Azed 2674

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Please excuse a rather terse blog – I’ve been away and had to write it in a bit of a hurry. I hope anything I haven’t said is verifiable in Chambers. Thanks to Azed for another quality puzzle.

 
Across
1 BACONERS Some swine, solid, filling pubs (8)
CONE (geometrical solid) in BARS
7 ETNAS Heaters one returned in faulty set (5)
Reverse of AN in SET*
12 AGONY UNCLE Guy one can read carefully penning ultimate in counsel? (10, 2 words)
[counse]L in (GUY ONE CAN)* &lit
13 CARING A group led by Catholic, compassionate (6)
C + A RING
14 SHASTRA Holy scripture rendered in shorthand, mostly wrong (7)
S/H + ASTRA[y]
16 POTTIER One gets to fiddle around, increasingly crazy (7)
I in POTTER
17 LIGURE Unknown stone, uglier when crafted (6)
UGLIER*
20 RAGE Fashion featuring regularly in triangles (4)
Alternate letters of tRiAnGlE
21 SUBSTRATIVE Burst out in what was formerly cultivated, fundamental (11)
BURST* in SATIVE
22 TASS What makes volume some superseded source of news? (4)
T AS S makes “tome” become “some”
23 RELISH Musical ornament limited by minstrel is heard (6)
Hidden in minstREL IS Heard
25 TRUEMEN Dodgy retinue I replaced with married ones that could be trusted (7)
Anagram of RETINUE with the I replaced by M
29 ENTRANT No trumps not right for misguided competitor (6)
ERRANT with the first R replaced by NT
30 UPCOME Produce coup that’s shaken Middle East(6)
COUP* + ME
31 VINEGAR‑EEL Threadworm revealing coils round tail of corpse (10)
[corps]E in REVEALING
32 SESEY Positive votes returned could have meant ‘enough said’ (5)
Reverse of YESES – it’s a Shakespearean word of uncertain meaning
33 EMENDALS Repair funds once chaps invested ladies squandered? Not I (8)
MEN in LADIES* less I
Down
1 BACKLETTERS Supplementary deeds in Scotland support landlords (11)
BACK + LETTERS
2 AGAMI Trumpeter, one playing all but final duet (5)
A + GAMIN[g]
3 CORM Underground part, origin of crocus or that of meadowsweet (4)
C[rocus] + OR + M[eadowsweet], with an extended definition as crocuses grow from corms; I don’t know about meadowsweets
4 NYNORSK Scandinavian script abandoned in Orkneys, i.e. ignored (7)
(IN ORKNEYS)* less IE
5 EUGH Very old yew, grand in appearance, climbing (4)
G in revere of HUE
6 SCHOLAR Student getting bad mark when taking in endless vacation (7)
HOL[s] in SCAR
8 TESTRILS Drunk riles TTs in benders (8)
(RILES TTS)* – bender and testril are both words for a sixpence
9 NOT-I Vague impression that’s not on – does it suggest what’s selfless? (4)
NOTION less ON
10 ABRÉGÉ Shortening silky dress fabric pair at first lifted (6)
BARÈGE with the first two letters swapped
11 SPARE WHEELS Help as ewers are disposed of? They may be useful after blow-outs (11, 2 words)
(HELP AS EWERS)* – perhaps surprisingly Chambers doesn’t have this, though it does have “spare tyres”
14 SPIRANT What could be liquid flowed in saliva (7)
RAN in SPIT
15 SUBSERVE Help forward buses struggling with faulty rev (8)
BUSES* + REV* – C. has just “help forward” as the definition of this word, which leaves me none the wiser
18 ÉTRENNE Post-Xmas gift from Spain – orangey hue about right (7)
TENNÉ
19 STEWPOT STEWPAN Wherein to cook ragout? See local toil in total spread (7)
TEW (dialect word for toil) in SPOT SPAN (total spread) I mistranscribed the answer to this one incorrectly in the original (hurried) blog, and unsurprisingly was then unable to parse it.
21 SARNIE Sub maybe from navy on island in choppy sea (6)
RN I in SEA* – sub and sarnie are sandwiches
24 SAMEL Meal’s badly served, half burnt? (5)
MEALS*
26 UTAS Proclaim last of banns? Not OK spanning that ancient festival climax (4)
OUT-ASK less the enclosing OK
27 EUGE Section from the guests’ soaring congratulations! (4)
Hidden in reverse of thE GUEsts – coincidentally very like EUGH at 5d, though of course they are not related
28 ZOEA Crabs may pass through this ring in endless fervour (4)
O in ZEA[L] – a stage of development that some crustaceans go through

12 comments on “Azed 2674”

  1. Thanks Andrew. Isn’t 19dn STEWPAN?
    SUBSERVE is presumably ‘help to promote”.
    Tricky parsings of TASS, OUTASK took me a while to twig after completing the grid.
    Thanks as ever to Azed.
    (This should be in Azed Category btw)

  3. Thanks, Azed and Andrew!
    Liked AGONY UNCLE, TASS, CORM and UTAS.

    Agree with Gonzo@1 on SUBSERVE.
    ‘help (to) forward/further/promote’

    And also on STEWPAN.

  4. Thanks for the blog, BACKLETTERS not in my Chambers93, , I just put it in second and did not check until I had finished so did not slow me down.
    Quite a few unusual words here but all pretty clear from the word play. TASS a very typical Azed trick. I suppose that SUBSERVE gives us subservient.
    CORM , yes for crocus although most people call them bulbs, no for meadowsweet.

  6. Just noticed I failed to enter the first letter of ZOEA. Whether I got it or not, I can’t remember.

    Roz@4: Chamber (latest edition) give meadow saffron as a plant with corms, not meadowsweet.

  7. Thanks Dormouse@6 meadow saffron is also known as autumn crocus but I prefer naked ladies, it does have corms but again I would call them bulbs, a grey area.
    The clue for CORM does not actually need crocus or meadowsweet to have corms.

  8. Nothing to add to earlier comments except that in the blog for AGAMI I think the square brackets need to snip the N and the G from “gaming”.
    Great fun, enjoyed this one and only the parsing for UTAS held me up ‘til the end.
    Cheers to A and A.

  9. Thanks Azed and Andrew for the blog.
    TASS (T as S) is an example of a bit of a swerve by Azed- I remember being puzzled by STOA (S to A)- which, I reckon is outside the Afrit/Ximenes rules. Every compiler has his/her quirks and life would be boring if they didn’t stump us now and then. The hyphen in NOT-I is an unusual example of Azed’s ignoring them in word-counts.

  10. Thanks to Mr Thomas for raising a matter I wasn’t game to, and for putting it so delicately. There is a difference between TASS here and the STOA clue. For those who don’t remember it, that ran: “Greek lecture place: converting this turns venue into nearby temple’s dedicatee (4)” (Azed 2651). The wordplay is: “… converting S to A turns Athens into Athena”. A few of us thought “venue” was a strange way to refer to Athens; furthermore, the stoa in question can only be the Painted Porch and the Temple of Athena is much farther away than temples “nearby”. It was an odd clue but the surface could be read.

    The problem with TASS is that the surface cannot be read: there is no ’t’ in “volume”. “Volume” is a clue to TOME and the whole is a clue to a clue. Definitely not Ximenean, and Azed is on record as saying that, if anything, he is more Ximenean than Ximenes. Nevertheless, we move on. Does it bother me?—Yes, a bit. Am I going to complain about it?—No.

    Stefan

  11. Marmite Smuggler @10 I don’t understand what distinction you’re making. In the STOA clue you have to make venue Athens and dedicatee Athena before applying the conversion. Why is making volume tome any different? It is easier, and obviously correct when spotted, rather than the rather nebulous GK about temples. I solved TASS from the wordplay, which I never would have done for the STOA clue (think I must have missed that week). Nor do I have a problem with either the surface or cryptic reading.

  12. Perhaps I’m barking up the wrong tree, in which case I’d have to consider the clues to both STOA and TASS dubious. My point was this, and I’ll try indicate with two clues:

    Beat produces odd volume after start of Sixties (5). Answer is SMOTE.
    What makes volume some superseded source of news (4). Answer is TASS.

    The wordplay in the first is an anagram, but you have to convert “volume” to “tome” before you can apply the wordplay. We all know this is an indirect anagram and definitely not allowable.

    The wordplay in the second is a charade, but you have to convert “volume” to “tome” before you can apply the wordplay. That’s all.

    Stefan

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