Azed 2704

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A slightly unusual grid, with 90-degree symmetry, and a large cross of bars in the centre that might have tended to break the puzzle into isolated corners, but Azed has avoided this with some long entries in the outer cells. Thanks to Azed.

 
Across
1 OLFACTIBLE Spray of lilac – bet it’s worth smelling? (10)
(OF LILAC BET)*
11 MÄRCHEN German folk tales, waggish, chaps passed round (7)
ARCH in MEN
12 RIGOR King and prince showing symptom of disease? (5)
R + IGOR (12th-century Russian prince, probably best known from Borodin’s opera, which includes the famous Polovtsian Dances)
14 BARDOLINO Red wine – treat flooring behind where it’s served maybe (9)
BAR (where wine might be served) + DO 0treat) LINO
15 AREG Shifting sands in Arabia, say (4)
AR[abia] + E.G. (say)
17 DILUTE Lied to deviously, universal where love is thin (6)
Anagram of LIED TO with O replaced by U
18 CHARIS Grace shown in daily lives (6)
CHAR (cleaner, as in charlady, “daily woman”) + IS – singular form of the Greek Charites, the three Graces
19 DOITIT Senile Scots finish vermouth, and same again (6)
DO + IT twice
21 TEMNES African folk, name occurring in old crews (6)
N in TEMES (old spelling of “teams”). The Temnes are a people of Sierre Leone
22 LAVAGE Privy with time requiring ablution (6)
LAV + AGE – a bit weak, I think, as the LAV element has the same origin (Latin “wash”) in both wordplay and answer
25 AGHAST Commanders given minimum of troops, horrified (6)
AGHAS + T[roops]
27 EREBUS Austere businesses will contain such hellish regions (6)
Hidden in austERE BUSinesses
28 CRAMBO Rhyme to learn hurriedly, favour on leaving (6)
CRAM (learn hurriedly) + BOON less ON
31 DEEN Poet’s racket to reverse penury (4)
Reverse of NEED – Spenserian form of “din”
32 AMAUROTIC I act crazily with amour, blind in a way (9)
(I ACT AMOUR)*
33 SECCO Soprano, see, with little or no accompaniment (5)
S + ECCO
34 REALTIE True restraint calling for honesty as of old (7)
REAL + TIE
35 MATTRESSES Roughened mass of hair – stuffing for these? (10)
MAT + TRESSES
Down
2 LAARI A rial’s changed for bit of cash in the Maldives (5)
(A RIAL)*
3 FREE-LIVER Glutton getting bill in NY that’s taken in spin (9)
REEL ( (to spin) in FIVER (a five-dollar bill)
4 CHATTI Water pot that’s inclined to crack in Scotland, we hear (6)
Homophone of “chatty” (inclined to conversation = Scots/Irish craic or crack)
5 TERRET Chain’s attached to this part of halter, retentive (6)
Hidden in halTER RETentive
6 INDUCT Overseas conscript favoured most of service taking in Cuba (6)
IN (favoured) + C[uba] in DUT[y]
7 BROCHÉ Like silky patterned fabric Jerry put round his middle (6)
Middle lette of jeRry in BOCHE (WW1 slang for Germans)
8 LILT Beamed on comprehending line in cheery song (4)
L[ine] in LIT
9 SONTIES Holy objects possibly required as boy marries (7)
SON + TIES – a word of uncertain meaning from The Merchant of Venice
10 CROSS-STONE Old word for chiastolite, translation of Scots Norse (10)
(SCOTS NORSE)*
13 SADDLE-FAST Led astray in serious self-denial, unlikely to be thrown (10)
LED* in SAD FAST
16 ORNAMENTS Specify number among left-overs and trimmings (9)
NAME N in ORTS
20 OARSMEN Some active on the water possibly created by Ransome (7)
RANSOME*, with the surface referring to the Swallows and Amazons books by Arthur Ransome
23 GUTROT Viol leading dance causing collywobbles (6)
GU (a kind of viol) + TROT (dance)
24 ESCORT Armed guard to pay for, as in Shakespeare, protecting King (6)
R in ESCOT
25 ACATER Supplier for old soldiers providing a packing case, second to last (6)
A + CRATE with second letter moved to the end
26 GRAIAE Divine trio in the sea and air age with transformation (6)
(AIR AGE)* – another set of three mythological sisters
29 BELIE Falsify most of faith (5)
BELIE[f]
30 YUCA Spanish dagger disembowelled one roughly (4)
Y[o]U (one, as a non-specific pronoun) + CA (circa, roughly)

11 comments on “Azed 2704”

  1. I have fallen behind on my usual puzzles. I have not completed 7,403, and I only just now completed this one. This puzzled seemed very hard, and I had hardly anything filled in, until my brain eventually snapped back into “Azed-mode,” and the clues started making sense. Quite a few instances of “Can that be a word?” and flipping through Chambers, though. Nice job on the blog.

  3. Thanks for the blog, quite a few neeeded checking for this, I could not find BARDOLINO in Chambers93 but the wordplay was clear, or TEMNES but I did find temes to help.
    I did wonder about NY for FREELIVER , I suppose they say bill in the US and we say note, but we both say fiver.

  4. Roz @3: I had the same thought as you about FREELIVER, but Chambers gives both the UK and US meanings for fiver. In fact if Azed had omitted “in NY” and just indicated the American usage by “bill” the clue would still have been fair.

  5. Two clues, 22ac and 9dn, use “requiring” and “required” as link words. I get the idea of (definition) required, (wordplay), as in 9dn (although “as” appears to be extraneous here), or else (definition) requires/requiring (wordplay), but (wordplay) requiring (definition), as in 22ac, doesn’t seem to sit quite right.
    Re 20dn, Ransome wrote about sailing, rather than rowing, I think, so not quite an &lit.

  6. For once, I was able to parse all of this, which I was pleased about. MunroMaiden @5 – yes, sailing is the children’s main activity, but I do have memories of them rowing up narrow creeks too when sailing wasn’t possible.

  7. MunroMaiden@5: you’re right about “required”. There was some discussion about this in February – see for example Duncanshiell’s blog of 2,695 at 3 down.

  8. Thanks, Bridgesong, I’d forgotten that. Sarah @6, your memory is much better than mine, or maybe you’re younger and read the books more recently! 🙂

  9. Enjoyable and straightforward. Only stuck for a time on 30 d. I had not come across this name, nor the alternative spelling for Yucca. Roz@6, Bardolino is in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary. Could not the discussion of required/requiring be clued by a reference to the removal of nasty creatures in ones hair? Thanks to Andrew and to Azed

  10. Must join in, belatedly. Thanks to Azed & Andrew.
    Thought this was fairly straightforward for a quiet Sunday wander. How neat most of the clueing was.
    Bardolino brought back sweet memories of a 1985 stay at Malcesine on Lake Garda. We drank half a bottle of Bardolino with our meal every day. They say no wine ever tastes its best unless you’re in sight of the vineyard!

  11. Thanks Andrew. A couple of quibbles – a stray R has got into the solution of 21, and you might want to change the blog category to Azed (to whom thanks as ever).

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