We have a plain Azed puzzle this week, as is often the case mid month.
I wonder how often Azed uses entries that appear under the same headword entry in Chambers. Today we had FREMIT at 2 down and FREMD at 26 down that fit that criterion.
I found this to be a fairly accessible Azed crossword as I was able to solve a few more than usual before delving into the dictionary.
LYRA was my first one in with DEEPIE bringing up the rear.
I liked the clues for BUFFALO CHIPS and POT AT where I first thought about golf where putting and chipping play an important part.
I think PANTS for trousers as the definition for CHINOS at 11 across is more an American usage.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Polish coal ship lost? Here’s alternative fuel (12, 2 words) BUFFALO CHIPS (dried BUFFALO dung used as fuel) BUFF (polish) + an anagram of (lost) COAL SHIP BUFF (ALO CHIPS*) |
| 9 |
Star group, a feature of daily radio (4) LYRA (star constellation in the northern skies) LYRA (hidden word in [a feature of] DAILY RADIO) LYRA |
| 11 |
Pants of a kind, number available in XX? (6) CHINOS (trousers [pants of a kind, e.g. in America where trousers are known as pants] made from a strong cloth of twilled cotton) NO (number) contained in [available] XX (representing two occurrences of the Greek symbol CHI [Χ]) CHI (NO) S |
| 13 |
Quail, once done, one we brought on (7) OVERAWE (to daunt; an obsolete [once] meaning of ‘to quail’ ) OVER (done) + A [one] + WE OVER A WE |
| 14 |
With a belly to stuff, that’s me tucking in (5) WAMED (with a belly) ME contained in (tucking in) WAD (to stuff) WA (ME) D |
| 15 |
Column moulding including dark ornament (on top often) (7) TORSADE (an ornament like a twisted cord, eg on a hat [therefore often on top]) TORE (large moulding, semicircular or nearly so in section, common at the base of a column) containing (including) SAD (depressed; dark) TOR (SAD) E |
| 17 |
Transcend cooking pot with suet (7) OUTSTEP (go beyond; transcend) Anagram of (cooking) POT and[with] SUET OUTSTEP* |
| 18 |
Aim for what may be chipped a little short (5, 2 words) POT AT (aim for as in ‘take a POT AT‘) POTATO (vegetable used for making chips) excluding the final letter (a little short) O POT AT |
| 19 |
Palace officers placing jug in steamer (6) SEWERS (high-ranking servants who superintended the service at table in medieval England; later, officers of the royal household; palace officers) EWER (jug) contained in (in) SS (steamship; steamer) S (EWER) S |
| 20 |
House with filthy hovel, about right as lodging for poet (6) HOSTRY (Edmund Spenser’s [poet] term for ‘lodging’) HO (house) + (STY [filthy hovel] containing [about] R [right]) HO ST (R) Y |
| 22 |
Scotsman’s coarse around ears being regularly blocked (5) RUDAS (Scottish word for ‘coarse’) RUDAS (letters remaining when characters 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 are blocked out from [regularly blocked] AROUND EARS) RUDAS |
| 25 |
Record I have found at rear of vault (7) ARCHIVE (record) ARCH (vault) + I’VE (I have) ARCH IVE |
| 27 |
Police dog maybe whistle-blower hands back (7) SNIFFER (police dog employed to SNIFF out drugs) (REF [REFeree; whistleblower]) + FINS [hands]) all reversed (back) (SNIF FER)< |
| 28 |
Indian tree, one put with a different genus from the east (5) ARECA (tree of the betel nut genus of palms, native to SE Asia and the Indian subcontinent) A + ACER (a different genus of tree) reversed (from the east) A RECA< |
| 30 |
Early forerunner of napalm, if mixed with petrol mostly? (7) FIREPOT (an earthen pot full of combustible material, used as a missile. NAPALM is a petroleum jelly, highly inflammable, used in bombs and flame-throwers) Anagram of (x mixed with y) IF mixed with PETROL excluding the final letter (mostly) L FIREPOT* |
| 31 |
One cultivating sapling (6) TILLER (one who cultivates the land) TILLER (a sapling) double definition TILLER |
| 32 |
M for mooch (4) MIKE (MIKE is the international radio communication code word for the letter M) MIKE (loiter idly; mooch) double definition MIKE |
| 33 |
Senior Methodists grade articles (12) CLASSLEADERS (the LEADER of a CLASS in a Methodist church; Senior Methodists) CLASS (grade) + LEADERS (editorial articles in a newspaper) CLASS LEADERS |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Enlargement boosted tavern, humble inside (6) BLOW-UP (enlargement) – I can’t find this in a dictionary without a hyphen, but it can be found on the Internet without one) LOW (humble) contained in (inside) PUB (tavern) reversed (boosted; down entry) B (LOW) UP< |
| 2 |
Unfriendly Scots needing to relax after fine (6) FREMIT (Scottish word for cold or unfriendly) F (fine) + REMIT (relax) F REMIT |
| 3 |
One travels frequently taking in measure of land (5) FARER (one who travels) FR (frequently) containing (take in) ARE (metric measure of land area) F (ARE) R |
| 4 |
What footpad was into, clumsy, bagging little weight (7, 2 words) LOW TOBY (robbery by highwayman on foot; a FOOTPAD is a highwayman on foot) LOOBY (clumsy) containing (bagging) WT (abbreviation for [little] weight) LO (W T) OBY |
| 5 |
Word stuck on chest after piece of work? It denotes high-achieving organization (11, 2 words) CHARTER MARK (symbol denoting a high achieving organization. I don’t think the original Government CHARTER MARK scheme exists any more, but I expect the term is now fairly generic) CHAR (occasional piece of work) + TERM (word) + ARK (chest or coffer) CHAR TER M ARK |
| 6 |
What may indicate a leak is found in odd bits of hose? (4) HISS (sound that could indicate the presence of a leak) IS contained in (found in) HS (letters 1 and 3 [odd bits] of HOSE) H (IS) S |
| 7 |
It’ll give access to northern crowd watching a test (some, anyway) (6) INGATE (Scottish and Northern England dialect term for an entrance; it’ll give access to northern crowd) INGATE (hidden word in [some, anyway] WATCHING A TEST) INGATE |
| 8 |
Moving panel rod that’ll indicate weight (8) PONDERAL (relating to weight) Anagram of (moving) PANEL ROD PONDERAL* |
| 10 |
Boy certainly hugs flirt jiggling her knick-knacks once (11) LADYTRIFLES (Shakespearean [once] word for knick-knacks befitting a LADY) LAD (boy) + (YES [certainly] containing [hugs] an anagram of [jingling] FLIRT) LAD Y (TRIFL*) ES |
| 12 |
Member of extended family not on flight (5) STEPS (flight of stairs) STEPSON (member of extended family) excluding (not) ON STEPS |
| 16 |
Loo drain needs fixing: it’s said to be bung as before in Perth (8) DOORNAIL (reference the phrase ‘DEAD AS A DOORNAIL‘ which has the same meaning as BUNG in Australia [dead; useless]) Anagram of (needs fixing) LOO DRAIN DOORNAIL* |
| 19 |
Riddle about soak coming up – devoid of ideas? (7) STERILE (lacking in creativity or inspiration.; devoid of ideas) SILE (sieve; riddle) containing (about) RET (soak) reversed (coming up) S (TER<) ILE |
| 20 |
Is without possession of ruined shanty less yard (5) HASN’T (does not have; is without possession of) Anagram of (ruined) SHANTY excluding (less) Y (yard) HASN’T* |
| 21 |
Singular variety of lilac – its flowers are bright blue (6) SCILLA (any plant of the squill genus SCILLA of the lily family, including some bright-blue bell-shaped flowers) S (singular) + an anagram of (variety of) LILAC S CILLA* |
| 23 |
Old 3-D film, damn mixed type (6) DEEPIE (a three-dimensional cinematograph film) DEE (D; damn) + PIE (printing term for type confusedly mixed) DEE PIE |
| 24 |
Rushes suddenly appearing in group coming up after spring (6) SPATES (of water, to rush or flood suddenly. A northern England or Scottish term mainly, where you often hear the phrase ‘the river is in SPATE) SPA (spring) + SET (group) reversed (coming up; down entry) SPA TES< |
| 26 |
Stranger in Edinburgh given meal regularly with room (5) FREMD (Scottish [Edinburgh] term for a stranger) FED (given meal) with the letters of RM (room) entered separately between letters 1/2 and 2/3 [given regularly] of FED to form FREMD FREMD |
| 28 |
Nice boy perhaps requiring money in ME (4) FILS (French [Nice, city in France] word for son [boy]) FILS (monetary unit in several Middle Eastern [ME] countries, with varying values) double definition FILS |
Thanks for the blog , I cut out the clues to save when I send off the grid and I annotate them as I solve , this week nothing at all which means no particular problems . For CHINOS , pants for trousers is very common in Northern England as well as America.
Thanks for a very clear write-up.
With regard to FREMIT and FREMD: It seems as though, when solving “this week’s” Azed, I will often find myself on the same page in Chambers that I was looking at just several weeks prior when solving “that week’s” Azed, so I think Azed (quite naturally) must be jotting down serendipitous words to be used in future puzzles.
For BLOW-UP I am reasonably sure that Azed always ignores hyphens when giving the number of letters for an answer.
Pants for trousers (and even trews) is common for me Roz @1, originally from the North of England. And yes, he ignores hyphens in the enumerations.
No real problems for me either.
My smoothest Azed solve to date.
Had a couple of question marks which the blog has resolved for me, hand for FIN, bung for DEAD and didn’t quite see the construction for FREMD.
Enjoyed POT AT. I’ve learned not to expect hyphens in the enumeration.
Thanks to Azed and DS for the helpful blog.
Four short of completion this week, mostly because of failure to work out the second word of CHARTER MARK (the others being ARECA, RUDAS and DEEPIE).
Living as I do on what was once part of the notorious highwayman-infested Hounslow Heath, I was pleased to find LOW TOBY which I know from my local history books (the high toby was the better known “stand and deliver” highwayman on horseback).
Also somewhat surprised by the FREMIT/FREMD pair – I don’t recall a previous instance.
C2016 flags CHINOS as originally US, which I took as justification for the “pants”.
Thanks to Azed for the puzzle and duncanshiell for the blog.
Mike – meaning mooch – wasn’t in my Chambers ’98, but it seemed the best option and was confirmed by the internet. I was a bit surprised to see FREMIT and FREMD in the same puzzle – future puzzles, as Cineraria @2 suggests, I could understand, but the same puzzle seems too much of a good thing. (Incidentally, I’ve never actually heard either word used in Scotland, but I dare say there are places where they might be.)
I did not check for Mike at the time , have vaguel heard the second meaning, but it is in Chambers93 either , perhaps this usage is modern ? I agree with the surprise for FREMIT/FREMD , perhaps one of those times where the grid is very restrictive and hard to adjust.
Gladys@6 you are getting close, I see three of them cross in the bottom right , often the case with Azed , get stuck in one corner, just need one to get the others.