The usual display of words which are either completely unknown or have a sense that is hidden away in the depths of the entry in Chambers, but all of which seem to be explicable. How on earth Azed produces them without electronic aids (as I think is the case) always amazes me.
I think six of the clues are of the form ‘xxxx? yyyy’, an Azed characteristic. Usually (but not always) the xxxx is the definition.
Definitions in italics, underlined in crimson. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*, depending on whether the anagram indicator precedes or follows.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TAPPA |
Papery fabric used in soft apparel (5)
|
| Hidden in sofT APPArel | ||
| 6 | BRACHET |
Hunting dog? Much older one in sport (7)
|
| b(rach)et — sport as a transitive verb is in Chambers as wager | ||
| 11 | SCOURING RUSH |
Welcoming King Emperor chorus sung badly? This was natural cleanser (12, 2 words)
|
| RI [Rex imperator] in (chorus sung)* | ||
| 12 | ROLLMOP |
Lines penned in excited promo for spicy fish titbit (7)
|
| ll in *(promo) | ||
| 14 | CLEVE |
Bluff that’s most ingenious separated from rest (5)
|
| cleve(rest) — the cliff sort of bluff | ||
| 15 | OUTERS |
Betrayers of others’ sexual preferences? They’re some way from target’s centre (6)
|
| 2 defs, one of them referring to darts | ||
| 17 | HIT UPON |
Treat to sexual advances? Husband replacing second can (7, 2 words)
|
| sit-upon with h replacing s in can (N. Amer buttocks, sit-upon) | ||
| 18 | CULLS |
Old suckers and weeds (5)
|
| 2 defs | ||
| 19 | PIRATE |
Operating illegally, making head of police furious (6)
|
| p[olice] irate | ||
| 20 | ATTRAP |
Poet’s array, No. 1 for reader held in palm (6)
|
| att(r)ap — the poet is nearly always Spenser | ||
| 23 | PEGHS |
Scotsman’s pants, little height in the legs (5)
|
| peg(h)s | ||
| 25 | THRENOS |
Shorten rewritten poetic lament for the dead (7)
|
| (shorten)* | ||
| 27 | HITMAN |
Processed ham, tinned, not tough – one bought to do the job? (6)
|
| *(ham tin[ned[) — it looks to me that this is pretty close to being an indirect anagram: of course Azed would always give the letters in an anagram, but if some of the relevant letters are subtracted then evidently it is OK by him not to | ||
| 29 | SALLY |
Rock at sea, ever avoided one by one (5)
|
| s[ever]ally — rock in the swaying sense — it’s really ‘one by one’ with ‘ever’ avoided, but the surface wouldn’t then work and it’s hard to see how Azed could have done any better | ||
| 30 | SKATOLE |
Coal tar compound – there’s nothing left inside fish (7)
|
| skat(0 L)e | ||
| 31 | NEUROGENESIS |
Development of bodily fibres that’ll flex energies on us (12)
|
| *(energies on us) | ||
| 32 | GARAGEY |
Like crude style of pop, lively, catching current fashion (7)
|
| ga(rage)y | ||
| 33 | TREAD |
Dance that’s touching when grasped by little chap (5)
|
| t(re)ad — to my surprise Chambers says that a tad is both a small amount and a little lad | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ACOLOUTHIC |
Regarding after-effect of stimulus I cut almost all alcohol out (10)
|
| (I cut alcoho[l])* | ||
| 3 | POLEY |
Hummel overseas providing bit of elegance in ringtone (5)
|
| pol(e[legance])y — two pretty difficult definitions which sent me a long way in Chambers | ||
| 4 | PULVIL |
Sweet-smelling powder, once an advantage when sex is involved (6)
|
| pul(VI)l — sex = six | ||
| 5 | ARMETS |
Casks pouring out stream (6)
|
| *(stream) | ||
| 6 | BIOCHIP |
Implant one inserted in reverse of strong horse above bone (7)
|
| I in (cob)rev., then hip | ||
| 7 | AGOUTI |
Taste displayed in excellent fur’s pattern (6)
|
| A(gout)1 — more depths of Chambers | ||
| 8 | CRATUR |
Dog catching rodent? One or the other up north (6)
|
| c(rat)ur | ||
| 9 | HULE |
Unprocessed rubber, tinge including a dash of latex (4)
|
| hu(l[atex])e | ||
| 10 | THISNESS |
She isn’t unusually special – it won’t be featured inter alia (8)
|
| (she isn’t)* s — a very strange word which seems to have something to do with what Azed has given | ||
| 13 | PROTHALLIA |
What growing gymnosperms show, decay, hard, in mantles (10)
|
| p(rot h)allia | ||
| 16 | SCATHING |
Savage article, namely one forming leader (8)
|
| thing preceded by (sc a) | ||
| 19 | PASSKEY |
Versatile opener? Grandmaster dispenses with his first around start of event (7)
|
| [S]passk(e[vent])y — perfectly easy for people who play chess, but Boris Spassky (born 1937) is perhaps less well-known nowadays to the general public, despite having been World Champion and playing Bobby Fischer in a famous match. And there are about 2000 grandmasters now, although there were fewer in Spassky’s day, so to call him a grandmaster is like calling Prince William an aristocrat. | ||
| 21 | REMORA |
Obstacle bound to occur in impure morals (6)
|
| Hidden in impuRE MORAls | ||
| 22 | ANALOG |
Watch of traditional design, one scaling heights? 6) (6)
|
| The definition is OK, but the wordplay seems difficult: is it a (Golan)rev., referring to the Golan heights, with ‘scaling’ a reversal indicator? Any guesses welcome. | ||
| 23 | PESANT |
Ancient rustic, anonymous, taken in plague (6)
|
| pes(an)t — pest = plague (as in ‘La Peste’), fine, but how does an = anonymous? Anon = anonymous but I can’t see anything in Chambers saying that you can cut the word further | ||
| 24 | ELATER |
Beetle diner found consuming bit of lettuce (6)
|
| e(l[ettuce])ater | ||
| 26 | CLOSE |
Secret union (5)
|
| 2 defs — both of which are some way down the lists in Chambers | ||
| 28 | TOUR |
Parisian landmark? It was grand as part of artistic education (4)
|
| Tour — the Tour d’Eiffel, and ref the Grand Tour |
Thanks John. I parsed ANALOG as you did, and have no further clue with PESANT. In SALLY I think we can add a comma after ‘avoided’.
THISNESS is rather nice – the opposite of the ‘otherness’ shared by the ‘alia’ no doubt.
Thanks as ever to Azed. Quite a toughy.
Scaling (climbing) in a down clue to reverse Golan (heights) didn’t cause a problem for me in ANALOG.
“an” as an abbreviation for anonymous is listed in my C2016 as “an. abbrev : anno (L), in the year; anonymous; ante(L), before.”
Hip for “bone” bothered me a bit in BIOCHIP, the hip not strictly being a bone. What’s referred to as the hip bone (which C2016 defines as “the inominate bone” is actually 3 bones (illium, ischium and pubis). Hip by itself refers to the whole joint.
Thanks for the blog, I did actually find all that was needed for each answer in Chambers but I think Azed has missed out some of his usual indications.
For ATMETS , casks in this sense is given as obsolete. ANALOG is given as US , for HIT UPON the use of can=buttocks is given as N.American.
It would be nice to have some consistency.
Enjoyed this one. I don’t consider HITMAN to be indirect given all the letters required are there in the clue.
I hadn’t spotted the frequent use of the xxx? yyy clue structure, but shall look out for it in future.
Thanks to Azed and John
No comments beyond what’s already been said, except for HITMAN, a ned is defined in Chambers as a hooligan or a member of a street gang, hence tough. (Or was that too obvious to mention?)
Roz@3, I thought the same about ARMETS, but then I thought perhaps as Armets is a historical word, Azed didn’t feel the need to mention that Casks (in this meaning) is obsolete. I agree about ANALOG, though. My C98 gives AN as an abbreviation for anonymous, but didn’t give the relevant meaning of AGOUTI, which I checked online. For 23ac, my first thought was PECHS, which to me would be the more common spelling, and I spent a while trying to work out how Pecs could be legs before the penny dropped!