
I am pretty sure that 27D is GUILD: I + L (left) inside (implicated in) DUG (boob) inverted (turning up)
I had this all filled in, but after blasting through the top half, likewise struggled with the bottom half. I was puzzled by 19D (agree with MS@1), 20A (agree with Bees@2), 18A (guessed DICOT, but Didcot was unknown to me), and 34A (reverse-engineered from the crossers). At the time, these clues seemed a little farfetched, even for an Azed, but in retrospect, they do not seem quite so out of the ordinary.
For EPACTS I had EP as the abbreviation for Epistle (see under Epis in Chambers). not Ephesians, the abbreviation for which is Eph. (presumably to avoid confusion with epistle).
Also, I had GUILD, not Build for 27 down like Cineraria @3. Chambers has dug being a “nipple or udder of a cow or similar animal; a woman’s breast”.
I agree with Marmite Smuggler @1 re Catalan/CANTALA.
I also agree with Bees and Cineraria for STOA, the Stoa Poikile or Poecile in Athens (the “venue”). Converting S-TO-A (“this”) gives Athena to whom the nearby Parthenon (650 metres away) is dedicated (“nearby temple’s dedicatee”).
Thanks for the blog, generally okay but had the same issues and quite a journey for a few. I knew STOA from crosswords but the word play seemed impossible. Azed likes this XtoY trick but venue? Chambers came to my rescue , for STOA it mentions the one of Zeno in Athens and suddenly Athena appears.
I also had BUILD , looked in vain for DUB which does sound like it should be a boob, kept checking the DU_ and DUG appeared.
BORSCH I did not know BORS and not in Chambers but happy enough with the answer.
Similarly FLIER , could not make sense of the golf bit, thanks for that.
I thought the definition for A MINORI was very weak. CAKES AND ALE was a very recent clue competition.
This is the first time I’ve tried an Azed and was surprised to get just over half of them (so I won’t bore you with all my failures). I also think 27d is GUILD: was convinced 20a must be STOA but couldn’t parse it, and tried FORDS for 11a, which didn’t help.
I took a while to parse STOA – I could see StoA but, like Marmite Smuggler@1, I was trying to fit it with venue/Venus (despite knowing full well that Venus is Latin, not Greek). Eventually the penny dropped, but I think the clue is convoluted and makes little sense on the surface (how could a venue be converted into a dedicatee?). A clever idea that didn’t quite come off in practice. I also agree with Roz@6 about 7dn: a skimpy definition and again, not a great surface. For FLIER, I hadn’t thought of the golf reference; I thought it might be HIGH FLIER (ambitious one) minus HIGH (hit and high both referring to the effects of a drug and ‘off course’ meaning missing).
Thanks, all. I have amended the blog accordingly. I haven’t struggled with recent Azeds, but this one just seemed to have too many things I couldn’t see. Ah well, nobody’s perfect.
Gladys@7 over half is pretty impressive for a first go. Took me a while to get used to Azed but I improved with practice . I did look up Betty and Chambers gives jemmy and Azed has used James= jemmy quite a few times recently.
Hello fellow-Azeders. Thanks to Azed & to loonapick for doing the fretting for pedants-anonymous.
Actually I did this in a single , longish, sitting but STOA’s parsing only came to me when I was awake during the night- “venue” seems odd when the best-known stoa, in the agora below the acropolis, is in Athens.
A lesser compiler in the Guardian used “blackbirds” to define B-OWLS and I feel Azed, who would never commit such crimes, does seem to do something similar here (find the spaces) but in reverse, if that makes sense. Defining SH-AND-Y as “coy drink” would be an extreme example.
For 18A, referencing DIDCOT as “railway centre”, I wonder if I others like me thought at once of the late writer and broadcaster Alan Gibson? His engaging reports on county cricket for The Times were often as much about train delays at Didcot en route to the match as about the action itself. See the collection assembled by his son in 2009, “Of Didcot and the Demon: the Cricketing Times of Alan Gibson”. (But you needed no cricket knowledge to solve the clue, no doubt a relief to many.)